A Prayer for Haiti

We entrust the people of Haiti to you, O Lord,
knowing that you do not take the life of your faithful,
but transform it and, at the very moment in which
the dwelling of our exile on this earth is destroyed,
you are concerned with preparing for it an eternal
and immortal dwelling place in Paradise.

Holy Father, Lord of Heaven and earth,
hear the cry of pain and of hope
that is raised by the Haitian community
harshly tried by the earthquake!
It is the silent cry of the blood of mothers, fathers, young people,
and also of tiny innocents which rises from the land.
They have been torn from the love of their dear ones.

May you welcome them all in your peace, Lord,
who are God-with-us,
Love who can give us life without end.
We are in need of you and your power,
for in the face of death, we feel small and frail.

We pray you, help us, because your support alone
can raise us and lead us to set out together anew on the path of life,
holding one another trustingly by the hand.

We ask this of you through Jesus Christ, Our Saviour,
in whom shines out the hope of blessed resurrection. Amen!

--(adapted from a prayer by Pope Benedict for the victims of the Abruzzo earthquake)
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