Wow

Words fail.  I think of our MASSIVE prayer list on Sundays. I think of all the folks with young children.  I think of members of my own family.  You ALL need to spend the 20 minutes or so it takes to see this video.



HT:  Mark's Daily Apple

New Lutheran Quote of the Day

The Lutheran fathers were well aware that immortality is not predicated univocally of God and man alike.  Thus they made appeal to 1 Tim. 6:16, where we read that God "alone has immortality"; the immortality of the soul is, by way of contrast, an endowment given to the creatures made in the divine image. -- Dr. John R. Stephenson, Eschatology, p. 49.

Old Lutheran Quote of the Day

Our Lord Jesus has an unusual way of managing His Christians.  The greater His saint the greater the cross that saint must bear.  The more He loves a man, the more roughly He rakes him over the coals of anguish.  No one should become a Christian with the intent of having a good life in this world.  Abraham's case here clearly shows this. -- Blessed Valerius Herberger, The Great Works of God III/IV, p. 84.

Patristic Quote of the Day

Let us draw from the fountain of the perpetual garden and the purest waters springing into life eternal.  Here let us luxuriate; here let us revel without ever being satisfied, for the Scriptures possess inexhaustible grace. -- St. John of Damascus, An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith, 4.17

Suggestion for the Ash Wednesday Liturgy

So, in the LW Agenda, after the address and opening litany for Ash Wednesday, the rubrics direct you to continue with the OT reading - in other words, the address and litany replace the entrance rite entirely.

Along comes LSB Altar Book, and now in addition to the address and opening litany, the rubrics specifically permit the distribution of ashes (either as the people enter or after the opening litany).  But then things get confusing:

"After all have received the ashes, the service continues with the Service of Confession and Absolution in the Divine Service, or with the rite of Corporate Confession and Absolution." (p. 486)  The rationale for the Confession and Absolution p. 483 with rubric 3:  "Ashes are a sign of mortality and death.  Therefore, the imposition of ashes should be followed by the rite of Confession and Absolution."

Absolutely nothing is said about anything else in the Entrance Rite.  The assumption seems to be that following Confession and Absolution for whichever Divine Service we'd continue with Introit, Kyrie, salutation and collect.

Yet we DO note in the rubrics for Corporate Confession and Absolution (p. 422, rubric 3):  "This rite may also replace the preparation rite of the Divine Service.  Following this rite, the service would continue at the Introit/Entrance Hymn or Salutation and Collect of the Day. *This is particularly appropriate in Lent, and is suggested in the order for Ash Wednesday.*"

Well, it's not suggested there no matter what the rubric says, but the fact that it is suggested HERE leads me to ask: doesn't it make sense if you insist on doing Confession and Absolution immediately after the Ashes, to move directly to salutation and collect?  Or even to the OT reading?  The litany has already covered the "Kyrie" if you will and it concludes with a collect.  And an "entrance" - either Introit or Entrance Hymn makes little sense so late in the service (I mean, in our place, it takes about 20 minutes before the opening litany and distribution of ashes if finished - let alone adding to it a Confession and Absolution!).

Perhaps also of import is the rubric on p. 410 (#4) that "the Litany may serve as an Entrance Rite in the Divine Service, replacing the Introit, Kyrie, and Hymn of Praise."  If that holds for "THE Litany" why not for the Ash Wednesday litany (as it once did in LW)?

I'd posted all the above over on ALPB and Pr. Zimmerman wrote me to inform me of his practice which makes the absolute most sense of out of the confusing rubrics.  Here's his practice:

Opening Hymn

Invocation

Opening Sentences

Lenten Address (from LSB Altar Book)

Salutation and Collect of the Day

OT 

Psalm

NT

Verse

Holy Gospel

Hymn of Day

Sermon

Service of Ashes:  The Litany, Blessing of Ashes, Imposition of Ashes, Declaration of Grace

Offering Received

Offertory

and then Service of the Sacrament as usual.

I like his immensely because it is clear, it simplifies the service, it gives you the opportunity to preach upon the practice before inviting folks up for the ashes, and it avoids the needless repetitions (Western liturgy does NOT like repetition in general!) of the Litany at the beginning and then the Prayer of the Church following the sermon.  It totally preserves the rubrics' concern that some form of declaration of grace be spoken after the ashes are distributed.  I think it's the best solution I've yet seen to the rather confusing rubrics in Lutheran Service Book on this matter.

One more matter of note - I also appreciate Pr. Mozolak's practice of reminding those who receive the ashes, not only that they are dust and to dust they shall return, but that they are Christ's and to Christ they shall return.  I'm not sure what to do with that yet, but I like it.  A lot.

Happy to report

that little Grant Jones, before he was even ONE HOUR OLD in the flesh born of flesh sort of way, was cooped into the Kingdom of God by Holy Baptism in the Spirit born of spirit sort of way.  Our newest and youngest member of St. Paul's!  Congrats to Craig and Maggie!

Weekend's Wrap

Friday found Cindi and I headed off to Chicago for a Board of Regents meeting at Concordia University-Chicago (aka, River Forest!).  Cindi met up with Kim Sales (wife of another regent, Angel Jesus Sales) and had a great time visiting, shopping, and proselytizing for primal blueprint.  The regents meeting ran longer than usual and it was a dash home in order to make the Saturday service.  Cindi and Carlo had worked up a lovely Haydn "Benedictus qui venit" that was sung during Distribution at all the services this weekend.  After services on Sunday, we quickly prepared breakfast (sweet taters with onions, bacon, sausage, eggs, and left-over cranberry muffins) and then Dave and Jo joined us.  Dave was the big winner today at Liverpool - it made Jo's day as I'm sure you can imagine.  After Catechism Service, Cindi and I sat down to a quick meal of pickled herring, sliced avocado with salsa, dubliner cheese, and half a banana.  Then back to work trying to schedule the activities for this week (and sending out bulletin for next Sunday and such).  God willing, after teaching at TSP and leading our preschool Chapel, tomorrow I will finish communion to the homebound and baptize Craig and Maggie's newest at the hospital before the day's done.

The Swedish Preface

from the Olavus Petri Order from 1531 forms the basis of the invariable Preface found in Divine Service 4.  It's ironic, in some ways, that the German-heritage LCMS would be the preserver of a text that the old Augustana Synod folk would immediately recognize.  I've very glad that we still have it.  BUT.

But I truly wish that we had left all of it intact.  If we had, we'd have a prayer like this:

It is truly good, right, and salutary that we should at all times and in all places give thanks to You, O Lord, holy Father, almighty and everlasting God, for the countless blessings You so freely bestow upon us and all creation.  Above all, we give thanks for Your boundless love, that when we were in so bad a state that naught but death and eternal damnation awaited us, and no creature in heaven or on earth could help us, then You did send forth Your only-begotten Son, who is of the same divine nature as Yourself, and suffered Him to become flesh, being born of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, and did lay on Him our sin, giving Him into death that we might not die eternally....

Sad thing is, I think it's largely Maxwell's and my fault that those bolded goodies were lost, for the preface as it appears in LSB DS IV is clearly a slight revision of the proposed Eucharistia that Maxwell and I suggested (and which Quill chronicles in *The Impact of the Liturgical Movement on American Lutheranism* - see p. 209,210) - and in that Eucharistia the phrases bolded above were not included.  I don't know about you, but I think it a sad oops.  It would have been that much stronger a prayer had we not "downsized" it in our paper and subsequently had it not been downsized in the Hymnal.

New Lutheran Quote of the Day

Ratzinger makes a strong case for the thesis that the conception, found in the New Testament and the ancient Fathers, of the soul's post-mortem continuation in the paradisal intermediate state stands firmly in the tradition of intertestamental Judaism.  Any hypothesis of direct Christian borrowing from Platonic sources is thus superfluous. -- Dr. John R. Stephenson, Eschatology, p. 46.

Old Lutheran Quote of the Day

In a garden You sweated blood, in a garden You were buried, and in a garden You rose again from the dead.  In the form of a gardener You appeared on Easter, for You were to restore everything that we ruined in the garden of Paradise by our first parents.  -- Blessed Valerius Herberger, The Great Works of God III/IV, p. 80.

Patristic Quote of the Day

Do not say, 'I cannot bear to come near those who hate me,' but say, 'I cannot bear to despise those who despise me.'  This is the language of Christ's disciple, as much as the other is the devil's.  This makes men honorable and glorious. -- St. John Chrysostom, Homilies on Romans, 27.

New Lutheran Quote of the Day

It has become fashionable to suppose that the admittedly Hellenistic notion of the immortality of the soul is completely devoid of support in Holy Scripture, being rather an anthropological error of the ancient Greeks at odds with the Hebraic conception of man. -- Dr. John R. Stephenson, Eschatology, p. 40.

Old Lutheran Quote of the Day

O Lord Jesus, help me not to be a useless clod of earth, but to live in such a way that the world may have some benefit from me.  -- Blessed Valerius Herberger, The Great Works of God III/IV, p. 79.

Patristic Quote of the Day

Do not tell me that this or that man is a runaway slave, or a robber or thief, or laden with countless faults, or that he is beggar and outcast, or of low value and worthy of no account.  Instead, consider that for his sake, Christ died.  This suffices you as a basis for your concern.  Consider what sort of person he must be, whom Christ valued at such a high price as not to have spared even His own blood. -- St. John Chrysostom, Homily on Humility 5

REMINDER: The Conversion of St. Paul

Tomorrow evening at 6 p.m. we will gather to celebrate the Conversion of St. Paul.  Truly one of the most stunning moments in the history of our faith, when the Lord Jesus knocked Saul of Tarsus off his high horse and began to forge for Himself the man who would become the great Apostle to the Gentiles and the writer of so very much of our beloved New Testament.  "This is a saying worthy of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief."  Join us if you can!

On the devotional side of life...

...which is a favorite of mine, I had a friend lately write me to inquire about suggestions for his own devotions (which is a handy word for the discipline of daily time in the Scriptures and in prayer).  I wrote him back to commend once again the beloved Treasury, but to add on that there are now two companion volumes (and a third on the way) that even deepen its value.

I'm referring to *A Year in the New Testament* which provides a meditation upon each of the NT readings for the day according to the LSB Daily Lectionary; and *A Year in the Church Fathers* which provides a choice selection from a wide array of early Church fathers, connected to one of the readings for the day.  I've posted snippets from that volume since I purchased it.  A book on the OT readings is in the works, I know, but I'm not sure where matters stand on its appearing.

But even with just the resources at hand, that means you have THREE writings each day to help you ponder and contemplate the daily lectionary readings.  Add to this that with the PrayNow App, you don't have to lug your Treasury along with you - it fits in your iPad or iPhone or whatever.  I'd love to see CPH put in the option of selecting the "writing" for the day from the Treasury itself or from one of the newer *A Year...* books!

LSB One-Year Peculiarities

As we prepare to go into pre-Lent (can it already be here?), a few changes liturgically to note:

Beginning with the Divine Service for Septuagesima, the plaintive Tract replaces the joyous Alleluia and Verse.
Beginning with Ash Wednesday, the Gloria in Excelsis (or any Hymn of Praise) is omitted from the Divine Service.
Beginning with Judica, the Gloria Patri is omitted from the Introit.

Note that the Gloria in Excelsis MAY be used on Holy Thursday, if the service does not begin with the Service of Corporate Confession and Absolution.

Now the usual discussion of the color mess.  First, remember that uniform use of the colors is relatively late.  Read through Stiller's work on Leipzig at the time of Bach and you'll readily see how different from our current expectations the color scheme in use at the time was!  But if we pay attention to the rubrics of our hymnal, then we have the following:

Pre-Lent - Green, with the Epiphany Preface continuing in use (see, Altar Book, pp. 862-865).
Ash Wednesday - Black or Violet with the Lenten Preface (see Altar Book, p. 867).
Invocabit through the week of Judica - Violet with the Lenten Preface (see Altar Book, pp. 868-875).
Palmarum through Holy Wednesday- Scarlet or violet with Holy Week Preface (see Altar Book, pp. 876-880).
Holy Thursday - White, scarlet or violet with Holy Week Preface (see Altar Book, p. 881).
Good Friday - Black (if paraments are used, but see note on p. 511  "the altar remains bare, having been stripped on Holy Thursday") with Holy Week Preface (see Altar Book, p. 883).
Easter Vigil- Easter Wednesday- White or gold with Easter preface (see Altar Book, p. 885-891).

Certainly there is variety in how parishes choose to follow these particular rubrics.  There are places that follow the one-time Roman custom of Pre-Lent being violet.  There are places that insist on the White for Maundy Thursday.  Here at St. Paul's our actual practice accords with the rubrics cited above, with these choices:  violet for Ash Wednesday; Scarlet from Palmarum through Holy Thursday; Bare for Good Friday; and Gold for the Easter feasts.  We do use the Corporate Confession option both to start and end Lent:  on Ash Wednesday and on Maundy Thursday.

It seems each year that these questions get discussed around the blogosphere, so that's a quick reference guide if you're looking for the actual rubrics of our current rite.  They're not divinely inspired; you may well disagree with the wisdom of some of the choices; but they are the guidance our Synod offers us, for what it's worth.

New Lutheran Quote of the Day

Thus pious meditation on death begins in the dimension of the Law, acknowledging the certainty of coming judgment (2 Cor. 5:10), and flowering in contrition.  That death can and must also be pondered and spoken of in the dimension of the Gospel results solely from the blessed fact that the eternal Son of God assumed our flesh and blood to taste death for everyone, to destroy the devil who has the power of death, and deliver His own from the fear of death (Heb. 2:9,14f).... From the vantage point of the Gospel, bodily death can be embraced with hope as destruction of the old man, consummation of baptism, and entrance into paradise. -- Dr. John R. Stephenson, Eschatology, p. 38.

Old Lutheran Quote of the Day

Oh Lord Jesus, You also promised me faithfulness and love in my Baptism.  Do not disregard Your old pledge.  Let me know indeed that Your Word is true and certain.  Be with me in all that I do.  Be with me when I pray; help strengthen my prayer that it may be heard by Your Father.  Be with me when I suffer trouble and misery, and comfort me.  Be with me when the evil one distresses and attacks me, and protect me.  Do me good, that all my enemies, death, the devil, and hell, may see it.  Forgive me all my sins, that my enemies may be ashamed, and take me to heaven in spite of all their ranting and raving.  -- Blessed Valerius Herberger, The Great Works of God III/IV, p. 77.

Patristic Quote of the Day

We tell them (Montanists) that we not so much reject prophesy - for this is attested by the Passion of our Lord - as we refuse to receive prophets whose utterances fail to accord with the Scriptures old and new. -- St. Jerome, Letters, 41.2