O ekumeniczną duchowość. W stulecie Tygodnia Modlitw o Jedność Chrześcijan

Abstract

The centenary of the Week of Prayers for Christian Unity (1908-2008) and the approaching one hundredth anniversary of the ecumenical movement (1910-2010) inclines one to reflect on the sources of the ecumenical spirituality. Its specificity is postulated by the Council Decree on ecumenism Unitatis redintegratio. However, its roots are deep in the 19th century religious awakening that was a return to the ideals of the apostolic Church. Attention is drawn to Saint Francis of Sales’ 16th century Christian humanism and his synthesis of sainthood: “Ask for nothing – and deny nothing.” Its renaissance in the 19th century revealed its values in the quality of the religious awakening in the Church, contributed to an increase in Christian activity and pointed to the theological depths of the apostolic spirituality. The spirituality of the Cenacle, focused on the ideal of Christ-the champion of prayer, was a manifestation of the spirit of the epoch. Consideration of the mystery of His prayer in the Cenacle directed the ideal of imitating Christ to the prayer for unity of the Church. At the same time it encouraged the Christian conviction about the universal vocation for unity. The Octave of Prayers for Unity in the present situation of a divided Church is an expression of a simple way of imitating Christ in His prayer for unity. The form and the content of the prayer was ripening along with the ongoing process of the ripening of the Church’s consciousness about the universal vocation for unity. The present form of the Week of Prayers for Christian Unity is merely an expression of the present level of the ecumenical consciousness and a stage in the historical process of the Church’s ripening for the ecumenical spirituality. According to its nature it should be characterized by a Christological-ecclesiological features. The ecumenical spirituality assumes a close dependence on the Church’s primary spirituality expressed in the harmony and unity of the confessed faith, of the celebrated faith and of the testimony of life. The apostolic churches expressed it in the celebration of the mystery of the revealed Word. The triple theophany: the bow of the Magi, the baptism in the Jordan and the wedding in Cana was not only an expression of the Church’s universalism and “Catholicism”, but also of its “ecumenical” nature. Hence celebration of the mystery understood in this way is an archetype of the pattern of a celebration whose aim is unity as well as a valuable source for defining the foundations of the ecumenical spirituality. What is the most valuable in the tradition of the apostolic Church for us is the significance of the wedding in Cana. The image of the “ecumenical” God that has been inherited from the past as well as a deep reflection on the call “Whatever He says to you, do it” (John 2, 5) may prove to be the element of the ecumenical spirituality that we are looking for. The synthesis of spirituality formulated by Saint Francis of Sales “Ask for nothing – and deny nothing” has the following form here: “Trust in God – whatever He says, do it”.