Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Our text, “The Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. And he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan. And he was with the wild animals, and the angels were ministering to him.”
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
How determined is the devil! Forty days of combatting the Son of God, forty days of Jesus fending off the temptations, forty days in which Christ proves himself the better opponent… and the devil keeps coming.
How long would you last? It’s quite an awesome thought to consider that Jesus wrestled with – and bested – the devil for forty straight days. Oh, to be sure, He’s true God, so this should be a breeze! But, He’s also true man, fasting, hungry, tired, tempted, tried, yet in everything victorious. Forty straight days of holy resolve, without once blinking or flinching or caving or falling. It’s an awe-provoking thought…
Or, is it? After all, how often in life do we or our loved ones or friends act as if it’s no big deal to spend forty days in the wilderness without the respite of the Divine Service? – “of course after those forty days we’ll still be strong in the faith,” we think!
You sign those pew registers to help your imperfect pastor and elders keep track of how frequently you’ve been nourished. We typically wait for five or six weeks of absence (about 40 days) before a red flag goes up that perhaps contact should be made. Considering that our sinless, holy Lord and God had angels to minister to him after 40 days, perhaps we sinners should desire our pastor to be concerned after 4 weeks of absence, or 3, or maybe 2 or 1, if we begin to understand the difference between Christ’s strength and our weakness, and how relentless is the devil’s pursuit of your soul.
Yes, what determination the devil shows. He knows he cannot overpower your baptism with blunt force and a head-on attack, so he stalks you… patiently prowling around, seeking whom and how he may devour, just waiting for you to become comfortable, complacent, cocky. He knows that soon enough the solider must lay aside his baptismal shield of faith if he is to reach out for that temptation dangled in front of him… that dark, quiet, ‘nobody has a clue I’m tempted by this’ desire… yes, the devil is patient enough to let that desire toy with you for far longer than 40 days; but he knows our weaknesses, and usually has us reaching in less than 40 minutes of intense temptation… and as we put down our shield of faith to reach, desire gives birth to sin, the devil pounces, and sin abounds!
Sin has such free course among us that our society relishes it and sells us on it as well. One of the current music hits of pop culture, one that either you or your kids or grandchildren may very well be listening to and subtly influenced by is a song whose lyrics include the phrase, “Everything that kills me makes me feel alive.” Of course, the point is not to beware of the danger, but to act on the impulse of feeling alive. Another current hit of the pop culture wilderness is actually called “Take Me to Church,” and the lead singer spends the song’s entirety persuading listeners that his lover’s bed is the place where true worship happens.
So much temptation just in your ears, let alone in front of your eyes and in your head and heart. You and I, by our own strength, wouldn’t last one day in the wilderness, let alone 40. Nor could we by our merit be sent out there to fight in the first place because our sinful nature, that Old Adam, is a willing accomplice with the very foe we’re supposed to be combating! Another One need take our place… A “Valiant One” who is not plagued with the Old Adam; a Substitute able to be more determined than, more patient than, more powerful than the devil.
For forty days the Substitute Jesus is in the wilderness. To be sure, that brings to mind Israel, which was never meant to wander in the wilderness. God in His grace and mercy had brought Israel to the doors of the promised land immediately upon deliverance from Egypt, but the Israelites would not trust their God; they backpedaled. It took Him 40 years of guiding them through the wilderness to teach them to trust His good and gracious will, and for Him to let die those who had not trusted Him.
To be sure, Jesus is the new Israel, Israel reduced to One, who does not doubt God’s promised land deliverance, but who willingly goes into the wilderness to do all that is necessary to accomplish that deliverance once foreshadowed by entrance across the Jordan into Canaan. (Recall, by the way, who was it in the Old Testament who finally led the Israelites into the promised land? – it was Joshua, the Hebrew equivalent of the Greek word Ihsou – Jesus.)
And so, Mark’s gospel, in one little inclusion – Jesus going into “the wilderness” – Mark’s gospel reminds us Jesus is the faithful Israel. But, in one other little inclusion, Mark also hints at Jesus as the New Adam. For, Mark says, “He was among the wild animals.” Jesus, in His perfection, was not distracted by the wild beasts. Rather, they were to him as their ancestors would have been to Adam, when Adam had such domain over the animals, when Man had such a paradisiacal relationship with them, that God gave Adam to name them, and the animals perhaps even received their names in the same way that the serpent conversed with the man and the woman. Indeed, in perfection, Adam and his wife were afraid of no animals, nor was there need to be.
Now, the second Adam goes not into Eden’s lush garden, but into the wilderness where wild animals roam, and He reminds us that the prophecy will come true that the lion will again lie down with the lamb… regardless of whether that means that a wild beast, a predator will no longer hunt prey, or if it means (as Scriptural images imply) that the ferocious glory of Christ (the Lion of Judah) will be tamed by and lie down with the grace of this same Lamb of God. However one reads it, Jesus with the wild beasts in the wilderness is a reminder that He is the New Adam, just as He is the new Israel.
If it seems incredible that so much can be found in so few verses, consider the profound depth of St. Mark’s brevity and how much weight he puts on this two-sentence description of the temptation of Jesus.
Consider the context surrounding Mark 1:9-15, as that context flanks Jesus’ temptation and Jesus’ temptation serves as a hinge between those contextual accounts. In Advent, we focused on the opening verses of the chapter (the forerunner John, the Baptism of Jesus) and the promise of the Messiah. In Epiphany, we focused on Jesus introduced as the Messiah fulfilled. Now, here in Lent, the hinge between promise and fulfillment.
And, even the beginning of our text and the end of our text are quite similar in their message, separated only by the hinge. At the beginning of the reading, it’s the Father preaching: “This is My Son, with whom I am well pleased.” And (following the hinge) at the end of the reading, the Son’s message echoes the Father’s, “The kingdom of heaven is at hand,” why is the kingdom at hand? – because Jesus is the Father’s Son, who brings us all the benefits of the Father’s kingdom. “This is My Son;” / “The Kingdom of heaven is at hand.” And again, the Father says “with Him I am well pleased” – which is to say what Jesus says: “Believe the gospel.” It’s as if Jesus says, “The Father is pleased with me. There is the gospel of your salvation. I lay down my life for you, and the Father is pleased with my sacrifice. And thus, you have all that my death secures for you. Believe the gospel – the Father is well-pleased with Me, and my blood and righteousness gives you every reason to trust Me.”
You see how the Father’s sermon at Jesus’ baptism (and the beginning of our text), and the sermon Jesus comes preaching at the tail end of our text are nearly one and the same. This should be assumed, for Jesus says, “I have not spoken on my own authority, but the Father who sent me has himself given me a commandment—what to say and what to speak” (John 12). Jesus speaks afterward what the Father speaks before. But the hinge between these two sermons is the brief but potent description of Jesus faithfully waging war in the wilderness.
Mark wants sinners to know that the temptation was a necessary part of Jesus’ work as the Savior. In order for you to benefit from this Jesus, He must not only die the death you could not die, but also live the righteousness you could not live. Jesus needed to win the victory over the devil in the wilderness alone, so that you need never be alone against the devil in the wilderness.
In fact, St. John’s Revelation brings us that comfort when it speaks of the Church being left seemingly alone against the dragon who stands waiting (patiently prowling) to devour the woman and her child. And when the child is caught up to heaven, where does this Church run but into the wilderness, Revelation says… the wilderness, no longer a lonely place absent of God, but as the text says, “the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, to be nourished.”
God allows you to dwell in the wilderness of this world, not so that you might embrace it and all its temptations, not so that you might adopt the sins of the culture for six-and-a-half days a week and on the seventh “Remember the Sabbath,” but because He is certain that the new Joshua will deliver you to the promised land, and He has given you every means of nourishment by which you may endure these wilderness temptations until that final deliverance comes.
And those means and instruments and tools begins with baptism.
As we said, the repeated mention of “the wilderness” brings to mind Israel, but it also brings to mind John the Baptist. When Jesus was baptized by the preacher of the wilderness, he was prepared for and immediately sent into the wilderness. Similarly, baptism prepares you for the wilderness wandering of this life… not by saying, “You now have all you need to protect you all your days; frolic, live care-free, let down your guard;” rather, by saying, “You have been clothed with this garment that guarantees your God loves you and will continue to avail to you all that is needed to sustain you in the wilderness… even if it means dropping from heaven manna which is his own body.”
You see, Jesus himself was ministered to by angels (“messengers”). He knows by experience that you need and depend on strengthening, which He Himself avails to you by the ministry of the Word and Sacraments. If our Lord was not above being ministered to by messengers, why should we even be tempted to consider ourselves above ongoing spiritual care? Why should we think we can traverse the wilderness without the regular, constant need for sustenance, nourishment, and depending on His Word-and-Sacrament provision?
Friends, how much thought has God put into your eternal well-being!, that He does not leave you to wander the wilderness alone; He didn’t say, “I have given my son into death, but now you must do your part!”, but He grants you sacred mysteries that guide and nourish and safeguard you. So, hear the comfort in knowing that Jesus was like us – “angels ministered to him.”
And yet, simultaneously, thanks be to God that Jesus was not like us, but withstood alone – by His own merit! – all temptations of the foe, won the battle of the wilderness on the way to the war of the cross. And in that victory of the cross, you have victory…. And in his righteousness, you have been declared righteous. And in His sacrifice, you have salvation. And in this Son with whom the Father is well pleased, you have every reason to repent and believe in the gospel.
How long would you last? It’s quite an awesome thought to consider that Jesus wrestled with – and bested – the devil for forty straight days. Oh, to be sure, He’s true God, so this should be a breeze! But, He’s also true man, fasting, hungry, tired, tempted, tried, yet in everything victorious. Forty straight days of holy resolve, without once blinking or flinching or caving or falling. It’s an awe-provoking thought…
Or, is it? After all, how often in life do we or our loved ones or friends act as if it’s no big deal to spend forty days in the wilderness without the respite of the Divine Service? – “of course after those forty days we’ll still be strong in the faith,” we think!
You sign those pew registers to help your imperfect pastor and elders keep track of how frequently you’ve been nourished. We typically wait for five or six weeks of absence (about 40 days) before a red flag goes up that perhaps contact should be made. Considering that our sinless, holy Lord and God had angels to minister to him after 40 days, perhaps we sinners should desire our pastor to be concerned after 4 weeks of absence, or 3, or maybe 2 or 1, if we begin to understand the difference between Christ’s strength and our weakness, and how relentless is the devil’s pursuit of your soul.
Yes, what determination the devil shows. He knows he cannot overpower your baptism with blunt force and a head-on attack, so he stalks you… patiently prowling around, seeking whom and how he may devour, just waiting for you to become comfortable, complacent, cocky. He knows that soon enough the solider must lay aside his baptismal shield of faith if he is to reach out for that temptation dangled in front of him… that dark, quiet, ‘nobody has a clue I’m tempted by this’ desire… yes, the devil is patient enough to let that desire toy with you for far longer than 40 days; but he knows our weaknesses, and usually has us reaching in less than 40 minutes of intense temptation… and as we put down our shield of faith to reach, desire gives birth to sin, the devil pounces, and sin abounds!
Sin has such free course among us that our society relishes it and sells us on it as well. One of the current music hits of pop culture, one that either you or your kids or grandchildren may very well be listening to and subtly influenced by is a song whose lyrics include the phrase, “Everything that kills me makes me feel alive.” Of course, the point is not to beware of the danger, but to act on the impulse of feeling alive. Another current hit of the pop culture wilderness is actually called “Take Me to Church,” and the lead singer spends the song’s entirety persuading listeners that his lover’s bed is the place where true worship happens.
So much temptation just in your ears, let alone in front of your eyes and in your head and heart. You and I, by our own strength, wouldn’t last one day in the wilderness, let alone 40. Nor could we by our merit be sent out there to fight in the first place because our sinful nature, that Old Adam, is a willing accomplice with the very foe we’re supposed to be combating! Another One need take our place… A “Valiant One” who is not plagued with the Old Adam; a Substitute able to be more determined than, more patient than, more powerful than the devil.
For forty days the Substitute Jesus is in the wilderness. To be sure, that brings to mind Israel, which was never meant to wander in the wilderness. God in His grace and mercy had brought Israel to the doors of the promised land immediately upon deliverance from Egypt, but the Israelites would not trust their God; they backpedaled. It took Him 40 years of guiding them through the wilderness to teach them to trust His good and gracious will, and for Him to let die those who had not trusted Him.
To be sure, Jesus is the new Israel, Israel reduced to One, who does not doubt God’s promised land deliverance, but who willingly goes into the wilderness to do all that is necessary to accomplish that deliverance once foreshadowed by entrance across the Jordan into Canaan. (Recall, by the way, who was it in the Old Testament who finally led the Israelites into the promised land? – it was Joshua, the Hebrew equivalent of the Greek word Ihsou – Jesus.)
And so, Mark’s gospel, in one little inclusion – Jesus going into “the wilderness” – Mark’s gospel reminds us Jesus is the faithful Israel. But, in one other little inclusion, Mark also hints at Jesus as the New Adam. For, Mark says, “He was among the wild animals.” Jesus, in His perfection, was not distracted by the wild beasts. Rather, they were to him as their ancestors would have been to Adam, when Adam had such domain over the animals, when Man had such a paradisiacal relationship with them, that God gave Adam to name them, and the animals perhaps even received their names in the same way that the serpent conversed with the man and the woman. Indeed, in perfection, Adam and his wife were afraid of no animals, nor was there need to be.
Now, the second Adam goes not into Eden’s lush garden, but into the wilderness where wild animals roam, and He reminds us that the prophecy will come true that the lion will again lie down with the lamb… regardless of whether that means that a wild beast, a predator will no longer hunt prey, or if it means (as Scriptural images imply) that the ferocious glory of Christ (the Lion of Judah) will be tamed by and lie down with the grace of this same Lamb of God. However one reads it, Jesus with the wild beasts in the wilderness is a reminder that He is the New Adam, just as He is the new Israel.
If it seems incredible that so much can be found in so few verses, consider the profound depth of St. Mark’s brevity and how much weight he puts on this two-sentence description of the temptation of Jesus.
Consider the context surrounding Mark 1:9-15, as that context flanks Jesus’ temptation and Jesus’ temptation serves as a hinge between those contextual accounts. In Advent, we focused on the opening verses of the chapter (the forerunner John, the Baptism of Jesus) and the promise of the Messiah. In Epiphany, we focused on Jesus introduced as the Messiah fulfilled. Now, here in Lent, the hinge between promise and fulfillment.
And, even the beginning of our text and the end of our text are quite similar in their message, separated only by the hinge. At the beginning of the reading, it’s the Father preaching: “This is My Son, with whom I am well pleased.” And (following the hinge) at the end of the reading, the Son’s message echoes the Father’s, “The kingdom of heaven is at hand,” why is the kingdom at hand? – because Jesus is the Father’s Son, who brings us all the benefits of the Father’s kingdom. “This is My Son;” / “The Kingdom of heaven is at hand.” And again, the Father says “with Him I am well pleased” – which is to say what Jesus says: “Believe the gospel.” It’s as if Jesus says, “The Father is pleased with me. There is the gospel of your salvation. I lay down my life for you, and the Father is pleased with my sacrifice. And thus, you have all that my death secures for you. Believe the gospel – the Father is well-pleased with Me, and my blood and righteousness gives you every reason to trust Me.”
You see how the Father’s sermon at Jesus’ baptism (and the beginning of our text), and the sermon Jesus comes preaching at the tail end of our text are nearly one and the same. This should be assumed, for Jesus says, “I have not spoken on my own authority, but the Father who sent me has himself given me a commandment—what to say and what to speak” (John 12). Jesus speaks afterward what the Father speaks before. But the hinge between these two sermons is the brief but potent description of Jesus faithfully waging war in the wilderness.
Mark wants sinners to know that the temptation was a necessary part of Jesus’ work as the Savior. In order for you to benefit from this Jesus, He must not only die the death you could not die, but also live the righteousness you could not live. Jesus needed to win the victory over the devil in the wilderness alone, so that you need never be alone against the devil in the wilderness.
In fact, St. John’s Revelation brings us that comfort when it speaks of the Church being left seemingly alone against the dragon who stands waiting (patiently prowling) to devour the woman and her child. And when the child is caught up to heaven, where does this Church run but into the wilderness, Revelation says… the wilderness, no longer a lonely place absent of God, but as the text says, “the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, to be nourished.”
God allows you to dwell in the wilderness of this world, not so that you might embrace it and all its temptations, not so that you might adopt the sins of the culture for six-and-a-half days a week and on the seventh “Remember the Sabbath,” but because He is certain that the new Joshua will deliver you to the promised land, and He has given you every means of nourishment by which you may endure these wilderness temptations until that final deliverance comes.
And those means and instruments and tools begins with baptism.
As we said, the repeated mention of “the wilderness” brings to mind Israel, but it also brings to mind John the Baptist. When Jesus was baptized by the preacher of the wilderness, he was prepared for and immediately sent into the wilderness. Similarly, baptism prepares you for the wilderness wandering of this life… not by saying, “You now have all you need to protect you all your days; frolic, live care-free, let down your guard;” rather, by saying, “You have been clothed with this garment that guarantees your God loves you and will continue to avail to you all that is needed to sustain you in the wilderness… even if it means dropping from heaven manna which is his own body.”
You see, Jesus himself was ministered to by angels (“messengers”). He knows by experience that you need and depend on strengthening, which He Himself avails to you by the ministry of the Word and Sacraments. If our Lord was not above being ministered to by messengers, why should we even be tempted to consider ourselves above ongoing spiritual care? Why should we think we can traverse the wilderness without the regular, constant need for sustenance, nourishment, and depending on His Word-and-Sacrament provision?
Friends, how much thought has God put into your eternal well-being!, that He does not leave you to wander the wilderness alone; He didn’t say, “I have given my son into death, but now you must do your part!”, but He grants you sacred mysteries that guide and nourish and safeguard you. So, hear the comfort in knowing that Jesus was like us – “angels ministered to him.”
And yet, simultaneously, thanks be to God that Jesus was not like us, but withstood alone – by His own merit! – all temptations of the foe, won the battle of the wilderness on the way to the war of the cross. And in that victory of the cross, you have victory…. And in his righteousness, you have been declared righteous. And in His sacrifice, you have salvation. And in this Son with whom the Father is well pleased, you have every reason to repent and believe in the gospel.
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Prayers for the week of February 22, 2015
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Almighty God, we give You thanks that, immediately after His Baptism, Your Son continued His work of salvation by His temptation in the wilderness. We give thanks that in Him, “we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.” Lord, in Your mercy:
Into Your hands, O Lord, we commend all for whom we pray, trusting in Your mercy, through faith in Christ Jesus. Amen.
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“The Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. And he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan. And he was with the wild animals, and the angels were ministering to him.” Mark 1:12-13
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A Prayer based on the Petitions of the Lord’s Prayer: “For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever and ever. AMEN.”
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HEAR OUR PRAYER. as we pray for the whole Church of God in Christ Jesus and for all people according to their needs.
Into Your hands, O Lord, we commend all for whom we pray, trusting in Your mercy, through faith in Christ Jesus. Amen.
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“The Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. And he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan. And he was with the wild animals, and the angels were ministering to him.” Mark 1:12-13
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A Prayer based on the Petitions of the Lord’s Prayer: “For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever and ever. AMEN.”
In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
O Lord, You give us every reason to say, “Amen. Amen. It shall be so!” To you belongs all power and glory, forever and ever. Therefore, hear the praise that is given through an appeal to your mercy, and lend your fatherly ear to my petitions:
* For the ill, suffering, injured: O Lord, You show your power and glory through mercy toward sinners. Hear my prayer for those who are ill, suffering, or injured, especially Debbie Taylor and Sue Ail- as well as both Catherine Stange and Bob Knox as they recover from medical procedures and all who are ill and afflicted:; remind them of Your compassion and, according to Your will, heal of all affliction. In all circumstances, strengthen their faith, that they might clearly confess, “AMEN.”
* For the anxious, lonely: O God, Yours is the kingdom. Yours is the power. Yours is the glory. Yet, we sinners so often grow anxious about the temporal trials that face us. Hear my prayer on behalf of our shut-ins including Irene Fehrman, Geraldine Hagemann, Velma Maas, Bruce Morecraft, and Alice Breneman as well as the Widows and Widowers of Calvary. Remind them all that there is none other besides You who deserves all glory, and thus none other that need weaken our “AMEN.” Bring Irene, Geraldine, Velma, Bruce, and Alice and the Widows and Widowers confidence in the hour of trial, that they may take heart in Your promises, “Yes, yes. It shall be so!”
* For the mourning: O Lord, because You have all power and glory and dominion over life and death, we may rejoice in the Christian’s death, even as we mourn our earthly loss. Hear my prayer on behalf of Cal Miller and his family and the family Norm Bunge, who laid to rest the body of Norm and also of Cal’s wife, Velda, as they mourn the death of a loved one. Comfort them with the promise that Jesus Christ is the Resurrection and the Life – “whoever believes in Me, though he die, yet shall he live.” Cheer Cal and his family and also Norm Bunge's family with such life-giving words, that they might not weep as they who have no hope, but confidently confess, “I believe in the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. AMEN – It shall be so!”
* For the rejoicing: O Lord, as a God of glory, You are also a God who delights in showering us with blessings. Hear my prayer of thanksgiving on behalf of all who today rejoice. Grant them a thankful heart, ever fixed on your grace through Christ Crucified, and therefore joins the eternal refrain – “AMEN. AMEN. AMEN.”
* Lord, please bring faith to my unbelieving friends, neighbors, coworkers, and family including Anne, Vickie, Alexa, Dan, Paul, Kevin (and his family) so that they trust in the sufficiency of Your perfect life and atoning death for our eternal salvation. Draw them to your Word and then to Your Sacrament to nourish their parched souls..
Hear my petitions, O Heavenly Father, for the sake of Your Son, whose sacrificial death gives us the freedom to say, “AMEN – God’s promises shall be so!”, so that we may with all boldness pray, “Our Father, who art in heaven…”
* For the ill, suffering, injured: O Lord, You show your power and glory through mercy toward sinners. Hear my prayer for those who are ill, suffering, or injured, especially Debbie Taylor and Sue Ail- as well as both Catherine Stange and Bob Knox as they recover from medical procedures and all who are ill and afflicted:; remind them of Your compassion and, according to Your will, heal of all affliction. In all circumstances, strengthen their faith, that they might clearly confess, “AMEN.”
* For the anxious, lonely: O God, Yours is the kingdom. Yours is the power. Yours is the glory. Yet, we sinners so often grow anxious about the temporal trials that face us. Hear my prayer on behalf of our shut-ins including Irene Fehrman, Geraldine Hagemann, Velma Maas, Bruce Morecraft, and Alice Breneman as well as the Widows and Widowers of Calvary. Remind them all that there is none other besides You who deserves all glory, and thus none other that need weaken our “AMEN.” Bring Irene, Geraldine, Velma, Bruce, and Alice and the Widows and Widowers confidence in the hour of trial, that they may take heart in Your promises, “Yes, yes. It shall be so!”
* For the mourning: O Lord, because You have all power and glory and dominion over life and death, we may rejoice in the Christian’s death, even as we mourn our earthly loss. Hear my prayer on behalf of Cal Miller and his family and the family Norm Bunge, who laid to rest the body of Norm and also of Cal’s wife, Velda, as they mourn the death of a loved one. Comfort them with the promise that Jesus Christ is the Resurrection and the Life – “whoever believes in Me, though he die, yet shall he live.” Cheer Cal and his family and also Norm Bunge's family with such life-giving words, that they might not weep as they who have no hope, but confidently confess, “I believe in the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. AMEN – It shall be so!”
* For the rejoicing: O Lord, as a God of glory, You are also a God who delights in showering us with blessings. Hear my prayer of thanksgiving on behalf of all who today rejoice. Grant them a thankful heart, ever fixed on your grace through Christ Crucified, and therefore joins the eternal refrain – “AMEN. AMEN. AMEN.”
* Lord, please bring faith to my unbelieving friends, neighbors, coworkers, and family including Anne, Vickie, Alexa, Dan, Paul, Kevin (and his family) so that they trust in the sufficiency of Your perfect life and atoning death for our eternal salvation. Draw them to your Word and then to Your Sacrament to nourish their parched souls..
Hear my petitions, O Heavenly Father, for the sake of Your Son, whose sacrificial death gives us the freedom to say, “AMEN – God’s promises shall be so!”, so that we may with all boldness pray, “Our Father, who art in heaven…”
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