At the empty tomb, you entrusted the news of your resurrection to the women:

deliver all messengers of the Gospel from fear. R/

 

On the road to Emmaus, you explained the law and the prophets to the disciples:

open our minds to understand the Scriptures. R/

 

In the upper room, you gave your friends the gift of your peace:

help us to keep this peace by our mutual love. R/

 

On the lakeshore, you appointed Peter as shepherd of your flock:

uphold with your Spirit the leaders of our communities. R/

 

On the mountain, you gathered the dispersed disciples before you returned to the Father:

give unity in faith and charity to those who believe in you. R/

 

 

As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called;  one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.

 

 

The church is one, spread abroad far and wide into a multitude by an increase of fruitfulness. As there are many rays of the sun but one light, and many branches of a tree but one strength based in its tenacious root ... in the same manner the church, shone over with the light of the Lord, sheds forth her rays over the whole world, yet it is one light which is everywhere diffused, nor is the unity of the body fractured. Her fruitful abundance spreads her branches over the whole world.  (Cyprian of Carthage)

 

Holy fathers and teachers of truth! Leaders and pastors of the Christ’s flock! You who preside over and administer the house of God! Today I see you gathered in one spirit and in one body, in adherence to him who is the head of all. Who has brought you to this tranquil harbour of peace, O peacemakers of the world, if not the Holy Spirit who has been given to us from heaven as our peace? And for what purpose, if not to begin the building of the temple of God demolished and destroyed, which the author of evil threw down? (Nerses of Lambron)

 

Being many and countless, men, women, children, various and profoundly different in origin and appearance, nation and language, way of life and age, knowledge and arts, manner of life, customs and propensities, sciences and honours, fate, temperaments and habits, all are in the [church], through which all are regenerated and recreated in the Spirit. To all equally she gives and imparts the same divine form and denomination, to be in Christ and bear his name and to have the same relation, simple, undivided and indivisible, in the faith, that no longer allows to recognise even the existence of the many and inexpressible differences present among them, because all universally refer to and meet in the [church]. (Maximus the Confessor)

 

 

 

 

God of heaven and earth,

your Son Jesus Christ has revealed you as our Father

and promised us the gift of the Holy Spirit:

grant to your Church to overcome the scandal of our divisions,

so that we may bear witness to your life of communion,

in the unity of our profession of faith

and in the love of mutual service.

Through Christ our Lord. Amen.