Pastor's Corner: Abiding in Christ

This next work week, Monday-Friday, Jan. 18-22, the Greater Havre Area Ministerial Association - G.H.A.M.A. - will be leading our community in observing the "Week of Prayer for Christian Unity." Each of the five mornings, we are inviting people to gather at the St. Jude's Parish Center at 7 a.m. for devotions, prayer, and breakfast together. The minister sharing the devotions will change from day to day: Monday – Pastor Curt Curtis, Havre Assembly; Tuesday – Father Dan Wathen or Deacon Tim Maroney, St. Jude's Catholic; Wednesday - Pastor Megan Hoewisch, First Lutheran; Thursday - Pastor Sean Janssen, Messiah Lutheran; and Friday - Pastor Curt Curtis.

St. Jude's Catholic Church will be providing and serving the breakfast Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday; First Lutheran Wednesday; and Havre Assembly Friday. The following comments are taken from the "Week of Prayer for Christian Unity" website:

Our spiritual well-being is as important as our physical well-being. In the past year both of these have been seriously challenged: the COVID-19 pandemic has caused us to be careful about our own health, taking precautions such as washing hands and wearing facemasks and maintaining social distance. Some of us have been ill or have lost someone close to us. Meanwhile the working lives of many have been disrupted and families kept apart, often at huge personal cost. Perhaps it has made us all more anxious about our health and more aware of our vulnerability. At the same time church buildings have been closed and worship has been taking place online. Opportunities to worship and pray together have been seriously curtailed. We may well be feeling a sense of isolation from God as well as our neighbor.

The period of lockdown that we have lived through has caused us to take a step back to think again about our priorities and the things and people that we value, that make our lives whole. The long periods of absence from extended family and friends, and the inability to share a meal together or celebrate a birthday or a wedding, are examples of this.

When it comes to our spiritual life, what is it that is most important for our well-being? As church life was to a large extent paused for the first time for most people, what does it mean to be part of the one church, the Body of Christ when all we see of our sisters and brothers are on the screen of a laptop?

When the World Council of Churches and the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity invited the sisters of the Community of Grandchamp in Switzerland to produce the material for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity for 2021, they could not have foreseen the pandemic and its impact. Yet the Sisters of Grandchamp have offered us something uniquely precious: an opportunity to engage with a form of prayer that is both very ancient and yet at the same time so apposite for our times. The ancient rhythm of prayer found in many religious orders and their traditions teach us that when we pray, we pray not just on our own or with those who share the same physical space, but with the whole church, the Body of Christ, of Christians in other places and in different times.

Introduction to this year's theme

The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity in 2021 has been prepared by the Monastic Community of Grandchamp in Switzerland. The theme that was chosen, "Abide in my love and you shall bear much fruit," is based on John 15:1-17 and expresses Grandchamp Community's vocation to prayer, reconciliation and unity in the Church and the human family.

Jesus said to the disciples, "abide in my love" (Jn 15:9). He abides in the love of the Father (Jn 15:10) and desires nothing other than to share this love with us: "I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father" (Jn 15:15b). Grafted into the vine, which is Jesus himself, the Father becomes our vinedresser who prunes us to make us grow. This describes what happens in prayer. The Father is the center of our lives, who centers our lives. He prunes us and makes us whole, and whole human beings give glory to the Father.

Abiding in Christ is an inner attitude that takes root in us over time. It demands space to grow. It can be overtaken by the struggle for the necessities of life and it is threatened by the distractions, noise, activity and the challenges of life.

We live in a time that is both troubling and magnificent, an often dangerous time where we are challenged by pandemics, wars, violence, poverty and racism. Yet as Christians seeking reconciliation, justice and peace, we also know the full value of a spiritual life, have an immense responsibility and must realize it, unite and help each other create forces of calmness, refuges of peace, vital centers where the silence of people calls on the creative word of God. It is a question of life and death.

Though we, as Christians, abide in the love of Christ, we also live in a creation that groans as it waits to be set free (cf. Romans 8). In the world we witness the evils of suffering and conflict. Through solidarity with those who suffer we allow the love of Christ to flow through us. The paschal mystery bears fruit in us when we offer love to our brothers and sisters and nurture hope in the world.

Spirituality and solidarity are inseparably linked. Abiding in Christ, we receive the strength and wisdom to act against structures of injustice and oppression, to fully recognize ourselves as brothers and sisters in humanity, and to be creators of a new way of living,

Prayer and everyday life are not two separate realities but are meant to be united. All that we experience is meant to become an encounter with God.

Here are the eight daily subthemes, five of which we may go over during the week:

Day 1 Called by god; "You did not choose me but I chose you" (John 15:16a).

Day 2 Maturing internally; "Abide in me as I abide in you" (John 15:4a).

Day 3 Forming one body; "Love one another as I have loved you" (John 15:12b).

Day 4 Praying together; "I do not call you servants any longer... but I have called you

 friends" (John 15:15).

Day 5 Letting oneself be transformed by the word; "You have already been pruned by the word..." (John 15:3).

Day 6 Welcoming others; "Go and bear fruit, fruit that will last" (John 15:16b).

Day 7 Growing in unity; "I am the vine, you are the branches" (John 15:5a).

Day 8 Reconciling with all of creation; "So that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete" (John 15:11).

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The Rev. Edroy "Curt" Curtis is president of the Greater Havre Area Ministerial Association, Northern Montana Care Center chaplain and Lead Pastor of Havre Assembly of God Church