With 2017 being the 500th anniversary of the Reformation, on this 16th day of our march through church history, we will be reading a quote from perhaps Christian history’s best-known reformer:
“To be a Christian without prayer is no more possible than to be alive without breathing.” Martin Luther
The Ides of March has come but it will not go until we visit a devotional writer of the 15th century whose book “Imitation of Christ” is the all-time best selling Christian writing after the Bible.
“At the Day of Judgement we shall not be asked what we have read but what we have done.” Thomas à Kempis
Our march through church history takes us to the turbulent 14th century (when over 60% of Europe died of the plague in a few short years). The time was also turbulent spiritually as the beginnings of the Reformation were taking shape. Our quote is from an English cleric who sought to give his people handwritten copies of the Bible in English:
“Trust wholly in Christ; rely altogether on His sufferings; beware of seeking to be justified in any other way than by His righteousness. Faith in our Lord Jesus Christ is sufficient for salvation. There must be atonement made for sin according to the righteousness of God. The person to make this atonement must be God and man.” John Wycliffe
On the 13th of March, we come to the 13th century and a quote from perhaps the best known Christian of that time:
“The soul is like an uninhabited world that comes to life only when God lays His head against us.” Thomas Aquinas
March 1
2th means we have arrived at the 12th century of church history. Our writer’s work has survived to our time. His writing has been admired by Catholics and Protestant thinkers right up to our time:
“There are those who seek knowledge for the sake of knowledge; that is curiosity. There are those who seek knowledge to be known by others; that is vanity. There are those who seek knowledge in order to serve; that is love.” Bernard of Clairvaux