Savannahians pray for Syria’s peace | savannahnow.com

As the United States Congress continued to consider a military strike on war-torn Syria, more than two dozen people gathered in a Savannah cathedral Saturday to pray for peace.

The Rev. Gerard Schreck, rector of the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist, led a noon Mass at the downtown Savannah cathedral in which he urged those in attendance to join him in praying specifically for the people of Syria.

“As you know from the reports in the news, an estimated over 120,000 people have already died,” Schreck told worshipers. “They say there are possibly 2 million people of that country who are now refugees in Jordan and other places. The politics being what they are, there is real suffering. Real suffering of the people of that nation. Suffering among families and children.”

The special Mass was announced Wednesday by the Most Rev. Gregory J. Hartmayer, the Bishop of Savannah, who through Internet video asked Savannahians to join him in responding to the Sept. 1 call from Pope Francis for worldwide fasting and prayer for peace in the Middle Eastern nation that’s been locked in civil war for more than two years.

“I call upon the people in Savannah to join the church both in the United States and throughout the world under the guidance of our Holy Father Francis to join together in a day of fast, which means the equivalence of one full meal,” Hartmayer said in the video. ”And a day of prayer — perhaps adoration in your church, a rosary, devotions, prayers at home, Mass in your church, however you feel best and are able to devote some part of (Saturday) for prayer for peace through the intercession of the blessed virgin Mary.”

via Savannahians pray for Syria’s peace | savannahnow.com.