Congregation at Prayer

Catechesis Notes for the Week — Thanksgiving and Bible Readings on Prayer — During this Thanksgiving week we continue to meditate upon the Introduction and the First Petition of the Lord’s Prayer, together with readings on prayer and those assigned for the Day of National Thanksgiving. It is the end of the Church Year. The Gospel from Sunday bids us to “watch and pray” for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ that we might be prepared for His return. Thanksgiving is always associated with faith in Christ. The discipline of daily prayer, using the Scripture, Psalms, catechism, and hymns, prepare us for His comingCP241124

Catechesis Notes for the Week — Lord, Teach Us to Pray — From now until the first few days of the Second Sunday in Advent, the readings in the Congregation at Prayer will focus on prayer as we meditate upon the petitions to the Lord’s Prayer and their explanations from the Small Catechism. As you study these readings, keep in mind that prayer is the voice of faith that claims God’s promises to us. It rests upon His Word. We have access to God through the merits of Christ. And we have the right to cry out to God for all our needs because we are the baptized children of God. CP241117

Catechesis Notes for the Week — The Strange Miracles of Elisha — The miracles performed by Elisha seem so strange and they inspire the question, “What does this mean?” Digging ditches in the middle of the desert where there is no water, so that water might spring up, should remind us of Baptism and how in the desert of this world the Lord gives life through water. The widow’s oil should remind us of how oil is a sign of the Holy Spirit who anoints us with faith and the gladness of salvation. The resurrection of the Shunammite’s son naturally flows out of the lessons of this week’s first two miracles. The promise of Holy Baptism is the anointing of the Spirit and the promise of the resurrection. The miracle of feeding during the famine should point us to the Lord’s Supper and how the Lord feeds us in the wilderness of this world with His body and blood. The floating axe head, the strangest of all, should remind us of John the Baptist’s ministry of repentance. The axe was laid at the root of the trees that God might bring life out of death through repentance and faith in the death and resurrection of Jesus. CP241110v2

Catechesis Notes for the Week — The Still Small Voice of the Lord is Powerful to Save — While the Prophet Elijah was isolated in a cave in the wilderness upon Mount Horeb, the Lord appeared to Him to strengthen him under the suffering of being hunted down by Queen Jezebel. The Lord taught him that he should look for God’s strength, comfort, and deliverance not in displays of spectacular power (a violent wind or a destructive earthquake), but rather in the delicate whispering of God’s Word which has the power to comfort, sustain, and strengthen His children. We need to learn this lesson too. The theology of the cross teaches us that God so often strengthens faith and grants wisdom and understanding through the things that we suffer. We learn to believe this through faith in the suffering and death of Christ on our behalf. Out of His suffering and death, we hear the quiet, yet powerful voice of the Lord’s forgiveness that sees us through the struggles of life.CP241103