Year: 2020

Prayers and liturgy

The Conversion of Saint Paul

The collect for today, the Feast of The Conversion of Saint Paul, from The Book of Common Prayer (Canadian, 1962):

O GOD, who, through the preaching of the blessed Apostle Saint Paul, hast caused the light of the Gospel to shine throughout the world: Grant, we beseech thee, that we, having his wonderful conversion in remembrance, may show forth our thankfulness unto thee for the same, by following the holy doctrine which he taught; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Lesson: Acts 21:40-22:16
The Gospel: St. Luke 21:10-19

Federico and Taddeo Zuccari, Conversion of St. PaulArtwork: Federico and Taddeo Zuccari, Conversion of St. Paul, 1564. Fresco, Frangipani Chapel, San Marcello al Corso, Rome.

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Prayers and liturgy

St. Timothy and St. Titus, Apostolic Men

The collect for today, The Feast of St. Timothy and St. Titus, Apostolic men, Companions of St. Paul (source):

Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones, Saint TimothyHeavenly Father,
who didst send thine apostle Paul to preach the gospel,
and gavest him Timothy and Titus to be his companions in the faith:
grant that our fellowship in the Holy Spirit
may bear witness to the name of Jesus,
who liveth and reigneth with thee,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Epistle: 2 Timothy 1:1-8 or Titus 1:1-5
The Gospel: St. John 10:1-10

Artwork: Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones, Saint Timothy, late 19th century. Stained glass, Christ Church Cathedral, University of Oxford, England.

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KES Chapel Weekly Reflections

KES Chapel Reflection, Week of 22 January

Have courage, you who are human beings: Jesus, he is born.

It is a wonderful line from the first Canadian Christmas carol (c. 1643), St. Jean de Brébeuf’s  Jesous Ahatonhia. I was asked to do something in Chapel on Monday that would relate to School’s day of honouring and celebrating ‘indigenous learning and culture’ and asked if would be appropriate to sing the Huron Carol. It was and we did. This led me to look more closely into the carol largely by way of the famous Canadian folk-singer, Bruce Cockburn’s, 1993 Christmas album which highlights the Huron Carol. He performs it in the original Ouwendat or Huron language. The liner notes and other research revealed a number of intriguing features of the carol which help us to think more deeply about the intersection and interplay of cultures within the Christian concept of the Epiphany.

The Epiphany season focuses on what is manifest about God in and through the humanity of Jesus Christ. The stories of the Epiphany are all about teaching and learning both within the Christian understanding of the essential divinity of Christ and in terms of “the infinite power, wisdom and goodness” of God which belong, it seems to me, to a universal and philosophical sensibility within the cultures of the world, including the cultures of the native peoples of Canada.

As the Canadian poet and philosopher Jan Zwicky notes, our contemporary technocratic culture provides no meaning for human life; it is meaningless and in our technological obsessions there is a profound disconnect from the created order. Thinking seriously about the history and character of the indigenous cultures is very much needed in order to reclaim philosophically what we have lost, forgotten, and ignored in our technocratic culture, that is to say, a world dominated by technology which is of our making and our unmaking.

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Prayers and liturgy

Vincent, Deacon and Martyr

The collect for today, the Feast of Saint Vincent of Saragossa (d. 304), Deacon and Martyr (source):

Almighty God, whose deacon Vincent, upheld by thee, was not terrified by threats nor overcome by torments: Strengthen us, we beseech thee, to endure all adversity with invincible and steadfast faith; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

The Lesson: Revelation 7:13-17
The Gospel: St. Luke 12:4-12

Master of Castelsardo, Saint Vincent on the GridironVincent is the proto-Martyr (first known martyr) of Spain and the patron saint of Lisbon. He was deacon of Saragossa, Aragon, under Bishop Valerius. Both were arrested during the persecution instigated by edicts of Diocletian and Maximian. Because Valerius had a speech impediment, Vincent testified to their faith in Christ, boldly and without fear.

Dacian, Roman governor of Spain, subjected Vincent to horrible tortures. The saint was thrown into prison and weakened by semi-starvation. After refusing to sacrifice to pagan gods, he was racked, burned, and kept in stocks. He died as a result of his sufferings.

St. Augustine of Hippo preached a sermon on Vincent’s martyrdom. Here is an excerpt:

“To you has been granted in Christ’s behalf not only that you should believe in him but also that you should suffer for him.” Vincent had received both these gifts and held them as his own. For how could he have them if he had not received them? And he displayed his faith in what he said, his endurance in what he suffered. No one ought to be confident in his own strength when he undergoes temptation. For whenever we endure evils courageously, our long-suffering comes from him Christ. He once said to his disciples: “In this world you will suffer persecution,” and then, to allay their fears, he added, “but rest assured, I have conquered the world.” There is no need to wonder then, my dearly beloved brothers, that Vincent conquered in him who conquered the world. It offers temptation to lead us astray; it strikes terror into us to break out spirit. Hence if our personal pleasures do not hold us captive, and if we are not frightened by brutality, then the world is overcome. At both of these approaches Christ rushes to our aid, and the Christian is not conquered.

Artwork: Master of Castelsardo, Saint Vincent on the Gridiron, 1500-10. Tempera, stucco reliefs and gold leaf on wood, Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya, Barcelona.

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Prayers and liturgy

Agnes, Virgin and Martyr

The collect for today, the Feast of Saint Agnes (c. 291-304), Virgin, Martyr at Rome (source):

Eternal God, Shepherd of thy sheep,
by whose grace thy child Agnes was strengthened to bear witness,
in her life and in her death,
to the true love of her redeemer:
grant us the power to understand, with all thy saints,
what is the breadth and length and height and depth
and to know the love that passeth all knowledge,
even Jesus Christ thy Son our Lord,
who liveth and reigneth with thee,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Lesson: Song of Solomon 2:10-13
The Gospel: St. Matthew 18:1-6

Master Theodorik, St. Agnes of RomeOne of the most celebrated of the early Roman martyrs, Agnes was only twelve or thirteen when she was executed in the Piazza Navona for refusing to sacrifice to pagan gods. Several early Christian leaders praised her courage and exemplary faith, including Ambrose, Pope Damasus, Jerome, and Prudentius. Although her story was embellished during the Middle Ages, it is certain that Agnes was very young and died as a Christian virgin.

St. Ambrose extolled her in his De Virginibus, written in 377:

[St. Agnes’ death was] A new kind of martyrdom! Not yet of fit age for punishment but already ripe for victory, difficult to contend with but easy to be crowned, she filled the office of teaching valour while having the disadvantage of youth. She would not as a bride so hasten to the couch, as being a virgin she joyfully went to the place of punishment with hurrying step, her head not adorned with plaited hair, but with Christ.

Because her name resembles agnus (‘lamb’), she is generally depicted in art with a lamb in her arms or by her feet. On her feast at Rome, the wool of two lambs is blessed and then woven into pallia (stoles of white wool) for the pope and archbishops.

Two notable Roman churches have been erected at locations associated with St. Agnes. The church of Sant’Agnese in Agone now stands in the Piazza Navona, the place of her martyrdom. The Basilica of Sant’Agnesi fuori le Mura (St. Agnes Outside the Walls) was built at her tomb in a family burial plot along the Via Nomentana, about two miles outside Rome.

Saint Agnes is the patron saint of young girls.

Artwork: Master Theodorik, St. Agnes of Rome, 1360-64. Oil on panel, Chapel of the Holy Cross, Karlštejn Castle, Karlštejn, Czechia.

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Sermons

Sermon for the Second Sunday after the Epiphany

There was a wedding in Cana of Galilee

This story, like the story of the boy Christ being found in the Temple teaching and learning, is essential to the meaning of the Epiphany, itself the season par excellence of teaching and learning. But teaching and learning what? About God and man but with a new and distinctive emphasis upon the divinity of Christ as revealed through the humanity of Christ.

This story, like the story of the boy Christ at the age of twelve, is an epiphany, a making known of the essential divinity of Christ. “Did ye know not,” he says in the Temple, rather challengingly, and we might think even rather abruptly to his mother, “that I must be about my Father’s business?” meaning, of course, the will of God. In relation to that exchange we are told that “his mother kept all these sayings in her heart.” It is a wonderful phrase that complements and builds upon the Shepherd’s Christmas where Mary is said to have “kept all these things and pondered them in heart.” What things? All the things that were said about the infant, the unspeaking child Jesus. But in the story of the boy Christ, “his mother,” Luke tells us, “kept all these sayings in her heart.” What sayings? All the things Jesus himself is saying. Wonderful. Mary keeps in her heart both what is said about Jesus and what Jesus says to us.

We are called to be Marian in the sense of attending to what is said about Jesus and what is said by Jesus and to let that define and dignify us in spite of our sins and follies. In so doing, we open ourselves to the miracle of God’s grace at work in our lives, not only perfecting and restoring our wounded humanity, but in signalling the joy of redemption, our joy in the things of God without which we are radically incomplete.

This brings us to the Gospel reading for the Second Sunday after Epiphany, to one of the quintessential stories of the Epiphany, to the idea of miracles that teach as distinct from things that amuse and entertain. It is about attending to what Jesus does.

Miracles are an important aspect of the Christian Faith despite the long, long legacy of skepticism about miracles. They aren’t an article of faith so much as an aspect of our thinking about God in relation to us and our world, to what we might call the mystery of life itself; the miracle par excellence, we might say. We live in a world which desperately wants miracles and yet despairingly rejects the very idea of miracles. The great miracle is creation itself, our life as grounded in the Creator’s gift of life. Today’s Gospel helps us to appreciate the miracle of the gift of life, a miracle which challenges the destructive narcissisms of our culture and age.

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Events, Month at a Glance

Week at a Glance, 20 – 26 January

Monday, January 20th
4:35-5:15pm Confirmation Class – KES
6:30-7:30pm Sparks – Parish Hall

Tuesday, January 21st
6:00pm ‘Prayers & Praises’ – Haliburton Place
6:30-8:00pm Brownies – Parish Hall
7:00pm Christ Church Book Club – Coronation Room: Trickster Travels: A Sixteenth Century Muslim between Worlds (2006) by Natalie Zemon Davie, and Wonder Beyond Belief: On Christianity (2015, English trans. 2018) by Navid Kermani

Friday, January 24th, Eve of the Conversion of St. Paul
11:00am Holy Communion – Dykeland Lodge
6:00-7:30pm Pathfinders/Rangers – Parish Hall

Sunday, January 26th, Third Sunday after the Epiphany
8:00am Holy Communion
10:30am Holy Communion
7:00pm Holy Communion – KES

Upcoming Event:

Sunday, February 9th
Pot-Luck Luncheon & Annual Parish Meeting following the 10:30am service.

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Prayers and liturgy

The Second Sunday After The Epiphany

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

ALMIGHTY and everlasting God, who dost govern all things in heaven and earth: Mercifully hear the supplications of thy people, and grant us thy peace all the days of our life; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Epistle: Romans 12:6-16
The Gospel: St. John 2:1-11

Jan Cornelisz Vermeyen, Marriage at CanaArtwork: Jan Cornelisz Vermeyen, Marriage at Cana, 1530. Oil on panel, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.

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KES Chapel Weekly Reflections

KES Chapel Reflection, Week of 15 January

Unum necessarium

“One thing is needful,” Jesus says to Martha, “and Mary has chosen the better part.” What is that “better part”,  “the one thing needful”? Perhaps it is another Mary, the Mary of the Christmas story, who shows us best what is most needed. She is, in the Christian understanding, the Theotokos, the God-bearer, the Mother of God, who embodies the highest dignity and truth of our humanity, “most highly favoured lady” as a carol puts it.

The Christmas story in all of its richness carries over into Epiphany. For Orthodox Christians following the Old Calendar, the Julian calendar, as Stanislav, a student from the Ukraine reminded me the other day, January 7th was Christmas. January 19th will be their Epiphany. The shepherds journey to Bethlehem to “see this thing that has come to pass,” literally, this saying that has happened; in short, “the word made flesh.” The shepherds “make known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child,” awakening wonder in all that heard it. “But Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart.” The one thing needful is to ponder the wonder of God.

Sometimes one story throws light upon another. The Christmas scene, quite frankly, is all a confusion of images, a great cluster of things seen and heard. At best we can only dance around it, looking in upon what is there and thinking about its meaning. In the story of Martha and Mary, sisters in Bethany, Jesus is a guest. Mary sits at Jesus’ feet, “listening to his word.” Martha, on the other hand, is “distracted by much serving” and gets annoyed at Mary and complains to Jesus. Jesus’ response is a profound but gentle rebuke and one which speaks to the confusions and the busyness of our world and day. “Martha, Martha; thou art anxious and troubled about a multitude of things; one thing is needful; and Mary hath chosen the better part.”

We so easily lose ourselves in our busyness as if being busy was the most important thing, as if we could justify ourselves by busyness alone. The problem is not that there aren’t things that have to be done, mouths to be fed, children and others to be cared for, and so on. No. It is more about our preoccupation with our busyness at the expense of the one thing needful. It is a question about ends and priorities. After all, our busyness can often be a form of sloth. Usually we think of sloth as being lazy but it is also about avoiding doing what is needed to be done, using our busyness as an excuse to avoid papers and assignments, studying and reading, for example. Jesus reminds us that contemplation, a kind of serious and thoughtful attention to what is wanted to be known and learned is the one thing needful. The Martha syndrome checked by the Mary solution.

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Prayers and liturgy

Hilary, Doctor and Bishop

The collect for today, the Feast of St. Hilary (c. 315-368), Bishop of Poitiers, Doctor of the Church (source):

Everlasting God,
whose servant Hilary
steadfastly confessed thy Son Jesus Christ
to be both human and divine:
grant us his gentle courtesy
to bring to all the message of redemption
in the incarnate Christ,
who liveth and reigneth with thee,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Epistle: 1 St. John 2:18-25
The Gospel: St. Luke 12:8-12

Workshop of Jeanne and Richard de Montbaston, The Ordination of Saint Hilary of PoitiersHilary was born in Poitiers, Gaul, of wealthy pagan parents. After receiving a thorough education in Latin classics, he became an orator. He also married and had a daughter. At the age of about 35, he rejected his former paganism and became a Christian through a long process of study and thought. Robert Louis Wilken describes his path to conversion in The Spirit of Early Christian Thought (p. 86):

[Hilary] found himself turning to more spiritual pursuits. In his words he wished to pursue a life that was “worthy of the understanding that had been given us by God.” Like Justin [Martyr] he began to read the Bible, and one passage that touched his soul was Exodus 3:14, where God the creator, “testifying about himself,” said, “I am who I am.” For Hilary this brief utterance penetrated more deeply into the mystery of the divine nature than anything he had heard or read from the philosophers. Shortly thereafter he was baptized and received into the church.

Around 353 he was chosen bishop of Poitiers and became an outspoken champion of orthodoxy against the Arians. St. Augustine praised him as “the illustrious teacher of the churches”. St. Jerome wrote that Hilary was “a most eloquent man, and the trumpet of the Latins against the Arians”. Hilary became known as “Athanasius of the West”.

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