Prayers and liturgy

The Twenty-Second Sunday After Trinity

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

John Everett Millais, The Unforgiving ServantLORD, we beseech thee to keep thy house hold the Church in continual godliness; that through thy protection it may be free from all adversities, and devoutly given to serve thee in good works, to the glory of thy Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Epistle: Philippians 1:3-11
The Gospel: St. Matthew 18:21-35

Artwork: John Everett Millais, The Unmerciful Servant, from Illustrations to `The Parables of Our Lord’, 1864. Relief print on paper, Tate Collections, London.

Print this entry

KES Chapel Weekly Reflections

KES Chapel Reflection, Week of 2 November

Blessed are the merciful

Chapel constantly focuses on the primacy of the ethical; in short, on the principles that inform and shape character and institutions about the concepts of good and evil, of right and wrong. It has been quite wonderful to go from the story of Cain and Abel to the Ten Commandments which make explicit the ethical principles violated by Cain, for instance. This week’s wonder is the Beatitudes, a most remarkable set of ethical teachings that continue to capture the imaginations of many, whether Christian or not. They speak to the truth and dignity of our humanity as a community of spirit.

Nothing could be more counter-culture. Like the Ten Commandments, the Beatitudes speak to ethical ideas that are universal and which have their counterpart in other religions and philosophies. I have been trying to point out that these ethical teachings, such as the Ten Commandments and the idea of Dharma in the Hindu tradition, for example, all point to the ways in which we transcend the animosities and divisions, the blood and the hatred, that is so much a part of the sad tale of our inhumanity towards one another. These stories are all powerful reminders of what belongs to the truth and dignity of our humanity even in the face of the realities of sin and evil, of suffering and death, of massacres and atrocities upon atrocities. They offer hope and life.

The Beatitudes are set before us in the context of the Communion of Saints. That is the true meaning of Halloween. All Hallows’ Eve is the Eve of All Hallows or All Saints. We are part of a larger spiritual community, more than anyone can number, based not on self-assertion, self-obsession or self-righteousness but on service and sacrifice. It is about our life together in an ordered community of love in which we seek the good of one another.

The Beatitudes are the charter of divine love. They counter the culture of dominion and power by highlighting the qualities of grace which are given to live in us. “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” “Blessed are they who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” These are the first and the eight Beatitudes. They embrace the other Beatitudes and articulate a powerful teaching about the ultimate good and joy for our humanity. We are called to something more than what belongs to the disorders in our hearts and world.

(more…)

Print this entry

Prayers and liturgy

Richard Hooker

The collect for today, the commemoration of Richard Hooker (1554-1600), Priest, Anglican Apologist, Teacher of the Faith (source):

O God of peace, the bond of all love,
who in thy Son Jesus Christ hast made for all people thine inseparable dwelling place:
give us grace that,
Richard Hookerafter the example of thy servant Richard Hooker,
we thy servants may ever rejoice
in the true inheritance of thine adopted children
and show forth thy praises now and for ever;
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 Corinthians 2:6-10, 13-16
The Gospel: St. John 17:18-23

Print this entry

Prayers and liturgy

All Souls’ Day

The collect for today, The Commemoration of the Faithful Departed, commonly called All Souls’ Day (source):

Everlasting God, our maker and redeemer,
grant us, with all the faithful departed,
the sure benefits of thy Son’s saving passion
and glorious resurrection,
that, in the last day,
when thou dost gather up all things in Christ,
we may with them enjoy the fullness of thy promises;
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 4:13-18
The Gospel: St. John 5:24-27

Sebastiano Conca, The Holy Trinity and Saints in GloryArtwork: Sebastiano Conca, The Holy Trinity and Saints in Glory, 1730-35. Oil on canvas, Private collection.

Print this entry

Prayers and liturgy

All Saints’ Day

The collect for today, All Saints’ Day, from The Book of Common Prayer (Canadian, 1962):

O ALMIGHTY God, who hast knit together thine elect in one communion and fellowship, in the mystical body of thy Son Christ our Lord: Grant us grace so to follow thy blessed Saints in all virtuous and godly living, that we may come to those unspeakable joys, which thou hast prepared for them that unfeignedly love thee; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Lesson: Revelation 7:9-17
The Gospel: St. Matthew 5:1-12

Georgios Klontzas, In Thee RejoicethArtwork: Georgios Klontzas, In Thee Rejoiceth, c. 1560-1608. Tempera and gold leaf on wood, Hellenic Institute of Byzantine and Post-Byzantine Studies, Venice.

Print this entry

Prayers and liturgy

Audio file of 8:00am Holy Communion service, Twenty-First Sunday after Trinity

Click here to listen to an audio recording of the 8:00am service of Holy Communion at Christ Church on the Twenty-First Sunday after Trinity.

Print this entry

Sermons

Sermon for the Twenty-First Sunday after Trinity

“Above all, take the shield of faith”

We go from the “wedding-garment” to “the whole armour of God,” an intriguing juxtaposition of opposites, it might seem. The image of clothing in these readings – at once of last week’s gospel about the wedding-garment and in this week’s epistle reading from Ephesians about the whole armour of God – is not about external appearances but about what moves in us inwardly. Once again is about faith; hence the significance of Paul’s words, “above all, taking the shield of faith.”

This is illustrated for us rather wonderfully in the Gospel story of a certain nobleman “who believed the word that Jesus had spoken unto him” about the healing of his son and whose faith is deepened into knowledge upon hearing from his servants that his son was healed. Note that his faith extends to the faith of his whole house. Faith is never simply personal but corporate.

The image of the shield is particularly striking and powerful and belongs to a long tradition of reflection upon the paradoxes of the human condition. Homer’s Iliad presents a detailed description of Achilles’ shield as part of the armour created by Hephaestus as he prepares to return to the battle to revenge the death of his friend Patroclus. The shield is marvellously described as depicting two cities: the city at peace and the city at war. How is the city of peace described? By a wedding festival and by a court of law reconciling a conflict. Virgil reworks the same contrast between war and peace in his depiction of the shield of Aeneas in The Aeneid. And the image of the shield of Achilles is reworked in modern times by the poet W.H. Auden in his poem entitled The Shield of Achilles.

Written in 1952, that poem speaks to the dark and troubling realities of our world soaked in blood and hatred. He has in mind the horrors of the Second World War. Auden depicts Thetis, the mother of Achilles, looking over the shoulder of the techno-god Hephaestus “for vines and olive trees,/Marble well-governed cities,” looking “for ritual pieties,/ White flower-garlanded heifers, libation and sacrifice,” and looking “for athletes at their games, Men and women in a dance/ Moving their sweet limbs/ Quick, quick to music;” all images of the city at peace. But instead of such images of peace and life, what she sees is “an artificial wilderness/ And a sky like lead,” a barren and empty world with “no blade of grass, no sign of neighborhood,/Nothing to eat and nowhere to sit down,” a meaningless world of armies “column by column in a cloud of dust/ … march[ing away] enduring a belief/Whose logic brought them, somewhere else, to grief;” a world of “barbed wire,” “bored officials” and “sweating sentries” where “a crowd of ordinary decent folk/ Watched from without and neither moved nor spoke”, silent in their despair or indifference “as three pale figures were led forth and bound/To three posts driven upright in the ground;” a reference to Calvary by way of the holocaust.

(more…)

Print this entry

Events, Month at a Glance

Week at a Glance, 30 October – 5 November

Friday, Nov. 3rd & Saturday, Nov. 4th
St. Thomas’ 3-Mile Plains Xmas Sale – Parish Hall

Sunday, November 5th, Trinity 22 / Octave of All Saints
8:00am Holy Communion
10:30am Holy Communion
7:00pm Holy Baptism – KES Chapel

Upcoming Events:

Saturday, November 11th
11:00am Remembrance Service – Windsor Cenotaph
& at the KES Cenotaph afterwards

Saturday, November 18th
4:00-6:00pm Annual Ham Supper – Parish Hall

Also please take note of the annual Missions to Seafarer’s Campaign for 2023. Deadline for donations at Christ Church Windsor is the last Sunday in November (Nov. 26, 2023).

Print this entry

Prayers and liturgy

The Twenty-First Sunday After Trinity

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

GRANT, we beseech thee, merciful Lord, to thy faithful people pardon and peace; that they may be cleansed from all their sins, and serve thee with a quiet mind; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Epistle: Ephesians 6:10-20
The Gospel: St. John 4:46-54

Bartholomeus Breenbergh, Christ and the Nobleman of CapernaumArtwork: Bartholomeus Breenburgh, Christ and the Nobleman of Capernaum, c. 1630. Oil on panel, Private collection.

Print this entry

Prayers and liturgy

St. Simon and St. Jude the Apostles

The collect for today, the Feast of Saint Simon the Zealot and Saint Jude, Apostles, with Saint Jude the Brother of the Lord, from The Book of Common Prayer (Canadian, 1962):

O ALMIGHTY God, who hast built thy Church upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the head corner-stone: Grant us so to be joined together in unity of spirit by their doctrine, that we may be made an holy temple acceptable unto thee; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The collect for the Brethren of the Lord, from The Book of Common Prayer (Canadian, 1962):

O HEAVENLY Father, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning: We bless thy holy Name for the witness of James and Jude, the kinsmen of the Lord, and pray that we may be made true members of thy heavenly family; through him who willed to be the firstborn among many brethren, even the same Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Epistle: St. Jude 1-4
The Gospel: St. John 14:21-27

Antonio Cavallucci, Martyrdom of St. Simon and St. Jude ThaddaeusIn the various New Testament lists of the Twelve Apostles (Matthew 10:2-4; Mark 3:16-19; Luke 6:14-16; Acts 1:13), the tenth and eleventh places are occupied by Simon and Judas son of James, also called Thaddaeus.

To distinguish Simon from Simon Peter, Matthew and Mark refer to him as Simon the Cananaean, while Luke refers to him as Simon the Zealot. Both surnames have the same signification and are a translation of the Hebrew qana (the Zealous). The name does not signify that he belonged to the party of Zealots, but that he had zeal for the Jewish law, which he practised before his call. The translation of Matthew and Mark as Simon “the Canaanite” (as, e.g., KJV has it) is simply mistaken.

The New Testament contains a variety of names for the apostle Jude: Matthew and Mark refer to Thaddaeus (a variant reading of Matthew has “Lebbaeus called Thaddaeus”), while Luke calls him Judas son of James. Christian tradition regards Saint Jude and Saint Thaddaeus as different names for the same person. The various names are understood as efforts to avoid associating Saint Jude with the name of the traitor Judas Iscariot. The only time words of Jude are recorded, in St. John 14:22-23, the Evangelist is quick to add “(not Iscariot)” after his name.

(more…)

Print this entry