Catholics asked to thank God for the â€˜insightsâ€™ of the Reformation

The Catholic and Lutheran Churches have issued a joint prayer thanking God for the "insights" received through the Reformation.

The service has been devised by the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity and the Lutheran World Federation in advance of the 500th anniversary of the Reformation next year.

The first jointly developed liturgical order is based on the report "From Conflict to Communion: Lutheran-Catholic Common Commemoration of the Reformation in 2017".

The Common Prayer, which can be adapted to suit local customs and preferences, is led by two presiders, one Catholic and one Lutheran, with two readers, again one Catholic and one Lutheran. Other ecumenical readers and leaders of intercessory prayer can take part in the service.

One prayer reads: "Thanks be to you O God for the many guiding theological and spiritual insights that we have all received through the Reformation. Thanks be to you for the good transformations and reforms that were set in motion by the Reformation or by struggling with its challenges. Thanks be to you for the proclamation of the gospel that occurred during the Reformation and that since then has strengthened countless people to live lives of faith in Jesus Christ. Amen."

The commemoration in 2017 brings joy and gratitude, the Common Prayer says, and must "also allow room for both Lutherans and Catholics to experience the pain over failures and trespasses, guilt and sin in the persons and events that are being remembered".

The service has readings from the report From Conflict to Communion, including: "In the 16th century, Catholics and Lutherans frequently not only misunderstood but also exaggerated and caricatured their opponents in order to make them look ridiculous. They repeatedly violated the eighth commandment, which prohibits bearing false witness against one's neighbour."

One reading says: "Lutherans and Catholics often focused on what separated them from each other rather than looking for what united them. They accepted that the Gospel was mixed with the political and economic interests of those in power. Their failures resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people. Families were torn apart, people imprisoned and tortured, wars fought and religion and faith misused. Human beings suffered and the credibility of the Gospel was undermined with consequences that still impact us today. We deeply regret the evil things that Catholics and Lutherans have mutually done to each other."

The service includes five commitments for Catholics and Lutherans together. "Catholics and Lutherans should always begin from the perspective of unity and not from the point of view of division in order to strengthen what is held in common even though the differences are more easily seen and experienced." They "must let themselves continuously be transformed by the encounter with the other and by the mutual witness of faith" and should "commit themselves to seek visible unity, to elaborate together what this means in concrete steps, and to strive repeatedly toward this goal". And they "should jointly rediscover the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ for our time" and "witness together to the mercy of God in proclamation and service to the world".

Rorate Caeli, the traditionalist site, criticised the Common Prayer, saying it was the "first time that the drive for Catholic-Lutheran union and the glorification of the Reformation has taken a quasi-liturgical shape".

Pope Francis is greeted during a meeting with members of the Lutheran World Federation at the Vatican

>>>Will one of the Lutheran participants â€œsin joyfully?â€

That’s not what he said. At all.

“If you are a preacher of grace, then preach a true and not a fictitious grace; if grace is true, you must bear a true and not a fictitious sin. God does not save people who are only fictitiousï»¿ï»¿ sinners. Be a sinner and sinï»¿ï»¿ boldly,ï»¿ but believe andï»¿ï»¿ rejoice in Christ even more boldly, for he is victorious over sin, death, and the world. As long as we are here [in this world]ï»¿ï»¿ we have to sin. This life is not the dwelling place of righteousness,ï»¿ï»¿ but, as Peter says,ï»¿ï»¿ we look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousnessï»¿ dwells. It is enough that byï»¿ï»¿ the riches of Godâ€™s glory we have come to know the Lamb that takes away the sin of the world.ï»¿ï»¿ No sin will separate us from the Lamb, even though we commit fornication and murder a thousand times a day. Do you think that the purchase price that was paid for the redemption of our sinsï»¿ by so great a Lamb is too small? Pray boldlyâ€”you too are a mighty sinner.ï»¿”

http://ugleyvicar.blogspot.com/2013/05/martin-luthers-sin-boldly-quote-in.html

“If you are a preacher of grace, then preach a true and not a fictitious grace; if grace is true, you must bear a true and not a fictitious sin...

Which more of the the polemical hyperbole of Luther, and not always teaching correct doctrine. One cannot truly believe on the Lord Jesus with Scriptural saving faith if regularly impenitently committing such sins as fornication, even if "boldly" is dismissed as a mere rhetorical device. And which is contrary to other teaching by Luther.

Christ is the priest, all men are spiritual lepers because of unbelief; but when we come to faith in him he touches us With his hand, gives and lays upon us his merit and we become clean and whole without any merit on our part whatever. We are therefore to show our gratitude to him and acknowledge that we have not become pious by our own works, but through his grace, then our course will be right before God..

"This is what I have often said, if faith be true, it will break forth and bear fruit."

“We must therefore most certainly maintain that where there is no faith there also can be no good works; and conversely, that there is no faith where there are no good works. Therefore faith and good works should be so closely joined together that the essence of the entire Christian life consists in both.”

“Thus faith casts itself on God, and breaks forth and becomes certain through its works.

"For if you continue in pride and lewdness, in greed and anger, and yet talk much of faith, St. Paul will come and say, 1 Cor. 4:20, look here my dear Sir, "the kingdom of God is not in word but in power." It requires life and action, and is not brought about by mere talk.”

"...faith is a living and an essential thing, which makes a new creature of man, changes his spirit and wholly and completely converts him. It goes to the foundation and there accomplishes a renewal of the entire man; so, if I have previously seen a sinner, I now see in his changed conduct, manner and life, that he believes. So high and great a thing is faith.

.'Such a faith will work in you love for Christ and joy in him, and good works will naturally follow. If they do not, faith is surely not present: for where faith is, there the Holy Ghost is and must work love and good works.”

"For it is impossible for him who believes in Christ, as a just Savior, not to love and to do good. If, however, he does not do good nor love, it is sure that faith is not present.

Sources and more.

And Scripture also warns believers, as believers, against having an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God, falling from grace, drawing back into perdition, making Christ of no effect/profit, falling from grace. (Heb. 3:12; 10:38; Gal. 5:1-4) Thus God works to chasten wayward souls to repentance, lest they “be condemned with the rest of the world.” (1Co. 11:32

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