From Pr. Simojoki

on persecution of Christians in east Africa - you can read here.  Kyrie eleison, Christe eleison, Kyrie eleison.  I am reminded of the prayer we pray for those in such trying times every Tuesday in the Treasury of Daily Prayer:


...strengthen them for a good witness, and let them not waiver in the confession of Your name.  Teach us through their example, and the example of so many holy martyrs, to be ever watchful for the confession of Your Son's name.  Let us not be put to shame when the evil foe lays his hand on us.  But if it is Your will that we be persecuted for confessing Jesus as our Lord and our only Savior, then strengthen us in Your grace that we may withstand all trials, and grant us peaceful rest...

New Lutheran Quote of the Day

What he calls baptism is baptism itself with God's Word.  That's what does it!  And if that is where the Lord is quite unmistakably doing His stuff, then you can't be taken captive by whether you've had a candle or not.  But a candle could be a helpful way of confessing what Baptism in fact does, enlighten, an old way of talking about Baptism.  You note in the earlier thing, what they added to embellish baptism, or better still, to extol it: the things that were done to confess what Baptism itself does.  So the exorcisms confess that in Holy Baptism we are taken out of the dominion of Satan and brought into being Christ's own child.  So when you have your confidence located in Baptism as such a means of grace, which just is so utterly gospel in the utter abundance, pouring out the gifts that come there, there's no measuring the gifts of baptism:  half a pint for this and half a pint for your venial sins and two gallons for your mortal sins.  It's the whole, a sort of Niagara, the lot.  That is the way the Lord forgives and loves to give out His gifts.  There it is!  He just can't stop adding one thing to another.  And that is how these things came into the order of Baptism. -- Dr. Norman Nagel, Logia VII:2, p. 25.

Old Lutheran Quote of the Day

Christ our King and priest has made us kings and priests before God the Father.  Therefore let us rule over our flesh, have dominion over sin, and resist the devil as kings.  Let us offer our bodies as a spiritual sacrifice to God as priests.  -- Blessed Johann Gerhard, On Christ, p. 330.

Patristic Quote of the Day

For what you have received are these: He Himself made you a body, He Himself put in you a soul, He honored with speech you alone of the things on the earth, He gave you the use of all the things that are seen, He bestowed on you the knowledge of Himself, He gave up His Son for you, He gave you a baptism full of so many good things, He gave you a holy table, He promised a kingdom, and the good things that cannot be told. -- St. John Chrysostom, Homily 66 on St. Matthew

More Winter Pics

PLEASE let me come in the house...

New Lutheran Quote of the Day

It [the designation of the liturgy as divine] was never lost in the east, where they've been doing the same old divine liturgy for the last fifteen centuries or more.  They're still there!  Whereas in the West, the "divine," the "holy" dropped away; it is the Reformation that confessed again that the service is divine service, the Gottesdienst.  It is His, He is the one who runs it.  And He runs it in the way of a God who delights in nothing so much as giving out His gifts.  -- Dr. Norman Nagel, Logia VII:2, p. 24.

Old Lutheran Quote of the Day

Christ's priestly office is that by which He placed Himself in the middle between God and men, reconciled the whole human race to God by completely satisfying the divine Law, by taking on Himself the penalty for sins, and by interceding before God. -- Blessed Johann Gerhard, On Christ, p. 320.

Patristic Quote of the Day

But let no man be troubled at the apostles being in such an imperfect state. For not yet was the cross accomplished, not yet the grace of the Spirit given. But if you would learn their virtue, notice them after these things, and you will see them superior to every passion. For with this object He reveals their deficiencies, that after these things you might know what manner of men they became by grace. -- St. John Chrysostom, Homily 65 on St. Matthew

Puficationis Mariae - From Magdeburg, 1613

Responsory:

It was revealed to Simeon by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ
And he blessed God and said:  Now You let Your servant depart in peace.
Because my eyes have seen Your salvation, Lord.
A light to lighten the gentiles and the glory of Your people Israel.
Glory be to the Father...
Because my eyes have seen Your salvation, Lord.

Antiphon before Magnificat:

The old man carried the Infant, but the Infant governed the old man:  He whom a virgin bore and after bearing, remained virgin, the same was worshipped by her who bare Him.

Antiphon before Nunc Dimittis:

A light to lighten the Gentiles and the glory of Your people, Israel.

Invitatory at Matins:

Behold, the Lord of lords comes to His holy temple.  Rejoice and be glad, O Sion, and run to meet your God.

Antiphons and Psalms:

Blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb.  Psalm 8
How pleasant and fair is the Mother of God.  Psalm 19
As chosen myrrh gives a pleasant fragrance, so is the sweetness of the Mother of God.  Psalm 24

Responsory:
And when the days of her purification according to the Law of Moses were completed, they brought him to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord.
Just as it is written in the law of the Lord, that every male opening the womb shall be called holy to the Lord.
To offer for him to the Lord two turtle doves or two pigeons.
Just as it is written...

Antiphon before Magnificat at Second Vespers:

Today the blessed Virgin Mary presents Jesus in the temple and Simeon filled with the Holy Spirit, takes him in his arms and blessed the God of Israel forever.

At least so far...

...big storm is big bust.  Yes, some sleet.  Ice still covers the trees.  Wind beginning to pick up.  Will snow ever arrive?  Certainly not the more than 12" they were calling for, I suspect.  Part of me is majorly bummed; part of me is happy that I am warm and electricity has so far survived.

Addendum:  Snow and winds did arrive last night.  A drift of about 4 feet behind the house.

New Lutheran Quote of the Day

Where the confession of the church is, where the means of grace are going on, as it has always been going on, perpetuo mansura [AC VII:1].  This confesses the church with the confidence of our Lord's words, that he is the one:  "I will build my church." (Mat 16:18)  And everything that goes wrong with the liturgy is ultimately diagnosable as a blurring or contradiction of that fact, where we would take over, where we act as if it belonged to us, to do with as we reckon would be good for it.  That is a denial of it being gift, a denial of it being gospel.  -- Dr. Norman Nagel, Logia VII:2, p. 24.

Old Lutheran Quote of the Day

Because Christ through the nature of His divinity did not have anything by means of which He could increase, He found how to increase through descending.  In the same way, there is no way for you to come to the heights except through the depths. -- Blessed Johann Gerhard, On Christ, p. 317

Patristic Quote of the Day

But you have reversed the order, of yourself requiring no account of offenses great or small, but being strict and curious about the offenses of others.  Let us no more do this, but leaving off this disorderly way, let us set up a tribunal in ourselves for the sins committed by ourselves, becoming ourselves accusers, and judges, and executioners for our offenses.-- St. John Chrysostom, Homily 64 on St. Matthew

Jerusalem

Jerusalem, O city fair and high,
Your tow'rs I yearn to see;
My longing heart to you would gladly fly,
It will not stay with me.
Elijah's chariot take me
Above the lower skies,
To heaven's bliss awake me,
Released from earthly ties.

O happy day, O yet far happier hour,
When will you to come at last,
When by my gracious Father's love and pow'r
I see that portal vast?
From heaven's shining regions
To greet me gladly come
Your blessed angel legions
To bid me welcome home.

The patriarchs' and prophets' noble train,
With all Christ's follow'rs true,
Who washed their robes and cleansed sin's guilty stain,
Sing praises ever new!
I see them shine forever,
Resplendent as the sun,
In light diminished never,
Their glorious freedom won.

Unnumbered choirs before the shining throne
Their joyful anthems raise
Till heaven's arches echo with the tone
Of that great hymn of praise.
And all its host rejoices,
And all its blessed throng
Unite their myriad voices
In one eternal song.

LSB 674

So, if the power goes out...

...and stays out for days like it did back in 2006, guess what?  We'll STILL have Church on Sunday.  We'll gather and pray and sing and hear God's Word and receive the Eucharist.  We won't need heat or electricity.  The Church was here before the days of electricity; the Church will be here if we have days without electricity.  One of the utterly cool things about worshipping with the traditional liturgy:  all accompaniment is icing, not cake!  [Er.... someone needs to come up with an Atkins friends version of that.  All accompaniment is bun, not burger?]

Pr. Petersen celebrates 15 years...

...see this fine post by Pr. Curtis upon the joyful event, and the beautiful paraments and vestments that DK Brunner and Son prepared for the occasion.  Pr. Petersen has been and continues to be a huge blessing to so many people - may the Lord of the Church continue to have much joyous use of him in the years to come!

New Lutheran Quote of the Day

Faith receives from the Lord; love gives to the neighbor. -- Dr. Norman Nagel, CTM Vol. 61, No. 4, p. 298.

Old Lutheran Quote of the Day

Just as He earned life for us by His death, so He restored heavenly riches to us by His poverty. -- Blessed Johann Gerhard, On Christ, p. 316.

Patristic Quote of the Day

Whence it is shown, that there is no ordinary reward for them that are rich, and are able to practise self command. Wherefore also He affirmed it to be a work of God, that He might show that great grace is needed for him who is to achieve this. At least, when the disciples were troubled, He said, With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible. -- St. John Chrysostom, Homily 63 on St. Matthew

Oratio

That is, prayer.  When I have opportunity to pass through the nave of St. Paul's, I find it nearly impossible to do so without stopping for a while and praying.

The room itself calls for it - you can almost sense the generations of prayers raised in the building.  They have hallowed it through the years.  I still remember one year running into John Carter (then our President) praying in the Church, and he telling me about a big decision he was making, and couldn't do so without kneeling in prayer for a while before his Lord.

Even though I may be the only one in the building, there is the joyous conviction that I am actually not alone at all.  The images of our Lord, the statue and crucifix proclaim that He is near to all who call upon Him.  The images of St. Paul, of the holy evangelists Sts. Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, proclaim the hosts of witnesses that have worshipped and adored the Lamb and found life eternal in His blood.  Then there are the faces of so many who have now vanished and yet seem so close there:  Charlie, David, Dorothy, Gustav, Marianne, Carl, Albert, Marlene... so many more.  Their presence is palpable in the Church, much more so than at the cemetery where their bodies sleep.  Here we still join their spirits in the praise of Him whose blood has blotted out our sin, destroyed our death, opened wide for us a Kingdom.

So yes, the room seems to coax me toward prayer.  There are times I just sit in it and let the peace seep in.  Outside life rattles by at a pace as fast and crazy as the cars and semis racing up and down Interstate 55, but inside...  Inside there is a hidden treasure, a peace and stillness.  An invitation to come apart for a little while and pray.