Church Unity Octave (Jan 19)
January 19, 2026
DAY 2 (Jan 19)
With all humility and gentleness, with patience, bear with one another in love (Eph 4:2).
Invocation
From Sunrise in the East to Sunset in the West, and throughout the entire Christian world, wherever people call on the name of the Lord in holiness – by their prayers and intercession may the Lord have mercy on us. Let us beseech God to deliver us from sin and from the temptations of the world. May the Lord accept the vows and supplications of our hearts and count us worthy of his faith and his commandments together with all of his saints. Almighty Lord our God, raise us to life and have mercy on us.
Scripture: Zechariah 7:8-10
8 Yahweh’s word came to Zechariah, saying, 9 “Thus has Yahweh of Armies spoken, saying, ‘Execute true judgment, and show kindness and compassion every man to his brother. 10 Don’t oppress the widow, the fatherless, the foreigner, nor the poor; and let none of you devise evil against his brother in your heart.’
Psalm Response
Reflection
The Apostle Paul exhorts us to live in a manner worthy of our Christian calling by providing profound social guidance. He calls believers “with all humility and gentleness, with patience” to “bear with one another in love” (Eph 4:2). This divine calling is not merely a personal journey but is vividly expressed in our interactions with others. The four virtues Paul highlights – humility, gentleness, patience, and tolerance – are all crucial for nurturing loving relationships. To embody these virtues means approaching others with a spirit of genuine humility, extending gentleness even towards those who test our patience, and showing forbearance with those who challenge us. Most profoundly, it involves “bearing with one another” despite our differences, thereby reflecting a love that transcends all earthly divides and embodies the grace of God's
boundless compassion.
A question to consider
How can the virtues of humility, gentleness, patience and tolerance, as mentioned in the letter to the Ephesians, help us as believers navigate and overcome divisions within our local Christian communities?
Confession of Faith (St. Gregory of Narek)
The creed of the co-existing Holy Trinity, the rule of life and grace of salvation, I taught in the following way: We confess and profess, honor and worship the shared glory and unity of the Holy Trinity, Godhead beyond description, always good, of the same substance, equal in honor, beyond the flight of the wings of our thought, higher than all examples, beyond all analogies, surpassing the limits on high. Before the creation of eternal undifferentiated matter and the categories of creatures with blessing that cannot be translated, crowned forever with the richest greatness, setting time in motion and all that has taken shape as time unfolds, himself the cause and shaper of everything visible and invisible, who cannot be defined by name or denoted by label, nor likened in quality, nor weighed in quantity, nor formed by rules, nor known by kind, nor spread to exhaustion, nor occupying space, nor appearing in a place.
Musical Selection
Prayer
Lord Jesus Christ,
you show us how to be patient with one another in humility and gentleness.
May the light you have shined on our path lead us towards unity
and help us heal the wounds of division and indifference
that often break communities apart. Amen.