Deus Misereatur

  The Illustrated Westminster Shorter Catechism There's an ancient Christian practice picked up from the past. It's meant to help kids learn the basics quickly, and in a way that's easy to recall. But it's also intended to shape young minds along the path of learning how to reason. This old practice is called the catechetical method, because it uses a catechism. What's a catechism? Hold tight and I'll explain in the next paragraph. But I mention this because very recently Andrew Green, Saško Nezamutdinov, and Ben Preston have pulled together an updated-language version of the 17th Century Westminster Shorter Catechism. And it's an illustrated version, with beautiful displays by Ira Minof. The 129-page glossy hardback has large print, easy on the eyes, and covers all 107 questions and answers. A catechism is a systematic program of teaching, by using a question to which the student answers with a set, or programmed, reply. It's just like when you say to t...

  Almighty God, you have taught us not to think of ourselves only, but also for the wants and needs of others. We pray for the many burdened and oppressed we know who have been crushed and had their purposes and dreams overthrown; for the many who are afflicted by poverty, worn down and worn thin by disease, illness, and ailment; for the many who are weary and heavy laden, in gloom and misery, and those suffering for righteousness’ sake (…). Help them in the ways that are most fitting and suitable to their need that they all may rest in you. O Lord, hear our prayer.   Lord of all righteousness, whose ways are right, whose plan is for “human flourishing” – which can only come by flourishing in your wise ways instead of trailing off into the ways of our out-of-order world. Father, look upon our country, upon the different generations who have different ways of decoding and deciphering our present society; upon the educational institutions that often see themselves as morally an...