Prayer to Mary, Mother of the Church

Post-synodal apostolic exhortation ECCLESIA IN AFRICA to the bishops, priests and deacons, men and women religious and all the lay faithful on the Church in Africa and its evangelizing mission

144. In thanksgiving for the grace of this Synod, I appeal to Mary, Star of Evangelization and, as the third millennium draws near, to her I entrust Africa and its evangelizing mission. I turn to her with the thoughts and sentiments expressed in the prayer which my Brother Bishops composed at the close of the working session of the Synod in Rome:

O Mary, Mother of God
and Mother of the Church,
thanks to you, on the day of the Annunciation,
at the dawn of the new era,
the whole human race with its cultures
rejoiced in recognizing itself
ready for the Gospel.
On the eve of a new Pentecost
for the Church in Africa, Madagascar
and the adjacent Islands,
the People of God with its Pastors
turns to you and with you fervently prays:
May the outpouring of the Holy Spirit
make of the cultures of Africa
places of communion in diversity,
fashioning the peoples
of this great Continent
into generous sons and daughters
of the Church
which is the Family of the Father,
the Brotherhood of the Son,
the Image of the Trinity,
the seed and beginning on earth
of the eternal Kingdom
which will come to its perfection
in the City that has God as its Builder:
the City of justice, love and peace.

JOHN PAUL II

African Symphony

Mohammed Amin

Ghana