Being able to repeat the explanation to the Creed is a good way to tell others what Jesus is all about and how one receives salvation in Christ. What is the benefit of learning the Catechism by heart? There is a great deal of benefit!

The Catechism is learned by regular and repeated reading, discussion and prayer. The head of the house should lead the rest of the family in speaking the various parts of the Catechism and so, slowly but surely, learning the Catechism by heart.

One week, for instance, the family can work on the First Commandment and its meaning, or the First Article of the Creed and its meaning, and so forth. Learning the Catechism by heart is vital for teaching the Catechism. Perhaps every word will not make sense at first. That is not a problem. Just keep working on learning them. Understanding will come in time, but learning the words must begin right away. We are making a serious mistake if we wait to have children memorize the Catechism until they can understand every word.

We need to learn to speak the language of our faith before we can understand it. Families might be surprised at how quickly children can memorize the words of the Catechism and then learn to understand them. Martin Luther was very concerned that this be done.

You may purchase copies of the Small Catechism from Concordia Publishing House by calling their toll-free number, What is the Small Catechism? When the Heavenly Father gives us His Holy Spirit, so that we believe His holy Word by His grace and live godly lives here in this age and there in eternal life. But we pray in this request that it be accomplished among us as well. It also happens when God strengthens us by faith and by His Word and keeps us living by them faithfully until the end of our lives.

This is His will, good and full of grace. Truly, God gives daily bread to evil people, even without our prayer. But we pray in this request that He will help us realize this and receive our daily bread with thanksgiving. Everything that nourishes our body and meets its needs, such as: Food, drink, clothing, shoes, house, yard, fields, cattle, money, possessions, a devout spouse, devout children, devout employees, devout and faithful rulers, good government, good weather, peace, health, discipline, honor, good friends, faithful neighbors and other things like these.

We pray in this request that our Heavenly Father will neither pay attention to our sins nor refuse requests such as these because of our sins and because we are neither worthy nor deserve the things for which we pray. Yet He wants to give them all to us by His grace, because many times each day we sin and truly deserve only punishment.

Because God does this, we will, of course, want to forgive from our hearts and willingly do good to those who sin against us. God tempts no one, of course, but we pray in this request that God will protect us and save us, so that the Devil, the world, and our bodily desires will neither deceive us nor seduce us into heresy, despair or other serious shame or vice, and so that we will win and be victorious in the end, even if they attack us.

We pray in this request, as a summary, that our Father in Heaven will save us from every kind of evil that threatens body, soul, property and honor. We pray that when at last our final hour has come, He will grant us a blessed death, and, in His grace, bring us to Himself from this valley of tears.

That I should be certain that such prayers are acceptable to the Father in Heaven and will be granted, that He Himself has commanded us to pray in this way and that He promises to answer us. This means: Yes, yes it will happen this way. Go into all the world, teaching all heathen nations, and baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Paul said to Titus in the third chapter: Through this bath of rebirth and renewal of the Holy Spirit, which He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ, our Savior, that we, justified by the same grace are made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

This is a faithful saying. It means that the old Adam in us should be drowned by daily sorrow and repentance, and die with all sins and evil lusts, and, in turn, a new person daily come forth and rise from death again.

He will live forever before God in righteousness and purity. Paul says to the Romans in chapter six: We are buried with Christ through Baptism into death, so that, in the same way Christ is risen from the dead by the glory of the Father, thus also must we walk in a new life. First, a person admits his sin Second, a person receives absolution or forgiveness from the confessor, as if from God Himself, without doubting it, but believing firmly that his sins are forgiven by God in Heaven through it.

Consider here your place in life according to the Ten Commandments. Are you a father? A mother? A son? A daughter?

A husband? A wife? A servant? Martin Luther The 95 Theses. Topics Reformation anniversary: Luther The Apostles' Creed. The Barmen Declaration. The Confession of Faith of Augsburg. The Heidelberg Catechism.