Reflection text
This week, the Office for Unity was prepared by the brothers and sisters of the Community at Hautecombe Abbey (France).
« I BELIEVE »
Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906 -1945)
Pastor and theologian who fought against Nazism in Germany
Letters and Papers from Prison
I believe that God can and will bring good out of everything, even the greatest evil. For that to happen, God needs human beings “for whom all things work together for good”.
I believe that in every moment of distress God will give us all the power we need to resist in all times of distress. But he never gives it in advance , lest we rely on ourselves and not on God alone. A faith as strong as this should allay all our fears for the future.
I believe that even our mistakes and shortcomings are not in vain and that it is no more difficult for God to deal with them than with our supposedly good deeds.
I believe that God is not just timeless fate but waits for and responds to sincere prayer and responsible actions.
Intercessions
To be adapted or modified according to the place and the circumstances
We give thanks to you, Lord, for the gathering of community leaders with an ecumenical vocation that took place at the Abbey of Les Dombes in early October, bringing together the communities of Taizé and Bose, the Sisters of St. Andrew and Grand Champ, the Little Sisters of the Poor, and the Chemin Neuf community. May your Spirit continue to inspire paths of reconciliation so that your entire Church may be a living witness to your Unity.
We give thanks to You, Lord, for the major international conference marking the tenth anniversary of the Council of Crete, which was held from October 5 to 8 in Chantilly, with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew presiding. We pray to You, Lord, for the successful outcome of this council, that the synodal journey may continue and expand.
May your Spirit of dialogue breathe life into the divisions within Orthodoxy, and we implore you in particular for a resolution to the war in Ukraine, which is hindering relations with the Moscow Patriarchate.
We give thanks to You, Lord, for this year, which marks the 180th anniversary of the World Evangelical Alliance, which is present in more than 160 countries around the world and brings together approximately 650 million evangelicals. During the celebrations, its president, Godfrey Yogarajah, recalled the founders’ vision: “Amid so many upheavals, a group of Christians […] dared to believe in something radical: the Gospel is greater than any single church, any single tradition, or any single nation.”
May your Spirit, which unites in diversity, sustain evangelical Christians in this effort toward greater unity.
Prayer for Christian unity
Lord Jesus, who prayed that we might all be one,
we pray to you for the unity of Christians,
according to your will,
according to your means.
May your Spirit enable us
to experience the suffering caused by division,
to see our sin
and to hope beyond all hope.
Amen!
(Prayer written by members of the Chemin Neuf Community
inspired by a prayer of Father Paul Couturier)
