Prayer for the conversion of the peoples

The Church is universal and is alien to no people: this was the appeal of Pope Benedict XV in the Apostolic Letter Maximum Illud (1919), which renewed the missionary impulse beyond every national interest. Saint John Paul II, in the encyclical Redemptoris Missio (1990), recalled that the mission of Christ entrusted to the Church is still far from complete, and that faith is strengthened when it is given to others.

O God, who desire that all be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth: cast your gaze upon the peoples who do not yet know your Son and upon the many who have turned away from him. Send labourers into your harvest, open hearts to the grace of the Gospel, and let fall the barriers that hinder its proclamation. May your Church, free of every interest but the salvation of souls, carry the light of Christ to all the earth. Through Christ our Lord.

Amen.

Our Father. Hail Mary. Glory be.