2012-01-28 Vatican Radio

“The first thing that we as Christians could and should do is refer all of our aims for peace to Jesus, to God”, says Father Pierbattista Pizzaballa the Custodian of the Holy Land. Sunday January 29^th, sees the fourth edition of International Day of intercession for peace in Holy Land. Prayers will be raised from 2500 cities across the world for an end to conflict and discord in the land of Our Lord’s birth, death and Resurrection.

The prayer initiative was born from the desire of some Catholic youth associations, in communion with the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem and the Holy Land and will involve many young people in moments of Eucharistic adoration in churches of the 5 continents.

In particular Cardinal Peter Turkson, President of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, has sent a message to mark the event in which he writes: "Young people are and can be a resource for peace if they live their freedom in connection with the true, the good and God. Only in this way they can lay their deep-rooted commitment to justice and peace. (...) The period of youth is the season of life where you look with enthusiasm to the great values that today, unfortunately, seem to be very weak: truth, freedom, justice, love, brotherhood".

The Day will be inaugurated by a celebration that will take place on January 29 at 5, Italian time, at the Calvary in Jerusalem. Fr. Pizzaballa says “peace means relations, good relations among us and our relations should start first and foremost from our relations with God”. “The youth have the responsibility to build a mentality and culture of peace in the next generation. This is a very important moment”.

To join the initiative, one must add to the Eucharistic celebration on Sunday 29 January, a special prayer for the Holy Land, or promote a moment of Eucharistic adoration at the end of the Mass. The time of the celebration, the name of the church or prayer group and the city shall be communicated by e-mail at ufficiostampa@papaboys.it. Listen: