Young people flood Rio for launch of World Youth Day prayer
July 14, 2012: Thousands of young people flocked to Rio de Janeiro for the release
of the official World Youth Day prayer on Friday as preparations for next year's global
youth event continue. “The prayer was made so that, in a more intense and focused
manner, people may pray for the intentions we have for this one-year countdown mark
which is already drawing near,” said Fr. Leandro Lênin, of the Pastoral Preparation
Sector within the Local WYD Organization Committee in Rio.
As the one year
countdown approaches, thousands of young people gathered downtown on Friday night
for the Mass with Archbishop Tempesta and to say the prayer for the first time. After
Mass, the youth went in procession with the Blessed Sacrament to the Perpetual Adoration
Shrine of Sant’Anna, also located in Rio, where the traditional pre-WYD monthly overnight
vigil is currently taking place.
The prayer – released in Portuguese, English
and several other languages – asks God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit that “driven
by their experience of World Youth Day,” young people may bring “to the four corners
of the world faith, hope and charity, becoming great builders of a culture of life
and peace and catalysts of a new world.”
Recalling Rio’s major religious symbol,
the Christ the Redeemer statue, the prayer says that the image of its open arms on
the top of Corcovado Mountain reminds the world that Jesus “welcomes all people.”
Fr.
Leandro Lênin explained in an interview on the official WYD site that in preparing
the text, the committee had to rely on the Holy Spirit in “true moments of prayer,
in which we tried to meditate and put together all the characteristic elements of
a World Youth Day.”
“The prayer is essentially Trinitarian, and above all,
it invokes the Holy Spirit to favor the formation of the new disciple-missionaries
who will go to out to evangelize in the four corners of the planet,” he said.
“As
we pray for WYD, we also want to pray for those who are donating their time in partnership
with us. We pray for the volunteers, for all things about to happen on the path towards
the event and most importantly, for the pilgrims who will be coming to Rio in July
of 2013.”
According to Fr. Arnaldo Rodrigues, a young priest who was just ordained
this year and runs the Pastoral Preparation Sector of WYD Rio 2013 along with Fr.
Leandro, “a World Youth Day can’t be prepared without much prayer.”
“This prayer
will be known all over the world,” he said, adding that “it will favor the spiritual
communion of all those who pray for the preparation of World Youth Day and especially
for those who will be coming to the Youth gathering in Rio next year.”
Pope
Benedict is slated to attend the global youth event next summer, which will take place
from July 23-July 28.
Below is the text for the official World Youth
Day Rio 2013 prayer:
Oh, Father, You sent Your Eternal Son to save
the world and chose men and women, through Him, with Him and in Him, to proclaim the
Good News to all nations. Grant us the graces necessary so that joy may shine in the
faces of all young people, the joy of being, by the power of the Holy Spirit, the
evangelists the Church needs in the Third Millennium.
Oh Christ, Redeemer of
humanity, the image of Your open arms on the top of Corcovado welcomes all people.
In Your paschal offering, You brought us by the Holy Spirit to an encounter of sonship
with the Father. Young people, who are fed by Eucharist, hear You in Your Word and
meet You as their brother, need your infinite mercy to run the paths of the world
missionary-disciples of the New Evangelization.
Oh Holy Spirit, Love of the
Father and the Son, with the splendor of Your Truth and the fire of Your Love, send
Your Light to all young people so that, driven by their experience of World Youth
Day, they may bring to the four corners of the world faith, hope and charity, becoming
great builders of a culture of life and peace and catalysts of a new world. Amen!