Today on Liturgy Friday we are meditating on the Kyrie, the next step in the Liturgy. So far, in the Liturgy, we have gone through the Invocation, Confession and Absolution, the Introit, and now arrive at the Kyrie. This is the point in the Liturgy when the Celebrant reaches the altar, and now...
The reading from the Treasury this morning for the New Testament is the parable of the sower. Jesus says, "And when a great crowd was gathering and people from town after town came to him, he said in a parable, 5 “A sower went out to sow his seed. And as he sowed, some fell along the...
Article 6 of the Augsburg Confession asserts, "our churches also teach that this faith is bound to bring forth good fruits and that it is necessary to do the good works commanded by God. We must do so because it is God's will and not because we rely on such works to merit justification before...
The reading from the Treasury of Daily Prayer this morning was from Luke 7:18-35, the account of John the Baptist's disciples asking Jesus if He is the Messiah. There is debate concerning the nature of the question, meaning, were the disciples asking for themselves, or were they asking because...
The Gospel according to St. Luke records Jesus raising the widow's son saying, "11 Soon afterward he went to a town called Nain, and his disciples and a great crowd went with him. 12 As he drew near to the gate of the town, behold, a man who had died was being carried out, the only son...
In his work, Freedom of a Christian, Luther writes, "Although I am an unworthy and condemned man, my God has given me in Christ all the riches of righteousness and salvation without any merit on my part, out of pure, free mercy, so that from now on I need nothing except faith which believes that...
For our Liturgical study today we are meditating on the Introit, or the entrance Psalm. This is a proper of the liturgy, or a part of the liturgy that changes either each Sunday or every Church season. The invocation and Sanctus are things that don't change, whereas the Introit, gradual, and...
In the Gospel according to St. Luke we have a glorious account that teaches us about the forgiveness of sins. It is the account of the Paralytic when, after Jesus sees him being lowered into the house says, "Man, your sins are forgiven you." The Pharisees and the teachers of the law hate this...
"How does this sanctifying take place?" Luther asks in the Large Catechism. Luther answers, "Just as the Son obtains dominion by purchasing us through His birth, death, and resurrection, etc., so that Holy Spirit effects our sanctification through the following: the communion of saints or...
C.F.W. Walther wrote on the Office of the Holy Ministry saying, "O, glorious, high office, too high for the angels! May we always hold it in high regard, not looking at the person who bears it and despising his weakness, but looking instead at the Institutor of this office and His exuberant...