#ecumenism

The Prayers

Trinity Prayer/Sign of the Cross

"In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen"

If making the sign of the cross, touch your forehead on "... the Father," your chest/breastbone on "... the Son," your left shoulder on "... Holy," and your right shoulder on "Spirit."

Opening Prayer (From Hebrews 4:14-16)

"Having then a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let’s hold tightly to our confession. For we don’t have a high priest who can’t be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but one who has been in all points tempted like we are, yet without sin. Let’s therefore draw near with boldness to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and may find grace for help in time of need." (WEB)

The Lord's Prayer/Our Father

"Our Father, Who art in heaven, Hallowed be Thy Name. Thy Kingdom come. Thy Will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen."

The Apostles' Creed

"I believe in God, the Father almighty, Creator of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried; he descended into hell; on the third day he rose again from the dead; he ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty; from there he will come to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting.

Amen."

Agnus Dei

"Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, have mercy on us. Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, grant us peace.”

Prayer to the Father (from Romans 8:32)

Eternal Father, you did not spare your own Son, but delivered Him up for us all.

For the Sake of His Sorrowful Passion

"For the sake of his sorrowful Passion, have mercy on us and on the whole world."

Closing Prayer (from Ephesians 3:20-21)

"Now to him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to him be the glory in the assembly and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen." (WEB)

Suggested Meditations

When we pray repetitive prayers, we don't do it because saying it more times makes it more powerful or meaningful. We do it because it forces us to slow down and spend more time with God, and it gives us structure for meditating on spiritual truths.

Since the Divine Mercy Chaplet doesn't have prescribed meditations, some folks might struggle to know what to reflect on during the repetitions. Here are some suggestions:

Meditate on the Passion. We are invoking Christ's suffering and sacrifice with each bead. Wonder at the greatness of God's mercy in relation to what it cost.

For each set of beads (decade, week, etc.), consider a specific intention. Each set of beads could be a prayer for God's mercy to intervene in our world (war, hunger, disease) or in the lives of individuals (friends, family).

Can you earnestly pray for God to have mercy "on the whole world" when that includes your enemies? Now is a good time to practice.

The Adaptation Process

In my mind, the Chaplet as it already exists is very much ecumenical. I highly recommend that non-Catholics who are interested in using beads, but need audio guides start with the original Divine Mercy Chaplet. There is only one Hail Mary, if that bothers you, and even if you're skeptical about St. Faustina's visions, the prayers attributed to her are still beautiful and sound.

Since the aim of these adaptations is to remove barriers, I still went ahead and replaced the Hail Mary with the Agnus Dei.

As part of creating an onramp for non-Catholics, I love to use a scripture as an opening prayer, so I swapped out the Faustina opening and closing prayers for scriptures related to God's mercy to create matching bookends.

The next question was what to do about the Eternal Father prayer. In this prayer, said on the larger beads, invokes Christ's sacrifice on the cross in a very specific way. It offers to the Father the "Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity" of Jesus for the forgiveness of sins. This language intentionally parallels the Catholic theology of the Eucharist.

To my protestant ears, this wasn't challenging on a first encounter, since I understood myself to be pleading Christ's sacrifice for my salvation even when I was a strict memorialist. Believers who are Orthodox, High-Church Anglicans, and even some Lutherans may be comfortable with the connection to Eucharistic theology as well. However, some protestants may find that this specific invocation violates their conscience.

Again, since my aim is to remove barriers, I opted to replace the traditional Eternal Father prayer with a variation based on Romans 8:32. The first half of this verse emphasizes both the Father and Christ's sacrifice, so in that way it can take a similar role and tone.

At this point I had a bit of a problem: I'd almost Ship of Theseus'd my way into replacing every element of the original Chaplet. Realizing this, I had to take a moment to assess whether I should scrap this specific effort altogether.

Ultimately, I determined that it was still worth continuing with this adaptation. I don't want to replace any historical prayers, but provide more options and resources to believers who, like me, occasionally go looking for some weird, niche prayer, and this definitely fits the bill. Since the prayer on the smaller beads, which make up the bulk of the Chaplet, remains unchanged, I think this could still be referred to as a Divine Mercy Chaplet in a colloquial sense.

Circling back to my statement on the original Chaplet's ecumenism, I'm also planning to publish diagrams for praying the original, non-adapted words of the Divine Mercy Chaplet on Anglican and Lutheran beads.

羅哲弟兄是泰澤團體（Communauté de Taizé）的創辦人。他的一生沒有以建立龐大的組織為目標，而是希望在充滿戰爭、仇恨與宗派分裂的世界裡，建立一個小小的「和好記號」。他相信，基督徒之間即使來自不同教會傳統，仍然可以在基督內一起祈禱、一起生活，並以彼此相愛的方式向世界證明：分裂並不是最後的答案。

羅哲弟兄於1915年5月12日出生在瑞士，本名 Roger Schutz-Marsauche，父親是一位改革宗牧師。青年時期的他曾經罹患肺結核，經歷了一段漫長而安靜的休養生活。疾病使他不得不放慢腳步，也讓他開始深入思考祈禱、信仰與生命的意義。就在這段時間裡，他逐漸產生一個願望：建立一個以祈禱、簡樸生活和兄弟友愛為中心的團體，讓不同背景的人能夠一起尋找天主。

1940年，第二次世界大戰席捲歐洲。當時只有25歲的羅哲離開相對安全的瑞士，前往法國勃艮第地區一個名叫泰澤（Taizé）的小村莊。那裡靠近當時法國的分界線，許多逃避戰火與迫害的人會經過附近。羅哲買下一棟簡陋的房子，開始接待難民，其中也包括受到納粹迫害的猶太人。他提供食物、住宿與安全的地方，同時每天早晨、中午和晚上保持祈禱。後來泰澤團體最重要的精神，其實已經在這段歲月中悄悄形成：真正的祈禱不能離開人的痛苦，而對受苦者的服務，也必須從祈禱中得到力量。

1942年，由於戰爭情勢惡化，羅哲一度無法返回泰澤，只能留在瑞士。然而正是在這段期間，一些青年開始受到他的理想吸引，願意與他一起過共同祈禱與分享生活。1944年法國解放之後，他與幾位弟兄回到泰澤。到了1949年的復活節，羅哲與另外六位弟兄正式作出終身承諾，決定以獨身、共同生活、分享財物和服從團體召叫的方式奉獻一生。泰澤團體就這樣逐漸成形。

羅哲弟兄始終認為，泰澤存在的意義不是成立另一個新的宗派，而是在已經分裂的基督徒之間建立共融。因此，泰澤後來接納來自改革宗、信義宗、聖公會以及天主教等不同基督宗派的弟兄。羅哲也積極與天主教及東正教建立友誼，曾多次前往羅馬，與歷任教宗交流，也與東正教會領袖保持聯繫。他所尋找的不是誰說服誰、誰戰勝誰，而是一條更深的道路：不同傳統的基督徒是否能夠在基督內彼此接納、彼此聆聽，並重新發現原本就屬於所有基督徒的共同信仰。

到了1950年代末期，越來越多年輕人開始來到泰澤。許多人不是因為已經擁有堅定的信仰，而是帶著問題、迷惘甚至懷疑而來。羅哲弟兄並沒有要求這些青年加入泰澤，也沒有把泰澤發展成一個以招募成員為目的的運動。他只是邀請青年一起祈禱、閱讀聖經、保持靜默，並與不同國家、不同教會的人共同生活幾天。久而久之，簡短反覆的歌詠、燭光、聖像、長時間的靜默以及一天三次的共同祈禱，逐漸形成今日人們熟悉的泰澤祈禱方式。

羅哲弟兄特別關心青年，因為他相信青年內心往往存在著對和平、真理與天主的深切渴望。1970年代開始，他提出「青年大公會議」的構想，後來逐漸發展成所謂的「信任的朝聖」。青年來到泰澤，並不是為了永遠留在泰澤，而是在那裡重新發現祈禱與信任之後，再回到自己的家庭、學校、工作場所、堂區與社會中生活福音。泰澤不是終點，而是一個重新出發的地方。

羅哲弟兄的靈修也從來不只停留在安靜的祈禱中。他十分關心貧窮、戰爭與社會不公所造成的痛苦，也多次前往拉丁美洲、亞洲、非洲以及冷戰時期的東歐，與生活在困境中的人相遇。泰澤的弟兄們也陸續前往世界不同地方，以小型團體的方式住在窮人當中。對羅哲而言，祈禱若沒有帶來憐憫，便失去了很重要的一部分；而真正的內在和平，也應當使人更願意靠近受苦的人。

他與加爾各答的聖德蘭修女之間也建立了深厚友誼。兩人的生活道路十分不同，卻有非常相似的信念：基督徒不一定要做轟轟烈烈的大事，而是要在每天的生活中，以單純而具體的方式選擇去愛。對羅哲弟兄而言，基督信仰的核心不是複雜的理論，而是對天主的信任，以及對眼前弟兄姊妹的慈愛。

2005年8月16日晚間，已經90歲的羅哲弟兄像往常一樣參加泰澤和好教堂的晚禱。就在眾人祈禱時，他遭到一名精神狀況不穩定的女子襲擊，因傷離世。他的一生，竟然在一場祈禱中結束。對許多認識泰澤的人而言，這是一個令人震驚而悲痛的時刻：一位一生致力於和平、信任與和好的人，最後卻死於暴力之中。

然而，羅哲弟兄的死亡並沒有使泰澤的故事結束。他早已安排好團體的延續，也從未把泰澤建立在自己的個人魅力之上。直到今天，來自不同國家與不同基督宗派的弟兄仍然在泰澤共同生活，每年也有許多年輕人前往那裡祈禱。羅哲弟兄所留下的，不只是一種祈禱方式，也是一個很簡單卻很深刻的信念：即使世界充滿分裂，人仍然可以選擇信任；即使教會存在傷痕，人仍然可以尋求和好；即使面對仇恨，人仍然可以選擇去愛。

每年的8月16日，也就是羅哲弟兄逝世的日子，泰澤團體以及許多受到泰澤靈修影響的人會特別紀念他。這一天並不是天主教普世禮儀年曆中的正式聖人紀念日，因為羅哲弟兄並未被天主教會冊封為聖人或真福；更準確地說，8月16日是他的逝世周年紀念日。然而對許多人而言，這一天仍然是一個重新回到羅哲弟兄精神的日子：在靜默中祈禱，在不確定中信賴天主，並在充滿分裂的世界裡，努力成為一個和平與和好的小小記號。