The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity begins tomorrow and goes through 1/25. In case you’re wondering why it’s not, say, a Sunday to Sunday, the document from the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity explains:
Those dates were proposed in 1908 by Paul Wattson to cover the days between the feast of St Peter and the feast of St Paul, and therefore have a symbolic meaning. In the southern hemisphere where January is a vacation time churches often find other days to celebrate the week of prayer, for example around Pentecost (which was suggested by the Faith and Order movement in 1926), which is also a symbolic date for the unity of the church.
The Council’s resources for the 2007 week are here.
Speaking about the Week of Prayer”, Benedict XVI reminded his audience that this year the topic taken from the Bible was about making the deaf hear and the mute speak, taking its inspiration for the healing of the deaf-mute as told in the Gospel of Mark. Every Christian, “spiritually deaf and mute because of the original sin,” through the baptism received the means to hear the word of God and proclaim it to his brothers. Or better still, from this moment Christians are given the responsibility of maturing in the awareness and love of Christ so as to be able to announce the Gospel.
Announcing the Gospel and bearing witness about charity—i.e. “every comfort Christians may concretely bring to others’ suffering”— “will favour,” in the Pope’s words, “the journey towards unity”.
“The harmony of purpose to alleviate man’s suffering, the search for truth, the conversion of one’s life and repentance are necessary steps each Christian must take”.
However, “praying for unity cannot be limited to a week per year. It must be done every day of the year” so that “significant steps can be taken on the path to full and perfect communion.”
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