Learning the Faith by Heart
Speaking, Praying, and Singing God’s Word Together
The Week of Sept 1 –Sept 8, 2024
Preparing for the Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost
Hymn of the Week: Praise the Almighty (797)
GLCA Learn by Heart Hymn: Now Thank We All Our God (895)
GLCA Memory Work: Daily Prayers (Returning Thanks) – LSB pg. 328
Jr. Confirmation Memory Work: Ten Commandments
Monday: Catechism Bible Story – 2 Samuel 12:1-13
The opening sentences in Matins are from Psalm 51. They were first prayed by David, and the circumstances of his life and the occasion for his praying of Psalm 51 teach us much about prayer. Unless the Lord opens our lips with His Word, we sinners have nothing to say that is true and right (Lutheran Catechesis, pg. 190). What truth had God used His prophet Nathan to show David? Before his confession? After his confession (vs. 13)?
Tuesday: Old Testament – Isaiah 35:4–7a
No matter what sins we have committed, we can confess our sins in the confidence that God does not come only with threats of “vengeance,” but with His gracious salvation (Is. 35:4). He opens our ears with His Word of Law and Gospel. First, He opens our deaf ears to hear of our sin, then our anxious and terrified hearts are comforted when we hear the Good News of our Savior, whose death has removed from us the consequence of our sin. What is the result (Is. 35:5-6)?
Wednesday – Sinner and Saint: Moses
Prayer: Lord God, heavenly Father, through the prophet Moses You began the prophetic pattern of teaching Your people the true faith and demonstrating through miracles Your presence in creation to heal it of its brokenness. Grant that Your Church may see in Your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, the final end-times prophet whose teaching and miracles continue in Your Church through the healing medicine of the Gospel and the Sacraments; through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.
Thursday: Holy Gospel – Mark 7: 31–37
We are the deaf mute in the Decapolis. As children of Adam we are conceived and born hard of hearing and slow of speech. We are by nature deaf to God’s Word and mute to prayer and praise. How/when does God open our lips and loosen our tongues?
Friday: Epistle – James 2:1–10, 14–18
With His Word and the touch of His hand, Jesus does “all things well,” so that sinners may now speak “plainly” (Mark 7:31–37). We can confess the truth of God in Christ to the glory of His holy name, we call upon His name in every trouble, confident that He will hear and answer. As we pray and confess with our tongues, so also we love our neighbors as ourselves. How would loving “with partiality” be like knowing how to speak, but talking as though we’re mute?
The Order of Meditation and Prayer
The sign of the cross + may be made by all in remembrance of their Baptism
Invocation
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Apostles’ Creed
I believe in the God the Father Almighty…
Bible Verse Memory
Verse from Prayer for Returning Thanks (see below: Ps. 136:1, 25; 147:9-11)
Catechism Memory: Daily Prayers (Returning Thanks)
Also, after eating, they shall, in like manner, reverently and with folded hands say:
Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good. His love endures forever. [He] gives food to every creature. He provides food for the cattle and for the young raven when they call. His pleasure is not in the strength of the horse, nor His delight in the legs of a man; the LORD delights in those who fear Him, who put their hope in His unfailing love. (Ps. 136:1, 25; 147:9-11)
Then shall be said the Lord’s Prayer and the following:
We thank You, Lord God, heavenly Father, for all Your benefits, through Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit forever and ever. Amen.
Bible Reading for the Day (From Upcoming Readings for Sun, Portals of Prayer, or other Daily meditation)
This is the Word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.
Hymn of the Week
By Grace I’m Saved (566)
Family Prayers
For___________________, let us pray to the Lord.
Lord, have mercy.
Lord’s Prayer