Praying during the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity

Joining the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity

January 18-25, 2010

By Monsignor J. Robert Romero

This year’s theme is “You are witnesses of these things.” (Luke 24:48)

The year 2010 is the hundredth anniversary of the 1910 World Mission Conference in Edinburgh, Scotland. This conference marked the beginnings of the modern ecumenical movement.

At the 1910 conference chapter 24 of St. Luke’s gospel was read.

To mark the centenary of the conference in this year’s, material jointly prepared and published by The Pontifical Council for Christian Unity and The Commission on Faith and Order of the World Council of Churches, suggest we use biblical passages from chapter 24 of St. Luke’s gospel as prayer during the week. Please start these prayers tomorrow, January 18, 2010.

These passages are:

1. Day 1 Monday – “Why do you look for the living among the dead?” (Luke 24:17)


2. Day 2 Tuesday – “What are you discussing with each other while you walk along?” (Luke 24:17)


3. Day 3 Wednesday – “Are you the only stranger in Jerusalem who does not know the things that have taken place there in these days?” (Luke 24:18)


4. Day 4 Thursday – “What things?” They replied, “The things about Jesus of Nazareth.” (Luke 24:19)


5. Day 5 Friday – “Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and then enter into his glory?” (Luke 24:26)


6. Day 6 Saturday – “Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us?” (Luke 24:2)


7. Day 7 Sunday – “Why are you frightened, and why do doubts arise in your hearts?” (Luke 24:38)


8. Day 8 Monday – “Have you anything here to eat?” (Luke 24:41)

(These scripture quotations are from The New Revised Standard Version of the Bible)

We can on each day close our scripture with a prayer used in the 1910 Conference:

Take us from where we are, to where you want us to be make us not merely guardians of a heritage but living signs of your coming Kingdom, fire us with passion for justice and peace between all people, fill us with that faith, hope and love which embody the Gospel, and through the power of the Holy Spirit make us one. That the world may believe, that your name may be enthroned in our nation, that your church may more effectively be your body, we commit ourselves to love you, serve you, and follow you as pilgrims not strangers.

SOURCE ON THE INTERNET: www.vatican.va – The Roman Curia, Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, Spiritual Ecumenism at the International Level [Week of Prayer for Christian Unity: 18-25 January]