My view of eccumenism and Christian Unity

Although I think my other posts make all of this obvious, I thought I'd just write something today on how I personally view eccumenism and Christian Unity.

When people talk about unity, they usually go right to where faiths disagree. I don't understand that. I really think that what divides most faiths is a misunderstanding about where they actually agree.

If people focus first on their common ground, they find out that they are usually saying the same thing in different ways.

Just to focus on Catholic and Orthodox for a second, there is so much we have in common. There are also things we disagee on. But if you look at what we have in common, you see a shared mindset and love in Christ. If you look at where we disagree with that mindset, you see that we agree in many respects where we appear to disagree.

Sometimes I hear that Roman Catholics can be to legalistic in their dogmatic language. This is true. I do not know how many times I am talking with friends from the faiths of the protestant reformation and end up saying, "well, we believe that too...we just say it this way."

I could give a long list on where Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant disagree. But how about a short one on where they agree:

Jesus Christ is the son of God. He became man and died for us. He rose from the dead and defeated death for us. He loves us. He wants us to love each other. We are one body in Christ.

I could list dozens maybe hundreds of things we agree on, but above is where it all starts.

About His mother Mary, Catholic and Orthodox disagee on some doctrine, but we agree that she is the God Bearer and deserves veneration and love for her acceptance of Gods will. They yes of Mary to what God asked her to do, is the greatest example of the holy use of the gift of free will. We also agree that Mary loves us as well.

With our Protestant brothers and sisters, Mary is more difficult. Sometimes Roman Catholics are accused of worshiping Mary. But we don't, Catholic and Orthodox agree that nothing would cause Mary more pain than being placed above her Son. The Catholic rosary is a Christological prayer. With Mary we view the events in the life of Christ.

The rosary to me, has been and always will be, an invitation from the mother to know the Son. When I pray the rosary I imagine the mother of God taking my hand and saying, "Come walk with me and know my Son."

If we look at where we all agree that is the first step toward Unity.

I am in a very good mood today because my wife got me an ice cream cake. It is not my birthday yet, but we are off of work together today and will be working on my birthday.

There is somthing we can agree on: ice cream cake is tasty.