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.
You declare some statements.
Thank you so much for that post and the ping! It made my day.
You probably already know this but, for the benefit of visitors, I will post this TRUE story.
Danny Thomas and the Founding of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
More than 70 years ago, Danny Thomas, then a struggling young entertainer with a baby on the way, visited a Detroit church and was so moved during the Mass, he placed his last $7 in the collection box. When he realized what he’d done, Danny prayed for a way to pay the looming hospital bills. The next day, he was offered a small part that would pay 10 times the amount he’d given to the church. Danny had experienced the power of prayer.
Two years later, Danny had achieved moderate acting success in Detroit, but he was struggling to take his career to the next level. Once again, he turned to the church. Praying to St. Jude Thaddeus, the patron saint of hopeless causes, Danny asked the saint to “help me find my way in life, and I will build you a shrine.”
His career took a turn for the better, and soon he moved his family to Chicago to pursue career offers. A few years later, at another turning point in his life, Danny visited a church and remembered his pledge to St. Jude. Again he prayed to St. Jude and repeated his pledge to build a shrine to the saint if he would show him the way.
In the years that followed, Danny's career flourished through films and television, and he became an internationally known entertainer. He remembered his pledge to build a shrine to St. Jude.
In the early 1950s, Danny began discussing with friends what concrete form his vow might take. Gradually, the idea of a children’s hospital, possibly in Memphis, Tennessee, took shape. In 1955, Danny Thomas and a group of Memphis businessmen who had agreed to help support his dream seized on the idea of creating a unique research hospital devoted to curing catastrophic diseases in children. More than just a treatment facility, this would be a research center for the children of the world.
Danny started raising money for his vision of St. Jude in the early 1950s. By 1955, the local business leaders who had joined his cause began area fundraising efforts, supplementing Danny's benefit shows that brought scores of major entertainment stars to Memphis. Often accompanied by his wife, Rose Marie, Danny crisscrossed the United States by car, sharing his dream and raising funds at meetings and benefits. The pace was so hectic that Danny Thomas and his wife once visited 28 cities in 32 days. Although Danny Thomas and his friends raised the money to build the hospital, they now faced the daunting task of funding its annual operation.
To solve this problem, Danny, of Lebanese decent, turned to his fellow Americans of Arabic-speaking heritage. Believing deeply that these Americans should, as a group, thank the United States for the gifts of freedom given their parents, Danny also felt the support of St. Jude would be a noble way of honoring his immigrant forefathers who had come to America.
Danny’s request struck a responsive chord. In 1957, 100 representatives of the Arab-American community met in Chicago to form ALSAC® with a sole purpose of raising funds for the support of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
Since that time, with national headquarters in Memphis and regional offices throughout the United States, ALSAC has assumed full responsibility for all the hospital’s fundraising efforts, raising hundreds of millions annually through benefits and solicitation drives among Americans of all ethnic, religious and racial backgrounds. Today, ALSAC is the nation’s second largest health-care charity* and is supported by the efforts of more than 1 million volunteers nationwide.
Through striking improvements in the care of pediatric leukemias and numerous forms of solid tumors, St. Jude—which now has a daily operating cost of $1.7 million—has brought about improved health care for children all over the world. St. Jude’s physicians and scientists have pioneered treatments that have helped push the overall survival rates for childhood cancers from less than 20 percent when the hospital opened in 1962 to 80 percent today.
From a promise of “Help me find my way in life, and I will build you a shrine” to the fulfillment of his dream, Danny lived to see his little hospital become an international beacon of hope for the catastrophically ill children of the world. The founder of St. Jude and ALSAC died on February 6, 1991, just two days after joining patients, parents and employees to celebrate the hospital’s 29th anniversary. He was laid to rest in a family crypt at the Danny Thomas/ALSAC Pavilion on the grounds of the hospital. On July 12, 2000, his wife, Rose Marie, passed away and now lies with her beloved husband in the hospital’s Memorial Garden. Today, their children, Marlo, Terre and Tony, carry on their parents’ work and remain a driving force in fulfilling their father’s mission. Danny Thomas is gone, but his dream lives on.
Thanks to the intercession of St. Jude, many children today, along with others, like your husband, survive to share the graces that accompany sincere prayer.
St. Jude, glorious Apostle, faithful servant and friend of Jesus, the name of the traitor has caused you to be forgotten by many, but the true Church invokes you universally as the Patron of things despaired of; pray for me, that finally I may receive the consolations and the succor of Heaven in all my necessities, tribulations, and sufferings, particularly (here make your request), and that I may bless God with the Elect throughout Eternity. Amen.
Attn rzman21 - This one post was sufficient reason to keep this thread alive.
****Furthermore, Paul states, CERTIFIES, that the gospel he preached was NOT preached before.****
“But I certify you, brethren, that THE GOSPEL PREACHED OF ME IS NOT AFTER MAN. For I neither RECEIVED IT OF MAN, neither was I TAUGHT IT, but BY THE REVELATION OF JESUS CHRIST.” Gal. 1:11,12.
Ah, but that is not what the passage says, is it? Paul does not say that the gospel he received was NOT preached before.
He says that he did not receive it from man but by a revelation of Jesus.
Quite simply, despite the near desperate need of some, Paul was aware that there were those who had serious doubts and suspicions about him and it was paramount that he be shown to be called by Jesus.
It was also important that the twelve accept him and they did when he presented them with what he had learned from the Lord and they knew that he was speaking the truth.
****Instead of letting God’s Word plainly say what it says, you seem to be attempting to make it say something it clearly does not****
It is not I that is guilty of wresting from Scripture something it plainly DOES NOT SAY.
****The Scriptures you gave were about the Mystery, hid in God, from the foundation of the world. That we would be fellowheirs with Israel through the gospel. But you did not give us what that gospel is.*****
The mystery revealed is that through the cross of Jesus, all would be united, joined, coheirs to the promises of God. THAT is the mystery not revealed until God revealed it to the Apostles through Jesus.
I do not call real communion satanic, just that blasphemous nonsense that the catholics do.
You sound an awful lot like an atheist trying to stir up a fight.
Your reasoning is just as sound.
I am no real Calvinist, but the 5 solas were intended to stand all together, that much should be clear to any honest man. To refute one of them at a time is to destroy the structure piecemeal, yet not touching the whole thing in the least.
You may destroy as many "tulips" as you wish, peeling back the separate petals one by one in childish glee, without having accomplished the destruction of the thing which vexes you so. For what it is, is a refutation of Rome's claims to Supremacy.
Try looking at them all together, and see how they function as parts of a whole.
by faith alone
by grace alone
through Christ alone
glory to God alone
The above, taken all together simultaneously, is not "easy believism", though it is easy enough to see why the attacks upon it are of a divide and conquer nature, since the principles were so effective toward diminishing Rome's own powers of influence (having begun to run riot into much ungodliness by that time).
To pretend that they are stand each of them on their own, with no regards to the other, is much more dishonest coming out of mouths of Catholics, than any number of objections to "Mary worship" are, coming out of Post-Reformation Christians.
Dear Sister; To be Honest all Prayers are to Jesus and the Triune God.
We ask for the heavenly Host to pray for us to Jesus and with Jesus.
Here is the prayer.
O Holy St Jude!
Apostle and Martyr,
great in virtue and rich in miracles,
near kinsman of Jesus Christ,
faithful INTERCESSOR for all who invoke you, special patron in time of need;
to you I have recourse from the depth of my heart, and humbly beg you,
to whom God has given such great power, to come to my assistance;
help me now in my urgent need and grant my earnest petition.
I will never forget thy graces and favors you obtain for me and I will do my utmost to spread devotion( meaning asking for prayers from ST. Jude) to you.Amen.
St. Jude, pray for us and all who honor thee and invoke thy aid.
(Say 3 Our Father's, 3 Hail Mary’s, and 3 Glory Be’s after this.)
Our Father(JESUS"S PRAYER), Who art in heaven Hallowed be Thy Name;
Thy kingdom come,
Thy will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
and forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us;
and lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil. Amen.
NOTICE WE ASK MARY TOO.
Hail Mary, full of grace. Our Lord is with thee(She is in Heaven).
Blessed art thou among women,
and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
Holy Mary, Mother of God,
PRAY FOR US sinners,
now and at the hour of our death.
Amen.
THEN WE SAY ALL GLORY TO THE TRIUNE GOD.
Glory be to the Father
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.
As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end.
Amen.
THIS ENDS WITH MOST PRAYERS.
ALL GLORY TO GOD!!
AMEN
Thanks For Info.
My Mother would send a monthly statement for decades. She had a autograph picture of Danny Thomas with a letter.
Thanks for your thoughtful reply.
I only have a short time, hope you’ll forgive a quick thought:
I understand your point of the interlocking; however, if the underpinning is false, wouldn’t that cause the rest to collapse as well?
I’m thinking here of sola scriptura. If it is the basis for doctrine, inclusive of the other solas, and it is internally negated, failing its own criteria, wouldn’t that negate its results?
I guess I’m seeing it as the fulcrum for all, or a hierarchy here.
thanks for your courteous reply...
Jesus came to stir up a fight, and I come to support him.
Read Matthew 10.
>> “It must be fun to live in your head with peter pan and the Easter bunny.” <<
.
So giving God the glory is fantasy?
.
I have to disagree with your premise. Prayer should only be to Jesus/God/Holy Spirit. Prayer or worship to anyone else is idolatry.
>> “Sola Fide is perhaps the easiest of the Solas to refute.” <<
.
Its never been refuted; its in the scriptures.
Eph 2:8-9
“For by Grace are ye saved through Faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of god, not of works lest any man should boast.”
How do you refute the word of God?
For what it is, is a refutation of Rome’s claims to Supremacy.
>>The Protestant Revolution accomplished no such thing. The only thing it accomplished was setting the stage for the general apostasy that produced the “Enlightenment.”
Catholics heartily affirm the following Solas.
Sola Deo Gloria, Sola Gratia, and Sola Christus.
Sola Scriptura and Sola Fide, however, are unbiblical.
Easy believism, is a Protestant neologism, developed by Baptists who reject once saved, always saved.
The Reformation was not any different than the Russian Revolution or the French Revolution in that it overthrew the existing religious order in Northern Europe and created fertile soil for atheism.
10For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
Ephesians 2:10
You forgot this verse.
It’s easy to refute unlearned men who twist the scriptures to their own destruction.
Read Matthew 7:23
But you did not give us what that gospel is.
The Gospel isn’t something, it is SOMEONE.
John 3:16
16For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
The mystery was how it salvation would be won by Jesus on the cross.
The One Lord is the Gospel for ALL of us.
You’ve refuted nothing.
It makes no claim of salvation by works at all.
Eph 2:9 states clearly that salvation is not of works, and 2:10 makes it clear that works are the result of salvation, not the source.
Yes, you are an unlerned man, but it is time for you to learn.
To us it's in Him With Him in the Unity of The Holy Spirit.
We ask for Prayers only.
God knows the heart of the prayer.
All Glory is to and From God we believe.
Freeper Regards!
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