Spiritual Ecumenism

From an Orthodox perspective - with all the thousand year long history behind me that that entails, especially in regards to our relationships and recriminations vis a vis the Roman Catholic Church - I firmly believe that if there is any hope for a true "union" of all Christians in One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church - based not on any grudgingly agreed-upon lowest common denominator but in Truth, The Truth, in Jesus Christ Himself - it can be achieved only by a growth in our own personal holiness. The more we come to resemble our Divine Lord, the more our errors, our misconceptions, our prejudices, yes, our sins will fade away ... and, no, this won't be any sort of minimalism at all. Quite the contrary! In any case, I remember Pope Benedict saying something similar at last year's World Youth Day ... but couldn't find his statement ... till today: "It is obvious that this dialogue can develop only in a context of sincere and committed spirituality. We cannot 'bring about' unity by our powers alone. We can only obtain unity as a gift of the Holy Spirit. Consequently, spiritual ecumenism - prayer, conversion and the sanctification of life - constitutes the heart of the meeting and of the ecumenical movement (cf. Unitatis Redintegratio, n. 8; Ut Unum Sint, 15ff., 21, etc.). It could be said that the best form of ecumenism consists in living in accordance with the Gospel." ECUMENICAL MEETING - ADDRESS OF HIS HOLINESS POPE BENEDICT XVI - Cologne, Archbishop’s House. Friday, 19 August 2005. Hmm. And now I'm seeing connections to Soloviev's "A Short Story of Antichrist" ...