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.
worship of ones reflection is pretty apparent...
>> Do you really not see the contradiction? Why would they need conversion if they claim Apostolic succession without being catholic in the first place. <<
Next you’re going to tell me that a two point conversion isn’t really a conversion because the football player was Christian. The point is that the Catholic Church recognizes his baptism, first communion, and even ordination as perfectly valid. Here, and in the Pope’s context, “conversion” means merely repentance, not spiritual regeneration, since Catholics recognize the baptism of most Protestant denominations.
IN FACT, the Catholic Church would welcome any and all Orthodox congregants to share in the Holy Eucharist, finding the Orthodox sacraments perfectly valid. The ONLY reason it does not encourage Orthodox faithful to join them is that it believes that Orthodox congregants should respect the authority of their own bishops who have directed that they do not. That’s right: the Catholic Church even recognizes the authority of Orthodox bishops when that authority is used to restrain Orthodox congregants from sharing the Eucharist with Catholic congregants.
In the case of the Anglican Church, matters are slightly more complicated. At many junctures, one bishop who has ordained another bishop who discerns not the presence of the body and blood of Christ in the Holy Eucharist, and in these instances, the ordination is said to be invalid, and apostolic succession halted. This is nothing new, contrary to continuous, unending fixations: St. John Newmann, for instance, was welcomed into the Catholic priesthood from the Anglican church without the need for a second ordination
What is new is that like EVERY OTHER DENOMINATIONAL FAMILY, the Anglican Church is so filled with a diabolical rejection of biblical morality, that the Pope has seen a need to allow entire congregations to converts en masse, and so just as was done for Orthodox churches, a special ecclesiastical structure was set up to allow the Anglicans to maintain their canonically correct style of worship.
Nah, worshippers of Hostess Twinkies say they don’t when all they can think about is junk food. tsk.tsk...
If they’re trinitarian and not apostolic, they’re Protestants. And yes, that leaves significant ambiguity for the Anglicans.
ROFL You know what? This may be an aside for you but I have actually never eaten a twinkey.
Are you saying that Nuns are enslaved? Really?
Nuns choose to become Nuns in the first place. No one is forcing them to take up the habit.
Well CB, my advice to you is to keep that record clean. When it comes to “Lead us not into temptation” it is far too easy to worship the golden cream-filled ‘gift’ from Hostess than even the Golden Calf.
Romans 1:22 Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, 23 And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man,
...and so much for that. Shoulda known better; my bad....
Sorry, your editorializing on what the Church believes is wrong, again.
I realize there may be those who have to keep building strawmen, but I don’t have to care.
enjoy.
Let’s see: You think Da Vinci’s Last Supper is an idol and visitors to the Sistine Chapel are idolaters.
You don’t know what either one are.
And I should take your opinions on idolatry seriously? Why?
Romans 1:22 Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, 23 And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man,
We’ve been through your dodges before. They still don’t work.
But... enjoy!
Excellent point and I strongly agree.
Yeah, like catholics chose, also, on wrong knowledge fed to them. Then they are dropped like a hot potato when they don't want to be enslaved any longer.
Discuss the issues all you want, but do not make it personal.
I suppose it's to be expected that were someone to believe they have replaced the Holy Ghost in the Trinity to become the sole infallible interpreter of His Word, they would also believe they can read the mind of others. Normal folks have to wonder whether or not someone who worships their own, Most High and Holy Self responds to what they read in the minds of others or to what others actually say.
Mind readers almost always try to expand their client base or band of ego bolstering fans by hiding the fact that they're really occultists, just like little "spiritualist" Margret McDonald hid the fact she was an occult spiritualist after someone took her Rapture of the Snowflakes fantasy seriously. Spiritualists, occultists, conspiracy theorists, and those who seek to sow divisions among Christians, all often claim to be Christian in spite of the fact that they almost all deny the deity of Christ.
Those who call Jesus Christ a liar deny that Christ is the Son of God, whether they call Christ a liar after first declaring they have replaced the Holy Ghost and are the infallible interpreter of Scripture, do so without realizing it by accepting something others tell them, or whether they just assert that since they worship their own, Most High and Holy Self, whatever they say is true in spite of what Jesus Christ or the Word of God say to the contrary. However such folks rationalize calling Jesus Christ a liar:
Titus 3:9 but avoid foolish questions, and genealogies, and contentions, and strivings about the law. For they are unprofitable and vain.
Titus 3:10 A man that is a heretic, after the first and second admonition, avoid:
Titus 3:11 Knowing that he, that is such an one, is subverted, and sinneth, being condemned by his own judgment.
Sharing the Word of God with such folks is like throwing pearls before swine as is illustrated by the fact that such heretics cannot understand even a simple thing like, " ... not by faith only". Anyone not already blinded by the worship of their own, Most High and Holy Self can clearly see that those who deny the deity of Christ have already been given over to a reprobate mind. Those who continue to deny the deity of Christ can fool themselves however they like, but they should get used to the idea of hearing, "I never knew you" from the very Jesus Christ they deny is God.
OK...
Hail Mary full of grace...., Hail Mary full of grace....Hail Mary full of grace....Hail Mary full of grace....Hail Mary full of grace....Hail Mary full of grace....Hail Mary full of grace....Hail Mary full of grace....Hail Mary full of grace....Hail Mary full of grace....Glory be to the Father."
Hail Mary full of grace...., Hail Mary full of grace....Hail Mary full of grace....Hail Mary full of grace....Hail Mary full of grace....Hail Mary full of grace....Hail Mary full of grace....Hail Mary full of grace....Hail Mary full of grace....Hail Mary full of grace....Glory be to the Father..."
Hail Mary full of grace...., Hail Mary full of grace....Hail Mary full of grace....Hail Mary full of grace....Hail Mary full of grace....Hail Mary full of grace....Hail Mary full of grace....Hail Mary full of grace....Hail Mary full of grace....Hail Mary full of grace....Glory be to the Father."
Hail Mary full of grace...., Hail Mary full of grace....Hail Mary full of grace....Hail Mary full of grace....Hail Mary full of grace....Hail Mary full of grace....Hail Mary full of grace....Hail Mary full of grace....Hail Mary full of grace....Hail Mary full of grace....Glory be to the Father."
Hail Mary full of grace...., Hail Mary full of grace....Hail Mary full of grace....Hail Mary full of grace....Hail Mary full of grace....Hail Mary full of grace....Hail Mary full of grace....Hail Mary full of grace....Hail Mary full of grace....Hail Mary full of grace....Glory be to the Father."
"And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words." Matt 6:7
“Yeah, like catholics chose, also, on wrong knowledge fed to them.”
And what would that wrong knowledge be?
“Then they are dropped like a hot potato when they don’t want to be enslaved any longer.”
So let me get this straight. Someone voluntarily decided to become a nun, later changed their mind and the Church lets them go? What do you think the Vatican should do about Nuns who no longer wish to be nuns?
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