Pope Benedict Channels Late CCM Artist Rich Mullins
It seems that our Holy Father may have been channeling Rich Mullins (late evangelical singer songwriter and multi-instrumentalist) in his recent statement on the opening of the Synod on the New Evangelization.
"We cannot make the Church, we can only announce what [God] has done. The Church does not begin with our 'making,' but with the 'making' and 'speaking' of God.... The Apostles did not say, after a few meetings: now we want to make a church, and that by means of a constituent assembly they were going to draft a constitution. No, they prayed and in prayer they waited, because they knew that only God himself can create his Church, that God is the first agent: if God does not act, our things are only ours and are insufficient, and only God can testify that it is he who speaks and has spoken.... God is not only a past, because it is a true past that always carries in itself the present and the future. God has spoken means, 'He speaks.' ...At that time it was only on God's initiative that the Church could be born, that the Gospel could be known ... in the same way today only God can begin, we can only cooperate...." (Pope Benedict 16th.)
Now listen to a line from Rich's famous song which he made from many of the words of the Creed:
I think Rich was on to something big time. He was more Catholic than many of us will ever admit.
"We cannot make the Church, we can only announce what [God] has done. The Church does not begin with our 'making,' but with the 'making' and 'speaking' of God.... The Apostles did not say, after a few meetings: now we want to make a church, and that by means of a constituent assembly they were going to draft a constitution. No, they prayed and in prayer they waited, because they knew that only God himself can create his Church, that God is the first agent: if God does not act, our things are only ours and are insufficient, and only God can testify that it is he who speaks and has spoken.... God is not only a past, because it is a true past that always carries in itself the present and the future. God has spoken means, 'He speaks.' ...At that time it was only on God's initiative that the Church could be born, that the Gospel could be known ... in the same way today only God can begin, we can only cooperate...." (Pope Benedict 16th.)
Now listen to a line from Rich's famous song which he made from many of the words of the Creed:
And I believe what I believe
Is what makes me what I am
I did not make it, no it is making me
It is the very truth of God and not
The invention of any man
( cf. Rich Mullins Creed)
posted by Russ Rentler, M.D. | 6:17 PM
3 Comments:
I have loved Rich's music for more than twenty-five years, beginning with his debut, self-titled album. In fact, I recently purchased a couple of his albums on CD. "Creed" is one of my favorites.
Great song, one of my favourites too.
I had been playing hammer dulcimer for a short time when I first heard of Rich Mullins. I received a hammer dulcimer as a wedding present in 1982 but was in med school and never had much time to learn to play it. I was starting to do gigs in the Christian Music World and then I heard of Rich, and saw he was already doing everything I wanted to do, only a hundred times better! A few years before I became Catholic I was reading about Rich's journey into simple living and adopting the Franciscan way of life. The video about his life was very moving and I believe it softened my heart a bit towards the Church. I think Richard may have even prayed for me to come home to the Church. I keep his photo on the top of my dulcimer and every gig I do, I ask Rich to pray for me and start every gig with a hammer dulcimer piece. Someday I'll write a song for him.
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