I'll not forget then-Seminarian Kalvin Waetzig holding in his hands my little copy of Lindemann's Daily Office, smelling it, making it wiggle, and then exclaiming in delight: "It's so packy!" I cocked an eyebrow and asked what he meant by "packy." He explained: "This. When a book smells nice, is small, and flexible like this, I call it packy."
So I am sure that Pastor Waetzig is in ecstasy over the Pastoral Care Companion. It is packy to the max.
How did CPH pull it off? It's so little - until you open it! And then it is packed full. Most pastors have, I suspect, at one time or another expressed dissatisfaction with the resources provided in LW's Little Agenda. The Occasional Services book (accompanying LBW) did a far better job of giving you concrete guidance of what Word of God to share with a person in difficult or joyful moments. But the Pastoral Care Companion? It's almost beyond belief what they packed in there! Helps for dealing with those struggling with homosexuality, addictions of various sorts, a still birth, wedding anniversaries, demonic oppression, moving, retirement. Goodness! Too many to list out. This section, which is the heart of the book, runs from page 160 to 534. YES, THAT MUCH! Psalms, Scripture readings, Prayers and Hymns for just about every pastoral care situation imaginable.
Packy and I mentioned page 534? Oh, but that's not the end of the book. It has a total of 708 pages. And it's little, you ask? YES. Oh, so I can't read the print, I guess. WRONG. The print is nice sized, very legible. The paper is thin, but doesn't "bleed through" the following page in any distracting way.
What else is cool? Well, it's great to have the rites handy: Baptism, Confirmation, First Communion, Marriage, Visiting of Sick or Distressed (with anointing), Divine Service for Shutins or the sick, Commendation of the Dying, Burial liturgies. Other goodies: a prayer section for pastors to use prior to many care situations (before a Baptism, before a Confession, etc.), a Beicht-tafel in preparation for Confession (why wasn't that in the HYMNAL?), a form for examining those to be admitted to the Lord's table, and essential liturgical prayers in both German and Spanish.
And all in that tiny volume that, I checked it out, FITS IN MY PANTS POCKET or easily into my jacket pocket.
Packy to the max. CPH, yet another homerun in the LSB materials. Thank you!
13 comments:
Hey, my copy of PCC hasn't arrived yet! What a bummer.
I'll try not to take it personally. Surely, the delay is not because I serve in the ELCA.
But I'll be watching my mailbox the way Luther's dog is reported to have looked at a piece of meat.
No doubt has more to do with the mailing address... do they still use the pony express up there? ;)
I have heard nothing but good things about this book. I believe one is on order for me. I look forward to taking it for a spin. This is another reason I always wear cargo pants (WalMart sells nice cheap black cargos) - now I will have something else to stow away for pastoral calls. "Packy" is good.
One book that is decidedly "unpacky" is the LSB altar book. It is so big that it is simply unusable at our altar. My poor senior pastor stubbornly keeps trying to follow it at the altar, keeps losing his place, and has to flip pages and chant at the same time.
There are also a few seeming typos in the prefaces for DS3 (in the altar book) - only the first two use the word "meet" whereas the rest revert back to "good" - I presume this was unintentional.
Here is my system: I use a standard pew hymnal at the altar, and only refer to the altar "anvil" for the proper preface and the collect. Given that if we photocopy them, we'll get a nasty-gram (if not worse) from the "servants of the servants of God" at CPH, I think I'll try to memorize the PPs and just snag the collects from the ELS (which are graciously in the public domain) and plunk them into a small booklet to put in the front of the hymnal. Hopefully, I won't face unionism charges...
Does the PCC include all of the collects? Not having the collect is a pain when saying Mass for shut-ins.
Other than these (very manageable) issues (and a few "hymns" that I cannot believe were included to the detriment of all the psalms), I'm thoroughly impressed with LSB. I especially LOVE the resource for planning hymns. Outstanding!
Now, if CPH would publish Latif Gaba's magnificent bilingual Lutheran breviary, we'd REALLY be cooking... ;-)
Father,
YES, all the collects are in PCC. Very nice, as Borat would say. ;)
The altar book is really not so unmanageable provided you are not adverse to breaking its binding. It lays flat for us, because we break the binding at every place we need it.
Also, not having enough ribbons, we supplement with those little red sticky tabs.
Frankly, I couldn't imagine life again without our altar book! It's a gem indeed. Though I wish they published a 3 year lectionary AB and an historic lectionary AB. The latter would be far smaller and more manageable.
Pax!
"Pony Express?"
"Pony" must be some sort of new fangled device.
I'm glad to report that when I got home late tonight, a monk had arrived at my front door and was inscribing PCC with quill on vellum.
Ain't technology grand?
Look for three new LSB products coming down the pike that should address many of the issues here.
1) LSB Collects of the Day--in a 32-page format that fits nicely in the back of your pew edition. It is now available from CPH, order no. S0-5510 Very inexpensive.
2) LSB Daily Prayer for Individuals and Families (from LSB pp. 204 ff) in tri-fold laminated form for use at the dinner table, bed stand, etc. Sold in 10-packs. Due out in the next couple of weeks. Order no. S0-5511.
3) LSB Propers of the Day--basically the 2nd half of the Altar Book, reduced to pew edition size book, paperback, lay-flat binding. A kind of study edition for your desk or even for the singing the pointed propers from the choir loft. Due out next fall.
Oh my goodness! I saw the book this morning at Bible class, and it is SO totally awesome! After seeing it, I was thinking about getting one for myself because it's got the collects and proper prefaces (which I am really really missing in my pew edition). But since Vieker said there are other products coming out with the collects, I may spring for those instead.
As Pastor was bubbling over to the folks in Bible class today about the PCC, he said there were two things he'd like to see.
First, that pastors begin using it regularly for their daily prayers. It has Bible passages and psalms and hymns that will serve them well in their own situations. Then as they use it, they will begin to know what's in it, and know how to use it to minister to their people.
Second, he hoped that pastors would consider taking it with them into the confessional. With this book, pastors who are inexperienced in hearing confession will have guidance in what to preach to their penitents.
Amen, Susan, to pastor's second point especially. It is one of the first things I thought of as I looked through this extensive collection of Scripture designed to bring Gospel comfort to folks suffering under particular crosses. What a gift!
1. I think I once met Kalvin when I was in Oregon. If it is who I'm thinking of, he was my friend's pastor.
2. Yesterday was great joy looking through the PCC. I didn't even put it down when I was answering the phone.
3. Today was great joy in taking the PCC out for a spin and finding it super-easy to use in comforting a troubled dear saint of the Lord whom He has given me to care for.
Bravo, CPH. Well worth the wait. I might just get a second copy to stash in my car's glove box.
Jimbo,
Funny you mentioned a second copy. I'm thinking along the same lines too. One to leave in the car always. One to keep around house and church.
Mark,
Well, what do you think of it???
Hmm, what do I think?
First of all, William, your pockets are bigger than mine. At least your jacket pocket is. Mine will take some stretching.
Second, I'll second everything good that was said previously.
It's an amazing and rich resource. One of the surprises for me was how, in a particularly category, collects narrowed the focus on specific pastoral situations. For a small book, every page turn revealed one treasure after another.
The scripture passages provided for each section have a sort of surgical precision for the ministry of healing. Both the expected texts and the surprising texts chosen for particular needs feel like the right word for the right time.
The hymn texts are a brilliant move! Are there hymn texts in LW Little Agenda? And if not, including them now is one of those additions that makes me think, "What took so long? Of course Lutherans would include hymn texts!"
The introduction to the volume and introductory paragraphs to various sections provide wise pastoral counsel. This would, I hope, make PCC an essential book for introductory pastoral care classes in seminary. And, after reading the introductory comment about overviews and extensive notes in the main Agenda, it appears that I will soon by in touch with my cyber friend Herr Viekerhaus.
This volume does amazing things to keep pastoral care anchored in Law/Gospel and Word/Sacrament. It's a beauty.
I got my copy yesterday from the UPS guy.
I'm also very impressed.
One section that really impressed me is found on p.354, "Occult Practices and Demonic Affliction".
It's just shy of exorcism. This is a big step for the LCMS, and a Biblical one at that.
In my 21 years of ministry I have had several occasions where I suspected demonic possession. There were precious few resources available at those times. We now have a good resource in the Companion.
The other sections are great, too. Many of the sections and collects are extremely current and apply the church's liturgy to contemporary situations.
It gets an A++ from me.
Fr. John Fleischmann
Mark,
funny you should mention pastoral care classes and the PCC. I had John Pless for Ethics and Pastoral Practice, and I can't help noticing his "fingerprints" all over the PCC.
Oh, and my PCC fits into the inside pocket of my suitcoat!
(ps. William, you and yours are more than welcome to come down next Wednesday when we host the Mt. Hulda-ites for supper. My wife is making her delicious meatloaf, by request of the artist extraordinaire.)
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