The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity 2008 is a Web site which promotes Christian unity through the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. There is a wealth of information about the history, themes, and activities which surround this ecumenical effort. This year marks the 100th anniversary of this annual event. Accordingly, the Web site contains information about the past 100 years of Weeks for Christian Prayer.

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This post is from the Holy Comforter Catholic Church Bulletin Newsletter which is sent out once a week via email. If you would like to subscribe to the Newsletter, click here.

Week of Prayer for Christian Unity

182. At every celebration of the Holy Eucharist, the Church prays for unity and peace, mindful of the Jesus' prayer. "May they all be one. Father, may they be one in us, as you are in me and I am in you, so that the world may believe it was you who sent me" (John 17, 21). The Missale Romanum contains three Masses--among those for various needs--"for Christian unity". The same intention is remembered in the intercessions of the Liturgy of the Hours".

In deference to the sensibilities of the "separated brethren", expressions of popular piety should take into account the principle of ecumenism. Effectively, "change of heart and holiness of life, along with public and private prayer for the unity of Christians, should be regarded as the soul of the whole ecumenical movement, and merits the name 'spiritual ecumenism'". The encounter of Catholics with Christians from other Churches or ecclesial communities affords a special occasion for common prayer for the grace of Christian unity, to offer to God their common anxieties, to give thanks to God and to implore his assistance. "Common prayer is particularly recommended during the "Week of Prayer for Christian Unity" or during the period between Ascension and Pentecost". Prayer for Christian unity also carries several indulgences.

From the Directory on Popular Piety and the Liturgy

Novena for Church Unity
January 18 to 25

O Lord Jesus Christ, who said unto Your Apostles, "Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you," regard not our sins, but the faith of Your church, and grant unto her that peace and unity which are agreeable to Your will, who live and reign, God, forever and ever. Amen.

O Lord, increase in us the faith.

Our Father, Hail Mary, and Glory be to the Father (five times)

Novena in Honor of St. John Bosco
January 23 to 31 - Feast of St. John Bosco January 31

Father and Teacher of the Young

In need of special help, I appeal with confidence to you, Saint John Bosco, for I require not only spiritual graces, but also temporal ones, and particularly...
(add your personal intentions here)

May you, who on earth had such great devotion to Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament and to Mary Help of Christians, and who always had compassion for those who were suffering, obtain from Jesus and His Heavenly Mother the grace I now request, and also a sincere resignation to the Will of God.

Our Father, Hail Mary, and Glory be to the Father

The Feast of the Purification Novena
January 24 to February 1 - Feast of the Purification Febuary 2

O Blessed Mother of God, who went up to the Temple according to the law with your offering of little white doves, pray for me that I too may keep the law and be pure in heart like you.

Our Father, Hail Mary, and Glory be to the Father (five times)

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This post is from the Holy Comforter Catholic Church Bulletin Newsletter which is sent out once a week via email. If you would like to subscribe to the Newsletter, click here.

820   "Christ bestowed unity on his Church from the beginning. This unity, we believe, subsists in the Catholic Church as something she can never lose, and we hope that it will continue to increase until the end of time." Christ always gives his Church the gift of unity, but the Church must always pray and work to maintain, reinforce, and perfect the unity that Christ wills for her. This is why Jesus himself prayed at the hour of his Passion, and does not cease praying to his Father, for the unity of his disciples: "That they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be one in us, . . . so that the world may know that you have sent me." The desire to recover the unity of all Christians is a gift of Christ and a call of the Holy Spirit.

821   Certain things are required in order to respond adequately to this call:

- a permanent renewal of the Church in greater fidelity to her vocation; such renewal is the driving-force of the movement toward unity;

- conversion of heart as the faithful "try to live holier lives according to the Gospel"; for it is the unfaithfulness of the members to Christ's gift which causes divisions;

- prayer in common, because "change of heart and holiness of life, along with public and private prayer for the unity of Christians, should be regarded as the soul of the whole ecumenical movement, and merits the name 'spiritual ecumenism;"'

- fraternal knowledge of each other;

- ecumenical formation of the faithful and especially of priests;

- dialogue among theologians and meetings among Christians of the different churches and communities;

- collaboration among Christians in various areas of service to mankind.286 "Human service" is the idiomatic phrase.

822   Concern for achieving unity "involves the whole Church, faithful and clergy alike." But we must realize "that this holy objective - the reconciliation of all Christians in the unity of the one and only Church of Christ - transcends human powers and gifts." That is why we place all our hope "in the prayer of Christ for the Church, in the love of the Father for us, and in the power of the Holy Spirit."

Catechism of the Catholic Church

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This post is from the Holy Comforter Catholic Church Bulletin Newsletter which is sent out once a week via email. If you would like to subscribe to the Newsletter, click here.

Today marks the beginning of the Octave of Christian Unity which begins on January 18th and concludes on January 25th, the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul. This year marks the hundredth anniversary of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity which coincides with the octave. The following paragraphs taken from Week of Prayer for Christian Unity 2008 provide a brief history of this important annual ecumenical event.

In 1907, an Episcopal priest and an Anglican vicar explored the possibility of prayer for Christian Unity. The Rev. Spencer Jones, Anglican Vicar of Moreton-on-Marsh, England, wrote to the Rev. Paul Wattson, an American Episcopal priest, suggesting that a day of prayer for Christian Unity might be observed each year on the Feast of Sts. Peter and Paul (June 29). Wattson proposed instead an eight-day octave observance of prayers, sermons and conferences between the Feast of the Chair of St. Peter (formerly on January 18th) and the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul on January 25th.

The Reverend Wattson and Mother Lurana White, co-founders of the Society of the Atonement, a small group of Franciscan Sisters and Friars, founded the Church Unity Octave the very next year in 1908. They publicly dedicated January 18 to 25 to prayer for Christian unity in the Sisters' Our Lady of the Angels Chapel, Graymoor, Garrison, N.Y. Mother Lurana later wrote in her diary: "I often think if the Society of the Atonement had never done another thing, this alone is a great work of God, so far reaching in its effects as to baffle our weighing its influence either now or in the days to come."

The Sisters and the Friars, along with thirteen lay associates, entered the Roman Catholic Church in 1909. Pope Pius X shortly thereafter gave his official blessing to the Octave and in 1916 Pope Benedict XV encouraged its observance throughout the entire Roman Catholic Church. In the 1930s, the name was changed to the "Chair of Unity Octave" to emphasize the centrality of the Petrine ministry.

Meanwhile, other movements for Christian Unity were also being promoted. In 1921, a committee of Protestant Church leaders for the World Conference on Faith and Order declared that a special octave of prayer for Church Unity would be held each year ending on Pentecost Sunday (Whitsunday). In 1935, a Roman Catholic priest, Abbé Paul Couturier, from Lyon, France, advocated a Universal Week of Prayer for Christian Unity in January that would foster a "unity that Christ wills, as he wills, and when he wills." In 1941, the Commission on Faith and Order moved its Pentecost observance to January with the hope that Protestants and Catholics might pray together for the unity that they so earnestly sought.

In 1964, the bishops at the Second Vatican Council issued the Decree on Ecumenism, calling prayer "the soul of the ecumenical movement." Because the ideas of Abbé Couturier emphasized a more common basis upon which every Christian Church could pray together for unity, representatives from the Orthodox, Protestant and Roman Catholic Churches agreed in 1967 to jointly observe a time of prayer called the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. Since 1968, the World Council of Churches and the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity have collaborated annually in selecting scriptural themes and helpful materials to promote prayer for the unity of the Christian Churches. As a worldwide observance seeking "unity in diversity" (words taken from the Preface of the Mass for Christian Unity), the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity focuses upon the shared yearnings of all Christians "that all may be one" (Jn. 17:21) according to the will of Christ.

In January 2008, the Society of the Atonement will mark one hundred years of consistently praying and working for the unity of the Christian Churches.

From Week of Prayer for Christian Unity 2008

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This post is from the Holy Comforter Catholic Church Bulletin Newsletter which is sent out once a week via email. If you would like to subscribe to the Newsletter, click here.

The Congregation of Beth Israel cordially invites the parishioners of Holy Comforter for Kabbalat Shabbat services on Friday, December 28th at 8:15 p.m. Kabbalat Shabbat services are prayerful songs welcoming the Day of Rest for our bodies and our souls. Much of the service will be in English. It is a wonderful opportunity to strengthen our connection with our neighbors and to further understanding between our two faiths. Please RSVP in the commons.