To be a Lutheran (Protestant) is to be Catholic .....

Let us be clear .....to be a Protestant (in the original, classical, confessional sense, particularly as a Lutheran) is to be a catholic or an evangelical catholic, nothing more, nothing less --- the Reformation was never ever the creation or invention of a new faith but the very restoration of the apostolic faith that is embodied in the creeds (that represents the corporate response of the Church to the proclamation of the Scriptures and hence sola Scriptura), liturgy (that represents the corporate response of the Church to the saving work of the Triune God in the living present/ presence! - in the here and now) - and ancient traditions of the Church (such as the use and practice of sign of the Cross which constitute a 'sacramental', the prominent display of the Crucifix, kneeling at the reception of the true, real and personal Body and Blood of Our Saviour, the wearing of vestments in the form of the chasuble and stole by the priest, etc.) .....

The Heidelberg Disputation (1518) .....

http://bookofconcord.org/heidelberg.php

Very brief and quick rumination on the meaning of the Reformation .....

As the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation approaches (as 'officially' recognised to fall on 31 October), it is germane to reflect a little and in a cursory manner on its continuing relevance despite the on-going 'agenda' of detractors both within and outside this great and unparalleled tradition to side-track and distract and skew what lie at the very root and heart and centre of Luther's theological breakthrough (which simultaneously summarised, contextualised, epitomised and embodied his 'spiritual,' 'religious' and 'psychological' eureka moment or 'transformation' or 'renewal'), namely that the human is justified by faith alone as the essence of personhood defining the creature of the Word of God Who says what He does and does what He says and as such creates and re-creates out of nothing and out of pure goodness only so that creation ex nihilo reflects and emanates and flows from the very heart of the Father as the font and source and origin of the divine life of the eternal and undivided Trinity of, in, and through which we share and participate therein so that therefore the divine love constitutes and forms and guarantees the exclusive basis and foundation and decree whereby the gospel is proclaimed in its oral and sacramental forms to the death of the old Adam/ Eve and the resurrection of the new Adam/ Eve that thus characterises the restoration of the lost divine-human relationship as sheer and pure and unmerited GIFT from the beginning to the end .....

500th ANNIVERSARY OF THE REFORMATION