www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life Prayer Week of Prayer for Christian Unity

I hope that the Administrator doesn't mind that I am double posting this. I posted it under TOWN HALL and when no responses came up, I realized that it would be better under 'Prayer'.

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Just wanted all of you to know that this is the week.

Let us all pray for Christian unity, especially for the unity of all the Patriarchs of the One Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church to be in communion once again after almost one thousand years.

Only the Holy Spirit can attain what endless discussions and debates cannot. Only the Holy Spirit can bring about situations in which fear of change can be overcome.

Lord and Master, hear our prayers for the reunification of your Body. May the love for you that is represented on this forum, which exceeds boundaries of culture and differences in theological approach, overtake the hearts of all faithful, East and West, and most especially, the hearts of all Church leaders. Amen.

Alice

Yes, praying for Christian unity this week. Thanks for the reminder.

Blessings,

Mary Jo

In order to unite with one another, we must love one another;
in order to love one another, we must know one another;
in order to know one another, we must go and meet one another.

These words, known as the "Testament of Cardinal Mercier," are the impetus for the annual Week of Prayer for Christian Unity

Lord, as You have taught us, we bow down before You in all humility, gentleness and patience, supporting each other with love and trying to keep the unity of the spirit by the bonds of peace, that we may become �one body and one spirit�, according to our common calling and vocation. With one voice, repenting of our divisions, we commit ourselves to working together for reconciliation, peace and justice, and we stand together in imploring You: help us to live as Your disciples, overcoming selfishness and arrogance, hatred and violence; give us the strength to forgive. Inspire our witness in the world, that we might foster a culture of dialogue, and be bearers of the hope which Your Gospel has implanted in us. Make us instruments of Your peace, so that our homes and communities, our parishes, churches and nations might resonate more fully with the peace You have long desired to bestow upon us. We ask these graces in Your precious and most holy name, of Jesus the Christ, Who with You Father and the Holy Spirit, live and reign in perfect unity, now and ever and unto ages of ages, Amen.

In His Most Holy Name,
+Fr. Gregory

Lord Jesus, You came to earth to break the bonds of death for us and to show us the Way to the Kingdom where You and the Father dwell. Send the Holy Spirit to us and let us see that Your Kingdom is within each of us to the extent that we let the Spirit in. Help each of us to see that there are others that You have called who are not of the particular flock that You have placed us in, but that they are our brothers and sisters nonetheless because they are Your followers just as we are. Grant us the grace to let the Holy Spirit heal the terrible wounds that we have all inflicted on Your Holy Body, the Church, just as we have inflicted the wounds on Your Physical Body by our sin, though we may be centuries in time removed from the time You suffered. Help us all to rise from the tombs we have constructed around ourselves that seal us in with our own self-righteousness and the Holy Spirit and our brothers and sisters out. Expand our vision and make our love so grow that we will see each one who calls himself your servant as our brother or sister rather than "one of them" that is "separate from us." Show us Your kindness and have patience with us and with the mess we have all made.

Lord, may each of us who calls himself Your servant take time today to remember that there are others You have placed in this world with theological and doctrinal positions that are directly opposite to what You have given us in the place where You placed us. Let us with Your Grace learn that these may also call themselves Your servants. Let us remember that we have no corner on You, Your Grace, Your Great Mercy, or Your Promises. Let us remember that we do have the same command from You, that we love one another as You have loved us. Help us to remember that Your commandment of love does not release us from living and preaching Your Good News as we have received it, but let us also remember that our brother who may be opposite to us has also been given the Good News even though we may not recognize it in the form he has received it. Shine into all hearts and let each one speak the Truth as he has received it and be charitable to others in listening to them speak. Grant to us the day when the Holy Spirit will cut through the Tower of Babel we have erected in Your Vineyard by our own sin. Let each one remember that his brother does not hold his understanding of the Truth as a heretic, but rather as one who has been placed in another place than oneself.

Grant all these things, Lord, so that the healing of Your Holy Body, the Church, may come quickly.

Through the prayers of the All-holy, Ever-Virgin, Mother of God, Mary, who is also our mother by Your gracious Gift from the Cross, through the intercessions of the holy apostles, saints, martyrs, and of all the blessed spirits You have gathered into Your Kingdom from every age, land, and culture, through the intercessions of the holy Choirs of angels who have one will in doing the Will of the Father, O Savior, save us all. AMEN.

BOB

After reading the beautiful prayers of Father Gregory and Bob, I thought of the two pastors that spoke at today's inauguration. In both of their prayers, I heard nothing heretical to Roman Catholicism or Orthodoxy. Their prayers were beautiful prayers, their concepts fully Christian as we know them in the fullness of our Apostolic faiths, and I fully felt the invocation of our Lord while they were praying.

Today, for a brief moment, at the inauguration, I felt Christian unity.

We ALL-- politicians, spectators, television viewers, and clerics (I saw that the Orthodox were well represented by Metropolitan Herman and Archbishop Demetrios) earnestly prayed together to our Lord as ONE body of believers for blessings upon our land...and it didn't matter if you finished your prayer signing your cross from left to right, right to left, or not at all.

Unity in Christ, this is my prayer
Unity in Christ, may we show that we care
Unity in Christ, Our Lord prayed for this
Unity in Christ, Our prayers join with His

Dear Unity,

Thank you for that beautiful little prayer!

My prayers are with you, although I don't know if you are a female or male.

Please feel free to p.m. me-- it would make it much easier to pray for you if I knew your gender and your name. Thanks!

With love in Christ,
Alice

Alice,

Thank you for starting this thread. I have a particular devotion to observance of the unity week above and beyond my desire for the unity of our Churches. It was during the Chair of Unity Octave, as it was then called, that I first discovered the beauty of the Byzantine Divine Liturgy in the service of it in the Great Russian Rescension by the Rt Rev Archimandrite & Mitred Archpriest John Mowatt, of blessed memory. By my calculation, that would have been 50 years ago this week.

Lord give to your holy priests of our Churches the wisdom and understanding to come together in love for Your greater glory and mend the separation of these many ages past. Lord, also, in Your mercy, look with kindness on this place where Your people of many Churches come together in love of You and one another, sharing in our hearts what we cannot as yet share in our Churches; give us the wisdom to understand each other and contribute to the understanding of our Churches for one another.

As we pray for unity, please remember in your prayers Father Paul James Francis, S.A., of blessed memory, a Franciscan Friar of the Atonement (Graymoor Friars). It was Father Paul, sometimes described as the Apostle of Unity, who initiated the week of prayers for unity in 1908, a year before his community was received into the Catholic Church from Anglicanism. Memory eternal.

Many years,

Neil

+++ Prayers

james