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.
And Protestant Evangelicals say.
Who needs Tradition when you have my ego?
Show me the exact verse that says the Church is invisible or immaterial in a Gnostic sense.
The Medieval Conciliarists, I think, had it partly right.
The Pope belongs in the center of the ecclesiological scheme as the canons of the Council of Sardica of 341 envisioned playing referee, not as an absolute monarch.
Conciliarism doesn’t work. We’ve seen that in Orthodoxy where absolute chaos reigns in the turf battles between the various local Orthodox Churches without any way to resolve the problems.
The papacy needs to return to the situation that prevailed prior to the Dictatus Papae of Gregory VII.
Do you listen to Catholic Answers? The time of the Catholic Church as only a Church on earth about Christ is over. I mean it is not singular. Not that The Catholic Church will not exist till the end. There is evidence of The Holy Spirit in Other Churches.
The Radio Show Catholic answers explained it on a 2hour show I heard. I am no expert on it. But definitely since Trent it is all different when you even use that word.
We know. We used to be spiritually blind.
It's good that you're recognizing it. Admission is a good thing. It's the first step in your recovery.
Reminds me of Buffalo Bob and Howdy Doody...I’ll bet you always wanted to be in the peanut gallery...
It's really a travesty that Catholics address Scripture and consider it with such contempt.
Matthew 22:29 But Jesus answered them, “You are wrong, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God.
Mark 12:24 Jesus said to them, “Is this not the reason you are wrong, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God?
Luke 24:25-27 25 And he said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! 26 Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” 27 And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.
Luke 24:32 They said to each other, “Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures?”
Luke 24:44-46 44 Then he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” 45 Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, 46 and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead,
John 5:37-40 37 And the Father who sent me has himself borne witness about me. His voice you have never heard, his form you have never seen, 38 and you do not have his word abiding in you, for you do not believe the one whom he has sent. 39 You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, 40 yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.
Acts 17:2-3 And Paul went in, as was his custom, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, 3 explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead, and saying, “This Jesus, whom I proclaim to you, is the Christ.”
Acts 17:11 Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.
Acts 18:24-28 24 Now a Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, came to Ephesus. He was an eloquent man, competent in the Scriptures. 25 He had been instructed in the way of the Lord. And being fervent in spirit, he spoke and taught accurately the things concerning Jesus, though he knew only the baptism of John. 26 He began to speak boldly in the synagogue, but when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately. 27 And when he wished to cross to Achaia, the brothers encouraged him and wrote to the disciples to welcome him. When he arrived, he greatly helped those who through grace had believed, 28 for he powerfully refuted the Jews in public, showing by the Scriptures that the Christ was Jesus.
Romans 1:1-6 1 Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, 2 which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures, 3 concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh 4 and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, 5 through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations, 6 including you who are called to belong to Jesus Christ,
Romans 15:4 For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.
It's really a travesty that Catholics address Scripture and consider it with such contempt.
Romans 10:17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.
Luke 4:21 And he began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”
Luke 22:37 For I tell you that this Scripture must be fulfilled in me: ‘And he was numbered with the transgressors.’ For what is written about me has its fulfillment.”
John 2:22 When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.
John 7:38 Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’”
John 10:35 If he called them gods to whom the word of God came—and Scripture cannot be broken—
John 17:12 While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled.
John 19:28 After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said ( to fulfill the Scripture), “I thirst.”
Acts 1:16 “Brothers, the Scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit spoke beforehand by the mouth of David concerning Judas, who became a guide to those who arrested Jesus.
Acts 8:35 Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with this Scripture he told him the good news about Jesus.
Romans 10:11 For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.”
Galatians 3:8 And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “In you shall all the nations be blessed.”
Galatians 3:22 But the Scripture imprisoned everything under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.
1 Timothy 4:13 Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching.
2 Timothy 3:15-17 15 and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. 16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.
1 Peter 2:6 For it stands in Scripture: “Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.”
2 Peter 1:19-21 19 And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts, 20 knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone's own interpretation. 21 For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
Wow - you must really type funny if people (using the term loosely) can read what’s in your mind when you quote scripture here...
How about you apologize to smvoice and then the conversation can continue.
That’s exactly correct. Jesus fulfilled the law for us since there was no way we could have done it for ourselves. Not one “jot or one tittle shall pass from the law until it is fulfilled.
Matthew 5:18 For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.
Then Christ came and fulfilled every “jot and tittle” of the law for us.
Matthew 5:17 Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.
So Christ came and fulfilled the law and now we can put on His righteousness and are using His faith and not our own.
Philippians 3:9 And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith:
Galatians 2:20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
We have been granted through grace His wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. It is not through our efforts lest we try to take credit but we give credit to Him who “fulfilled the law”.
1 Corinthians 1:30 But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption: 31 That, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.
Those who reject His grace and try to live under the law cannot fulfill the law and nullify the grace of God in their lives.
Rom. 11:6, "But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works, otherwise grace is no longer grace."
Gal. 2:21, I do not nullify the grace of God; for if righteousness comes through the Law, then Christ died needlessly.
We have been freed from the law of Moses.
Acts 13:39 and through Him everyone who believes is freed from all things, from which you could not be freed through the Law of Moses.
It is His strength and it is He who will keep us from stumbling.
Jude 1:24-25 Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.
You want back under the law of Moses?
Acts 13:39 and through Him everyone who believes is freed from all things, from which you could not be freed through the Law of Moses.
Think not that you will be justified by that law.
Gal. 2:16, "nevertheless knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law but through faith in Christ Jesus, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we may be justified by faith in Christ, and not by the works of the Law; since by the works of the Law shall no flesh be justified."
I’ll take the grace we have been granted.
Ephesians 2:8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.
I will not disrespect the sacrifice Christ made on our behalf.
Gal. 2:21, I do not nullify the grace of God; for if righteousness comes through the Law, then Christ died needlessly.
I have no idea what this is about. I have looked over the connecting posts, and I still have no idea what you are talking about, rzman. But I DO want to know what you are accusing me of.
If this is about slavery, then there is a marked distinction btwn evangelical-types who did not want to uphold that tradition went it could be abolished, versus institutionalized religion, Protestant or Catholic.
Fair summation: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christianity_and_slavery#Christian_abolitionism
And here on slavery in the Bible: http://www.astorehouseofknowledge.info/Slavery
And this is very good treatment on slavery in the ANE: http://www.christian-thinktank.com/qnoslave.html
It MUST be understood, esp. in the light of our image of the antebellum south, that that slavery was not a monolithic institution, and the Bible does sanction, if not mandate, its regulated ameliorated form, in managing an intractable institution of the ancient world. And which was better under the Hebrews than the type of slavery that the modern welfare state ends up being.
There was no slavery in the church when it began as an organic community, (Acts 2-6) and some estimate that about half of the church was made up of slaves in the slaves states of Rome and Greece, and which institutional practice was regulated to be morally tolerable in that context, till the outworking of the Christian ethos of love, albeit interrupted, and the political situation would enable it to be wholly cast off as cultural appendage.
Rome at best sounded an uncertain sound, though joined by many Prots in sanctioning it, but below is the response of one RCA to a exalt-Rome-at-all-costs polemic:
Shane, your mistake is just what I noted. One Pope out of 265 Popes condemns slavery as intrinsically evil in the ordinary magisterium and you call it Church Teaching without ever using your own brain to see if he might have overstepped in his late years... and you are prepared to throw God Himself and His estimation of slavery overboard. The Prots are not 100% wrong when they fault us for Pope worship. You just did it.
Your thoughts on torture and saving Pope Leo X’s reputation from an obvious cruel belief is absolutely the same syndrome.
I think you are important to the Church but you will spoil it if you think flattering Her when She really needs the opposite from you is the thing to do. Paul confronted Peter in Galatians and Peter grew....the Church now has no one with Paul’s truthfulness.
The list of bulls against slavery occurred over a time span that included 44 Popes but only about 7 of them denounced slavery of sorts....one was against slavery in the Canaries but only of baptized natives....the next one by Paul III was against the enslavement of the Caribbean natives but not against that of blacks....another was against the trade, but not against the domestic slavery of blacks born to slave mothers and held by religious orders into the 19th century, with [the] Bishop [of] England who knew the Pope [was][ writing for domestic slavery after the bull and not being gainsaid by the Pope. The most complete one was finally at the end of the 19th century by a Pope...Leo XIII this time... who claimed that the Church was the great liberator from slavery, and he gave a papal list which left out the six Popes from 1452 til 1511 who literally turbocharged the slavery by Spain and Portugal that involved millions. And you can easily research the first words of that chain by going to Romanus Pontifex on line by Pope Nicholas V and go to the middle of the 4th paragraph.
In the OT flattery was a sin. Why does no one say that anymore? Because Church speak is floating in it. — http://www.jimmyakin.org/2009/02/soups-reredux.html
So people who aren’t sola scripturists are racist?
Is this the reason why the Catholic church rejected slavery while Protestant churches were perfectly ok with it? ;)
So you’re willing to whitewash the fact that in the overwhelmingly Protestant south - well after Wilberforce and the rest of the civilized world had turned away from slavery, that slavery persisted?
Really? You would have me believe that it was the fault of the Catholics? You’d better take a look at your history again.
Truth hurts, CB. Truth hurts.
John 8:36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.
John 8:31-32 So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
Romans 6:7 For one who has died has been set free from sin.
Galatians 5:1 For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.
"For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been made to drink into one Spirit. For the body is not one member, but many." 1 Cor. 12:13.
There is neither Jew nor Greek, male nor female, bond nor slave in the body of Christ. We are all the same. Saved by the finished work of Christ and placed into His body by the Holy Spirit.
How dare you accuse me of being a racist. You either show me PROOF that I EVER said ANYTHING that REMOTELY sounded racist, or apologize. What you have said is slanderous and I will not stand by and let you get away with this lie. Show me the PROOF, or the Religion Moderator can sort this out.
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