Gottesblog

The following is from page 41ff. of Lutheran Prayer Companion, which, if you do not have, you really ought to go purchase it!

The debt which confessional Lutherans owe to Dr. John R. Stephenson just continues to climb.

Long before “feminism” or any such abomination had arisen in the society, a wonderful Bible-Work was published by sponsorship of Duke Ernst the Pious under the theological leadership of Johann Gerhard with a team of scholars in 1640.

…set among the cornfields of southern Illinois…

Sermon for 175th Anniversary of St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, Wartburg Tennessee, at Vespers, Oct. 1, 2022

At the Mass of St. Michael and All Angels, the children of St. Paul’s can be heard singing the tenor as a descant toward the end of the Gloria in Excelsis…

Her kindly smile and her small frame

Suppose we first loved him so as to merit his love in return.

I remember when the angel came and told me, and my heart burst with joy and terror…

In the preface to his Theses on Church and Office, Dr. Walther noted that he was not attempting to cover the whole of the topic. For that, he simply referred his readers to the exhaustive treatment which Chemnitz and Gerhard had already done. Anyone who wishes may in their writings find the full doctrine of our Church on the matter.

What is repentance? Obviously the word has both a broad and narrow sense in the Sacred Scriptures, but there is no place where its narrow and proper definition is stated more clearly and succinctly than in Formula of Concord, Solid Declaration V:8:

The amazing poet, hymnwriter and pastor, Kurt Reinhardt, has just published the most beautiful volume: Through the Valley.

From the pen of Lutheran dogmatician, David Hollaz (pastor at Jacobshagen, rector at Colbert, d. 1713):

“For as soon as Christ says: “This is my body,” his body is present through the Word and the power of the Holy Spirit. If the Word is not there, it is mere bread; but as soon as the words are added they bring with them that of which they speak” (AE 36:341).

That’s usually the derogatory way of referring to a given pastor’s or parish’s appreciation for three specific church ceremonies: incense, the use of a sanctus or sacring bell, and chanting.

The 1613 Cantica Sacra contains the services for the entire year in the Lutheran Magdeburg Cathedral. It is by all accounts a rather conservative liturgical work, though it does contain some surprises.

Remembering that today is Whitsun Tuesday, I opened up The Lutheran Hymnal, and pondered the assigned propers for the day, and one of our forgotten hymns.

Johann Gerhard, in his great Locus on the Church (vol. xxv, p. 323), provides a quotation that seems to be attributed both to Polydorus Virgilius and to Platina