The Small Catechism for Lent

We have now entered into Lent. The sign of ashes has been placed on us as we give consideration to our need for repentance and renewal. The sign also reminds us of our mortality - the fact that we shall one day be 'ashes to ashes, dust to dust'.

With this liturgical observance down, I would like to share with my readers (and re-emphasize for those who heard my preaching yesterday) the encouragement to use this Lenten season to grow stronger in the basics of your Christian faith.

One suggestion I would offer would be reading the six major portions of Martin Luther's Small Catechism in your families - a portion a week... Each of the following weeks begins on a Thursday and concludes on a Wednesday. Week 1 runs from the Thursday after Ash Wednesday to the Wednesday of the First Week of Lent, and so on, with week 6 concluding on the Wednesday of Holy Week.

Week 1: The Ten Commandments

Week 2: The Apostles' Creed

Week 3: The Lord's Prayer

Week 4: Sacrament of Baptism

Week 5: Confession

Week 6: Sacrament of the Altar

At Saint Boniface, we will be using these as the basis of our weekly Thursday Night Studies, beginning tonight. I would suggest that, each evening during the above noted weeks, a few portions of the section specified be read and discussed during your family's devotions. It will help reinforce the basic beliefs of our faith, as rooted in the Word of God and the Means of Grace (i.e., the Bible and the Sacraments), which will in turn ground your faith life against the stormy blast of Satan.

Finally, during the Paschal Triduum (Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday), I would encourage you to prepare for the Great Feast of Pascha (Easter) by meditating upon "Christian Questions and their Answers", a meditation and examination designed for those preparing to recieve Holy Communion. Recieving the Holy Supper is no trifling matter... while many rightly observe that the frequent celebration of the Supper can lead to an apathy concerning our preparations, the same is equally true for hearing the Word of God proclaimed.* The cure for this apathy is not less-frequent celebrations of the Eucharist, but more frequent self-examination and repentance so that the joys of the Holy Supper might more fully be revealed to all of God's people.

A blessed Lent to you!

[*Side Note: Ironically, we'd never conscience a Sunday worship service without a sermon (i.e., the words of a man), but we seem to take issue with asking a man to quiet down and shave a few minutes off of his sermon in order that we might hear the life-giving Word of God spoken over the 'medicine of immortality', the elements of bread and wine which become for us the Body and Blood of Christ.]