Congregation at Prayer

Catechesis Notes for the Week — “He Has Redeemed Me”—The Small Catechism preaches the Gospel to us in such sweet and comforting words.  “My Lord has ‘redeemed me, a lost and condemned person, purchased and won me from all sins, from death, and from the power of the devil; not with gold or silver, but with His holy precious blood and with His innocent suffering and death, that I may be His own…’”  Sin separated us from God and resulted in death and condemnation. Jesus, the Son of God, stepped into our human flesh and assumed the guilt for our sin.  He carried our sin and its consequences all the way to the cross.  He suffered our death and condemnation, so that by the shedding of His blood unto death we are set free from the devastating consequences of our sin. Now we belong to Him! We live under the all-sufficient mantel and covering of His “righteousness, innocence, and blessedness.” Jesus’ redemption, the shedding of His blood in love for us to set us free from sin and to rescue us from eternal death, is at the heart of the Christian faith and life.  Not only is there no salvation apart from Jesus’ redeeming work; His redeeming work, received in the Gospel and the Sacraments, is the source of the holy life that we live.  It is His redeeming work, received by faith, through the Gospel and sacraments that produces the fruits of faith in us.  These fruits of faith are Jesus’ own works of love and mercy in us toward our neighbor. His redeeming work is the center of our salvation, faith, and life.

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Catechesis Notes for the Week—St. Mary Magdalene (July 22)—Whenever the New Testament Gospels name the women who were with Jesus, St. Mary Magdalene is listed (John 19:25 is the only exception, perhaps because she was the first to see the risen Savior alive. Luke 8:2 reports that Jesus had cured her of being possessed by seven demons. Through the centuries, she has often been identified with the repentant “woman of the city” who anointed Jesus’ feet as He sat at the table in the Pharisee’s home (Luke 7:36-50). But there is no biblical basis for this identification of her with a penitent prostitute. Nor is she to be identified with Mary, the sister of Martha, in Bethany. According to the Gospels, Mary Magdalene saw Jesus die; she witnessed His burial; and, most important, she was the first to see Him alive again after His resurrection (John 20:11-18). It is for good reason that Bernard of Clairvaux calls her “the apostle to the apostles.” – from the Treasury of Daily Prayer

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Catechesis Notes for the Week— Christian Meditation— “When the language of the catechism is learned by heart, it becomes an indispensable aid in meditation and is continually used by the Holy Spirit for our comfort and to awaken in us new understandings. Christian meditation is to give one’s mind and heart to the contemplation of God’s Word. It is to reflect upon and ponder the Word of God. To put it crassly, Christian meditation is the ‘regurgitation’ of the Word of God. Like a cow that chews her cud, it involves recalling the Word of God that has been previously “implanted” in the heart, for the purpose of receiving from it even greater blessings for our faith and life. This can only happen when the Word of God and the text of the catechism are committed to memory, or ‘learned by heart.’  Unlike other forms of meditation which teach the individual to find renewed strength and peace from that which is within the self, Christian meditation directs us away from our sinful self to find our comfort, strength, and life in the ‘implanted word, which is able to save [our] souls’”— (Excerpted from the Introduction to Lutheran Catechesis, p. 3). The Congregation at Prayer affords us the opportunity to discipline our flesh with the Word of God and prayer. It sets before us regular portions of the Catechism, Bible Verses, Bible Stories, Psalms, and Hymns for meditation and prayer. The table of psalms enables us to pray through the entire Psalter (150 psalms) over a 60-day period. The psalms are God’s Word given us to pray, confess, and sing. They are understood through faith in Christ who learned and prayed them by heart throughout His life. We can pray them through faith in Him since He “carried all our sorrows and infirmities” and was still, for us and for our salvation, the righteous man of faith.

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Catechesis Notes for the Week— Holding forth the Word of Life— “Give attention to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine” (1 Timothy 4:13).  “I am often aware of temptation, and even to this day can scarcely guard myself sufficiently against it.  This I confess openly as an example to any who are interested, although I am an old doctor and preacher and am so much more versed in the Scriptures, or at least ought to be, than all those wise ones who attack me; I must still grow daily, like a child, saying aloud early every morning the Lord’s Prayer, the Ten Commandments, the Creed, and such precious psalms and sayings as I choose, just as the children are now being taught to do, although I have daily to study the Scriptures and to fight the devil.  I may not say in my heart: You know the Lord’s Prayer, you know the Ten Commandments, you know the Creed by heart, etc. No, I must go on learning every day and remain a pupil of the Catechism.  I feel how noticeably it helps me, and I find by experience that the Word of God can never be exhausted, but that it is really true as Psalm 147 says: ‘His understanding is infinite’”—Martin Luther

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