Congregation at Prayer

Catechesis Notes for the Week — “Hear Me! Honor Your Father and Mother!” – This week’s catechism meditation focuses upon the Third and Fourth Commandments. “Remember the Sabbath Day” calls us to hear the Word of the Lord. His Word is the source of true rest and eternal peace. By the Word of the Lord faith is created in our hearts, and the fruits of faith are brought forth in our lives. “Honor your father and your mother” is the first commandment under the Second Table of the Law. God’s authority stands behind the authority of our parents and all earthly authority. In the Fourth Commandment the Lord lays upon parents the great responsibility of bringing their children up in the fear of the Lord, and calls children to honor their parents in spite of their failings and shortcomings. In the Boy Jesus in the Temple, obedience to both commandments are seen in Jesus. He not only rejoices to gladly hear and receive the Lord’s Word in the Temple, but by being in the Temple listening to the teachers and asking them questions He honors Mary and Joseph who had taught Him to value God’s Word above all things. In Mary Sits at Jesus’ Feet, we learn that many things in life may be important and even necessary, but the “one thing needful” above all others is to hear and receive the Lord’s Word. In the Rebellion of Absolom, we see the negative example of a son who dishonored and betrayed his father by drawing the people of Israel away from David to himself. In Ruth and Her Kinsman Redeemer, Ruth honors her mother-in-law by confessing faith in the God of Israel and returning with Naomi to Bethlehem to love and support Naomi in her old age. The verse for the week joins both commandments together: the Word that we receive for our life and salvation is to be given to our children in daily prayer and conversation that our children might know the Lord and trust in Him.CP220828

Catechesis Notes for the Week — “I Am the Lord Your God and Savior! Trust Me!” The first week of a new catechetical year begins another pilgrimage through the Six Chief Parts and Table of Duties from the Small Catechism. During this week we hear the Holy Trinity speak to us in the first two commandments. “Trust Me!” (First Commandment) and “Pray to Me!” (Second Commandment). It is as if He were saying, “I am the only true and living God. I have created You. I have redeemed and sanctified You. I love You with an everlasting love. I have called you by My name—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in the waters of Holy Baptism. There is no other God and Savior! Trust Me! I will take care of you!” This is the deep meaning of the First Commandment: “You shall have no other gods!” There is only one true and living God who provides for all that we need for our life and salvation. All other things or people that we might trust in have not made us, nor can they save us. The Three Men in the Fiery Furnace and Daniel cast into the Lions’ Den showed forth this miracle of faith. In the Second Commandment, “You shall not misuse the name of the Lord Your God,” we are called to pray to the Lord for everything, to always praise Him, and to give thanks to Him, even for the difficulties and hardships of life. Through the things we suffer He calls us to trust in Him and to pray to Him for help. Our Lord demonstrates this in Jesus’ Prayer in Gethsemane. In contrast, Peter Denies His Lord gives us an example of the swearing that is forbidden under the Second Commandment.  Thus the first and second commandments go together. Out of the proper trust of the heart (first commandment) we pray (second commandment), “calling upon His name in every trouble, praying, praising, and giving of thanks.” This week’s verse is the Creed of ancient Israel, the Shema Israel, which means “Hear, O Israel!” What we cannot do by our own reason or strength, God gives by His Word and Spirit. “Hearing” speaks of faith. We confess what is true. There is only one true God. We love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength because He has opened our hearts by His Word to trust in Him above all things.CP220821

Catechesis Notes for the Week — “I Am the Lord Your God and Savior! Trust Me!” The first week of a new catechetical year begins another pilgrimage through the Six Chief Parts and Table of Duties from the Small Catechism. During this week we hear the Holy Trinity speak to us in the first two commandments. “Trust Me!” (First Commandment) and “Pray to Me!” (Second Commandment). It is as if He were saying, “I am the only true and living God. I have created You. I have redeemed and sanctified You. I love You with an everlasting love. I have called you by My name—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in the waters of Holy Baptism. There is no other God and Savior! Trust Me! I will take care of you!” This is the deep meaning of the First Commandment: “You shall have no other gods!” There is only one true and living God who provides for all that we need for our life and salvation. All other things or people that we might trust in have not made us, nor can they save us. The Three Men in the Fiery Furnace and Daniel cast into the Lions’ Den showed forth this miracle of faith. In the Second Commandment, “You shall not misuse the name of the Lord Your God,” we are called to pray to the Lord for everything, to always praise Him, and to give thanks to Him, even for the difficulties and hardships of life. Through the things we suffer He calls us to trust in Him and to pray to Him for help. Our Lord demonstrates this in Jesus’ Prayer in Gethsemane. In contrast, Peter Denies His Lord gives us an example of the swearing that is forbidden under the Second Commandment.  Thus the first and second commandments go together. Out of the proper trust of the heart (first commandment) we pray (second commandment), “calling upon His name in every trouble, praying, praising, and giving of thanks.” This week’s verse is the Creed of ancient Israel, the Shema Israel, which means “Hear, O Israel!” What we cannot do by our own reason or strength, God gives by His Word and Spirit. “Hearing” speaks of faith. We confess what is true. There is only one true God. We love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength because He has opened our hearts by His Word to trust in Him above all things.

Catechesis Notes for the Week —Summer Stories from St. Luke: The celebration of the Feast of St. Mary, Mother of Our Lord is on Monday with Mary’s visit of her cousin Elizabeth who is pregnant with John the Baptist. Mary is called a saint, not because she has no sin, but because she was called to faith and to be the mother of our Lord by a gift of God’s grace. In the same way, we are all called and chosen by grace alone. Christ’s forgiving righteousness calls us saints. Mary was honored to be the mother of God’s Son. The incarnation of the Son of God in human flesh means that Jesus partakes of our flesh and blood in every way in order to redeem us from all sin and every weakness of our sinful flesh. The account of the Widow’s Two Mites contrasts the false faith of the Pharisees, Sadducees, and Scribes with the true faith of the widow who, without pretense or an attempt to justify herself before others, put into the Temple treasury all that she had. Jesus’ catechesis during Holy Week then shifts to a discussion of the Signs of the End and the Destruction of Jerusalem. The destruction of the Temple, the rise of false doctrine, wars, earthquakes, famine, pestilence, and persecution will all characterize the end times before the Second Coming of Christ. Finally, the Parable of the Fig Tree concludes Jesus’ catechesis on the end times. As the change in the leaves of the fig tree indicate that summer is near, so these signs of the end times indicate that Christ’s coming is near. The Church is to live each day in anticipation of His coming with fervent faith in His Words to the end: “Heaven and will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away. But take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness, and cares of this life, and that Day come on you unexpectedly. For it will come as a snare on all those who dwell on the face of the whole earth. Watch therefore, and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man.”CP220814

Catechesis Notes for the Week —Summer Stories from St. Luke: In Jesus Comes to Zacchaeus’s House we continue to see the call to repentance and the result of repentant faith in Zacchaeus giving back his stolen property.  In the Parable of the Minas (unit of weight) Jesus speaks about the gift of salvation in the Gospel that is to be put to use in repentant faith and faithful service in the Church and the Christian’s vocation until He comes again.  On Palm Sunday we see the beginning of the climax of Jesus’ work of salvation.  All things unfold according to God’s Word and plan of salvation in Christ.  Those who believe in Him rightly sing the Passover psalm to Him: “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord!  Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!”  He weeps over the impenitence of the people of Jerusalem, who did not realize the visitation of God’s salvation in Jesus, who called them away from reliance upon self to reliance upon the mercy of God that He came to bring.  Repentance and faith in Christ’s atoning sacrifice is the only thing that can give us peace with God.  The story of Israel’s pattern of impenitence and hardness of heart is described in the Parable of the Wicked Vinedressers.  Time and time again God sent them His prophets. Time and time again they rejected the call to repentance.  Finally, He sent them His Son—the only One who could make their peace with God—but they rejected Him and nailed Him to the cross.  Yet the irony of all of this is that the very act of their rejection in the crucifixion of Jesus became God’s instrument of salvation for a sinful world. As Holy Week begins, Jesus enters into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday and is hailed as the Messiah. The opposition to His ministry begins in earnest by the chief priests, Sadducees, scribes, and Pharisees. Always looking for ways to trap Jesus in a contradiction, the Pharisees are the first to challenge Jesus.  Luke records that they “pretended to be righteous” but they could not catch Him in His words.  Should one be loyal to God or loyal to the government?  Jesus silenced them in His famous words: Render to Caesar the Things that Are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.  The Sadducees Question Jesus about the Resurrection because they did not believe in the resurrection or life after death, yet they claimed to be faithful to the Law of Moses.  Jesus used Moses’ words to counter them: “Now even Moses showed in the burning bush passage that the dead are raised, when he called the Lord ‘the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ For He is not the God of the dead but of the living.”CP220807