Events, Month at a Glance

Week at a Glance, 7 – 13 October

Monday, October 7th
6:30-7:30pm Sparks – Parish Hall

Tuesday, October 8th
6:00pm ‘Prayers & Praises’ – Haliburton Place
6:30-8:00pm Brownies – Parish Hall
7:00pm Parish Council Meeting

Friday, October 11th
6:00-7:30pm Pathfinders & Rangers – Parish Hall

Saturday, October 12th
9:00-11:00am Men’s Club Decorating Church

Sunday, October 13th, Harvest Thanksgiving / Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity
8:00am Holy Communion
10:30am Holy Communion

Upcoming Event:

Tuesday, October 15th
7:00pm Christ Church Book Club – Coronation Room, Parish Hall
New Dark Age: Technology & the End of the Future (2018), by James Bridle, and The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure (2018), by Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt.

Print this entry

Prayers and liturgy

The Sixteenth Sunday After Trinity

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

O LORD, we beseech thee, let thy continual pity cleanse and defend thy Church; and, because it cannot continue in safety without thy succour, preserve it evermore by thy help and goodness; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Epistle: Ephesians 3:13-21
The Gospel: St. Luke 7:11-17

Pierre Bouillon, Jesus Raising the Son of the Widow of NainArtwork: Pierre Bouillon, Jesus Raising the Son of the Widow of Nain, c. 1817. Oil on canvas, Musée de Tessé, Le Mans, France.

Print this entry

Prayers and liturgy

St. Francis of Assisi

The collect for today, the Feast of Saint Francis of Assisi (1182-1226), Friar, Deacon, Founder of the Friars Minor (source):

O God,
who ever delightest to reveal thyself
to the childlike and lowly of heart,
grant that, following the example of the blessed Francis,
we may count the wisdom of this world as foolishness
and know only Jesus Christ and him crucified,
who liveth and reigneth with thee,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Epistle: Galatians 6:14-18
The Gospel: St. Matthew 11:25-30

Luca Giordano, Saint FrancisArtwork: Luca Giordano, Saint Francis, c. 1650-3. Oil on canvas, Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg.

Print this entry

KES Chapel Weekly Reflections

KES Chapel Reflection, Week of 2 October

Tell me if you have understanding

The questions of God call us to account. They humble us, to be sure, acting as a check upon the ignorance of our arrogance, but they also open us out to the greater wonder of God and his creation, and to a deeper understanding about ourselves. The great questions of God to Adam and Eve, echoed in the same questions to Cain, are recalled in the questions of God to Job. And, perhaps, nowhere with greater intensity.

We have too small a view of God, of his creation, and thus of ourselves. The questions of God in The Book of Job counter our small-mindedness. They open us out to the grandeur of God which cannot be reduced to the petty little systems of our thinking, to the ghettos of our minds to which we retreat in fear and despair. The Book of Job counters our attempt to capture God within our thinking, to reduce God to us. In a way, I blame Milton in Paradise Lost. The idea of trying to “justifie the wayes of God to men” runs the risk of collapsing God into our thinking rather than raising us into the mystery of God and his creation which is always greater than what we can know. That the world is in principle intelligible does not mean that its meaning and truth can be fully grasped by us. Such is our small-mindedness that can only lead to nihilism and despair, not to mention the capacity for the destructive and misguided use of our reasoning.

Job is the Old Testament type of the best man in the worst misfortune. He loses everything – prosperity and family. He goes from having everything to losing everything. He is the Hebrew paradigm of the man of sorrows and suffering. He demands an explanation from God. The poet, novelist and theologian, G. K. Chesterton observes that the Book of Job is the most interesting of ancient books but equally the most interesting of modern books because in its philosophical wisdom it is eternal. It speaks profoundly to the assumptions of our middle class world. It challenges the old yet common idea that if you do well you will be rewarded materially, with prosperity. This is often the message projected by parents and teachers to their children and students along with the warning that if you do badly you will suffer poverty and material hardship. The Book of Job undertakes to point out the problem with such a way of looking at things; it is too limited, too small a view of the world and of human behaviour. The corollary of these positions shows their dangerous absurdity. If you are rich, therefore you must be good; if you are poor, then you are obviously bad?! The ethical measure of goodness or evil cannot be material prosperity. The Book of Job exposes the folly of this way of looking at things.

(more…)

Print this entry

Prayers and liturgy

Remigius, Bishop

The collect for today, the Feast of Saint Remigius (c. 438-533), Bishop of Rheims, Apostle to the Franks (source):

O God, who by the teaching of thy faithful servant and bishop Remigius didst turn the nation of the Franks from vain idolatry to the worship of thee, the true and living God, in the fullness of the catholic faith; Grant that we who glory in the name of Christian may show forth our faith in worthy deeds; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

The Epistle: 1 St. John 4:1-6
The Gospel: St. John 14:3-7

Joseph Blanc, Baptism of ClovisRemigius was consecrated bishop of Rheims at age 22. The pagan Clovis I, who had married the Christian princess Clothilde, began his reign as king of the Franks about 20 years later, in 481.

Before entering combat against German tribes at Tolbiac, Clovis prayed to “Clothilde’s God” for victory. His soldiers won the battle, and Clothilde asked Remigius to teach the king about Christianity. Clovis was amazed by the story of “this unarmed God who was not of the race of Thor or Odin”. In the words of Remigius, the king came “to adore what he had burnt and to burn what he had adored”.

In 496, Remigius baptised Clovis in a public ceremony at Rheims Cathedral. Three thousand Franks also became Christians. Under the king’s protection, Remigius was able to spread the gospel and build churches throughout Gaul.

Artwork: Joseph Blanc, Baptism of Clovis, c. 1880-99. Mounted canvas, Panthéon, Paris.

Print this entry

Prayers and liturgy

Jerome, Doctor and Priest

The collect for today, the Feast of Saint Jerome (c. 342-420), Priest, Monk, Translator of the Scriptures, Doctor of the Church (source):

O Lord, thou God of truth, whose Word is a lantern to our feet and a light upon our path: We give thee thanks for thy servant Jerome, and those who, following in his steps, have labored to render the Holy Scriptures in the language of the people; and we beseech thee that thy Holy Spirit may overshadow us as we read the written Word, and that Christ, the living Word, may transform us according to thy righteous will; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

The Epistle: 2 Timothy 3:14-17
The Gospel: St. Luke 24:44-48

Jacques-Louis David, Saint Jerome Hears the Trumpet of the Last JudgmentOne of the most scholarly and learned early church fathers, St. Jerome devoted much of his life to accurately translating the Holy Bible from the original languages of Hebrew and Greek into Latin.

Born near Aquileia, northeast Italy, of Christian parents, Jerome travelled widely. He received a classical education at Rome and travelled to Gaul where he became a monk. He later moved to Palestine, spending five years as an ascetic in the Syrian desert. In 374, he was ordained a priest in Antioch. He then pursued biblical studies at Constantinople under Gregory Nazianzus and translated works by Eusebius, Origen, and others.

Travelling to Rome in 382, Jerome became secretary to the aged Pope Damasus. By the time the pope died three years later, Jerome had become involved in theological controversies in which he antagonised many church leaders and theologians. He left Rome under a cloud, returning to Palestine where he lived as a monk in Bethlehem for the rest of his life.

Over several decades, Jerome wrote biblical commentaries and works promoting monasticism and asceticism. Most importantly, he produced fresh Latin translations of most of the Old and New Testaments, based on the original biblical languages. This work formed the basis of the Vulgate, which remained the standard Scriptural text of the western church for over a millennium.

Artwork: Jacques-Louis David, Saint Jerome Hears the Trumpet of the Last Judgment, 1779. Oil on canvas, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (on loan from Musée de la civilisation de Québec; owned by Notre-Dame-de-Québec Parish Corporation).

Print this entry

Sermons

Sermon for the Feast of St. Michael and All Angels / Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity

“And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb”

They overcame whom? “The dragon,” “that old serpent, called the devil and Satan,” the deceiver of “the whole world,” and “the accuser of our brethren.” It is a wonderful scriptural collation of terms for the principle of all evil, for what opposes God, recalling us to the foundational stories of the Fall in Genesis. Another term, not mentioned here, but used four times in the Old Testament and once in the New Testament, and which becomes a significant term for Satan or the Devil in poetic and philosophical literature, such as Dante’s Divine Comedy and Milton’s Paradise Lost, is Lucifer. It means the light-bearer or light-bringer and illustrates profoundly the nature of evil as a negation or denial of the Good. Lucifer, the bearer of light, denies his creatureliness in the vain attempt to be God himself. As such he turns his back on the light and truth of God and in so doing contradicts the conditions of his own being, becoming the Prince of Darkness and the Father of lies.

Michaelmas derives from the Feast of St. Michael and All Angels and marks the beginning of the academic year known as Michaelmas term at the great Medieval universities, and the institutions derived from them. The Angels are with us in our thinking and our praying, in our lives of sacrifice and service. They are ever with us in our liturgy. The Sursum Corda at the Eucharist concludes with the compelling and uplifting words, “therefore with Angels and Archangels and with all the company of heaven, we laud and magnify thy glorious Name; evermore praising thee,” singing the Trisagion, “Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of hosts,”in the words of Isaiah and St. John. Such is the mystical theology of the liturgy. We are lifted into the life of God on Angels’ wings.

The Angels are very much with us. There is the insistence in Scripture about the presence of Angels from creation to redemption. There continues to be in our contemporary culture a yearning for a spiritual company, a sense of being part of something greater. Angels are part and parcel of the spiritual landscape of our lives. They certainly belong to the scriptural landscape of the Jewish, Christian, and Islamic religions and to the philosophical and theological imaginary of our intellectual traditions.

(more…)

Print this entry

Events, Month at a Glance

Week at a Glance, 30 September – 6 October

Monday, September 30th
6:30-8:00pm Sparks – Parish Hall

Tuesday, October 1st
6:00pm ‘Prayers & Praises’ – Haliburton Place
6:30-8:00pm Brownies – Parish Hall

Thursday, October 3rd
3:15pm Service – Windsor Elms

Friday, October 4th
6:00-7:30pm Pathfinders & Rangers – Parish Hall

Sunday, October 6th, Sixteenth Sunday after Trinity
8:00am Holy Communion (followed by Men’s Club Breakfast)
10:30am Holy Communion

Upcoming Event:

Tuesday, October 15th
7:00pm Christ Church Book Club – Coronation Room, Parish Hall
New Dark Age: Technology & the End of the Future (2018), by James Bridle, and The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure (2018), by Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt.

Michaelmas takes its name from the Feast of St Michael and All Angels, a feast which marks the beginning of the academic year for the medieval universities, such as Paris, Oxford, Cambridge, Pavia, and others, and so for institutions like King’s College and King’s-Edgehill School. In School and in Church we learn to think, to sing and to dance with the Angels, those pure intellectual beings who move our imaginations and strengthen our understanding and thus redeem the discursive thinking (ratio) which consumes and destroys us and our world.

Print this entry

Prayers and liturgy

Saint Michael and All Angels

The collect for today, the Feast of Saint Michael and All Angels, from The Book of Common Prayer (Canadian, 1962):

O EVERLASTING God, who hast ordained and constituted the services of Angels and men in a wonderful order: Mercifully grant, that as thy holy Angels alway do thee service in heaven, so by thy appointment they may succour and defend us on earth; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Lesson: Revelation 12:7-11
The Gospel: St. Matthew 18:1-10

Bonifacio Veronese, St. Michael Vanquishing the DevilThe name Michael is a variation of Micah, and means in Hebrew “Who is like God?”

The archangel Michael first appears in the Book of Daniel, where he is described as “one of the chief princes” and as the special protector of Israel. In the New Testament epistle of Jude (v. 9), Michael, in a dispute with the devil over the body of Moses, says, “The Lord rebuke you“. Michael appears also in Revelation (12:7-9) as the leader of the angels in the great battle in Heaven that ended with Satan and the hosts of evil being thrown down to earth. There are many other references to the archangel Michael in Jewish and Christian traditions.

Following these scriptural passages, Christian tradition has given St. Michael four duties: (1) To continue to wage battle against Satan and the other fallen angels; (2) to save the souls of the faithful from the power of Satan especially at the hour of death; (3) to protect the People of God, both the Jews of the Old Covenant and the Christians of the New Covenant; and (4) finally to lead the souls of the departed from this life and present them to our Lord for judgment. For these reasons, Christian iconography depicts St. Michael as a knight-warrior, wearing battle armor, and wielding a sword or spear, while standing triumphantly on a serpent or other representation of Satan. Sometimes he is depicted holding the scales of justice or the Book of Life, both symbols of the last judgment.

Very early in church history, St. Michael became associated with the care of the sick. The cult of Michael developed first in Eastern Christendom, where healing waters and hot springs at many locations in Greece and Asia Minor were dedicated to him. Michael is supposed to have appeared three times on Monte Gargano, southern Italy, in the 5th century. The local townspeople believed that Michael’s intercession gave them victory in battle over their enemies. These apparitions restored his biblical role as a strong protector of God’s people, and were also the basis for spreading his cult in the West.

The Feast of St. Michael & All Angels is also known as Michaelmas. The Roman Catholic Church celebrates today as the Feast of Sts. Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael, Archangels.

Artwork: Bonifacio Veronese, St. Michael Vanquishing the Devil, c. 1530. Oil on canvas, Basilica dei Santi Giovanni e Paolo, Venice.

Print this entry

Prayers and liturgy

The Fifteenth Sunday After Trinity

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

KEEP, we beseech thee, O Lord, thy Church with thy perpetual mercy; and, because the frailty of man without thee cannot but fall, keep us ever by thy help from all things hurtful, and lead us to all things profitable to our salvation; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Epistle: Galatians 6:11-18
The Gospel: St. Matthew 6:24-34

Frans Francken the Younger, Death and the Miser (Detroit)Artwork: Frans Francken the Younger (1581-1642), Death and the Miser. Oil on copper, Chrysler Museum of Art, Detroit.

Print this entry