PRAYER FROM LUTHER’S PRAYERS:

THE HOLY TRINITY

O God and Father, give us gaciously what belongs to the
body and its life. O Son of God, free us from sin and
mercifully grant us your spirit. O God the Holy Spirit,
heal, comfort, and make us strong against the devil, and
finally give us the victory and the resurrection from the
dead. Amen.

FROM LUTHER’S SMALL CATECHISM:

The First Petition of The Lord’s Prayer:
Hallowed be your name.

What is this?
It is true that God’s name is holy in itself, but we
ask in this prayer that it may also become holy in and
among us.

How does this come about?

Whenever the Word of God is taught clearly and
purely and we, as God’s children, also live holy lives
according to it. To this end help us, dear Father in heaven!
However, whoever teaches and lives otherwise than the
Word of God teaches, dishonors God’s name among us.
Preserve us from this, heavenly Father!

Almighty and ever-living God, you have given us grace, by

the confession of the true faith, to acknowledge the glory of
the eternal Trinity and, in the power of your divine majesty,
to worship the unity. Keep us steadfast in this faith and
worship, and bring us at last to see you in your eternal glory,
one God, now and forever.
GOSPEL: John 16:12-15
(Jesus said) 12”I still have many things to say to you, but
you cannot hear them now. 13 When the Spirit of truth
comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not
speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he
will declare to you the things that are to come. 14 He will
glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it
to you. 15 All that the Father has is mine. For this reason
I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.
Second Reading: Romans 5:1-5
Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace
with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom
we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand;
and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God.
3 And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings,
knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and
endurance produces character, and character produces
hope, 5 and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s
love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy
Spirit that has been given to us.
WHAT DOES THIS MEAN ?
The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy
Ghost which is given unto us.
Romans v. 5
Mark here that it says: the love of God. For through it
alone do we love God. Here is nothing to be seen or felt,
either inwardly or outwardly, which you might love or not, or
on which you might found your confidence. No, love is
caught up high above all things, into the invisible God who
surpasses all feeling and all understanding, and is carried
right into the intermost darkness; and it has no knowledge of
what it loves, although it knows well what it does not love,
and it loathes all that is known and felt, and longs only for
what it does not yet know.
And this high virtue that is in us is not born of
ourselves, as the Apostle says, but we must pray to God for
it. From this follows: (1) shed abroad, that is, by no means
brought forth or born of us, and (2) through the Holy Ghost,
that is, not won through virtue and habit, in the way in which
we win moral values; (3) in our hearts, that is, into the
innermost core and marrow of our heart, not on the surface of
the heart merely, like foam on the water; (4) which is given
unto us, that is, which we have not merited, say, rather have
we merited the opposite. And that this is really so is
confirmed by what follows, namely, that it is really ‘given’
and not merited. So Christ was slain for the sake of the
weak, and by no means for the strong and deserving.
Commentary on Romans. 207 f.
Taken from the book:
Day by Day We Magnify Thee by Martin Luther
Page 244