Eastertide Devotion – The Second Sunday of Easter, Quasimodogeniti, April 27

Like newborn babes, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up to salvation;
1 Peter 2:2 (RSV)

Quasimodogeniti is my favorite Latin name for a Sunday.  If you have attended Christ Lutheran Church on the Sunday after Easter (now often referred to as the Second Sunday of Easter), you know that I say this every year. Here is the rest of the story.

I do like the sound of this Latin word and the way it rolls off my tongue, but that is not why I like this Sunday.  And it isn’t because I have an affinity for the Hunchback of Notre Dame as some have guessed. It actually relates to a sermon I heard for Quasimodogeniti in 1978!

I had been ordained and installed as Missionary-at-Large for the Minnesota North District of the LCMS in 1977.  The surprising thing is that I was called to serve in two Northwestern Ontario communities, Ignace and Sioux Lookout. I say surprising because there was no one more surprised than me on call day (with the possible exception of my wife, Valerie).

We packed our belongings and began the work in these far away communities. (In fact when I went to the Canadian Embassy in Chicago to apply for my visa, the Canadian official asked where I was moving and when I told him, he exclaimed, “Oh là là”). Each Sunday I would preach and conduct the Divine Service, first in one congregation and then drive 93 miles and repeat the process in the other community.  We developed wonderful friendships along the way but I’m glad I was young then.

After the better part of a year, Valerie and I traveled the 12 hours to Brainerd, MN for our district convention. There I heard the most wonderful sermon on Quasimodogeniti.  I can tell you many of the details still to this day. But I soon realized why this was the most wonderful sermon.  It was the first sermon that I had heard in almost a year!

I had been preaching each week and hearing and reading God’s Word but it was so wonderful to sit in the congregation and hear proclaimed to me the sweet message of forgiveness won by Christ on the cross. It was delightful to hear the glorious message of the resurrection applied to my very being.

So each year at this time I remember these words of St. Peter, “Like newborn babes, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up to salvation;” and indeed I do, I pray that you do too.

Prayer: Lord let me be like a newborn baby, longing for the pure spiritual milk of your holy word. Amen.

God’s richest blessings in Christ,
Pastor Philip Quardokus