Votive Mass For the Unity of Christians
Entrance Antiphon
Schema A: Jn 10: 14-15
I am the Good Shepherd,
and I know my sheep and mine know me, says the Lord,
just as the Father knows me and I know the Father;
and I lay down my life for the sheep.
Schema B: Ps 106 (105): 47
Save us, O Lord our God,
and gather us from the nations,
to give thanks to your holy name
and make it our glory to praise you.
Schema C: Eph 4: 4-6
One body and one Spirit,
as you were also called to the one hope of your call;
one Lord, one faith, one baptism;
one God and Father of all,
who is over all and through all and in us all.
Collect
Schema A:
Almighty ever-living God,
who gather what is scattered
and keep together what you have gathered,
look kindly on the flock of your Son,
that those whom one Baptism has consecrated
may be joined together by integrity of faith
and united in the bond of charity
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever.
Or:
We humbly ask you, Lord, lover of the human family,
to pour out more fully upon us the grace of your Spirit,
and grant that, walking worthily in the vocation to which you have called us,
we may bear witness to the truth before others
and seek with confidence
the unity of all believers in the bond of peace.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever.
Schema B:
O God, who have united many nations in confessing your name,
grant us, we pray,
the grace to will and to do what you command,
that the people called to your Kingdom
may be one in the faith of their hearts
and the homage of their deeds.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever.
Or:
Attend with favor to the prayers of your people,
we ask, O Lord,
and grant that the hearts of believers
may be united in your praise and in repentance together,
so that, with division among Christians overcome,
we may hasten with joy to your eternal Kingdom
in the perfect communion of the Church.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever.
Schema C:
Look with favor on your people, Lord, we pray,
and pour out upon them the gifts of your Spirit,
that they may grow constantly in love of the truth
and devote themselves with zeal
to perfect unity among Christians.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever.
Or:
Make known in us, O Lord,
the abundance of your mercy
and, in the power of your Spirit,
remove the divisions between Christians,
that your Church may appear more clearly
as a sign raised high among the nations
and that the world, enlightened by your Spirit,
may believe in the Christ whom you have sent.
Who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever.
Prayer Over the Offerings
Schema A:
O Lord, who gained for yourself a people by
adoption
through the one sacrifice offered once for all,
bestow graciously on us, we pray,
the gifts of unity and peace in your Church.
Through Christ our Lord.
Schema B:
Celebrating the memorial of our salvation,
we humbly beseech your mercy, O Lord,
that this Sacrament of your loving kindness
may be for us the sign of unity
and the bond of charity.
Through Christ our Lord.
Schema C:
May the sacrifice we offer you purify us, O Lord,
and make all who are joined in one Baptism
partakers at last of one and the same celebration
of these mysteries.
Through Christ our Lord.
Preface
The unity of the Body of Christ, which is the Church.
℣. The Lord be with you.
℟. And with your spirit.
℣. Lift up your hearts.
℟. We lift them up to the Lord.
℣. Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.
℟. It is right and just.
It is truly right and just, our duty and our salvation,
always and everywhere to give you thanks,
Lord, holy Father, almighty and eternal God, through Christ our Lord.
For through him you brought us
to the knowledge of your truth,
so that by the bond of one faith and one Baptism
we might become his Body.
Through him you poured out
your Holy Spirit among all the nations,
so that in a wondrous manner
he might prompt and engender unity
in the diversity of your gifts,
dwelling within your adopted children
and filling and ruling the whole Church.
And so, in company with the choirs of Angels,
we praise you, and with joy we proclaim:
Holy, Holy, Holy Lord God of hosts.
Heaven and earth are full of your glory.
Hosanna in the highest.
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.
Hosanna in the highest.
Communion Antiphon
Schema A: Cf. 1 Cor 10:17
Though many, we are one bread, one body,
for we all partake of the one Bread and one Chalice.
Schema B: Col 3: 14-15
And over all things put on love,
which is the bond of perfection.
And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts,
the peace into which you were also called in one body.
Schema C: Jn 17: 21, 23
May all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I in you,
that they also may be one in us,
I in them and you in me,
that they may be brought to perfection as one.
Prayer After Communion
Schema A:
As this reception of your Holy Communion, O Lord,
foreshadows the union of the faithful in you,
so may it bring about unity in your Church.
Through Christ our Lord.
Schema B:
Pour out on us, O Lord, the Spirit of your love
and, in your kindness,
make those who believe in you
one in mind and heart
by the power of this sacrifice.
Through Christ our Lord.
Schema C:
Receiving the Sacrament of your Christ,
we pray, O Lord, that you may renew in your Church
the sanctifying grace you have given
and that all who glory in the name of Christian
may come to serve you in unity of faith.
Through Christ our Lord.