Week of Prayer for Christian Unity Day 6 Refletion

Scripture

Romans 12: 9-13, Love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor…Be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord.



Meditation: What Does God Want Me to Do?—

Discerning God’s Will

“I can’t do everything. What does God want me to do?” Do we ever ask ourselves questions like this, especially when we realize that we are coming to a fork in the road of life?

In the ecumenical movement, we are continually asking ourselves what God wants us to do. How are we to proceed on the way toward unity?

In classic Christian terms we are talking about matters of personal and communal discernment.

When Christian communities engage in formal dialogues, we pray together, we learn from one another, we weigh arguments, and we look for the interior peace and joy that are signs of the Spirit. We may be tempted to take a vote, to engage in a political process or to save time. But instead we work patiently and humbly together in God’s time to follow the Spirit’s guidance in our judgments.

In personal discernment we do much the same. We look prayerfully at classic criteria for discernment, such as the external realities affecting the decision and the intern movements of the Spirit, often with the help of our spiritual friends. We are listening for God’s will for our lives. Our dream is ‘to give everything to God.’



Prayer

Heavenly Father, grant us humility to hear your voice, to receive your call, and to share your dream for the unity of the Church. Help us to be awake to the pain of disunity. Where division has left us with hearts of stone, may the fire of your Holy Spirit inflame our hearts and inspire us with the vision of being one in Christ, as he is one with you, so that the world may believe that you have sent Him. This we ask in Jesus’ name. Amen


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