Posted on 09/06/2013 12:59:02 PM PDT by NYer
.- A five-hour prayer vigil in St. Peter's Square for peace in Syria, initiated by Pope Francis and to be held this Saturday, will be the largest the Vatican has seen in years, according to the Holy See’s press director.
“I’ve been here for 23 years and I remember gatherings for peace in Assisi, but I don’t remember anything with this dimension in Saint Peter’s Square,” Fr. Federico Lombardi told a gathering of journalists Sept. 5.
He recalled a peace gathering in Italy and prayer vigils held after the Sept. 11 attacks, but none were of the degree that this will be, he said.
Pope Francis made a global petition on Sept. 1 asking that everyone, regardless of religion or location, to fast and pray during the whole day of Sept. 7 for world peace, particularly in Syria.
“There are so many conflicts in this world which cause me great suffering and worry, but in these days my heart is deeply wounded in particular by what is happening in Syria and anguished by the dramatic developments which are looming,” the Holy Father said Sept. 1.
During his first public general audience since his summer break on Sept. 4, he renewed his invitation.
While the Sept. 7 fast is not binding on the faithful, Pope Francis' repeated exhortations to participate in the fast indicate how close the issue is to the heart of the vicar of Christ.
His call for prayer and fasting comes as nations, including the United States, discuss the possibility of military intervention in Syria, following reports that the Bashar al Assad regime used chemical weapons on its own civilians, killing, according to the U.S. government, more than 1,400 persons.
Pope Francis' prayer vigil will be preceded by the hearing of Confessions, beginning in the evening at 5:45 in St. Peter's Square. There will be 50 priests available for Confession under the colonnades of the square.
Then at 6:30, Pope Francis' Sept. 1 allocution calling for the day of fasting and prayer will be read to introduce the vigil.
Pope Francis will begin the prayer at 7:00, and the Veni Creator Spiritus will be sung.
Four Swiss Guards will carry a statue of Mary, Protectress of the Roman People, starting from the obelisk in the square, accompanied by two girls strewing flowers before her.
The Roman Pontiff will then begin praying the rosary, invoking the intercession at each mystery of Our Lady, Queen of Peace.
There will then be a meditation by the Pope, followed by a minute of silence and Eucharistic Adoration.
The vigil will also include readings from the Bible, and responsorial prayers for peace.
After Adoration, there will be three minutes of silence followed by the recitation of the Office of Readings, part of the Liturgy of the Hours.
At 10:15 there will be a period of extended, prayerful silence, and the vigil will conclude later with Benediction.
In solidarity with the vigil of the Diocese of Rome, many Churches worldwide will be holding similar events.
The Archdiocese of Madrid announced that all Masses said this Saturday will be offered for peace in Syria, and Bishop Demetrio Fernandez Gonzalez of Cordoba asked that church bells be rung at noon to remind Catholics to pray the Angelus to Mary, Queen of Peace.
Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the Archbishop of New York, announced that the anticipated Mass at his cathedral on Sept. 7 would be said for the intention of peace in Syria, and added that in his diocese “I wish all our Catholic people to abstain from meat this Friday (Sept. 6), and add this intention to their prayers at Sunday Mass.”
In the Archdiocese of Denver, a vigil of Adoration will be held at the cathedral on Sept. 7 from 7 p.m. until midnight.
Closed to some of you! Tell me please what all churches are included in your "Christian family tree"?
So you didn’t watch it after all! Yet, you accused me of the same. There’s a word for that type of person.
What about this part, “and a period of peace will be granted to mankind”?
Did I blink and miss it? Please tell me when that period was and how long did it last.
I’m sure the Blessed Mother wasn’t teasing us; but somehow I’m missing what you and others claim to have been accomplished. Is the “period of peace” over already? It must be if the Pope is calling for a prayer for peace now.
Two years later, this evasive approach was taken again when the Holy Father once more consecrated the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary in a ceremony before 250,000 people in Rome in March of 1984. But this time, the Pope made his position clearer.
In a departure from his prepared text, he asked Our Lady of Fatima to "enlighten especially the peoples of which You Yourself are awaiting our consecration and confiding." The Pope thus publicly acknowledged that the consecration requested by Our Lady had still not been performed.
These words were included in an official report of the event in L’Osservatore Romano on March 26, 1984. A similar report appeared the next day in the Italian bishops’ newspaper Avvenire, describing the Pope praying in St. Peter’s several hours after the consecration ceremony, asking Our Lady to bless "those peoples for whom You Yourself are awaiting our act of consecration and entrusting."
Case Opened!
Apparently you prefer to pick and choose which comments to read as fodder for your senseless attacks. Had you read ALL of the commentaries posted above, you might have spared yourself the additional angst of calling me to task. BTW, it was repeated last night. Hope you were able to watch the rerun.
Here is a screenshot from the prayer vigil:
(click on the image above to go to the actual video clip)
Let me re-emphasize, I do not make a claim that it was sincere, I do not claim that there was some type of Taqiyya. But the fact of the matter is, as you can see in the above screenshot and the associated video, they were, whatever their motivation, kneeling before the Blessed Sacrament.
Sorry for delay, just located the video.
Which ones are the muslims, Mark? And why are the majority of the people, including nuns, standing?
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