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1. Peter 2,21-25. Misericordias Domini

1. Peter 2,21-25            3020

Misericordias Domini 037 

Cletus, Bishop of Rome 89 

26. April 2020

1. O Jesus, the Gift of grace, let us use Your gifts properly, so that we may reap the sweetest fruits from them, our hearts be aglow with Your love and our knowledge ever increasing. Amen. (Starck 87 ¶ 2) 

2. »For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you may follow in His steps. He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in His mouth. When He was reviled, He did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten, but continued entrusting Himself to Him who judges justly. He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, so that we may die to sin and live to righteousness. By His wounds you have been healed. For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Bishop of your lives.« 

3. Christ is risen! He has risen indeed. Hallelujah! Last week we heard how on the evening of Easter Sunday Jesus showed His hands and side to His disciples. Today we hear Jesus proclaim: »I am the Good Shepherd who lays down His life for His sheep.« 

4. The Apostle Peter tells us in his 1. Epistle that Jesus committed no sin neither was found deceit in His mouth [Isaiah 53,9]. The apostle is quoting the Prophet Isaiah, who teaches that Messiah will have no sin. The apostle then writes a beautiful prose reflecting on Christ’s work for us:

A. Christ bore our sins in His body on the tree, 

B. so that we may die to sin and live it to righteousness, 

C. His wounds have healed us (Isaiah 53,5) and 

D. we were straying but have been returned to the Shepherd and Bishop of our souls. 

The apostle is connecting Isaiah 53 to Jesus. Hear what Isaiah says: »Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was pierced for our transgressions; He was crushed for our iniquities; upon Him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with His wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so He opened not His mouth. And they made His grave with the wicked and with a rich man in His death, although He had done no violence, and there was no deceit in His mouth. Therefore I will divide Him a portion with the many, and He shall divide the spoil with the strong, because He poured out His soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet He bore the sin of everyone, and makes intercession for the transgressors.« (Isaiah 53,4-7.9.12). Isaiah 53 is one of the 4 Suffering Servant songs in the Prophet (42,1-4; 49,1-6; 50,4-7; 52,13-53,12). To be the Messianic Good Shepherd is to be the Suffering Servant. Jesus has the authority to lay down His life that He may take it up again. This command He had received from His Father (John 10,18). 

5. As our Good Shepherd, Jesus is also the Door (John 10,9). If anyone enters by Jesus, then they will be saved and will enter and leave and find good pasture (John 10,6). With Jesus as our Shepherd, we shall not want; He restores our soul, and leads us in paths of righteousness (Psalm 23,1.3). Even though we walk in the valley of the shadow of death, we will fear no evil, for Jesus is with us; His rod and staff comfort us (Psalm 23,4). During a time of plague and pestilence, Jesus is by our side. He uses such tribulations for His good. At times such as we find ourselves in, Jesus uses it to draw people to repentance because He allows Himself to be entreated according to His mercy (Starck 380,2). We lean on Jesus even more to provide the necessities of life. We contemplate that there are spiritual matters more important to the temporal matters we attend to day after day. We see that Jesus is merciful and working through the many vocations to ease, treat and cure such pandemics.

6. We entreat Jesus to grant us His grace and life, for He is our only Mediator and Advocate. Have mercy, have mercy upon us, O God of mercy! Be gracious to us, and spare us, good Lord! Be gracious to us; help us, Jesus, our God! Have mercy upon the poor and afflicted who have been seized with this violent pestilence, who must suffer hunger and grief, who are destitute of all nursing care and forsaken by others. Lead them to the knowledge of Your grace. Aid them with Your comfort and send the Holy Spirit to witness to our spirit that we are Your Father’s children. Protect our country, and we shall say: Christ has done great things for us. Yes, you can deliver all who draw near to You (Starck 381-82,3). Draw sinners to repentance, comfort the repentant with Your absolution, restore to health those around the world who suffer and give faith to all who do not now confess You, O Christ Jesus.  

7. As the world’s Savior, Jesus will do it. He has born the redemption price for sin, died and risen again in victory. Though we stray, Jesus seeks us out and returns us to His fold. Let us follow Jesus’ example: seek to do His will and live upright lives; if need be, suffering so that our neighbor may be blessed; and trusting ourselves completely to His Providence. May the Holy Spirit work in us and through us these good fruits of faith by the power of the gospel.  Amen.

8. Let us pray. O Lord Jesus, our Good Shepherd; we have heard Your voice in the gospel and believe in You to be our Savior, keep us always grounded in Your Word and hearing Your voice, so that we may be certain that our eternal salvation lies only in You, our crucified and risen Lord.  Amen. 

To God alone be the Glory 

Soli Deo Gloria

✠

All Scriptural quotations are translations done by The Rev. Peter A. Bauernfeind using the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, 4. Edition © 1990 by the Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart, and the Novum Testamentum Graece, Nestle-Aland 28. Revised Edition © 2012 by Deutsch Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart. 

ELKB. Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Bayern. www.bayern-evangelisch.de/www/index.php. Copyright © 2019 Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Bayern. 

VELKD. Vereinigte Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche Deutschlands. www.velkd.de. Copyright © 2020 Vereinigte Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche Deutschlands. 

Starck, Johann. Starck’s Prayer Book. Copyright © 2009 Concordia Publishing House. 

Misericordias Domini Divine Service III video

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Misericordias Domini Propers

 Misericordias Domini 26. April 2020

Introit (Psalm 23; 33,5b.12a) 

The earth is full of the steadfast love of the Lord, Hallelujah. 

Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, Hallelujah. 

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. 

He maketh me to lie down in green pastures. He leadeth me beside the still waters. 

He restoreth my soul. He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for His Name’s sake. 

Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, 

for Thou art with me; Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me. 

Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies; 

Thou anointest my head with oil; 

my cup runneth over. 

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, 

and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever. 

Glory be to the Father and to the Son

and to the Holy Spirit;

as it was in the beginning,

is now, and will be forever.  Amen.

The earth is full of the steadfast love of the Lord, Hallelujah. 

Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, Hallelujah. 

Collect of the Day

O God, through the humiliation of Your Son You raised up the fallen world. Grant to Your faithful people, rescued from the peril of everlasting death, perpetual gladness and eternal joys; through Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.  Amen. 

Ezekiel 34,1-2.10-16.31 

¹The word of the Lord reached me: ²„Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel; prophesy, and say to them, even to the shepherds, Thus says the Lord who is the Lord: Ah, shepherds of Israel who have been feeding yourselves! Should not shepherds feed the sheep? ¹⁰Thus says the Lord who is the Lord, Behold, I am against the shepherds, and I will require My sheep at their hand and put a stop to their feeding the sheep. No longer will the shepherds feed themselves. I will rescue My sheep from their mouths, so that they may not be food for them. 

¹¹„For thus says the Lord who is the Lord: Behold, I, I Myself will search for My sheep and will seek them out. ¹²As a shepherd seeks out his flock when he is among his sheep that have been scattered, so will I seek out My sheep, and I will rescue them from all places where they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness. ¹³And I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries, and will bring them into their own land. And I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, by the ravines, and in all the inhabited places of the country. ¹⁴I will feed them with good pasture, and on the mountain heights of Israel will be their grazing land. There they will lie down in good grazing land, and on rich pasture they will feed on the mountains of Israel. ¹⁵I Myself will be the shepherd of My sheep, and I Myself will make them lie down, declares the Lord who is the Lord. ¹⁶I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak, and the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them in justice. 

³¹„And you are My sheep, human sheep of My pasture, and I am your God, declares the Lord who is the Lord.“ 

P This is the Word of the Lord.

C Thanks be to God. 

Verse (John 10,11.27-28a) 

Alleluia. I am the Good Shepherd. My sheep hear My Voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. Alleluia. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. Alleluia. 

1. Peter 2,21-25

²¹For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in His steps. ²²He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in His mouth. ²³When He was reviled, He did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten, but continued entrusting Himself to Him who judges justly. ²⁴He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By His wounds you have been healed. ²⁵For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Bishop of your lives. 

P This is the Word of the Lord.

C Thanks be to God. 

John 10,11-16 

¹¹„I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep. ¹²He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf advancing and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. ¹³He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. ¹⁴I am the Good Shepherd. I know My own and My own know Me, ¹⁵just as the Father knows Me and I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep. ¹⁶And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to My voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.“ 

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Tolkien's eucatastrophe

The birth of Christ is the eucatastrophe of Man's history. The Resurrection is the eucatastrophe of the story of the Incarnation. (from JRR Tolkien's 1939 lecture given at the University of St Andrews entitled “On Fairy Stories”)

“I coined the word ‘eucatastrophe’: the sudden happy turn in a story which pierces you with a joy that brings tears (which I argued it is the highest function of fairy-stories to produce). And I was there led to the view that it produces its peculiar effect because it is a sudden glimpse of Truth, your whole nature chained in material cause and effect, the chain of death, feels a sudden relief as if a major limb out of joint had suddenly snapped back. It perceives – if the story has literary ‘truth’ on the second plane (….) – that this is indeed how things really do work in the Great World for which our nature is made. And I concluded by saying that the Resurrection was the greatest ‘eucatastrophe’ possible in the greatest Fairy Story – and produces that essential emotion: Christian joy which produces tears because it is qualitatively so like sorrow, because it comes from those places where Joy and Sorrow are at one, reconciled, as selfishness and altruism are lost in Love.” (Letters of JRR Tolkien, Letter 89)

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Isaiah 40,26-31. Quasimodogeniti

Isaiah 40,26-31        2920 

Quasimodogeniti 036  

Timon, one of the 7 deacons at Jerusalem. Acts 6,5

Olavus Petri, Pastor and Reformer in Sweden, ✠ 1552

Laurentius Petri, Reformer, Archbishop of Uppsala, Sweden, ✠ 1573 

19. April 2020

1. Help us, our Risen Savior, so that we may keep what we have and that no one may take from us a crown that we even now possess in believing hope. Let nothing, neither death nor life, neither angels, principalities nor powers, ever separate us from Your love, fellowship and our union with You.  Amen. (Starck 87 ¶ 1)

2. »Lift up your eyes on high and behold: who created these? He who brings forth their cosmic host by number, He will call them all by name; by the great glory and in might of strength of His might, not one is missing. Why should you continually say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel: „My way is concealed from the Lord, and my right is disregarded by my God“? Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the Everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not hunger or grow weary; His intelligence is unsearchable. He gives strength to those hungering, and to those grieving He removes their sadness. For young men crave and will grow weary, and elect men will be without strength; but those waiting upon the Lord will renew their strength; they mount up with wings like eagles; they will run and will not grow weary; they will walk and will not hunger.« 

3. Last week we heard the gospel: Jesus is risen! Alleluia! Today we hear how on the evening of Easter Sunday Jesus showed His disciples His hands and side. 

4. The disciples were hiding; they had gathered together and locked the door. They were afraid that the same Jews, the Sanhedrin, that ruling council of Jerusalem, would be looking for them, arrest them and have an executed as followers of Jesus. 

5. Jesus appeared to them to remove their fear. The Prophet Isaiah speaks about this. The Lord give power to the faint and the weak. The disciples certainly fit that description. After Jesus had been arrested early Friday morning, they had scattered in fear. Only John, Mary Magdalene and Jesus’ mother drew courage to behold Jesus crucified. 

6. John’s account makes it absolutely clear: The risen Jesus has a physical body. The disciples do not see a ghost, a spirit, a delusion or a vision; they behold a risen Jesus with a physical body: the marks of His crucifixion are still visible on His hands and side. Thomas, however, was not there,  and he demands to see Jesus’ hands and side. He will not believe the testimony of his fellow apostles. Thomas wants to see and hear Jesus with his own eyes and ears. A week later Thomas himself saw and heard the risen Jesus; he confessed his faith in the risen Christ. The words of Isaiah speak to Thomas: »They who wait for Yahweh renew their strength.« 

7. We are not Thomas, nor are we apostles. It is not our prerogative to demand to see the risen Jesus with our eyes or hear Him with our ears. The Scriptures tell us the last person to have that experience was Paul, several years after Jesus’ ascension, and it occurred because Jesus called him to be an apostle; to the apostles it is necessary for their gospel testimony that they had seen and heard the risen Jesus. 

8. Jesus told Thomas: »Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe« (John 20,29). You and I are numbered among the Christians spanning 2000 years who believe in Jesus on account of the testimony of someone else. Our faith is an apostolic faith because it is grounded upon the preaching of the apostles with Christ as the Cornerstone. The testimony of the apostles is found in the pages of the 27 books of the New Testament. The apostles who had heard and had seen Jesus physically risen proclaim to us that which they heard and saw. Only 3 of those 27 books are written by men who were not apostles: Mark, Luke and Acts. Mark was a disciple of the Apostle Peter and his Gospel is based on what he heard Peter preach in Rome. Luke was a disciple of the Apostle Paul and his Gospel and the book of Acts are largely based on his discussions with other disciples who were with Jesus, and what Paul preached on his missionary journeys. The New Testament contains those things which the apostles want us to know and believe; its central theme is the suffering, crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus. 

9. The Holy Spirit uses these written words of the apostles to create and strengthen faith in Jesus. The Holy Spirit also uses the Sacraments Jesus has given His Church, Baptism and the Lord’s Supper, to create and sustain faith. The Apostle Paul proclaims: »Faith comes from hearing the word of Christ« (Romans 10,17). The Holy Spirit uses the proclaimed words of the apostles, evangelists, bishops and pastors, even fellow Christians and parents, to create faith. Jesus told His apostles to: »Make disciples of all nations by baptizing them and teaching them« (Matthew 28,19-20). Yahweh has given us a rich and diverse witness of Christ Jesus that has been passed down to us generation after generation, century after century; one of our Christian duties is to do the same for those who come after us. 

10. The gospel we believe is simply this: 

A. Jesus Christ crucified for our sins,

B. He was buried

C. and He was raised on the 3. day (1. Corinthians 15,3-4). 

By His death and resurrection, Jesus has swallowed up Death in His victory and removed the sting of Death. »The sting of Death is sin, and the power of Sin is the law.« God gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ over Death, Sin and the law (1. Corinthians 15,54-57). Jesus gives us strength; we mount up with wings like eagles; we run and are not weary; we walk and do not faint. Jesus has conquered and He blesses us with both physical and spiritual endurance to overcome the trials and tribulations of this world. And if, like Thomas, you missed Jesus, or if you’re in despair, then fear not, for Jesus does not forsake you; He will seek you out again and find you; His Word and Sacraments will deliver to you the Jesus who was crucified and risen. Believe in Jesus; He will see you through it. 

9. Today we have heard that on the evening of Easter Sunday Jesus showed His disciples His hands and side. Next week we will hear Jesus proclaim: »I am the Good Shepherd who lay down His life for His sheep.«  Amen.

10. Let us pray. O Lord Jesus Christ, You do great things for us; focus our eyes and ears to Your risen body, so that we are comforted that You triump over sin, sickness, death and the grave.  Amen. 

To God alone be the Glory 

Gode ealdore sy se cyneþrymm

✠

All Scriptural quotations are translations done by The Rev. Peter A. Bauernfeind using the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, 4. Edition © 1990 by the Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart, and the Novum Testamentum Graece, Nestle-Aland 28. Revised Edition © 2012 by Deutsch Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart. 

ELKB. Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Bayern. www.bayern-evangelisch.de/www/index.php. Copyright © 2019 Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Bayern. 

VELKD. Vereinigte Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche Deutschlands. www.velkd.de. Copyright © 2020 Vereinigte Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche Deutschlands. 

Starck, Johann. Starck’s Prayer Book. Copyright © 2009 Concordia Publishing House. 

Quasimodogeniti Divine Service

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Quasimodogeniti Prpers and Lectionary

 Quasimodogeniti 19. April 2020

Introit (Psalm 116,3.8-9.12-13; 1. Peter 2,2) 

Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, Hallelujah, 

so that by it you may grow up to salvation, Hallelujah. 

The snares of death encompassed me; 

the pangs of the grave laid hold on me;

You have delivered my soul from death, 

my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling;

I will walk before the Lord 

in the land of the living.

What shall I render to the Lord 

for all His benefits to me?

I will lift up the cup of salvation 

and call on the Name of the Lord,

Glory be to the Father and to the Son

and to the Holy Spirit;

as it was in the beginning,

is now, and will be forever.  Amen.

Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, Hallelujah, 

so that by it you may grow up to salvation, Hallelujah. 

Collect of the Day 

O Almighty God, grant that we who have celebrated the Lord’s resurrection may by Your grace confess in our life and conversation that Jesus is Lord and God; through the same Jesus Christ, Your Son, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.  Amen. 

Isaiah 40,26-31 

²⁶Lift up your eyes on high and see: who created these? He who brings out their host by number, calling them all by name, by the greatness of His might, and because He is strong in power not one is missing. 

²⁷Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel: „My way is hidden from the Lord, and my right is disregarded by my God“? ²⁸Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the Everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; His understanding is unsearchable. ²⁹He gives power to the faint, and to Him who has no might He increases strength. ³⁰Even youths faint and are weary, and young men fall exhausted; ³¹but they who wait for the Lord renew their strength; they mount up with wings like eagles; they run and are not weary; they walk and do not faint.

P This is the Word of the Lord.

C Thanks be to God. 

Alleluia Verse

Alleluia! Alleluia. Christ is risen.! He is risen indeed. Alleluia!

1. Peter 1,3-9 

³Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to His great mercy, He has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, ⁴to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled and unfading, kept in heaven for you, ⁵who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. ⁶In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, ⁷so that the tested genuineness of your faith – more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire – may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. ⁸Though you have not seen Him, you love Him. Though you do not now see Him, you believe in Him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, ⁹obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your lives. 

P This is the Word of the Lord.

C Thanks be to God. 

John 20,19-31 

¹⁹On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus arrived and stood among them and said to them: „Peace be with you.“ ²⁰When He had said this, He showed them His hands and His side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. ²¹Jesus said to them again: „Peace be with you. As the Father has sent Me, even so I am sending you.“ ²²And when He had said this, He breathed on them and said to them: „Receive the Holy Spirit. ²³If you forgive the sins of anyone, they are forgiven; if you withhold forgiveness from anyone, it is withheld.“ 

²⁴Now Thomas, one of the Twelve, called the Twin, was not with them when Jesus arrived. ²⁵So the other disciples told him: „We have seen the Lord.“ But he said to them: „Unless I see in His hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into His side, I will never believe.“ ²⁶Eight days later, His disciples were inside again, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were locked, Jesus arrived and stood among them and said: „Peace be with you.“ ²⁷Then He said to Thomas: „Put your finger here, and see My hands; and put out your hand, and place it in My side. Do not disbelieve, but believe.“ ²⁸Thomas answered Him: „My Lord and my God!“ ²⁹Jesus said to him: „Have you believed because you have seen Me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.“ 

³⁰ Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; ³¹but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His Name.

Whitefriars Glsss brief history

Here is a little more information about Whitefriars Glass that is from the Boha Glass website 

James Powell & Sons, better known as Whitefriars Glass was the longest running glass house in Britain which started in the mid 18th century. The Old Glass House in Tudor Street dates back to 1740 but records date back to a small glassworks off Fleet Street in 1720.

Whitefriars Glass History: James Powell & Sons

James Powell was a wine merchant and entrepreneur, and a relative of the famous Scout Movement founder; Baden Powell. He bought the factory in 1834 for his three sons who had no experience in glass making.

They, by necessity, found their feet and began incorporating and improving on the new manufacturing processes and technologies emerging from the (by then 100 year old) Industrial Revolution.

One of their main products was mass produced decorative quarry glass which was moulded, printed with black detailing and stained yellow rather than hand-cut and painted. This was a lot cheaper to produce than stained glass and was often used in churches (later to be replaced with stained glass). In the hidden alcoves of Victorian churches you can often still see examples of this quarry glass.

Due to the boom in Victorian church building, they did very well and became leaders in the field. They were great innovators and patented many new manufacturing processes. This success led to them working closely with some of the leading architects and designers of the day, including Philip Webb who designed a range of glass vessels for William Morris that was made by Whitefriars. They became darlings of late Victorian fashion and created tableware inspired by ancient glass or copied from the great paintings hung in museums and art galleries around the World. 

James Humphries Hogan started work with the firm aged 15 in 1898. He designed some very important Cathedral windows, most notably those in the Lady Chapel of Liverpool Cathedral and St. Thomas Church, Fifth Avenue, NYC. As well as being a famous stained glass artist. Hogan also designed the stemmed glassware for use in British Embassies right around the World. 

Glass production pretty much halted at the outset of World War II and after the War, the firm struggled to regain profitability afterwards. The Festival of Britain in 1951 helped jump start the economy and the fortunes of Whitefriars who had been chosen to exhibit there. The factory changed its name to Whitefriars Glass in 1963 and began using the white friar logo. 

Success waned for Whitefriars in the seventies with the exception of the Glacier Range of 1972 and the rise of the millefiori paperweight in the late seventies (which they had been producing since the 1930s). Unfortunately, by the end of the seventies, with the fuel crisis and the recession, the factory was in financial trouble once again and it sadly closed in 1980. The factory was soon bulldozed to may way for housing developments and the ‘Whitefriars’ trademark was purchased by Scottish glass maker Caithness and is still used today for its paperweight range. The WhiteFriars archive is at the Museum of London. 

White Friar emblem

This is the White Friar that Whitefriars Glass was renowned for as their signature in their stained glass windows. This one is in the right lower corner of our Nativity Window.

Easter Thursday video

Easter Thursday devotional video

The Resurrection Window

The Resurrection Window

Left: Samson carrying off the Gates of Gaza (Judges 16,1-3).

Right: Jonah delivered from the belly of the fish (Jonah 2,10. 

Christ's descent into hell

Christ’s descent into hell

I. Definition of hell

Before we look at the actual phrase and what is means in the Church, we need to first define some terms. 

The Bible uses three words generally translated as hell by the English language: hades, gehenna and tartarus. 

»The term hades corresponds to Sheol (Footnote 1 The King James Version, translated hades as hell. The KJV seems to be the first time in English that hell is used for both hades and sheol.). Hades originally referred to the underworld and the abode of wicked spirits awaiting final judgment. Later usage linked hades with death, the grave or hell. When the two words, death and hades, are used together, hades means the grave. 

»In the Old Testament sheol is used in two senses: 1. the state or condition of physical death into which all people eventually pass, believers and unbelievers alike; as such it may be translated „grave“; and 2. the abode of the damned which is „hell,“ the place of nether (down, under) torment. In each appearance of sheol its context and description determine the meaning which should be attached to the particular passage under consideration. 

»The Septuagint uses hades to translate sheol, and thus hades carries the same two meanings in the Septuagint as it does in the Old Testament. 

»In the New Testament hades appears ten times, again signifying either the condition of death (Acts 2,31) or hell itself (Luke 16,23), but in the latter case „hell“ is specifically conceived of as a receptacle for the disembodied spirits of the damned, that is, the place of torment where the damned are consigned during the interval between their physical death and the final resurrection. Depending upon the meaning intended, hades is then translated with the term „grave“ or „hell,“ respectively. 

»In addition to the above, it must be mentioned that the concept of „hell“ is also the intended meaning of another Greek term: gehenna. When hell is referred to as the abode of the damned in body and spirit after the final resurrection and judgment, then that place of torture is designated as gehenna in the Greek (Luke 12,5). 

»Of significance is the fact that gehenna comes from the Hebrew Ge-Hinnom which means „Valley of Hinnom.“ This valley lay south of Jerusalem and was the city garbage dump where fires were always burning. Jesus compared hell to this valley by referring in His teaching to the „gehenna of fire“ (Matthew 5,22; 18,9). 

»Finally, in 2. Peter 2,4 tartarus is also used for hell. The Greeks used this word to refer to a place deep within the earth, a place far deeper than even hades itself, where the wicked are forever punished« (GWTN 540-1). 

Hades
Matthew 11,23; 12,40; 16,18
Luke 10,15; 16,23
Acts 2,27.31
1. Corinthians 15,55
Revelation 1,18; 6,8; 20,13 

Hades not mentioned, but the place is referred to
Romans 10,6-8
Ephesians 4,7-10
1. Peter 3,19-20
1. Peter 4,6

Gehenna
Matthew 5,22.29-30; 10,28; 18,9; 23,15.33
Mark 9,43.45.47
Luke 12,5
James 3,6 

Tartarus (fn. 2 Tartarus is only known in Hellenistic Jewish literature from the Greek text of 1. Enoch, dated to 400-200 BC. This states that God placed the Archangel Uriel „in charge of the world and of Tartarus“ (20,2). Tartarus is generally understood to be the place where 200 fallen Watchers (angels) are imprisoned. (Kelley Coblentz Bautch A Study of the Geography of 1 Enoch 17–19: „no One Has Seen what I Have Seen“ p134.))

2. Peter 2,4 

II. Christ descended into hell

Christ’s descent into hell (Descensus Christi ad Infernos; the harrowing of hell) refers to His triumphant descent into hell when He destroyed the power of hell and stripped the devil of his might. Although, hell is not mentioned by name in 1. Peter 3,18-20, it is these verses that seem to form the doctrine in the Creed „He descended into hell“. The Apostle Peter writes: »For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, so that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit, in which He went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, because they formerly did not obey, when God’s patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water.«
From these verses a number of Easter traditions and sermons have developed from the Early Church. Irenaeus (ad 180), Cyril of Jerusalem (ad 350) and Gregory of Nyssa (c. ad 383) all wrote on the topic: 

„The Lord descended into the regions beneath the earth, announcing there the gospel of His advent and of the forgiveness of sins conferred upon those who believe in Him“ (Irenaeus, Against Heresies, Book 4, Chap. 27, Para. 2). 

„For since the Lord went away into the midst of the shadow of death where the souls of the dead were, and afterwards arose in the body, and after the resurrection was taken up, it is clear that the souls also of His disciples, on account of which the Lord underwent these things, will go away into the place allotted them by God“ (Irenaeus, Against Heresies, Book 5, Chap. 31, Para. 2).

„[Christ] descended into the subterranean regions so that He might ransom from there the just David was there, and Samuel and all the Prophets; and John, the same who, through his messengers, said: ‘Are You the one who is to arrive, or shall we look for another?’ Would you not want Him to go down to free such men as these?“ (St. Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechetical Lectures 4,11) 

„God (the Son) did not impede death from separating His soul from His body according to the necessary order of nature, but has reunited them to one another in the resurrection, so that He Himself might be, in His person, the meeting point for death and life, by arresting in Himself the decomposition of nature produced by death and so becoming the source of reunion for the separated parts“ (St. Gregory of Nyssa, The Great Catechism 1). 

Holy Saturday Responsory:
Our Shepherd, the Source of the Water of Life, has died.
The sun was darkened when He passed away.
But now man’s captor is made captive.
— This is the day when our Savior broke through the gates of death.

He has destroyed the barricades of hell,
overthrown the sovereignty of the devil.
— This is the day when our Savior broke through the gates of death. 

Prayer
O Almighty, Ever-living God, whose Only-begotten Son descended to the realm of the dead, and rose from there to glory, grant that Your faithful people, who were buried with Him in Holy Baptism, may, by His resurrection, obtain eternal life.
(We make our prayer) through our Lord.
(Through Christ our Lord.)“