Martin Luther Changing Colors

Watch Luther change colors on your web pages.

Description of animation: Martin Luther animation, his portrait changes color, comes in two versions one with a white background the other with a black background. Luther taught that salvation and subsequently eternity in heaven is not earned by good deeds but is received only as a free gift of God's grace through faith in Jesus Christ as redeemer from sin and subsequently eternity in hell.

Did You Know? Luther was a German friar, priest and professor of theology who was a seminal figure in the Protestant Reformation. Initially an Augustinian friar, Luther came to reject several teachings and practices of the Roman Catholic Church. He strongly disputed the claim that freedom from God's punishment for sin could be purchased with money. He confronted indulgence salesman Johann Tetzel, a Dominican friar, with his Ninety-Five Theses in 1517. His refusal to retract all of his writings at the demand of Pope Leo X in 1520 and the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V at the Diet of Worms in 1521 resulted in his excommunication by the Pope and condemnation as an outlaw by the Emperor.

 Brief biography of Luther from cloudbiography

Washing Feet

footwashing

Description of Animation: color cartoon animation of clergy ceremoniously washing the feet of another

Maundy (from Latin mandatum or mendicare), or Washing of the Feet, is a religious rite observed by several Christian denominations. John 13:1–17 mentions Jesus performing this act. Specifically, in verses 13:14–17, He instructs them:

¹⁴ "If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. ¹⁵ For I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done to you. ¹⁶ Most assuredly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master; nor is he who is sent greater than he who sent him. ¹⁷ If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them."

Did You Know? As such, many denominations (including Anglicans, Lutherans, Methodists, Presbyterians, and Roman Catholics) observe the washing of the feet on Maundy Thursday of Holy Week. Moreover, for some denominations, foot-washing was an example, a pattern. Many groups throughout Church history and many modern denominations have practiced foot washing as a church ordinance including the Adventists, Anabaptists, Baptists, and Pentecostals.

       The derivation of the word Maundy has at least two possibilities for the origin:

• Through Middle English and Old French mandé, from Latin mandatum.
•  From the Latin mendicare, Old French mendier, and English maund, which means “to beg” (verb) or a “small basket” (noun) held out by maunders (beggars) as they maunded (begged).

In The Footsteps of Jesus:

• The Humility of Love
• May I Wash Your Feet?
• The Lessons of Foot-Washing
• Why Do We Wash Feet?

A Monk's Calling

A Friar looking
right and left.

Description of animation: A friar looks and calls right and left, dressed in brown robes, distinctive hair style, cross hanging from his waist

Friars are different from monks in that they are called to live the evangelical counsels (vows of poverty, chastity and obedience) in service to society, rather than through cloistered asceticism and devotion. Whereas monks live in a self-sufficient community, friars work among laypeople and are supported by donations or other charitable support. A monk or nun makes their vows and commits to a particular community in a particular place. Friars commit to a community spread across a wider geographical area known as a province, and so they will typically move around, spending time in different houses of the community within their province.

Did You Know? A religious habit is a distinctive set of garments worn by members of a religious order. Traditionally some plain garb recognisable as a religious habit has also been folded by those leading the religious eremitic and anchoritic life, although in their case without conformity to a particular uniform style.

       In the typical Roman Catholic or Anglican orders, the habit consists of a tunic covered by a scapular and cowl, with a hood for monks or friars and a veil for nuns; in other orders it may be a distinctive form of cassock for men, or a distinctive habit and veil for women. Modern habits are sometimes eschewed in favor of a simple business suit. Catholic Canon Law requires only that it be in some way identifiable so that the person may serve as a witness to Gospel values. This requires flexibility and creativity. For instance in Turkey, where religious garb is not allowed in public, a Franciscan might wear street clothes. Read more . . .

Discussion of symbolism in monastic clothing.

Praying Monks

Description of animation: These Catholic monks are praying together at a kneeler, lit candles, hoods

Prayer Life Is Vital:

• Prayer Has Its Reasons
• The Lord's Prayer
• The Importance of Prayer in Evangelism

"A short vocational video on traditional monastic life, produced by religious-vocation.com. Audio from the Monastic Choir of the Abbey of Notre Dame de Fontgombault, recording "Saint Benedict", "Alleluia Vir Dei Benedictus omni". Original Video Sources, exaltavit.com"

Reading Monk

A Christian monk
 animation.

Description of the animation: a patient monk is seated on a low wooden stool reading an ancient text and blinking, Christian monks are often depicted in both modern times and ancient as being closely associated with books. This is because they have preserved and copied them for centuries.

Did You Know? In the Early Middle Ages, monastery libraries developed, such as the important one at the Abbey of Montecassino in Italy. Books were usually chained to the shelves, reflecting the fact that manuscripts, which were created via the labor-intensive process of hand copying, were valuable possessions.

       Despite this protectiveness, many libraries loaned books if provided with security deposits (usually money or a book of equal value). Lending was a means by which books could be copied and spread. In 1212 the council of Paris condemned those monasteries that still forbade loaning books, reminding them that lending is "one of the chief works of mercy." The early libraries located in monastic cloisters and associated with scriptoria were collections of lecterns with books chained to them. Shelves built above and between back-to-back lecterns were the beginning of bookpresses. The chain was attached at the fore-edge of a book rather than to its spine. Book presses came to be arranged in carrels (perpendicular to the walls and therefore to the windows) in order to maximize lighting, with low bookcases in front of the windows. This "stall system" (i.e. fixed bookcases perpendicular to exterior walls pierced by closely spaced windows) was characteristic of English institutional libraries. In European libraries, bookcases were arranged parallel to and against the walls. This "wall system" was first introduced on a large scale in Spain's El Escorial.

       Also, in Eastern Christianity monastery libraries kept important manuscripts. The most important of them were the ones in the monasteries of Mount Athos for Orthodox Christians, and the library of the Saint Catherine's Monastery in the Sinai Peninsula, Egypt for the Coptic Church.

"Fred de Sam Lazaro tells the story of one Minnesota 

monastery's mission to preserve sacred religious texts from deterioration."