O Mary, our mother, once again we stand before you. You know the sorrows and difficulties that burden our hearts in this hour. We lift our gaze to you, we focus on your eyes and entrust ourselves to your heart.

For you, O mother, also faced heavy trials and human fears in life, yet you were courageous and bold. You entrusted everything to God, responded to Him with love, and offered yourself freely and generously. As the intrepid woman of charity, you hastened to help Elizabeth, and readily perceived the need of the bride and groom at the wedding feast of Cana. With strength of soul, you brightened with Easter hope the night of sorrow on Calvary. Finally, with a mother's tenderness you gave courage to the frightened disciples in the Upper Room and, with them, you welcomed the gift of the Spirit.

Now we entreat you: hear our cry! We need your loving gaze which invites us to trust in your Son Jesus. You who are ready to embrace our sorrows, come to our aid in these times oppressed by injustice and devastated by wars, wipe away the tears from the suffering faces of those who mourn the death of their loved ones. Rouse us from indifference which has darkened our way and disarm our hearts from weapons of violence, so that the prophecy of Isaiah may be fulfilled immediately: “They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more” (Is 2:4).  

Turn your motherly gaze upon the human family, which has lost the joy of peace and the sense of fraternity. Intercede for our world in danger, that it may protect life and reject war, care for the suffering, the poor, the defenceless, the sick and the afflicted, and guard our common home.

We beg you to intercede for God’s mercy, O Queen of Peace!  Convert the souls of those who fuel hatred, silence the noise of weapons that give rise to death, extinguish the violence that broods in the heart of human beings and inspire projects of peace in the deeds of those who govern nations.

O Queen of the Holy Rosary, loosen the knots of selfishness and dispel the dark clouds of evil. Fill us with your tenderness, lift us up with your caring hand and bestow on us your children your motherly caress, which gives us hope for the coming of a new humanity where “... the wilderness becomes a fruitful field, and the fruitful field is deemed a forest. Then justice will dwell in the wilderness, and righteousness abide in the fruitful field. The effect of righteousness will be peace…” (Is 32:15-17).

O mother, Salus Populi Romani, pray for us!