08/28/2026
“So when I wish to have a joyful birthday or name-day celebration, I will remember Your blessed feast on Green [Maundy] Thursday, when You instituted the Holy Supper and made Your Testament (Matt. 26:26-29), and take my place at Your royal table with a devout, repentant heart, and rejoice in Your Name. I am wholly satisfied by the royal food of Your Body and drink with joy of the royal cup that You filled and poured for me with the wine of Your Blood. This is my happiest day of the year, for this is Your Testament. In it You made righteousness for my soul. When I return from Your Table, I am bold, “like a fire-breathing lion before whom the devil must cringe in terror,” as Chrysostom says. For by the righteousness that You made in this Testament, all the unrighteousness in my conscience is ended. Here I am truly released from my sins, truly certain of heaven, and truly a partaker of Your benefits. O Lord Jesus, what You have ordained is laudable and delightful, yet help me to magnify Your ordinance. For Your Name is Jesus, my “Savior;” You well know what avails for salvation. Help me to drink often of Your cup, that You may be my Christ, that I may enjoy Your royal protection, that I may take comfort in Your priestly intercession, that I may be taught and guided by Your Spirit. Whoever despises the royal chalice of Your Blood or casts it out of the Supper is not Your disciple but the devil’s pupil. Whoever can bear Your command on his conscience by neglecting the Holy Supper can surely load his heart with more. O Lord Jesus, I will be a guest at Your Table often, in remembrance of You (1 Cor. 11:24-25), yea, in support of my own comfort and good. Sustain me in the true faith until my end, that at last I may also drink from Your Cup of joy in heavenly blessedness. Amen.”
-Valerious Herberger, The Great Works of God, Parts Three and Four, translated by Matthew Carver, published by Concordia Publishing House, 2011. pg. 386-387.