Friday, December 31, 2010

Happy New Year!

Here I sit at my computer drinking port and eating chocolate, waiting for the new year so I can blog!  No, just joking. The chocolate and the port go well together, though.

I did not get to go to a New Year's Eve service, which bothers me, because it's one of my favorite services of the year. I love it.  It's still Christmas and the tree is up, yet, we think about our year past and ahead, such a profound and pensive time.

I could blow my trumpet out the front door with a hymn like we did in Germany.  I am not sure what the neighbors would say.

Alsot, at the moment, I am looking at some things Howard said and sent:

Is this the Luther biography he likes?
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1598563335/ref=ord_cart_shr?ie=UTF8&m=ATVPDKIKX0DER
Comments say that the print is really small but the book is fantastic.  I'm tempted but small print turns me off these days advancing age.

Here are some other things Howard sent me that I want to deal with:

Back in the 90′s, I had the privilege of attending the CURE debate in Pasadena on this, which you can still get hold of:
http://www.amazon.com/Still-Divides-Protestant-Catholic-Debate/dp/B000CAUM0Q
I also was honored to attend a two-part lecture around a year later in Cambridge, England, by the late Dr Robert Preus:
http://www.amazon.com/Justification-Rome-Robert-D-Preus/dp/057004264X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1293617463&sr=1-1
Much of the key material in these papers and debates is also covered well in the book, “Roman Catholicism – Evangelical Protestants analyze what divides and unites us:
http://www.amazon.com/Roman-Catholicism-Evangelical-Protestants-Analyze/dp/0802471811/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1293617587&sr=1-2
Luther’s stand against Rome, especially on matters of faith and salvation, are, sadly, just as key today to the whole issue as they have always been.Hope that helps.

And then he wrote this for me, quoting Pope Benedict, Ratzinger:

“For nearly half a century, the church was split into two or three obedience’s that ex-communicated one another, so that every catholic lived under ex-communication by one pope or another and in the last analysis, no one could say with certainty which one had right on his side. The church no longer offered certainty of salvation. She had become questionable in her whole objective form. The true church, the true pledge of salvation HAD TO BE SOUGHT OUTSIDE the institution.It is against this back-drop of a profoundly shaken ecclesiastical consciousness that we are to understand that Luther, in the conflict between his search for salvation and the tradition of the church ultimately came to experience the church not as the guarantor but as the adversary of salvation”.
Historical assessment of the reason for the reformation by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger
(now Pope Benedict XVI!).

That's a pretty cool quote!  Sad for the church but kind of insightful of the pope.

He wrote this to me because I wanted to discuss this link of a lecture at Concordia College with RC Bishop Bolen of Saskatoon.

http://www.livestream.com/concordialutheranseminary/video?clipId=pla_4ad51c69-86d7-4d3c-b502-3113f33d18b6

That's enough links for one evening.

I am going to sing and pray something because I did not get to go to church.  The Lord bless us and keep us in the new year.  I look forward to seeing him some day face to face.  Come Lord Jesus come and you, gentle reader be there, too.  He is our entire salvation.  Here is a prayer snitched from Larry at "The Sacrament is the Gospel"-blog.

“Oh Lord even though I were John the Baptist, I could not give you an account of my life and deeds. I consider that I am devout and your servant, not because of my life and works but because you have promised to be and you continually are merciful to me through Jesus Christ. For when I am unholy he is holy, when I am not a servant of God he is God’s servant, when I have cares and fears he is free of all cares and fear. Therefore I will come in his stead and be glad that in and through him I am holy. O’ my God, I am sure that I am holy in your sight and a servant of yours, not through myself, for I feel the guilt of my sin, but through Jesus Christ who has pardoned all my sin and who has settled all for me.”
–Prayer by Martin Luther

Wonderful!  So it is.  Thanks be to God!

Monday, December 27, 2010

current state of non-blogging/ Christian History Project

On Facebook I mentioned my grave disappointment with the handling of Luther in the latest installment of the Christian History Project, Volume 9, "A Century of Giants".  I am still reading the book, but find that throughout we are getting something of a character assassination which I find deeply disturbing on many levels. I have protested to Ted Byfield in my payment for the book and alerted him to my intention to critique what has been done in the book.  I could probably use help and anyone who is interested could give a hand. 

Current state of non-blogging/ Immaculate Conception of Mary continued

There has been some commenting on James Swan's blog on the sermon on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary.  In this last post he quotes me quite a bit.  If anyone has any corrections or feedback, I would welcome your comments.  There are now several posts along those lines.  The discussion could be more fruitful.  The entire sermon by Luther really needs to be read with some measure of intelligence.

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

No blogging until the New Year.

Dear Friends:  there will be an extended break in broadcasting from this blog, at least until the new year, God willing that we shall see it.  Blessed Advent and Christmas season to you, in the meantime.  Visit me, if you would like to. That would be grand!  Phone number the same as always.

Gitte.

Monday, November 22, 2010

Luther's Sermon on the conception of Mary in several translations and versions.

Luther's sermon on Mary's conception, immaculate or otherwise,  is also found in Latin here.
It begins on p. 360, which is about 3/4 into the book, if you are scrolling down.

(I notice that my old Latin suffices to analyze some of it, especially now that I've read the sermon about  six times in German and in Matthew Carver's English translation--which should be published soon, we think.  Having grown up in Bavaria, Latin was taught to me by sisters of the order of Mary Ward, ironically.)

There is also one more translation, which has been found, a kind of "triglotta", as Matthew Carver calls, it in German, Danish and English. Find it here.  We have the sermon now in four languages!

See also my other post on the subject, with more relevant links and some discussion in the comments.

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

What do you think of this?

Hello Gary (and others):  what do you think of this?  :)



Once we had a big student rally at the University of Alberta and we all got together at Rutherford and sang  Christmas Carols.  It was a great thing to do in this basically hostile environment.  Very heady.

The commercial connection with Macy's, here, does bother me, but I am glad the people look so happy singing it.

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Of Conferences and Books

The Love Life 5 Conference was fabulous.  Our speakers were excellent.  I'd like to write about it some time.  I am probably in charge of uploading videos and audio files, which at the moment I haven't a clue how to do.

I also want to report that between the conference and my congregation I was able to place (sell, give away, lend out) 11 books, that weekend:  three Giertz'es ("To Live with Christ"), two "Faith Alone. 365 days with Luther", two "Evening and Morning" CD's, one book on "Joy" by Harrison, one Veith's "Spirituality of the Cross", and one "Lutheran Book of Prayer" and one of the new book with study guide of the "Large Catechism".   I have not yet been able to place a hymnal, of which I have a stack now, being on sale and all that, which surprises me.  Someone asked me about the "Treasury of Daily Prayer" and I talked it up;  she will buy three on-line and give them as Christmas presents.  (Great idea!)

(I pray all will find blessed use.)

Just one more thing.  In terms of books and people knowing about them, owning them and using them--when I was in Washington, the congregation I visited had this little case in its fellowship hall.  Another great idea!

Sunday, November 7, 2010

All Saints Day/ Baptism Birthday



Today we celebrated All Saints' Day and sang a number of tremendous hymns to Gary's uplifting organ playing.  Indeed, through Christ's precious blood we are made his saints.  Our robes have been made white through the blood of the lamb. Through joys and tribulations we make pilgrimage through this life until we reach our real home.  

I post this picture because it is the time of year when I was baptized (and that is me, there, arrayed in white), and because of the dear saints there surrounding me.  My parents and all my grandparents are there;  and they have all gone on a long time ago.  Each one of them took time to teach me the Bible, prayers and songs, beautiful things from the hymnbook, and sing and pray with me.  You knew it was the most precious thing to each of them. 

There I am this little thing brought by such witnesses and given such great gifts.  My grandpa Wilhelm, especially, prayed for all of us without ceasing and I still feel that much good has come my way from his intercession.  How much to be grateful for!

Thursday, November 4, 2010

Love Life Pro-Life Conference at Concordia University College of Alberta, this Saturday

Just one more time to advertise the Love Life Conference this coming Saturday Nov. 6th.

(I will try to have all the right words in this post so that the search engine come to this post and not to others, as I noticed happened while checking the Statcounter.)

This Saturday, November 6th, beginning at 9:00 AM until about 3:30 PM with panel discussion to round out the day, and lunch provided, we will gather for the 5th Annual Love Life Conference at Concordia University College of Alberta, in Edmonton.  The series of conferences are presented on a pro-life basis grounded in scripture.  The sponsors include the Lutheran Church of Canada, Concordia Lutheran Seminary, Concordia University College of Alberta, and Lutherans for Life, Canada.

This year's theme is:  "Getting Real About Sexuality" and "Therefore honor God with your bodies". 

All the information can be found at LoveLifeEdmonton.com and a video has been posted to Youtube for further information.  Please view these for more comprehensive information on the speakers and topics.

On demand listening and viewing is planned for individuals who cannot attend or would like to use the materials in another setting.

Monday, November 1, 2010

The conception of the virgin Mary/Luther

I will be very brief, because this week is very busy.  I should go on Sendepause.

Just one thing, if you would like to see some work James Swan did on refuting some Roman Catholic's misuse of one of Luther's sermons, repeated from book to book, and spread far and wide,  please go see this current post.  I spent quite a bit of time reading the sermon in question in various versions this weekend, and translated some portions of it for James, summarized the rest, and made some comments, pointed out some inconsistencies.  This is a great pleasure and honor for me to do for him to help advance his Luther apologetics work.

Here are two versions of the entire sermon in German.  One version has summary that the other one is lacking.  The other one has an ending that was removed after that particular edition.  You may read and comment if you can and like.  When I have time, I might translate it all here.  Maybe next week.  Ask me questions if you like.  Also see my comment on James Swan's post.

All Luther was really trying to say:  Stop speculating.  Stick with what you have in scripture.  Fight your original sin.  Be born again by baptism.  Struggle with the old Adam daily.  Don't bother spending time on praising Mary, listen to the word, instead!

Version one:  p. 282 and onward.
Version two (different ending in dispute), p. 43 onward.


See also this new post, which lists the Latin version and the Danish version.
Also James Swan has updated his post.


This week is Love Live Conference Edmonton!  See you there! 
lovelifeedmonton.com

Sunday, October 31, 2010

Saturday, October 30, 2010

Apostasy

A rock video on false teaching, which just kind of grabbed me.  From a link on Facebook.  It's a little harder than I like, but that is the point.

Makes me think about how talking about doctrine is not just quibbeling. Because you lose Christ if you don't have it right, that's why.

Friday, October 29, 2010

Trip Report 4


The remaining memorial sites in that area:  Korean and Lincoln--for Gerhardt. 

I don't know anything at all about the Korean war I realized just now.  On the civil war we have an excellent video set which features a lot of reading and poetry from the time, all kinds of excerpts, in case any one wants to borrow it. 

The loss of life in all these conflicts is just staggering.  In my little brain, I keep saying though, we have so many young people lost nowadays to road accidents, drugs and suicide, irresponsible behaviors of myriad kinds, we are in a different kind of war.  My neighbor and I added up the young people lost to accidents and suicides in our neighborhood of 40 houses and the farms a mile or two around (rural area is in miles because of the quartersections), we added up 10 people in the last five years or so.  Just as staggering, also, to me.

Also a picture of my lunch soaking in the fall sun and a picture of my lunch partner, are found at the end.




















 

Thursday, October 28, 2010

My Uncle

My Uncle Gotthold died in Germany today. 

He was my father's youngest sister's husband and a good friend of our family.  His children, of course, are my cousins and they have been keeping in touch with us emigres. 

He was always very good to us and often provided accommodation and intelligent conversation for us on our visits.  He loved to talk politics and sometimes religion.  He had a understated, yet sometimes "wicked" wit, smiling gently at his own smart jokes, and loved to lecture on exalted topics. He was a pastor's son, studied to be a preacher, became a career soldier and then social worker for ex-convicts. He had a great sensitivity.  He and my aunt visited us often in Canada. 

I will be missing the funeral.  I  miss all the funerals of the extended family.  I missed the funerals of every single one of my grandparents.  This is a bad part of living so far away.  Our thoughts and prayers are certainly with the clan, as well as gratitude for the many warm favors I have enjoyed from him and my aunt.  His Savior he knew, I am assured by my cousin.  Lord be with my dear ones.

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Trip Report 3

We are going to jump straight to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.  It was pretty much as expected to me, as we often see it on television.  The two most moving things to me were the items left at the bottom of the lists of fallen soldiers.  People leave lamiated sheets with information about the fallen with their pictures and vital statistics.  It makes it very clear that these soldiers were other people's brothers, uncles, etc. and are still missed, cherished and honored.  These sheets are attached to little floral bouquets.

From watching the people I noticed a young couple the most, she black, he white, who were looking up a name in the book that contained all the names of the fallen in the order in which it was left.  They did everything very thoughtfully, hanging on to each other.  It seemed a little different to me, since they looked so young.

The age does not matter in grief.  The losses are permanent.  We live with them.  We don't get over them.  They become part of our landscape.  Like the amputees without their limbs, which they can't ever get back, the invisible losses are an invisible amputation.  That imagery gets used all the time.  Because it fits.

In terms of Vietnam, it of course, touches on our childhoods also, as we can remember the daily cruel newscasts and images.  Who can forget the people hanging on to the last helicopters leaving Saigon, for example?  These images are etched onto humanity's collective psyche.







Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Trip Report 2

My friend Gerhardt wants more trip report.  So I think I will show the war memorial sites, which I saw on my last day in the city.  I cannot now believe that I left them for last.  It was a glorious day, however-- too beautiful to be squandered on excellent museums even.  To shorten our northern winter we Edmontonians will absorb, inhale, consume any beautiful warm day to the max.




I walked fromt he naval circle metro station straight west along the south lawn of the White House. 

(The picture below is from another day, actually taken in the evening, looking north from the Washington memorial.  See the people straining to look up at it.  I think it is almost 200 m tall.)







Ok, we are approaching the World War II Memorial, which was very impressive.  Each State had it's own individual memorial with a victor's wreath.  There were the bigger wreaths hanging in larger structures to indicate the victories in the Atlantic and the Pacific.  There were present many visitors including veterans and amputees and families having their picture taken by the wreath for their own respective state.  All quite moving to see.

When I was there, I was very grateful that America indeed had finally finished off this horrid war.  All Germans surely were praying for that.  Too bad it took so long to take down Hitler and his army.  My poor father-in-law was stuck in this war, drafted pratically as a boy.  Both Martin's and my families became refugees and displaced people.  This is how we all ended up in North America, really.

I grew up listening to all the horror stories which made big impressions on growing minds, and now some of us feel we are the decendants of those who lived and we have to tell our stories, too.  Hence, some of my Silesia posts.

Anyhow, the WW II memorial was quite grandious and so it deserves to be.






(Looking from the reflecting pond in front of the Lincoln Museum.  Under the US flag flies a little flag for those missing in action.  The thought makes me almost weep.  This flag flies everywhere; also in the Capitol Rotunda.)





All of which makes me think of those presently serving in the military, including my new Canadian in-law's.
















Garry, I think that's enough for today!  Just two memorials.  I took a lot of pictures because my husband was not with me.  He does indeed feel now that he has seen quite a lot.




Sunday, October 24, 2010

Trip Report 1

As a few people know, I've recently enjoyed a trip to Washington DC to visit a friend and go sight-seeing.  I will just tell you a little about it, today.  The friend I travelled to see was Myrtle, a fellow Lutheran blogger.  She was a kind hostess, providing shelter, love, directions, transportation and cooking.  Many thanks to her for all her provisions!

Below find the picture she took of me enjoying her home-made quesadilla.  She thought that I could eat the entire plate, but we ended up sharing it.

(For the life of me, I cannot get this picture to go right side up.  You will have to turn your head. -- Look at that, I'm turning heads.)




The other picture I will show you today is the one my husband liked a lot.  In any case, he started laughing out loud. It is taken just north of the White House.  I am not sure what to make of it.  I kind of feel sorry for Barak Obama.  The times are very bad with all this huge new government debt.



And below find one of my favorite pictures.  This one, of course, is taken from the Word War II Memorial towards the Lincoln Memorial. The city is quite spectacularly beautiful and absolutely worth a visit.






Love Life 5, Edmonton, Conference, Promotional video

Please, also remember to check the website:  LoveLifeEdmonton.com.

AND please pre-register this week so we can plan the lunch!

Saturday, October 9, 2010

Sendepause

Traveling.  Reading the Book of Concord.  Moving...


My Dad sometime in the 70's to visit one of the firms he was representing.

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Where have we been?


In case anyone is wondering what happened to me, I am doing quite well.  My husband and I have been on a short trip to the mountains; this is a picture from Bragg Creek area of Alberta's foothills.   I am trying to catch up a year's worth of bookkeeping;  I've read a Chesterton Nightmare on the trip;  I've ramped up an exercise regimen; the Love Life Conference needs some attention; and most of all I am worried about a friend.

That's all for today.

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Studies by President Bugbee.

"Jesus, Lord of My Time?  Reflections on a Gift and its Sacred Use."
It's always time well spent to listen to Rev. Bugbee.

https://sites.google.com/site/stpeterslc/presidentbugbeeseminar

More good books


Here is something else we can order. On SPECIAL til the end of the month.