Greetings and salutations, welcome back to life and books and everything.

Today I'll be reading from my latest article in world opinions.

I wrote for Reformation Day. It came out the day after,

November 1st. It's entitled A World Awash in Shear Monkery, the modern world and its new forms

of works righteousness. Reformation Day may be behind us, but a huge responsibility lies before us.

The faith of the Reformation must be kept alive because the ideas Luther combated are just as much present in our own day.

The story should be familiar to most Protestants.

Martin Luther was walking toward the village of Sorenheim when he got caught in a thunderstorm.

Terrified by a bolt of lightning, Luther cried out in fear, St. Anne, save me, and I'll become a monk.

Two weeks later, an anxious Luther entered the Augustinian monastery at Erfurt.

Five years later, in the winter of 1510, Luther and another monk were on their way to Rome

to represent one side of a conflict involving the order of 1510, Luther and another monk were on their way to Rome to represent

one side of a conflict involving the Order of the Augustinian Hermits.

As the junior partner in the monastic tandem with few official responsibilities, Luther

turned the trip into his own personal pilgrimage. For Luther, the holy city of Rome was a once-in-a-lifetime

opportunity, to see holy places and sacred shrines, to do works of penance, and to gain indulgences for himself as for his loved ones.

One day while in Rome, Luther visited the Scala Sankta, the holy stairs said to be the very steps Christ ascended during his trial before Pontius Pilate.

The staircase filled with relics and carved crosses provided pilgrims

with an unparalleled opportunity to procure a plenary indulgence for himself or for others.

A young man, wracked with guilt, Luther dutifully climbed all 28 steps on his knees, kissing each step as he

went and repeating the Lord's prayer all along the way. As earnest as he was in his self-abasement,

the scholar Sankta provided no relief for Luther's anxiety.

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