Divine Service Setting Five a.k.a. Luther’s Deutsche Messe
It is fitting to use this setting for the end of the church year as we celebrate the Reformation. Luther composed German hymns for the Ordinary so that all of his fellow Germans could learn and understand the Liturgy. Previously, only those few taught Latin could participate and understand the words of the Liturgy. Essential to Luther's Reformation was and continues to be learning how we live out the faith, what we believe, and why we believe it. These hymns continue to assist us in singing the faith and enhancing our understanding of each part of the Liturgy.
The Divine Service - Gottesdienst For You!
While God is present everywhere, He cannot be found everywhere as the God of love and mercy. Instead, in the Divine Service, Jesus promises to be for us. He is not the abstract or hidden God! Jesus’s presence in the Divine Service is His saving presence in concrete means where He has promised to give us forgiveness and life. He serves us through means that He has appointed and received by us in faith. Word and Sacrament are together the treasures given by the risen Christ as He comes into the midst of His gathered church.
Prepare for The Sunday of the Ten Lepers (09/22)
Within the liturgy for each Lord’s day, we receive the Word of God through uniquely appointed readings, psalms, hymns, and prayers. This week we will pray the Divine Service Setting Four. The following guide will help you to prepare to hear and sing the Propers, i.e. the varied texts and hymns for this week.
Prepare for The Sunday of the Good Samaritan (09/15)
Within the liturgy for each Lord’s day, we receive the Word of God through uniquely appointed readings, psalms, hymns, and prayers. This week we will pray the Office of Matins. The following guide will help you to prepare to hear and sing the Propers, i.e. the varied texts and hymns for this week.
Prepare for The Sunday of the Deaf-Mute (09/08)
Within the liturgy for each Lord’s day, we receive the Word of God through uniquely appointed readings, psalms, hymns, and prayers. This week we will pray the Divine Service Setting Four. The following guide will help you to prepare to hear and sing the Propers, i.e. the varied texts and hymns for this week.
Prepare for The Sunday of the Pharisee and the Publican (09/01)
Within the liturgy for each Lord’s day, we receive the Word of God through uniquely appointed readings, psalms, hymns, and prayers. This week we will pray the Office of Matins. The following guide will help you to prepare to hear and sing the Propers, i.e. the varied texts and hymns for this week.
Prepare for The Sunday of the Cleansing of the Temple (08/25)
Within the liturgy for each Lord’s day, we receive the Word of God through uniquely appointed readings, psalms, hymns, and prayers. This week we will pray the Divine Service Setting Four. The following guide will help you to prepare to hear and sing the Propers, i.e. the varied texts and hymns for this week.
Lutheran Catechesis at St. John
Catechesis is much more comprehensive than mere education. This life is lived by faith in Christ as we go about our daily tasks as husbands, wives, fathers, mothers, children, neighbors, and workers of every kind. Living the Christian faith is not merely an "internal thing"; it has authentic "external things" by which it is known and sustained. It is about a real faith that is fed and nurtured through preaching and sacraments in real places of worship. It is lived out in the real world where there is real sin and real sorrow, but real forgiveness and consolation through the Gospel of our dear Lord Jesus Christ. This is what catechesis is all about. All this and more is meant by the word of Jesus: “Make disciples of all nations; baptizing them ... teaching them ...; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
Prepare for the Sunday of the Unjust Steward (08/18)
Within the liturgy for each Lord’s day, we receive the Word of God through uniquely appointed readings, psalms, hymns, and prayers. This week we will pray the Office of Matins. The following guide will help you to prepare to hear and sing the Propers, i.e. the varied texts and hymns for this week.
Prepare for The Sunday of the Good and Bad Trees (08/11)
Within the liturgy for each Lord’s day, we receive the Word of God through uniquely appointed readings, psalms, hymns, and prayers. This week we will pray the Divine Service Setting Four. The following guide will help you to prepare to hear and sing the Propers, i.e. the varied texts and hymns for this week.
Prepare for The Sunday of the Feeding of the 4,000 (08/04)
O God, whose never-failing providence orders all things both in heaven and earth, we humbly implore You to put away from us all hurtful things and to give us those things that are profitable for us; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
Prepare for The Sunday of Brotherly Love (07/28)
Within the liturgy for each Lord’s day, we receive the Word of God through uniquely appointed readings, psalms, hymns, and prayers. This week we will pray the Divine Service Setting Four. The following guide will help you to prepare to hear and sing the Propers, i.e. the varied texts and hymns for this week.
Prepare for the Sunday of the Miraculous Catch of Fish (07/21)
O God, You have prepared for those who love You good things that surpass all understanding. Pour into our hearts such love towards You that we, loving You above all things, may obtain Your promises, which exceed all that we can desire; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
Prepare for The Sunday of Fatherly Mercy (07/14)
Within the liturgy for each Lord’s day, we receive the Word of God through uniquely appointed readings, psalms, hymns, and prayers. This week we will pray the Divine Service Setting Four (audio of this liturgy). The following guide will help you to prepare to hear and sing the Propers, i.e. the varied texts and hymns for this week.
The Sunday of the Lost Sheep & Lost Coin (07/07)
O God, the Protector of all who trust in You, without whom nothing is strong and nothing is holy, multiply Your mercy on us that, with You as our ruler and guide, we may so pass through things temporal that we lose not the things eternal; through Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
Dependence or Independence
So, it is for those in the Church. We too have “a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence.” For, indeed, the Triune God has promised that “everyone who calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved.” (Joel 2:32; Rom. 10:13). He who is Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier gives us His abiding care and protection through all the battles and storms of this life, and He promises to carry us in the ark of His Church into the safe harbor of heaven.
