Witnesses to Unity. Day 2: Betty Williams and Mairead Corrigan

An Octave of Prayers for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity

Welcome to Day Two of a Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, brought to you by three Catholic spirituality centers. We invite you to pray with us as we post short prayers and reflections based the witness of eight ecumenical leaders, for each of the eight days.

The spirituality centers are the Marillac Center in Leavenworth, Kansas, the Sophia Center in Atchison, Kansas and Precious Blood Renewal Center in Liberty, Missouri.

We encourage you to share these prayers with members of your family and circle of acquaintances, including those who belong to another faith tradition.

Together, let us pray. (pause)

A reading from the Book of Genesis 1: 1-5

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.

And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.  God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness.  God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning — the first day.

Betty Williams and Mairead Corrigan

Following is an excerpt from the speech delivered by the Egil Aarvik, vice chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee on December 10, 1977, when Betty Williams and Mairead Corrigan were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. It is titled “Peace Must March.”

On August 10, 1976, a remarkable incident occurred in one of the streets of Belfast in Northern Ireland. A man, in an attempted getaway, comes tearing down the street in his car, trying to shake off his pursuers. Suddenly a shot rings out, and with a mortally wounded driver slumped over the steering-wheel, the vehicle swerves into a fence, knocking down a mother and her three children. The mother, though badly injured, survived, while her three children were killed on the spot.

In the area where the three children were killed lived a housewife: she heard the thud as the car crashed into the fence, and as she hurried to the spot she took in the whole horror of the scene. At that moment something happened in that woman’s mind: it was like the bursting of a dam.

What she saw shocked her profoundly; but even more, she was overwhelmed with a passionate desire to make a stand against all violence and terror. Now, for heaven’s sake, something must be done! She started to go from door to door in the actual street where the tragedy had occurred. The time had come when the ordinary man and woman must rise in protest against this senseless use of violence. It was no longer a question of political attitudes or religious convictions. There was only one remedy: the people themselves must cry halt. Radio and television showed a certain amount of interest in the housewife’s campaign, and she was given an opportunity of making a broadcast appeal to the Irish people not to capitulate to terror. Peace must not be allowed to sit idly on the sidelines: now, for once, peace must march!

Her appeal found a ready response. More and more people rallied to her call. One of the first to do so was an aunt of the three children, and these two women now marched boldly out into the no-man’s land of war, proclaiming their simple, heartening message of reconciliation. From these small beginnings sprang what today, the world over, is known as the Peace Movement of Northern Ireland.

Protestant and Catholic, Betty Williams and Mairead Corrigan have shown us what ordinary people can do to promote the cause of peace. The two women who share the Peace Prize for 1976 have refused to bow to bleak skepticism: they simply acted. They never heeded the difficulty of their task: they merely tackled it because they were so convinced that this precisely was what was needed. There was no talk here of ingenious theories, of shrewd diplomacy or pompous declarations. No, their contribution was a far better one: a courageous, unselfish act that proved an inspiration to thousands, that lit a light in the darkness, and that gave fresh hope to people who believed that all hope was gone.

Take a minute of silence now, and reflect:

• What brings light to your heart and soul?
• Where are you called to be a source of light for others in our divisive world?

Then pray:

God, our Creator strengthen our hearts in expectation and hope as we work for unity and together seek the harmony of all creation.

Let us be burning lamps, until the day of the coming of your Son in glory, with all his saints in the everlasting kingdom.

Blessed are you, now and forever, and to the ages of ages.

Amen.

Thank you for praying with us today. Please join us again tomorrow.

All of the prayers in this series can be found here: Witnesses to Unity: Prayers for Christian Unity.

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Watch our introductory video

Learn more about these Catholic Spirituality Centers:

The Marillac Center, the retreat and spirituality center of the Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth, in Leavenworth, Kansas.

The Sophia Center is a ministry of the Benedictine Sisters of Mount St. Scholastica in Atchison, Kansas.

Precious Blood Renewal Center, in Liberty, Missouri, is a ministry of the United States Province of the Missionaries of the Precious Blood, a Catholic religious order.

Photo Credit: From the Nobel Foundation archive.

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