To You, Virgin of Lebanon, we trustfully turn our gaze.

We ask You, "our life, our sweetness, our hope," for the grace to be able to await the dawn of the third
millennium with the same sentiments which throbbed in your heart as you awaited the birth of your Son,
Jesus.

May your protection free us from pessimism, causing us to glimpse, in the midst of the shadows of our
time, the luminous traces of the Lord's presence.

To your tenderness as a mother we entrust the tears, sighs, and hopes of the sick. May the balm of
consolation and hope beneficently descend upon their wounds. May their pain, united to Jesus', be
transformed into an instrument of redemption.

May your example lead us to turn our existence into continuous praise of God's love. Make us attentive to
the needs of others, solicitous in bringing aid to those suffering, and capable of accompanying those who
are alone, and make us builders of hope where man's dramas are being consummated.

At every stage of our way, with a mother's affection show us "your Son, Jesus, O clement, O loving, O
sweet Virgin Mary."

Amen.

Message of His Holiness Pope John Paul II
World Day of the Sick 1998