Week 27 - Bolivia, Chile, Peru

INTERCESSIONS

Give thanks for:

• Those who feed the poor, even when they do not have much themselves.
• Charangos, pan pipes and drums, sounds which give glory to God.
• Liberation theology and those who put it into practice by working for social justice with and for the poor.
• Saint Martin de Porres, the first black Catholic saint from Latin America, who spent his life caring for the poor of Lima.
• Languages and cultures which try to retain an old identity while coming to terms with the modern world.
• Machu Picchu, Lake Titicaca, and the Andes.

Pray for:

• The rights of indigenous and mestizo (mixed race) peoples in these countries.
• Social, economic, and political reforms, that they bring justice for all.
• Economic improvement in Bolivia so that people do not need to migrate in order to send their children to school, to buy medicine for their grandparents, or to feed those left behind.
• Those whose loved ones have been killed or disappeared under repressive regimes.
• A healing of all the wounds that people have had to endure.
• An end to drug trafficking throughout the region, and the availability of other economic means of support.
• The impoverished and oppressed.

PRAYER

Our Father in heaven, holy is your name.

We thank you for the gift of life,

which is renewed every moment with your beauty.

Your mercy, God, confirms your love.

In your hands are our destiny and our life.

All-powerful and merciful God, we pray for the future of Peru,

for the poor who often go hungry,

for the victims of disasters.

Provide them with all they need from you,

with all they require of you.

For the salvation of our souls through the death of your Son,

we thank you,

but we pray for those who are left out,

who do not have a relation with you,

who do not even know of your existence.

Lord, no longer allow human evil to go forward.

Keep corruption, which often touches the life of churches,

from proliferating.

We especially pray for the authorities of Peru,

that they be given the wisdom to plan towards a better future.

We pray for justice because here, too, the rich dominate

while justice is denied to the poor.

Lord, we pray for the leaders of your churches,

give them courage to bear with the poor, and the ignorant,

but also with those educated, who in their hypocrisies scorn your people.

Grant, O Lord, peace in all the world

and an end to war which only destroys and kills.

May the strength of the Holy Spirit dwell in our hearts.

May we live under your refuge and protection.

Bless our families.

Give us your happiness.

Thank you, Lord, for turning your ears towards our requests.

Give us the humility to accept your will.

In your hands we place our future and our livelihood.

Thank you, Lord, for giving us much more than we deserve,

especially for giving us the happiness

of having access to your word.

Receive our adoration and our prayers.

Thank you, Lord, for answering us.

 

Prayer text for 2007:

Prayer for peace and justice in Bolivia

O God, from Bolivian soil,
The Bolivian people implore you to listen to their voice,
feel their sadness and see the tears of your people,
which are also your tears.
So many bodies without any life left
have fallen in the streets,
in the roads and in the fields,
leaving behind pain and sorrow within the Bolivian family.

In those moments in which their hearts are mourning from such suffering,
give them consolation.
Do not allow them to relinquish their self-control,
but give them a vision
so they can see with their own eyes the way they ought to go,
so they can reach life by the path of justice.
Hear, O God, the voices of the multitudes
who march in the streets and highways
crying for justice,
tired of so much misery,
the lack of work, corruption and violence;
tired of so much authoritarianism by the people in power,
who take decisions without consulting the people
and who are guided by their own stingy interests;
tired that the natural resources
that you have given for the well-being of all the people
are once more being used to benefit the economic interests of the large
transnational corporations.

Hear the voice of the Bolivians
and give them discernment and strength
so that they can respond
      to hatred with love,
      to injustice with righteousness,
      to apathy with commitment to their people,
      to individualism with solidarity,
      to violence with peace.

Hear their voice and inspire within their hearts (and within ours)
the knowledge of peace,
the strength of justice,
the joy of being close to one another.
Guide them to walk with the crowds on the way of peace with the signs of justice.
O God, hear their voice
and grant to them (and us) your eternal peace.