ALL
SOULS
This year
November 2nd falls on a
Sunday, so we will be observing All
Souls Day, also called the Commemoration of the Faithful Departed. It’s not
uncommon for this to be confused with All Saints’ Day, November 1st,
since Lutherans tend to think of all the faithful departed as saints; and indeed
in an important respect, of course they are saints. They are translated to the
Church Triumphant, with all the company of heaven.
Traditionally, however (dating to
the seventh century), All Saints was a day on which to commemorate especially
those saints of yore whose lives were marked by a special confession of Christ
unto death; that is, who were martyred. Many of those martyrs have days
appointed specifically for them on the Western Calendar, such as the Apostles,
or St. Laurence (August 10), or the Martyrdom
of St. John the Baptist (August 29). There are in fact many post-biblical
martyrs whose days are on the full Western Calendar. But there are many more, who
never had dates attached to their martyrdom in any calendars, so All Saints was
a day meant for commemorating all of them. That is why the more traditional
color for All Saints is red, not white. In the Roman Catholic Church it is officially
called the Solemnity of All Saints or Hallowmas or All Hallows (from which, of
course, the evening before derives its name: Halloween).
And
that is also why the day for commemorating all of the faithful departed is not
November 1st, but November 2nd. Incidentally, in recent
years The Catholic Church has, like many other churches these days, also dropped
the specific distinction of martyrs for All Saints, and remembers all the
faithful who are in the Church Triumphant. The way they then distinguish
between All Saints and All Souls is to count All Souls as those who are still
in purgatory and have not yet achieved the beatific state of having been
purified of all sins and arrived in heaven. We Lutherans, of course, have
always firmly condemned such nonsense as not only contrary to Scripture, but
contrary to the merit and worthiness of Christ: He alone is our Purifier. There
is no such thing as purgatory.
Providentially, ironically, and most
fittingly, we have traditionally observed the Festival of the Reformation on
the Eve of All Saints, October 31st. The Reformation was for us a
recovery of the Gospel in its purity; so it is right then, that we note in an
evangelical way the difference between All Saints and All Souls as something
other than the folly of purgatory. We rejoice in the confession of martyrs unto
death on All Saints, and in all the faithful departed, who are in the Church
Triumphant, on All Souls. The color for that day is historically black, and a
requiem mass is said (though again, requiems ought never be said among us in
according to the false view that our prayers help souls fly from some imaginary
purgatory). Since as most parishes do not have black paraments, white is used
to emphasize the Church Triumphant, from which, in glory, the faithful departed
all await the resurrection of the body at the Last Day.
+ Pastor Eckardt
Oktoberfest a Great Success
Offerings to date
for Oktoberfest are $4610. Our expenses
are estimated at $1055, which gives us a net estimated gain of $3555, which is
badly needed. Our financial picture is fragile, as our members should know by
now. Oktoberfest has become a fundraising event for us in addition to its being
a splendid occasion for a free conference.
Our volunteers
wore themselves out while putting this on, but this news presents a tangible
result, in addition to the many positive remarks we received from people in
attendance. All who volunteered may be encouraged to know that their efforts
were very well received, and that they contributed financially to our
congregation’s needs.
It came at a good
time, because of the repairs we recently had on our bell tower.
A hearty thanks to
all who have been working tirelessly to help our congregation, volunteering
time and
Copies of books still available (Christmas
gift ideas?):
The New Testament in His Blood $15.00
Every Day Will I Bless Thee $16.00
The Lutheran Propers (complete) $22.00
Why? – A Layman’s Guide to the Liturgy $10.00
November
Anniversaries
11/5 Steve and Berniece Harris
11/10 Gayle and Phil Beauprez
November Birthdays
11/13 Shannon Peart
11/19 Steve Kraklow
11/20 Jewneel Walker
11/30 Charlene Sovanski
Shut ins
Mary Hamilton at home; Anna Baker
at home; Emmy Wear at Williamsfield Home in Williamsfield.
November Ushers
Otis Anderson John Ricknell, Bill
Thompson
Daily Prayer
For daily prayer in
the homes of members, the following helps are offered:
As a minimum, when
you rise in the morning and go to bed at night, follow the catechism. That is, repeat the invocation (In the name
of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen), say the Apostles’
Creed, and Say the Our Father. If you
wish, you may add Luther’s morning or evening prayer.
You are encouraged
to use your hymnal for a richer daily prayer.
The order of matins (morning) or vespers (evening) is easily adoptable
for personal use.
The hymnal is also a
good resource for a schedule of daily readings.
See page 161. These readings correspond with the material
in Every Day Will I Bless Thee:
Meditations for the Daily Office, my book of meditations for daily use,
available at the church office for $16.00.
First Tuesday
November’s First Tuesday events will be held on
November 4th: Altar Guild at 6 p.m. Vespers is at 6:45, and Elders
meet at 7:15.
Altar Guild News
Notes for November:
The first Sundays in November is
white, for All Souls. Then the color changes to green until our observance of Thanksgiving on Wednesday night,
November 26th. Color for
Thankstiving is White. Following this
service, the color is changed to violet for Advent.
Our
November meeting will be November 4th at 6 pm.
In Our Prayers
In addition to our shut-ins, our
current list of prayer intentions at mass includes the names on the lists here
following. Anyone wishing to update the
lest by addition or subtraction, please inform the pastor.
Ann Baker
Emilie Ricknell
John Ricknell
Linda Rowe
John Sovanski
Jean Russell
And all of our shut-ins.
And also:
Anna Rutowicz [re Harrises]
Julie Ross [Svetlana Meaker’s daughter, cancer]
Caleb Cleaver [re Ricknells]
Madison Lindsay [re Andersons
Jill Matchett [re Shrecks]
Barb Fornoff [re Russells]
Lorene Foglesong [re Kraklows]
Corbin Gonzales [re Russells]
David Wexell [re Verplaetses]
Cathy Van Wassenhove [re Verplaetses]
Carl Hepner [re Kraklow]
Duane Kraklow [brother of Allan]
Emily Corzine
Shelly DeBord [re Watsons]
Lois Hopkins [re Kemerlings]
Liam Hampton [re Murphys]
Anthony Strand [re Murphys]
Troy Kelly [re Murphys]
John Hart
Patricia Shreck [Diana’s mother-in-law, cancer]
Pastors Don Chambers [Manito]
Glenn Niemann [Pekin
and Adam
Jacobsen [Mattoon
in the military:
John Eckardt
Brent Matthews [re Fishers]
Michael and Melinda Fisa [re Kemerlings]
Michelle Steuber [re Fishers]
Donny Appleman [re Ricknells]
Thomas Kim [re Shrecks]
Jaclyn Harden Alvarez
Michael Creech [re Murphys]
in trouble:
any unborn children in danger
of abortion; those suffering persecution in Iraq ,
Iran , Sudan , Nigeria ,
Laos , North Korea
Persecution details
Fulani
militants recently attacked several Christian villages in the Riyom Local
Government Area of Plateau State. Twelve villagers and a soldier were
reportedly killed in the assault.
Meanwhile,
the Islamic terrorist group Boko Haram recently abducted more than 40 people, a
number of whom are Christians. Among those seized on September 30th were a
mother and her newborn twins. (Boko Haram was also responsible for the
kidnapping of hundreds of schoolgirls in April..)
Earlier in
September, a group of bishops in the country called the government to do more
to protect the lives and properties of citizens. Their statement included the
following remarks: "As Nigeria
Source:
VOM USA
Two Hmong
Christian men, "Tou Ly" and "Fai Cho," were recently forced
by relatives to leave their homes after refusing to renounce Christ and return
to the community's tradition of ancestor worship. The two believers were then
arrested by local authorities and detained for two weeks. After their release,
on August 25th, the men rented a place to live outside of the village
community.
Their
struggles were only compounded when Fai Cho's father died on September 27th.
Local authorities issued the family a large fine, claiming they had not
obtained the proper burial permit. Thankfully, the two men are receiving help
from their church toward the cost of the fine; however, they have little to no
food or clothing, and remain in desperate need.
New proposal for Epiphany Vespers: Monday evening,
January 5th, then Epiphany Day of Reflection on Tuesday
Very tentatively, a Monday night is being considered for our
annual winter Vespers: January 5th, 2015, at 5:00 pm. This is the
eve of Epiphany Day. The size of our
choir is rather depleted, so we do not know how much of a contribution it can
make, if any. Perhaps holding the event on a Monday and Tuesday will generate
interest among people who might have been unable to attend on a weekend. This
could, and probably will, change, but the proposal is under consideration: not
only on a Monday night, but at a new time: 5 pm rather than 7 pm. Our
traditional wine-and-cheese reception, another annual tradition. Would be on Tuesday January 6th,
our Epiphany Day of Theological
Reflection, would begin with Holy Mass at 9:00 and go until 3:00 in the
afternoon.
Remember
First Saturdays!
As you may recall, our elimination of the
janitorial position for financial reasons has increased the need for volunteer
help. We have some people who have been spending time every week doing
vacuuming and dusting and general cleaning. It’s a labor of love, a recognition
that our little parish needs volunteers.
This
also means that the first Saturday morning of every month is especially set
aside for extra volunteers to come help with some of the things that get missed
or need extra work. We’re all in this together: your trustees have been putting
in countless hours on large and small projects, from repairs to windows and
bell tower to some deep cleaning in areas that don’t get looked at very often.
So,
what about you? Could you spare a little time on the first Saturday of the
month? It could be any time, actually, but when volunteers assemble to work
together, it does tend to make the load seem a bit lighter. There’s
encouragement in numbers.
Next
up: Saturday morning, November 1st, at around 9:00 a.m.!
Back to First Things: Online
Every Wednesday at 2:30
p.m., we hold an instructional course on basic Christian teaching (the
catechism, with special emphasis on the opening chapters of Genesis). It’s open
to all, and is recorded and aired on St.
Paul 's on the Air every Sunday at 7:30 CDT on WKEI, AM
radio 1450 on the dial.
It is
also podcast every (following) Wednesday at Pirate Christian Radio (www.piratechristianradio.com)
at 9:00
am CDT, as, by the way, are many other fine Lutheran programs you might want to
check out.
It is
also available on demand, through a facebook page: www.facebook.com/backtofirstthings.
The recordings are all there, and can be accessed at any time through the
Internet.
St. Paul’s and Friends Online
Speaking
of online things, if you do have access to the Internet, you should also seek
to find “St. Paul ’s
and Friends” at Facebook. It’s a closed group, so you need an invitation. Just
ask Pastor.
ON LITURGICAL
THANKSGIVING
It is no accident
that the term Eucharist, which means “thanksgiving,” is a term commonly applied
to the Holy Mass. Some actually object
to the term, since it seems to turn the Supper into something done by us, an
act of our sacrifice toward God, rather
than as it is quite evidently meant in the very Words of Institution
themselves, something given to us by Christ: “He gave it to them,” etc. Lutherans have rightly been very sensitive
about turning the Mass on its head by this shift.
Martin Luther
himself was adamant on this point, insisting that the Pope had changed it in
just this way. One of the greatest ways
in which the Church needed a Reformation was that it needed a realignment of
its understanding of the chief thing in the Sacrament. Sacrament is gift, from God to man; it is not
an act of sacrifice, from man to God. Rome had been routinely
talking, for centuries, about the sacrifice of the Mass, and Luther rejected
this.
On
the other hand, the Mass does of course contain none other than the elements of
Christ’s sacrifice for us, and as such can be seen as sacrifice, or more
properly, as the sacrifice of Christ now given to us. It is entirely gift, however: we receive herein
the bery fruits of His sacrifice: His crucified Body and His shed Blood.
But does this
merit the name Eucharist as applied to the Sacrament? Actually, it may not have been for this
reason that the term was applied.
Rather, the term is likely to have arisen in the same way as many rites
and canticles arrived at their names, namely by reference to something in the
first part of the rite. For example, the
Lord’s Prayer is routinely called the Our Father because these are its opening
words. So too, Eucharist may have arisen
as a term out of the fact that before Christ spoke the Words of Institution
over the elements of bread and wine, we are told that he “gave thanks.” If this is the origin of the usage, then the
term eucharist is the result Jesus’ giving of thanks. Now this is no insiginificant thing. In His giving of thanks, he fulfills what is
required of us. He pleases His Father by
this Thanksgiving, in an infinitely greater way than we ever could. Indeed we could not please God in any way, and
it is only His obedient life which brings to us salvation. This obedience is manifested here in His
giving of thanks. He stands in for the
human race in His giving of thanks, and then gives to His Church the fruits of
His sacrifice.
In addition, the
Church which is now in Christ also desires to follow His command, especially in
connection with the Supper. For He said,
This do, in referring to the following of His way of speaking over the elements
and giving them to the people. Since the
first thing He did was to give thanks, therefore it is proper for the Church,
in
remembrance of Him in the Holy
Mass, also to do what He did first, namely to give thanks. It so happens that our liturgy is so
constructed to do just that. Just prior
to the Words of Institution we sing the words of the Preface, the Proper
Preface, and the Sanctus. These words
include the following: “Let us give thanks unto the Lord our God. It is meet and right so to do. It is truly meet right and salutary that we
should at all times and in all places give thanks, etc.” Why especially here are we giving
thanks? Because we are following His
command, This do. Our giving of thanks
here is indeed acceptable to the Father, precisely and only because of Christ’s
sacrifice of His Body and the shedding of His Blood, that is, the Holy
Sacrament which we receive. (reprinted, November newsletter 2004)
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