The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity

The late Pope Benedict XVI on January 18, 2012, marking the first day of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity (January 18-25), made this inspiring yet challenging message, “How can we give convincing witness if we are divided?” The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity 2023 from January 18 until January 28, 2023, has the theme: “Do good, seek justice” (Isaiah 1:17).

For more than a century it has been celebrated every year by Christians of all churches and ecclesial communities in order to invoke extraordinary gift for which the Lord Jesus himself prayed at the Last Supper, before his passion: “that they may all be one; even as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me” (John 17:21).

The practice of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity was introduced in 1908 by Fr. Paul Wattson, the founder of an Anglican religious community who later entered the Catholic Church. The initiative received the blessing of Pope St. Pius X and was later promoted by Pope Benedict XV who encouraged its celebration throughout the Catholic Church.

The Octave of Prayer was developed and perfected in 1930’s by Abbe` Paul Couturier of Lyons, who supported the prayer “for the unity of the church as Christ wants her and in conformity with the instruments that he desires.” His last writings show that Abbe` Couturier saw this Week as a means which enables Christ’s universal prayer “to enter and penetrate the entire Body of Christians”; it must grow until it becomes “an immense, unanimous cry of the entire People of God”, asking God for this great gift. Moreover the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity is in itself one of the most effective expressions of the impetus the Second Vatican Council gave to the search for full communion among all Christ’s disciples.

May this spiritual event that unites Christians of all traditions increase our awareness that the true unity for which we strive cannot be solely the result of our own efforts but, rather, will be a gift from on high, to be ceaselessly prayed for.