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.
Ah, but the Catholic Church is a man-made entity. The ‘church’ was not built on Peter, but on Jesus Christ Himself. The church built on Peter, not Peter’s doing, is a man-made edifice.
>>The primacy of the Church of Rome has been acknowledged since the beginning of the faith, but the Church of Rome alone is NOT the Catholic Church.
You can twist the scriptures all you like. But who taught you to interpret the scriptures? Apparently they never learned to interpret the Bible themselves.
You seem to forget that Jesus said that the Church was built on the rock of St. Peter’s confession of faith.
“Peter, who is called ‘the rock on which the church should be built,’ who also obtained ‘the keys of the kingdom of heaven...’ “
Tertullian,On the Prescription Against the Heretics,22(c.A.D. 200),in ANF,III:253
“And he says to him again after the resurrection, ‘Feed my sheep.’ It is on him that he builds the Church, and to him that he entrusts the sheep to feed. And although he assigns a like power to all the apostles, yet he founded a single Chair, thus establishing by his own authority the source and hallmark of the (Church’s) oneness. No doubt the others were all that Peter was, but a primacy is given to Peter, and it is (thus) made clear that there is but one flock which is to be fed by all the apostles in common accord. If a man does not hold fast to this oneness of Peter, does he imagine that he still holds the faith? If he deserts the Chair of Peter upon whom the Church was built, has he still confidence that he is in the Church? This unity firmly should we hold and maintain, especially we bishops, presiding in the Church, in order that we may approve the episcopate itself to be the one and undivided.”
Cyprian,The Unity of the Church,4-5 (Primacy Text,A.D. 251/256),NE,228-229
“Since, however, it would be very tedious, in such a volume as this, to reckon up the successions of all the Churches, we do put to confusion all those who, in whatever manner, whether by an evil self-pleasing, by vainglory, or by blindness and perverse opinion, assemble in unauthorized meetings; [we do this, I say,] by indicating that tradition derived from the apostles, of the very great, the very ancient, and universally known Church founded and organized at Rome by the two most glorious apostles, Peter and Paul; as also [by pointing out] the faith preached to men, which comes down to our time by means of the successions of the bishops. For it is a matter of necessity that every Church should agree with this Church, on account of its pre- eminent authority, that is, the faithful everywhere, inasmuch as the apostolical tradition has been preserved continuously by those [faithful men] who exist everywhere.”
Irenaeus,Against Heresies,3:3:2 (A.D. 180),in ANF,I:1415-416
John 20:21-23
A fool goes to “mass” to have a lost sinner give him a salvation cookie, keeping himself in the dark until judgement day, when he gets the bad news that he really suspected all along. Of course he can go to “confession” too to let the con be affirmed one more time.
No need for a real relationship with God.
“Interpretation” is the lie.
Scripture is self interpreting when read aloud as instructed: “faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”
So keep on munchin’ your Popios and follow the rest of the lemmings.
>> “What is the Gospel according to Christ?” <<
That out of love, the Father sent his Son to pay the price of the sin of the world, all of the sin, and all of the price, and what one must do to be saved is to believe on the son, exactly as it says in John 3:16
Your filthy raggs works cannot save you.
“Your filthy raggs works cannot save you.””Your filthy raggs works cannot save you.””Your filthy raggs works cannot save you.””Your filthy raggs works cannot save you.””Your filthy raggs works cannot save you.””Your filthy raggs works cannot save you.””Your filthy raggs works cannot save you.””Your filthy raggs works cannot save you.””Your filthy raggs works cannot save you.””Your filthy raggs works cannot save you.””Your filthy raggs works cannot save you.””Your filthy raggs works cannot save you.””Your filthy raggs works cannot save you.””Your filthy raggs works cannot save you.””Your filthy raggs works cannot save you.””Your filthy raggs works cannot save you.”
Words such as "false" "wrong" "error" do not attribute motive.
Discuss the issues all you want, but do not make it personal.
Your man made salvation by works will not save you, nor will the salvation cookie that your fellow lost sinner gives you on sunday. That is not of Christ.
The church of Jesus Christ does not meet in whited sepulchres festooned with mammon and idols, nor does it own any real estate or gold.
Please re-read the post.
I did not call any freeper a liar. I said that the idea of interpretation is the lie (the lie of satan from Genesis 3)
Good, maybe the truth is starting to hit home.
I cannot leave the church; it surrounds me at all times.
Or did you mean that whited sepulchre festooned with mammon, gold and idols?
And then again, maybe not.
s
Yes, Hal is almost as disgusting and deceptive as the Vatican. (but nowhere near as wealthy from the deception)
Which one is you?
The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity
Eight Days reflecting on our change in Christ
Day Two: Changed through patient waiting for the Lord
Let it be so now, for it is proper to fulfil all righteousness (Mt 3:15)
On this day we concentrate on patient waiting for the Lord. To achieve any change, perseverance and patience are needed. Prayer to God for any kind of transformation is also an act of faith and trust in his promises. Such waiting for the Lord is essential for all who pray for the visible unity of the church this week. All ecumenical activities require time, mutual attention and joint action. We are all called to co-operate with the work of the Spirit in uniting Christians.
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