We invite you to pray for the task of Rescuing the Memory of our Peoples.

You may wish to share this prayer which Fr Sebastian Karotemprel SDB
prayed at the opening teleconference for the core group planning the 2002 Rome Conference:

O God our Father and Creator,
Your have left your image on every creature.
Your footprints are on all the pathways of the universe.
Your fingerprints adorn and embellish every being.

You have inspired all holy men and women,
sages, gurus, prophets, bodhisattvas,
jinas, tirthankaras, suffis and saints to leave a record
of their perception of you in meditation, dream, and vision,
their experience of you in prayer and contemplation,
in renunciation and simplicity of life,
both in creation and in history.

Our spiritual and cultural ancestors
have left behind monuments, carvings, paintings
in caves and frescoes, on stones, tablets, in epics
and stories, in oral and written traditions,
and they serve as signposts of your hidden presence
in creation and historical revelation.

You inspired the disciples of your Son Jesus Christ
to treasure up for all ages to come
his saving image, precepts and words in the scriptures.

These agents of the mission of your Son
always sought to leave behind a record of their activities
in extending your kingdom on earth as lesson for posterity.

May we gather up the scattered fragments
of the history of their heroism and holiness,
their love for all the peoples of the world,
and the history of their service to the Churches.

May we cherish and preserve them.
May we learn from their experience.
May we be inspired by their zeal.

Inspire, illumine and guide us as missionaries,
interested in preserving and promoting
all that reminds us of your saving presence and work in the world,
especially of the mission of your Son Jesus Christ.

May your blessings accompany our enterprise.
May this prayer rise from our hearts to your throne
in the name of Jesus Christ your Son and our Saviour,
and the Lord of all history. Amen.

Sebastian Karotemprel, SDB

Rescuing the Memory of our Peoples, Core Group Teleconference,  12 March, 2001.