What benefits do you receive when you take the Sacrament of the Altar? Flies. That is how a fellow pastor taught his confirmation students. “Flies” is a mnemonic device that stands for “Forgiveness” “LIfe” and “Salvation” (F-Li-S). Those are the things that Martin Luther wrote in his Small Catechism about what we receive when we…

The other day someone asked me when the practice of confession began in the Church. Obviously in Matthew 18 and John 20, Jesus alludes to His disciples and/or the Church forgiving sins. Even before that, in the Jewish celebration of Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, there is a moment for one to consider their…

Four questions: What is it? What does it do? How does it do that? What does that mean? Those are four questions that we ask of anything that is new or novel to us. Think about artificial intelligence, AI. We want to know what it is first, to have some sense of understanding of what…

As things heat up outside, we’re taking things “back to basics” as we take a look at the six chief parts of Martin Luther’s Small Catechism. All it takes is a meal amongst Christians. All of the sudden, there is a recognized need – someone to say grace before the meal. I’ve seen this any…