Pray and Fast for Peace

Our Holy Father Pope Leo XIV is calling upon us to pray and fast for peace on the Feast of the Queenship of the Blessed Virgin Mary.  We should do so because we are living in a world that is very much unpeaceful.   

In his General Audience on Wednesday, 20 August 2025, Pope Leo XIV said,

“Next Friday, 22 August, we will celebrate the memorial of Queenship of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Mary is the Mother of believers here on earth, and is also invoked as Queen of Peace, while our earth continues to be wounded by wars in the Holy Land, in Ukraine, and in many other regions of the world.  I invite all the faithful to devote the day of 22 August to fasting and prayer, imploring the Lord to grant us peace and justice, and to dry the tears of those who suffer as a result of the ongoing armed conflicts. Mary, Queen of Peace, intercede so that peoples may find the path to peace.”

 
Amidst a war gripped by the Superpower Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States and its allies, Pope St. John Paul II issued a similar exhortation for peace on the occasion of the 1979 World Day for Peace:  “Peace is our work: it calls for our courageous and united action. But it is inseparably and above all a gift of God: it requires our prayer. Christians must be in the first rank of those who pray daily for peace. They must also teach others to pray for peace. It will be their joy to pray with Mary, the Queen of Peace.”

On many occasions, Our Blessed Mother herself has instructed the Medjugorje visionaries to pray for peace and through them, she has instructed us to pray for peace.    On 25 December 1982  Our Blessed Mother said to the visionary Medjugorje Mirjana:  "You have forgotten that through prayer and fasting you can avert wars and suspend the laws of nature.”   See https://www.medjugorje.org/msg82.htm 

 
In September 2024, the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith issued a lengthy document “The Queen of Peace”:  Note About the Spiritual Experience Connected with Medjugorje which expounded on Mary the Queen of Peace’s message of peace as given at Medjugorje.  Many of Mary’s messages to the Medjugorje visionaries were quoted in this document, including:

•  “Dear children, without prayer, there is no peace. Therefore, I urge you, dear children, to pray at the foot of the Cross for peace” (6 September 1984).
•  “I call upon you all to pray responsibly for peace. Pray, dear children, for peace to reign in the world, for peace to reign in the hearts of men and in the hearts of my children. Therefore, be my bearers of peace in this restless world. Be my living sign: a sign of peace” (5 August 2013).
• “Today’s world lives amid high tensions and walks on the brink of a catastrophe. It can only be saved if it finds peace. But it can only have peace by returning to God” (15 February 1983).

Mary’s message of 15 February 1983 is no less true today.  Yes, the Soviet Union of 1983 no longer exists but the Russia of today led by Vladimir Putin is just as oppressive and just as much a threat to world peace.  Putin’s Russia continues to wreak havoc on the Ukraine and murder innocent civilians on a daily basis.  Everyday, we hear of innocent people being killed by Russian drones and missiles in their own homes and neighborhoods far removed from the front lines of this insane war of Russian aggression.  Correction, Putin has made Ukrainian homes and neighborhoods the frontlines of his evil war.  

 
The Middle East continues to be plagued by the war between Israel and Hamas.  The Hamas terrorists continue to hold Israelis as hostages and oppress the Palestinian people.   For the moment, fighting between Israel and Iran has quieted down but who knows how long that will last.  

 
Our Lord and Savior entrusted the Church and our world to the maternal love of his Mother Mary.  Let us follow our Pope in his call for prayer and fasting to honor Our Blessed Mother on the Feast of the Queenship of the Blessed Virgin Mary and to help her in her striving for peace in the world.