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.
;)
16 That is why it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his offspring—not only to the adherent of the law but also to the one who shares the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all,...
Same misinterpretation.
So, again: read the linked article to understand what Paul is teaching here and to whom about the law.
Christ fulfilled ALL the righteous requirements of the Law.
ALL of it.
Through faith, that righteousness is imputed to us by God Himself.
We are then clothed in the righteousness of Christ. When God looks at us, He sees us as righteous as Christ is because He sees CHRIST’S righteousness.
Adding our own works to that to earn salvation is an exercise in futility.
How can our allegedly good works, twisted and corrupted by sin as they are, be added to the perfect, holy righteousness of Christ we already possess as God’s children through faith to gain salvation? How can perfection be improved upon by imperfection?
The very idea is ludicrous.
As you see it in this theology, how would you define “works”?
Or, similarly:
How can our allegedly good faith, twisted and corrupted by sin as it is, be added to the perfect, holy righteousness of Christ...
Good doesn’t *need* for anything. Yet, He says:
“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.”
**The scripture deliberately eliminates works. **
And God worked for six days of creation and then rested on the seventh day?? And you say there is no work?
“Regarding the debate about faith and works: It’s like asking which blade in a pair of scissors is most important.” C.S. Lewis
“Regarding the debate about faith and works: It’s like asking which blade in a pair of scissors is most important.” C.S. Lewis
How’s your perfect Sunday worship going?
To me, the error is quite simple: It’s based on an abstract that does not exist in reality: Faith vs. works; faith you have versus faith you do, etc.
For example: If I truly believe I have faith in my money in my bank, yet I withdraw all of it, do I have faith in the bank? Really?
Faith is trust. If your actions betray your lack of trust, you really don’t trust.
The two are inseparable: Faith is what you have that results in what you do. You cannot trust and at the same time act out a lack of trust.
Separating them is a mind-construction, abstract and not real - and something Paul, the other Apostles would never teach. If you start with this idea, you’re headed in a wrong direction, fast.
Don't you have that in your book of James?
18Indeed someone might say, “You have faith and I have works.” Demonstrate your faith to me without works, and I will demonstrate my faith to you from my works. 19You believe that God is one. You do well. Even the demons believe that and tremble. 20Do you want proof, you ignoramus, that faith without works is useless? 21Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered his son Isaac upon the altar?k 22You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by the works. 23Thus the scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,” and he was called “the friend of God.”l 24See how a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. 25And in the same way, was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works when she welcomed the messengers and sent them out by a different route?m 26For just as a body without a spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.
Great quote, it expresses it perfectly. And Lewis said it in 20 words.
thanks...
Like you, I loved it when I first saw it and copied it into my computer for future use!
Faith is answered with salvation, thus leading to works.
Works are a good indicator; if there are no works, then there wasn’t likely any salvation. That is Paul’s point of view, and Paul was the only one to receive direct infusion of the gospel from Christ himself; the others had to figure it out piecemeal.
“The Pope saves souls.”
Then:
“We have people here holding up their private interpretation of the Bible as if it were from God.”
Jesus saves souls.
A universal “interpretation” of the Bible in Christain circles.
No, it's teased out by some using some parts of Paul and not others and then ignoring contradictions in other scripture.
We can be pretty sure salvation was important to Paul, he wrote quite a bit about it. If his point of view was: "We are saved by faith alone," he almost certainly would have said so. But he didn't.
What was that Catholic plan of salvation again?
Bland assertions don't cut the mustard. What was that secret knowledge taught by Christ to his Apostles that we cannot otherwise find in the scriptures? Was it in the writings of the early church fathers? If it be in the early practice, then what do know of that but which has been written concerning it?
If there be evidence or belief in that, then lets severely restrict that which we can claim is "of the faith taught by Christ to His Apostles" to the first generation or two of church writers. For if they do not speak of a thing, or they speak contrary to that which later arises (which can be found to have occurred) then how can we then say with any certainty that something coming into discussion in the late 2nd century and even much later like the forth, fifth or sixth--- can be said to have been of the original teachings, if we are not consulting the scriptures --- or some secret body of teachings kept hidden from us all so well?
Viva Voce? (Whatever we say?)
I was told earlier today that 3 of the solas have long been accepted by the Catholic Church. One of them, by grace alone I highlighted in bold, just as I have here, and pinged your own self to my original comment here, for that very reason. Grace.
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