Category: Prayers and liturgy

The collect for today, the Feast Day of Saint Joseph, Guardian of Our Lord, Husband of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Patron of Canada (source):

God our Father,
who from the house of thy servant David
didst raise up Joseph the carpenter
to be the guardian of thine incarnate Son
and husband of the Blessed Virgin Mary:
give us grace to follow him
in faithful obedience to thy commands;
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: Romans 4:13-18
The Gospel: St Luke 2:41-52

Artwork: Giovanni Battista Caracciolo, Saint Joseph and the Child Jesus, c. 1622. Private collection, Venice.

c/p: Nova Scotia Scott

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Prayer Is Our Life
Fr. David Curry

Rumours of Lent swirl about in the snow-mist of the Valley and dance in the beams of the mid-winter’s sun. What I am about to say concerns the season of Lent but in its larger dimension. It concerns the Lent that is our lives, our lives in pilgrimage. I want to say something about prayer and a rule of life.

We all have, I suspect, too narrow a view of prayer and, as a consequence, too narrow a view of Christian life. The consequences of such narrowness are deadly. Where religion is reduced to simply an optional aspect of life, it ceases to be religion. Where prayer appears as simply an item in the smorgasbord of optional religious activity, it ceases to be prayer. To the contrary, religion is life essential and prayer is its necessity. The recovery of a sense of the necessity of prayer means the rediscovery of our essential selves in the very life of God himself.

We are to be a people of prayer. That is to be taken, I think, in the most radical sense as meaning a people who are defined by prayer, a people whose lives simply are prayer. How can this be? (more…)

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The collect for today, the Feast Day of St 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: Lombard School, St Patrick Baptising Christian Converts, 15th century. Fresco, Santuario di San Patrizio, Colzate.

c/p: Nova Scotia Scott

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The collect for today, the Feast Day of Saint Thomas Aquinas (c. 1225-1274), Priest, Friar, Poet, Doctor of the Church (source):

Everlasting God,
who didst enrich thy Church with the learning and holiness
of thy servant Thomas Aquinas:
grant to all who seek thee
a humble mind and a pure heart
that they may know thy Son Jesus Christ
to be the way, the truth and the life;
who liveth and reigneth with thee,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Amen.

For the Epistle: Wisdom 7:7-14
The Gospel: St Matthew 13:47-52

Artwork: Carlo Crivelli, Saint Thomas Aquinas, Demidoff Altarpiece, 1476. Egg tempera on poplar or lime, National Gallery, London.

c/p: Nova Scotia Scott

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