Unity

PRAY THAT BELIEVERS MAY BE AS ONE.

Blessed Lord! who in Your high-priestly prayer did ask so earnestly for the unity of Your people, teach us how You  invite and urge us to this unity by Your precious promise given to united prayer. It is when we are one in love and desire that our faith has You presence and the Father’s answer.

O Father! we pray for Your people, and for every  smaller circle of those who meet together, that they may be one. Remove, we pray, all selfishness and self-interest, all narrowness of heart and estrangement by which that unity is hindered. Cast out the spirit of the world and the flesh, through which Your promise loses all its power. O let the thought of Your presence and the Father’s favor draw us all nearer to each other.

Grant especially, Blessed Lord, that Your Church  may believe that it is by the power of united prayer that she can bind and loose in heaven; that Satan can be cast out; that souls can be saved; that mountains can be removed; that the kingdom can be hastened. And grant, good Lord! that in the circle with which I pray, the prayer of the Church may indeed be the power through which Your Name and Word are glorified. Amen.