Pope Francis’ Message for the 53rd World Day of Peace is titled Peace as a Journey of Hope: Dialogue, Reconciliation, and Ecological Conversion. It affirms peace as the hope and aspiration of the whole human family, and explores the importance of dialogue, reconciliation and ecological conversion in the journey towards peace. The full text can be downloaded here.
There are a number of significant concepts in this relatively short Message. They are all interconnected in a number of different ways, resulting in a rich web of interrelated lines of thought. We suggest reading the Message slowly a number of times, stopping frequently to meditate on the points being made.
To help you to unpack the Message, we have produced a brief Discussion Guide. It introduces the key themes of the Message and provides discussion starters. You can download the PDF file to print and share.
While the World Day of Peace is celebrated on 1 January, the Message is of ongoing significance and Pope Francis’ prayer intention for the whole of January 2020 is the promotion of peace. You may wish to use the video below together with the text of the Message.