​Week of Prayer for Christian Unity
Prayer for Christian Unity
This week we are invited to join in prayer with Christians all over the world to pray for Christian Unity.  The theme for 2017 is ‘Reconciliation - The Love of Christ Compels Us’ (2 Corinthians 5:14-20) By joining in this annual novena (nine days of prayer concluding on Pentecost Sunday) Christians raise their voices, hands and hearts to God seeking the fulfillment of the prayer of Jesus, the Son of God, “that they all may be one.”

Let us pray
Lord Jesus Christ, the same, yesterday, today and forever.
Heal the wounds of our past, bless our pilgrimage towards unity today and guide us into your future, when you will be all in all, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, for ever and ever.  Amen.
Taken from Reflections National Council of Churches in Australia  

Sunday
28 MAY
National Reconciliation Week
SUNDAY 28th May
The Ascension of the Lord
Matthew 28:16-20   
​I am with you always to the end of the age.
Teacher Background

Monday
29 MAY
Praying with the Gospel
  • Listen to the gospel
  • Listen to a simple retelling of the gospel: The Ascension of Jesus   by Paule Freeebirg and Christopher Walker (for younger students)
  • Pray with the words spoken by Jesus to his apostles when he was leaving them: I am with you always, until the end of the age.  They are also the words that Jesus speaks to each one of us every moment of our life.  
  • Listen to these words and repeat them in your mind
I am with you always, until the end of the age.  
Pause and breathe
I am with  you always. 
Pause and breathe
I am with you.
Pause and breathe
I am.
​Pause and breathe
​

Tuesday
30 May
Prayer Ideas for National Reconciliation Week
  • Pray the prayer for a Journey of Healing. Write thoughts and prayers on decorated healing hand templates and place in interactive prayer space.
  • Pray with the song Jesu by Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu This is a song of universal and uplifting praise and meditation, based on a single calling out to ‘Jesu’.  Respond by writing/colouring the word JESUS and using it in the centre of a Mandala.
  • Make an individual or group Reconciliation Mandala.  

Wednesday
31 May
The feast of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Thursday
1 JUNE
  • International Children’s Day
  • Watch ‘For Every Child’ a UNICEF video which highlights the importance of realising children's rights as foreseen in the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
  • In response to this video, spend time praying for all children in our world.

For children who are without food or shelter. Lord hear us.
All: Lord hear our prayer
For children who belong to refugee families fleeing from war torn countries. Lord hear us.
All: Lord hear our prayer
For children who are not receiving an education. Lord hear us.
All: Lord hear our prayer 

Friday
2 JUNE
Praying with Prayer Beads
  • Since the earliest of times, people have used pebbles or a string of knots or beads on a cord to keep track of prayers offered to God. Muslims use a set of 99 beads with each bead representing a name for God in the Islamic faith tradition. Other examples are the Hindu “Mala beads’” and the Buddhist prayer beads. Catholics pray with Rosary beads.
  • Beads can also be used for Meditation as they can help people to focus and calm their minds and bodies. The beads can be moved in rhythm with the breath and a mantra or prayer can be prayed as each bead is touched e.g. prayers of intercession. 

​Prayers of intercession
Bead 1: Pray for family and friends
Bead 2: Pray for teachers and religious leaders
Bead 3: Pray for leaders of our country and world
Bead 4: Pray for the poor and the forgotten
Bead 5: Pray for myself
In between each bead and each prayer, pause for a breath.