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1547 |
The Seventh Session of the Council of Trent declared: ‘If anyone says that one baptized cannot, even if he wishes, lose grace, however much he may sin, unless he is unwilling to believe, let him be anathema.’ |
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1744 |
Colonial missionary to the American Indians, David Brainerd wrote in his journal: ‘In the morning, spent an hour in prayer. Prayer was so sweet an exercise to me that I knew not how to cease, lest I lose the spirit of prayer.’ |
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1931 |
American linguistic pioneer Frank Laubach wrote in a letter: ‘If we only let God have his full chance he will break our hearts with the glory of his revelation. That is the privilege which the preacher can have. It is his business to look into the very face of God until he aches with bliss.’ |
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1950 |
Trappist monk Thomas Merton wrote in “Sign of Jonas”: ‘The Christian life…is a continual discovery of Christ in new and unexpected places. And these discoveries are sometimes most profitable when you find him in something you had tended to overlook or even despise.’ |
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1959 |
By a vote taken in both bodies, the Unitarian Church and the Universalist Church, along with their fellowships — the American Unitarian Association and the Universalist Church of America merged into a single denomination. |
Ok, a couple of notes on today’s Moments in Church History.
The council of Trent’s declaration on baptism has been the misguided theological boogey-man against infant baptism. I am a Presbyterian. I believe in infant baptism, I do not agree with the Council of Trent, nor would any true Protestant. This is not the moment for debate on who should get baptized, when and how much water should be used. All I do ask is that you notice, this is coming from a Catholic and not a Protestant document.
Brainerd’s comment on the sweetness of prayer give me an eagerness have such an experience is a wonder how is can be achieved. Perhaps a lot of it comes from the church’s general disregard for focused prayer reminding us that we can pray anywhere and at anytime, which somehow gets scrambled in the minds of believers as “Since it can be done in such an open way, I can do it later, leading to the inevitable prayer occurring nowhere and at no time. Perhaps it takes an hour to achieve this effect, not a 15 second “Get the lady with the pennies to hurry up” prayer I am more likely to offer up.
