Prayer Intention for May: Pope Francis has invited the whole Church to pray for the improvement of the living conditions of the working class. Through work, each family finds a dignified life and fulfilment, the society gets humanized and the whole world learns to be compassionate seeing the hardship of workers. The tragedy of today is that many do not find adequate employment and life becomes burdensome due to lack of resources. In other places, there aren’t adequate working conditions favourable for the wholesome growth of the working class and let us pray that the rights of the workers, especially of the unorganized sector be respected.
Marian Month: The month of May, dedicated to Mother Mary, reminds us of her apparitions at Fatima in 1917. During the First World War Mary appeared to the three children and promised peace provided people repented. Today once again quite a few countries are on
war. Human life is devalued. Russia is once again in the news for war with Ukraine. Mother Mary then invited to consecrate Russia and the whole world to her Immaculate Heart. Our heavenly Mother’s ears are very attentive to our prayers. Let us continue to pray for Russia and Ukraine, Israel and Gaza and many other countries affected by war. I request you to pray the Rosary every day, so that peace may prevail in this broken world. May Marian devotions lead us to Jesus the prince of peace.
World Day of Prayer for Vocations: Vocation Sunday invites us to pray for priestly and religious vocations (May 11, 2025). The Lord instructs us: “pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest” (Mt 9:38; Lk 10:2). I request the Parish Priests to actively involve themselves in vocation promotion. This intention should be explained to the faithful in the homily and be the object of intercessions in the Prayers of the faithful. While boys and girls are guided through different congregations and dioceses, please do not forget to send some devout boys coming from faith-filled families to our Diocese.
Peter Paul Saldanha
Bishop of Mangalore