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SEVENTH DAY OF THE WEEK
FOR CHURCH UNITY
(January 24th)
Intention of the Day: Conversion of the Jews
Prayer for the Conversion
of the Jews
Priest:
Let us pray. O God, Who dost manifest Thy mercy and compassion towards
all peoples, have mercy upon the Jewish race, once Thy Chosen People.
Thou didst select them alone out of all the nations of the world to be
the custodians of Thy sacred teachings. From them Thou didst raise up
Prophets and Patriarchs to announce the coming of the Redeemer. Thou
didst will that Thine only Son, Jesus Christ, Our Lord and Savior,
should be a Jew according to the flesh, born of a Jewish maiden in the
Land of Promise. Listen to the prayers we offer Thee today for the
conversion of the Jewish people. Grant that they may come safely to a
knowledge and love of Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Messiah foretold by
their Prophets and that they may walk with us in the way of salvation.
People:
Amen.
Prayer of the
Congregation of Our Lady of Sion
Priest
and People: God of all goodness and Father of mercies, we beseech Thee,
through the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and by the intercession of the
Patriarchs and holy Apostles, to cast a look of compassion upon the
children of Israel, that they may be brought to the knowledge of our
only Savior, Jesus Christ, and may partake of the precious fruits of
the Redemption. “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”
Amen.
Priest:
Our Lady of Atonement, intercede for us.
People:
That there may be fulfilled the prayer of thy Divine Son, “That all may
be one.”
Note: Sadly, this
prayer is no longer in use by the Congregation of Our Lady of Sion,
which has abandoned the original charism -- to pray for the conversion
of the Jewish people -- for which it was founded in 1843 by Jewish
convert Theodor Ratisbonne (click here
for a pdf file of his Memoirs -- 9 meg, so may take awhile to
download). His brother Alphonse Ratisbonne followed him into the
Church and into the priesthood after receiving an apparition of the
Blessed Virgin Mary -- click here for an account of his
miraculous conversion. The two brothers spent much of the rest of
their lives in the Holy Land,
founding religious communities to pray for the conversion of the
Jews. Both were consumed with zeal to share with their Jewish
brethren the infinite treasure
that they had discovered: the Jewish Messiah Jesus and the
fulfilment of Judaism in the Catholic Church!
Let us join them in
their noble apostolate of prayer and evangelization!
Prayer to Saint Paul
Priest:
O holy Apostle Paul of Tarsus, from your glorious place in heaven, look
down upon the race you loved so well. True it is that many of them
remained deaf to your ringing words of truth, and that some of them
even stirred up persecution against you and your fellow believers, but
you were so devoted to your people that you willed to become a castaway
for the sake of their conversion. Now that you are glorious in heaven,
obtain for your brethren the grace of repentance and conversion, so
that they may finally take their rightful place in the great family of
the Catholic Church.
People:
Amen.
Postulatum from the 1st Vatican
Council (1869-70)
The undersigned Fathers of the Council humbly yet urgently beseechingly
pray that the Holy Ecumenical Council of the Vatican deign to come to
the aid of the unfortunate nation of Israel with an entirely paternal
invitation; that it express the wish that, finally exhausted by a wait
no less futile than long, the Israelites hasten to recognize the
Messiah, our Savior Jesus Christ, truly promised to Abraham and
announced by Moses; thus completing and crowning, not changing, the
Mosaic religion.
On one hand, the undersigned Fathers have the very firm confidence that
the holy Council will have compassion on the Israelites, because they
are always very dear to God on account of their fathers, and because it
is from them that the Christ was born according to the flesh.
On the other hand, the same Fathers share the sweet and intimate hope
that this ardent desire of tenderness and honor will be, with the aid
of the Holy Spirit, well received by many of the sons of Abraham,
because the obstacles which have held them back until now appear to be
disappearing more and more, the ancient wall of separation now having
fallen.
Would that they then speedily acclaim the Christ, saying “Hosanna to
the Son of David! Blessed be He who comes in the name of the
Lord!”
Would that they hurl
themselves into the arms of the Immaculate Virgin Mary, even now their
sister according to the flesh, who wishes likewise to be their mother
according to grace as she is ours!
AMEN.
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