Prayers and liturgy

Saint Matthew the Apostle

The collect for today, the Feast of St Matthew, from The Book of Common Prayer (Canadian, 1962):

O ALMIGHTY God, who by thy blessed Son didst call Matthew from the receipt of custom to be an Apostle and Evangelist: Grant us grace to forsake all covetous desires and inordinate love of riches, and to follow the same thy Son Jesus Christ; who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, world without end. Amen.

The Epistle: 2 Corinthians 4:1-6
The Gospel: St Matthew 9:9-13

More on St Matthew here.

Spinello, St Matthew
Artwork: Aretino Spinello, Matthew, 1387. Fresco, San Miniato al Monte, Florence.

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Sermons

Sermon for the Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity

“Be not anxious”

What is Jesus saying here? He wants us to look at the world with new eyes. “Behold, the fowls of the air”. “Consider the lilies of the field”. “Seek ye first the kingdom of God”. It makes a difference for us in our lives. To behold what he wants us to behold, to consider what he wants us to consider, to seek what he wants us to seek counters the paralysis of our fears, the terror of our anxieties and even our anxieties about our anxieties.

Jesus says “be not anxious” more than once in this gospel. He knows our anxieties and how prone we are to being anxious, quite literally, about “a multitude of things”. It is what we might call “The Martha Syndrome” as diagnosed elsewhere by Jesus: “Martha, Martha, thou art anxious and troubled about a multitude of things” (Luke 10.41). We all have our fears and our worries, our troubles and our concerns, our heart-aches and our despairs. And we can worry ourselves, quite literally, to death about them. What are we anxious about? What are our anxieties? Quite simply, they are our cares, the things which, quite literally, occupy our thoughts; indeed, they can actually possess us.

Our anxieties are the cares which choke and oppress us, the cares which give us great anguish of soul. Our problem, it seems, and the cause of our anxiety is that we are often too careful, quite literally, too full of cares about the wrong things and/or in the wrong way. The cares of this world beset us and overwhelm us. Jesus would have us view the world and its cares in a new way.

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Events, Month at a Glance

Week at a Glance, 21-27 September

Monday, September 21st, St Matthew
7:00pm Holy Communion

Tuesday, September 22nd
6:00pm “Prayers & Praises’ – Haliburton Place

Thursday, September 24th
1:30-3:00pm Seniors’ Drop-In
6:30pm Christ Church “Cinema Paradiso” – Movie Night: “Waking Ned Divine”

Friday, September 25th
11:00am Holy Communion – Dykeland Lodge
3:30pm Holy Communion – Gladys Manning Home

Sunday, September 27th, Trinity XVI
8:00am Holy Communion
10:30am Holy Communion
2:00pm AMD Service of the Deaf
Unveiling of Historic Plaques
(Municipal Heritage Designation)
2:00pm Old Parish Burying Ground
2:30pm West Hants Historical Museum
3:00pm Christ Church
(Reception at Christ Church Hall)
4:30pm Evening Prayer at King’s-Edgehill School

Note the two new programme initiatives: the Christ Church Book Club and the Christ Church “Cinema Paradiso” Movie Nights, the latter of which begins this Thursday evening at 6:30pm in the Parish Hall with the viewing of “Waking Ned Divine”.  All Welcome!

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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

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Prayers and liturgy

Saint Theodore of Tarsus

St TheodoreThe collect for today, the Feast of St Theodore of Tarsus (602-690), Archbishop of Canterbury (source):

Almighty God, who didst call thy servant Theodore of Tarsus from Rome to the see of Canterbury, and didst give him gifts of grace and wisdom to establish unity where there had been division, and order where there had been chaos: Create in thy Church, we pray, by the operation of the Holy Spirit, such godly union and concord that it may proclaim, both by word and example, the Gospel of the Prince of Peace; who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

The Epistle: 2 Timothy 2:1-5,10
The Gospel: St Matthew 24:42-47

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Prayers and liturgy

Saint Ninian

Saint Ninian of GallowayThe collect for today, the Feast of St Ninian (d. c. 432), Bishop of Galloway, Apostle to the Picts (source):

Almighty and everlasting God,
who didst call thy servant Ninian to preach the gospel
to the people of northern Britain:
raise up, we beseech thee, in this and every land,
heralds and evangelists of thy kingdom,
that thy Church may make known the immeasurable riches
of thy Son our Saviour Jesus Christ,
who liveth and reigneth with thee,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Lesson: Isaiah 49:1-6
The Gospel: St Matthew 28:16-20

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Prayers and liturgy

Dante Alighieri

The collect for today, the commemoration of Dante Alighieri (1265-1321), Poet, Spiritual Writer (source):

Almighty God, who didst move thy servant Dante Alighieri to portray in magificent poetry thy steadfast rejection of sin, thy loving correction of those who repent, and the joy of abiding in thy presence forever: Grant us the grace to acknowledge our sins and to see clearly the utter emptiness of life without thee, the grace to amend our lives and to embrace willingly the means whereby thou dost perfect us in holiness and love of thee, and the grace to abide in thy will and rejoice in thy presence both in this life and in the life to come; the which we ask through Jesus Christ our Savior, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and ever.

With the Lesson and Gospel for a Doctor of the Church, Poet, or Scholar
The Lesson: Daniel 2:17-24
The Gospel: St Matthew 13:9-17

Domenico di Michelino, Dante & the Three KingdomsArtwork: Domenico di Michelino, Dante and the Three Kingdoms, 1465. Oil on canvas, Museo dell’Opera del Duomo, Florence.

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Sermons

Meditation on the Feast of the Holy Cross

“Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do”

The Cross is the meeting place of lovers. That “strange and uncouth thing”, as the poet George Herbert calls it, reveals the incompleteness of our human loves and the all-sufficiency of divine love. It signals what might be called the erotic liturgy of The Book of Common Prayer, a liturgy which is shaped and governed by the Cross, the liturgy of eros redeemed, the liturgy of the redemption of desire. But what does it mean?

I have often been struck with the coincidence of the early beginning of Fall with the Feast of the Holy Cross (September 14th) and especially with one of its early and associated titles, namely, the Invention of the Holy Cross. It speaks so profoundly and yet so paradoxically to the nature of the intellectual enterprise. Inventio crucis.

Invention? Yes, but not in the sense of something fabricated out of our fevered imaginations. The feast derives from the celebrated visit of Helena, the mother of Emperor Constantine, to Jerusalem and her so-called discovery of the Holy Cross in the early fourth century as well as the exposition or “Exaltation” of the supposed true cross in the seventh century. Inventio does not suggest fabrication and invention so much as discovery and disclosure.

In the Christian understanding of things, humility and sacrifice are de rigueur in the passionate search for understanding, the eros of intellectual life. The cross is the meeting place of such lovers, too.

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Prayers and liturgy

Holy Cross Day

Elsheimer, Veneration of the CrossThe collect for today, Holy Cross Day, from The Book of Common Prayer (Canadian, 1962):

O BLESSED Saviour, who by thy cross and passion hast given life unto the world: Grant that we thy servants may be given grace to take up the cross and follow thee through life and death; whom with the Father and the Holy Spirit we worship and glorify, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

The Epistle: Philippians 2:5-11
The Gospel: St John 12:31-36

Artwork: Adam Elsheimer, The Veneration of the Cross, c. 1607. Städelsches Kunstinstitut, Frankfurt am Main.

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