Author: CCW

Prayers and liturgy

Saint Agnes of Rome

The collect for today, the Feast of Saint Agnes (d. 304), Virgin, Martyr (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

Saints Agnes and Pudentiana

Artwork: Saint Agnes (left) and Saint Pudentiana (right), 9th-century mosaic, Chapel of San Zeno, Basilica of Saint Praxades, Rome. Photograph taken by admin, 25 April 2010.

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Prayers and liturgy

Saint Henry of Finland

The collect for a martyr, on the Feast of Saint Henry of Finland (d. 1150), Bishop, Martyr, Patron Saint of Finland, from The Book of Common Prayer (Canadian, 1962):

Saint Henry of FinlandALMIGHTY God, by whose grace and power thy Martyr Henry was enabled to witness to the truth and to be faithful unto death: Grant that we, who now remember him before thee, may likewise so bear witness unto thee in this world, that we may receive with him the crown of glory that fadeth not away; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with thee and the Holy Spirit liveth and reigneth, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

The Epistle: 1 St Peter 4:12-19
The Gospel: St Matthew 16:24-27

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Statements and other writings

Fr. Robert Crouse – In Memoriam

Fr. Robert Crouse“They have no wine”, Mary says in today’s Gospel story, the story of the wedding feast at Cana of Galilee. As Father Robert Crouse observed, her statement captures the human predicament. We lack the means of joy in ourselves. We lack what he has called “the wine of divinity”.

Many of us may feel that we are at a loss, too, with the death of The Rev’d Dr. Robert Darwin Crouse. A great teacher and scholar of international standing and repute, he was a friend and a mentor to a great number of priests and scholars around the world. Many of us owe our love and what knowledge we have of such outstanding theological and poetic figures as Augustine and Dante, for instance, to Robert. Through his teaching in hundreds and hundreds of sermons over many years, many people, both clergy and lay, have learned a love of God and an understanding of Christian doctrine, particularly as expressed in the liturgy of The Book of Common Prayer. Acknowledged as “the conscience of the Canadian Church” by another theologian, Canon Eugene Rathbone Fairweather, Robert’s voice was the calm still voice of wisdom and understanding, a theological voice which has not always been heeded by the Anglican Church, but which lives on through his writings and teachings and, perhaps, in some small way through his many, many students.

He was, perhaps, the most outstanding scholar that King’s Collegiate School in Windsor, (now King’s-Edgehill) and the University of King’s College in Halifax ever produced. The School contributed to his love of nature, his love of music and his love of learning. They are the loves which stayed with him throughout his life: in the horticultural paradise of his gardens in Crousetown; in playing the organ at little St. Mary’s, Crousetown, the home of the famous Baroque concerts; in teaching at King’s and Dalhousie and in Rome. An outstanding teacher of patristic and medieval philosophy and literature, he was the embodiment of the ideal of the scholarly priest.

While a student at the School, he often came down to Christ Church to play the organ: it was his way, he told me, of getting out of rugby! He has left his mark, quite literally, on the inside wall of the organ chamber where his signature in chalk can still be seen. The smell of the wood and fabric of Christ Church, he once told me, has always stayed with him as evocating the very image and idea of the essential being of the Church.

Robert’s teaching was always, in some sense, sacramental. From Robert we learn something of what it means to have “no wine” in ourselves and, even more, to discover “the wine of divinity” in which we may find those joys celestial which have no ending. May he rest in peace and may his example inspire us all.

Fr. David Curry
Chaplain & Teacher, King’s-Edgehill School
Rector of Christ Church, Windsor
January 16th, 2011

Many of Fr. Crouse’s sermons and writings can be accessed via this link at St. Peter Publications.

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Sermons

Sermon for the Second Sunday after the Epiphany

“They have no wine”

Mary’s statement describes in a simple phrase our human predicament. We are without. We lack the means for our true joy, for our true blessedness. In the background to her remark there is an ancient Jewish saying: “without wine there is no joy”. “They have no wine” means, we may say, they have no joy. But ‘they’ are ‘us’. We have no wine, no joy.

The deeper point is that we can have no joy in ourselves. We lack, we might say, the wine of divinity, the source and the occasion of all joy, the wine that truly gladdens and rejoices the heart and soul. To know our lack, however, is saving knowledge. To know our limitations is to be alert to the possibilities of their being overcome – not by us but by the grace of God for us and in us. To know our lack is to be alert to the real presence of divine grace in our midst.

I cannot think of this gospel story without recalling the phrase “the wine of divinity” used by Fr. Robert Crouse in a sermon on this gospel. A great teacher and scholar of international standing and repute, he was a friend and a mentor to a great number of priests and scholars around the world. The Rev’d Dr. Robert Darwin Crouse passed away yesterday. Many of us owe our love and what knowledge we have of such outstanding theological and poetic figures as Augustine and Dante, for instance, to Robert. Through his teaching in hundreds and hundreds of sermons over many years, many people, both clergy and lay, have learned a love of God and an understanding of Christian doctrine, particularly as expressed in the liturgy of The Book of Common Prayer. Acknowledged as “the conscience of the Canadian Church” by another theologian, Canon Eugene Rathbone Fairweather, Robert’s voice was the calm still voice of wisdom and understanding, a voice which has not always been heeded by the Anglican Church, but which lives on through his writings and teachings and, perhaps, in some small way through his many, many students, of which I count myself one.

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Events, Month at a Glance

Week at a Glance, 17-23 January

Monday, January 17th
4:45-5:15pm Confirmation Class – Rm 204 KES

Tuesday, January 18th
3:30pm Holy Communion at The Elms
6:00pm ‘Prayers & Praises’ – Haliburton Place
6:30-7:30pm Brownies’ Mtg.

Thursday, January 20th
1:30-3:00pm Seniors’ Drop-In
6:30pm ‘Cinema Paradiso’ Movie Night: “The Apostle”

Friday, January 21st
11:00am Holy Communion – Dykeland Lodge
3:30pm Holy Communion – Gladys Manning

Sunday, January 23rd, Third Sunday After The Epiphany
8:00am Holy Communion – Parish Hall
9:30am Holy Communion at KES
10:30am Morning Prayer – Parish Hall
2:00pm AMD Service of the Deaf

Confirmation Classes: Rm. 204 at KES, 4:45-5:15.
The dates are January 10th, 17th; February 7th, 14th, 21st, 28th; March 7th. Please contact Fr. Curry, 798-2454.

Upcoming events:
Monday, January 31st
7:30pm Christ Church Book Club: “Atheist Delusions” by David Bentley Hart
Sunday, February 6th
Pot-Luck Luncheon & Annual Parish Meeting, following the 10:30 service
Tuesday, March 8th
4:30-6:00pm Shrove Tuesday Pancake Supper

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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

Naples Duomo, Wedding at Cana

Artwork: (left) Jesus with the Samaritan Woman at the Well / (right) The Miracle of the Wedding at Cana, 4th-century mosaic. Baptistery of San Giovanni in Fonte, Duomo di San Gennaro (Naples Cathedral). The Baptistery of San Giovanni in Fonte is believed to be the oldest surviving baptistery in the Western world.

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Prayers and liturgy

Saint Hilary of Poitiers

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

Saint HilaryEverlasting 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

Click here to read more about Saint Hilary.

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Prayers and liturgy

Saint Benedict Biscop

The collect for a Doctor of the Church, Poet, or Scholar, on the Feast of Saint Benedict Biscop (c. 628-89), Founder of the monasteries of Wearmouth and Jarrow, Scholar, Patron of the Arts, from The Book of Common Prayer (Canadian, 1962);

O GOD, who by thy Holy Spirit hast given unto one man a word of wisdom, and to another a word of knowledge, and to another the gift of tongues: We praise thy Name for the gifts of grace manifested in thy servant Benedict Biscop, and we pray that thy Church may never be destitute of the same; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Lesson: Daniel 2:17-24
The Gospel: St Matthew 13:9-17

Saint Benedict BiscopSaint Benedict Biscop is remembered as a church leader instrumental in preserving and disseminating Western civilisation during the so-called “Dark Ages”.

Born into a noble Northumbrian family, Benedict spent many years in Frankish monasteries, becoming a monk at the Abbey of Lérins, off the southern coast of France. He also travelled to Rome six times. At the conclusion of his third visit in 668, he accompanied St. Theodore of Tarsus, the Greek monk newly commissioned as archbishop of Canterbury, to England. For two years, Benedict served as abbot of the monastery of St Peter & St Paul (later St Augustine’s), Canterbury, but soon wanted to establish his own foundation.

Receiving papal approval to establish monasteries in Northumbria, Benedict founded the monastery at Wearmouth (Sunderland in County Durham) in 674. He travelled to Rome and returned with an “innumerable collection of books of all kinds”. He also brought with him John the Chanter, Archcantor of St Peter’s, Rome, who taught the monks the Roman liturgy and Gregorian chant. In 682, Benedict founded the sister monastery at Jarrow.

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Prayers and liturgy

John Horden

The collect for today, the commemoration of the Right Rev John Horden (1828-1893), first Bishop of Moosonee, Missionary to the First Nations of Canada:

The Right Rev. John HordenO God,
the Desire of all the nations,
you chose your servant John Horden
to open the treasury of your Word
among the native peoples of Canada.
Grant us, after his example,
to be constant in our purpose and care
for the enlargement of your kingdom;
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Amen.

Source of collect: Give Us Grace: An Anthology of Anglican Prayers, compiled by Christopher L. Webber. Anglican Book Centre, Toronto, 2004, p. 456.

Click here to read more about John Horden.

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Prayers and liturgy

William Laud

The collect for today, the commemoration of William Laud (1573-1645), Archbishop of Canterbury, Martyr (source);

William LaudKeep us, O Lord, constant in faith and zealous in witness, that, like thy servant William Laud, we may live in thy fear, die in thy favor, and rest in thy peace; for the sake of Jesus Christ thy Son our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

The Epistle: Hebrews 12:5-7,11-14
The Gospel: St Matthew 10:32-39

A Prayer for the Church by William Laud:

Gracious Father, I humbly beseech thee for Thy holy Catholic Church, fill it with all truth; in all truth with all peace. Where it is corrupt, purge it; where it is in error, direct it; where it is superstitious, rectify it; where in anything it is amiss, reform it; where it is right strengthen and confirm it, where it is in want, furnish it; where it is divided and rent asunder, make up the breaches of it; O Thou Holy One of Israel. Amen.

Source: Give Us Grace: An Anthology of Anglican Prayers, compiled by Christopher L. Webber. (Anglican Book Centre, Toronto, 2004), p. 55.

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