Month: October 2023

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

Stanley Spencer, The Paralytic Being Let into the Top of the House on his BedArtwork: Stanley Spencer, The Paralytic Being Let into the Top of the House on his Bed, c. 1920. Oil on panel, Private collection.

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KES Chapel Weekly Reflections

KES Chapel Reflection, Week of 13 October

Beguiled

Thanksgiving, we suggested, is a kind of thoughtfulness about God and the goodness of creation and thus a reminder to us about our place within that God-created order. But where then does evil arise? Unde malum? From whence evil? The Chapel readings from Genesis 3 this week speak directly to this question. It is the famous (or infamous) story of the Fall. Sadly, these reflections also follow upon the ugly spectacle of war in Israel that broke out this weekend, and in the extreme form of the rejection of the two-state solution by the militant organization ‘Hamas’ for whom the existence of the Jewish state is anathema, and even worse, the existence of all Jews. These are all part of the confusions and divisions within our global world. They have to do, in one way or another, with the idea of evil.

What kind of evil? “From lightning and tempest; from earthquake, fire, and flood; from plague, pestilence, and famine … Good Lord, deliver us.” The Litany was the first service to be translated (and modified) into English from Latin by Thomas Cranmer in 1544. It reminds us of another dimension of thanksgiving: our thanksgiving from the threats of the natural world, what later thinkers in the Enlightenment, like Voltaire and Leibniz, called “physical or material evil”. We have experienced some of these things this spring and summer. But added to that phrase is the prayer for deliverance “from battle and murder, and from sudden death.” Such things belong to the disorders and disarray of human hearts in the various forms of “moral evil”. And they are very destructive, cruel and deadly.

That we come to the question about evil after the pageant of creation and the creation of our humanity within that order is most significant. The concept of the Good is absolutely prior and thus counters from the outset the pathological dualism of seeing things in absolute contraries. The story, moreover, seeks to show how we come to self-consciousness through an awareness of ourselves as selves. It happens through our separation from the goodness of the created order and, especially, in relation to the commandment not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. At issue is how we come to the knowledge of good and evil. Will it be through separation by way of disobedience or in some other way? We choose the former with all of its fatal consequences. The Law and Mary’s fiat – her “be it unto me according to thy Word” (Grace) – suggest the other ways that belongs to human redemption.

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Prayers and liturgy

King Edward the Confessor

The collect for today, the Feast of St. Edward the Confessor (c. 1003-1066), King of England (source):

Our Lady of the Assumption & St. Gregory Roman Catholic Church, St. EdwardO Sovereign God,
who didst set thy servant Edward upon the throne of an earthly kingdom
and didst inspire him with zeal for the kingdom of heaven:
grant that we may so confess the faith of Christ by word and deed,
that we may, with all thy saints, inherit thine eternal glory;
through 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: Ecclesiasticus 31:8-11
The Gospel: St. Luke 12:35-40

Artwork: S.Eduardus, Mosaic, Our Lady of the Assumption & St. Gregory Roman Catholic Church, Warwick Street, London.

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Prayers and liturgy

St. Philip of Caesarea, Apostolic Man

The collect for today, the Feast of St. Philip of Caesarea, Deacon, Apostolic Man (source):

Almighty and everlasting God, we thank thee for thy servant Philip the Deacon, whom thou didst call to preach the Gospel to the peoples of Samaria and Ethiopia. Raise up, we beseech thee, in this and every land heralds and evangelists of thy kingdom, that thy Church may make known the immeasurable riches of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, now and for ever.

The Lesson: Acts 8:26-40
The Gospel: St. Matthew 28:18-20

Pieter Lastman, The Baptism of the Eunuch, 1623Artwork: Pieter Lastman, The Baptism of the Eunuch, 1623. Oil on panel, Staatliche Kunsthalle, Karlsruhe, Germany.

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Prayers and liturgy

Paulinus, Missionary and Archbishop

Cathedral of St John the Baptist, Saint PaulinusThe collect for today, the Feast of St. Paulinus (c. 584-644), Monk, first Archbishop of York, Missionary (source):

Almighty and everlasting God, we thank thee for thy servant Paulinus, whom thou didst call to preach the Gospel to the people of northern England. Raise up, we beseech thee, in this and every land evangelists and heralds of thy kingdom, that thy Church may proclaim the unsearchable riches of our Savior Jesus Christ; who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.

With the Epistle and Gospel for a Bishop or Archbishop, from The Book of Common Prayer (Canadian, 1962):
The Epistle: 1 Timothy 6:11-16
The Gospel: St. Luke 12:37-43

The St. Paulinus stained glass was made by the firm of C.E. Kempe of London and installed in the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist, St. John’s, Newfoundland, in 1913. Photograph taken by admin, 7 September 2009.

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Prayers and liturgy

St. Denys, Bishop and Martyr

The collect for today, the Feast of Saint Denys (d. c. 258), Bishop of Paris, Patron Saint of France, Martyr (source):

O GOD, who as on this day didst endow thy blessed Martyr and Bishop Saint Denys with strength to suffer stedfastly for thy sake, and didst join unto him Rusticus and Eleutherius for the preaching of thy glory to the Gentiles: grant us, we beseech thee, so to follow their good example; that for the love of thee we may despise all worldly prosperity, and be afraid of no manner of worldly adversity. Through Jesus Christ our Lord.

The Lesson: Acts 17:22-34
The Gospel: St Luke 12:1-9

Jean-Guillaume Carlier, Martyrdom of Saint Denis of ParisArtwork: Jean-Guillaume Carlier, Martyrdom of Saint Denis of Paris, c. 1660-75. Oil on canvas, Royal Museum of Fine Arts of Belgium, Brussels.

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Prayers and liturgy

Robert Grosseteste, Bishop and Scholar

The collect for today, the commemoration of Robert Grosseteste (c. 1175-1253), Bishop of Lincoln, Scholar (source):

William Morris from a design by Edward Burne-Jones, Bishop Robert GrossetesteO God our heavenly Father, who didst raise up thy faithful servant Robert Grosseteste to be a bishop and pastor in thy Church and to feed thy flock: Give to all pastors abundant gifts of thy Holy Spirit, that they may minister in thy household as true servants of Christ and stewards of thy divine mysteries; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.

The Lesson: Acts 20:28-32
The Gospel: St. Luke 16:10-15

Artwork: William Morris from a design by Edward Burne-Jones, Bishop Robert Grosseteste, 1896. Stained glass, St. Paul’s Church, Morton, England.

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Prayers and liturgy

Harvest Thanksgiving

The collect for today, Harvest Thanksgiving Day, from The Book of Common Prayer (Canadian, 1962):

O ALMIGHTY and everlasting God, who crownest the year with thy goodness, and hast given unto us the fruits of the earth in their season: Give us grateful hearts, that we may unfeignedly thank thee for all thy loving-kindness, and worthily magnify thy holy Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Additional prayers of Thanksgiving for the Blessings of Harvest, from The Book of Common Prayer (Canadian, 1962):

O ALMIGHTY God and heavenly Father, we glorify thee that we are once more permitted to enjoy the fulfilment of thy gracious promise, that, while the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest shall not fail. Blessed be thou, who hast given us the fruits of the earth in their season. Teach us to remember that it is not by bread alone that man doth live; but grant that we may feed on him who is the true bread which cometh down from heaven even Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour; to whom with thee, O Father, and thee, O Holy Spirit, be honour and glory, for ever and ever. Amen.

O ALMIGHTY God, whose dearly beloved Son, after his resurrection, sent his Apostles into all the world, and, on the day of Pentecost, endued them with special gifts of the Holy Spirit, that they might gather in the spiritual harvest: We beseech thee to look down from heaven upon the fields, now white unto the harvest, and to send forth more labourers to gather fruit unto eternal life. And grant us grace so to help them with our prayers and offerings, that when the harvest of the earth is ripe, and the time for reaping is come, we, together with them, may rejoice before thee, according to the joy in harvest; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Lesson Isaiah 55:1-12
The Gospel: St. John 6:27-35

John La Farge, Angels Representing ThanksgivingArtwork: John La Farge, Angels Representing Thanksgiving, c. 1890-1900. Watercolour, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

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Prayers and liturgy

Audio file of 8:00am Holy Communion service, Harvest Thanksgiving/Eighteenth Sunday after Trinity

Click here to listen to an audio recording of the 8:00am service of Holy Communion at Christ Church on Harvest Thanksgiving on the Eighteenth Sunday after Trinity.

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Sermons

Sermon for Harvest Thanksgiving / Eighteenth Sunday after Trinity

“One turned back … giving him thanks”

Austin Farrer once summed up the Gospel according to St. Mark in three sentences: “God gives you everything. Give everything back to God. You can’t.” Except, it must be said, by the grace of Christ in thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is the highest form of prayer, a kind of adoration. Thanksgiving is really a kind of thoughtfulness, our thoughtfulness towards God and towards the unity of all things in God. It is the counter to the idea of entitlement and privilege, to our tendency to take everything for granted and to think that we are owed the things we want. Thanksgiving speaks to the highest dignity of our humanity.

The readings for Thanksgiving Day from Deuteronomy and Luke capture the quintessential features of thanksgiving as a kind of thoughtfulness. They are complemented by the readings for Harvest Thanksgiving from Isaiah about God’s Word going forth and returning not empty but with purpose and in joy and from the Bread of Life discourse in John’s Gospel about our sacramental participation in Christ. Thanksgiving in all senses is really about our participation in the motions of God’s Word and Will.

Deuteronomy’s wonderful litany about the good land flowing with the abundance of good things, “a land in which you will eat bread without scarcity, in which you will lack nothing” is grounded in the idea of “keeping the commandments of the Lord your God, by walking in his ways and by fearing him”; in short, honouring God. There is something quite wonderful about our being gathered to God in the gathering of the fruits of the harvest into the Church where even the lowly zucchini, squash, and pumpkins not to mention the little gourds proclaim the goodness of God.

The harvest gathering belongs to the greater gathering of prayer. It is intellectus, the gathering of all things into unity in God from whom all good things do come. There is the danger of attending too much to the good things themselves and losing sight of the fact that they are all gifts, the gifts of God in creation of which we too are a part. Bread and wine, after all, are not simply natural creatures. They are the product of our working with God in the good order of his creation. But that belongs to our vocation as “nature’s high priest” (George Herbert). Thanksgiving brings out the deeper meaning of Genesis 1 and 2 about the created order and our place within it. In a way, it highlights the meaning of being made in the image of God and, in a complementary fashion, as the dust into which God has breathed his spirit; connected to God and to the whole order of created beings, from dust to angels.

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