‘Under your protection we find refuge Holy Mother of God. Despise not the supplications of us who are in trial, O Blessed and Glorious Virgin.’ Br WOJCIECH BOLOZ, ofm Guardian of the Basilica of the Annunciation The first Christian community turned to Mary, Mother of God, to intercede with her son Jesus. It is here that she became the Mother of God, and it is here that we can recite like the angel: ‘Hail Mary, full of grace’! On 25 November at the Basilica of the Annunciation in Nazareth, the Franciscan community invited God's people to pray to Our Lady, asking for the gift of peace. A people who for many months have lived every day under constant alarms reminding them of a still active conflict. In her apparitions in Lourdes and Fatima, the Virgin Mary asked people to pray unceasingly for peace: so the faithful of the Holy Land answered the call. Br WOJCIECH BOLOZ, ofm Guardian of the Basilica of the Annunciation Today too we are called to prayer, to the prayer of the Rosary, a simple but powerful prayer. On the one hand it unites our souls with God's and Mary's, and on the other it changes us, attunes our lives to the divine one. The day was attended by Brother Francesco Patton, Custos of the Holy Land, who presided over the closing Eucharist. Br FRANCESCO PATTON, ofm Custos of the Holy Land This gift of reconciliation and peace must be matched by our readiness to allow ourselves to be reconciled. Then we understand St Paul's plea: ‘In the name of Christ, then, we are ambassadors: through us it is God himself who exhorts. We beseech you in the name of Christ: let yourselves be reconciled to God'.