World Day of Prayer for Peace

On 27th October 1986, Pope John Paul II organised the first ‘World Day of Prayer for Peace‘ in Assisi (the city of St Francis), Italy, (during the ‘United Nations International Year of Peace, 1986‘), bringing together leaders of the world 12 major religions for the first time in history to pray for Peace on Earth.

In all there were 160 religious leaders who spent the day together with fasting and praying to their God or Gods. They represented 32 Christian religious organisations and 11 other non-Christian world religions, including: Baháʼí, Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, Jainism, Judaism, Native African & North American, Shintoism, Sikhism and Zoroastrianism.

At the closing of the Assisi World Day of Prayer, Pope John Paul II remarked: “For the first time in history, we have come together from every where, Christian Churches and Ecclesial Communities, and World Religions, in this sacred place dedicated to Saint Francis, to witness before the world, each according to his own conviction, about the transcendent quality of peace. The form and content of our prayers are very different, as we have seen, and there can be no question of reducing them to a kind of common denominator. Yes, in this very difference we have perhaps discovered anew that, regarding the problem of peace and its relation to religious commitment, there is something which binds us together.“

The text of the 12 prayers (from each religion), at the request of translators at the United Nations, were condensed to form “Peace Seeds”, representing the seeds of peace that were planted in Assisi.

“May the seeds that have been sown produce abundant fruits.” – Pope John Paul II

The prayers are entrusted to humanity with this thought: “Like the bee gathering honey from the different flowers, the wise person accepts the essence of the different scriptures and sees only the good in all religions.” – Mahatma Gandhi

The Prayers are listed below:

Others