Year: 2013

Sermons

Meditation for the Nineteenth Sunday after Trinity, 8:00am Morning Prayer

“I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand
at the latter day upon the earth”

They are, perhaps, familiar words, even comforting words. You may recall them from the Prayer Book Burial Office. And yet, it is always a bit disconcerting to discover certain Scriptural passages, familiar to us in the Liturgy, in their actual context such as we have heard this morning from our first lesson from The Book of Job.

We might call it Job’s complaint; a complaint voiced against the Comforters whose advice and counsel disturbs Job greatly. His cry, however, is to the God, who, it seems, does not answer and, yet, in this word, Job insists on the truth of God no matter how things appear. Indeed, the way things appear is always less than the way things truly are, at least in the sight of God. Job understands this over and against our all-too-human tendencies to reduce the mystery of God to our schemes, systems and calculations. That is the great glory of Job. He is only too well aware of the distance between God and man. His cry to God is equally a cry of frustration and criticism of the Comforters who, as he sees it, are beating up on him with far less justification than the God who seems to pursue him and who seems to have touched him with suffering.

And there is the point, almost unthinkable for us, that human suffering could be viewed as coming, in some sense, from the hand of God. Job knows what the Comforters and many of us fail to understand. The older Prayer Book tradition understood this and incorporated it into the Service of the Ministry of the Sick with the strong commendatory words to be said to someone on their death bed: “Know ye this, that this is the visitation of the Lord upon you.” Unheard of and quite unthinkable in our age. We quaver at such words or reject them with angry disdain but there is a great and strange comfort in them. What is it? Simply that our sufferings and our deaths are not apart from the love and care of God for us; that God makes a way to us through the path of suffering and death.

How is this even thinkable? Only through the Incarnation of Jesus Christ. Only through the passion and death of Christ which makes it possible to see human suffering, as Paul suggests in our second lesson, as participating in the sufferings of Christ for us. This is to push things beyond Job and yet in the very direction that Job points us in this passage. His cry is to God. It is a kind of affirmation of faith and in a wonderfully Jewish way. For it proclaims something about God that implies the necessity of God’s response. “I know,” Job says, and he is saying this against what the Comforters do not know because they have, as we all do, so domesticated and reduced God to our level and concerns as to render God as utterly unthinkable and certainly unbelievable.

We need the wonderful wisdom of Job in his struggle with God to open us out to the deeper meaning of our life in Christ. Job’s cry from the heart opens us out to the mystery of God’s coming to us and entering into the very flesh and fabric of human life. He does so to bring us to himself, to the fulfillment of the insight of Job for each of us, that we “shall see God,” that we shall find the truth and dignity of our humanity in God.

“I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand
at the latter day upon the earth”

Fr. Curry
Meditation, MP
Trinity XIX,
Oct. 6th, 2013

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Events, Month at a Glance

Week at a Glance, 7 – 13 October

Tuesday, October 8th
6:00pm ‘Prayers & Praises’ – Haliburton Place
7:30pm Parish Council Meeting

Wednesday, October 9th
6:00-7:00pm Brownies/Sparks – Parish Hall

Thursday, October 10th
3:15pm Service at Windsor Elms
6:30-7:30pm Girl Guides – Parish Hall

Saturday, October 12th
9:00-10:00am Men’s Club Decorating for Harvest Thanksgiving

Sunday, October 13th, Harvest Thanksgiving/Twentieth Sunday after Trinity
8:00am Holy Communion
10:30am Holy Communion
4:00pm Evening Prayer – Christ Church

Upcoming Events:

Friday, October 18th
7:30pm Christ Church Concert Series I, Violin(s) & Piano, Nellie & Stan Chen

Friday, November 1st
3:00pm 225th Anniversary Service of the Founding of King’s Collegiate School (now King’s-Edgehill)

Friday, December 20th
7:00pm Christ Church Concert Series II, Capella Regalis presents “To Bethlehem with Kings”

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Prayers and liturgy

The Nineteenth Sunday After Trinity

The collect for today, the Nineteenth Sunday after Trinity, from The Book of Common Prayer (Canadian, 1962):

O GOD, forasmuch as without thee we are not able to please thee; Mercifully grant, that thy Holy Spirit may in all things direct and rule our hearts; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Epistle: Ephesians 4:17-32
The Gospel: St. Matthew 9:1-8

Pavlov, Christ Heals ParalyticArtwork: Vladimir Pavlov, Christ Heals the Paralytic, undated (1890s?). Khram Spasa na Krovi (Church of the Saviour on the Spilt Blood), St. Petersburg.

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Prayers and liturgy

St. Francis of Assisi

The collect for today, the Feast of Saint Francis of Assisi (1182-1226), Friar, Deacon, Founder of the Friars Minor (source):

O God,
who ever delightest to reveal thyself
to the childlike and lowly of heart,
grant that, following the example of the blessed Francis,
we may count the wisdom of this world as foolishness
and know only Jesus Christ and him crucified,
who liveth and reigneth with thee,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Epistle: Galatians 6:14-18
The Gospel: St. Matthew 11:25-30

Cagnacci, St. Francis in PrayerArtwork: Guido Cagnacci, Saint Francis in Prayer, c. 1610-14. Oil on canvas, Musée des beaux-arts de Marseille.

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Prayers and liturgy

Remigius, Bishop

The collect for today, the Feast of Saint Remigius (c. 438-533), Bishop of Rheims, Apostle to the Franks (source):

O God, who by the teaching of thy faithful servant and bishop Remigius didst turn the nation of the Franks from vain idolatry to the worship of thee, the true and living God, in the fullness of the catholic faith; Grant that we who glory in the name of Christian may show forth our faith in worthy deeds; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

The Epistle: 1 St. John 4:1-6
The Gospel: St. John 14:3-7

Levieux, St. Remegius Cures Blind ManRemigius was consecrated bishop of Rheims at age 22. The pagan Clovis I, who had married the Christian princess Clothilde, began his reign as king of the Franks about 20 years later, in 481.

Before entering combat against German tribes at Tolbiac, Clovis prayed to “Clothilde’s God” for victory. His soldiers won the battle, and Clothilde asked Remigius to teach the king about Christianity. Clovis was amazed by the story of “this unarmed God who was not of the race of Thor or Odin”. In the words of Remigius, the king came “to adore what he had burnt and to burn what he had adored”.

In 496, Remigius baptised Clovis in a public ceremony at Rheims Cathedral. Three thousand Franks also became Christians. Under the king’s protection, Remigius was able to spread the gospel and build churches throughout Gaul.

Artwork: Reynaud Levieux, Saint Remigius Cures the Blind Man, 17th century. Oil on canvas, Church of San Luigi dei Francesi, Rome.

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Prayers and liturgy

Jerome, Doctor and Priest

The collect for today, the Feast of Saint Jerome (c. 342-420), Priest, Monk, Translator of the Scriptures, Doctor of the Church (source):

O Lord, thou God of truth, whose Word is a lantern to our feet and a light upon our path: We give thee thanks for thy servant Jerome, and those who, following in his steps, have labored to render the Holy Scriptures in the language of the people; and we beseech thee that thy Holy Spirit may overshadow us as we read the written Word, and that Christ, the living Word, may transform us according to thy righteous will; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

The Epistle: 2 Timothy 3:14-17
The Gospel: St. Luke 24:44-48

One of the most scholarly and learned early church fathers, St. Jerome devoted much of his life to accurately translating the Holy Bible from the original languages of Hebrew and Greek into Latin.

Born near Aquileia, northeast Italy, of Christian parents, Jerome travelled widely. He received a classical education at Rome and travelled to Gaul where he became a monk. He later moved to Palestine, spending five years as an ascetic in the Syrian desert. In 374, he was ordained a priest in Antioch. He then pursued biblical studies at Constantinople under Gregory Nazianzus and translated works by Eusebius, Origen, and others.

Travelling to Rome in 382, Jerome became secretary to the aged Pope Damasus. By the time the pope died three years later, Jerome had become involved in theological controversies in which he antagonised many church leaders and theologians. He left Rome under a cloud, returning to Palestine where he lived as a monk in Bethlehem for rest of his life.

Over several decades, Jerome wrote biblical commentaries and works promoting monasticism and asceticism. Most importantly, he produced fresh Latin translations of most of the Old and New Testaments, based on the original biblical languages. This work formed the basis of the Vulgate, which remained the standard Scriptural text of the western church for over a millennium.

Artwork: Antonio d’Enrico, The Penitent St. Jerome, c. 1627-30. Oil on canvas, Nelson-Atkins Museum, Kansas City, Missouri.

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Anglican issues, Events, Prayer Book Society

The Prayer Book Society of Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island

The following notes were included in the Order of Service for the Choral Evensong held this afternoon in commemoration of The Rev’d Dr. Robert Crouse and sponsored by The Prayer Book Society of Canada, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island Branch.

St. Michael and All Angels
Choral Evensong
St. Mary’s, Crousetown
4:00pm Sunday, September 29th, 2013

Weyden, Last Judgment 1450The Prayer Book Society of Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island welcomes you to the first of this season’s anchor events. This is the First Annual Choral Evensong commemorating the Rev’d Dr. Robert Crouse.

On Sunday, January 26th, 2014 (Epiphany III), the Society will sponsor a Choral Evensong at the University of King’s College Chapel, Halifax, followed by a reception in the Senior Common Room.

The Society is pleased to sponsor the annual Lenten Quiet Day to be held at King’s-Edgehill School, Windsor, Nova Scotia on Saturday, March 8th from 9:00am-4:00pm on the theme of Lent and Original Sin, led by Rev’d David Curry.

The Society is committed to celebrating the deep prayerfulness and the rich spiritual understanding of the Prayer Book tradition that speaks so powerfully to the complexities of our contemporary church and world.

The Society is most grateful for the gracious hospitality of Fr. Oliver Osmond and the Parishes of Petite Riviere and New Dublin in allowing the Society to hold this service at St. Mary’s, Crousetown, the Church which evokes so much of the spirit and legacy of Fr. Crouse.

[…]

Rev’d Dr. Robert Darwin Crouse

The Rev’d Dr. Robert Crouse spent a life-time of dedicated service to God as a teacher, a scholar, and a priest. A noted Patristic and Medieval scholar, his passion was Dante. Through his patient and passionate commitment to the texts of our spiritual and intellectual tradition, he instilled a deep love of learning in generations upon generations of students. Acknowledged as “the conscience of the Canadian Church,” he constantly and consistently reminded the church of the spiritual integrity of the Common Prayer tradition and its fundamental importance for our Christian identity. We may say of Dr. Crouse what Dante said of St. Luke, that he is the “scriba mansuetudinis Christi,” the scribe of the gentleness of Christ, a gentleness which is firm and resolute on the high things of God, the things which are our joy and delight, the things, too, which are embodied in the spiritual riches of The Book of Common Prayer. Through it we may learn what Dante showed us and what Fr. Crouse taught us: that we are “soul[s] made apt for worshipping.”

The Rev’d Dr. Thomas Curran teaches at the University of King’s College and Dalhousie University. He is the past president of the Prayer Book Society of Nova Scotia and PEI. We are most grateful for his wisdom and guidance over many years and for being the preacher at this special commemorative service.

Nico Weltmeyer is the Organ Scholar at the Chapel of the University of King’s College, Halifax

The Rev’d Fr. David Curry is the Rector of Christ Church, Windsor, and Chaplain, English, History and Philosophy Teacher at King’s-Edgehill School. For many years he has been one of the Vice-Presidents of the Prayer Book Society of Canada and is now also President of the Prayer Book Society of Nova Scotia and PEI.

Artwork: Rogier Van Der Weyden, Last Judgment, c. 1445-50, Beaune, France.

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Sermons

Sermon for Michaelmas

“There was war in heaven”

Michaelmas daisies dance along our maritime roadsides in the soft September air. They remind us that dancing with angels belongs to the truth of our humanity.

Dancing with angels is a way of speaking about what we do every day in our spiritual and intellectual lives whether as students or teachers, priests or parishioners. Angels are very much about the principles of the understanding, the intellectual and spiritual principles that belong to the understanding of creation and our humanity. They remind us that there is more to reality than what meets the eye. They speak, in a kind of way, to another feature of our humanity, too, our loneliness, or what Alistair MacLeod calls our “inarticulate loneliness,” out of which comes the struggle to articulate and communicate, to take hold of meaning which is only possible in an intelligible world. The angels remind us that we have dance partners in the pursuit of understanding and in the struggle to act rightly and to be good.

In the year 1257, perhaps even what has come to be known as Michaelmas term, at the University of Paris, Thomas Aquinas, affectionately known as Doctor Angelicus, the angelic doctor, undertook in the Quaestiones Disputatae de Veritate, “Disputed Questions on Truth,” the question “Can a man be taught by an Angel?”(Q. 11, art.iii). Angels can teach us, he says, not by supplanting what is given by the light of nature or by the light of grace, the human and the divine respectively, but, as he says, by “moving the imagination and strengthening the light of understanding.”

Angels can help us to understand the terrible, hard and harsh events of our own world and day. After all, will we really even begin to comprehend the terror of terrorism, whether it is the massacre of a church congregation in Pakistan or the hostage-taking in Kenya, merely through the lenses of social and economic determinism? Don’t we need the spiritual wisdom which talks about the struggles between the good and evil which we are afraid to name, the spiritual struggles which the religions of the world in their truth and integrity contemplate and know, proclaim and show?

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Events, Month at a Glance

Week at a Glance, 30 September – 6 October

Tuesday, October 1st
6:00pm ‘Prayers & Praises’ – Haliburton Place

Wednesday, October 2nd
6:00-7:00pm Brownies/Sparks – Parish Hall

Thursday, October 3rd
6:30-7:30pm Girl Guides – Parish Hall

Sunday, October 6th, Nineteenth Sunday after Trinity
8:00am Morning Prayer
10:30am Holy Communion

Fr. Curry will be away at a conference in Alexandria, Virginia, Oct. 5th to the 8th. Fr. Jim McCorriston will be the preacher and celebrant at the 10:30am service on Sunday, October 6th. Fr. Tom Henderson (798-8921) will be priest-in-charge for any pastoral emergencies.

Upcoming Events:

Friday, October 18th
7:30pm Christ Church Concert Series I, Violin(s) & Piano, Nellie & Stan Chen

Friday, November 1st
3:00pm 225th Anniversary Service of the Founding of King’s Collegiate School (now King’s-Edgehill)

Friday, December 20th
7:00pm Christ Church Concert Series II, Capella Regalis presents “To Bethlehem with Kings”

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Prayers and liturgy

Saint Michael and All Angels

The collect for today, the Feast of Saint Michael and All Angels, from The Book of Common Prayer (Canadian, 1962):

O EVERLASTING God, who hast ordained and constituted the services of Angels and men in a wonderful order: Mercifully grant, that as thy holy Angels alway do thee service in heaven, so by thy appointment they may succour and defend us on earth; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Lesson: Revelation 12:7-11
The Gospel: St. Matthew 18:1-10

The name Michael is a variation of Micah, and means in Hebrew “Who is like God?”

The archangel Michael first appears in the Book of Daniel, where he is described as “one of the chief princes” and as the special protector of Israel. In the New Testament epistle of Jude (v. 9), Michael, in a dispute with the devil over the body of Moses, says, “The Lord rebuke you“. Michael appears also in Revelation (12:7-9) as the leader of the angels in the great battle in Heaven that ended with Satan and the hosts of evil being thrown down to earth. There are many other references to the archangel Michael in Jewish and Christian traditions.

Following these scriptural passages, Christian tradition has given St. Michael four duties: (1) To continue to wage battle against Satan and the other fallen angels; (2) to save the souls of the faithful from the power of Satan especially at the hour of death; (3) to protect the People of God, both the Jews of the Old Covenant and the Christians of the New Covenant; and (4) finally to lead the souls of the departed from this life and present them to our Lord for judgment. For these reasons, Christian iconography depicts St. Michael as a knight-warrior, wearing battle armor, and wielding a sword or spear, while standing triumphantly on a serpent or other representation of Satan. Sometimes he is depicted holding the scales of justice or the Book of Life, both symbols of the last judgment.

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