1 Peter 1:3: Blessed by the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
As Pastor Sumpter mentioned in the sermon this morning, Peter’s prayer is a “berakah,” a traditional type of Jewish thanksgiving named for the Hebrew word for “bless.” Berakah prayers begin with “Blessed be God.”
Like Peter’s prayer, berakah prayers are often memorials of the great works that Yahweh did for His people. Jews blessed God for creating the world, for redeeming Israel from Egypt, for giving Israel her land flowing with milk and honey. Peter blesses the Father of Jesus because He has begotten us again when He raised Jesus up from the same ground from which He had taken Adam.
This was probably the type of prayer Jesus used at the Last Supper. Jews still use berakah prayers at the beginning of meals: “Blessed are you, O Lord our God, King of the Universe, who has created the fruit of the vine.” Giving thanks as He offered His disciples bread and wine, Jesus blessed God for creation, redemption, and His love for Israel.
Our Eucharistic prayers at Trinity take this form. In our prayer, we thank he Father for Jesus’ death and for the gifts that the Father gives us. But that’s not all. The Eucharistic prayer sums up everything that God has done for His people throughout the ages.
At this table, we thank God for creation, for the deliverance from Egypt, for the gift of the land, for the glories of the reigns of Solomon and David, for the return from exile, for the incarnation, cross, and resurrection. All of human history is summed up in this bread and this wine; at this meal, the ends of the ages come.
In Christ all things hold together, and when we thank the Father for Jesus we are thanking Him for everything.
Dear Reader,
Can I be direct with you?
War abroad. Socialists on the rise. AI upending human life. Endless uproar online. The modern attention economy doesn’t want readers — it wants users enslaved to the tyranny of the present.
First Things is the antidote: literary excellence, timeless truths, and a fixed point of reference in a culture that has lost its bearings.
But we can’t do it without readers like you.
Our goal: Raise $150,000 by November 1 to sustain First Things in the year ahead.
Your gift anchors readers in the permanent things.
Make your Fall Campaign gift now using the button below.
If you have any questions or would like more information, please contact Giovanni Del Piero, Director of the Editor’s Circle, at gdelpiero@firstthings.com or 212-627-1985.
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE
The Church in the Age of Therapy
In 1966, Philip Rieff wrote in The Triumph of the Therapeutic that “Religious man was born to…
Canada’s Deadliest Blind Spot
On September 20, the Daily Mail ran a story with the provocative headline, “Our 83-year-old Christian grandmother…
The Faithful Joy of Dolly Parton and Fulton Sheen
Dolly Parton and Fulton Sheen seem to have had little in common. She favored rhinestones; he wore…
