The week of prayer for Christian Unity will be celebrated from Monday January 18^th until the feast of the conversion of St Paul, January 25^th.
On that day, the closing day of the Octave, Pope Benedict will go to the Basilica of St Paul’s for vespers, together with representatives of other Churches.
The missionary prayer intention of the Church for the month of January, chosen by the Pope, is that every believer in Christ may be conscious that unity among all Christians is a condition for a more effective proclamation of the Gospel.
The background for this intention, prepared by the Apostleship of Prayer, looks at a letter from Pope Benedict to the participants of the Third European Ecumenical assembly in which he points out that Christian unity has been a pastoral priority since the beginning of his pontificate.
Then he quoted his predecessor, JP II , who said that with the Second Vatican Council, the Catholic Church committed herself to following the path of the ecumenical venture, so heeding the Spirit of the Lord who teaches people to interpret carefully “the signs of the times”.
To believe in Christ means to desire unity; to desire unity means to desire the Church, JP II wrote. Aware of this, the Catholic Church will continue confidently on the path of unity and communion between Christians, a difficult path, but so full of joy.
Pope Benedict then noted that there have been many signs to sustain and encourage us to continue on this route throughout the decades. The many ecumenical meetings and celebrations, together with the work of patient dialogue at local and international level, have offered us encouraging signs and given us a more vivid sense of the Church as a mystery of unity.
True dialogue, the Pope added, is established where there are not only words, but also listening, and where listening leads to encounter, and encounter to relationship and relationship to understanding, perceived as a deepening and transforming of our Christian being.
Prayer for unity, he stated, is the primary route for ecumenism. In every age, the main builders of reconciliation and unity have been men and women or prayer, among them, many witnesses to the faith, of all denominations. It was they, Pope Benedict noted, who inspired divided Christians to seek the path of reconciliation and unity.