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THIS IS OUR CHANCE

PRAYING FOR PEACE WITH SAINT JOHN PAUL II

Forty years ago this month, Pope John Paul II (1920-2005) gathered with 160 faith leaders from around the world to fast and pray for peace at the Basilica of Saint Francis in Assisi, Italy. In addition to the Holy Father, participants included representatives from thirty-two Christian denominations and thirteen non-Christian religions including Islam, Buddhism, Sikhism, Hinduism, Judaism, Shintoism, Baha’i Faith, Zoroastrianism, and traditional native African and American spiritualities.

The World Day of Prayer for Peace (1986) was dedicated to show that peace is a moral principle that transcends all faiths; that peace has the power to bring people together regardless of their faith, cultural, and political differences. This momentous day inspired both the Spirit of Assisi Movement and subsequent interfaith assemblies in 1993, 2002, 2011, and 2016. From October 25-27, 2026, nearly four hundred representatives from more than fifty nations will gather again in Assisi under the banner of a Disarmed & Disarming Peace.

Since the Assisi Project was first founded as A Fellowship for Peace, it seems fitting that we join with Pope Leo XIV and the Spirit of Assisi Movement in praying with timeless and prophetic words from Saint John Paul II’s Address to the Representatives of the Christian Churches, Ecclesial Communities, and World Religions which was delivered at the Basilica of Saint Francis of Assisi on October 27, 1986. May God bless us. May the Lord bring us peace.

THIS IS OUR CHANCE
PEACE AS A UNIVERSAL RESPONSIBILITY

By Saint John Paul II

There is no peace without a passionate love for peace.
There is no peace without a relentless determination to achieve peace.
Peace awaits its prophets.
Together we have filled our eyes with visions of peace.
They release energies for a new language of peace, for new gestures of peace,
gestures which will shatter the fatal chains of division
inherited from history or spawned by modern ideologies.

Peace awaits its builders.
Let us stretch our hands toward our brothers and sisters.
Let us encourage them to build peace upon the four pillars
of truth, justice, love, and freedom.
Peace is a workshop open to all people,
not just to savants, specialists, and strategists.

Peace is a universal responsibility.
It comes about through a thousand little acts in daily life.
By their daily way of living with others,
people choose to be for or against peace.
We entrust the cause of peace essentially to the young.
May young people help to free history
from the wrong paths along which humanity strays.

Peace is in the hands not only of individuals but of nations.
It is the nations that have the honor of basing their peacemaking
on the conviction of the sacredness of human dignity
and the recognition of the unquestionable equality of all peoples.

We earnestly invite the leaders of nations and international organizations
to be untiring in bringing structures of dialog
wherever peace is under threat or already compromised.
We offer our support to their often exhausting efforts
to maintain or restore peace.
We renew our encouragement to the United Nations,
so that it may respond fully to the breadth and height
of its universal message of peace…

Peace, so frail in health, demands constant and intensive care.
Along this path, we will advance with sure and redoubled steps,
for their is no doubt that people have and never had
so many means for building true peace as they do today.
Humanity is entering an era
of increased solidarity and hunger for social justice.

This is our chance.
It is also our task, which our prayer helps us to face…
If the world is going to continue,
and men and women are to survive in it,
the world cannot do without prayer.

This is the permanent lesson of Assisi.
It is the lesson of Saint Francis,
who embodied an attractive ideal for us.
It is the lesson of Saint Clare, his first follower.
It is an ideal composed of meekness, humility,
a deep sense of God and a commitment to serve all people.
Saint Francis was a man of peace…

Moved by the example of Saint Francis and Saint Clare,
both true disciples of Christ,
we commit ourselves to examine our conscience,
to hear its voice more faithfully,
to purify our spirits
from prejudice, anger, enmity, jealousy, and envy.
And we call upon all of our brothers and sisters to do the same.

We do this with a sense of our own human limitations,
with an awareness of the fact that by ourselves alone, we will fail.
We therefore affirm and acknowledge
that our future life and peace depend on God’s gift to us.
In this spirit, we invite the leaders of the world
to know that we humbly implore God for peace.
But we also ask them to recognize their responsibilities,
to recommit themselves to the task of peace,
to put into action strategies of peace with courage and vision…

Above all, I thank God, the God and Father of Jesus Christ,
for this day of grace for the world, for each one of you, and for my own sake.
I do this in the words attributed to Saint Francis:

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love.
Where there is injury, pardon.
Where there is doubt, faith.
Where there is despair, hope.
Where there is darkness, light.
Where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master,
grant that I may not so much seek:
to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive.
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned.
It is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen.

Read: Saint John Paul II’s Address (Vatican Translation)

Art Credit: Shutterstock – 2327535003

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THE ASSISI PROJECT
A FELLOWSHIP OF FRANCISCANS IN SPIRIT
INTERCESSORY PRAYER MINISTRY

Members of the Assisi Project, ranging in age from 18 to 102, pray each and every day for all who ask for our prayers. If you would like our fellowship to pray for you or your special intention, please contact Brother Patrick at brpatrick@assisiproject.com. In communion with Pope Leo XIV and in solidarity with people of faith and goodwill everywhere, we also pray for peace, truth, and justice. In addition, we pray for all migrants and refugees; for the courage to speak truth to power; and for the poor, the persecuted, and the unjustly imprisoned. Please join us in prayer by clicking the link below! Thank you for your prayers! May God bless you! May the Risen Lord give you peace!

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ABOUT US

Founded in 2007, the Assisi Project is a Fellowship of Franciscans in Spirit with friends and followers throughout the world. We are dedicated to helping Christian believers of all ages more faithfully live the Gospel of Christ in the spirit of Saint Francis and Saint Clare of Assisi. We are also dedicated to promoting a devotion to Pope Francis (1936-2025) as a patron of peace, mercy, and fraternity in our sick and suffering world. For more information about the Assisi Project, please contact Brother Patrick at brpatrick@assisiproject.com. May the Lord give you peace!

The Assisi Project is a non-profit, tax exempt charitable organization. Please support our ministry via Pay Pal (see link below) or mail a tax-deductible donation to the Assisi Project, Post Office Box 3158, Gloucester, Massachusetts 01931-3158. The Assisi Project Podcast is produced by the Assisi Project, Inc. Copyright 2026. All rights reserved.

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