Author: CCW

Prayers and liturgy

The Third Sunday in Lent

The collect for today, the Third Sunday in Lent, from The Book of Common Prayer (Canadian, 1962):

WE beseech thee, Almighty God, look upon the hearty desires of thy humble servants and stretch forth the right hand of thy Majesty to be our defence against all our enemies; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Epistle: Ephesians 5:1-14
The Gospel: St. Luke 11:14-26

Charles-Antoine Coypel, Christ Curing a Possessed ManArtwork: Charles-Antoine Coypel, Christ Curing a Possessed Man, 1717. Oil on canvas, National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin.

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Sermons

Lenten Programme I: ‘To decline from sin, and incline to virtue’

The Deadly Three: Lenten Meditations on Pride, Envy & Anger
Lenten Programme I: ‘To decline from sin, and incline to virtue’

Christ Church, Windsor, NS
Fr. David Curry 2025

The paradox of sin and love, those “two vast, spacious things” which, as George Herbert observes, most need to be ‘measured’ over and above what can be known through the human philosophical sciences, is captured concisely in the phrase “to decline from sin and incline to virtue” found in the Penitential Service (Cdn. BCP 1962, pp. 611-615). The paradox is that the awareness of sin and evil presupposes the knowledge of the radical goodness of God as prior and thus as that which moves us to seek that good in spite of our failings and follies. Love is the moving force or activity in the virtues of the soul.

Sin and love go together and belong to the necessity of what is made known most clearly through Revelation in the witness of the Scripture which is why Herbert points us to the two moments of Christ’s agony: the agony of Christ in Gethsemane and at Calvary. Those passages illustrate the “two vast, spacious things,” namely, “sinne and love.”

The virtues are activities of the soul which pertain to excellence of character in relation to the highest end of our humanity. Charity, as Paul puts it, is “the greatest of the three,” referring to the theological virtues of faith, hope, and charity. Thomas Aquinas emphasizes that charity orders all of the virtues to man’s highest end which is God. That ordering is not a negating of the classical traditions of the virtues but a reordering of them to the highest good which is our participation in the life of God. Love or charity, as Thomas argues, is “the form, the mover, and the root of the virtues” (de caritate, 3).

But what exactly is the sin that opposes love or virtue? It is the vices. The Penitential Service provides for the reading of the Beatitudes from the Sermon on the Mount. They, too, illustrate this profound and necessary interrelation between sin and love. The confession of sin, as Augustine states, is equally and necessarily the confession of praise to God. Peccatum poena peccati. “Sin is the punishment of sin,” he says, a point which reveals the self-contradictory nature of sin and which really points us to God. Sin is its own penalty; the reward or result of virtue is God in his essential goodness. To know sin presupposes the goodness of God as that which sin attempts to negate and deny.

There are seven deadly sins in the Christian moral tradition that are drawn from Scripture and ancient ethical philosophy. Proverbs 6. 16-19, for instance, explicitly speaks of seven sins. “There are six things which the Lord hates, seven which are an abomination to him.” Hate means things which stand in opposition to the goodness of God. The images in Proverbs speak of the things of the spirit by way of the things of the body: proud eyes, false tongues, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wickedness, feet that are swift to do evil, a false witness that breathes out lies, a sower of discord. They provide an interesting and important insight into vice by way of these concrete images.

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Prayers and liturgy

Benedict, Abbott

The collect for today, the Feast of Saint Benedict of Nursia (c. 480-550), Abbot of Monte Cassino, Father of Western Monasticism (source):

Gherardo Starnina, Saint BenedictO eternal God,
who made Benedict a wise master
in the school of thy service,
and a guide to many called into the common life
to follow the rule of Christ:
grant that we may put thy love above all things,
and seek with joy the way of thy commandments;
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: Proverbs 2:1-9
The Gospel: St. Luke 14:27-33

Artwork: Gherardo Starnina, Saint Benedict, 1404. Fresco, Santa Maria della Carmine, Florence.

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Prayers and liturgy

Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop and Martyr

The collect for today, the commemoration of Thomas Cranmer (1489-1556), Archbishop of Canterbury, Reformation Martyr (source):

Hensley Chapel, Cranmer WindowFather of all mercies,
who through the work of thy servant Thomas Cranmer
didst renew the worship of thy Church
and through his death
didst reveal thy strength in human weakness:
strengthen us by thy grace so to worship thee in spirit and in truth
that we may come to the joys of thine everlasting kingdom;
through Jesus Christ, our Mediator and Advocate,
who liveth and reigneth with thee,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Epistle: 1 Corinthians 3:9-14
The Gospel: St. John 15:20-16:1

Artwork: Thomas Cranmer, stained glass, Hensley Memorial Chapel, King’s-Edgehill School, Windsor, N.S.

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Prayers and liturgy

Cuthbert, Missionary and Bishop

Cuthbert window, St. Philip's VancouverThe collect for today, the Feast of Saint Cuthbert (c. 634-87), Bishop of Lindisfarne, Missionary (source):

Almighty God,
who didst call thy servant Cuthbert from following the flock
to follow thy Son and to be a shepherd of thy people:
in thy mercy, grant that we may so follow his example
that we may bring those who are lost home to thy fold;
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: 2 Corinthians 6:1-10
The Gospel: St. Matthew 6:24-33

Artwork: St. Cuthbert, stained glass, St. Philip’s Anglican Church, Vancouver.

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Prayers and liturgy

Saint Joseph

The collect for today, the Feast of Saint Joseph of Nazareth, Guardian of Our Lord, Husband of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Patron Saint of Canada, from The Book of Common Prayer (Canadian, 1962):

O GOD Most High, who from the family of thy servant David didst raise up Joseph the carpenter to be protector of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of our Lord: Grant that we may so labour in our earthly vocations, that they may become labours of love and service offered unto thee, our Father; through the same our Lord Jesus Christ, who with thee and the Holy Spirit liveth and reigneth, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

The Epistle: Galatians 4:1-7
The Gospel: St. Matthew 1:18-25

Guido Reni, Saint Joseph and the Christ Child, 1640Artwork: Guido Reni, Saint Joseph and the Christ Child, 1640. Oil on canvas, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

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Prayers and liturgy

Thomas Ken, Bishop and Poet

The collect for today, the commemoration of Thomas Ken (1637-1711), Bishop of Bath and Wells, Non-Juror, Hymn Writer (source):

O God, from whom all blessings flow,
by whose providence we are kept
and by whose grace we are directed:
assist us, through the example of thy servant Thomas Ken,
faithfully to keep thy word,
humbly to accept adversity
and steadfastly to worship thee;
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.

With the Epistle and Gospel for a Bishop, from The Book of Common Prayer (Canadian, 1962)
The Epistle: 1 Timothy 6:11-16
The Gospel: St. Luke 12:37-44

Wells Cathedral, Bishop Ken windowOrdained an Anglican priest in 1662, Thomas Ken served as rector in several parishes before becoming chaplain to members of the royal family and, in 1685, Bishop of Bath and Wells. A man of principle and strong conviction, he was one of seven bishops imprisoned for refusing to sign King James II’s “Declaration of Indulgence”, the purpose of which was to allow Catholics to resume positions of political power in England. After strong expressions of popular support by the people of London, Bishop Ken was quickly tried and acquitted.

King James II was forced to flee the country when King William and Queen Mary were invited to become co-monarchs of England. William and Mary demanded oaths of allegiance from all persons holding public positions, including the bishops. Thomas Ken and others (known as the Non-Jurors; the older meaning of “juror” is “one who takes an oath”, hence “perjurer” as “one who swears falsely”) refused to take the oath on the grounds that they had sworn allegiance to James and could not during his lifetime swear allegiance to another monarch without making such oaths a mockery. Bishop Ken took this stand as a matter of principle despite his strong disagreement with much that James had done. In 1690, he and the other surviving non-jurors were deposed.

(Most of the bishops of Scotland also refused the oath; William and Mary retaliated by disestablishing the Episcopal Church in Scotland and making the Presbyterian Kirk the established state church there instead.)

Bishop Ken was also a poet and hymn-writer. He wrote the text for the well-loved doxology “Praise God, from whom all blessings flow“, which is actually the last verse of his longer hymn, “Awake My Soul, and with the sun“.

A prayer of Thomas Ken:

God, our heavenly father, make, we pray, the door of this Cathedral Church wide enough to welcome all who need human love and fellowship and a Father’s care; but narrow enough to shut out all envy, pride, and lack of love. Here may the temped find help, the sorrowing receive comfort, the careless be awakened to repentance, and the penitent be assured of your mercy; and here may all your children renew their strength and go on their way in hope and joy; through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

Artwork: Thomas Ken window, Wells Cathedral, installed in 1885 to celebrate the bicentenary of his consecration as Bishop of Bath and Wells.

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Prayers and liturgy

St. Patrick, Missionary and Bishop

Holy Trinity Sloane Square, St. PatrickThe collect for today, the Feast of Saint Patrick (c. 390-c. 461), Bishop, Missionary, Patron of Ireland (source):

Almighty God,
who in thy providence chose thy servant Patrick
to be the apostle of the people of Ireland:
keep alive in us the fire of faith which he kindled,
and in this our earthly pilgrimage
strengthen us to gain the light of everlasting life;
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: 1 Thessalonians 2:2b-12
The Gospel: St Matthew 28:16-20

Click here to read the prayer known as St Patrick’s Breastplate.

Artwork: Saint Patrick, stained glass, Holy Trinity, Sloane Square, London. Photograph taken by admin, 20 October 2014.

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Prayers and liturgy

Audio file of 8:00am Holy Communion service, Second Sunday in Lent

Click here to listen to an audio recording of the 8:00am service of Holy Communion at Christ Church on the Second Sunday in Lent.

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Sermons

Sermon for the Second Sunday in Lent

“O woman, great is thy faith”

The encounter between Jesus and the Canaanite woman is an arresting and compelling scene and yet, equally, a most disquieting and disturbing one. She “asks, knocks, and seeks,” we might say, but what does it take to receive? It means, it seems, at the very least, a remarkable kind of perseverance and depth of soul. It reveals nothing less than the power and the truth of faith.

The woman comes to Jesus with a request for the healing of her daughter “grievously vexed with a devil.” There are a number of healing stories in the Gospels but rather few about the healing of the mind or the soul. Like this story, they are about demonic influence and possession. This is not to be mocked or derided but appreciated in its power and truth. And what is that power and truth? The power and truth of what opposes the power and truth of God and the image of that power and truth in us. The point is that we can be overtaken in our very selves in various ways. This story touches upon ancient wisdom and human psychology.

What is equally remarkable is that she is a Canaanite woman, meaning one who is outside the households and tribes of Israel. The marvel of the story is that she who is from outside of Israel is in truth “an Israelite indeed,” meaning one who truly strives with God, emphasis on the word ‘with’, not ‘against’. Her question to Jesus is not for herself but for her daughter. She is, and this is key to the story, quite determined in her quest. She has a hold of a truth in Jesus which she will not relinquish. At least on one level this is a story about perseverance, about holding on in the face of adversity, about trust and faith.

What is so disturbing, and yet so profound is how she is answered in her request. First, there is no response – “he answered her not a word”- there is only silence. Secondly, there is rejection – “send her away, for she crieth after us”, say the disciples. Thirdly, there is refusal – “I am not sent”, says Jesus, “but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” And fourthly, there is repudiation – “It is not right to take the children’s bread, and to cast it to dogs.” What could be more devastating, more disparaging, more discouraging than that?

Only at this point of utter humiliation as it must seem, when we are speechless with shock at the harshness of it all, is there the beginnings of the complete turn-around of grace that leads to the ultimate exaltation – “O woman, great is thy faith: be it unto thee even as thou wilt.” It is not simply about a kind of stubborn willfulness on her part. She gets what she seeks only because of her insight into the truth of Christ. How do we know that? Only through the struggle. That is perhaps the real lesson for us. The struggle matters. The struggle is nothing less than the struggle of faith. She who is from outside of Israel symbolizes the very truth and meaning of Israel. It means striving with God.

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