Witnesses to Unity: Introduction

An Octave of Prayers for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity

Jan 18-15 | New prayers posted daily on our website

Three Catholic spirituality centers in the Kansas City Metro Area offer an octave of prayers to mark the annual celebration known as the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, Jan. 18-25.

The three spirituality centers — Marillac Center in Leavenworth, Kansas, the Sophia Center in Atchison, Kansas and Precious Blood Renewal Center in Liberty, Missouri — invite everyone in our communities to join us in a week of prayer, right in your own home, for the cause of Christian Unity among the various denominations in our own hometowns.

Sue Robb from the Marillac Retreat & Spirituality Center: Every year, from Jan. 18-25, millions of Christians of all denominations offer the prayer that Jesus himself prayed to his Father, “That they may all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us, that the world may believe that you sent me” (John 17:21).

Jesus made this plea at the Last Supper shortly before his passion. He prayed that all of us would be united in him. Jesus suffers over any divisions among his Father’s children, just as any of us would suffer over our own children if they were estranged from one another.

Unity is a concern for all of us! We must reach across denominational divisions and pray with one another. Pope John XXIII once said, “Whenever I see a wall between Christians, I try to pull out a brick.”

Mary Kay Whitacre from the Sophia Center: Many local ministerial alliances sponsor ecumenical prayer services during this week; we encourage you to participate in it. We also invite you to pray with us virtually throughout that week for about 10 minutes each day. We will post on our three websites, short prayers for each of the days between January 18-25, which will highlight one of the leaders in the ecumenical movement, as an example for ourselves.

We encourage you to share these prayers with members of your family and circle of acquaintances, including those who belong to another faith tradition.

Pope John XXIII wanted to highlight how much Christians of all denominations had in common with each other. He wanted to encourage Christians from all traditions to listen to one another with respect, to work together for the good of the world, and to celebrate their common faith in Jesus Christ.

Fr. Ron Will from the Precious Blood Renewal Center: Perhaps you have heard about the Taizé Ecumenical Community in France. Its founder was Brother Roger Schutz.

When the Second World War broke out, he saw how Europe was divided, and he asked himself why such conflict should exist between people in general and between Christians in particular. He felt himself impelled to build a community in which reconciliation and peace would be lived out daily. In 1940 he settled in the tiny village of Taizé, France just a few miles from the demarcation line that separated free France from occupied France.

His ideas were forming: “To begin with, I must start a life of prayer alone. I would find a house. There would be prayer in the morning, at midday, and in the evening, and I would take in those who were fleeing.” At the age of 24, Roger imagined a dozen men leading a life centered on the call to prepare the way of the Lord and to be one so that the world may believe.

Without humiliating anyone, without becoming a symbol of denial for anyone, he believed that it is possible to embrace within oneself the attention to the word of God so profoundly lived in the Reform tradition, the treasures of the spirituality of the Orthodox tradition, and all the charisms of communion of the Catholic Church, all the while daily putting one’s trust in the mystery of faith.

Sue Robb from the Marillac Retreat & Spirituality Center: Be sure to look in your email and on our social media for a message from our three spirituality centers shortly before January 18. We will send you a reminder about a list of prayers and reflections for each of the eight days that can be found on our websites. You may print them all at once or save them and read one each day on your computer.

If you are the type of person who prefers to receive daily meditations just one day at a time, go to your Spirituality Center’s website for daily prayers each day.

Please join us in this combined prayer across our region for the unity among all Christians for which Jesus prayed at the Last Supper and for which He still longs today.

All: Thank you.

All of the prayers in this series can be found here: Witnesses to Unity: Prayers for Christian Unity.

Never miss an article published on the Renewal Center website: Sign up to receive our newsletters.

[Learn more about these Catholic Spirituality Centers:

The Marillac Center, the retreat and spirituality center of the Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth, in Leavenworth, Kansas.

The Sophia Center is a ministry of the Benedictine Sisters of Mount St. Scholastica in Atchison, Kansas.

Precious Blood Renewal Center, in Liberty, Missouri, is a ministry of the United States Province of the Missionaries of the Precious Blood, a Catholic religious order.

We’d Like to Hear from You!

We’d like to know what you think about this article. Send us a comment using the form below. Do you have a suggestion? Is there something you want to learn more about? Send us a note.