Channeling Peace A prayer for the people of Iraq

In 2003, at the start of the U.S. war in Iraq, Catholic Relief Services (CRS) invited Catholics to pray for the people of Iraq by reflecting on the faces of those who would suffer during the war.

The photographs of people served by CRS’ partner in Iraq, Caritas Iraq, were taken before the war began.

Several years later, we invite you to revisit these faces and to prayerfully ask: Where are they now ?

Are they among the more than 150,000* people who have died in violence related to the conflict? *World Health Organization/Iraq Government Report of violent Iraqi deaths published in the New England Journal of Medicine, 2008

Are they among the 4.8 million* people who are displaced within and outside of Iraq? * U.S. Department of State Iraq Status Report, July 29, 2009

Are they among my sisters and brothers?

Where in the picture am I?

Lord make me an instrument of your peace

Where there is hatred, let me sow love

Where there is injury, pardon

Where there is doubt, faith

Where there is despair, hope

Where there is darkness, light

Where there is sadness, joy

O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek…

To be consoled as to console

To be understood as to understand

To be loved as to love

For it is in giving that we receive

It is in pardoning that we are pardoned

And in dying that we are born to eternal life.

Amen

Catholic Relief Services gratefully acknowledges the work of Caritas Iraq and of photographer Carlos Reyes-Manzo of the Andes Press Agency.