A Prayer for Humanity, by Sr. Nancy Jamroz

O God, Creator of all:

Commemorating the 71^st anniversary of the liberation of the Aushwitz-Birkenau death camps, we come together in prayer and remembrance.  We come in gratitude for all your blessings.

Yet our hearts are heavy to recognize times when we have failed to remember that we are all your family, called to love and respect one another.  As we come together today, we ask you to help us renew our efforts to live by your plan for humankind. You have revealed in various ways that we are to live as brothers and sisters, with respect and in dignity. 

In the works we see around us, we acknowledge the men and women in atrocious circumstances who were moved to keep the spark of faith and hope alive enough to use their creative gifts to memorialize their desperate conditions. May these works now move us to honor those who lives were lost in the Holocaust and to pray for all the families whose loved ones died in that horrific transgression of all that is good and human.

In this year of mercy, proclaimed by Pope Francis, we acknowledge the many who carry the scars of the Holocaust and still model forgiveness as a way to live what is noble, good and true to what God, our Creator calls us to be.

We also pray for those who today are suffering unspeakable atrocities at the hands of individuals who have closed minds and hearts and failed to learn from history. May our prayers reach out to them and give them courage, strength and hope. May we all recommit ourselves to do all we can to make our world the place of peace, beauty, truth and love that you, O God, desire for all of us.

We pray with hope and humility in your name. Amen!