Courage is not the absence of fear but the actions of one for whom love has cast fear aside that we might live courageously.
Thursday, 31 March 2022
Today (31 March) the Church celebrates the life and ministry of John Donne
Today John Donne was born in about the year 1571 and brought up as a Roman Catholic.
He was a great-great nephew of Thomas More, although this seems to have had little influence on him because, as a youth, he was sceptical about all religion. He went up to Oxford when he was fourteen, studied further at Cambridge and perhaps on the Continent, and eventually discovered his Christian faith in the Church of England.
After much heart-searching, he accepted ordination and later the post of Dean of St Paul’s Cathedral. Much of his cynicism dissolved and he became a strong advocate for the discernment of Christian vocation, and in particular affirming his own vocation as a priest, loving and loved by the crucified Christ.
The people of London flocked to his sermons.
His love-poetry – addressed mainly to his wife – and religious poems took on a renewed life in the twentieth century and his place both as a patristic scholar and as a moral theologian are confirmed by his prolific writings and the publication of his sermons.
He died on this day in the year 1631.
He was a great-great nephew of Thomas More, although this seems to have had little influence on him because, as a youth, he was sceptical about all religion. He went up to Oxford when he was fourteen, studied further at Cambridge and perhaps on the Continent, and eventually discovered his Christian faith in the Church of England.
After much heart-searching, he accepted ordination and later the post of Dean of St Paul’s Cathedral. Much of his cynicism dissolved and he became a strong advocate for the discernment of Christian vocation, and in particular affirming his own vocation as a priest, loving and loved by the crucified Christ.
The people of London flocked to his sermons.
His love-poetry – addressed mainly to his wife – and religious poems took on a renewed life in the twentieth century and his place both as a patristic scholar and as a moral theologian are confirmed by his prolific writings and the publication of his sermons.
He died on this day in the year 1631.
Wednesday, 30 March 2022
Compline (night prayer) - Wednesday, 30 March 2022
Closing the day we pray for God's inner stillness and peace as we go to our beds and ask that we might practice the presence of God and the inspiration of the Holy Spirit tomorrow, should we wake. Amen.
Tuesday, 29 March 2022
Compline (night prayer) - Tuesday, 29 March 2022
The world tells us prayer is misplaced folly.
Our Bible tells us that world is self-serving, selfish and self-absorbed.
Our experience tells that in serving and loving the Lord we sleep assured and safe!
Our Bible tells us that world is self-serving, selfish and self-absorbed.
Our experience tells that in serving and loving the Lord we sleep assured and safe!
Monday, 28 March 2022
Compline, night prayer, Monday, 28 March 2022.
The day ends and we rejoice at all that God is in, and for, and with us as we find truth in the words: "Wait for the Lord; be strong and he shall comfort your heart; wait patiently for the Lord." Amen.
Sunday, 27 March 2022
Compline (night prayer) - Sunday, 27 March 2022
Rejoicing in the places where we were baptised, the reality of Church being comprised of living stones that are believers, we pray for those needs we know and await the Christ's return. Amen.
Saturday, 26 March 2022
Compline, (night prayer) - Saturday 26 March 2022
Tomorrow (Mothering Sunday) we reflect on our Christian initiation, the humanity that united make the family that is Church, and pray for family needs.
Thursday, 24 March 2022
Compline (night prayer) Thursday, 24 March 2022
The darkness of night falls and in doing so, the light and love of God shine brighter still.
Keep us safe and bring us rest we pray. Amen.
Keep us safe and bring us rest we pray. Amen.
Today (24 March) the Church celebrates the lives and ministries of:
Walter Hilton, who was born in 1343, and studied Canon Law at Cambridge but after a period as a hermit, he joined the community of Augustinian Canons at Thurgarton in Nottinghamshire in about 1386.
Highly regarded in his lifetime as a spiritual guide, he wrote in both Latin and English and translated several Latin devotional works.
Controversy with ‘enthusiasts’ and with the Lollard movement gave a sharper definition to his exposition of the aims, methods and disciplines of traditional spirituality. Amongst his major works, Ladder of Perfection (Book Two) declares that contemplation, understood in a profoundly Trinitarian context as awareness of grace and sensitivity to the Spirit, may and should be sought by all serious Christians.
He died on this day in the year 1396.
AND
Paul Couturier, who was born in 1881 in Lyons, France, Paul Couturier was destined from early years for the priesthood. His concern for Christian Unity began as a result of his work with Russian refugees in Lyons, and was fostered through his profession at the Benedictine priory at Amay in Belgium, a community devoted to the growth of understanding between the Eastern and Western Churches.
He commended the observance of a Week of Prayer for Unity and, in the 1930s, widened his contacts to incorporate people of the Anglican, Lutheran and Reformed traditions. Celebrating the eucharist each day brought into focus his whole life of work and prayer for unity within the Church. The growing circle of friends and followers became an ‘invisible monastery’, praying for ‘the visible unity of the Kingdom of God, such as Christ willed and by the means which he wills’.
He died in 1953.
Highly regarded in his lifetime as a spiritual guide, he wrote in both Latin and English and translated several Latin devotional works.
Controversy with ‘enthusiasts’ and with the Lollard movement gave a sharper definition to his exposition of the aims, methods and disciplines of traditional spirituality. Amongst his major works, Ladder of Perfection (Book Two) declares that contemplation, understood in a profoundly Trinitarian context as awareness of grace and sensitivity to the Spirit, may and should be sought by all serious Christians.
He died on this day in the year 1396.
AND
Paul Couturier, who was born in 1881 in Lyons, France, Paul Couturier was destined from early years for the priesthood. His concern for Christian Unity began as a result of his work with Russian refugees in Lyons, and was fostered through his profession at the Benedictine priory at Amay in Belgium, a community devoted to the growth of understanding between the Eastern and Western Churches.
He commended the observance of a Week of Prayer for Unity and, in the 1930s, widened his contacts to incorporate people of the Anglican, Lutheran and Reformed traditions. Celebrating the eucharist each day brought into focus his whole life of work and prayer for unity within the Church. The growing circle of friends and followers became an ‘invisible monastery’, praying for ‘the visible unity of the Kingdom of God, such as Christ willed and by the means which he wills’.
He died in 1953.
AND
Oscar Arnulfo Romero y Galdamez was born in a small village in El Salvador in 1917. Ordained priest, he was known as a quiet and unassuming pastor.
By 1977, amidst the political and social turmoil suffered by his country, he was therefore seen as a neutral choice to be its Archbishop. Courageously, however, he began to speak out against violence, and his homilies supported the demands of the poor for economic and social justice.
He refused to be silenced and continued to preach even under threat of assassination. On this day in 1980, whilst presiding at Mass, Archbishop Romero was assassinated by a gunman. He has since been widely regarded as a martyr for the faith.
Oscar Arnulfo Romero y Galdamez was born in a small village in El Salvador in 1917. Ordained priest, he was known as a quiet and unassuming pastor.
By 1977, amidst the political and social turmoil suffered by his country, he was therefore seen as a neutral choice to be its Archbishop. Courageously, however, he began to speak out against violence, and his homilies supported the demands of the poor for economic and social justice.
He refused to be silenced and continued to preach even under threat of assassination. On this day in 1980, whilst presiding at Mass, Archbishop Romero was assassinated by a gunman. He has since been widely regarded as a martyr for the faith.
Wednesday, 23 March 2022
Compline (night prayer) - Wednesday, 23 March 2022
Acknowledging our weakness, failings, vulnerabilities and needs,
we come this night asking that we might be open to healing and wholeness in You.
Give us, and all people, Your peace we pray. Amen.
we come this night asking that we might be open to healing and wholeness in You.
Give us, and all people, Your peace we pray. Amen.
Tuesday, 22 March 2022
Compline (night prayer) - Tuesday, 22 March 2022
Going to our beds and reflecting on the battles lost, we rejoice that in the Cross of Christ the war is won.
Waking, aid us to be the people who overcome sin and make the love of God real. Amen.
Waking, aid us to be the people who overcome sin and make the love of God real. Amen.
Monday, 21 March 2022
Compline (night prayer) - Monday, 21 March 2022
The toil of day is ended and to bed we slowly trudge,
rejoicing in the wonder of You, our God of love.
Guard and guide all through this night we pray. Amen.
rejoicing in the wonder of You, our God of love.
Guard and guide all through this night we pray. Amen.
Today (21 March) the Church celebrates the life and ministry of Thomas Cranmer
Today the Church celebrates the life and ministry of Thomas Cranmer who was born in Aslockton in Nottinghamshire in 1489.
Following an unspectacular Cambridge academic career, Cranmer was recruited for diplomatic service in 1527. Two years later he joined the team working to annul Henry VIII’s marriage to Catherine of Aragon.
He was made Archbishop of Canterbury in 1533 and duly pronounced the Aragon marriage annulled. By now a convinced Church reformer, he married in 1532 while clerical marriage was still illegal in England.
He worked closely with Thomas Cromwell to further reformation, but survived Henry’s final, unpredictable years to become a chief architect of Edwardian religious change, constructing two editions of the Book of Common Prayer, in 1549 and 1552, the Ordinal in 1550 and the original version of the later Thirty-Nine Articles.
Cranmer acquiesced in the unsuccessful attempt to make Lady Jane Grey Queen of England. Queen Mary’s regime convicted him of treason in 1553 and of heresy in 1554. Demoralised by imprisonment, he signed six recantations, but was still condemned to the stake at Oxford. Struggling with his conscience, he made a final, bold statement of Protestant faith. Perhaps too fair-minded and cautious to be a ready-made hero in Reformation disputes, he was an impressively learned scholar, and his genius for formal prose has left a lasting mark on Anglican liturgy.
He was burnt at the stake on this day in the year 1556.
Following an unspectacular Cambridge academic career, Cranmer was recruited for diplomatic service in 1527. Two years later he joined the team working to annul Henry VIII’s marriage to Catherine of Aragon.
He was made Archbishop of Canterbury in 1533 and duly pronounced the Aragon marriage annulled. By now a convinced Church reformer, he married in 1532 while clerical marriage was still illegal in England.
He worked closely with Thomas Cromwell to further reformation, but survived Henry’s final, unpredictable years to become a chief architect of Edwardian religious change, constructing two editions of the Book of Common Prayer, in 1549 and 1552, the Ordinal in 1550 and the original version of the later Thirty-Nine Articles.
Cranmer acquiesced in the unsuccessful attempt to make Lady Jane Grey Queen of England. Queen Mary’s regime convicted him of treason in 1553 and of heresy in 1554. Demoralised by imprisonment, he signed six recantations, but was still condemned to the stake at Oxford. Struggling with his conscience, he made a final, bold statement of Protestant faith. Perhaps too fair-minded and cautious to be a ready-made hero in Reformation disputes, he was an impressively learned scholar, and his genius for formal prose has left a lasting mark on Anglican liturgy.
He was burnt at the stake on this day in the year 1556.
Saturday, 19 March 2022
Compline (night prayer) - Saturday, 19 March 2022
Almighty God, whose most dear Son went not up to joy but first he suffered pain,
and entered not into glory before he was crucified:
mercifully grant that we, walking in the way of the cross,
may find it none other than the way of life and peace. Amen.
and entered not into glory before he was crucified:
mercifully grant that we, walking in the way of the cross,
may find it none other than the way of life and peace. Amen.
Friday, 18 March 2022
Compline (night prayer) - Friday, 18 March 2022
At the close of the day, Psalm 139 brings the thought that God 'binge watches us' as thought with us, being outside of time, sees our lives as we watch TV series. [a 'wow' moment methinks]
Thursday, 17 March 2022
Compline (night prayer) - Thursday, 17 March 2022
As we head for bed we thank God for all (good, sad, bad and ugly) that the day has held. Whatever the day has held, God's love never faltered and his presence never failed. Amen.
Wednesday, 16 March 2022
Compline (night prayer) - Wednesday, 16 March 2022
All that has been is no more, that which we have is Yours Lord, and that which is to come we pray we be consecrated to You. Bring us rest and sleep this night we pray. Amen.
Tuesday, 15 March 2022
Compline (night prayer) - Tuesday, 15 March 2022
As Christ rose from the dead, so to do we rise as if from sleep to make God's love real in the lives of all we encounter each day. Make us witnesses to God's love made flesh for us we pray. Amen.
Monday, 14 March 2022
Compline (night prayer) - Monday, 14 March 2022
What does the LORD require of us? Justice, mercy and humility.
Lord as we go to our beds, may Your gift of love surround, uphold and heal this night. Amen.
Lord as we go to our beds, may Your gift of love surround, uphold and heal this night. Amen.
Sunday, 13 March 2022
Compline (night prayer) - Sunday, 13 March 2022
Gathering the fragments of the day, the needs of people and places we ask that You would be God in all that means for our broken world this night. Amen.
Saturday, 12 March 2022
Compline (night prayer) - Saturday, 12 March 2022
Laying aside the noise and busyness of the day, we embrace Your love, confess our sins and pray that the peace of God might resonate in the lives of all creation. Amen.
Friday, 11 March 2022
Compline (night prayer) - Friday, 11 March 2022
In the confusions and clamour of the day we find, as we prepare for bed, the peace the world neither owns or understands. Lord hear our prayer and give us understanding. Amen.
Thursday, 10 March 2022
Compline (night prayer) - Thursday, 10 March 2020
When all around is conflict and sin and the world asks, "What has God done about it?"
we look to the cross and reply, "Everything!"
Wednesday, 9 March 2022
Compline (night prayer) - Wednesday, 9 March 2022
Continuing our Lenten journey, we pray that we may be rooted in Christ so that we can withstand the challenges and temptations of this life.
Tuesday, 8 March 2022
Compline (night prayer) - Tuesday, 8 March 2022
The image of three men, lives spanning over 1,300 years. Different cultures, challenges and needs all met in the one same God through the incarnate Christ and the enabling of the Spirit.
May we too rise triumphant tomorrow. Amen
May we too rise triumphant tomorrow. Amen
Today (8 March) the Church celebrates the lives and ministries of Edward King and Felix
Edward King, who was born in London in 1829 and was. revered as a priest and then as a bishop, for the holiness of his life and the wisdom of his counsel.
He was chaplain, then principal, of Cuddesdon Theological College, followed by a dozen years as a professor of theology in Oxford, during which time he exercised a great influence on a generation of ordinands.
In 1885, he was consecrated Bishop of Lincoln, a position he held until his death in 1910. His advocacy of Catholic principles in ritual as well as theology involved him in controversy, but his significant gift to the Church was his example as a pastoral and caring bishop to clergy and laity alike.
And Felix, a man who was born in Burgundy at the beginning of the seventh century, and is reputedly to have converted the exiled King Sigebert of the East Angles and, after the King’s return to Britain, was consecrated bishop and then persuaded by the King to follow him to effect the conversion of his subjects.
He was commissioned by Honorius, Archbishop of Canterbury, to this work and made Dunwich the centre of his new See. He established schools and monasteries and ministered in his diocese for seventeen years. He died in the year 647.
He was chaplain, then principal, of Cuddesdon Theological College, followed by a dozen years as a professor of theology in Oxford, during which time he exercised a great influence on a generation of ordinands.
In 1885, he was consecrated Bishop of Lincoln, a position he held until his death in 1910. His advocacy of Catholic principles in ritual as well as theology involved him in controversy, but his significant gift to the Church was his example as a pastoral and caring bishop to clergy and laity alike.
And Felix, a man who was born in Burgundy at the beginning of the seventh century, and is reputedly to have converted the exiled King Sigebert of the East Angles and, after the King’s return to Britain, was consecrated bishop and then persuaded by the King to follow him to effect the conversion of his subjects.
He was commissioned by Honorius, Archbishop of Canterbury, to this work and made Dunwich the centre of his new See. He established schools and monasteries and ministered in his diocese for seventeen years. He died in the year 647.
Today (8 March) the Church celebrates the life and ministry of Geoffrey Studdert Kennedy ('Woodbine Willie').
Born in 1883, Studdert Kennedy was a young vicar in Worcester who became an army chaplain during the First World War.
His warm personality soon earned the respect of soldiers, who nicknamed him ‘Woodbine Willie’ after the brand of cigarettes he shared with them.
After the First World War, he became a writer and regular preacher, drawing large crowds, who were attracted by his combination of traditional sacramental theology with more unconventional theological views.
He worked tirelessly for the Christian Industrial Fellowship, but his frail health gave way and he died (still a young man) on this day in 1929.
His warm personality soon earned the respect of soldiers, who nicknamed him ‘Woodbine Willie’ after the brand of cigarettes he shared with them.
After the First World War, he became a writer and regular preacher, drawing large crowds, who were attracted by his combination of traditional sacramental theology with more unconventional theological views.
He worked tirelessly for the Christian Industrial Fellowship, but his frail health gave way and he died (still a young man) on this day in 1929.
Monday, 7 March 2022
Compline (night prayer) - Monday, 7 March 2022
Reflecting on those who have given up their lives for the love of Christ, may we who are not tested so sorely give all we have to build the Church and make real Your love. Amen.
Today (7 March) the Church celebrates the lives and ministries of Perpetua, Felicity and Companions.
The moving, contemporary account of these early third-century African martyrs proved to be of great significance in the life of the early Church.
Vibia Perpetua was a young, married noblewoman of Carthage and Felicity was her personal slave.
Saturus was possibly a priest and there were two other men, Saturninus and Revocatus, the latter also a slave.
Felicity was pregnant. It seems most of them were catechumens when arrested and only baptised later in prison, where Perpetua had a vision in which she climbed a great ladder into paradise.
They were condemned as Christians by the Roman authorities and dispatched to the public arena, there to be mauled by wild animals.
They all survived and were then taken to be executed by the sword. Before this, they exchanged the Kiss of Peace and affirmed their faith in Christ, the Son of God.
The account of their martyrdom was widely circulated in secret throughout the Christian congregations and proved both to give renown to their courage and to give encouragement to their fellow Christians in the face of adversity.
They were martyred for their faith on this day in the year 203.
Vibia Perpetua was a young, married noblewoman of Carthage and Felicity was her personal slave.
Saturus was possibly a priest and there were two other men, Saturninus and Revocatus, the latter also a slave.
Felicity was pregnant. It seems most of them were catechumens when arrested and only baptised later in prison, where Perpetua had a vision in which she climbed a great ladder into paradise.
They were condemned as Christians by the Roman authorities and dispatched to the public arena, there to be mauled by wild animals.
They all survived and were then taken to be executed by the sword. Before this, they exchanged the Kiss of Peace and affirmed their faith in Christ, the Son of God.
The account of their martyrdom was widely circulated in secret throughout the Christian congregations and proved both to give renown to their courage and to give encouragement to their fellow Christians in the face of adversity.
They were martyred for their faith on this day in the year 203.
Sunday, 6 March 2022
Compline (night prayer) - Sunday, 6 March 2022
Pondering the things of this day we pray that the God of truth, whom we follow, would bring us (and all creation) into that truth which challenges, enables, restores and blesses. Amen.
Saturday, 5 March 2022
Compline (night prayer) - Saturday, 5 March 2022
As the day ends and we remember, reflect and lay all it has been at the foot of the cross, bring us rest and tomorrow lead us into joy as we rejoice at the love of God made flesh risen from the dead.
Friday, 4 March 2022
Compline (night prayer) - Friday, 4 March 2022
God Almighty, may we, by the prayer and discipline of Lent,
enter into the mystery of Christ's sufferings; that following in the Way,
we may come to share in the glory; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
enter into the mystery of Christ's sufferings; that following in the Way,
we may come to share in the glory; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Tuesday, 1 March 2022
Today ( 1 March) the Church celebrates the life and ministry of David (Patron Saint of Wales)
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