- "For at the core of Luther’s life and theology was an overwhelming experience of grace." What "grace" leads one to separate oneself from the One True Church? What grace inspires a person to eschew the Sacraments and deposit of faith? I believe apostasy is a mortal sin. By definition, sanctifying grace is absent from one in a state of mortal sin.
- "Luther was an ecstatic, and the religious movement he launched was a love affair.” If ever anyone needed proof of the dangers of exalting subjective experience over the immutable teachings of the Church, look no further. What Barron stupidly calls "a love affair" has led to the splintering of the Church and the damnation of perhaps millions of souls.
- "At bottom, Luther was a mystic of grace, someone who had fallen completely in love." In love with what?? No one who truly loves God separates him/herself from the One True Church. They certainly don't hold cheap their own sacerdotal orders.
- "So overwhelmed are they by the experience of the beloved that they are given to words such as “only” and “never” and “forever.” If you doubt me, read any of the great romantic poets, or for that matter, listen to a teenager speak about his first crush" I think in some convoluted way, Barron is trying to excuse or even justify Luther's mangling of the Bible to justify his sola fide heresy. Look - it's one thing for a person in love to pepper his/her own language with effusive terminology. It's quite another for the person in love to twist the words of the one whom he/she allegedly loves. That's precisely what Luther did when he added the word "alone" to that Romans passage and removed several Old Testament books from his heretical version of the Bible.
- "What Ryrie’s characterization of Luther has helped me to see is how the great Solas;of the Reformation can be both celebrated and legitimately criticized. Was Luther right to express his ecstatic experience of the divine love in just this distinctive way?" News flash! One does not celebrate spiritual poison. The answer to that last question is a resounding "NO!" If Bishop Barron is actually regurgitating this crap to his flock, perhaps he should surrender his miter now.
Gloria.tv has some other choice quotes from Martin Luther. Are those "expressions of ecstatic experience"?
Saint John Fisher was a contemporary of Luther's. He wrote several works to refute Luther's heresies. A youtube series appears in four parts. I post the second part below. If you watch it on youtube as opposed to this blog, you can get the whole series. It's worth some time, especially since Pope Francis seems hell-bent on celebrating this heretic during this coming October.
