The Catechism

Agenda

• Agenda• Introduction• Objective• Discussion• Closing• Next Week

IntroductionsWho am I and who are these people sharing the table with you

Who are we?

• Turn to someone you don’t know and tell them• Your Name

• Ask them their name and one of the following questions:• What is the greatest thing you accomplished in the last year• What is the biggest thing you are looking forward to in the

next year• What city were you born in• What does your first and last name mean?• Where did you get your education and what did you focus

on or what was your favorite subject• What is your favorite time of year and why

ObjectiveWhy am I here today

Objective: For The Course

• To gain a greater understanding of the Creator of the Universe

• To Gain a greater understanding of the Lutheran understanding of the Christian Faith

DiscussionThe Essence of the Thing

Prayer Prior to Studying the Bible

• Almighty God, heavenly Father, you give all the gifts of life and living, and you bid us to love you with our heart, soul, mind, and strength. During this time of study and learning and writing, grant to us the protection of your Holy Spirit, that we become neither weary nor proud, and that in all things we might, with our words, bring honor and glory to your Word, Jesus Christ your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

Amen.

Schedule

Notes Sun Mon Tue Wed Thur Fri Sat

The Bible 9 10† 11 12 13 14 15

The Ten Commandments 16 17 18* 19 20† 21 22

The Apostles Creed 23 24* 25* 26* 27† 28 29

The Lord’s Prayer 30 31 1 2* 3 4 5†

The Sacrament of Holy Baptism 6 7 8 9 10† 11 12

The Office of the Keys & Confession 13† 14† 15† 16† 17 18† 19

The Sacrament of the Eucharist 20 21 22 23† 24* 25 26

“The Christian Life” 27 28

*Feast or Festival†Commemorations

Objective: Week Four

• To gain a greater understanding of the Lord Prayer

What keeps us from Praying?

• We send our time thinking the reasons why should or should not pray?

• We ask if God will heed my petition• We ask if God will even hear my petition• We say “If I do not pray, some one else will.”• We say “If I do not pray, Jesus / the Holy Spirit

will pray for me.”• We say “I am not holy enough to pray.”• We say “Prayer is only for the professional

Christian”

Why should we pray?

• God requires us to pray and has left us no choice in the second commandment. We are to call upon God in every need.

• To avoid God’s wrath and displeasure• To banish the thought that God does not wish or desire our prayers

because the human heart is by nature so despondent that it always flees from God

• To understand that God will not cast us from Him nor chase us away, but rather draw us to Himself, so that we might humble ourselves before Him, bewail this misery and plight of ours, and pray for grace and help.

• God has promised, and declared that it shall surely be done to us as we pray. God will answer our prayers!

• God anticipates our prayers, and arranges the words and form of prayer for us, and places them upon our lips as to how and what we should pray

• God pities us in our distress, and such prayers are pleasing to Him and shall certainly be answered!

It is our Duty to Pray

• …it is our duty to pray because of God's commandment. For thus we heard in the Second Commandment: Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord, thy God, in vain, that we are there required to praise that holy name, and call upon it in every need, or to pray. For to call upon the name of God is nothing else than to pray. Prayer is therefore as strictly and earnestly commanded as all other commandments: to have no other God, not to kill, not to steal, etc.” – Martin Luther on Prayer

How should we Pray?

• “Therefore you should say: My prayer is as precious, holy, and pleasing to God as that of St. Paul or of the most holy saints. This is the reason: For I will gladly grant that he is holier in his person, but not on account of the commandment; since God does not regard prayer on account of the person, but on account of His word and obedience thereto. For on the commandment on which all the saints rest their prayer I, too, rest mine. Moreover, I pray for the same thing for which they all pray and ever have prayed; besides, I have just as great a need of it as those great saints, yea, even a greater one than they.”

The Invocation

• Our Father who art in heaven.• God would thereby [with this little

introduction] tenderly urge us to believe that He is our true Father, and that we are His true children, so that we may ask Him confidently with all assurance, as dear children ask their dear father.

1The First Petition

• Hallowed be Thy name.• God's name is indeed holy in itself; but we pray in

this petition that it may become holy among us also.

• How is this done? When the Word of God is taught in its truth and purity, and we as the children of God also lead holy lives in accordance with it. To this end help us, dear Father in heaven. But he that teaches and lives otherwise than God's Word teaches profanes the name of God among us. From this preserve us, Heavenly Father.

2The Second Petition

• Thy kingdom come.• The kingdom of God comes indeed without

our prayer, of itself; but we pray in this petition that it may come unto us also.

• How is this done? When our heavenly Father gives us His Holy Spirit, so that by His grace we believe His holy Word and lead a godly life here in time and yonder in eternity.

3The Third Petition

• Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.• The good and gracious will of God is done indeed

without our prayer; but we pray in this petition that it may be done among us also.

• How is this done?—When God breaks and hinders every evil counsel and will which would not let us hallow the name of God nor let His kingdom come, such as the will of the devil, the world, and our flesh; but strengthens and keeps us steadfast in His Word and in faith unto our end. This is His gracious and good will.

4The Fourth Petition

• Give us this day our daily bread.• God gives daily bread, even without our prayer, to all

wicked men; but we pray in this petition that He would lead us to know it, and to receive our daily bread with thanksgiving.

• What is meant by daily bread?—Everything that belongs to the support and wants of the body, such as meat, drink, clothing, shoes, house, homestead, field, cattle, money, goods, a pious spouse, pious children, pious servants, pious and faithful magistrates, good government, good weather, peace, health, discipline, honor, good friends, faithful neighbors, and the like.

5The Fifth Petition

• And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.• What does this mean?—We pray in this petition

that our Father in heaven would not look upon our sins, nor deny such petitions on account of them; for we are worthy of none of the things for which we pray, neither have we deserved them; but that He would grant them all to us by grace; for we daily sin much, and indeed deserve nothing but punishment. So will we verily, on our part, also heartily forgive and also readily do good to those who sin against us.

6The Sixth Petition

• And lead us not into temptation.• God, indeed, tempts no one; but we pray in

this petition that God would guard and keep us, so that the devil, the world, and our flesh may not deceive us, nor seduce us into misbelieve, despair, and other great shame and vice; and though we be assailed by them, that still we may finally overcome and gain the victory.

7The Seventh Petition

• But deliver us from evil.• What does this mean?—We pray in this

petition, as in a summary, that our Father in heaven would deliver us from all manner of evil, of body and soul, property and honor, and at last, when our last hour shall come, grant us a blessed end, and graciously take us from this vale of tears to Himself into heaven.

The Doxology

• “For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen”• First appears in the Didache• Not in the most reliable manuscripts for the

Book of Matthew from Alexandria• Appears in later Byzantine versions of the

Book of Matthew• Not used by some Lutherans and Latin Rite

Roman Catholics

The Closing

• Amen.• What does this mean?—That I should be

certain that these petitions are acceptable to our Father in heaven and heard; for He Himself has commanded us so to pray, and has promised that He will hear us. Amen, Amen; that is, Yea, yea, it shall be so.