Week of Prayer for Christian Unity

January 18-25, 2023

DAY 1: Learning to do the right thing

Is 1:12-18 Learn to do good; seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan; plead for the widow
Lk 10:25-36 He asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbour?”

DAY 2: When justice is done…

Prov 21:13-15 When justice is done, it is a joy to the righteous, but dismay to evildoers
Mt 23:23-25 Justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done

DAY 3: Do justice, love mercy, walk humbly

Mic 6:6–8 And what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?
Mk 10: 17-31 Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?

DAY 4: Look, the tears of the oppressed

Eccles 4:1-5 Again I saw all the oppressions that are practiced under the sun. Look, the tears of the oppressed–with no one to comfort them! On the side of their oppressors there was power with no one to comfort them
Mt 5:1-8 …Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted…

DAY 5: Singing the Lord’s song as strangers in the land

Ps 137:1-4 For there our captors asked us for songs, and our tormentors asked us for mirth, saying, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!”
Lk 23:27-31 Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children

DAY 6: Just as you did it to one of the least of these…you did it to me.

Ezek 34:15-20 I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak.
Mt 25:31-40 I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.

DAY 7: ‘What is now does not have to be’

Job 5:11-16 So the poor have hope, and injustice shuts its mouth
Lk 1:46-55 He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly

DAY 8: The justice that restores communion

Ps 82:1-4 Give justice to the weak and the orphan; maintain the right of the lowly and the destitute
Lk 18:1-8 Will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night?

For resources for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity 2023 including Ecumenical Worship Service, Biblical Reflections, and Prayers for the eight days visit: http://www.christianunity.va/content/unitacristiani/en/settimana-di-preghiera-per-l-unita.html

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