THE 8th EXTRAORDINARY PRAYER OF ALL CHURCHES WILL BE HELD ON THE VIGIL OF THE ORTHODOX PENTECOST AT THE ARMENIAN CATHOLIC CHURCH OF JERUSALEM LOCATED AT THE 3rd and 4th STATION OF THE VIA CRUCIS, WHERE THE MEETING OF JESUS WITH HIS MOTHER IS COMMEMORATED AND A DAILY EUCHARISTIC ADORATION IS PRACTISED
In a desire of communion with the Orthodox Churches, the Armenian Catholic Church of Jerusalem has chosen the Vigil of the Orthodox Pentecost, Saturday, June 2nd, 2012, at 6 pm Holy Land time, to host the 8th Extraordinary Prayer of all Churches for Reconciliation, Unity and Peace, beginning in and proceeding from Jerusalem.
The extraordinary prayer of all Churches was born during a Vigil of Prayer at the Holy Sepulchre between few clergy representatives and lay worshippers in 2005, and is based on the inspiration of the urgency of a great intercessory prayer to God the Father for our time, involving all Churches and beginning from Jerusalem: a fervent and recurring prayer, spontaneously coming from the hearts of Christians inspired by the Holy Spirit. It is a fundamentally joyful prayer, because the participants adhere, by its very nature, to the Unity for which Christ prayed (John 17: 21) and which is itself a source of Joy. It is a prayer within everyone’s reach, because participation therein requires only that one recalls this intention of prayer on Saturdays at 6 p.m. local time, and that one actually pray, in a communion of prayer with all participants. Unity is in fact primarily a spiritual truth and is expressed in an essential manner in the community of prayer. Christians praying and celebrating together accept to enter into the dimension of eternity that frees them from evil.
The common prayer’s intentions are Reconciliation, Unity and Peace with God, and in God, with each other, both on individual and on collective level, first of all within the Church, and thus, in the world through the Church. The lack of Peace in the Church is not only a counter-testimony to Christ’s message, it is also, and especially, a negative spiritual reality, which weakens her spiritual strength. The Jerusalem Church, the “Mother of all Churches,” using, each time, the words of one of the rich Christian traditions represented in the Holy City through the different Churches, calls the whole Church back to its primary mission, and all nations to “repentance for the forgiveness of sins” in the name of Christ, “beginning from Jerusalem” (Luke 24, 47). The three intentions of the Extraordinary Prayer are also an act of faith in the Divine Mercy, who knows our limited forces.
The Armenian Catholic Church’s liturgy for Pentecost , which closely corresponds to the liturgy of the Armenian Orthodox Church, foresees the blessing of the four corners of the world, with the reading of four Gospels and an invocation to the Holy Spirit at each cardinal point. The blessing of the four corners of the world will be followed by the Vesper prayer, dedicated to the Glorification of the Holy and inseparable Trinity, and especially to the invocation of the Light, of the Holy Spirit, the Giver of gifts, the Giver of Peace.
In a desire of communion with the Orthodox Churches, the Armenian Catholic Church of Jerusalem has chosen the Vigil of the Orthodox Pentecost, Saturday, June 2nd, 2012, at 6 pm Holy Land time, to host the 8th Extraordinary Prayer of all Churches for Reconciliation, Unity and Peace, beginning in and proceeding from Jerusalem.
The extraordinary prayer of all Churches was born during a Vigil of Prayer at the Holy Sepulchre between few clergy representatives and lay worshippers in 2005, and is based on the inspiration of the urgency of a great intercessory prayer to God the Father for our time, involving all Churches and beginning from Jerusalem: a fervent and recurring prayer, spontaneously coming from the hearts of Christians inspired by the Holy Spirit. It is a fundamentally joyful prayer, because the participants adhere, by its very nature, to the Unity for which Christ prayed (John 17: 21) and which is itself a source of Joy. It is a prayer within everyone’s reach, because participation therein requires only that one recalls this intention of prayer on Saturdays at 6 p.m. local time, and that one actually pray, in a communion of prayer with all participants. Unity is in fact primarily a spiritual truth and is expressed in an essential manner in the community of prayer. Christians praying and celebrating together accept to enter into the dimension of eternity that frees them from evil.
The common prayer’s intentions are Reconciliation, Unity and Peace with God, and in God, with each other, both on individual and on collective level, first of all within the Church, and thus, in the world through the Church. The lack of Peace in the Church is not only a counter-testimony to Christ’s message, it is also, and especially, a negative spiritual reality, which weakens her spiritual strength. The Jerusalem Church, the “Mother of all Churches,” using, each time, the words of one of the rich Christian traditions represented in the Holy City through the different Churches, calls the whole Church back to its primary mission, and all nations to “repentance for the forgiveness of sins” in the name of Christ, “beginning from Jerusalem” (Luke 24, 47). The three intentions of the Extraordinary Prayer are also an act of faith in the Divine Mercy, who knows our limited forces.
The Armenian Catholic Church’s liturgy for Pentecost , which closely corresponds to the liturgy of the Armenian Orthodox Church, foresees the blessing of the four corners of the world, with the reading of four Gospels and an invocation to the Holy Spirit at each cardinal point. The blessing of the four corners of the world will be followed by the Vesper prayer, dedicated to the Glorification of the Holy and inseparable Trinity, and especially to the invocation of the Light, of the Holy Spirit, the Giver of gifts, the Giver of Peace.