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Praying For Martin Luther

Praying For Martin Luther

Last updated on: February 10, 2023 at 4:42 am by Mark Wilson

Praying For Martin Luther 2023-02-10T04:42:25-05:00 Mark Wilson

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

If you browse through the plethora of content on the web, you will notice many different voices saying several different things. This blog is among them. There are those who run like a flock of seagulls to posts that have Joe Catholic complaining about Bob Catholic who isn’t living up to what they perceive as the standard level of holiness and sanctity fit for a follower of Christ. It’s important to comment on and critique certain things and shine a light on the dimly lit places in the ark of faith and not to think that everything is squeaky clean polished pollyannaish beautiful rainbow butterflies. There is some stinky dank dark doo-doo evil gripping and grasping the world. One only needs to look to Christians being deprived of life and liberty in places such as Nigeria. Certain issues need to be addressed and spoken about.

But of course a steady diet of outrage and lashing out like a storm to all who fall under the radar of my left or right perception of reality can suck the spirit-filled joy our of our bright colorful balloon of faith. Sometimes you just need to ignore the constant negativity coming from those who are supposed to radiate and promote positivity because we have a God who loves us and wants us be 110% fully alive not just in the future after-life but here and now.

If you must weigh your opinion in on something, it is best to do it with clarity and charity. Perhaps a little snark at times….

If truth be told, I am actually holding back harsher words and replacing them with the milder genre of “snark”. (1) I like to write in a style that is both intellectually substantive and entertaining, which are not, after all, mutually exclusive. And besides, what is “overheated snark” to one person is “funny and spot-on satire” to another. I write as I want to write and I like to interject humor into my posts. And I make no apologies for that. Quod scripsi, scripsi. (2)–Larry Chapp

A general rule of thumb is that it is probably healthy for body, soul and spirit to avoid certain social media debates with strangers online as they usually turn into an occasion of sin for all involved. But of course there are times when adding your voice to the conversation (if it is a actual conversation) can be helpful and perhaps fruitful.

Somebody in a FB post said roughly this in regards to a post about Martin Luther in Hell…

Personally it is enough for me to know that Padre Pio described him as a heretic and said his fate was horrific and terrifying. Saints witnessed him in hell.

Somebody Else Responded…..

Private Revelation. I would like to think Luther had the opportunity to repent, and found out Purgatory existed…

Let me be clear hell is a real possibility.

‘To die in mortal sin … means remaining separated from God forever by our own free choice. This state of definitive self-exclusion … is called hell.’ (CCC 1033)

Because man remains always and everywhere free, that being his most basic and defining feature, he is always at liberty to refuse God’s offer of grace. Putting it in the bluntest possible way, he can choose to spit in God’s eye, perversely deciding to burn every possible bridge to beatitude. Call it the infernal option, if you like, the exercise of which will carry a man straight into hell, where over and over he shall say to God, “I don’t want to love. I don’t want to be loved. I just want to be left alone.”

Hell Is Being Alone, Absolutely and Forever| National Catholic Register (ncregister.com)

I Responded to the above conversation…

The church has condemned nobody to hell. NOBODY. If you sleep better at night knowing that person you consider the great heretic protestant upstart leader is in hell and you become super super duper dapper holy and loving towards God and neighbor, more power to you? Instead, because God is not limited by this thing we have called time, “Lord I pray that Martin Luther bound by confusion, fear, and anger be released from those things and was given the grace of repentance before you cast judgment for you want known to perish. May Mary have lead his soul to heaven and all souls in most need of your mercy. May Padre Pio have prayed for his conversion.

Was I charatible and clear enough?

For another more charitable take on the afterlife of Martin Luther chick thoust out.

A Trialogue With C.S. Lewis, Martin Luther & Thomas Aquinas | New Oxford Review

Former OnePeterFive founder Steve Skojec who is now an agnostic recently said this on Twitter in regards to the topic of hell.

**Steve Skojec @SteveSkojec: (Feb 9, 2023)**A friend was telling me, “Fr. Ripperger had a talk on hell on his website that goes into graphic detail about all the different physical, mental, and spiritual torments the damned have to face. It’s almost literal torture porn. And then he concludes by saying, ‘And even after a lifetime of righteous living, a single willful lustful thought can send you there forever.’ Some part of him has to know how morally absurd that sounds.”

Fellow Patheos Blogger Fr Matthew P. Schneider, LC responded with this…

Fr Matthew P. Schneider, LC @FrMatthewLC (Feb 9, 2023) This is not a healthy way to do Christian spirituality. Yes, Hell is real & if we make certain choices, any of us can go there. But this method is more likely to produce scruples & neuroticism than true holiness.

I’ll end with this helpful video where

Pope Francis and Bishop Barron give some helpful advice on critiquing others
by talking about the ghastly ghoul of gossip.
When you think about it, that is much of what the complaining about others online actually is.

1. Larry Chapp, Were Vigano and Marshall Right After All? No | Gaudium et Spes 22

2. Larry Chapp A brief follow-up to my last post: Why I criticize certain kinds of “traditionalists.” | Gaudium et Spes 22

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