Posted on 01/18/2012 3:19:15 PM PST by NYer
.- Pope Benedict XVI said today that achieving Christian unity requires more than “cordiality and cooperation” and that it must be accompanied by interior conversion.
“Faith in Christ and interior conversion, both individual and communal, must constantly accompany our prayer for Christian unity,” said the Pope to over 8,000 pilgrims gathered in the Vatican’s Paul VI Audience Hall on Jan. 18.
The Pope’s comments mark the start of the 2012 Week of Prayer for Christian Unity that runs until Jan. 25. It will be observed by over 300 Christian churches and ecclesial communities around the globe.
The Pope asked for “the Lord in a particular way to strengthen the faith of all Christians, to change our hearts and to enable us to bear united witness to the Gospel.”
In this way, he said, they “will contribute to the new evangelization and respond ever more fully to the spiritual hunger of the men and women of our time.”
The Pope explained that the concept of a week of prayer for Christian unity was initiated in 1908 by Paul Wattson, an Episcopalian minister from Maryland. One year later, he became a Catholic and was subsequently ordained to the priesthood.
Pope Benedict recalled how the initiative was supported by his predecessors Pope St. Pius X and Pope Benedict XV. It was then “developed and perfected” in the 1930s by the Frenchman Abbé Paul Couturier, who promoted prayer “for the unity of the Church as Christ wishes and according to the means he wills.”
The mandate for the week of prayer, the Pope underscored, comes from the wish of Christ himself at the Last Supper “that they may all be one.” He observed that this mission was given a particular impetus by the Second Vatican Council (1962-65) but added that “the unity we strive for cannot result merely from our own efforts.” Rather, “it is a gift we receive and must constantly invoke from on high.”
The theme for 2012 Week of Prayer – “All shall be changed by the victory of Jesus Christ our Lord” – was crafted by the Polish Ecumenical Council. Pope Benedict said it reflects “their own experience as a nation,” which stayed faithful to Christ “in the midst of trials and upheavals,” including years of occupation by the Nazis and later the Communists.
The Pope tied the victory the Polish people experienced over their oppressors to overcoming the disunity that marks Christians.
He said that the “unity for which we pray requires inner conversion, both shared and individual,” and it cannot be “limited to cordiality and cooperation.” Instead, Christians must accept “all the elements of unity which God has conserved for us.”
Ecumenism, the Pope stated, is not an optional extra for Catholics but is “the responsibility of the entire Church and of all the baptized.” Christians, he said, must make praying for unity an “integral part” of their prayer life, “especially when people from different traditions come together to work for victory in Christ over sin, evil, injustice and the violation of human dignity.”
Pope Benedict then touched on the lack of unity in the Christian community, which he said “hinders the effective announcement of the Gospel and endangers our credibility.” Evangelizing formerly Christian countries and spreading the Gospel to new places will be “more fruitful if all Christians together announce the truth of the Gospel and Jesus Christ, and give a joint response to the spiritual thirst of our times,” he explained.
The Pope concluded his comments with the hope that this year’s Week of Prayer for Christian Unity will lead to “increased shared witness, solidarity and collaboration among Christians, in expectation of that glorious day when together we will all be able to celebrate the Sacraments and profess the faith transmitted by the Apostles.”
The general audience finished with Pope Benedict addressing pilgrims in various languages, including greeting a group of men and women from the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps, before leading the crowd in the Our Father and imparting his apostolic blessing.
That “MY GOSPEL” would be the gospel of the grace of God. That was committed to the Apostle Paul to preach. Better get busy, cupcake, looking for that Gospel. You WILL be judged by it one day. That’s what God says. Not your church.
>>I’m shaking in my boots.
10 He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in him: he that believeth not God hath made him a liar; because he hath not believed in the witness that God hath borne concerning his Son.
11 And the witness is this, that God gave unto us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.
12 He that hath the Son hath the life; he that hath not the Son of God hath not the life.
=====================================================
So according to his popeness having the Son is not enough, but one must also be catholic???
Okaaaayyy then.
I’m lucky to have once been a Lutheran and not a Calvinist.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_i8Kfce2_BU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ms_69tjgWmQ&feature=relmfu
Here are a few clips of the pope encouraging the reading of the Holy Bible.
Here also a few encyclicals on the Bible. (courtesy of "the sacred page.")
. Pope Leo XIII,
Encyclical Letter On the Study of Sacred Scripture, Providentissimus Deus, 1893 2. Pope Benedict XV,
Encyclical Letter Commemorating the Fifteenth Centenary of the Death of St. Jerome, Spiritus Paraclitus, 1920 3. Pope Pius XII,
Encyclical Letter Promoting Biblical Studies, Divino Afflante Spiritu, 1943
Of course, a Calvinist really cannot talk of luck, right?
The Gospel according to you? No.
If you are preaching Sola Fide, you would need Holy Scripture to support it. I believe you separate the Gospel according to Christ from the Gospel according to St. Paul. But St. Paul does not teach this modern view.
It’s an irrational separation of what one believes only versus what one really believes and trusts in as shown in real life.
Scripturally, sola fide like sola scriptura fails its own criteria.
“But if there be any (heresies) which are bold enough to plant themselves in the midst Of the apostolic age, that they may thereby seem to have been handed down by the apostles, because they existed in the time of the apostles, we can say: Let them produce the original records of their churches; let them unfold the roll of their bishops, running down in due succession from the beginning in such a manner that [that first bishop of theirs] bishop shall be able to show for his ordainer and predecessor some one of the apostles or of apostolic men,—a man, moreover, who continued stedfast with the apostles. For this is the manner in which the apostolic churches transmit their registers: as the church of Smyrna, which records that Polycarp was placed therein by John; as also the church of Rome, which makes Clement to have been ordained in like manner by Peter. In exactly the same way the other churches likewise exhibit (their several worthies), whom, as having been appointed to their episcopal places by apostles, they regard as transmitters of the apostolic seed. Let the heretics contrive something of the same kind. For after their blasphemy, what is there that is unlawful for them (to attempt)? But should they even effect the contrivance, they will not advance a step. For their very doctrine, after comparison with that of the apostles, will declare, by its own diversity and contrariety, that it had for its author neither an apostle nor an apostolic man; because, as the apostles would never have taught things which were self-contradictory, so the apostolic men would not have inculcated teaching different from the apostles, unless they who received their instruction from the apostles went and preached in a contrary manner. To this test, therefore will they be submitted for proof by those churches, who, although they derive not their founder from apostles or apostolic men (as being of much later date, for they are in fact being founded daily), yet, since they agree in the same faith, they are accounted as not less apostolic because they are akin in doctrine. Then let all the heresies, when challenged to these two tests by our apostolic church, offer their proof of how they deem themselves to be apostolic. But in truth they neither are so, nor are they able to prove themselves to be what they are not. Nor are they admitted to peaceful relations and communion by such churches as are in any way connected with apostles, inasmuch as they are in no sense themselves apostolic because of their diversity as to the mysteries of the faith.”
Tertullian,Prescription against the Heretics,33(A.D. 200),in ANF,III:258
“As I have already observed, the Church, having received this preaching and this faith, although scattered throughout the whole world, yet, as if occupying but one house, carefully preserves it. She also believes these points [of doctrine] just as if she had but one soul, and one and the same heart, and she proclaims them, and teaches them, and hands them down, with perfect harmony, as if she possessed only one mouth. For, although the languages of the world are dissimilar, yet the import of the tradition is one and the same. For the Churches which have been planted in Germany do not believe or hand down anything different, nor do those in Spain, nor those in Gaul, nor those in the East, nor those in Egypt, nor those in Libya, nor those which have been established in the central regions of the world. But as the sun, that creature of God, is one and the same throughout the whole world, so also the preaching of the truth shineth everywhere, and enlightens all men that are willing to come to a knowledge of the truth. Nor will any one of the rulers in the Churches, however highly gifted he may be in point of eloquence, teach doctrines different from these (for no one is greater than the Master); nor, on the other hand, will he who is deficient in power of expression inflict injury on the tradition. For the faith being ever one and the same, neither does one who is able at great length to discourse regarding it, make any addition to it, nor does one, who can say but little diminish it.”
Irenaeus, Against Heresies, 1:10(A.D. 180),in ANF,I:331
Your understanding of Catholicism is extremely lacking -- you make assertions regarding it's teachings, but without any facts to back them up.
Read up a bit before trying to argue. Look, there was a time when my faith in the Catholic Church was shaken. As a result I read up on It's teachings, as well as the teachings of several protestant denominations. In the end my faith and understanding were strengthened. Get a deeper understanding of what Catholic teachings state (not what you've been TOLD they state!) and you may very well be suprised by the result.
I believe you separate the Gospel according to Christ from the Gospel according to St. Paul. But St. Paul does not teach this modern view.I dunno what smvoice believes, s/he won't say. What is clear is that smvoice is willing to post utter nonsense, claim the ability to judge and claim some sort of secret knowledge of salvation that, so far, smvoice has refused to articulate (at least in any meaningful, rational way). All in all, it appears that smvoice is like so many of the small cults that spring up on the fringes, full of sound and fury that signify nothing.
You haven’t shown me YET what the Gospel according to Christ IS. And yet you judge my intentions. All I asked for is what the Gospel that your Pope preaches every day is. You said he preaches it every day. I didn’t say it. You did. What is the Gospel according to Christ?
I think it is some flavor of Dispensationalism, one of the offshoots rooted in the 19th Century writings of John Nelson Darby and the Brethren Movement.
Sola Scriptura is precisely why Evangelicalism is whithering away.
The Barna Group, which tracks trends in Evangelicalism has found that younger Evangelicals increasingly hold a more liberal view of the Bible than their elders.
http://www.barna.org/barna-update/article/12-faithspirituality/317-new-research-explores-how-different-generations-view-and-use-the-bible?q=bible
Evangelicals should be worrying about the apostasy in their own ranks rather than standing in judgement of others.
The fruits of the private interpretation of scripture apart from Sacred Tradition or confessional norms in the case of the Churches of the Reformation have come home to roost.
Within a generation, Evangelicalism will be part of the mainline and will be indistinguishable from the sort of liberal Protestantism that most of the Catholics on FR fled.
Question answered?
If you don't think Catholics believe it is by the grace of God that we are saved, then you're in error.
If you think God's grace is only for some lucky few, as in Calvinism, then you're in error.
If you think Christ or Paul taught universalism, you are mistaken.
If you follow teachers of easy believerism, intellectual belief/assent only, then you are mistaken.
So what is your belief of salvation by grace that you attribute to St. Paul? And where did you learn this?
“What is the Gospel according to Christ?”
What do you think/claim/teach that it is?
lol! That’s exactly what I’m attempting to do here. And yet..not one of you has told me what the Gospel of your salvation is, at least according to what the Catholic Church teaches. Surprise me. Give me a STATED Catholic teaching on the Gospel, you know, so I’m not “forced” to depend on what I’ve been “told”..So, what is the Gospel of Christ, according to the infallible RCC?
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