20 “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21 that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— 23 I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.
John 17:20-23

Dear God, I think I’m going to be praying this passage over and over again for the time being. My wife told me last night that she has been spending a lot of time in prayer in our church’s chapel over the strife in our country right now. I asked what specifically she is praying and, to her credit, a lot of it was focused around your church and our response. Yes, that is a good place to start.

So I’m combining that with the knowledge that Satan’s goal is to work against that prayer and divide us. Divide us against each other as Christians. Divide us against others in our community. Divide us against our own family. And divide us, ultimately against you. He doesn’t care how successful we are or how much we might struggle. That’s not the war he is in. The war he is fighting is our unity with you. He is against our peace and joy because he knows that our suffering is the only way to make you suffer.

Father, I pray for your church. From nondenominational to Catholic, make us one, Father, as you and Jesus are one. And help us to abide in you. Reveal and unmask the plans of Satan to us. Help us to see the battle that is waging among the powers and principalities of this world. And help us to run to you. Help us to march into battle behind the power of Jesus and what he did for us. Help us to be lead by the Holy Spirit. Show us as a faith community the actions you want us to take, and that starts with prayer and clinging to you. As for me, show me my role in all of this. She me where my faith lacks. Reveal to me where I am failing you. I’m sorry for the ways I’ve contributed to any of this.

In Jesus’s name I pray,

Amen