Posted on 07/03/2014 4:10:21 PM PDT by NKP_Vet
Vatican City (AsiaNews) - "We are not isolated and we are not Christians individually, each on his or her own". Instead, we are all part of the Church, "a large family, where one is welcomed," where "one learns to live as believers and disciples of the Lord Jesus," Pope Francis said.
Speaking in the last general audience before the July break, the Holy Father devoted his catechesis to the Church before a crowd of 35,000 in St Peter's Square. Despite a few drops of rain, he walked extensively among the assembled faithful.
In his address, he warned against those who "think they can have a personal, direct, immediate relationship with Jesus Christ outside of the communion and the mediation of the Church."
In the Church, he noted, there is no "do it yourself", no "free agents." For him, "Our Christian identity is belonging! We are Christians because we belong to the Church. It is like a surname. If the name is 'I am a Christian', the surname is 'I belong to the Church'." Such sense of belonging was born from the alliance between God and Abraham, to whom he donated a great people for his loyalty.
"God's relationship to his people comes before all of us, it comes from that time," and thus, "in this sense, our thoughts go first, with gratitude, to those who have gone before us and who welcomed us into the Church. No one becomes a Christian by himself! Is this clear? Nobody becomes a Christian by himself. Christians are not made in a lab.
(Excerpt) Read more at asianews.it ...
Ironically per the catechism itself, protestants are included in his definition of church.
But that doesn’t stop the ranters......
Wonk wrote: “Ironically per the catechism itself, protestants are included in his definition of church. But that doesn’t stop the ranters......”
I totally agree. to me the ‘ranters’ here are doing their best to destroy Christian unity and thus are abetting and aiding the work of those who are openly against Christianity.
Don't you find it a little uneasy to fib?
Romans 8: 1 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, 2 because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. 3 For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
5 Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. 6 The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace. 7 The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. 8 Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God.
9 You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ. 10 But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life because of righteousness. 11 And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you.
12 Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have an obligation—but it is not to the flesh, to live according to it. 13 For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live.
14 For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. 15 The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” 16 The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.
Papa! Papa! Papa! Bravo! Ladies and gentleman, we have a pope, and God bless him!
Faith alone in Christ alone.
What “Catechism” do protestants have? The Pope is speaking of the One, True, Church! The Holy Catholic Church, headquartered in Rome.
God, are they that dumb?
Just because we honor the successor of St. Peter, the first Pope, does not mean that we don’t have faith in God.
(Remember that Luther added the word ‘alone’ to the Bible.)
“Clearly “the church” owns the concession rights on God’s mercy.”
No, but God sent the Church to be an instrument of His mercy. If it was good enough for Him to establish for that purpose, it’s certainly good enough for anyone who claims to love Him.
Church. Christ’s Church.
The Church is Christ’s Body.
That’s a fact. And a pagan one at that.
The beleivers are the church
That is exactly what it is and it is unsettling that it is promoted so much on FR.
“The beleivers are the church”
Not all those who claim to believe in Christ are fully united with the Church. Sectarians cannot be fully united with what they have separated themselves from.
I have never separated myself from Jesus.
They will follow it all the way to hell if necessary to protect their man made beliefs. You can see how they are trying to pollute the scenery with lies instead of making the truth be known by the scriptures.
“We believe also in the holy Church, that is, the Catholic Church. For heretics violate the faith itself by a false opinion about God; schismatics, however, withdraw from fraternal love by hostile separations, although they believe the same things we do. Consequently, neither heretics nor schismatics belong to the Catholic Church; not heretics, because the Church loves God; and not schismatics, because the Church loves neighbor” (Faith and the Creed 10:21 [A.D. 393]). ~ St. Augustine
Not true.
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