Daily inter-religious prayer in Thai Catholic schools

By Our Own Correspondent

Bangkok, Thailand, 13 September 2018 -- In every Catholic and Salesian school in Thailand in the morning assembly or evening assembly (boarders) are offered prayers by the whole group. Usually the majority are Buddhists, some are Muslim and still very few are other Christians denominations or even few Catholics. How do they pray together? Thanks to the wisdom of the Thai Catholic Bishops Conference already for past many years, in all Catholic schools our students and teachers without distinction of religion offer the following 'official' prayer approved by the bishops:

Father,

who protect and look after us with your love and mercy,

Please, give us strength, wisdom and intelligence to learn the subjects today.

Please, bless us to progress in our life, to live with honesty and to be good people in the society.

Please, bless our country, our King, our parents and teachers.

Please, bless the people of the whole world with love and maintain the peace under your divine protection.

In this way thousands of youth and their teachers of many different religions prayer together at least once a day during the morning school assembly. Usually this prayer is recited after the flag raising ceremony, before or after the short metidation (3 minutes) of all students and teachers.

We are grateful for the English translation of this prayer, courtesy to Don Bosco Bangkok Technological College. Any similar model of inter-religious prayer from any other EAO country or province is welcome!

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