Readings

May 3: [Elisabeth Cruciger, Poet and Hymnographer, 1535]

The Collect of the Day

Elisabeth Cruciger

Pour out your Spirit upon all of your sons and daughters, Almighty God, that like your servant Elisabeth Cruciger our lips may praise you, our lives may bless you, and our worship may give you glory; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Elisabeth Cruciger

Pour out thy Spirit upon all of thy sons and daughters, Almighty God, that like thy servant Elisabeth Cruciger our lips may praise thee, our lives may bless thee, and our worship may give thee glory; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Elisabeth Cruciger was a friend and coworker of Martin Luther, and the first female hymn writer of the Protestant Reformation. Elisabeth entered monastic life as a young woman, but through books that were smuggled into the monastery she became convinced of the teachings of the Protestant Reformation and left the convent for Wittenberg. She would eventually marry Caspar Cruciger, who was a professor of theology.

Elisabeth embarked on an active ministry as a hymn writer, producing a number of compositions that helped to teach the Christian faith to laypeople. According to one account, she once dreamed she was standing in the pulpit of the Wittenberg church preaching. When she told Caspar this, he replied that whenever the church sang one of her hymns, she was indeed preaching, just as much as if she had spoken the words from the pulpit. She died when she was in her mid-thirties.

Elisabeth’s hymn “Lord Christ, God’s Only Dear Son” was translated into English by Miles Coverdale, and was one of the most popular hymns used by Anglicans in the sixteenth century. It is still included in most Lutheran hymnals, and is #309 in Evangelical Lutheran Worship, the current hymnal of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

The following is the English translation of her hymn translated by Anglican priest Arthur Tozer Rusell in 1850:

1. The only Son from heaven, foretold by ancient seers, by God the Father given, in human form appears. No sphere his light confining, no star so brightly shining, As he, our Morningstar.

2. Oh, times of God appointed, Oh bright and holy morn! He comes, the king anointed, the Christ, the virgin-born, Grim death to vanquish for us, to open heav’n before us And bring us life again.

3. Awaken, Lord, our spirit to know and love you more, In faith to stand unshaken, in spirit to adore, That we, through this world moving, each glimpse of heaven proving, May reap is fullness there.

4. O Father, here before you with God the Holy Ghost, And Jesus we adore you, O pride of angel host: Before you mortals lowly cry: “Holy, holy, holy, O blessed Trinity!”

Lessons and Psalm

First Lesson

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Psalm

1Give judgment for me, O Lord, for I have lived with integrity; *I have trusted in the Lord and have not faltered.

2Test me, O Lord, and try me; *examine my heart and my mind.

3For your love is before my eyes; *I have walked faithfully with you.

4I have not sat with the worthless, *nor do I consort with the deceitful.

5I have hated the company of evildoers; *I will not sit down with the wicked.

6I will wash my hands in innocence, O Lord, *that I may go in procession round your altar,

7Singing aloud a song of thanksgiving *and recounting all your wonderful deeds.

8Lord, I love the house in which you dwell *and the place where your glory abides.

9Do not sweep me away with sinners, *nor my life with those who thirst for blood,

10Whose hands are full of evil plots, *and their right hand full of bribes.

11As for me, I will live with integrity; *redeem me, O Lord, and have pity on me.

12My foot stands on level ground; *in the full assembly I will bless the Lord.

Gospel

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Luke 1:46–55

46 And Mary said, “My soul magnifies the Lord, 47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, 48 for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant. Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed; 49 for the Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name. 50 His mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation. 51 He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. 52 He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; 53 he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty. 54 He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, 55 according to the promise he made to our ancestors, to Abraham and to his descendants forever.”

Joel 2:23–29

23 O children of Zion, be glad and rejoice in the Lord your God; for he has given the early rain for your vindication, he has poured down for you abundant rain, the early and the later rain, as before. 24 The threshing floors shall be full of grain, the vats shall overflow with wine and oil. 25 I will repay you for the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the hopper, the destroyer, and the cutter, my great army, which I sent against you. 26 You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied, and praise the name of the Lord your God, who has dealt wondrously with you. And my people shall never again be put to shame. 27 You shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I, the Lord, am your God and there is no other. And my people shall never again be put to shame. 28 Then afterward I will pour out my spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions. 29 Even on the male and female slaves, in those days, I will pour out my spirit.