God of Mercy and Consolation,
You call us to walk with our migrant sisters and brothers
As they journey from lands drenched
With poverty and the blood of war,
To lands teeming with freedom,
New opportunities, and renewed trust.
Move us to respond to the Gospel call
Of receiving and integrating, in the best possible way,
The growing numbers of migrants and refugees arriving
On our shores and across our borders.
God of Mercy and Consolation,
You call us to walk with our migrant sisters and brothers
As they journey from lands drenched
With poverty and the blood of war,
To lands teeming with freedom,
New opportunities, and renewed trust.
Move us to respond to the Gospel call
Of receiving and integrating, in the best possible way,
The growing numbers of migrants and refugees arriving
On our shores and across our borders.
Grant us a creative wisdom to find the right balance
Between the moral responsibility to protect the rights of citizens
And to ensure assistance, acceptance, and the dignity of migrants.
Guide us in our work with others
As we discover dignified solutions to the migration crisis
That will affect all societies and peoples.
Inspire us to invest our energies, time, and resources
In the pastoral and social needs of our migrant sisters and brothers.
Bring warmth to all migrants,
Replace their weariness with a resilience
To resist the temptation of despair
and the urge to be robbed of hope and joy.
Fuel in the hearts of world leaders a desire to implement policies
That allow for safe migration, just migrant working conditions,
And an end to detention of asylum seekers, while protecting national safety.
Finally, we ask that the Gospel of Mercy continue to trouble our consciences,
Preventing us from growing immune to the suffering of others.” Amen.
— Dianna Ortiz, O.S.U.
This prayer, taken from EFJ’s Prayer Service on Pope Francis’s Message for the 2016 World Day of Migrants and Refugees, stirs us into action to help the millions of refugees around the world today.
Copyright © 2017, Education for Justice, a project of Center of Concern.
Date Added: February 10, 2017