Dómine, ad adiuvándum me festína.
The modern day persecution of Christians continues with those in the Middle East facing exile and exodus.
Of your charity, please pray for those whose love of Our Lord Jesus Christ, has brought about violence, hated and the threat of death.
The Islamic State (formerly ISIS), which seized the city of Mosul, ordered Christians to convert to Islam or pay the 'jizya' Islamic tax. They were told failure to comply would mean "death by the sword".
The exodus has seen 1500 people flea. For the first time in 1600 years Mass has not been said in Mosul. The 1800 year old Syriac Catholic Church was desecrated and burnt to the ground last week.
At Thursday Vespers, Psalm 136, Super flúmina Babylónis, is said.
The text tells of the tragedy that the Jewish people experienced during the destruction of Jerusalem, which took place in 586 B.C., and their subsequent exile in Babylon. This is a profound invocation to the Lord to liberate his faithful from the slavery of Babylon. The words surely resonate with the situation in the Middle East today.
Psalm 136