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.
Happy to, yet again. Wager offer is still open. You never answered on it.
I’ve done it twice already. Are you feeling lucky this time?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
>>I’ve done it twice already.<<
Interesting that no one saw it.
Twice on two other things you said and then denied: Christians celebrating Christmas are engaging in pagan practices; and, you that you don’t believe in OSAS.
This would be the third. The first two, er, memory refreshers, had no impact and these things take time. Hence, the wager for this one.
No problema for you if you’re correct, right?
Accept?
Or..
You could take the time and go find it for yourself.
And then keep dodging to avoid accepting a losing wager.
:)
This issue is just an example of the whole argument. We see individuals
who believe they have the authority of God and Holy Spirit. They determine what is scripture or not, what the meaning of Holy Scripture is, what are correct dogma and doctrine, soteriology, etc. in the stead of Christ’s Apostles and the Church.
They are the Church, they say, they are ‘thinking God’s thoughts’, they can even tell who is saved and who is doomed to hell.
The argument often is not so much against the Church, but against anyone or anything other than themselves being the Church; they are the sole determinant of the Christian Faith and beyond.
It is individualism taken to such heights as to be indistinguishable from megalomania.
Your argument isn’t with us. It’s with scripture.
Romans 8:10: Paul tells us, "If Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin." Galatians 2:20: Paul speaks of himself and all true Christians: "I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me." Ephesians 3:17-18: Referring to the "inner man," Paul mentions that he prays "that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith." I John 3:24: John writes: "Now he who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. And by this we know that He abides in us, by the Spirit which He has given us."
Galatians 3:27 For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.
2 Corinthians 1:22 Who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts.
Now, if you don’t think that Christians have the “mind of Christ in you” maybe you have more serious problems.
Romans 8:9 But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.
John 14:17 Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.
And we see individuals who choose to be Catholic who also make their own determination of what is Scripture and what is not by conceding to what others have decided on the matter. Their only decision is to let someone else decide for them.
So a group of men come alone sometime in the 300's AD, self-proclaim to be in line with apostolic succession and self declare authority from that. They then demand that everyone recognize their self-proclaimed authority and proclaim anathemas for those who do not fall in line.
They are the Church, they say, they are ‘thinking God’s thoughts’, they can even tell who is saved and who is doomed to hell.
Again, nothing that Catholics don't do on a regular basis.
It is individualism taken to such heights as to be indistinguishable from megalomania.
1 Corinthians 12:11 All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills.
1 Corinthians 12:27 Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.
There isn't any "us' there. Just you.
And you aren't scripture, you don't speak for Paul or John or the Holy Spirit or Christ or the Church. You don't judge who is saved and who is condemned.
Hubris is too small a word.
So a group of men come alone sometime in the 300's AD
Your knowledge of history and the Church is as faulty as ever. Study the Church from Acts onward, including the first two centuries. You won't find your theory of individual authority.
self declare authority from that
Self declaring authority is a subject you and others here are quite expert at.
So did you go back and find it? Going to dodge to avoid losing, or do you accept the wager?
You too, metmom, since you’re vouching for CB.
1 Corinthians 2:15,16
"The spiritual man makes judgments about all things, but he himself is not subject to any man's judgment:
For, "Who can know the LORD's thoughts? Who knows enough to teach him?" But we understand these things, for we have the mind of Christ."
The point wouldn’t be complete without you checking in as God.
thanks..
Multiple posts to you would indicate otherwise.
Why do you keep arguing against the scripture I posted to you?
Gambling, throwing the dice. Nothing Christian about that but very worldly! Anyone 'in Christ' has nothing to do with what those 'without Christ' puts their hope in - luck.
Anyone who makes an assertion or accusation about what they claim someone did or said, is the one obligated to find the information and post it to support their arguments.
If the information is not forthcoming by the party asserting, it can then be rightly concluded that assertion is false and the point is ceded and the accused parties are vindicated.
It’s not up to me or CB to do the work ourselves to prove or disprove a point you made.
The point wouldn’t be complete without you checking in with God’s Word.
You betcha!
Oscar Wilde had excellent observations on the children of the Reformation:
People fashion their God after their own understanding. They make their God first and worship him afterwards.
and
Only the shallow know themselves.
Given in response to those who argue the greatest unity evidences supremacy.
1000?
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