Holy Week

Holy Thursday

April 9, 2009

The words of the great Swedish bishop Bo Giertz damn us all: “There are no worthy guests at the Lord’s table. None has deserved to come.” Those words damn us all – yet they are also filled with grace. For tonight we are invited guests to the Lord’s table, despite our unworthiness. This is not [...]

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Adoro Te Devote

April 9, 2009

My annual Holy Thursday post: For me, it isn’t Holy Thursday unless we sing Aquinas’s “Adoro, Te Devote” in the translation by Gerard Manley Hopkins: Godhead here in hiding, whom I do adore, Masked by these bare shadows, shape and nothing more, See, Lord, at thy service low lies here a heart Lost, all lost [...]

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Holy Tuesday

April 7, 2009

Sermon for Holy Tuesday Vespers–The Passion of St. Mark The death of a man is not unique. All men die. And the death of a man on a cross is hardly unique. Thousands of men died this way. What makes the death of Jesus unique is that in His death, sin is being put to [...]

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Palm Sunday

April 5, 2009

Dearly beloved, this week is our holiest of weeks. Holy Week comes at the end of a season of self-denial, a season of repentance, a season of renewal in prayer. Perhaps it’s been such a season for you. But for at least some of you, it hasn’t. Lent has been a disappointment and a frustration, [...]

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Prayer for Holy Saturday

March 22, 2008

O God, creator of heaven and earth, grant that as the crucified body of Your dear Son was laid in the tomb and rested on this holy Sabbath, so we may await with Him the coming of the third day, and rise with Him to newness of life, who lives and reigns with You and [...]

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Prayer for Good Friday

March 21, 2008

Almighty God, graciously behold this Your family for whom our Lord Jesus Christ was willing to be betrayed and delivered into the hands of sinful men to suffer death upon the cross; through the same Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and [...]

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Believing the effects of the history

March 20, 2008

Yesterday’s Book of Concord reading made this important point in AC XX: “People are also warned that the term faith does not mean simply a knowledge of a history, such as the ungodly and devil have (James 2:19). Rather, it means a faith that believes, not merely the history, but also the effect of the [...]

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Prayer for Holy Thursday

March 20, 2008

O Lord, in this wondrous Sacrament You have left us a remembrance of Your passion. Grant that we may so receive the sacred mystery of Your body and blood that the fruits of Your redemption may continually be manifest in us; for You live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, [...]

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Prayer for Holy Wednesday

March 19, 2008

Merciful and everlasting God, You did not spare Your only Son but delivered Him up for us all to bear our sins on the cross. Grant that our hearts may be so fixed with steadfast faith in Him that we fear not hte power of sin, death, and the devil; through the same Jesus Christ, [...]

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Prayer for Holy Tuesday

March 18, 2008

Almighty and everlasting God, grant us by Your grace so to pass through this holy time of our Lord’s passion that we may obtain the forgiveness of our sins; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

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