Month: March 2010

Prayers and liturgy

Wednesday in Holy Week

The collect for today, Wednesday in Holy Week, from The Book of Common Prayer (Canadian, 1962):

ALMIGHTY and everlasting God, who, of thy tender love towards mankind, hast sent thy Son our Saviour Jesus Christ, to take upon him our flesh, and to suffer death upon the cross, that all mankind should follow the example of his great humility: Mercifully grant, that we may both follow the example of his patience, and also be made partakers of his resurrection; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Epistle: Hebrews 9:15-28
The Beginning of the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ according to St Luke
The Gospel: St Luke 22:1-71

Baburen, Arrest of ChristArtwork: Dirck van Baburen, The Arrest of Christ, c. 1619. Oil on canvas, Galleria Borghese, Rome.

Print this entry

Prayers and liturgy

Tuesday in Holy Week

The collect for today, Tuesday in Holy Week, from The Book of Common Prayer (Canadian, 1962):

ALMIGHTY and everlasting God, who, of thy tender love towards mankind, hast sent thy Son our Saviour Jesus Christ, to take upon him our flesh, and to suffer death upon the cross, that all mankind should follow the example of his great humility: Mercifully grant, that we may both follow the example of his patience, and also be made partakers of his resurrection; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Lesson: Isaiah 50:5-9a
The Continuation of the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ according to St Mark
The Gospel: St Mark 15:1-39

Ciseri, Ecce HomoArtwork: Antonio Ciseri, Ecce Homo, 1880-91. Oil on canvas, Galleria d’Arte Moderna, Palazzo Pitti, Florence.

Print this entry

Prayers and liturgy

Monday in Holy Week

The collect for today, Monday in Holy Week, from The Book of Common Prayer (Canadian, 1962):

ALMIGHTY and everlasting God, who, of thy tender love towards mankind, hast sent thy Son our Saviour Jesus Christ, to take upon him our flesh, and to suffer death upon the cross, that all mankind should follow the example of his great humility: Mercifully grant, that we may both follow the example of his patience, and also be made partakers of his resurrection; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Lesson: Isaiah 63:7-9
The Beginning of the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ according to Saint Mark
The Gospel: St Mark 14:1-72

Carpaccio, Meditation On The PassionArtwork: Vittore Carpaccio, The Meditation on the Passion, c. 1510. Oil and tempera on wood, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

Carpaccio’s painting depicts Saint Jerome as a hermit (left) and Job (right) meditating on the dead Christ. Inscribed in Hebrew on the marble block where Job sits are the words “I know that my Redeemer liveth” (Job 19:25).

Print this entry

Sermons

Sermon for Palm Sunday

“How readest thou?”

And so it begins, and ends. We begin today with the exultant cries of “Hosanna”. We will end on Easter with the joyous cries of “Alleluia,” the alleluias that shall never end. Palm Sunday marks the beginning of one long continuous service, going from strength to greater strength, from joy to greater joy. And in between?

Well, that is the point of Holy Week. And, indeed, it is not too much to say that there is no going from the beginning to the end without going through the middle; no Easter that has any meaning apart from the events of this week which we call Holy Week. In a way, there is no beginning either without, at least, a glimmer of an awareness that there must be a continuing in what we have begun today. How could there not be? The contrasts of this day are just so great.

We who cry “Hosanna” are those who cry “Crucify”. The alleluias of Easter will be but the empty words of the hollow culture of empty souls and empty churches without the moving, heart-rending and mind-blowing spectacles of Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday; in short, the triduum Sacrum of Holy Week. Such is the intensity of the Passion of Christ. There is no greater joy than the alleluias of Easter, but it is a joy that is borne out of the sorrow and the grief of this week.

The contrasts of this day are the contradictions of our souls. More than the mere fickle nature of mob culture that swings from one moment to the next in the madness of unreason, we contemplate the depths and heights of human loves and human hates in all of their disorder and disarray. It is not too much to say that in the pageant of Holy Week there is little, if anything, that is good about ourselves. We confront the contradictions of our humanity. That is, really, the good of Holy Week.

(more…)

Print this entry

Events, Month at a Glance

Week at a Glance, 29 March-4 April

Monday, March 29th, Monday in Holy Week
7:00am Matins & Passion
7:00pm Vespers & Communion

Tuesday, March 30th, Tuesday in Holy Week
7:00am Matins & Passion
6:00pm Prayers & Praises – Haliburton Place
7:00pm Vespers & Communion

Wednesday, March 31st, Wednesday in Holy Week
7:00am Matins & Passion
9:00pm Tenebrae

Thursday, April 1st, Maundy Thursday
7:00am Penitential Service
7:00pm Holy Communion & Watch

Friday, April 2nd, Good Friday
7:00am Matins of Good Friday
11:00am Ecumenical Service at Christ Church
7:00pm The Solemn Liturgy of Good Friday

Saturday, April 3rd, Holy Saturday
10:00am Matins & Ante-Communion
7:00pm Vigil with Lauds & Matins of Easter

Sunday, April 4th, Easter
7:00am Sunrise Service at Fort Edward
8:00am Holy Communion
10:30am Holy Communion
4:30pm Evening Prayer at KES

Upcoming Events:
Saturday, April 17th, 7:00-9:00pm: Newfoundland & Country Music Evening
Sunday, May 2nd, 6:00pm: Choral Evensong with KES Cadet Corps
Saturday, May 8th, 4:30-6:30pm: 5th Annual Lobster Supper. Click here for more information.

Print this entry

Prayers and liturgy

Palm Sunday

The collect for today, the Sunday Next before Easter, commonly called Palm Sunday, from The Book of Common Prayer (Canadian, 1962):

ALMIGHTY and everlasting God, who, of thy tender love towards mankind, hast sent thy Son our Saviour Jesus Christ, to take upon him our flesh, and to suffer death upon the cross, that all mankind should follow the example of his great humility: Mercifully grant, that we may both follow the example of his patience, and also be made partakers of his resurrection; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Epistle: Philippians 2:5-11
The Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ According to St. Matthew
The Gospel: St Matthew 27:1-54

Rossano Gospels, Triumphal Entry

Artwork: The Triumphal Entry, Illumination from the Rossano Gospels (Codex Purpureus Rossanensis), 6th century.

Print this entry

Sermons

Sermon for the Feast of the Annunciation

“Be it unto me according to thy word.”

If there is a test for catholic orthodoxy, it invariably centers on Mary. Only through her do we understand the mystery of our redemption in Christ. She is the theotokos, the God-bearer, the mother of God. To begin to understand that is to begin to understand the wonder and the joy of our redemption.

Anglican divinity is not without its cloud of witnesses to the role and place of the Virgin Mary in our salvation and nowhere does that become more abundantly clear than in the Feast of the Annunciation.

We forget that this was the actual beginning of the year for over a thousand years. March 25th points us to December 25th. The ancients and the medievals were not so uninformed about the mundane and yet miraculous prosody of human reproduction as we might suspect. England, as reluctant as ever to be drawn into anything that smacks of continental superiority, held out until 1752 with respect to the adoption of the Gregorian Calendar, adopted for the most part in most of Europe in 1582, which designated January 1st as the beginning of the civil calendar year.

The older sensibility reflects the idea of our lives as marked spiritually by the doctrinal moments in the life of Christ. That sensibility still underlies the ecclesiastical calendar. In this case, the Annunciation marks the beginning of the year by way of the commemoration of the entrance into creation and humanity of God himself. In short, Mary’s Annunciation is Christ’s conception, humanly speaking, in the womb of Mary. He who is “God of God” and “Light of Light” becomes incarnate in the womb of Mary. The event is the Annunciation.

(more…)

Print this entry

Prayers and liturgy

The Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary

The collect for today, The Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, from The Book of Common Prayer (Canada, 1962):

Antonello, Virgin AnnunciateWE beseech thee, O Lord, pour thy grace into our hearts; that, as we have known the incarnation of thy Son Jesus Christ by the message of an angel, so by his cross and passion we may be brought unto the glory of his resurrection; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Lesson: Isaiah 7:10-15
The Gospel: St Luke 1:26-38

Artwork: Antonello da Messina, The Virgin Annunciate, c. 1475. Oil on panel, Galleria Regionale della Sicilia, Palermo.

Print this entry

Sermons

Sermon for Passion Sunday

“What wilt thou?”

What do you will? Not simply what do you want but what do you will? What are you committed to? It is the question of Passion Sunday.

The Cross is veiled. Present yet hidden, its shape is only dimly seen. “We see,” at best, but “in a glass darkly.” What does this veiling of the Cross mean? Should not the Cross be fully and visibly before us? What do we mean exactly by the Cross?

The paradox of Passiontide is that the Cross is veiled precisely so that we might come to learn more fully just what the Cross means in itself and for us. The journey of Lent is concentrated for us in Passiontide, deep Lent, and then is further concentrated in Holy Week and then, again, on Good Friday. It is all the way of the Cross. The paradox of the veiled Cross is that we do not know and do not see as clearly and fully as we should. What stands in the way is the disorder of our wills and our desires.

Our passions, we might say, stand in the way of our understanding of the passion of Christ. “We have followed too much the devices and desires of our own hearts.” The gospel story suggests that there is an element of ambition and self-interest present even in the most holy of situations. Theologically, the point is simply that our motives are never pure and clear; they are always mixed. Why? Because we neither truly know what we want – “ye know not what ye ask” – nor do we fully will that which we do know, let alone do what we should do. “We have left undone those things which we ought to have done, And we have done those things which we ought not to have done.” We are divided creatures, divided among ourselves and divided within ourselves. The veil is the fog of our desires.

(more…)

Print this entry

Events, Month at a Glance

Week at a Glance, 22-28 March

Tuesday, March 23rd
6:00pm Prayers & Praises – Haliburton Place
6:30-7:30pm Brownies’ Mtg. in Parish Hall
7:30pm Holy Communion & Lenten Programme: Creeds IV

Thursday, March 25th, Annunciation
10:00am Holy Communion
1:30-3:30pm Seniors’ Drop-in
6:30pm Christ Church Cinema Paradiso – “The Mission”

Friday, March 26th
11:00am Holy Communion – Dykeland Lodge
3:30pm Holy Communion – Gladys Manning Home

Sunday, March 28th, Palm Sunday
8:00am Holy Communion
10:30am Holy Communion with Palms (Procession to the Church)
2:00pm AMD Service of the Deaf
4:30pm Evening Prayer at KES

Upcoming Events
Friday, April 2nd, 11:00am: Good Friday Ecumenical Service at Christ Church
Saturday, April 17th, 7:00-9:00pm: Newfoundland & Country Music Evening
Sunday, May 2nd, 6:60pm: Choral Evensong with KES Cadet Corps
Saturday, May 8th, 4:30-6:30pm: 5th Annual Lobster Supper. Click here for more information.

Print this entry