Dear Lord,

We come to You today, particularly on behalf of our brothers and sisters in Christ who do not regard us as brothers and sisters in Christ. We know that such disunity grieves You, and know how scandalous it is to the observing world, since Your Son commanded us to be one as You and Your Son are one (John 17:11), so that the world would know that He was the Messiah and Son of God (John 17:21).

Please forgive them their errors in this regard; have mercy on them, and reveal to them the wickedness of Christian disunity. Help them to better understand that the Catholic Church is not what they think it is. Please forgive us, Father, our sins of language and lack of charity and cynicism and for unnecessarily striking back in anger or frustration. Help us to be more compassionate and loving and gracious, as You are.

Lord, help us all to control our tongues. Forgive us (through the blood of Jesus and Your Holy Spirit) our frequent pride and arrogance and any haughtiness or triumphalism in our presentations of or defense of Catholic truths. Help us to do better, with Your aid and guidance.

Bless these precious brethren abundantly, O Lord. Reward them for their zeal and desire to serve You. We thank You for the edifying work they do, such as refuting theological errors and fighting for the right to life of preborn children.

Help us, dear Father, to remember that many of us were also formerly blind. Like Paul, we persecuted and misrepresented that which we sincerely fought against, but with misguided and hurtful and divisive zeal. We believed that the Catholic Church was a promulgator of darkness and opposed to the gospel of grace; help us remember that in our occasional exasperation over those who sadly believe the same things today. It is all by Your grace that any of us grasp any of Your truths.

We thank You that these brethren care enough about truth to stand up and fight for what they believe in. Help us all, Father, to see when we are blinded by various biases, to listen to explanations, and to grasp what we presently do not comprehend.

Remove from all of us our blind spots, fallacies, errors, stubbornness and pride. We ask that You bless our brothers and sisters who are most hostile to the Catholic Church (and all of our Christian brethren) with all good things: particularly with wisdom, discernment and effectiveness of witness and outreach when they are preaching Your truths: ones that all Christians accept in common.

We pray, Lord, that all Christians can better seek to understand each other, pray for each other, rejoice in the many things we share, and to respectfully discuss those areas where we have honest, sincere disagreements. Don’t let any of us fall into the sin of indifference.

Father, we fervently pray for Christian unity. As Catholics, we believe that our Church is the One True Church that You established. But we understand that those who are not formally members of the Catholic Church are not deprived of Your grace, or fellowship with You, or of the many endowments of the Holy Spirit and knowledge of truths of Christianity. Quite the contrary. Your grace is not confined to institutional structures (however true or necessary those structures may be, in and of themselves).

Thank You for these brethren, Lord, and all of the many important contributions that they bring to the Body of Christ. We praise You especially for the sacraments of baptism and marriage, shared by these brethren with us.

Thank You for their zeal, their fire and witness, love of the Bible and prayer and fellowship; for their fervent worship and desire to make Your Son Jesus Lord of all of life, for their commitment to evangelism of the lost, and for their stances for traditional morality, and against the spirit of the age. Thank You for our pro-life separated brethren in Christ. We know that in many ways these brethren put many Catholics to shame, in their day-to-day committed discipleship.

May we learn in these many ways from their praiseworthy examples, and the true and beneficial aspects of these various non-Catholic Christian traditions and ways of life, and we ask that we may also be good witnesses of the Catholic tradition, by Your entirely undeserved mercy and grace.

I ask for Your blessing, especially on those who criticize the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church. Guide and protect them from evil and falsehood, Lord. Lead those who want to follow You into the fullness of Your paths of truth and righteousness.

We know that these brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus are sincere and honest and believe what they do with all the passion and commitment that we bring to our own heartfelt doctrinal beliefs. Show all of us what is right and wrong, and true and false. Help us to appreciate each other and to pray for one another, and to (particularly) pray for those who may speak all manner of evil against us, and even to rejoice that they do, and not to return insult with insult (Matthew 5:11-12).

Be with all of us, Lord. We are Your people; miserable and divided and compromised and sinful though we may be. Guide our very footsteps, that we may not slip and fall (Psalm 17:5). Set us upon Your rock (Psalm 27:5). Don’t let us fall into the great sin of divisiveness and discord against our brethren in Christ. Help us to guard ourselves, by Your grace, so that deadly poison may not proceed from our tongues (James 3:8).

Especially, we ask that You be with our separated brethren, Lord, and guide them. Bless them, reward them for their devotion to You, and have mercy on us.

In Jesus’ precious and glorious name, and by the grace made possible by His shed blood on the cross on our behalf; Amen.

Dave Armstrong has been a published Catholic apologist since 1993 and webmaster since 1997. He lives in Allen Park, grew up in Detroit, and has attended St. Joseph Church near downtown since 1991. He’s been happily married to his wife Judy since 1984, and they have three sons and a daughter. Dave has written or edited 48 books on apologetics, including several bestsellers. If you’d like to help keep his influential teaching apostolate going as a much-needed monthly supporter, write to Dave at [email protected].