A Prayer for the Second Sunday after Trinity
Luke 14:15–24 / By Esaias Heidenreich
O faithful and righteous God, with what terrible ingratitude the greater horde of the human race receives Your temporal gifts, which You bestow on earth from Your gentle hand! How many think they may make and order their money, goods, clothing, and so on as they please, live all their days splendidly in joy, defile Your Word and name, neglect the most worthy Sacrament—together with prayer and thanksgiving—forget their poor neighbor, and leave them despised and oppressed in hunger, sickness, and affliction! They think little about how they are stewards and have received all temporal gifts for a purpose, and moreover, about how they are mortal, and they must concede their goods, together with their house, farm, and so on, to others, indeed, often to their greatest enemies. We beseech You: Grant that we may never be forgetful concerning Your Word, grace, and name, that we willingly take on the distress of the poor, gladly share with him according to Your command, and thus, under all temporal prosperity, goods, and gifts, we may strive for the eternal riches of Your glory, through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Redeemer. Amen.
Esaias Heidenreich, Betbüchlein (1572)
Brunswick Monogrammist, Parable of the Great Banquet (c. 1525)