The Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace and the International Union of Superiors General has designated February 8 as an annual day of prayer and awareness against human trafficking. February 8 is the feast day of St. Josephine Bakhita, who was kidnapped as a child and sold into slavery in Sudan and Italy. Once Josephine was freed, she became a Canossian nun and dedicated her life to sharing her testament of deliverance from slavery and comforting the poor and suffering. She was declared a Saint in 2000.
Please find a moment to pray the prayer below with us for all victims of trafficking.
God of freedom, beauty and truth we believe that your deepest desire, your most powerful energy, is that all creation might know abundant life. We raise our voices in anguished prayer for our sisters and brothers, women and girls, men and boys, who are modern day slaves; They are your beloved daughters and sons, exploited sexually or forced to work because of human violence and greed.
Fill us with your holy anger and your sacred passion that those who are trafficked might know healing and justice; that traffickers will come to repentance and conversion; that all of us might live in such a way that others are not made to pay the price for our comfort and convenience.
Hasten the coming of the day when all people and our precious Earth itself will be treated, not as a commodity, but as radiant images of your freedom, beauty and truth. Amen. May it be so.
As shared by the Sisters of Charity of Saint Elizabeth, Convent Station, N.J.
Read United States Conference of Catholic Bishops article
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