Correspondence Lessons.

Waiapu Church Gazette, Volume XVI, Issue 4, 1 October 1925, Page 2

Correspondence Lessons.

fry fi. ■ gju- i. i I often wonder how many boys and girls read these lessons, and how many do the exercises and send them to their vicars. Now I want everyone ■who reads this to drop nie; a- postcard (it only costs a halfpenny) and answer these three questions '.-^(l) Do you read the Correspondence lessons? (2) Do you send your answers to be corrected? (3) Are the lessons too hard? or too easy? (5) What is your name, age and address? Will you do this? . It would be so nice to know that the two pages of the "Gazette" taken up by the lessons each" month are not being wasted. Lesson 32. "COMMON" PRAYER. In our last lesson I told you that we must learn to love our Heavenly Father, who loves us, and that we cannot learn to love Him unless we know Him and talk to Him. Talking to God is called " Prayer." Sometimes we pray to God all by ourselves, at home or in a church, but God likes us to meet together and help one another in prayer. Jesus promised that if even only two or three meet together to pray He will be with them and hear them and answer their prayers. Of course if we want to pray together we must know what we are going to say and then say it together. That is why we have a "Book of Common Prayer" — prayers to be said "in common" or "all together." Jesus used to go to the Jews ' services in the synagogues and in the. Temple and join in the "Common" prayers there; His disciples used to go, too.. One day His disciples asked Him . to teach them a special prayer for Christians, and He taught them the one we call ' ' The Lord 's Prayer. 7 ' Of course you know it— it begins "Our Father, which are in Heaven." Whenever we pray either by ourselves or at public services we always say the best prayer of all, "Our Father." There are lots of ways of praying tog-ether. Sometimes we read a prayer silently whilst the minister says it aloud, and we say "Amen" at the. end; sometimes we all say the prayer aloud together; sometimes the minister says half the prayer and we say the other half; for example: — (Minister) : 0 Lord, ;she'w Thy mercy upon us. (People) : And grant us Thy salvation. There are some prayers that we generally sing; hymns and psalms are prayers of this kind.. Some prayers we say standing, and some we say kneeling down. The Litany (find it in your prayer book) is a sort of prayer for people to sing while they are marching in a procession. In. the Prayer Book we have prayers of all kinds. Some of them, such as $9 peajms, ar* old prayers ttat the

Jews used to sayy or sing, hundreds of years before. Jesus came. Jesus used to join;;;in them when He went to the Je#s* services, and Christians have used them ever since. Besides the Lord's Prayer, there are a great many prayers in our prayer book that Christians have used ever since the Church began:; one of them begins ■"• Lift up your: hearts' s—you.5 — you. will -find it in the Communion service. Most of the prayers we use > arc very old; some of them have been used by saints and martyrs for nearly two thousand years; they are used in nearly all the languages of the world by millions of people, Anglicans, Roman Catholics and Greek Catholics. When you are in church and join in saying the old prayers think of all the millions of people, some black, some yellow, some white and some brown who are all saying the same "common" prayers to God. Always think of their meaning when you are saying or singing them; that is more important than just saying the words. As an exercise, find the prayer in the Holy Communion service beginning "Lift up your hearts" and write it all out doAvn to the words "Glory be to Thee, 0. Lord most High." The last part of this prayer is used not only by men on earth but by the angels in Heaven. Lesson 33. CHILDREN'S PRIVATE PRAYERS. When you. say your prayers in the morning and in the evening always pray some prayers in your own words, but say also some such prayers as ' these : — MORNING PRAYERS. In the name of the Father, and of the Son and the Holy Ghost. Amen. I laid me down and slept land rose up again, for the Lord sustained me. . Almighty Father, I thank Thee for Thy care over me during the past night ; keep both my soul and my body this day from all harm, make me a good child. Teach me to love my Saviour Jesus Christ and always to do His will. Help me to obey my parents, teachers and all who are set over me. Help me to shun bad company, to speak the truth, to be honest in thought, word and deed, and to keep my soul' and body clean and pure; for Jesus sake. Amen. Bless, 0 Lord, my father and mother, all my relations and friends, and also any who may have done me harm. Send Thy Holy Angels to care for us, to protect us and to guide us. Bless Thy whole Church both on earth and in Paradise, and bring us all to our Home in Heaven; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. Our Father, which art in Heaven, .etc. •. . . .■ ■• • ■•■/..- -• May God the Father, God the Son and Qod the Holy Ghpst bless, pre-

serve and keep me now "and for evermore. Amen. / FOR OLDER CHILDREN, St. Patrick's Hymn. * Christ be with me',. Christ within, me, Christ behind me, Christ before me, Christ beside me y Christ to win. me, Christ to comfort and restore me. Christ beneath me, Christ above me, Christ in quiet, ;;Christ in danger, Christ in hearts of all that love. me, Christ in mouth of friendand stranger. EVENING PRAYERS. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen. 0 merciful Father I thank Thee for taking eare of me this day, for my food, for my health, for all things I have learned, for all the kindness I have received. I confess to Thee that I have left undone things I should have done, especially . . . . and I have done things I ought not to have done, especially .... Make me truly sorry ; give me a clean heart and help me not to sin again. Grant this 0 Father, for the sake of Thy dear Son Jesus Christ, my -Saviour and Redeemer. Amen. Visit, 0 Lord, this chouse in which we live and drive far from it all snares of the enemy; let Thy Holy Angels dwell here and preserve us in peace, and let Thy blessing be upon us, now and for evermore. Save .us, 0 Lord, waking and guard us.sleeping, that awake we may be with Christ, and in peace may take our rest. Our Father, which art in heaven. God Almighty bless, preserve, and keep us this night and for evermore. Amen. When you get into bed say : I will lay me down in peace and take my rest, for it is Thou Lord only that makest me dwell in safety. A beautiful hymn to say at night is, "God that madest earth and heaven." Hymns A. and M. 26. Exercise : Write out the prayer that mother has taught you to say and send it to the Vicar. Lesson 34. THE LORD'S PRAYER. I told you that "Our Father,'' is the best, prayer for all. Jesus gave it to us to say, and also to show us how we should make prayers for ourselves. Let us think about it for a little while. It has four parts : — 1. (a) Father, (b.) which art in Heaven. 2. (a) Hallowed be Thy Name, (b) Thy Kingdom come, (c) Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. 3. (a) Give us this day our daily bread, (b) and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against us, (c) and lead us not into temptation, (d) but deliver us. from evil, „. . , ■ • -

4. For Thine is the Kingdom, the power arid the glory, for ever and ever. '■■■■■■ ' •■ ■ .■■■.■■ The first part shows that when we pray we should begin by saying God's name. He has lots of names. We call Him " Almighty God, " ' 'Merciful God," ''Everlasting God," "Everliving God," "Lord," and so on. We begin our prayers with one or two of these names. It would not be reverent to begin a prayer to God without first thinking' who, and how great He is. When you speak to anyone above you you say Father, Teacher, Sir, Your Worship, My Lord (if it is a bishop) or some other title suitable to the person you are speaking to. So when we speak to God we begin with His title. Then we pray for God's Kingdom, His Church, the conversion of the world. Then we pray for ourselves and others, "Give us this day, etc." Then we offer our praise to God, "For Thine is the Kingdom, etc." Now, I want you to look at your Catechism. The Catechism explains the meaning of the Lord's Prayer m the answer, "I desire my Lord God, our Heavenly Father." "Our Father" looks really simpler and easier than the "desire," but, just because it looks so simple, we are likely to lose a great deal of its meaning unless we study it carefully. The "desire" helps us to do this. 1. (a) I desire my Lord God, (b) Our Heavenly Father, Who is the giver of all goodness, 2. To send His grace unto me and to all people, that we may (a) worship Him, (b) serve Him, and (c) obey Him as we ought to do.

3. And I pray unto God (a) that He will send us all things that be needful both for our souls and bodies ; (b) and that He will be merciful unto us and forgive us our sins; (c) and that it will please Him to save and defend us in all dangers, ghostly and bodily; (d) and that He will keep us from all sin and wickedness, and from our ghostly enemy, and from everlasting death. Older children will be able to compare the Lord's Prayer and the "desire" (as I have divided them up with figures, and letters), and they will see how the "desire" explains the "Our Father." Some of the words are a little bit hard. " Grace" means "God's help"; "Ghostly" means "spiritual" — ghostly dangers are dangers to our souls or spirits; our "ghostly enemy" is the wicked spirit— our spiritual enemy—the devil. "Ghost" means "breath" or "spirit." Lesson 35. SAINTS. October 28th is the feast of St. Simon, and St. Jude, and November

Ist is the feast of All Saints. •- I want to leave the lesson's on the last part of the Catechism till November so I will finish up this month with a lesson about the Saints. " Saints " means ' ' Holy ones " ; . that is, people who are set apart for God. The Holy Bible is the Book that tells us specially about God; the Holy Table is the table m Church called the " Lord's Table" or "Altar"; the Holy Communion is the feast m which we have communion with God. So holy people, or* saints, are people who are set apart for God 's service. Now all of us, who have been baptised, were set apart m Holy Baptism to be children of God, soldiers and servants of ' God. We are all " called to be Saints." A " Saint" is not a long-faced, sad, mournful person who never laughs or plays games or is unmanly. A real Saint is the happiest, most noble and manly person you could ever meet. He is" very happy because He loves God and is "strong m the Lord of Hosts and m His mighty power. " A true Saint is never miserable or gloomy. The true Christian is always happy and generally full of fun, because He knows God loves him and cares for him. Although every Christian is called to be a Saint, and really has been set apart > by God to be a Saint, there are a great many baptised people who do not act like Saints at all. Such people belong to God but they have deserted God's service and become selfish servants of themselves, or wicked slaves of the devil. We keep a good many Saints' days m the Church — you will find a list m the Calendar. The days of Saints who were companions of our Lord or Apostles are. kept with more honor than the days of other Saints. We call the first "Red letter days" and the others "Black letter days," because m nicely printed prayer books, the feasts of the great Saints are marked m red letters. But on November Ist we keep a greaj red letter day m memory of all good Christians who have died and gone to be with Christ. On that day we can specially remember good people we have ourselves known or of whom we have heard; we can thank God for their good examples. Well, now, where are the Saints whohave died and left the world? God has. not told us much about it, but there are some things we know and some things we have to imagine. 1. The Saints are m God's presence. So are we m a way, because God is present everywhere) and specially present when we pray and at Holy Communion; but the Saints are m God's presence m such a way that they feel and know God is near them more clearly than we can.

2. The Saints are yefry happy, because they have left sin behind them and are growing more and more into the likeness of God. 3. The Saint* m Paradise lore the Saints on daith; and if they love all whom Christ loves they must love even us sinners; and if they love us I am sure they pray for us. 4. The Saints m Paradise wotahip God; the Book of Revelation is a vision- given -by God to St. John. In this vision he saw the Saints worshipping Jesus on the throne m Heaven and offering incense m golden censers. Poets who have written hymns about the Saints and about Heaven have given us some very beautiful pictures of what they think Heaven must be like. It- is good to think often about the Saints, because they are our friends; they love us because we too are. children of God as they are. Every time we sing the "Te Deum" we ask God, /IMake us.to.be numbere.d with Thy Saints m Glory Everlasting.?' , y .-...: , „. Exercise: Write out a list of. twelve Saints' Days and the dates of them. (See the ' ' Calendar at the begin* ning of the Prayer Book).