Jerusalem – "Rain is late in our Holy Land and the threat of drought is hanging over us. In times of drought, we must pray that God bless us and have mercy on us and provide us with our needs – especially rain – and remove from our land the evil of drought". This is what the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem Fouad Twal says to the faithful of Holy Land in a letter written in Arabic and released on 28 November, in which he asks that the first Sunday of Advent, on December 1, might be a day of prayer and intercession for this intention.

The letter, released by the official channels of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, invites the faithful to "pray to and intercede to God Almighty and all powerful that He might take away the plague of drought from our land and remember us in our trouble, that He might lighten the drought and water us with rains and resusciate our land, all plants and animals and all we have.

"Before us, said Patriarch Twal, we have the exa mple of Elijah the prophet who prayed at the time of drought and his prayer was answered (1 Kings 18: 41-45)".

Already during the Advent of 2010, Patriarch Twal asked to pray to invoke the gift of rain from Heaven, while the region was suffering from a particularly dry season.

 By: Agenzia Fides