Restoring the Great Litany

Lent is coming up, a time in which the Litany is in many places sung frequently in our Lutheran services. In the Lutheran Church--Missouri Synod, the Litany (or "Great Litany") is normally sung or said with the pastor speaking several paragraphs of text before the congregation gives a short response. This is the way it's set forth in Lutheran Service Book, pp. 288-89. When the musical version is used (see LSB Altar Book), the pastor usually sings his parts with several cadences (the change in notes at the end of each line) before the congregation sings their response.

In an article back in 2017 I showed that this is actually a deformation of what a litany is. A litany is essentially responsive prayer, with short petitions by the liturgist followed each time by a short response of the congregation. When it is recited this way, there is a beautiful liturgical rhythm between pastor and people, one calling out and the other answering in a regular rhythm--almost like breathing. When the litany is sung, the pastor's cadence should signal to the people that it is time for their response.

So back in 2017 I showed historically and practically that in order to restore the litany to its purpose as responsive prayer and as easily sung by heart (without needing to read from a book), the people's responses need to be repeated after each semicolon in the pastor's part, or at least at the end of each paragraph. 

Sometimes pastors I know have resisted having the congregation repeat their response at the end of each paragraph, claiming that it will unduly lengthen the Litany and thus be burdensome to the people. However, I have timed the Litany with and without responses at the end of each paragraph. The difference is only 32 seconds when spoken, and 45 seconds when sung. Surely this is not too great a burden that would prevent us from putting the words of prayer in the mouths of the people more often, and allowing the musical cadence to signal the response of the people.

(When I say "responses at the end of each paragraph," what I mean is: "Liturgist. From all sin, from all error, from all evil; Congregation. Good Lord, deliver us. L. From the crafts and assaults of the devil; from sudden and evil death; C. Good Lord, deliver us. L. From pestilence and famine; from war and bloodshed; from sedition and from rebellion; C. Good Lord, deliver us." Etc.

When I say "responses after each semicolon," what I mean is: "L. From all sin, from all error, from all evil; C. Good Lord, deliver us. L. From the crafts and assaults of the devil; C. Good Lord, deliver us. L. from sudden and evil death; C. Good Lord, deliver us. L. From pestilence and famine; C. Good Lord, deliver us. L. from war and bloodshed; C. Good Lord, deliver us. L. from sedition and from rebellion; C. Good Lord, deliver us." Etc.)

So before Lent, I invite you to read my 2017 article and restore the Great Litany in your congregation.

Memory Tricks for Learning Greek

At this time of year we at Concordia Theological Seminary Fort Wayne are blessed to have new Greek students. These “Greekies” have a big task in front of them: by the end of the summer, learn all Greek grammar and vocabulary needed for reading the Greek New Testament. It is our “theological boot camp,” and it requires memorizing a huge amount of data.

How to do it? Some students try to memorize by rote repetition: repeating and reviewing over and over until it sinks in (or doesn’t!).

But there is a better way. You need tricks to make this easier. By using memory tricks, you will learn the content faster, which means you can learn more of it in the same amount of time. This will reduce stress and make your skills better, which will lead to you being a better student and theologian.

You have to be able to see each word in your mind visually. My tricks are as follows.

1. Word substitution. Substitute English words you know and can see for Greek words that you don’t know. For example, ἡ κεφαλή (he kephale, meaning “the head”) sounds like “coffee latte.” So there you’ve made a word substitution.

2. The Link. To link two concepts together, you have to form a very visual, memorable picture in your mind that includes both of them. For example, picture an enormous glass of coffee latte balancing on your head. Now you have an easy way to remember that ἡ κεφαλή means "the head." As for the fact that it’s a feminine noun, try making the coffee cup a bright pink in your picture.

3. A visual Greek alphabet. Sometimes you have to memorize word endings, and the differences come down to single letters. Here you can make a mental picture for each letter of the Greek alphabet. Here’s what I use. Some of them might not work for you; feel free to make your own. (The same thing can be done for the English alphabet, too!)

Greek Alphabet

α - Alpha Romeo (car)

β - Beta carotene (carrot)

γ - Gamma rays (Hulk)

δ - Delta airlines

ε - Pepsi

ζ - Zeta scanner (in the library)

η - Ate

θ - Thesis

ι - Yoda

κ - Cap

λ - Lamb

μ - Moo (cow)

ν - News

ξ - Excite

ο - Oh my crayon

π - Pie

ρ - Row

σ - Sick ma

τ - Taoism (yin-yang symbol)

υ - Up salon

φ - Wi-Fi

χ - Chi (Dr. Strange's mentor, using chi power)

ψ - Sci-fi

ω - Make-up

 

4. Numeral sounds and picture. Finally, there are times when you’ll need to memorize a number. You do this by changing each numeral 0-9 into a specific consonant sound. Then you can make words out of the numbers. This website explains how it works.

God’s blessings as you use these tricks to learn New Testament Greek!

Lutheran Latin Guide to the Hebrew Old Testament: Reineccius' Janua

Christian Reineccius, Janua Hebraeae Linguae Veteris Testamenti: in qua Totius Codicis Hebraei Vocabula una cum radicibus & Grammatica vocum difficiliorum analysi comparent (Lipsiae: Sumpt. Haered. Lanckisianorum, 1704).

Back in college (Concordia University Nebraska) I was blessed to learn Hebrew well from Dr. Mark Meehl, but as time goes on, you have to either use your language abilities or lose them! Hebrew is still there in the back of my mind somewhere, but since I work with Luther's German and Johann Gerhard's Latin nearly every day, that's much easier. 

To get back into reading the Hebrew Old Testament, I've found this book to be very helpful. It goes through the text verse by verse and gives the definition and form of every difficult Hebrew word, while also indicating the roots of most words. If your Latin is better than your Hebrew, and if you want a good free resource, try this!

Altenburg Bible

My friend Matthew Carver asked me yesterday if there was a good Lutheran resource that has a devotion or summary of each chapter of the Bible. Indeed there is! The Altenburger Bibelwerk is a special Bible that has prefaces for each chapter of the Bible written by Franz Vierling (1538-1611) and prayers at the end of each chapter written by Luther's assistant Veit Dietrich (1506-1549). Carver found an online copy from the 1700s that also has short poems before and after each chapter written by David von Schweinitz (1600-1667). In the 19th c. this was republished in America (I think) for use by LCMS Lutherans. There's a nice review of it in Der Lutheraner. We had a copy of this at the CPH library, and I perused it from time to time, but now I have a PDF on my tablet, and you can have a PDF for free, too. There are other editions of it, but this is the one I have. Enjoy!

Altenburger Bibelwerk:

Biblia, Das ist: Die gantze Heilige Schrift, Alten und Neuen Testaments / Nach der deutschen Ubersetzung D. Martini Lutheri, Nebst Dessen Geist-reichen Vorreden und Rand-Glossen; Jmgleichen mit M. Viti Dieterichs Summarien, Und Francisci Vierlings Vorreden, Dann Mit des Herrn David von Schweinitz Historisch- und Moralischen Versen über jedes Capitul der Heil. Schrift, erläutert: Samt vielen locis parallelis, oder gleich-stimmigen Schrift-Stellen, Und Einem Dreyfachen Register (Braunschweig: Meyer, 1722).

Review in Der Lutheraner.