COMMISSARIAT OF THE HOLY LAND IN CANADA AND ANTENNES DE PAIX À MONTRÉAL
Pastoral Introduction
The Commissariat of the Holy Land in Canada and Antennes de paix à Montréal offer to priests and Christian community leaders of the country the text for a Way of the Cross devoted to the theme of peace. The meditation proposed this year borrows in no small way from Benedict XVI’s pilgrimage for peace from May 8 to 15, 2009 and is also inspired by two of this pope’s addresses delivered to the Church at the celebration of the World Day of Prayer for Peace on the first day of January of each year.
This Way of the Cross: a Way of peace is intended to be used in a pastoral setting during prayer gatherings in parishes and assemblies on Good Friday or Holy Week processions in several cities across Canada. Over the course of the year it can be taken up again by congregations that wish to experience a Way of the Cross. The object of the Stations is to also help the faithful in their personal meditation.
The text proposed is in fact an itinerary for anyone seeking to synthesize the challenges of peace as most clearly perceived by the faithful of the Christian communities across the country. The journey undertaken by Jesus during his Passion can inspire such communities to discern connections between world events and what Jesus suffered with so much patience and dignity.
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Each Station includes:
- A contemplative review inspired by a text from scripture or words that
are centered on the life of Jesus; - Thoughts on the meaning of the Stations in today’s world addressed to Jesus or the congregation.
The situations recalled are brought into light by faith which leads to hope; - A moment of prayer and song by the faithful to share the message of Jesus
presented as an architect of peace.
This Way of the Cross ends with a call from Benedict XVI going out to believers in all lands inviting them to take up the banner of peace. After this call and earnest appeal the congregation is blessed.
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Leaders of congregations will find in this proposal for a Way of the Cross an instrument that can be adapted to the needs of their communities and available resources. After studying it, you are free to adjust and present it to your congregations in a manner best suited to favour an enhanced awareness and to encourage the prayer of the faithful.
We suggest using three voices in this Way of the Cross in order to emphasize the three dimensions proper to each Station.
The presentation of this devotion may be enriched with a selection of hymns calling for peace. The hymns listed below are provided by way of example. Each congregation is free to select from its own repertoire.
Suggestions for hymns
The hymns suggested here are from the Catholic Book of Worship (CBW), and Oregan Catholic Press (OCP, Breaking Bread) as well as the album Desert Eyes (www.bobcarty.ca). Each hymn is given with the number assigned in the publication.
Beginning of the Stations
This is Our Cry (OCP, 490)
Let There be Peace on Earth (OCP, 494)
Desert Eyes (Desert Eyes, 1)
Were You There (CBW II, 493)
Between the stations:
Choose one or two hymns with the refrain, a strophe, refrain.
Litany of Peace (OCP, 496, 492)
Prayer of St. Francis (OCP, 495, Also CBW II, 698, 699; CBW III 630)
Dona Nobis Pacem (OLP, 495)
Following the dismissal
Keep Your Hearts Open and Strong (Desert Eyes, 2)
Peace is flowing like a River (OCP, 494)
Peace I leave with you (CBW II, 700)
Till We Get Home (Desert Eyes, 10)
Introduction to the Way of the Cross
Dear Brothers and Sisters:
We have come together this day to remember the last moments of the life of Jesus. We gather our thoughts to share his Way of the Cross which never ceases to call out to us. The violence experienced by Jesus is ever present in our lives, societies and cultures. The peace that Jesus receives and passes on is recognized by us all as essential and urgently needed in our communities.
The apostle James point out the origin of many conflicts and wars when he writes to the Christians of Jerusalem: “Peacemakers, when they work for peace, sow the seeds which will bear fruit in holiness. Where do these wars and battles between yourselves first start? Isn’t it precisely inside your own selves? You want something and haven’t got it; so you are prepared to kill. You have an ambition that you cannot satisfy; so you fight to get your way by force.”*
To commit oneself as a witness and an architect of peace is to embark upon a way of the cross that can become a way of peace when experienced with Jesus Christ in solidarity with our sisters and brothers. May our meditation favour the distinct vision of Jesus and a clear perception of the world so that we may learn the art of justice and of peace.
Opening hymn
* Jm 3, 16- 4, 1-2
Station 1: Jesus is condemned to death
1st voice
“So Pilate, who wished to satisfy the crowd, released Barabbas to them; and after he had had Jesus scourged, he handed him over to be crucified.” (Mark 15, 15)
Jesus is condemned by the Sanhedrin, and then handed over to the Roman governor for execution. He faces Pilate without fear. Standing straight, he looks authority in the eye, demanding truth and integrity. In an attempt to humiliate him, Pilate has him whipped. The soldiers mock him, spit on him. Now that he is condemned, he stands in utter silence. Jesus’ grandeur lies in his refusal to submit to the easy way out. Even when he feels abandoned by God, he continues to forgive, believe and hope. Is this not what living in peace means?
2nd voice
There are many people throughout the world today who are thrown into prison, tortured and even executed because they dare to voice their convictions and their hope for a world where God’s compassion and justice will reign. We call them to mind and ask God to give them strength. We remember those who are in prison, who have no voice and no one to care for their most basic needs. They challenge us to live with such dignity that we command respect even from those who would like to sweep us away. Our own discomforts can even become an occasion to remember them.
3rd voice
Let us pray:
Loving Father, your heart suffers to see your Son treated this way! Share with us the Spirit that lives in you so that our hearts too may feel the pain of those whose dignity and freedom are denied. May your peace strengthen us on the journey. Amen.
Station 2: Jesus carries his cross
1st voice
“Jesus was led away, and carrying the cross by himself, went out to what is called the Place of the Skull (in Hebrew, Golgotha).” (John 19, 16b-17)
Jesus willingly and publicly takes up the instrument of his own execution. He embraces it freely and without rancour. In such an extreme context of pain, his attitude of forgiveness is an act of love and it is also the power to create peace. Jesus journeys out of himself to find his centre in someone who totally transcends his human weakness, and so takes up the risk of living in Mystery and ultimate meaning.
2nd voice
There are many labourers in fields and factories around the world—some of them children—who perform back-breaking tasks in order to get enough to eat and to support their families. They are the migrant workers who harvest our vegetables; they are the children who break rocks into gravel with hammers; they are the women in textile factories who sew our clothing. Sometimes they are intimidated, beaten, raped, and even killed.
3rd voice
Let us pray:
Jesus our brother, in following you we walk the path of the cross toward new life. The cross designed to crush your life becomes the symbol of your love and fidelity. Help us to respond joyfully to the challenge each day offers to live as your disciples. Strengthen us when we stumble and help us to persevere. Let the world see in our lives an invitation to a deeper experience of peace. Amen.
Station 3: Jesus falls for the first time
1st voice
“He was spurned and avoided by men, a man of suffering, accustomed to infirmity, one of those from whom men hide their faces, spurned, and we held him in no esteem. Yet it was our infirmities that he bore, our sufferings that he endured.” (Isaiah 53, 3-4a)
Jesus reaches a point where his body can take no more. He hits a physical limit that crashes him to the ground. Yet, lying there in the street Jesus gathers his strength, rises and continues the journey. The Spirit calls us at times, to recognise our limits and also to confide in the divine presence that strengthens us to move on. Can peace lie beneath the turmoil raging around and in us? Is it not this peace that sustains us in our vulnerability?
2nd voice
At times we hit the wall of our limitations and fragility. We are stopped in our tracks by circumstance, driven to physical and emotional collapse.
3rd voice
Let us pray:
O God, our refuge and our strength, cast out fear even when the earth rocks and the storm rages around us. Help those who work for peace to break the logic of violence through the power of love. May we transform our broken world into your reign of peace.
Amen.
Station 4: Jesus meets his mother
1st voice
“For Mary, she treasured all these things and pondered them in her heart.” (Lk 2, 19) Jesus, pathetic pilgrim, carries his cross in solitude and suffering. But here is his mother, his strongest bond with humankind. He cannot spare her the sight of a disfigured son, crowned with thorns, condemned to die unjustly, bearing the marks of an unspeakable violence.
In the eyes of his mother Jesus sees a heart pierced through by anguish. He sees at the same time the fear that wells up in us: fear of suffering alone, fear of dying alone, fear of having our world delivered into the hands of exploiters and tricksters. From his heart overwhelmed by this encounter rises the wish to unite us all in the immense family of God’s children.
2nd voice
We are not alone. Let us be won over by the eyes of Jesus. May we allow Him to make his way through our fears and our anguish. By letting him accompany us on our own stations of the cross, we will find peace.
May those seeking a haven, a homeland, a house of sharing and friendship find a place at Mary’s side.
As witnesses of fratricidal wars that rob countless numbers of human beings of a quiet family life, let us intercede with Christ, our Saviour, so that undertakings of peace gain ascendency over enterprises of destruction. Let us remain hopeful since, even when disfigured by the wounds of separation and exile, we remain united in the “one who is our peace.”
3rd voice
Let us pray:
O Jesus, we pray for mothers who can no longer bear the blood spilt, the killings and the taking up of arms. We pray for the families grieving loved ones. You, our sole Saviour, revive our hope so that we may become with Mary witnesses to a life stronger than death. Amen.
Station 5: Simon of Cyrene helps
Jesus carry his cross
1st voice
“As they were leading him away they seized on a man, Simon from Cyrene, who was coming in from the country, and made him shoulder the cross and carry it behind Jesus.” (Lk, 23, 26)
Here is Jesus, the icon of the suffering servant: “And yet ours were the sufferings he bore, ours the sorrows he carried. But we, we thought of him as someone punished, struck by God, and brought low… On him lies a punishment that brings us peace, and through his wounds we are healed.”*
A stranger, a passerby is made to take up Jesus’ cross, odious sign of the apparent failure of his mission of reconciliation in the midst of his people. Jesus, well acquainted with suffering, accepts the cooperation of all those of goodwill who undertake to travel with him the trying road toward peace.
2nd voice
Our first reaction is unfortunately to recoil from a scene of violence. We are slow to recognize in the humiliated and the oppressed another face of the suffering servant. It is not easy to admit that we are an accessory, albeit unwillingly, to injustices resulting from economic and political systems.
The tangible solidarity of Simon of Cyrene earned him the distinction before all of contributing to Jesus of Nazareth’s mission of peace. Throughout the centuries men and women have stepped forward, generous architects of peace and justice, to befriend the victims of violence.
3rd voice
Let us pray:
O Jesus, suffering servant, teach us to stand by the persons and the peoples bending beneath the yoke of injustice. Teach us to overcome individualism and to open our hearts to a greater solidarity. Amen.
* Is 53, 4-5
Station 6: Veronica wipes the face of Jesus
1st voice
“For my part, I made no resistance, neither did I turn away. I offered my back to those who struck me, my cheeks to those who tore at my beard; I did not cover my face against insult and spittle.” (Is 50, 5b-6)
Silence. The procession comes to a halt. Veronica dares to elbow her way through the throng to assist a condemned man, but not just any man under sentence of death. Her solicitous care goes out to Jesus, man of peace delivered up to hatred, to this Jesus, a free man confronted with the prejudices which destroy a reputation. In exchange for a gesture of compassion, the humiliated Holy Face from this day forward casts a non-judgmental look on the world as a way to call out for peace between us all.
2nd voice
By drawing nearer to the condemned man, let us learn to overcome our repugnance to see those wounds that sully our own humanity.
Haunted by the eyes of the humiliated Christ we will find those gestures of consolation that appease the dying, words that bring together after years of estrangement. By greeting the benevolence of the Father who comes to meet us, we will advance with the “imagination of love” to tear down the walls that separate the members of the human family. We will work tirelessly to preserve the human heart from hatred, anger or vengeance. As His Holiness Benedict XVI proposed in Bethlehem, we will be “bridges of dialogue and constructive cooperation in the building of a culture of peace to replace the present stalemate of fear and aggression.” *
3rd voice
Let us pray:
O Jesus, reflected image of the Father’s benevolence, we pray for those who suffer in their bodies, disfigured by illness, a handicap, a wound or an accident that has caused irreparable injuries. May your goodness cover them with the cloak of your care and give them the grace of a heart having found peace in spite of suffering. Amen.
* Benedict XVI, Homily at Manger’s Square, Bethlehem, May 13, 2009.
Station 7: Jesus falls for the second time
1st voice
“All who see me jeer at me, they toss their heads and sneer.” (Ps 22, 8)
There he is, face in the dust. Broken under the weight of the cross but also by the lack of understanding of his own people, his countrymen. He has become most vulnerable. In his suffering flesh, hope will yet be reborn.
2nd voice
Just as Jesus is broken down by the ordeal of a long march, the peoples of the Holy Land can no longer bear the suffering that comes from divisions, walls of separation. They aspire to build bridges rather than put up walls. They cry out and their cry is one of hope that they address to our consciences and communities throughout the world. Beyond all walls, let us discover with them how to give “the reason for the hope that you all have.”*
3rd voice
Let us pray:
O Jesus, the Christ, you who were sent by the Father to reconcile all things in his love, hear the cry of hope of the peoples of the Holy Land. Grant them the peace acquired through the spilling of your blood and the joy of being part of a blossoming of renewed relationships between communities and with the world. Amen.
* 1 P 3, 15
Station 8: Jesus meets the daughters of Jerusalem
1st voice
“Large numbers of people followed him, and of women too, who mourned and lamented for him. But Jesus turned to them and said, Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me; weep rather for yourselves and for your children.” (Lk 23, 27-28)
These women cry over Jesus. He reminds them of their own plight and the dire condition of their own children, more specifically their sons conscripted to make war, associated to enterprises of population control and assigned to the meanest tasks. True to his non violence, Jesus refuses to condemn those who accuse him, just as earlier he refused to condemn the adulteress. Instead he invites these compassionate women to pass on to future generations the desire to transform the world into an oasis of freedom and peace.
2nd voice
On the road of tears and bereavement that we travel, let the eyes of Christ meet our own. Let us heed his call to adhere to a true movement of compassion. His will is to have us play a major part in his mission of liberation.
As Pope Benedict XVI reminded Christians during his trip to the Holy Land, “The Gospel reassures us that God can make all things new, that history need not be repeated, that memories can be healed, that the bitter fruits of recrimination and hostility can be overcome, and that a future of peace, prosperity and cooperation can arise for every man and woman, for the whole human family …”*
3rd voice
Let us pray:
Jesus, so attentive to the suffering of others, give us the courage to travel without stumbling along the road of justice and compassion. Amen.
* Benedict XVI, Address at the Holy Sepulchre, May 15, 2009.
Station 9: Jesus falls for the third time
1st voice
“He emptied himself, taking the form of a slave… obediently accepting even death…” (Ph, 2, 8)
Every drop of strength is drained from Jesus. Totally exhausted, his whole body trembles. His mind is a blur; he cannot resist any more. He collapses.
2nd voice
There are those whose vulnerability is the persistent object of aggression, who become the target of those who seek only to make another suffer. Anyone can resist physical brutality or even emotional stress. Even when life hands out two crises at the same time, the human spirit is capable of resisting. But when the crises are multiple, when the pain inflicted is systematic and persistent, the suffering reaches beyond the point of resistance and people have no choice but to succumb. And yet, even then, the final word has not been said. In the collapse itself, their lives become an eloquent witness to the power of God’s loving embrace and a cry for reconciliation and peace.
3rd voice
Let us pray:
Jesus, you often invited your disciples to “fear not.” In those moments when we feel we cannot take another step, when we are at the point of caving in, you call us to become like you in love and so face those moments even when our whole being trembles. Amen.
Station 10: Jesus is stripped of his garments
1st voice
“I can count every one of my bones, and there they glare at me, gloating; they divide my garments among them and cast lots for my clothes.” (Ps 22, 18-19)
Jesus is stripped of his garments. He is silent: “He had not done anything wrong, and there had been no perjury in his mouth.”* Jesus, “deprived of his divine condition” remains the audacious servant of all human beings and of all his disciples.
2nd voice
The dispossessions begin: dispossession of his garments, dispossession of his family and social relationships, dispossession of the basic right of the human person to all things essential to life: food, water, a home, health care. Likewise there are those who lose all they have and are reduced to absolute nakedness, the nakedness of persistent inequality in the exercise of fundamental human rights. To be exposed naked and handed over to the mockery of all is a profound injury to dignity as anyone familiar with the face of exclusion knows only too well. To be divested of one’s “clothing” however is not experienced at the personal level only. Do we not see that one half of humanity experiences blatant dispossession and pauperization while the other half looks on and casts lots for its clothing?
To serve in justice and in love requires from the Christian community the desire to cover all human persons with “the cloak of the integrity of God,”* that is to say with creative responses to their needs and basic rights, as anticipated in the Last Judgment: “…For I was hungry and you gave me food; I was thirsty and you gave me drink; I was a stranger and you made me welcome; naked and you clothed me, sick and you visited me, in prison and you came to see me.”*
3rd voice
Let us pray:
O Just God, may our thoughtlessness not lead us to deprive people of what is rightfully theirs, nor to divide among ourselves things that have been torn away from the dispossessed; may your Spirit keep us ever watchful and teach us to clothe, in justice and in love, those who are naked and in need. Amen
* 1 P 2, 22; * Ba 5, 2; * Mt 25, 35-36
Station 11: Jesus is nailed to the cross
1st voice
“When they reached the place called The Skull, they crucified him there and the two criminals also, one on the right, the other on the left. Jesus said, ‘Father, forgive them; they do not know what they are doing’… The people stayed there watching him. As for the leaders, they jeered at him… The soldiers mocked him too. …” (Lk 23, 33-34.35.36.39)
2nd voice
Violence unleashed first begins its work and then continues to wreak havoc through trickery and lies. To condemn and crucify others beyond recall will be forever the trademarks of evil. Such violence traps persons and populations in a hell of exclusion and fear. It demolishes spirits and souls. It tears cultures apart.
To yield to violence heralds a culture of death, with its lot of snickering, mockery and insults. So many Christians belong to Churches and to families burdened with the cross of long-enduring suffering in the most hopeless of conditions.
How can a culture of forgiveness come to be and get passed on in environments poisoned by circumstances and events that unceasingly crucify by circulating contempt and issuing death sentences? The proclamation of justice and forgiveness flows often from the heart onto the lips of those very people who have experienced the depths of the worst.
Benedict XVI reminded the Christians of the Holy Land of a word that holds true for all who wish to remain loyal to forgiveness: “The Church in the Holy Land, which has so often experienced the dark mystery of Golgotha, must never cease to be an intrepid herald of the luminous message of hope which this empty tomb proclaims.” *
3rd voice
Let us pray:
O Holy God, we are often riveted to our cross without freedom of movement; may your spirit teach us, in the depths of the heart, the road and the gestures of justice and forgiveness. Amen
* Benedict XVI, Address at the Holy Sepulchre, May 15, 2009
Station 12: Jesus dies on the cross
1st voice
“After this, Jesus knew that everything had now been completed, and to fulfill the scripture perfectly, Jesus said: ‘I am thirsty.’ A jar full of vinegar stood there, so putting a sponge soaked in the vinegar on a hyssop stick they held it up to his mouth. After Jesus has taken up the vinegar he said: ‘It is accomplished;’ and bowing his head he gave up the spirit.” (Jn 19, 28-30)
Jesus dies outside Jerusalem, the city he cherished so! He dies rejected by his own, treated as a renegade and an outcast. Indeed it is the very shadow of death that is cast by the rising hostility of the people around us which leaves us no other option but to flee, not a moment too soon, to save the lives of family members and our own. And it is this shadow still that hangs over the roads crowded by displaced persons and refugees, all with their own stories of suffering to tell.
2nd voice
With no recourse left, when no door and no border could be opened, does not death become the ultimate wall against which everything appears to falter after having spent itself? So many refugees and displaced persons have no other life but an endless stream of dark days exposed to chance and frustrating expedients.
What greater challenge than to seek out a new life in a foreign place, against a setting of landmarks, languages and customs that are not our own! The recollection of roots and houses, the memories of cities and families go back and fourth in our hearts, and each memory hearkens back to a pledge to a spirit received and experienced.
Jesus spent his entire life as pilgrim and a stranger. Forced into exile in Egypt at birth, he dies outside the wall of Jerusalem as an outcast. After having shed so many tears over Jerusalem, Jesus has nothing more to offer than his death and his spirit. Rejected, Jesus teaches the disciples loyalty to scripture and the will to fulfill all in faith and in peace. He hands over his spirit without betraying his calling or despising those who exclude.
3rd voice
Let us pray:
May the words of the pilgrims become true for us: Since all are my brothers and friends, I say “Peace be with you!” Since our Lord God lives here, I pray for your happiness. Amen. (Ps 122, 8-9)
Station 13: Jesus is removed from the cross
1st voice
“…a prominent member of the Council, who himself lived in the hope of seeing the kingdom of God, and he boldly went to Pilate and asked him the body of Jesus. Pilate, astonished that he should have died so soon, summoned the centurion and enquired if he was already dead. Having been assured of this by the centurion, he granted the corpse to Joseph who bought a shroud, took Jesus down from the cross, and wrapped him in the shroud...” (Mk 15, 43-46)
2nd voice
How many people search or wait in vain for loved ones gone missing who will never be found or identified. How many people long to whisper one last time a loved one’s name in a final embrace! And how many people are torn between the peace that comes from knowing and the hurt accompanying the truth! How many children are forever gone, victims hastily hidden, bodies never to be found! How many silent deaths! How many human beings are now gone missing and still being sought!
Regimes have been built on the murder of opponents and the relentless effort to erase all traces of their existence either from public records or human memory. Victims of political vendettas have gone missing and are erased for all time: denied in life, nullified in death in fully orchestrated invalidations of the dignity of the human person!
What could Joseph of Arimathaea and Jesus’s family and friends possibly hold in their arms? A corpse writes the Evangelist as if there was nothing left of Jesus but a word as cold as a dead body. But make no mistake: all who are received into the Christian community, even when disfigured, are human persons.
All life is sacred. No one’s existence can be deleted or denied even after the worst profanations and disquieting disappearances. The Christian community has learned to be watchful to ensure that all human beings will be returned to loved ones and have their true nature recognized: “As one created in the image of God, each individual human being has the dignity of a person; they are not just something but persons capable of self-knowledge, self-possession, free self-giving and entering into communion with others.”*
3rd voice
Let us pray:
O Loving God, you who returns Jesus to family and friends, may your spirit support anyone seeking a loved one and bring back all human beings into the light of presence and memory. Amen.
* Benedict XVI, The Human Person, The Heart of Peace, no 2, Vatican, December 8, 2006.
Station 14: Jesus is laid in the tomb
1st voice
“At the place where he had been crucified there was a garden, and in this garden a new tomb in which no one had yet been buried. Since it was the Jewish Day of Preparation and the tomb was near at hand, they laid Jesus there.” (Jn 19, 41-42)
Jesus is not denied a decent burial and the privilege of being remembered. But so many human beings are robbed of a final resting place and a modest place in history. So many unmarked graves! So many destinies have not left a trace! So many hurried burials, as if it was necessary to pile forgetfulness on top of death!
2nd voice
To be erased from the memory of those close to us and of the world in which we lived is to die twice. To remember all human beings and their life stories is a burden that a world pressed to move forward and to look the other way refuses to carry. Yet are not all persons deserving of a garden and a tomb? Are not all human beings worthy of a name and to a life’s story that needs telling?
In a pilgrimage to the Holy Sepulchre Benedict XVI declared: “Here Christ died and rose, never to die again… The empty tomb speaks to us of hope that does not disappoint because it is the gift of the Holy Spirit of life. (cf. Rm 5,5) This is the message that I wish to leave with you today, at the conclusion of my pilgrimage to the Holy Land. May hope arise ever anew, by God’s grace, in the heart of all the people dwelling in these lands! May it take root in your hearts, abide in your families and communities, and inspire each of you to become an ever more faithful witness to the Prince of Peace.”*
3rd voice
Let us pray:
O Immortal God, there where Jesus was laid to rest is planted the promise of Life. There also we lay down our aspirations; may your Spirit keep us open to Hope. Amen.
* Benedict XVI, Address at the Holy Sepulchre, May 15, 2009
Dismissal
Benedict XVI reminds us of the challenges of the Gospel of Peace:
“In view of the risks which humanity is facing in our time, all Catholics in every part of the world have a duty to proclaim and embody ever more fully the ‘Gospel of Peace’ and show that acknowledgement of the full truth that God is the first, indispensable condition for consolidating the truth of peace… God is the unfailing source of the hope which gives meaning to personal and community life. God, and God alone, brings to fulfilment every work of good and of peace. History has amply demonstrated that declaring war on God in order to eradicate Him from human hearts only leads a fearful and impoverished humanity toward decisions which are ultimately futile. This realization must impel believers in Christ to become convincing witnesses of the God who is inseparably truth and love, placing themselves at the service of peace in broad cooperation with other Christians as well as with the followers of other religions and with all men and women of goodwill.”
Standing and with reverence, let us greet peace and benediction:
May the Lord of peace himself give you peace all the time and in every way.
The Lord be with you all. Amen. *
May the All Mighty God bless you, the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. Amen.
Closing hymn
*In Truth, Peace, Address of His Holiness for the celebration of the World Day of Peace on January 1, 2006, From the Vatican on December 8, 2005.
* 2 Th 3, 16
Sponsor Groups of this Peace Initiative
Commissariat of the Holy Land in Canada
Origin: The Commissariat of the Holy Land is a liaison organization between Canada and the leaders of Christian communities and the Holy Sites sanctified by the physical presence of Jesus when he lived on earth. It was founded in Trois-Rivières in 1888 by Blessed Frédéric Janssoone, O.F.M. and established permanently in Ottawa in 1919.
Mission: Our mission aims at making known the Holy Land where Christ lived and announced the Gospel, developing a permanent and effective solidarity between the parishes and the religious communities with the faithful of the first Christian church in the world: the Church of Jerusalem. The Commissariat supports the Custody of the Holy Land in the pastoral service of the Holy Sites and of Christian communities, as well as their charitable, educational, social, ecumenical and cultural organizations.
Links:
To contact Commissariat of the Holy Land in Ottawa
terresainte@bellnet.ca
Telephone: 613-737-6972
To contact Custody of the Holy Land in Jerusalem
www.custodia.org
Antennes de Paix
Organization founded in Montreal in 2007, Antennes de paix is a partner of PAX CHRISTI International network for peace.
Vision: Antennes de Paix à Montréal aspires, through love and compassion, to contribute to the making of our world a place of justice and peace.
Mission: Our mission is to contribute to the development of a culture of peace. We invite our communities to play an active role in the fight against violence and in the development of a culture of peace, driven by a spirituality of peace and reconciliation.
Links:
To contact Antennes de paix
antennesdepaix@gmail.com
To contact Pax Christi International
www.paxchristi.net
