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“Weep
and Mourn for
the Body of My
Son Is Broken”..
The
Lord's Call to Repent and Return to the
Father's Plan of Unity for the Body of
Christ
“Come before me with a broken
heart and a contrite spirit for the body of
my Son is broken. Come before me with tears
and mourning for the body of my Son is
broken. The light is dim, my people are
scattered – the body of my Son is broken. I
gave all I had in the Body and Blood of my
Son. It spilled on the earth. The body of my
Son is broken. Turn from the sins of your
fathers and walk in the ways of my Son.
Return to the plan of your father. Return to
the purpose of your God. The body of my Son
is broken.”
A
Prayer for Christian
Unity
composed and used
by Sword of the Spirit
communities
The Sword
of
the Spirit, an
ecumenical association of
Christian communities worldwide,
urges its member communities to
pray and fast weekly for
Christian unity.
This prayer for Christian unity
focuses on the restoration of
Christian truth, holiness of
life, unity, and witness. In
this prayer we identify with the
sin and infidelity of God's
people, even as Daniel (Daniel
9:5-11,20) and
Nehemiah (Nehemiah
1:4-7) identified
themselves with the
transgressions of Israel.
God relates to his people as a
body. We stand before him in
prayer not only as individuals,
but also as representatives of
his church. We may not have
sinned personally in the ways
mentioned in this prayer, but we
have suffered personally from
the effects of these sins, and
we will all benefit greatly as
God wipes them away.
Let us pray now on behalf of the whole
people of God.
Lord God our Father, we come to you in
supplication on behalf of all the
Christian people. We lament the weakness
and division among those who call on the
name of Christ. We acknowledge that we
have failed to “maintain the unity of
the Spirit in the bond of peace”
(Ephesians 4:3). We grieve that our
disunity has hindered the proclamation
of the gospel to all the nations
(Matthew 28:18; John 17:23).
We recognize that these evils have come
upon us, not only through the malice of
our Enemy, but because of our sin, the
sin of your people.
Lord have mercy upon us, and pardon our
sin
Response: Amen.
Lord, have mercy
Lord, unite your people in brotherly
love and in your truth that we might
together give witness to Christ in the
world.
Response:Amen. Lord, have
mercy
Lord, frustrate your enemies and expose
their plots; call to repentance all your
sons and daughters; strengthen the weak
and enlighten those who are confused.
Response:Amen. Lord, have
mercy
Lord, encourage and strengthen by the
presence of your Spirit all who are
suffering for their faithfulness to you.
Restore your people for the sake of
your great name.
May your people be without spot or
blemish, ready for your Son’s return!
Response: Amen. Come
Lord Jesus
|
Pope Francis on Reconciliation
and
Prayer for Christian Unity
This excerpt is a address
given by Pope Francis on January 25, 2017 to
conclude the fiftieth annual Week of Prayer
for Christian Unity on the theme
“Reconciliation – the love of Christ compels
us” (cf. 2 Corinthians 5:14-20).
Encountering
Jesus on the road to Damascus radically
transformed the life of Saint Paul.
Henceforth, for him, the meaning of life would
no longer consist in trusting in his own
ability to observe the Law strictly, but
rather in cleaving with his whole being to the
gracious and unmerited love of God: to Jesus
Christ, crucified and risen. Paul experienced
the inbreaking of a new life, life in the
Spirit. By the power of the risen Lord, he
came to know forgiveness, confidence and
consolation. Nor could Paul keep this newness
to himself. He was compelled by grace to
proclaim the good news of the love and
reconciliation that God offers fully in Christ
to all humanity.
For the Apostle of the Gentiles,
reconciliation with God, whose ambassador he
became (cf. 2 Corinthians 5:20), is a gift
from Christ. This is evident in the text of
the Second Letter to the Corinthians which
inspired the theme of this year’s Week of
Prayer for Christian Unity: “Reconciliation –
The Love of Christ Compels Us” (cf. 2 Cor
5:14-20). “The love of Christ”: this is not
our love for Christ, but rather Christ’s love
for us. Nor is the reconciliation to which we
are compelled simply our own initiative.
Before all else it is the reconciliation that
God offers us in Christ. Prior to any human
effort on the part of believers who strive to
overcome their divisions, it is God’s free
gift. As a result of this gift, each person,
forgiven and loved, is called in turn to
proclaim the Gospel of reconciliation in word
and deed, to live and bear witness to a
reconciled life.
Today, in the light of this, we can ask: How
do we proclaim this Gospel of reconciliation
after centuries of division? Paul himself
helps us to find the way. He makes clear that
reconciliation in Christ requires sacrifice.
Jesus gave his life by dying for all.
Similarly, ambassadors of reconciliation are
called, in his name, to lay down their lives,
to live no more for themselves but for Christ
who died and was raised for them (cf. 2
Corinthians 5:14-15). As Jesus teaches, it is
only when we lose our lives for love of him
that we truly save them (cf. Luke 9:24). This
was the revolution experienced by Paul, but it
is, and always has been, the Christian
revolution. We live no longer for ourselves,
for our own interests and “image”, but in the
image of Christ, for him and following him,
with his love and in his love.
For the Church, for every Christian
confession, this is an invitation not to be
caught up with programs, plans and advantages,
not to look to the prospects and fashions of
the moment, but rather to find the way by
constantly looking to the Lord’s cross. For
there we discover our program of life. It is
an invitation to leave behind every form of
isolation, to overcome all those temptations
to self-absorption that prevent us from
perceiving how the Holy Spirit is at work
outside our familiar surroundings. Authentic
reconciliation between Christians will only be
achieved when we can acknowledge each other’s
gifts and learn from one another, with
humility and docility, without waiting for the
others to learn first.
If
we experience this dying to ourselves for
Jesus’ sake, our old way of life will be a
thing of the past and, like Saint Paul, we
will pass over to a new form of life and
fellowship. With Paul, we will be able to say:
“the old has passed away” (2 Cor 5:17). To
look back is helpful, and indeed necessary, to
purify our memory, but to be fixated on the
past, lingering over the memory of wrongs done
and endured, and judging in merely human
terms, can paralyze us and prevent us from
living in the present. The word of God
encourages us to draw strength from memory and
to recall the good things the Lord has given
us. But it also asks us to leave the past
behind in order to follow Jesus today and to
live a new life in him. Let us allow him, who
makes all things new (cf. Rev 21:5), to unveil
before our eyes a new future, open to the hope
that does not disappoint, a future in which
divisions can be overcome and believers,
renewed in love, will be fully and visibly
one.
This year, in our journey on the road to
unity, we recall in a special way the fifth
centenary of the Protestant Reformation. The
fact that Catholics and Lutherans can nowadays
join in commemorating an event that divided
Christians, and can do so with hope, placing
the emphasis on Jesus and his work of
atonement, is a remarkable achievement, thanks
to God and prayer, and the result of fifty
years of growing mutual knowledge and
ecumenical dialogue...
Dear brothers and sisters, our prayer for
Christian unity is a sharing in Jesus’ own
prayer to the Father, on the eve of his
passion, “that they may all be one” (John
17:21). May we never tire of asking God for
this gift. With patient and trusting hope that
the Father will grant all Christians the gift
of full visible communion, let us press
forward in our journey of reconciliation and
dialogue, encouraged by the heroic witness of
our many brothers and sisters, past and
present, who were one in suffering for the
name of Jesus. May we take advantage of every
occasion that Providence offers us to pray
together, to proclaim together, and together
to love and serve, especially those who are
the most poor and neglected in our midst.
Anglican Archbishops on
Reconciliation and Reaching Out to
Strengthen Relationships with Other
Churches
A Joint Statement Marking
the 500th Anniversary of the Reformation
by
the Anglican Archbishops of Canterbury
and York,
Archbishop
Justin Welby and Archbishop Dr John
Sentamu
January
17, 2017
"This
year, churches around the world will be
marking the great significance of the 500th
anniversary of the beginning of the
Reformation in Europe, dated from Martin
Luther's 95 Theses protesting against the
practice of indulgences, on 31 October 1517 at
Wittenberg. The Church of England will be
participating in various ways, including
sharing in events with Protestant church
partners from Continental Europe.
The Reformation was a process of both renewal
and division amongst Christians in Europe. In
this Reformation Anniversary year, many
Christians will want to give thanks for the
great blessings they have received to which
the Reformation directly contributed. Amongst
much else these would include clear
proclamation of the gospel of grace, the
availability of the Bible to all in their own
language and the recognition of the calling of
lay people to serve God in the world and in
the church.
Remembering
Many will also remember the lasting damage
done five centuries ago to the unity of the
Church, in defiance of the clear command of
Jesus Christ to unity in love. Those turbulent
years saw Christian people pitted against each
other, such that many suffered persecution and
even death at the hands of others claiming to
know the same Lord. A legacy of mistrust and
competition would then accompany the
astonishing global spread of Christianity in
the centuries that followed. All this leaves
us much to ponder.
Renewing our faith in
Christ and in him alone
Remembering the Reformation should bring us
back to what the Reformers wanted to put at
the centre of every person's life, which is a
simple trust in Jesus Christ. This year is a
time to renew our faith in Christ and in Him
alone. With this confidence we shall then be
ready to ask hard questions about those things
in our lives and the life of our churches that
get in the way of sharing and celebrating
faith in Him.
Repenting and reaching
out to strengthen relationships with
other churches
Remembering the Reformation should also lead
us to repent of our part in perpetuating
divisions. Such repentance needs to be linked
to action aimed at reaching out to other
churches and strengthening relationships with
them. This anniversary year will provide many
opportunities to do just that, beginning with
this Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.
Uniting in the truth
of the Gospel of Christ
We therefore call on all Christians to seek to
be renewed and united in the truth of the
gospel of Christ through our participation in
the Reformation Anniversary, to repent of
divisions, and, held together in Him, to be a
blessing to the world in obedience to Jesus
Christ."
[photo
above, (c) by thegarden at
bigstock.com] |
