St. John Paul II believed prayer was a significant a part of establishing Christian unity, and he practiced what he preached.
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Whereas dialogue amongst Christians is necessary, St. John Paul II believed that prayer performed a significant position in reaching the last word objective of building Christian unity.
He defined his ideas in his encyclical, Ut unum sint.
Love is given to God because the good supply of communion—the unity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit—that we could draw from that supply the energy to construct communion between people and Communities, or to re-establish it between Christians nonetheless divided. Love is the good undercurrent which provides life and provides vigour to the motion in the direction of unity.
This love finds its most full expression in frequent prayer. When brothers and sisters who usually are not in good communion with each other come collectively to hope, the Second Vatican Council defines their prayer as the soul of the entire ecumenical motion. This prayer is “a really efficient technique of petitioning for the grace of unity,” “a real expression of the ties which even now bind Catholics to their separated brethren.”
This is without doubt one of the the explanation why St. John Paul II would all the time pray with non-Catholic Christians wherever he went.
My visits have nearly all the time included an ecumenical assembly and frequent prayer with our brothers and sisters who search unity in Christ and in his Church. With profound emotion I keep in mind praying along with the Primate of the Anglican Communion at Canterbury Cathedral (29 Could 1982); in that magnificent edifice, I noticed “an eloquent witness each to our lengthy years of frequent inheritance and to the unhappy years of division that adopted.” Nor can I overlook the conferences held within the Scandinavian and Nordic Nations (1-10 June 1989), in North and South America and in Africa, and on the headquarters of the World Council of Church buildings.
If we ever wish to set up true and lasting unity amongst Christians on earth, we have to pray collectively for that unity, asking God to heal the injuries of division.
