1. Channeling Peace A prayer for the people of Iraq

2. 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.

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

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

5. 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 2003-2006 published in the New England Journal of Medicine, 2008

6. 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

7. Are they among my sisters and brothers?

8. Where in the picture am I?

9. Lord make me an instrument of your peace

10. Where there is hatred, let me sow love

11. Where there is injury, pardon

12. Where there is doubt, faith

13. Where there is despair, hope

14. Where there is darkness, light

15. Where there is sadness, joy

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

17. To be consoled as to console

18. To be understood as to understand

19. To be loved as to love

20. For it is in giving that we receive

21. It is in pardoning that we are pardoned

22. And in dying that we are born to eternal life.

23. Amen

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