Why did Paul have no peace?

(12) After leaving Ephesus, I traveled to the city of Troas to proclaim the gospel (good news) of Christ. When I arrived, I discovered that the Lord had opened a wide door for my ministry, (13) but I still had no peace in my spirit because I did not find my brother Titus there, as he had not yet come from Corinth. So I said goodbye to the Troas church and took a boat across the Aegean Sea to the Roman province of Macedonia (see Acts 20:1).

Source: The Apostle Paul - 2 Corinthians 2:12-13 (IEB)

"Why do you keep saying the same thing?"

With so much hatred, confusion, and despair we must keep our heart fixed on God and keep walking with Jesus and let his love pour through us to those God puts in our lives. I am strengthened by the story of the Apostle John who had lived in Ephesus into his extreme old age, and could hardly be carried to the meetings of the church by the disciples, and when in speaking, he could no longer put together many words, he would not say anything else in the meetings but this: “Little children, love one another!” When at last the disciples and brothers present got tired of hearing the same thing again and again, they said, “Master, why do you keep saying the same thing?” John replied with a saying worthy of him: “Because it is the Lord’s command, and it is enough if it is really done.”

No labor of love is ever in vain and love does indeed win because God is Love.

Source: John the Apostle - As quoted by Ryan & Noleen Thurman in their eNewsletter, 29 Nov 2016, http://us11.campaign-archive2.com/?u=2f84e6db2c8ce790e960d7e88&id=56a66dcd7d&e=41a5c4ce00

"I could not forgive that man" (if ...)

Police have said Stephens apparently chose the grandfather of 14 at random.

The daughters spoke proudly of the example their father set for them in faith and forgiveness.

"I promise you, I could not do that if I did not know God, if I didn't know him as my God and my savior, I could not forgive that man," Debbie Godwin said.

Godwin-Baines added, "It's just what our parents taught us. They didn't talk it, they lived it. Neighbors would do things to us, and we would say, 'Dad, are we going to forgive them really?' And he would say, 'Yes, we have to.' "

Source: Melissa Mahtani - "Cleveland victim's family: We forgive killer", CNN, 18 April 2017
http://www.cnn.com/2017/04/18/us/cleveland-victims-family-we-forgive-killer-cnntv/index.html

More Radical than Rod!

The most striking comments came from Randall Gauger, a bishop at the Bruderhof, who, with his wife, had lived for many years in a Bruderhof community in Australia. (They now live in a Pennsylvania Bruderhof community.) A bald man in his sixties wearing a tan sports coat, a black shirt, and a tan tie, Gauger described what he and his wife had done after “withdrawing.” They hung out with their neighbors at barbecues; they babysat and visited elderly shut-ins. Gauger became a police chaplain. Other Bruderhof members became firefighters or E.M.T.s. They collaborated with farmers on sustainable agriculture, partnered with charities, volunteered in “crisis situations,” and hosted thousands of guests, including politicians and Aboriginal leaders. “Would we have done as much as a solitary nuclear family?” Gauger asked. “I doubt it.” He pointed out that capitalist society caters to people with “extraordinary talents”: “Only in a communal church can the old and the very young, hurting military veterans, the disabled, the mentally ill, ex-addicts, ex-felons, or simply annoying people, like myself, find a place where they can be healed and accepted and, what’s more, contribute to life.” His criticism of “The Benedict Option” was that it did not go far enough. “Why stop at Benedict when we can go back to the original source of Christianity? Christians living in full community is how the church began . . . and the early church was far more radical than anything Rod has so far proposed.” Dreher, sitting next to him onstage, listened, enraptured, with his head on his hand.

Source: Randall Gauger - Bruderhof bishop, quoted by Joshua Rothman in "Rod Dreher's Monastic Vision", The New Yorker, 1 May 2017, http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/05/01/rod-drehers-monastic-vision

Historical Background to the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity

In 1935, Abbé Paul Couturier, a priest of the Archdiocese of Lyons, sought a solution to the problem of non-Roman Catholics not being able to observe the Octave of Prayer for Christian Unity. He found the solution in the Roman Missal as the Association for Promotion of the Unity of Christians had done seventy-eight years earlier in England. Couturier promoted prayer for Christian unity on the inclusive basis that “our Lord would grant to his Church on earth that peace and unity which were in his mind and purpose, when, on the eve of His Passion, He prayed that all might be one.” This prayer would unite Christians in prayer for that perfect unity that God wills and by the means that he wills. Like Fr. Paul Wattson, Abbé Couturier exhibited a powerful passion for unity and had sent out “calls to prayer” annually until his death in 1953.

Source: Rev. Thomas Orians, S.A. - "BACKGROUND: Brief History of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity 2017", by Rev. Thomas Orians, S.A., Associate Director of Graymoor Ecumenical & Interreligious Institute, http://geii.org/week_of_prayer_for_christian_unity/background/brief_history.html

Paul & the Corinthians - Again

Paul here was writing to those who had already put their faith in Christ, yet were now estranged from him and his companions who were carrying the message of the Gospel. This fragmented relationship gave way to a disconnect from God's purposes towards them. To be estranged from God's ambassadors and community was to be estranged from God himself. Alternatively, to be reconciled to them was to be reconciled in Christ to God.

There is an urgency in Paul which invites his pleading with this fragmented community. Reconciliation and unity are not subsidiary realities to the Gospel, but at the core of salvation and what it means to be the church. If God was in Christ to reconcile the world to himself, and he is now in the church, then he must be at work within the church to reconcile men one to another.

God continues to work to reconcile the community of the redeemed and the church is still his chosen method in revealing himself. The message of salvation is incapable of being disconnected from its incarnation in the community of Christ. As Christ works through to us to plead to the world, he is also at work among us in a similar way with the plea, 'be reconciled to God,' and with it, 'be reconciled with each other.’

Source: A2J Community - Apprenticeship to Jesus Community, Phoenix, Blog Post "Unity Week Devotion - Day 5", 22 Jan 2016, http://www.a2jphoenix.org/blog/unity-week-devotion-day-5

Paul & the Corinthians

Saint Paul did not always have an easy relationship with the community at Corinth, as his letters show. There was also a painful visit to this community, with heated words exchanged in writing. But this passage shows Paul overcoming past differences. By living his ministry in the light of mercy received, he does not give up in the face of divisions, but devotes himself to reconciliation. When we, the community of baptized Christians, find ourselves confronted with disagreements and turn towards the merciful face of Christ to overcome it, it is reassuring to know that we are doing as Saint Paul did in one of the very first Christian communities.

Source: Pope Francis - Address to the Anglican Parish of All Saints in Rome, as reported by Vatican Radio, 26 Feb 2017, http://en.radiovaticana.va/news/2017/02/26/pope_catholics_and_anglicans,_brothers_and_sisters_in_chris/1295193

NYPD Officer Shot by Teen

Quoting Steven McDonald, a NYPD officer shot by a teenager and paralyzed:

I forgave Shavod because I believe the only thing worse than receiving a bullet in my spine would have been to nurture revenge in my heart. Such an attitude would have extended my injury to my soul, hurting my wife, son, and others even more. It's bad enough that the physical effects are permanent, but at least I can choose to prevent spiritual injury.

Source: Johann Christoph Arnold - Why Forgive?, pp.180

What does "Christian" mean? - Taizé

In our city and our region, there are people who also love Christ, but in a different way than we do. Calling ourselves “Christians” means bearing the name of Christ. We receive our identity as Christians through baptism, which unites us to Christ. Let us try to give more visibility to this common identity, instead of emphasizing our denominational identities.

Source: Taizé - As quoted on FB by John 17 Movement, 2 Dec 2016

From the Paulists

Do we need energizing reminders in these turbulent times that this call to unity, this vocation, is more real and needed than ever? Yes, we do. And the signs are there that the Holy Spirit is alive and active, lighting the fire in our hearts for more visible communion with one another as followers of Jesus.

Such signs were manifest in Boston during the January 18-25 Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. There was a prayer gathering in a different denominational church each night of the week. On the opening evening, Wednesday, Christians from around the city gathered in an Evangelical church. On Thursday evening, people came together in an Eastern Orthodox church. And on Friday evening there was an energizing service of song and prayer in a Pentecostal church.

Source: Thomas Ryan, CSP - "Keep the Fire Burning", Paulist Fathers blog post, 6 February 2017, http://www.paulist.org/the-conversation/keep-the-fire-burning/

From the NFL

Meanwhile, Qadree, a fifth-round draft pick of the Atlanta Falcons out of Pittsburgh, figured he couldn't proceed in life or football without getting some closure after his brother's 2017 murder. The native of Niagara Falls, New York, also realized, because of his faith in God, there was no reason to be spiteful toward [the murderer, Denzel] Lewis, whom he attended middle school with and once considered a friend.

“I believe you can’t live with hate in your heart,” Qadree said. “You can’t move on from something with hate in your heart.”

Qadree could have expressed outrage over a senseless act of violence. Instead, his words showed compassion toward Lewis, who shot Harris to death in broad daylight. Qadree’s strength in a time of grieving helped bring an already tight-knit family closer.

Source: Vaughn McClure - ESPN, 8 May 2019
http://www.espn.com/blog/atlanta-falcons/post/_/id/34204/falcons-rookie-qadree-ollison-keeps-the-faith-through-brothers-murder

Zacchaeus

Luke 19:8-9 and Acts 19:18-19 both show the distinct Old Testament pattern of open, public confession and repentance:
Lk. 19:8-9--"But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, 'Look Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.' Jesus said to him, 'Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham."

Source: Dr. Gary S. Greig - The Biblical Foundations of Identificational Repentance as One Prayer Pattern Useful to Advance God's Kingdom and Evangelism, April 2001

Fr. Peter on Abbe Couturier

…"spiritual ecumenism" was first used by the Abbe Paul Couturier from Lyon, France, in the mid-1930s, to describe an approach to ecumenism that was grounded in deeper conversion of all to Christ, was rooted in and nourished by prayer on the model of the prayer of Jesus in John 17, and was deeply penitent for the sins of all parties against the unity of the one body. Couturier's vision for ecumenism was adopted by the Catholic bishops at Vatican Two, and found clear expression in the decree on ecumenism. John Paul II strongly endorsed the teaching of the council on spiritual ecumenism in his encyclical letter Ut Unum Sint in 1995.

Source: Fr. Peter Hocken - Pentecost and Parousia, Peter Hocken - p. 91 / UR 6-8 / UUS 15-17, 21-27.

God's Anointing Spans Our Traditions

63 – Abraham. Moses. Ruth. David. Elijah. Mary. John. Polycarp. Anthony. Patrick. Teresa of Avila. John Wesley. William Carey. Billy Graham.
64 – God’s anointing—his hand upon individuals—permeates 4,000 years of Judeo-Christian history, reaching across the Christian traditions.

Source: George Miley - Maturing Toward Wholeness in the Inner Life, Chapter 1, "Restore the Ancient Anointings", https://www.amazon.com/Maturing-toward-Wholeness-Inner-Life/dp/0578613719/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=maturing+toward+wholeness&qid=1579303032&sr=8-2

Evangelical is Not Enough Is Not Enough

[Thomas Howard] publisher titled his last Protestant book Evangelical is Not Enough. He told me he’d protested the title, because he did not want to speak negativity of his childhood home. The publisher knew a title that would bring in the buyers, because there were many in that world looking for a way out.

Source: David Mills - "RIP Thomas Howard: 1935-2020", Catholic Herald, 15 October 2020
https://catholicherald.co.uk/ch/rip-thomas-howard-1935-2020/

"I was supposed to be in Rome ..."

For a decade or more, Giovanni and Matteo have been leading Catholic/Evangelical reconciliation meetings around the globe, perhaps most notably in Latin America, where Giovanni became personal friends with Cardinal Bergoglio, who became Pope Francis. Early in 2014, these two Italian brothers, at Joe Tosini’s invitation, visited Phoenix, where we held several small reconciliation meetings and launched our John 17 Movement (www.john17movement.com). Pope Francis sent us a personal letter encouraging our unity efforts, and both Bishops Olmstead and Nevares participated in all those meetings. When I expressed my deep gratitude to Bishop O, he replied, “It’s providential I’m here. I was supposed to be Rome this week, but those meetings were cancelled!”

Subsequently, we’ve held multiple John 17 worship and prayer events, as well as leadership luncheons. Most notably, we had a grand event a year ago May on Pentecost Sunday at the Phoenix Convention Center. Again, both Bishops spoke, over 2000 attended, and Pope Francis sent us a personal video greeting.

Source: Gary Kinnaman - Presented during Movement Day NYC, representing the John 17 movement and Greater Phoenix and Arizona Catholic/Evangelical Bridges, as posted on the John 17 FB page on 1 November 2016.

"I hate lard!"

One Sunday morning in a small Texas church, the new pastor called on one of the older deacons to lead the closing prayer. The deacon came up on the podium, stood by the pastor, bowed his head and said, "Lord, I hate buttermilk!"

The pastor opened one eye and wondered just where this was going...

The deacon continued, "Lord, I hate lard!"

Now, the pastor was totally perplexed...

The deacon continued, "Lord, and I ain't too crazy about plain flour neither, but after you mix em all together and bake em in a hot oven, I just love biscuits!"

Source: Anonymous - Adopted from a joke posted by Steve McFarland on Facebook, 4 Mar 2020

Danville, PA - again!

Once a month I also meet with 4 ministers from 4 different denominations. Mark Giesen is a Lutheran and ministers as a “pulpit supply person” from Trinity Lutheran Church in Danville, PA. David Mansfield is a Disciple of Christ and the Pastor at the Benton, PA, Christian Church. Betsy McCormack is a Presbyterian Pastor ministering at the First Presbyterian Church in Bloomsburg, PA. And Nancy Hardy is from the United Church of Christ and is Pastor at the First Reformed UCC Church in Berwick, PA. Each month one of these ministers prepares a “focused theme” for our “day apart” which includes a “check in” to see how everyone is currently doing, followed by a time for private reflection, prayer, and a discussion. We conclude our precious time together as we pray for the expressed needs of each other. We have truly become one in spirit as we accompany each other on the journey as faithful spiritual companions.

Source: Sr. Jean Marie Holup, SSCM - "The Ecumenical Commitment of a Catholic Women’s Religious Community", Paulist.org
http://www.paulist.org/the-conversation/the-ecumenical-commitment-of-a-catholic-womens-religious-order/

Danville, Pennsylvania

Christ gave a farewell address at the last supper and expressed his wish “that all may be one” in the Trinity (John 17:22). The Congregation of the Sisters of Saints Cyril & Methodius boldly attests through its congregational mission statement that we “work and pray for the unity of all Christians.”

We promote cooperation and better understanding, and we strive to develop closer relationships with one another in order to unite people of different Church traditions. Our congregation’s Motherhouse has been located in a rural area of Pennsylvania in the town of Danville for 100 years. We have reached out to all 24 of the Danville Churches as we begin to celebrate this 2019 centennial milestone.

Source: Sr. Jean Marie Holup, SSCM - "The Ecumenical Commitment of a Catholic Women’s Religious Community", Paulist.org
http://www.paulist.org/the-conversation/the-ecumenical-commitment-of-a-catholic-womens-religious-order/