Reformation Sunday

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Edmundus1581 said:
Thankyou for the prayers Jon.

I will join in your prayer for Christian unity today.

It’s been a while since I’ve listened to Ein Feste Burg - so now’s a good time. 😃

~ Edmundus
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It has been said to have true unity, we must be honest in our differences and not gloss over our differences just to say that we agree on possibly the major points and the rest we can cover over. Let us pray that the day will come for unity.
 
poptown said:
I learned from Protestants that the Holy Bible is a “dangerous” collection of books. We should always read them in the light of Church teaching, rather than by our own efforts alone. On the other hand, Protestants exalt Holy Bible so much that they trust nothing but the Holy Bible, yet they are the ones who terribly misread the Holy Bible and believe in things that Holy Bible doesn’t really teach. I just couldn’t imagine anything more ironic than this!
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Misread???

Your post can apply not only of protestants but Catholics.
 
Reuben_J said:
While those reasons may be true, the Catholic Church experiences great renewal in the last fifty years after Vatican 2. One of that fruits is the renewed love for the Bible and how it can inspire them into an intense religious belief, practice and lives. The source of the renewal can never be anything but God Himself through the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit. The recent Popes considered this phenomenon to be akin to the second Pentecost and indeed Pope John 23rd specifically exhorted the Church to pray for it.
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Very well said. I can trace this phenomenon in my own family:

My maternal grandfather was the only one in his family who read the Bible privately, and was viewed as being “odd” for doing so.

My mother was introduced to Bible study in college (this was immediately post-Vatican II), and continues to read the New Testament every day, wherever she is.

Thanks to her, I’ve had Bibles around since I was a child - picture and story Bibles early on, then the Good News, and later the more “formal” versions - and I can honestly say I’m something of a “Bible geek”.

While we must mourn the Reformation and what it has meant for Western Christendom, the rise in Biblical literacy among Catholics is a good example of how God can bring good out of any evil, however great. 🙂
 
RPRPsych said:
Very well said. I can trace this phenomenon in my own family:

My maternal grandfather was the only one in his family who read the Bible privately, and was viewed as being “odd” for doing so.

My mother was introduced to Bible study in college (this was immediately post-Vatican II), and continues to read the New Testament every day, wherever she is.

Thanks to her, I’ve had Bibles around since I was a child - picture and story Bibles early on, then the Good News, and later the more “formal” versions - and I can honestly say I’m something of a “Bible geek”.
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Thanks for sharing your background on how you have become a “Bible geek”. Lol. Good for you. I am always fascinated by story such as this and conversion story too. Besides the Sacraments, the Bible for me is a great source and tool for spiritual growth and enlightenment. Unlike the former, at least it is within reach anytime you want it and need it. Thanks God it is not uncommon now for Catholics to form groups to have regular private Bible study and sharing.
RPRPsych said:
While we must mourn the Reformation and what it has meant for Western Christendom, the rise in Biblical literacy among Catholics is a good example of how God can bring good out of any evil, however great. 🙂
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One of the things I have learned is that God can turn evil into good but it is for us to catch the opportunity presented and make the best use of it. By the same token it has healed me from being bitter about many things that I don’t agree with.
 
I have to chuckle, Jon, when you remind us about Reformation Day, because I have a very devout Catholic friend who married a very devout Lutheran fellow, and this is the one thing they openly disagree upon. Reformation Day. He could not understand why she will not celebrate the day with him at his church, and she cannot understand why he would even consider asking her to.😉

Other than that, they never argue religion, and do as much as possible together. They are a fine example of a Christian marriage.
 
CB_Catholic said:
I have to chuckle, Jon, when you remind us about Reformation Day, because I have a very devout Catholic friend who married a very devout Lutheran fellow, and this is the one thing they openly disagree upon. Reformation Day. He could not understand why she will not celebrate the day with him at his church, and she cannot understand why he would even consider asking her to.😉

Other than that, they never argue religion, and do as much as possible together. They are a fine example of a Christian marriage.
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Some members of our Lutheran congregation spent part of Reformation Day volunteering at a soup kitchen sponsored by our Catholic brothers and sisters. Perhaps that’s the real “reform” going on with the Spirit’s urging. We’ll get there, let’s hope it doesn’t take another 500 years.
 
JonNC said:
Dear Friends in Christ,
Tomorrow, millions of Lutherans worldwide will commemorate the start of the Reformation. This marks the 495th year, and while some may term it a “celebration”, I have come to think of it more a day of prayer for unity of Christ’s Church.
Today we face a growing tide of attack on His Church. In many countries, Christians are under attack for their faith. Churches are burned, and people murdered. Even here in America, once a sanctuary of religious freedom, we are under growing attack for our faith by those who oppose His message. The time seems to be near that we can no longer allow our differences to be stronger than our convergences. We will soon be at a time when we must stand together.

As a Lutheran, I would be tempted to post Fr. Martin Luther’s “A Mighty Fortress”, and surely I will sing it tomorrow. But here, today, I offer Samuel Stone’s “The Church’s One Foundation”. Church in the singular, because there is but one Church. And I ask that all of you join me a prayer for unity of His Church. Come, Lord Jesus.

Jon

The Church’s one foundation
Is Jesus Christ her Lord,
She is His new creation
By water and the Word.
From heaven He came and sought her
To be His holy bride;
With His own blood He bought her
And for her life He died.

Elect from every nation,
Yet one o’er all the earth;
Her charter of salvation,
One Lord, one faith, one birth;
One holy Name she blesses,
Partakes one holy food,
And to one hope she presses,
With every grace endued.

The Church shall never perish!
Her dear Lord to defend,
To guide, sustain, and cherish,
Is with her to the end:
Though there be those who hate her,
And false sons in her pale,
Against both foe or traitor
She ever shall prevail.

Though with a scornful wonder
Men see her sore oppressed,
By schisms rent asunder,
By heresies distressed:
Yet saints their watch are keeping,
Their cry goes up, “How long?”
And soon the night of weeping
Shall be the morn of song!

’Mid toil and tribulation,
And tumult of her war,
She waits the consummation
Of peace forevermore;
Till, with the vision glorious,
Her longing eyes are blest,
And the great Church victorious
Shall be the Church at rest.

Yet she on earth hath union
With God the Three in One,
And mystic sweet communion
With those whose rest is won,
With all her sons and daughters
Who, by the Master’s hand
Led through the deathly waters,
Repose in Eden land.

O happy ones and holy!
Lord, give us grace that we
Like them, the meek and lowly,
On high may dwell with Thee:
There, past the border mountains,
Where in sweet vales the Bride
With Thee by living fountains
Forever shall abide!
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This one of my favorite hymns.
 
There have been many good thoughts and posts here.

I particularly liked this…
writer12 said:
I am Lutheran and attending RCIA classes. I’ve studied both Catholic and Lutheran perspectives… and am struck by how close Catholicism is to Lutheranism. Lutherans believe in sacraments, unlike most other Protestant denominations who take a memorial type approach. Catholics and Lutherans have come together in the Joint Declaration of the Doctrine of Justification in 1999. We are not far apart.

As far as the split during the Reformation, this was a terrible thing. Luther originally wanted to bring much-needed reform to Catholic practices (indulgences being the most-cited example) and was excommunicated rather than being permitted to enter into dialogue with the Church. He was a sincere Christian who earnestly sought to do God’s will. With the split there’s plenty of blame to go around on both sides.

My sense is that we need to pull together AS CHRISTIANS rather than tear each other apart. And other Protestants too, not just Lutherans. Our society has too many anti-God influences for us not to pull together. We may not (yet) be under one church, but we all worship the same God and believe in the atoning power of Christ alone.Please let’s not snark at each other.
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JonNC said:
Tomorrow, millions of Lutherans worldwide will commemorate the start of the Reformation.
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Sounds like Sunday of Orthodoxy 😛

Roman Catholics should have “Pope Day” or something 😃
 
Andre1000 said:
In Germany the reformation day is tomorrow, 31 October.
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Well, that’s indeed the actual day - on the eve of All Saints when Luther nailed the 95 Theses on the church door. “Reformation Sunday” is the Sunday we observe it, always the week before All Saints’ Sunday so as not to detract from either’s meaning for us.

Jon
 
Thanks JonNC! We’re actually celebrating on the 4th in the WELS, coinciding with the first Sunday in End Times.

I probably offended my Catholic friends on Facebook by posting a picture with the verse from Ephesians Chapter 2: “8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast” and then I wrote Happy Reformation Day. But it is our faith’s heritage so I don’t think we as Protestants should hide this.

Just my two cents.
 
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