Pope Benedict on “Faith Alone”

Today I want to share a quotation I often refer to on the subject of justification and the Protestant doctrine of Sola Fide. Often non-Catholics will tell us (incorrectly) that we believe in salvation by works. For this reason, I think it’s useful to hear what Pope Benedict has to say on the primacy of faith in salvation, and even the sense in which Luther was right, that we are saved by “faith alone”…

Being “just” simply means being with Christ and in Christ. And this suffices. Further observances are no longer necessary. For this reason Luther’s phrase: “faith alone” is true, if it is not opposed to faith in charity, in love. Faith is looking at Christ, entrusting oneself to Christ, being united to Christ, conformed to Christ, to his life. And the form, the life of Christ, is love; hence to believe is to conform to Christ and to enter into his love. So it is that in the Letter to the Galatians in which he primarily developed his teaching on justification St Paul speaks of faith that works through love

– Pope Benedict XVI, Wednesday Audience, 19th November 2008

Benedict

Top Ten Reasons to be an Altar Boy

In the parish where I grew up it was understood that, upon receiving their First Holy Communion, boys were then eligible for training to become altar servers. I followed in this tradition and became an altar boy at the age of eight. Even after we changed parishes, every week I served on the altar and did so for many years. I continued to serve regularly until after I completed university and, even then, when I was back home visiting my family I would typically don my cassock and carry a candle on Sundays.

I loved being an altar server and I think that all parents should consider encouraging their sons to become altar boys. In this post I’d like to share my top ten reasons why altar serving is great…

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Does God share His glory?

There are some posts to which I regularly refer/hyperlink during apologetic discussions. Many of these kinds of posts are now found in this blog’s sidebar. 

I link to such posts because it saves me from repeatedly writing the same explanation, and it also helps limit the highjacking of the discussion thread with side issues. If someone wants to dispute the particular assertion then they have an entire blog post in which to do it where I make my case.

Today’s post is one of those posts which I think I’ll be linking to regularly…

Last week I was dialoguing with a commenter by the name “Sola Fide” and he made the assertion which I’ve heard many times before:

Sharing the glory of Christ with a human is idolatry… You are sharing the glory of Christ with Mary…
– User “Sola Fide”

Although it comes from admirable intentions, statements like this are rather mind-boggling when one considers the Biblical data available. Does the Bible ever speak about God sharing His glory with mere creatures? The short answer is, yes…

Glory

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