Remember

March 15, 2022

Dear friends,

The Sundays in Lent get Latin names like the Sundays in Advent:

________ Lent 1 – Invocabit – “When he calls to me, I will answer him” (Psalm 91:15a). ________ Lent 2 – Reminscere – “Remember your mercy, O LORD” (Psalm 25:6) ________ Lent 3 – Oculi – “My eyes are ever toward the LORD” (Psalm 25:15). ________ Lent 4 – Laetare – “Rejoice with Jerusalem” (Isaiah 66:10a, cf. Psalm 122). ________ Lent 5 – Judica – “Vindicate me, O God” (Psalm 43:1).

The names come from the first word of the antiphon from the Latin Introit. The antiphon is a text that is spoken or sung at the beginning and end of the Introit.

This past Sunday, the Introit made a beautiful appeal to God concerning his memory. “Remember your mercy, O LORD, and your steadfast love, for they have been from of old” (Ps. 25:6). “Remember not the sins of my youth or my transgressions” (Ps. 25:7).

Our own memories are weak, which does not mean that we simply cannot remember. It means we remember the wrong things. We remember our iniquities and our guilt, while we struggle to remember God’s mercy.

Praise God that in Christ he has forgotten our sins! They’ve been erased and their record destroyed on the cross. Meanwhile, our names have been written in God’s book of life and our lives bound up in the bundle of the living. He remembers us according to his mercy and love, which endure forever.

Draw near to the throne of God’s grace in his remembrance! That is, according to his memory and not your own, according to his righteousness and innocence and not according to your guilt, for the sake of Jesus Christ who died and rose for you!

The Introits are often just a selection of verses from a Psalm or other text, sometimes out of order. If you’d like a fruitful exercise, open up your Bibles and piece together the Introits for these 5 Sundays of Lent! Copy them by hand, and you’ll be surprised by the riches of meditating on God’s Word in this way! Note that the antiphon goes at both the beginning and the end of the Introit.

Invocabit: Ps. 91:1-2, 9-10, 13; antiphon: Ps. 91: 15-16 Reminscere: Ps. 25:1-2a, 7-8, 11; antiphon: Ps. 25:6, 2b, 22 Oculi: Ps. 25:1-2, 17-18, 20; antiphon: Ps. 25:15-16 Laetare: Ps. 122:1-2, 6, 8; antiphon: Isaiah 66:10a, 11a Judica: Ps. 43:3-5; antiphon: Ps. 43:1-2a

God bless and keep you,

Pr. Buchs

COMING EVENTS: Men’s Bible Study – Wednesday, March 16 @ 8pm Family Game Night – Saturday, March 19 @ 6-9pm