New prayer released for Pope’s Holy Land pilgrimage

May 16, 2014

VATICAN: The priest who is organizing Pope Francis’ upcoming visit to Jordan has written a special prayer for the occasion with the aim of allowing the world to participate.

“This prayer takes into consideration the whole pilgrimage of His Holiness to the Holy Land. Therefore it’s not only for Jordan, but for all,” Fr Rifat Bader explained.

With this prayer he noted, Catholics from the whole world will be able to prepare for and to accompany the Pope during his May 24 - 26 visit to Jordan, Palestine and Israel.

Fr Bader is the director of the Catholic Center for Studies and Media in Amman, Jordan and is also responsible for the pontiff’s visit to the country as part of his Holy Land pilgrimage.

The priest also voiced his hopes that the prayer he wrote would be an act of personal and communitarian devotion, asking that the pilgrimage would help the Christians of the world to live in peace, particularly in the Middle East.

Also entrusting to the Lord a strong ecumenical intention, the prayer implores that the meetings between Pope Francis and local authorities will improve justice and peace in the zone, and strengthen the faith of the sons of the Church.

With this in mind, Fr. Bader invited all to recite the prayer during the month of May along with praying of the Rosary, and to share the prayer in parishes and at religious events.

Pope Francis announced his visit during his Sunday Angelus address on Jan 5, stating that he is making the trip “to commemorate the historic meeting between Pope Paul VI and the Patriarch Athenagoras I, that occurred precisely on January 5, as today, 50 years ago.”

During his time in the Holy Land, the Roman Pontiff is slated to meet with the Orthodox Patriarch of Constantinople, Bartholomew I, during his May pilgrimage.

Along with representatives of “all the Christian churches of Jerusalem,” the two leaders will celebrate an ecumenical meeting at the site of the Holy Sepulchre, which Christians revere as the place of Jesus’ burial prior to the Resurrection.

Below please find the full text of Fr Bader’s prayer. --CNA/EWTN