Author: CCW

Prayers and liturgy

Edward the Confessor

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

Cartmel Priory, 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: Saint Edward, King and Confessor, 19th-century stained glass, from the East window, North transept, Cartmel Priory, England. The saint is shown inspecting a model of Westminster Abbey, which was built during his reign.

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Sermons

Sermon for Harvest Thanksgiving

“And one turned back … giving him thanks”

In returning and giving thanks, we are made whole. This text signals the profoundly spiritual nature of thanksgiving. In a way, today’s Gospel is the quintessential gospel of thanksgiving. At Harvest Thanksgiving, though, we usually read the lesson from Isaiah about the word of God in creation and the Gospel from St. John about Jesus as “the Bread of Life” (BCP, p. 620/1). This Gospel story from St. Luke we usually hear on The Fourteenth Sunday after Trinity (BCP, p. 240), but that Sunday happened to be The Feast of St. Matthew this year. Yet this Gospel is also the appointed Gospel reading for Thanksgiving Day (BCP, p. 308). It embraces and shapes all our thinking about thanksgiving. We need to ponder its essential meaning.

Pumpkins and prepositions. Both abound in the culture of the Maritimes, often in interesting ways, but I fear we probably take more notice of the pumpkins than we do of prepositions. Pumpkins, especially given the parade of pumpkins and the pumpkin regatta in the Pisiquid puddle, are part of our thanksgiving celebrations here in Windsor. But prepositions! You’ve got to be kidding. Grammar on a Sunday?! Yes. Why? Because we can’t make any sense of the concept of thanksgiving without giving serious consideration to prepositions, particularly three prepositions. Which prepositions? They are ‘for’, ‘to’, and ‘with’.

But what are prepositions? Prepositions are those little words which carry such a weight of meaning and are so hard to master when learning a new language. They position nouns and verbs in relation to one another to indicate meaning and purpose.

Thanksgiving is a profoundly spiritual activity. It is the freest thing that we can do. Like learning and religion, it can’t be forced. It has to come freely from our hearts and minds. We can constantly remind our children to say ‘thank-you’, but real thanksgiving cannot be coerced. It belongs to the intellectual and spiritual freedom of our humanity. It is the counter to all and every aspect of the entitlement culture, to the assumption that we are owed whatever we want and think we deserve. Its significance is captured in the power of these prepositions.

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Events, Month at a Glance

Week at a Glance, 13 – 19 October

Tuesday, October 14th
6:00pm ‘Prayers & Praises’ – Haliburton Place
7:00pm Christ Church Book Club: The Flanders Panel, by Arturo Pérez-Reverte, and The Titian Committee, by Iain Pears – Parish Hall

Thursday, October 16th
6:30-7:30pm Brownies – Parish Hall

Sunday, October 19th, Trinity XVIII
8:00am Holy Communion
10:30am Holy Communion
4:00pm Choral Evensong – St. Peter’s Cathedral, Charlottetown (Fr. Curry preaching)

Upcoming Events:

Saturday, November 22nd
4:30-6:00pm Annual Parish Ham Supper

Friday, December 19th
7:00pm Christ Church Concert Series II: Capella Regalis presents “To Bethlehem With Kings”

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Prayers and liturgy

The Seventeenth Sunday After Trinity

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

LORD, we pray thee that thy grace may always prevent and follow us, and make us continually to be given to all good works; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Epistle: Ephesians 4:1-6
The Gospel: St. Luke 14:1-11

Lauder, Christ Teacheth HumilityArtwork: Robert Scott Lauder, Christ Teacheth Humility, 1847. Oil on canvas, National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh.

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Prayers and liturgy

St. Philip of Caesarea, Apostolic Man

The collect for today, the Feast of Saint Philip of Caesarea, Deacon, Evangelist, 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

Maulbertsch, The Apostle Philip Baptizes a EunuchArtwork: Franz Anton Maulbertsch, The Apostle Philip Baptizes a Eunuch, c. 1750. Oil on paper, Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg.

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Prayers and liturgy

Paulinus, Missionary and Archbishop

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 you for your servant Paulinus, whom you called to preach the Gospel to the people of northern England. Raise up in this and every land evangelists and heralds of your kingdom, that your Church may proclaim the unsearchable riches of our Savior Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you 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

Cathedral of Ste-Marie, Bayonne, St. DenisThe 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

Artwork: Saint Denis, Cathedral of Sainte-Marie, Bayonne, France.

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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):

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

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Prayers and liturgy

William Tyndale, Translator and Martyr

The collect for today, the commemoration of William Tyndale (c. 1495-1536), Priest, Translator of the Scriptures, Reformation Martyr (source):

William TyndaleO Lord, grant to thy people
grace to hear and keep thy word
that, after the example of thy servant William Tyndale,
we may both profess thy gospel
and also be ready to suffer and die for it,
to the honour of thy name;
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 Epistle: St. James 1:21-25
The Gospel: St. John 12:44-50

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Sermons

Sermon for the Sixteenth Sunday after Trinity

“Young man, I say unto thee, Arise”

Michaelmas daisies and burning bushes abound in the softness of autumn – even if the burning bush is one that has been hacked to pieces on the corner of the Parish’s property! Michaelmas daisies and burning bushes are, to my mind, strong and visible reminders of the primacy of spiritual and intellectual matters. No doubt, this week will inaugurate a great parade of pumpkins. I am a little less certain what things pumpkins remind us about matters spiritual and intellectual.

The Michaelmas daisies remind us of Michaelmas, the Feast of St. Michael and All Angels celebrated at the near end of September. The Angels are very much part of the larger spiritual company defined by the worship and love of the God who has revealed himself to us and in whose life “we live and move and have our being”. The burning bushes of autumn recall the essential moment and story of revelation: God makes himself known to Moses as “I AM WHO I AM” through a burning bush, which not only gets Moses’ attention, but is not consumed, not burned up. We stand on the holy ground of divine revelation. God reveals himself in his truth and majesty – “I AM WHO I AM” – but he does so through the things of nature. The natural world, too, is used as the vehicle of God’s revelation. In this lies the logic of the sacraments and our liturgy. It means that even pumpkins can remind us of the God who creates and redeems, whether or not paddling a pumpkin in the Pisiquid puddle on the Thanksgiving weekend.

God creates “out of nothing”, late Judaism and Christianity affirm, meaning that what is and what comes to be is not shaped and formed out of pre-existent matter but comes to be radically out of the mind and will of God. God after all is no-thing; not one thing among many things, but the cause and principle of all things. The revelation of God to Moses in the burning bush is the real starting point for the doctrine of creation. God is not a burning bush. He is not to be confused with anything in the created order. But, then, there is the Greek view that “nothing comes from nothing”. It belongs to Christianity to unite these two opposed concepts.

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