Peters on Prayer

I am seeing a lot of links out there to Pastor Peters' blog, Pastoral Meanderings.  This blog will be no exception!

Today I am highlighting his post on prayer.  I highlight this because it is an area of my own life that I need to work on.  Resources like the Treasury of Daily Prayer are helpful, yet cumbersome.  Finding a time and a place for meditation is challenging at best.  Satan likes to grab hold of me in this area and, of course, I let him!

Here is a highlight from Pastor Peters post:

We have all been there when someone began to pray and instead of a prayer we got an update on some one's medical condition or a justification for why we were asking this of God or a series of rather pedestrian statements usually beginning with the words "we just..." We have all been there when prayers took on the character of long speeches -- especially prayers following the sermon that are used to review the salient points of the sermon, one more time, this time in the guise of prayer. We have all been there when paragraphs of prayer waxed eloquent but in the end we were not quite sure what it was that we were saying our "Amen" to. The problem is that these are often held up as model prayers that we should aspire to -- when the model prayer is, of course, the Our Father, an economy of words that directs our hearts to voice spiritual needs when we are generally focused upon physical ones.


Spontaneous praying is assisted when we have learned to pray the prayers of others first. Then we learn how to give voice to our own hearts.

All of these things frustrate me in my own prayer life and in the prayer life of the church.   Pastor Peters provides some clarity through all of this.

I particularly like the "collect" form* that is prayed before the readings in the Divine Service.  Lutheran Service Book has a section of prayers starting on page 305 that tackle many topics, and most of them follow the collect form.

Look for future posts on prayer here at All for Hymn.  I confess, posts on prayer are as much for my learning experience as anyone elses.

* "Collect" is pronounced KAH-lekt, with the emphasis on the first syllable.  A future post will talk about this form.

How's Your LSB? Part II

Over at Fine Tuning, the Part Two of the Lutheran Service Book self-evaluation is going on.

They are asking for opinions on new texts set to existing tunes.

Offer your opinion on...

• Personal Favorite
• Most Beneficial for Your Congregation's Piety
• Hymn that Most Effectively Catechizes
• Best Fit for an Old Tune
• Text that Helped You Use an Older Tune
• Congregational Favorite

This conversation gets way better when more than two people are involved, so even if you tackle two or three of the six options, it will be a nice springboard!

Of note, Kantor Stephen R. Johnson has a new tune and setting on deck for LSB 521, "Christ, the Lord of Hosts, Unshaken."  I am excited because the tune Fortunatus New works exceedingly well with this text, but is a stumbling block for my choir (and therefore my congregation).  It's good to have options.  Put me down for 10 copies.

Just for Fun: Caption Contest at Gottesdienst

Gottesdienst is what the German's refer to as "The Divine Service" or simply "worship."  Literally, it means, "God's Service."

The journal Gottesdienst delves into all things liturgical.

Lest they take themselves too seriously, the Gottesdienst blog is running a caption contest for a picture of Elvis superimposed in front of a priest at the altar and ahead of a congregation.  Check it out here.  They promise a fabulous prize to the contest winner.

LATIN ALERT:

Non sum dignus.
     I am not worthy.

Tu dignus est? 
     Are you worthy?

A Multitude of Mighty Fortresses: Translation work is complete!

I asked for translation help here and on the Wittenberg Trail. 

Special thanks to Dr. George C. Adams, who stepped up to the plate on The Trail and offered clear translations for lines 4, 6, 7, and 8.

Line 1:
Ein' feste Burg is unser Gott,
A mighty fortress is our God,

Line 2:
Ein gute Wehr und Waffen;
A good defense and weapon;

Line 3:
Er hilft uns frei aus aller Not,
He helps us free from every need

Line 4:
Die uns jetzt hat betroffen.
That has us now befallen.

Line 5:
Der alt' boese Feind,
The old wicked Foe,

Line 6:
Mit Ernst er's jetzt meint
He really is in ernest (Literally, "he really means it")

Line 7:
Gross' Macht und viel List
Great power and much craftiness

Line 8:
Sein' grauseam' Ruestung ist,
His armor is cruel, [Are his fearful armaments]

Line 9:
Auf Erd' is nicht sein gleichen.
His equal is not on earth.

Look for a post coming soon comparing various metered translations of Stanza 1.

Introducing "Exploring Music"

Some of you are probably already familiar with the radio program Exploring Music.

Each week Host Bill McGlaughlin tackles a different subject over a five-day span.

This week features music of Paris from 1830 to the early 1900's.  You'll hear music from the late romantic period like Berlioz through the impressionist composers like Debussy.

Exploring music airs on the flagship station WFMT Monday-Friday at 7:00 pm Central.  The show does not yet podcast (as far as I can tell), so check your local classical station to see if it airs locally.

Alternately, WFMT does stream over the internet.  You can access that here.  Also, this website might be of some help.  It showed me the program was playing now and linked me to the broadcast.  However, there were issues with the station list.  I could not get it to navigate from page-to-page or sort by categories.

Blogspot Word Verification: Is It Working?

In the settings for this blog, under "Comments" is, "Show Word Verification?"  Yes/No.

I have the radio dial set to "yes."

I checked my blog at a friend's house (so I could see what the public sees) and did not see the Word Verification.

So I am asking my readers (all five of you) to just drop a comment and let me know if the Word Verification shows on your end.

Thanks!

PS: What is the advantage of using it?

A Multitude of Mighty Fortresses: Let's Translate Together!

OK, so one article I read about this song is that it is notoriously difficult to translate into English.  Apparently, there are over 100 versions floating around out there.

So, let's go back to the drawing board.  My German is rusty, but I will give it a try.  Those of you who well-versed in German, feel free to leave corrections in the comment box.  I am looking for a literal translation here, so there is no need to try to crunch the translation into the meter.

Also, if this German version is not the one that the Lutheran Hymnal Project used for LSB, feel free to drop the correct one in the comment box as well.

Here we go!

Line 1:
Ein' feste Burg is unser Gott,
A mighty fortress is our God,

Line 2:
Ein gute Wehr und Waffen;
A good defense and weapon;

Line 3:
Er hilft uns frei aus aller Not,
He helps us free from every need

Line 4:
Die uns jetzt hat betroffen.
That has now affected us.

Line 5:
Der alt' boese Feind,
The old wicked Foe,

Line 6:
Mit Ernst er's jetzt meint
With seriousness he has now ______

Line 7:
Gross' Macht und viel List
Great power and much craftiness

Line 8:
Sein' grauseam' Ruestung ist,
His armor is cruel,

Line 9:
Auf Erd' is nicht sein gleichen.
His equal is not on earth.

As you can see, Line 6 was particularly challenging.

Again, leave any corrections or clarifications in the comment section, and a new literal translation will be used to compare other English translation.

Special thanks to Google Translator and reverso.net for making this work fairly easy, and to hymntime for providing the German text.