World Day of Prayer for the Church in China

In May 2007, Pope Benedict XVI asked that May 24 be observed as a Day of Prayer for the Church in China. He chose this day since it is the traditional Feast of Our Lady of Help of Christians, venerated at the Shrine of Sheshan in Shanghai.

Please pray the rosary on Thursday, May 24 for the Church in China which suffers terribly under atheistic communism. The Church must remain faithful to the suffering Church in China and not enter into a deal with the devil. The intention of Communism is to destroy the Church. They do this first by controlling education. Education in a Communist regime means indoctrination and not simply learning how to read, write, add, subtract, multiply, and divide. As a matter of fact, methinks,this is what education is being reduced to in this country - indoctrination.


In honour of the Feast of Our Lady Help of Christians (May 24), Pope Benedict XVI composed
the following prayer in 2008. He asked that it be recited every year on May 24, and that May 24 be designated a World Day of Prayer for the Church in China, as an act of solidarity and solicitude with
her persecuted Catholics.

“Virgin Most Holy, Mother of the Incarnate Word and our Mother, venerated in the Shrine of Sheshan under the title "Help of Christians," the entire Church in China looks to you with devout
affection. We come before you today to implore your protection. Look upon the People of God
and, with a mother's care, guide them along the paths of truth and love, so that they may always
be a leaven of harmonious coexistence among all citizens. When you obediently said "yes" in the house of Nazareth, you allowed God's eternal Son to take flesh in your virginal womb and thus to begin in history the work of our redemption. You willingly and generously co-operated in that work,
allowing the sword of pain to pierce your soul, until the supreme hour of the Cross, when you kept watch on Calvary, standing beside your Son, Who died that we might live. From that moment, you became, in a new way, the Mother of all those who receive your Son Jesus in faith and choose to follow in His footsteps by taking up His Cross. Mother of hope, in the darkness of Holy Saturday you journeyed with unfailing trust towards the dawn of Easter. Grant that your children may discern at all times, even those that are darkest, the signs of God's loving presence. Our Lady of Sheshan, sustain all those in China, who, amid their daily trials, continue to believe, to hope, to love. May they never be afraid to speak of Jesus to the world, and of the world to Jesus. In the statue overlooking the Shrine you lift your Son on high, offering him to the world with open arms in a gesture of love. Help Catholics always to be credible witnesses to this love, ever clinging to the rock of Peter on which the Church is built. Mother of China and all Asia, pray for us, now and for ever. Amen!”