Household Liturgy
June 10, 2008
I have the pleasure to eat regularly with a family from church who begin their weekly Sabbath meal delightfully with a Sabbath liturgy consisting of a toast, a little catechism, blessings for the family and a prayer. For no particular reason, here is a short liturgy with a bit of an Anglican flavour.
Catechism
1. What is the fourth commandment?
Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labour, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God.
2. How is the Sabbath day to be kept holy?
On it you shall not do any work, you or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates.
3. Why is the Sabbath day to be kept holy?
For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
4. Why else is the Sabbath day to be kept holy?
You shall remember that you were a slave and the Lord your God brought you out with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day.
5. Why do Christians keep the Sabbath on the first day of the week?
On the first day of the week Jesus rose again from the dead, rescuing us from slavery to sin and death and resting from his work of new creation.
Responses
The Lord is gracious and merciful
Slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love
The Lord is good to all
And his mercy is over all that he has made
The eyes of all look to you
And you give them their food in due season
You open your hand
You satisfy the desire of every living thing
(Psalm 145.8-9, 15-16)
Collect
O God who causes grass to grow for the livestock and plants for man to cultivate, that he may bring forth food from the earth and wine to gladden his heart, oil to make his face shine and bread to strengthen his heart, we who believe and know the truth receive this food with thanksgiving, for everything created by you is good, and is made holy by your word and prayer, through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, the living bread who came down from heaven, and gave himself for the life of the world. Amen
June 10, 2008 at 1:43 pm
Very nice. Very nice indeed.
June 10, 2008 at 1:48 pm
Great stuff!
June 10, 2008 at 1:58 pm
[...] Liturgy Household Liturgy « Ad Trinitatem __________________ Name: Richard Church: Church of England, [...]
June 11, 2008 at 9:37 am
I like this. But your collect addresses God (second person) - and you make this obvious by employing the vocative - and the ensuing verb is in the third person. Your punctuation is shaky and you use exclusive language.
Recast:
O God, you cause grass to grow for the livestock and plants for us to cultivate, that we may bring forth food from the earth and wine to gladden our heart, oil to make our faces shine and bread to strengthen our hearts: we, who believe and know the truth, receive this food with thanksgiving, for everything created by you is good, and is made holy by your word and prayer, through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, the living bread who came down from heaven, and gave himself for the life of the world. Amen.
I particularly like your responses.
June 11, 2008 at 11:23 am
Thank you. You make a fair point about the verb. I don’t really care about the exclusive language: the author of Psalm 104 seemed to have no problem with it.
June 13, 2008 at 4:07 pm
I like that a lot!