Tuesday, December 8th
7:00pm Parish Council Meeting
Sunday, December 13th, Third Sunday in Advent
8:00am Holy Communion
10:30am Holy Communion
Upcoming Event:
Tuesday, December 15th, Eve of Ember Wednesday
7:00pm Holy Communion & Advent Programme 2: St. Augustine’s Confessions
The collect for today, the Second Sunday in Advent, from The Book of Common Prayer (Canadian, 1962):
BLESSED Lord, who hast caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning: Grant that we may in such wise hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them, that by patience and comfort of thy holy Word, we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life, which thou hast given us in our Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.
The Epistle: Romans 15:4-13
The Gospel: St. Luke 21:25-33
Artwork: Edward Burne-Jones, Last Judgment, 1896-7. Stained glass, St. Philip’s Cathedral, Birmingham.
The collect for today, the Feast of Saint Clement of Alexandria (c. 155-c. 215), Priest, Apologist, Doctor (source):
O Lord, who didst call thy servant Clement of Alexandria from the errors of ancient philosophy that he might learn and teach the saving Gospel of Christ: Turn thy Church from the conceits of worldly wisdom and, by the Spirit of truth, guide it into all truth; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
The Epistle: Colossians 1:11-20
The Gospel: St. John 6:57-63
Who is this who comes? Advent is about our awakening to Truth, at once ever present and yet ever coming towards us. As such it belongs to the philosophical insight that truth is primary and prior to us and to all our intellectual endeavours. Truth belongs to the Absolute Good which is God. It is ever coming towards us, we might say, in terms of our awareness (or lack thereof). It is high time to be awakened out of sleep, Paul tells us. Wachet auf, as Bach’s cantata so powerfully reminds us.
The readings in Chapel this week serve to prepare the School for the great pageant of God’s Word coming to us in the remarkable service of Nine Lessons and Carols. We may not be able to have congregational singing but we can be part of the great pageant of God’s Word coming to us and awakening us to what is greater than ourselves. Perhaps that is the great lesson for our day and the counter to all of the narcissisms and self-obsessions that surround us.
The reading from Matthew about Christ’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem is not only read on Palm Sunday but on the First Sunday in Advent and has been for centuries upon centuries. It is a strong reminder to us about the serious nature of God’s turning to us and our turning to God. It signals at once a sense of joy and wonder but as well a sense of judgment. In short, we are being called to account about matters intellectual and ethical. In the 16th century, Archbishop Thomas Cranmer extended the reading to include what immediately follows in Matthew’s account, namely, the disturbing story of Christ’s anger in his cleansing of the temple of “all them that bought and sold therein”, a misuse of the sacred, of the things of God. We read as well from Psalm 85 which captures the twofold emphasis in the Gospel reading: the idea of God turning us and of his anger ceasing from us, on the one hand, and the idea of God turning us again and quickening or enlivening us so that “thy people may rejoice in thee”.
The anger of God? What does that mean? As the exegetical traditions understood, this is simply about how God speaks to us in human ways for the sake of our understanding. For us anger is usually a destructive and dangerous emotion though there is room for the phenomenon of righteous anger, such as in Juvenalian satire used by Voltaire to awaken us to the various forms of injustice in our world and day which cannot be ignored. In a deeper sense, God’s anger or wrath is the love of his own truth and righteousness against all that denies it.
The collect for today, the Feast of St. Andrew, Apostle and Martyr, from The Book of Common Prayer (Canadian, 1962):
ALMIGHTY God, who didst give such grace unto thy holy Apostle Saint Andrew, that he readily obeyed the calling of thy Son Jesus Christ, and followed him without delay: Grant unto us all, that we, being called by thy holy word, may forthwith give up ourselves obediently to fulfil thy holy commandments; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
The Epistle: Romans 10:8-18
The Gospel: St. Matthew 4:18-22
A native of Bethsaida on the Sea of Galilee, Andrew was a fisherman, the son of the fisherman John, and the brother of the fisherman Simon Peter. He was at first, along with John the Evangelist, a disciple of John the Baptist. John the Baptist’s testimony that Jesus was the Christ led the two to follow Jesus. Andrew then took his brother Simon Peter to meet Jesus. In Eastern Orthodox tradition, St. Andrew is called the Protokletos (the First Called) because he is named as the first disciple summoned by Jesus into his service.
At first Andrew and Simon Peter continued to carry on their fishing trade, but the Lord later called them to stay with him all the time. He promised to make them fishers of men and, this time, they left their nets for good.
The only other specific reference to Andrew in the New Testament is at St. Mark 13:3, where he is one of those asking the questions that lead our Lord into his great eschatological discourse.
In the lists of the apostles that appear in the gospels, Andrew is always numbered among the first four. He is named individually three times in the Gospel of St. John. In addition to the story of his calling (John 1:35-42), he, together with Philip, presented the Gentiles to Christ (John 12:20-22), and he pointed out the boy with the loaves and fishes (John 6:8).
Link to the audio file for the service of Matins & Ante-Communion for the First Sunday in Advent
“The real desire of our soul is for what is greater than herself,” the pagan philosopher, Plotinus tells us. Augustine, in a similar vein, begins his Confessions with the observation that “our hearts are restless until they find their rest in thee”. Confession is really about conversion, our turning to God, our turning back to the one from whom we have turned away.
Advent is our awakening to the Word and truth of God at once ever present and yet always coming to us. It is the awakening to what is always prior and always greater than us. Such an awakening is the movement of God coming to us and our coming to God. This twofold movement is really one. We can only turn to God because of God’s turning to us. Such is the awakening to what is greater than ourselves.
Advent awakens us to hope even in the face of darkness and despair, of hope against hope, we might say. “Because I do not hope to turn again,” begins T.S. Eliot’s poem Ash Wednesday, the day which marks the beginning of the penitential season of Lent. It explores from the side of the negative the necessity of our being turned illustrated from the side of the positive in the gradual psalm for today. “Turn us, O God our Saviour,/ and let thine anger cease from us” and with greater intensity, “wilt thou not turn again and quicken us,/ that thy people may rejoice?” The psalm complements both the Epistle and the Gospel. God’s turning to us means both a casting off and a casting out, casting off “the works of darkness” and casting out of “all them that sold and bought in the temple,” a misuse of the things of God. The casting off and casting out reveal what is prior and positive, the nature of the Good that is God which ignorance and sin deny.
God’s Word is light and freedom. This is shown in the Epistle and the Gospel. The Epistle recalls us to the pageant of God’s Word as Law which enlightens and frees just as Christ’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem marks the beginning of the pageant of human redemption in his Passion. There is an awakening to the desire of our souls in the question “Who is this?” at the same time as there is the awakening to the awareness of our misuse of the things of God. We are being called to account but this is our freedom and real dignity.
Tuesday, December 1st, St. Andrew (transf.)
7:00pm Holy Communion & Advent Programme 1: St. Augustine’s Confessions
Sunday, December 6th, Second Sunday in Advent
8:00am Holy Communion
10:30am Holy Communion
Upcoming Event:
Tuesday, December 15th, Eve of Ember Wednesday
7:00pm Holy Communion & Advent Programme 2: St. Augustine’s Confessions
The collect for today, the First Sunday in Advent, being the Fourth Sunday before Christmas Day, from The Book of Common Prayer (Canadian, 1962):
ALMIGHTY God, give us grace that we may cast away the works of darkness, and put upon us the armour of light, now in the time of this mortal life, in which thy Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility; that in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious Majesty, to judge both the quick and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal; through him who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, now and ever. Amen.
The Epistle: Romans 13:8-14
The Gospel: St. Matthew 21:1-13
Artwork: Master of the Kress Epiphany, Expulsion of the Money Changers, c. 1480-1500. Oil on panel, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto.
“Because I do not hope to turn again.” So begins T.S. Eliot’s poem, Ash Wednesday. Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of the penitential season of Lent leading to Easter, to new life, the Resurrection. Advent, too, is a penitential season leading to Christmas in the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ and to the renewing of our lives in the meaning of his nativity. Psalm 80 is one of the great psalms of Advent and in contrast to Eliot’s poem it is full of the hope of turning. Its recurring refrain calls out to God to “turn us again, … show the light of thy countenance, and we shall be whole.” The refrain is marked with increasing degrees of intensity in the fourfold invocation of God. “O God,’’ then twice, “O God of hosts,” and finally, “O Lord God of hosts.” It is about an increased awakening to the mystery of God.
The spiritual insight of Advent is profoundly philosophical. How can we find what we seek and desire without already in some sense knowing what we seek and desire? This is Meno’s dilemma in Plato’s dialogue by that name. It leads to the realization that God is at once prior and beyond as that upon which our knowing and being depend. Our turning is predicated upon God’s turning; our turning to God and God’s turning to us are really one and the same motion. Advent awakens us to the wonder of this twofold turning. “Then Jesus turned,” we heard in the reading in Chapel this week.
That turning leads to the beginning of the cascade of questions that define the Advent season. The questions of Advent stir up hope against despair. They awaken us to the desire for the Good, for what is always beyond and yet ever present. Such is the radical meaning of God’s turning to us and God’s turning us. “What do you seek?” Jesus asks in the moment of his turning to us. The disciples in turn ask, “where dwellest thou?” How do we abide with that which we most truly seek and which is most truly desired?
The reading of part of Psalm 80 along with the Gospel reading from the first chapter of John’s Gospel complements last week’s meditation upon the Law in Psalm 119 and in the Exodus story of the Ten Commandments. These readings all belong to the sense of endings and beginnings. As against a merely linear way of proceeding, of one thing after another after another, these readings recall us to the spiritual and philosophical insight of our constant circling around and into the mystery of God. That beginning again is our hope, our peace, and our joy.
The collect for a virgin or matron, on the Feast of St. Catherine of Alexandria (early 4th century?), Virgin and Martyr, from The Book of Common Prayer (Canadian, 1962):
O GOD Most High, the creator of all mankind, we bless thy holy Name for the virtue and grace which thou hast given unto holy women in all ages, especially thy servant Catherine; and we pray that the example of her faith and purity, and courage unto death, may inspire many souls in this generation to look unto thee, and to follow thy blessed Son Jesus Christ our Saviour; who with thee and the Holy Spirit liveth and reigneth, one God, world without end. Amen.
The Lesson: Acts 9:36-42
The Gospel: St. Luke 10:38-42
According to her legend, St. Catherine lived in Alexandria when Emperor Maxentius was persecuting the church. A noble and learned young Christian, Catherine prevailed in a public debate with philosophers who tried to convince her of the errors of Christianity. Maxentius had her scourged, imprisoned and condemned her to death. She was tied to a wheel embedded with razors, but this attempt to torture her to death failed when the machine (later a Catherine wheel) broke and onlookers were injured by flying fragments. Finally, she was beheaded. Tradition holds that she was martyred in 305.
The cult of Saint Catherine arose in the Eastern Church in the 8th or 9th century and spread to the West at the time of the Crusades. She is not mentioned in any early martyrologies. No reliable facts concerning her life or death have been established. Most historians now believe that she probably never existed.
St. Catherine is often portrayed holding a book, symbolic of her great learning. She is the patron saint of libraries and librarians, teachers and students.
Artwork: Juan de Borgoña the Younger, Saint Catherine before the Emperor Maxentius, c. 1500. Oil on panel, Private collection.
