Author: CCW

Sermons

Sermon for Maundy Thursday

“A new commandment I give unto you that you love one another

even as I have loved you”

“On the night that he was betrayed,” this night, this very night, Jesus gives us a commandment, an institution and an example. He gives us a commandment that is at once established in the institution of the Holy Eucharist, “do this in remembrance of me,” and expressed in the example of the foot-washing, “for I have given you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you.” Such is the rich fullness of Maundy Thursday, dies mandati, the day of commandment, even a new commandment, novem mandatum, but more than that, the ultimate mandate, ultimatum mandatum. We are accustomed to taking seriously a person’s last will and testament. Here on the eve of his Passion, in the meaning of the events of the Passover, Christ signifies his ultimate will and new testament towards us. Here on this night is the mandate of our Lord’s love, hence Maundy Thursday (from mandatum). (more…)

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Prayers and liturgy

Maundy Thursday

The collects for today, Thursday in Holy Week, commonly called Maundy Thursday, from The Book of Common Prayer (Canadian, 1962)

Almighty and everlasting God, who, of thy tender love towards mankind, hast sent thy Son our Saviour Jesus Christ, to take upon him our flesh, and to suffer death upon the cross, that all mankind should follow the example of his great humility: Mercifully grant, that we may both follow the example of his patience, and also he made partakers of his resurrection; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

O God, who in a wonderful sacrament hast left unto us a memorial of thy passion: Grant us so to reverence the holy mysteries of thy Body and Blood, that we may ever know within ourselves the fruit of thy redemption; who livest and reignest with the Father in the unity of the Holy Ghost, one God, world without end. Amen.

The Epistle: 1 Corinthians 11:23-29
The Continuation of the Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ according to St Luke
The Gospel: St Luke 23:1-49

Riemenschneider, The Last Supper
Artwork: Tilman Riemenschneider, The Last Supper (detail from Holy Blood Altar), 1501-02. Limewood, Church of Sankt Jakob, Rothenburg.

c/p: Nova Scotia Scott

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Prayers and liturgy

Wednesday in Holy Week

The collect for today, Wednesday in Holy Week, from The Book of Common Prayer (Canadian, 1962):

Almighty and everlasting God, who, of thy tender love towards mankind, hast sent thy Son our Saviour Jesus Christ, to take upon him our flesh, and to suffer death upon the cross, that all mankind should follow the example of his great humility: Mercifully grant, that we may both follow the example of his patience, and also be made partakers of his resurrection; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Epistle: Hebrews 9:15-28
The Beginning of the Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ according to St Luke
The Gospel: St Luke 22:-1-71

Giotto, Kiss of Judas

Artwork: Giotto di Bondone, The Kiss of Judas (Scenes from the Life of Christ), 1304-06. Fresco, Cappella Scrovegni, Padua.

c/p: Nova Scotia Scott

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Events, Month at a Glance

Holy Week at a Glance, 6-12 April 2009

Mon., April 6th, Monday in Holy Week
7:00am Matins & the Passion
7:00pm Vespers & Communion

Tues., April 7th, Tuesday in Holy Week
7:00am Matins & the Passion
6:00pm ‘Prayers & Praises’ – Haliburton Place
7:00pm Vespers & Communion

Wed., April 8th, Wednesday in Holy Week
7:00am Matins & the Passion
9:00pm Tenebrae

Thurs., April 9th, Maundy Thursday
7:00am Penitential Service & Passion
7:00pm Holy Communion & Watch

Fri., April 10th, Good Friday
7:00am Matins of Good Friday
11:00am Ecumenical Service at Windsor United Church
7:00pm The Solemn Liturgy of Good Friday

Sat., April 11th, Holy Saturday
10:00am Matins & Ante-Communion
7:00pm Vigil with Lauds & Matins of Easter

Sun., April 12th, Easter
7:00am Ecumenical Sunrise Service (at the Fort Edward Blockhouse)
8:00am Holy Communion – Christ Church
10:30am Holy Communion – Christ Church
4:30pm Evening Prayer at Christ Church

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Sermons

Sermon for Palm Sunday

The Rev’d David Curry, Rector of Christ Church, preached this homily for Palm Sunday (8:00 am service).

“We have become a spectacle to the world”

“We have become a spectacle to the world, to angels and to men”, St. Paul tells us (1 Cor.4.9). We have become a spectacle, indeed, but what kind of spectacle?

The question is a constant challenge; one which is critically before us in the events of Holy Week, and one which applies especially to the contemporary institutional church. What kind of spectacle, indeed?

(more…)

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Prayers and liturgy

The Sunday Next Before Easter

The collect for today, the Sunday Next Before Easter, commonly called Palm Sunday, from The Book of Common Prayer (Canadian, 1962):

Almighty and everlasting God, who, of thy tender love towards mankind, hast sent thy Son our Saviour Jesus Christ, to take upon him our flesh, and to suffer death upon the cross, that all mankind should follow the example of his great humility; Mercifully grant, that we may both follow the example of his patience, and also be made partakers of his resurrection; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Epistle: Philippians 2:5-11
The Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ According to St. Matthew
The Gospel: St Matthew 27:1-54

lorenzetti_entry
Artwork: Pietro Lorenzetti, The Entry of Jesus into Jerusalem, 1320-1330. Fresco, Vault of the south transept of the Lower Church, San Francesco, Assisi.

c/p: Nova Scotia Scott

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Prayers and liturgy

Palm Sunday Service

The Parish of Christ Church
Palm Sunday
8:00am Holy Communion
10:30am Special Palm Sunday Service
(with Rt. Rev’d Sue Moxley & Nicole Veinotte, Interpreter for the Deaf)
4:30pm EP at Christ Church

Prelude: Chorale Prelude on “St. Theodulph” – John H. Schaffner (1945-1995)
Blessing of Palms & Palm Gospel                                                   (see liturgy insert)
Hymn # 130 “All Glory, laud and Honour”                                        (“St. Theodulph”)

Procession to Christ Church

Hymn #131 “Ride on! Ride on in Majesty”                                     (“Winchester New”)

Introduction to ‘A Litany of Lenten Scrolls’
The Passion According  to St. Matthew

The Litany                                                                                        (BCP, p.30)
1st Scroll and 1st Meditation
The Litany continued
2nd Scroll and 2nd Meditation
The Litany continued
3rd Scroll and 3rd Meditation
The Litany continued
4th Scroll and 4th Meditation
The Litany continued
5th Scroll and 5th Meditation

Conclusion of ‘A Litany of Lenten Scrolls’

Apostles’ Creed                                                                               (BCP, p. 10)
Offertory Hymn # 127                                                                      (“Batty”)
Lord’s Prayer
Collects & Blessing
Recessional Hymn # 108                                                                (“Herzliebster Jesu”)
Postlude: Fughetta in d minor – Josef Rheinberger (1839-1901)

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Prayers and liturgy

A Litany of Lenten Scrolls

(To be included in tomorrow’s Palm Sunday service)

A Litany of Lenten Scrolls

Narrator:

We are sustained in the Lenten journey of our lives by the living Word of God. The Sunday School and Confirmation Class and all of us have been challenged to take to heart the Words of Scripture on these Sundays of Lent and for the journey of Holy Week. They have been written on scrolls.

(the Students will then recite the five scrolls of Scriptural verses)

  • Man cannot live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God;
  • Truth, Lord, yet the little dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table;
  • Walk in love, as Christ also has loved us, and has given himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God;
  • Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost;
  • The Son of man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.

Narrator:

We begin Holy Week with shouts of joy and rejoicing. We shall end Holy Week with the joyous celebration of Christ’s Resurrection from the dead. And in between? Holy Week is the spectacle of our betrayals. Our shouts of ‘hosanna’ turn to the cries of ‘crucify’. Holy Week would immerse us in the Passion of Christ. “We shall look on him whom we have pierced.” We are in this story as the betrayers of Christ and of one another. Only through the accounts of the Passion in their fullness can we come to the greater joys of Easter. It begins with Matthew’s account of the Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ.

(Then follows the drama of The Passion according to St. Matthew)

Narrator:

The Passion can only bring us to our knees in the Litany. The Litany is the first part of the Latin liturgy that was translated into English and modified by Archbishop Cranmer, the architect of The Book of Common Prayer. It is, in this sense, the earliest modern liturgy. A comprehensive form of prayer, it teaches us how to pray and what to pray for. Rooted and grounded in the Word of God, the Litany is about our penitential adoration of God.

The Litany follows, interspersed with Meditations upon each of the scriptural passages of the Lenten Scrolls. (more…)

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Prayers and liturgy

Saint Ambrose of Milan

Gozzoli, St Ambroise Baptising St AugustineThe collect for today, the Feast of St Ambrose (339-397), Bishop of Milan, Doctor of the Church, Poet (source):

Lord God of hosts,
who didst call Ambrose from the governor’s throne
to be a bishop in thy Church
and a courageous champion of thy faithful people:
mercifully grant that, as he fearlessly rebuked rulers,
so we may with like courage
contend for the faith which we have received;
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.

For the Epistle: Ecclesiasticus 2:7-11, 16-18
The Gospel: St Luke 12:35-37, 42-44

Artwork: Benozzo Gozzoli, Saint Ambrose baptising Saint Augustine, 1464-65. Fresco, Apsidal chapel, Sant’Agostino, San Gimignano.

c/p: Nova Scotia Scott

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Sermons

Lenten Meditation: Anger

Lenten Meditation on The Seven Deadly Sins
Anger

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God”

“And when the ten heard it, they were moved with indignation against the two brethren.” The Passion Sunday Gospel names our topic: indignation or anger.

Pride is certainly the deadliest of the seven deadly sins and is what is deadly in them. Envy is certainly the ugliest of the seven deadly sins and is ugly and unattractive to all. But anger?

Well, anger is certainly the most common of all the seven deadly sins. (more…)

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