Prayers for Christian Unity
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In this Universal Week of Prayer for Christian Unity let us pray that the disciples of Jesus may everywhere be one, so that all people may believe in the love of the Father who gave his only Son to be our Saviour. |
- For every congregation of the Church - that we may end the sin of our division which
makes a mockery of the Cross of Jesus before the world.
Lord hear us. - For every congregation of the Church - that the Spirit of the Lord may remove from
between us the walls of separation which do not reach to heaven.
Lord hear us. - For every congregation of the Church - that we may reach out to meet one another and
rejoice to find that we are brothers and sisters in Christ.
Lord hear us. - For every congregation of the Church that we may all be one, worshipping the Father as
his beloved sons and daughters, in spirit and in truth.
Lord hear us. - For every congregation of the Church - that we may commit ourselves to the non-violent
way of Jesus and transform society through offering forgiveness and receiving peace.
Lord hear us.Concluding Prayer
Father, unite all the congregations of the Church in Jesus your Son, our Lord and Saviour. May your will be done among us and your kingdom come soon, through him who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, forever and ever. Amen.
It is, by now, a well known fact that the Redemptorists in Clonard and in particular Fathers Alex Reid and Gerry Reynolds, had a significant part to play in the Peace Process.
In 1974 Father Reid helped to bring an end to a row between Republican factions. He was again deeply involved in searching for a settlement to protests by IRA prisoners including the Hunger Strikes.
In 1986 Fr. Reid saw the possibility of taking the gun out of Irish politics and the Irish Government's Northern Advisor, Martin Mansergh, was asked to follow up on Fr. Reid's proposals. Fr. Reid produced papers on possible ways forward and helped in the process of an exchange of ideas between Martin Mansergh and Mr. Gerry Adams, President of Sinn Fein.
The personnel and the direction of the process has undergone change and development over the years. But one man, known only at one stage as "the priest from Belfast" is still involved. Only a very few know the real extent of that involvement.
In the mid
1980's Fr. Reid set down his vision of peace and his conviction about the pastoral
responsibility of the church to intervene directly in the conflict in Northern Ireland, to
help make that vision a reality for all the suffering people.
He wrote: "We must begin by lifting our eyes to a vision of the peace we want to create. That, in general, can only be a new political situation where the people of Ireland, in their Nationalist and Unionist traditions, are living together in friendship and mutual co-operation for the common good of all, and where the people of Ireland, and the people of Britain are living together in the same way.
How to make this vision a reality is, therefore, the great question on which all our peace-making energies and abilities must focus. For those who believe in the Christian message of justice and love, there can only be one way to do this and that is the way which begins from the fact that people are people, God's sons and daughters, before they are Irish, British, Nationalist, Unionist or Republican. This means that the principles of peace are essentially the principles which respect and correspond to the human dignity and the human rights of all the people who are involved in the present conflict.
This, in turn, means that the principles by which it must be resolved are the principles of political and democratic justice as they are understood and practised throughout the world and as they pertain to the particular nature of the conflict in Northern Ireland. Rooted in the God-given dignity of the human person, these principles define the "narrow-road" which leads to political salvation.
Any road defined by policies which lack the respect that is due to the dignity and the rights of people must, therefore, be seen as the "broad road" which leads to political destruction. Here, those who believe in the Lord Jesus, must be prepared, like His first followers, to leave "all things", all their partisan and sectarian political attitudes, and follow Him down the road of democratic justice and charity to whatever political destination it may lead.
The only Christian and human way to conduct political affairs and to resolve the conflicts that arise from them, is the way of communication and dialogue, practised by each participant with the respect and the compassion that are due, in justice and charity, to every other participant."
