Vatican City (Fides Service) - "This coming Wednesday, Ash Wednesday, we will begin the season of Lent with an even greater feeling of the need for conversion and renewal…This year we will start our journey towards Easter with greater commitment to pray and fast for peace, endangered by a growing threat of war". From his window overlooking St Peter's Square on Sunday 2 March before praying the midday Angelus prayer, Pope John Paul II made yet another call to Catholics the world over to pray for peace during the Lenten season about to begin. "Peace, the Holy Father said, is a gift of God for which we must pray with humility and insistent trust. Without giving into in the face of difficulties, every possible path must be tried to avoid war, which always brings with it grieving and serious consequences for all". As he concluded the Pope asked Christians everywhere to "live with intense participation the Day of prayer and fasting for peace which we will celebrate on Wednesday. We ask for peace for the whole world, particularly for Iraq and the Holy Land, especially through the recitation of the Rosary, in shrines, parishes, communities and families. From every corner of the earth this choral prayer will be lifted up through Mary, Mother of Mercy and Queen of peace". SL See text in Italian at www.fides.org SL (Fides Service 3/3/2003 EM lines 17 Words: 246)