Christian leaders, including representatives from the Orthodox Church and Anglican communion, as well as faithful from around the world, gathered in prayer at the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls in Rome on Saturday evening as the Bishop of Rome reflected on the journey of ecumenism traveled by his predecessors. “Christ, dear friends, cannot be divided! This conviction must sustain and encourage us to persevere with humility and trust on the way to the restoration of full visible unity among all believers in Christ,” said the Pope in his homily at Vespers on Jan. 25. “As we look with gratitude to the progress which the Lord has enabled us to make, and without ignoring the difficulties which ecumenical dialogue is presently experiencing, let us all pray that we may put on the mind of Christ and thus progress towards the unity which he wills,” he urged .It is “Christ alone” who is “the principle, the cause and the driving force behind our unity,” stressed Pope Francis. Christ’s total love allows his followers to “realize all the more that we may not regard divisions in the Church as something natural, inevitable in any form of human association.” Rather, the Pope emphasized, “our divisions wound Christ’s body, they impair the witness which we are called to give to him before the world.” Closing with a prayer, Pope Francis requested, “Dear brothers and sisters, let us ask the Lord Jesus, who has made us living members of his body, to keep us deeply united to him, to help us overcome our conflicts, our divisions and our self-seeking, and to be united to one another by one force, by the power of love which the Holy Spirit pours into our hearts. Amen.”
Posted on: Sun, 26 Jan 2014 01:44:40 +0000