Do you ever feel like you are standing in front of a door, and you've expended a crazy amount of energy trying to get the door to open. Your intellect is spent trying to figure out what's wrong with the thing. Your energy is used up trying to turn the knob and push the door in and out.
And the really horrible thing of it is this. You are meant to get into that room. You have to get into that room.
The problem is, you've tried everything. So you sit down and cry for awhile.
I pray for Christian unity. A lot. And this year, something clicked. I didn't come up with it. I figured it out while reading something by Ives Congar.
There is only one way that Christian unity will ever happen. By the Power of the Holy Spirit. So simple. The key was in the story of Pentecost. The whole thing is waiting for the new outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
I have prayed the prayer Come Holy Spirit. I have prayed it many times. But I have always prayed it for myself.
Or for my Confirmation students.
What if I began praying this prayer with one petition in my heart? What if I waited on the Holy Spirit, as those first disciples did? Come to us. Create and renew.
Ives Congar, I don't know you very well, but perhaps you would pray with me.
Blessed John Paul II, please pray as well. I suspect you're already doing it. But it doesn't hurt to ask again.
And all who truly wish to see the Body of Christ restored to full, visible unity, please pray.
Come, Holy Spirit.
Fill the hearts of the faithful.
Enkindle in them the fire of Your love.
Send forth Your Spirit,
and we shall be created,
and You shall renew the face of the earth.
You are being led in this.And your blog is leading others.There must be a reason unity is so heavy on your heart.I will join you.
ReplyDeleteSharon, thank you. We'll wait and pray together for that New Pentecost, even as the first disciples waited and prayed together. Come, Holy Spirit!
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