Excellent Articles

If you get The Lutheran Witness, there is a very fine article in the October edition written by Fr. Christopher Hall on "Unrealistic - AND FAITHFUL - Prayer" on the "impossible" collect for grace at Matins. He not only writes about one of my favorite prayers, but manages to cite one of my favorite Luther quotes. Of his own words, I found these to be particularly apt:

Hope is not hope if the thing hoped for is easily realized or immanently revealed. Faith is not faith if the things believed in are seen. The Christian who has received this faith and hope in things to come is a most unrealistic man or a most idealistic woman.

Amen!

And as if that were not enough, Dr. Al Colver has a fine article on Dr. Luther's famous hymn "A Mighty Fortress." He mentions being in Madagascar for the celebration of Lent - yes, Virginia, there ARE Madagascan Lutherans, millions of them! Dr. Colver writes:

Here in Madagascar, thousands of miles from our churches in America, the Malagasy were singing this great hymn of comfort. Through a common liturgy, lectionary, and this famous hymn by Luther, Lutherans around the world were united in confessing how the Lord is a Mighty Fortress.

Good stuff again - the whole is worth enjoying.

Oh, and some Weedon fellow did the Search the Scriptures on the Great Solas in the same issue...