Pope John Paul II organized the first World Day of Prayer for Peace in Assisi, Italy, on October 27, 1986. In all there were 160 religious leaders spending the day together with fasting and praying to their God or Gods. They represented 32 Christian religious organizations and 11 other non-Christian world religions.
Pope John Paul II, in October 27, 1986, invited representatives from 12 different religions to Assisi. Everyone was invited to bring a peace prayer from their tradition that was shared in conjunction with a ceremony. The Pope then invited another two meetings, 1993, after the war in Yugoslavia, and 2002 after the terrorist attacks in New York – then with a clear intention to gather to renounce war in the name of religion. Benedict XVI invited the fourth meeting in Assisi on October 27, 2011, 25 years after the first meeting.
The 12 prayers have been set to music by Swedish musician Peter Elmberg, in collaboration with Jan Eric Ström and Lars Magnus Österberg and presented in a variety of contexts in Norway and Sweden in recent years, and now scheduled to be performed in Assisi.
Below is an excerpt from each of the prayers.