VATICAN - Benedict XVI concludes Week of Prayer for Christian Unity: “today, as in the past, Ecumenism has a profound need of that vast community of Christians of all traditions who without clamour pray and offer their life to promote unity”

Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) - “At the end of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity we are ever more aware that the task of recomposing unity, which requires our efforts and energy, is infinitely superior to our capabilities. Unity with God and with our brothers and sisters is a gift which comes from on High … We lack the power to decide when or how full unity will be achieved. This can be done only by God!” These words were pronounced by the Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI at the Basilica of St Paul's outside the Walls on 25 January when he presided Second Vespers of the Feast of the Conversion of St Paul, at the end of the annual Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. Special guests included representatives of other Christian Churches and Communities present in Rome.
Reflecting on the theme chosen for the Week this year : St Paul's exhortation : "Pray without ceasing" (1 Ts 5,17) -, the Holy Father recalled that his call to the Christians in Thessalonika was part of other instructions: “The other instructions would lose their impulse and consistency if they were not sustained by prayer. Unity with God and with others is built first of all on a life of prayer”. Then the Pope continued: “St Paul's call to the Thessalonians is ever relevant … where would the ecumenical movement be without personal and common prayer, that ‘all may be one, just as you Father are in me and I am in you’ (Jn 17,21)? Where could we find that ‘extra impulse' to give to faith, charity, and hope so necessary for our quest for unity today? Our desire for unity should not be limited to sporadic occasions, instead it should be an integral part of all our prayer life”.
Benedict XVI recalled that “builders of reconciliation and unity all through history” were always men and women formed in the Word of God and in prayer, “only ecumenism rooted in prayer is genuine”. On the hundredth anniversary of the 'Octave for the Unity of the Church' which later became "Week of Prayer for Christian Unity", the Pope urged those present to thank God “for the great movement of prayer which for a hundred years has accompanied and sustained believers in Christ in their quest for unity. The ecumenical boat would never have left the port if it had not been moved by this ample current of prayer and pushed by the wind of the Holy Spirit”. He then mentioned many religious and monastic communities which form their members to "pray without ceasing" for Christian unity, recalling especially Sr Maria Gabriella of Unity (1914-1936), a young Trappist Sister who dedicated her whole life to this great cause, and whose beatification was presided by Pope John Paul II precisely in St Paul's Basilica on 25 January 1983. In his homily John Paul II highlighted “three basic elements for the quest for unity: conversion, the cross and prayer”. Benedict XVI affirmed “today as in the past, ecumenism has a profound need of the 'invisible monastery’ of which Abbé Paul Couturier spoke, of that vast community of Christians of all traditions who without clamour pray and offer their life to promote unity”.
The Pope recalled another anniversary: 40 years of collaboration between the Faith and Constitution Commission of the World Council of Churches and the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of Christian Unity to prepare material and prayers on the occasion of the annual Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. Benedict XVI concluded his homily recalling the coming Year of St Paul “on 28 June we shall begin a year dedicated to the witness and teaching of St Paul the Apostle. May his tireless zeal for building up the Body of Christ in unity, help us to pray without ceasing for full unity of all Christians!” (S.L.) (Agenzia Fides 28/1/2008, righe 44, parole 647)