A prayer in every room

“But whatever house you enter, first say, Peace to this house” Luke 10:5.

On August 7, 2026, I blessed the new house of Solangel Lopez, a teacher at the main preschool in La Caramuca. Our rite of house blessing begins with the reading of Luke 10:5, which is the New Testament basis for it. The concept of invoking God’s blessing on a house is also found in the Old Testament (Genesis 39:5; Ezekiel 44:30). The blessing of a house is often done during the Epiphany season (because the Magi visited the Christ Child in a house, not a stable, Matthew 2:1-12), so there is a Epiphany version of this rite. In any case, the house blessing involves a procession through the house with a Scripture reading and prayer for each room.The context of Luke 10:5 is the “sending of the seventy”. In Luke 9:1-6, our Lord sends the 12 men who He selected as His apostles on their first evangelistic mission, an episode also recorded in Matthew 10:5-15 and Mark 6:7-13. St. Luke is the only evangelist to record the second sending of seventy disciples in the wider sense, other men who accompanied Him in His earthly ministry. “The principal difference between the work of the two groups,” notes Paul E. Kretzmann in his “Popular Commentary”, “seems to have been that the seventy had only a temporary commission, the work ofde preparing the way for Him in parts of Palestine, in Judea, where the Lord was comparatively unknown. Jesus, sent them two by two, for companionship and mutual assistance. They went before His face, as special heralds, to prepare the people for the appearance of the Christ. He mapped out His itinerary and had them take note of the cities and places where He planned to go. It may not have been the intention of Christ to visit all the small villages and hamlets personally, but He wanted the announcement to go before Him that the great Prophet of Galilee, the Savior of Israel, was drawing near to their country.”

It has also been suggested that, as our Lord chose 12 apostles to represent the 12 patriarchs of Israel (the sons of Jacob), the seventy represent either the seventy elders appointed by Moses to help him in his work of teaching and judging the people (Numbers 11:16), or the seventy nations descended from the sons of Noah in Genesis 10. The first interpretation would emphasize that the missionary commission of Matthew 28:19-20; Mark 16:14-15; Luke 24:47-49 was not narrowly given to the apostles, but to the whole church. The second would affirm that the Gospel is for all nations, although it was first given to the Jews. At any rate, there is an evangelistic intent on invoking the Lord’s peace upon visiting a home.

The house blessing is also an invitation to maintain the home as a place where the Scriptures are read and prayers are offered in the name of Jesus. This is the way the home will remain a refuge where members of the family may find protection from the evil influences of the world.

The Christian home as a house of prayer

We continued the theme of the Christian home as a house of prayer in our study of the Lord’s Prayer in Luther’s Large Catechism with the members of Corpus Christi Lutheran Church in Barinas on August 22, 2026. We met in the home of Carmen Linares, because heavy rain flooded the street and made it difficult for everyone to reach the church.

The section on the Lord’s Prayer in the Small Catechism, of course, is subtitled “As the head of the household should teach it in a simple way to his household.” The introduction to the Lord’s Prayer in the Large Catechism and explains how it is linked to the Ten Commandments and the Apostle’s Creed: “We have now heard what we must do and believe, in which things the best and happiest life consists. Now follows the third part, how we ought to pray.” The Lord’s Prayer provides not only a model for our personal petitions, but also a prayer we can remember in times of desperation and in our final hours when our minds are no longer sharp.

We talked about how the first petition, “Hallowed by Thy name,” is a positive restatement of the Second Commandment, “Do not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.” We can teach our children to keep God’s name holy by praying and reading the Scriptures. We were treated to a example of this as a boy named Lucas recited the Ten Commandments from memory, as his mother, Lusveidis, a teacher, taught him.

Latest shipment of medicine
We distributed the latest shipment of non-prescriptions from GLO Chile at Epiphany Lutheran Mission of La Caramuca and Corpus Christi Lutheran Church in Barinas. Global Lutheran Outreach has expanded its Venezuela relief program to include help for earthquake victims, as well as continuing the shipment of non-prescription medicines from Chile. To find out more, please visit the GLO earthquake relief page.