A translation from the original Wendish by Rev. Dr. Elmer M. Hohle of Rev. Jan Kilian’s liturgical Collects for the Epistle and the Gospel for the Lutheran church’s ecclesiastical observance on October 31.
It has been a longstanding wish of Pastor Hohle that he be granted permission to pray this prayer in St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Serbin in a worship service before he dies. May he be granted this wish. To God be the glory.
ON THE FESTIVAL OF THE REFORMATION
Collect for the Epistle
Pastor: Let us pray; I shall build My church,
Response (by congregation): And the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
Pastor: Let us pray to God:
Lord God, heavenly Father, in Your Word You have revealed Yourself to us that You have set our Lord Jesus Christ upon the throne to judge the antichrist as the man of sin. And, You also restored to life the child that was dead. You then also overcame this evil source so that finally Your godly servant [Tr. note: a.k.a. Luther] with his brilliant mind revived and renewed the church. So, to You be all the glory. By Your Word You overcame the opposition to Your kingdom. And, it was by Your might and power that the opportunity was provided for us to hear Your voice. We thank You so much that You through the voice of this Your servant Luther at the same time also severed us from the fallen antichrist and led us out from the kingdom of evil. And, we petition You, grant us the protection of Your wisdom. Protect us also from our cozy, convenient, crooked ways by guiding us away from not preparing ourselves against falling away from the actual truth and lamely clinging to the words from Your Spirit’s mouth. For it is they that spread the message of the Gospel from His Book. Unto You by Whom we have the life to come through Your Son Jesus Christ now be all the glory forever. Grant this through Your Son Jesus Christ, Amen.
Collect for the Gospel.
Pastor: Let us pray; Fear not, you little flock,
Response: For Your Father is with you, to you He gives the kingdom.
Pastor: Let us pray:
We give thanks to You, our gracious God and Father, that You reconciled us to You by having mercy upon us, and that You through the blessed patriarch Luther You brought us to the light of Your holiness. Your blessed Word pronounces us just and cleansed by its proclamation. And above all else, You give to us wisdom and knowledge to guard against idolatry and to be faithful. And, we plead with You to grant us good health. Reign in us through Your Holy Spirit so that we uphold in its truth the Book of the Good News. With worshipful adoration we come to You for life. And bestow upon us the comfort of a blessed end and salvation at our death. Through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord. Amen.
Summons to Pray
Prayer for the communicant
Pastor: Respond to our prayer with Your kind mercy that is new every morning, to embrace our need for absolution, and bring us to Your blessed Table.
We pray: God, You are rich in mercy to us. Bestow upon us all the gift of Your Holy Spirit so that we do what is pleasing to Your will. Thus may we also as worthy guests approach to be filled with Your fullness. And, let no one partake of this Holy Supper to his judgment, or through unrepentant and evil deeds receive the body and blood of our Lord to his condemnation. Grant that we may seize by faith and cherish Your assurance that You forgive our sins, comfort our conscience, and let us be grounded and established by Your Spirit to generously partake of Your fullness. And, grant us open eyes and ears so that we walk on the new path of Your way as You bring us to daily repentance. Thus You lighten our burdens and love us. Provide us faith and godliness and all that pertains to increasing in them. At the same time from henceforth keep us in the true faith; guide our souls to see Your salvation and the good Lord at our life’s end. Grant this to us for Jesus sake. Amen.
(Copyright by translator, the Rev. Dr. Elmer M. Hohle, for future publication as the dedicatory tribute to Jan Kilian in the translator’s translation of Vol. I of Scholae Pietatis by Johann Gerhard. Publisher: CENTER FOR THE STUDY OF LUTHERAN ORTHODOXY, Malone, TX.)
(Permission granted for the use of the above by Texas District LC—MS congregations for celebrating its 100th Anniversary as a District, in memory of the Kilian-led migration of the Wends to Serbin, Texas)
(Used here with permission of Rev. Dr. Elmer Hohle. To God alone be the glory.)