Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord, Jesus Christ. Our text for this morning is taken from the Gospel just read from St. Matthew chapter 21. We focus on the words, “The Lord Has Need of Them”. Our Lord’s coming is one of humility and lowliness. One could hardly imagine …
“The Lord Has Need of Them” – Advent 1 (Ad Te Levavi) 2011 Read More »
“Many regard the Catechism as a simple, silly teaching which they can absorb and master at one reading. After reading it once they toss the book into a corner as if they are ashamed to read it again. Indeed, even among the nobility there are some louts and skinflints who declare that we can do …
From G.K. Chesterton: “There is one thing that I have never from my youth up been able to understand. I have never been able to understand where people got the idea that democracy was in some way opposed to tradition (which, for Chesteron = Christian orthodoxy). It is obvious that tradition is only democracy extended …
Someone asked Dr. M. Luther and said: If a pastor and father confessor had absolved a woman who had killed her child, and it was later revealed and made known by other people, would the preacher also have to testify to the judge if he were asked about it? Then he [Luther] answered: Absolutely not! …
from a letter written by C.S. Lewis on April 1, 1952 … The advantage of a fixed form of service is that we know what is coming. Ex tempore [] public prayer has this difficulty; we don’t know whether we can mentally join in it until we’ve heard it—it might be phony or heretical. We …
“We firmly believe, brethren, that the Lord has died for our sins, the just for the unjust, the master for the slaves, the shepherd for the sheep and, still more astonishingly, the Creator for the creatures. “He has preserved what he was from eternity; what he was in time he has sacrificed. God hidden in …
Oh that is my FAVORITE HYMN! Can we sing that more often, pastor? This is a question that I get from time to time, and it certainly is one worth thinking about How do we pick hymns? Why do we sing some hymns and not others? Is there such a thing as good hymns and …
My Favorite Hymn: Reflections on Church Music in the Parish Read More »
From time to time I am asked the question, “why do we make the sign of the cross? Isn’t that Catholic?” It’s a good and reasonable question, and I’m always happy to answer it. Here’s how I answer it. Making the sign of the cross is catholic, but not simply in the Roman Catholic sense. …