The Love of Money

When Simon saw that the Spirit was given at the laying on of the apostles’ hands, he offered them money and said, “Give me also this ability so that everyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.” Peter answered: “May your money perish with you, because you thought you could buy the gift of God with money! You have no part or share in this ministry, because your heart is not right before God. Repent of this wickedness and pray to the Lord. Perhaps he will forgive you for having such a thought in your heart. For I see that you are full of bitterness and captive to sin.” Then Simon answered, “Pray to the Lord for me so that nothing you have said may happen to me.”

Source: Bible - Acts 8:18-24

C.S. Lewis' Letter to a Catholic Convert

CS Lewis once corresponded with a woman who had converted to Catholicism. What Lewis wrote to her, I would like to say to Francis Beckwith: “It is a little difficult to explain how I feel that though you have taken a way which is not for me, I nevertheless can congratulate you – I suppose because of your faith and joy which are so obviously increased. Naturally, I do not draw from that the same conclusions as you – but there is no need for us to start a controversial correspondence! I believe we are very dear to one another but not because I am at all on the Rome-ward frontier of my own communion. I believe that in the present divided state of Christendom, those who are at the heart of each division are all closer to one another than those who are at the fringes.”

Source: C.S. Lewis - As quoted in “Evangelicals and the Great Tradition” by Timothy George, First Things, Aug/Sept 2007, p. 21

Blessed Martin Porres

When the terrors of the Spanish Civil War began, Blessed Martin took all of the consecrated hosts from the chapel, and went into hiding living in barns, caves, and haystacks. He evaded the militia for a few days but was caught and imprisoned where he spent his remaining time ministering to other prisoners, hearing confessions, and distributing the Eucharist he had rescued.

When the time of his execution came, he was asked if he would like to face away from the rifles during his execution, he said “no”. When asked if he wanted to say anything, he said gave them a blessing and said “I only give you my blessing that God does not take into account the madness that you commit.”

Then he shouted “VIVA CRISTO REY!”

Right before being shot, he smiled for the photographer, a Republican, called Hans Guttman, who took a couple of photographs of him. In his eyes, you can see a foretaste of eternity. You can see the joy of a faithful priest.

Blessed Martin was beatified on the 1st October 1995 by Pope Saint John Paul II. His feast day is the 18th August. Blessed Martin, Ora Pro Nobis! Viva Christo Rey!

Source: Ryan Scheel - Article on uCatholic, http://ucatholic.com/blog/man-die-smiling/

A Catholic Pope on the Catholic Church

Years ago, Francis spoke harshly of the Protestant reformers. But in the run-up to the trip, he has had only words of praise for Luther. He recently called the German theologian a reformer of his time who rightly criticized a church that was "no model to imitate."

"There was corruption in the church, worldliness, attachment to money and power," Francis told reporters this summer.

They are the same abuses Francis has criticized in the 21st-century Catholic Church he now leads.

Source: Pope Francis - As quoted by Andrew Medichini, Jan M. Olsen & Nicole Winfield of the Associated Press, "Pope on Reformation: Forgive 'errors' of past, forge unity", 31 Oct 2016, https://www.yahoo.com/news/reformer-pope-heads-sweden-mark-luthers-reforms-050227744.html

"This is the Church"

Long before he became pope, Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio was practising this “ecumenical ecumenism” in Buenos Aires, giving his support to huge joint Catholic-evangelical meetings in Luna Park stadium.
Two of them were attended by Cantalamessa, who was deeply impressed by the Archbishop of Buenos Aires’s extraordinary openness to the current of Grace. “I’ve never seen a bishop in front of an interconfessional audience declare, ‘this is the Church’,” he told me during a break on Thursday.

Source: Austen Ivereigh - "Jubilee in Rome highlights charismatic fruits in Francis’s Pentecost papacy", Crux, 3 June 2017, https://cruxnow.com/vatican/2017/06/03/jubilee-rome-highlights-charismatic-fruits-franciss-pentecost-papacy/

"The astonishing new reality"

The astonishing new reality in this mighty flow of the Spirit is how sovereignly God is bringing together streams of life that have been isolated from one another for a very long time. This isolation is completely understandable from a historical perspective. Over the centuries, some precious teaching or vital experience is neglected until, at the appropriate moment, a person or movement arises to correct the omission. Numbers of people come under the renewed teaching, but soon vested interests and a host of other factors come into play, producing resistance to the renewal, and the new movement is denounced. In time it forms its own structures and community life, often in isolation from other Christian communities.

Source: Richard Foster - Streams of Living Water, p. xv

Northern Ireland (again!)

Father Symonds was to be the first Catholic priest to give a sermon at Ballymena’s Methodist church for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity Jan. 18-25.

“I love working here,” he said. “I’ve made great friendships, both within my own congregation and within the Protestant communities. Members of the Presbyterian Church have been particularly supportive of my ministry. I am convinced that I am doing what God has wanted me to do.”

Source: Fr. Paul Symonds - As quoted by the Catholic Review in "English priest receives awards for work in Northern Ireland", 5 Jan 2008, http://www.catholicreview.org/article/faith/vocations/english-priest-receives-award-for-work-in-northern-ireland

Belfast, Northern Ireland

Yet when we look at where we have come from to where we are now, enormous progress has been made. The North Belfast I live and work in is not the same North Belfast in which I went to school in the 1970s. More and more people from different religious and political opinion meet and get to know one one another in every day life. The building and developing of these human long term relationships will be key to reaching the tipping point to a society at peace with itself.

Source: Fr. Martin Magill - "It’s not all hopeless argues Fr Martin Magill who works in North Belfast", EamonnMallie.com, 18 July 2015, http://eamonnmallie.com/2015/07/its-not-all-hopeless-argues-fr-martin-magill-who-works-in-north-belfast/

Jesus

When they came to the place called the Skull, there they crucified him, along with the criminals—one on his right, the other on his left. Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”

Source: Bible - Luke 23:33-34

A Catholic Pope on Luther - "challenges us"

Pope Francis urged Catholics and Lutherans on Monday to forgive the "errors" of the past and forge a future together, including sharing the Eucharist, as he marked the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation by traveling to secular Sweden with a message of Christian unity.

Francis and the leaders of the Lutheran World Federation presided over an ecumenical prayer service in the Lund cathedral, the first time a pope has commemorated the anniversary of Martin Luther's revolt with such a symbolically powerful gesture.

Francis quoted Luther and praised him for having restored the centrality of Scripture to the church.

"The spiritual experience of Martin Luther challenges us to remember that apart from God, we can do nothing," Francis said.

Source: Andrew Medichini, Jan M. Olsen & Nicole Winfield - Associated Press, "Pope on Reformation: Forgive 'errors' of past, forge unity", 31 Oct 2016, https://www.yahoo.com/news/reformer-pope-heads-sweden-mark-luthers-reforms-050227744.html

Peter Nevland

When darkness closes in, introduces itself as a friend,
then I'm sad to say I'm too often drawn in to the lies and gossiping

God Your words are purest silver, full of meek untainted grace
So let my words bring only honor to Your vast and gracious name
...

I call upon my name of the Lord to guard my heart, make my words pure

Source: Peter Nevland - Purest Silver - Psalm 12, from Exposing the Psalms, by Peter Nevland & Co.

Paul

(4) Philemon, I always thank my God when I remember you in my prayers, (5) because I hear about your love for all of God’s people and your faith in the Lord Jesus.

Source: The Apostle Paul - Philemon 4-5

A Catholic Bishop on Luther - "A Mystic of Grace"

This is why I say Ryrie has caused me to look at Luther in a new light. One of the standard matrices for understanding religion is the distinction between the mystical and the prophetic, or between the experiential and the rational. On the standard reading, Luther would fall clearly on the latter side of this divide. He is, it would seem, the theologian of the word par excellence. And indeed, we can find throughout his writings many critiques of priestcraft, sacramentalism, and what he called Schwarmerei or pious enthusiasm. Nevertheless, if Ryrie is right, this is to get only part, indeed a small part, of the story. At bottom, Luther was a mystic of grace, someone who had fallen completely in love—which helps enormously to explain what makes his theological ideas both so fascinating and so frustrating. People in love do and say extravagant things. So overwhelmed are they by the experience of the beloved that they are given to words such as “only” and “never” and “forever.” If you doubt me, read any of the great romantic poets, or for that matter, listen to a teenager speak about his first crush. After a lifetime of scrupulosity and interior struggle, Luther sensed the breakthrough of the divine grace through the mediation of the Bible. Hence, are we surprised that he would express his ecstasy in exaggerated, over the top language: “By grace alone! By faith alone! By the Scriptures alone!”

Source: Bishop Robert Barron - "Looking at Luther with Fresh Eyes", Word on Fire, 13 June 2017, https://www.wordonfire.org/resources/article/looking-at-luther-with-fresh-eyes/5491/

"__________ is good for me"

Last week I had the privilege of hiking in the Montana wilderness with Rankin Wilbourne, a dear friend and pastor from southern California.

As we shared about the challenges, blessings and setbacks we’ve both experienced in our personal lives and ministries, Rankin said something I will never forget:

“I’ve discovered that anything that humbles me is good for me.”

Wow. That put many of my life experiences into a more helpful perspective.

I hope it will do the same for you.

- Ken Sande

PS – Rankin’s first book, Union with Christ, was just featured in Christianity Today. I’ve just started it myself, but I already see direct applications to relational wisdom. I commend it to you as book that will profoundly impact your relationship with God and the people around you.

Source: Rankin Wilbourne - As quoted by Ken Sande in his Relational Wisdom blog entry for 22 August 2016, http://rw360.org/2016/08/21/anything-humbles-good/

Ann Cogdell

I want to end this overview of the June Gathering by telling you some of the things that were brought home to me. I realized that I can’t enter well into what I'll call "identificational repentance" when really I’m indifferent; and I'm indifferent when things are distant from me -- distant in history or distant in the present, geographically or emotionally. Particularly, in being among those who were definitely not indifferent, (and Europeans seem to have so much a better sense of history than many of us Americans, they're more connected) I felt the pain of not being able to respond as fully as I’d have liked. The process of praying prayers of identificational repentance is both humbling and necessarily cleansing—looking at the sin of another or a grievous event of history, I felt that my eyes needed to be purified so that I could look with care rather than point the finger.

I would commend the story of a German Lutheran pastor's experience of entering into identificational repentance during his time in a previous gathering held in Rome.

Source: Ann Cogdell - Report to Christ Church Anglican in Waco, 4 Sept. 2016

"Repenting is hard, particularly when ..."

Third, as we begin to grasp our own contribution to the deep divisions that exist among believers, and the ways we have wronged in word, thought, and deed, in personal acts and unjust structures, we need to repent. Repenting is to call our own sins for what they are, to acknowledge them to God, and the wronged person as wrong, to come to terms with the real hurt and harm we have caused, and to acknowledge our intent, with God’s help to live differently and to determine what that difference will look like. Often we need to do this with the offended.

Repenting is hard, particularly when we think the other might have more to repent of than do we. Often the others think it the other way around. The question sometimes is simply, who will end the rounds of accusations and begin the process of repentance and restoration?

Source: Robert C Trube - rtrube54, "The Scandal of the Church in America: Part Two", Bob on Books, 14 Feb 2017, https://bobonbooks.com/2017/02/14/the-scandal-of-the-church-in-america-part-two/

New Mexico Prays

New Mexico Prays is a cross-denominational, multi-ethnic, Jesus-centered prayer movement. We have 39 churches in 10 cities covering New Mexico in 24/7 prayer from the Assemblies of God, Calvary Chapel Southwest, Church of God (Anderson, IN), Church of God (Cleveland, TN) Messianic Jews, Catholic, Presbyterian, Christian Reformed, Church of God in Christ (COGIC), Full Gospel Baptist, Victory Outreach, Church of Christ, Ministers Fellowship International (MFI), Southern Baptist, and non-denominational. Join the movement today: NewMexicoPrays.org.

Source: New Mexico Prays - From http://www.NewMexicoPrays.org, as posted on FB by Trey Kent, 25 Jan 2017

"... unless you forgive your fellow believers from your heart"

(23) Jesus told the people this parable (story): “The kingdom of heaven is like a king who told his servants to pay back the money they owed him. (24) As he began to settle his accounts, a servant who owed the king about 20 years’ wages was brought to him. (25) Because the servant was not able to pay, the king ordered that he and his family and all that he owned be sold to repay his debt. (26) Hearing this the servant fell on his knees, begging, ‘Please be patient with me, and I will pay you back everything I owe you.’ (27) The king showed mercy toward the servant and forgave him his entire debt and let him go. (28) But when that servant left, he found a fellow servant who owed him about one day’s wages. He grabbed him and began to choke him, demanding, ‘Pay me back all that you owe me!’ (29) His fellow servant fell to his knees, begging him, ‘Please be patient with me, and I will pay you back everything I owe you.’ (30) But he refused to forgive him his debt. Instead, he had the man thrown into prison until he could pay his entire debt. (31) When the other servants saw what had happened, they were very angry and went and told the king everything. (32) Then the king had the servant he had forgiven brought to him and he said, ‘You are a wicked servant! I forgave you of all your debt because you begged me. (33) You should have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had mercy on you.’ (34) In his anger the king gave him to the jailers to be punished, until he paid back all he owed. (35) This is how my Father in heaven will treat you unless you forgive your fellow believers from your heart.”

Source: Bible (IEB) - Matthew 18:23-35

Joe Tosini, John 17 Movement

It's no secret that division in a family brings harm and pain on many levels. The church which is described as the family of God remains divided. The attitudes and harsh judgements amongst professing Christians have caused deep wounds and centuries of conflicts.

"Father I pray that those who believe in me will be one so the world will know you sent me." That prayer of Jesus in the 17th chapter of the Gospel according to John is the reason Roman Catholics and a variety of Protestant Christians met together on May 23rd, 2015 in Phoenix, Arizona.

There was a declaration made that day by those in attendance to see the Church in Phoenix becoming relationally unified in a way that would make the claims of Jesus visibly seen and felt by those within and outside of the church.

My impression of our day but even more of the effort and working together of so many leading up to Saturday's meeting gives me hope that the church in all of its rich diversity can live and work as one family in the unity of the Holy Spirit.

Source: Joe Tosini - Founder, John 17 Movement, http://www.john17movement.com/