Congregation at Prayer

Catechesis Notes for the Week — The End of the Church Year: Watching During the Great Tribulation—The Bride of Christ, the Holy Christian Church, waits eagerly for her Lord’s Second Coming.  Then she, of whom we are all members, will be delivered once and for all from sin and the corruption that is in the world.  The “Great Tribulation” of the last days is the struggle that the Church and every Christian in every age has had with the devil, the world, and the sinful flesh. These enemies attack faith in Christ. We, Christ’s Church, have been in the “Last Days” since our Lord’s ascension into heaven. The faith of the Church has always been under attack. Our only defense as Christians is the Word of God and the prayer of faith that claims Christ’s victory in the midst of this suffering.CP231126

Catechesis Notes for the Week — Thanksgiving Day Prayer for the Christian Home — Almighty God, we give thanks for all Your goodness and bless You for the love that sustains us from day to day. We praise You for the gift of Your Son our Savior, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. We thank You for the Holy Spirit, the Comforter; for Your holy church, for our congregation and Academy, for the preaching of the Gospel, for the holy Sacraments; for the lives of all our brothers and sisters in Christ, for the fellowship we share with them, and for the hope of the life to come. We thank You for every spiritual blessing in Christ, and for the abundant gifts of daily bread You shower upon us each day. Help us to treasure in our hearts all that You have done for us and enable us to show our thankfulness in lives that are wholly given to Your service, especially in times of suffering, persecution, and need. Save and defend Your whole church, purchased with the precious blood of Christ. Grant Your wisdom and heavenly grace to all pastors and to those who hold office in Your Church. Sanctify our homes with Your presence and bless them with joy. Restore those who have wandered from Christ and denied the faith. Keep our children and our grandchildren in the covenant of their Baptism and enable us to bring up our children in lives of faith, devotion, and loving service to others. Let Your blessing remain upon the seedtime and harvest, the commerce and industry, the leisure and rest, the arts and culture of our nation. Take under Your protection those whose work is difficult or dangerous and be with all who put their hands to any useful task. Give them the just rewards for their labor and the knowledge that their work is a blessing in Your sight. By Your Word and Spirit, comfort all who are in sorrow or need, sickness and adversity. Be with those who suffer persecution for the faith. Have mercy on those to whom death draws near. Bring consolation to those in sorrow. We remember with thanksgiving those who have loved and served You in Your Church on earth, who now rest from their labors. Keep us in fellowship with all Your saints and bring us at last to the joys of Your heavenly kingdom. We commend all our needs, sorrows, and joys to You with thanksgiving, knowing that You love us in Christ, and have promised to work in all things for our good. Bless our thanksgiving feast today and the fellowship we share; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.CP231119

Catechesis Notes for the Week — Two Meditations on the Book of Judges for This Week:

Deborah the Prophetess Judges Israel — “In Deborah we see a picture of the Church. She seeks men to hear the Word of God and believe it. When Brak would not trust the Word of the Lord, Deborah spoke of the woman who would cling fast to the Word and destroy the oppressor of Israel. So it is that Jael serves as a picture of the Blessed Virgin Mary who heard the Word and believed. The Word of God and our faith is our victory over Satan. Jael took a wooden tent peg to crush the head of Sisera just as Jesus’ heel would crush the head of the serpent by the wood of the cross. The Seed of the woman has defeated sin and death for us. As Jael gave her enemy milk, so we serve the milk of the Word that it may overcome our enemy until he is finally cast into the outer darkness.”

The Angel of the Lord Appears to Gideon — “The Angel of the Lord came to Gideon at the winepress to indicate that He had been threshing Israel and crushing them like grain or grapes that He might produce better wine. The wine and wheat remind us of the Blessed Sacrament by which the Lord is with us as we share in His sufferings that we might also share in His glory. We are called to cling to the Word of the Lord by faith, as did Gideon. That his faith might be strengthened, Gideon asked for a sign in accordance with the Lord’s mercy. In mercy God has recognized our fleshly weakness and given us the signs of Baptism and the Supper that we might cling to His Word of promise. The sacrifice of the goat and the unleavened bread reminded Gideon of Passover, but also anticipated the sacrifice of Christ. The Angel of the Lord would take on flesh that the staff of the cross might consume Him. Indeed, the rock of sacrifice reminds us that Christ is the Rock of our salvation and the Rock that accompanied Israel in the wilderness. In His resurrection our Lord speaks to us the Word of peace and promises us freedom from the power of death. As Gideon (whose name means “the one who bruises or breaks”) cut down the false god, so Christ has destroyed all gods by the wood of His cross.” From Bible Stories for Daily Prayer: Old Testament Stories—Year II, The Giving of the Law to the Establishing of the Monarchy, by Karl F. Fabrizius. © Concordia Catechetical Academy 2006. Used by permission.CP231112

Catechesis Notes for the Week — The Third Article of the Creed and the Ministry of the Holy Spirit — “Neither you nor I could ever know anything of Christ, or believe in him and take him as our Lord, unless these were first offered to us and bestowed on our hearts through the preaching of the Gospel by the Holy Spirit. The work is finished and completed; Christ has acquired and won the treasure for us by his sufferings, death, and resurrection, etc. But if the work had remained hidden and no one knew of it, it would have been all in vain, all lost. In order that this treasure might not be buried but put to use and enjoyed, God has caused the Word to be published and proclaimed, in which he has given the Holy Spirit to offer and apply to us this treasure of salvation. Therefore to sanctify is nothing else than to bring us to the Lord Christ to receive this blessing, which we could not obtain by ourselves… Further we believe that in this Christian church we have the forgiveness of sins, which is granted through the holy sacraments and absolution as well as through all the comforting words of the entire Gospel. Toward forgiveness is directed everything that is to be preached concerning the sacraments and, in short, the entire Gospel and all the duties of Christianity. Forgiveness is needed constantly, for although God’s grace has been won by Christ, and holiness has been wrought by the Holy Spirit through God’s Word in the unity of the Christian church, yet because we are encumbered with our flesh we are never without sin.”— The Large Catechism, Third ArticleCP231105