5th day 

Free the captives

Captives are all people deprived of their freedom in one way or another. We can mention all forms of slavery, human trafficking, exploitation, abuses of all kinds. Any situation where the human person is denied in their deepest being and subjected to the power of those who call themselves powerful, or even all-powerful. Captives also include people held in prison. Some are placed in very precarious, even inhumane conditions.

‘‘Jesus, at the beginning of his public mission proclaimed: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because He has anointed me, to bring the Good News to the poor, to proclaim freedom to the captives’’. Luke 4, 18. ‘‘The first Christians prayed for and assisted their imprisoned brothers and sisters, as evidenced in the Acts of the Apostles’’[1]. Cf. Acts 12, 5; 24, 23.

According to Our Spiritan Life, we too are called upon, to fight for the liberation of the captives:   ‘‘Making ours the biblical tradition, we avoid compromise with any form of social injustice. We courageously denounce the scandal of poverty. We become the advocates, supporters and defenders of the weak and vulnerable against all who oppress them. We are committed to promoting the liberation of the poor by themselves through collaboration we provide in the development of their country. Cf. Our Spiritan Life, n°50 and 51.

Prayer to be said together

Lord, give us you spirit of light to discern all the situations of injustice and abuse suffered by our brothers and sisters, in order to support them in their efforts for liberation.

[1] ‘‘I have loved you’’, Dilexi te, Apostolic Exhortation on love to the poorest, Pope Leo XIV, 2025, n°59.