Damascus, Syria, Aug 3, 2012 / 05:06 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The head of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church encouraged Syria’s Eastern Catholics to offer prayers for peace during their Church’s traditional August 1–14 fasting period in honor of the Virgin Mary (Dormition Fast.)During the run-up to the August 15 feast of the Dormition of the Mother of God (known in the West as the Assumption), Melkite Catholics will be “praying especially for the safety of all Syrians and for the cessation of the violence,” Patriarch Gregorios III said in a letter marking the two-week fast.“We pray too during this period for the return of charity, friendship, fellowship and compassion among all citizens,” wrote the patriarch, whose headquarters are located in the Syrian capital Damascus.He called for liturgical services to be supplemented with “special litanies for peace and reconciliation,” and for the faithful “to participate in these services, with fasting, prayer and repentance.”Syrians, he said, “ are still capable of loving and forgiving each other, being reconciled and showing tolerance to one another … United together, they can rebuild what has been destroyed and work for development and prosperity, for a better future for all citizens.”The patriarch’s prayer is for “a renewed, free, secure, conciliatory Syria, in which citizens regardless of group, party, religion or affiliation can enjoy freedom, dignity, employment and education.”In recent weeks, fighting has escalated in the country’s capital Damascus and in the commercial capital Aleppo.

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Syrian Christians begin traditional fast amid continuing violence