Today in the book In Caelo et in Terra, we face a sad but inspiring story. Cyril and Methodius were very intelligent brothers who were called to do mission work in Moravia, which is now called the Czech Republic. They translated the mass into the local Slavic language, inventing an alphabet in order to do so. This faced great opposition in the Catholic church, where saying mass in the local vernacular was not the norm. They went to Rome and the Pope approved their vernacular mass, and Methodius returned to Moravia to continue spreading the gospel and the church. Cyril passed away in Rome.
But then a new pope came to power who didn't agree with the previous pope's decision, and he disapproved the use of the vernacular mass. This caused a great deal of trouble for Methodius, who was persecuted and attacked for his work in bringing the mass to the local people in Moravia. You can read more about them here.
We see too much of this friendly fire today, too. As Christians, we should be loving one another and praying for each other. But too often, we are attacking each other for differences in our doctrines, and undermining each other's work in bringing the gospel to the world.
The one prayer that Jesus prayed for US was for unity. He literally said that He was praying for me and you, and that we would be one as He and the Father are one. So let's pray for unity in the body of Christians. Let's discuss our differences in love, and let's show love and kindness to the world with a unified front.
God, thanks for praying for our unity, and for teaching us the pain of friendly fire through these saintly brothers. Sts Cyril and Methodius, pray for us.
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