The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity

In the northern hemisphere the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity is usually celebrated between January 18, the feast of St. Peter and January 25, the feast of Saint Paul. (In the southern hemisphere, the Unity octave is sometimes celebrated around Pentecost Sunday.) This year's international materials for the Week of Prayer were jointly prepared and published by The Pontifical Council for Christian Unity and The Commission on Faith and Order of the World Council of Churches.

The theme for Christian Unity Week 2010 is You Witnesses of the These Things and is based on the story of the two disciples on the road to Emmaus on the day of the Resurrection, found in the 24th chapter of Luke

During the 2010 Week of Prayer for Unity, Christians will reflect each day on chapter 24 of Luke's gospel stopping at the questions which it asks: Jesus' questions to his disciples; the questions the apostles ask of Christ.

Each of these questions allows us to highlight a particular way of witnessing to the Risen One. Each of them invites us to think about our situation of church division and about how, concretely, we can remedy that. We are already witnesses and we need to become better witnesses. How? Over the prayer of these 8 days by:

- praising the One who gives the gift of life and resurrection (1)
- knowing how to share the story of our faith with others (2)
- recognizing that God is at work in our lives (3)
- giving thanks for the faith we have received (4)
- confessing Christ's victory over all suffering (5)
- seeking to always be more faithful to the Word of God (6)
- growing in faith, hope and love (7)
- offering hospitality and receiving it when it's offered to us (8)

All of the jointly prepared and published resource materials are available here. Each day during the octave I'll publish a reminder here with a link to a daily prayer guide for the octave.