This week’s service has been prepared by the brothers and sisters of the Community at the Abbey of Notre Dame des Dombes
Reflection text
Extracts from text of the International Theological Commission “Jesus Christ, Son of God, Saviour“
1700th anniversary of the Ecumenical Council of Nicaea 325 – 2025
Paragraphs 121 – 122
121. The celebration of the 1,700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea is a pressing invitation to the Church to rediscover the treasure entrusted to her and to draw from it so as to share it with joy, with a new impetus, indeed in a ‘new stage of evangelisation’.[ … ]
122. To proclaim Jesus our salvation on the basis of the faith expressed at Nicaea does not ignore the reality of humanity. It does not turn away from the sufferings and upheavals that plague the world and today seem to undermine all hope. On the contrary, it confronts these troubles by professing the only possible redemption, won by the one who experienced the violence of sin and rejection, the loneliness of abandonment and death, and who, from the very abyss of evil, rose to bring us too in his victory to the glory of the resurrection. This renewed proclamation does not ignore culture and cultures either, but on the contrary, here too with hope and charity listens to them and is enriched by them, invites them to purification and raises them up. Entering into such a hope obviously requires conversion, but first and foremost on the part of those who proclaim Jesus through their life and words, because conversion is a renewal of the mind according to the thought of Christ. Nicaea is the fruit of a transformation of thought that is both implied and made possible by the event of Jesus Christ. In the same way, a new stage of evangelisation will only be possible for those who allow themselves to be renewed by this event, by those who allow themselves to be seized by the glory of Christ, who is always new.
Intercessions
To be adapted or modified according to the place and circumstance
Pope Leo XIV is travelling from 27 November to Tuesday 2 December to Turkey and Lebanon for his first apostolic journey, which will be marked by ecumenism and interreligious dialogue. In Turkey he will make the journey that his weakened predecessor, Pope Francis, was not able to make. Together with Patriarch Bartholomew, they will celebrate the 1700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea in the same city that hosted the first ecumenical council in Christian history.
Lord, we entrust this meeting to you, may it be an opportunity to promote dialogue, concord and fraternity in the midst of the tumult of violence and war.
On 6 November 2025, an updated version of the European Ecumenical Charter was signed in Rome. This joint document of the Conference of European Churches (CEC) and the Council of European Bishops’ Conferences (CCEE), elaborated and signed by six theologians including our sister Estelle Sogbou, aims to respond to contemporary challenges such as migration, climate justice, digitalisation and the role of young people in the churches.
Lord, we entrust to you all those Churches that are working together to meet the challenges of unity, peace and justice in Europe. May they be a source of creativity and a path of hope for our world today.
The community of Oriental Churches of the region of Bourg en Bresse and Grenoble will for the first time join in the preparation of the week of prayer for Christian unity in January 2026.
Lord, we entrust to you this beginning of a collaboration of the ecumenical team around the Abbey of Dombes with the Oriental Churches so that it may be a fruitful seed for the future of ecumenism in the region.
Prayer for Christian unity
Lord Jesus, who prayed that we might all be one,
we pray to you for the unity of Christians,
according to your will,
according to your means.
May your Spirit enable us
to experience the suffering caused by division,
to see our sin
and to hope beyond all hope.
Amen.
(Prayer written by members of the Chemin Neuf Community
inspired by a prayer of Father Paul Couturier)