God of our fathers, great and merciful! Lord of life and peace, Father of all people. Today we run to You and invoke Your help through the intercession of Saint Joseph, the Careful Defender of Christ. You yourself chose him so that, as the Bridegroom of the Mother of God, he would become the Head of the Holy Family. For us, too, as Sisters of Mary Immaculate, he is a Support in difficulties, but above all he is the Father and Guardian of our Religious Family. Today we stand before you in this National Shrine, to entrust our Congregation with love in our heart, to entrust you with our future, because time and everything is yours. We entrust to you our fear and doubt about what constitutes our present. Our past is in your hands. Our present is in your hands. And our future is in your hands. Each and every one of us is in your hands. Give us the courage to keep believing that we are in your hands. For your will is peace, not torment. Our fear for the future breeds torment, and it is a terrible feeling, as devastating as war. Saint Joseph, God has made you head of his house and overlord of all his possessions. We invoke you today as the Terror of Hell’s Spirits. You are here to help Archangel Michael to save our souls from eternal damnation. We fear a war that brings death and destruction. But this war is born in us and is in us, when we do not cultivate relationships, when we kill ourselves with gossip and slander, when we deviate so far from the commandments and regulations of our religious orders. Plead for us, our Holy Patron, for a peace that begins in our hearts. Let them be full of God, His love and goodness, and then we will survive. God, one and all-powerful, Damn war and overthrow the pride of the violence. You sent your Son, Jesus Christ, to preach peace to those near and far and to unite people of all races and generations into one family.

We invoke Your intercession, Saint Joseph, we also invoke You, Saint Michael the Archangel, and You, Saint Patrons of Poland and our Congregation, and we cry out in the words of Saint John Paul II: Let there be no more war – a bad adventure from which there is no turning back, let there be no more war in us – a maze of struggle and violence. Let the war in Ukraine, which threatens your creatures in the sky, on earth and in the sea, cease.

With Mary, the Mother of Jesus and ours, we implore you to speak to the hearts of people responsible for the fate of nations. Destroy the logic of retaliation and revenge, and give through the Holy Spirit new generous and noble solutions, in dialogue and patient waiting – more fruitful than violent warfare.

Father, give our times days of peace. Let there be no more war. Amen.