By Maria Bohan
After years of tension between the United States and North Korea, peace may be on the horizon.
On Tuesday, June 12, U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korea’s Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un will meet in Singapore.
While meetings with foreign leaders are a normal part of the President’s job, this meeting is particularly monumental—President Trump will be the first sitting American president to meet with a leader of North Korea.
Discussion points for the meeting can only be speculated, but it’s likely that plans for lasting peace through denuclearization will be on the agenda. (1)
History shows that the road to peace is filled with twists and turns. In fact, the Singapore Summit has been canceled and reinstated many times in the weeks since it was announced.
As Catholics, we have a responsibility to pray for peace in the world around us.
Pray that God smooths the path to diplomacy for the United States and North Korea, for “peacemakers who sow in peace reap a harvest of righteousness” (James 3:18).
Here is Pope Francis’ Prayer for Peace. Be what the Pope calls an “instrument of peace” and ask God to help this meeting be a success.
Pope Francis' Prayer for Peace (June 4, 2014)
God of peace, hear our prayer!
We have tried so many times and over so many years to resolve our conflicts by our own powers and by the force of our arms. How many moments of hostility and darkness have we experienced; how much blood has been shed; how many lives have been shattered; how many hopes have been buried… But our efforts have been in vain.
Now, come to our aid! Grant us peace, teach us peace; guide our steps in the way of peace. Open our eyes and our hearts, and give us the courage to say: "Never again war!"; "With war everything is lost." Instill in our hearts the courage to take concrete steps to achieve peace.
God of Abraham, God of the Prophets, God of Love, you created us and you call us to live as brothers and sisters. Give us the strength daily to be instruments of peace; enable us to see everyone who crosses our path as our brother or sister. Make us sensitive to the plea of our citizens who entreat us to turn our weapons of war into implements of peace, our trepidation into confident trust, and our quarreling into forgiveness.
Keep alive within us the flame of hope, so that with patience and perseverance we may opt for dialogue and reconciliation. In this way may peace triumph at last, and may the words "division," "hatred" and "war" be banished from the heart of every man and woman. God, defuse the violence of our tongues and our hands. Renew our hearts and minds, so that the words which always brings us together will be "brothers and sisters," and our way of life will always be that of Shalom, Peace, Salaam!
Amen. (2) Sources:
(1) - http://time.com/5305550/donald-trump-north-korea-kim-jong-un-singapore-summit-what-to-know/
(2)- usccb.org
Maria Bohan is a Volunteer for the Communications and Development Office at the Sisters of Saint Dominic of Blauvelt, New York. She is a student at Bryn Mawr College majoring in English and a graduate of Pearl River High School.
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