good morning and welcome to the Deery at Canter Cathedral as we come to say our morning prayers on this Friday the 20th of August it's a day in the calendar when we remember St Bernard of clavo Famous San uh teacher and in the 12th century a very important figure and also we remember William and Katherine booze who founded the Salvation Army William booze died on this day in 1912 his wife had predeceased him in 1890 but the movement now is one that is recognized everywhere in the world as a a a movement of service and the the the Army reaches out the the Salvation Army reaches out to people in areas of enormous distress at the same time we continue our prayers for those across the world in danger from war and our hearts are filled still with the plight of the people of Afghanistan and also of fire and of flood and of pandemic so many images as I say those words will cross your mind we bring them all to our prayers and bring your own situation to our prayers as well the same time I wanted to point forward a little and pray for the people of Tokyo and Japan as they prepare for the par Olympics which begin on Tuesday we'll think much of that because it will be a different kind of icon for the joining together of our whole world and the movement we the 15 uh which is pointing out the 15% of our world's population who live with disabilities we shall continue to think about as we go through those weeks a movement of Hope and we give thanks for that as we pray for those in great danger and those putting their lives in danger to save people from the dangers they themselves face let's begin our prayers on this day oh Lord open our lips and our mouths shall Proclaim your praise your Faithful Servants bless you they make known the glory of your kingdom blessed are you Sovereign God ruler and judge of all to you be praise and glory forever in the darkness of this age that is passing away May the light of your presence which the Saints enjoy surround our steps as we journey on May we reflect your glory this day and so be made ready to see your face in the Heavenly City where night shall be no more Blessed Be god father Son and Holy Spirit blessed be God forever the night has passed and the day lies open before us let us pray with one heart and mind as we rejoice in the gift of this new day so may the light of your presence oh God set our hearts on fire with love for you now and forever amen our Psalm this morning on this 20th morning of the month is Psalm PM 103 bless the Lord oh my soul and all that is within me bless His holy name bless the Lord oh my soul and forget not all his benefits who forgives all your sins and heals all your infirmities who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with faithful love and compassion who satisfies you with good things so that your youth is renewed like an eagles the Lord executes righteousness and judgment for all who are oppressed he made way his ways known to Moses and his Works to the children of Israel the Lord is full of compassion and mercy slow to anger and of great kindness he will not always accuse us neither will he keep his Ang anger forever he has not dealt with us according to our sins nor rewarded us according to our wickedness for as the heavens are high above the Earth so great is his mercy upon those who fear Him as far as the East is from the West so far has he set our sins from us as a father has compassion on his children so is the Lord merciful towards those who fear Him for he knows of what we are made he remembers that we are but dust our days are but as grass we flourish as a flower of the field for as soon as the wind goes over it it is gone and its place shall know it no more but the merciful goodness of the Lord is from of old and endures forever on those who fear Him and his righteousness on children's children on those who keep his compy and remember His Commandments to do them the Lord has established his throne in heaven and his kingdom has dominion over all bless the Lord you angels of his you mighty ones who do his bidding and hearken to the voice of his word bless the Lord all you his hosts you Ministers of his who do his will bless the Lord all you works of his in all places of his Dominion bless the Lord oh my soul so we turn back to the story of Abraham in the Book of Genesis and this today we're reading chapter 18 verses 1 to 15 it's a well-known and a very lovely story and the Lord appeared to Abraham by the oak of mamry as he sat at the door of his tent In the Heat of the day Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked and behold three men were standing in front of him when he saw them he ran from the tent door to meet them and bowed himself to the Earth and said oh Lord if I have found favor in your sight do not pass by your servant let a little water be brought and wash your feet and rest yourselves under the tree while I bring a morsel of bread that you may refresh yourselves and after that you may pass on since you have come to your servant so they said do as you have said and Abraham went quickly into the tent to Sarah and said quick three Sears of fine flour need it and make cakes and Abraham ran to the herd and took a calf tender and good and gave it to a young man who prepared it quickly then he took Kurds and milk and the calf that he had prepared and set it before them and he stood by them under the tree while they at they said to him where is Sarah your wife and Abraham said she is in the tent the Lord said I will surely return to you about this time next year and Sarah your wife shall have a son now Sarah was listening at the tent door behind him now Abraham and Sarah were old and advanced in years the way of women had ceased to be with Sarah so Sarah laughed to herself saying after I am worn out and my Lord is old shall I have pleasure the Lord said to Abraham why did Sarah laugh and say shall I indeed bear a child now that I am old is anything too hard for the Lord at the appointed time I will return to you about this time next year and Sarah shall have a son but Sarah denied it saying I did not laugh for she was afraid but he said no but you did it's an amazing story with so many dimensions and the perception of Abraham that this is the voice of God through the three who have visited him who are so often portrayed as Angels Abraham's intuition for this is absolute but nevertheless his Instinct for hospitality is part of so many cult when people are traveling in heat and they've come in the heat of the day and Abraham himself is resting under the oak of mamry it's no wonder that so many artists have painted this picture but probably the most famous representation of this picture of all and perhaps one of the most famous icons in the whole world is ruf's icon of the Three Angels or the coming of the Holy Trinity to Abraham's tent which is how so many of the artists see it and that icon is one that I've seen in so many places hanging in guest houses hanging in Chapel hanging at home and essentially it's a sign of hospitality well I'm sitting just here with the doors of the French windows open because this is a place in the open air where we can give Hospitality in small measure in normal times the dinery is a house of hospitality and its Gardens see um probably about 20,000 people each year at different events as they go around or come to charity events or receive official Hospitality because they've woried in great numbers in the cathedral and our guests that we would want not only to give Hospitality to but to honor guests from across the communion guests who've been staying in the lodge as students and seminarians and bishops from the communion usually Bishops who've been recently consecrated and have come really to visit the mother Church of the Anglican communion and receive Hospitality when we came 20 years ago there were no doors there that was simply a window quite a small window and a wall and next to it you can't see this but I'm looking at it now and you've seen it in on other occasions there is a very small door it was the only access to this little uh Courtyard really at the at the back of the dinery and there were no plantings at all the only thing here was the wisteria and the intention which uh Fletcher intended was to open this again but of course within historic building like this it's impossible to make great changes so uh nothing daunted he went to the cathedral library and found a photograph showing windows and doors opening onto an oranger which stood just here which had been destroyed probably in the the as a result of the the bombing and explosions around in the second world war with with Beyond then nothing to help replace it because resources were very not just Financial Resources but resources of of materials were very very few and far between but it was enough because these doors were part of the historic Fabric and though they hadd been closed in by a wall we could open them again and now um he is sitting in the morning room Beyond which becomes because it's so linked to the the kitchen a place where we can serve people if they're having a garden visit or they're coming just as our guests on the spur of the moment and that's so necessary in Hospitality in all cultures there's a moment in the epistle to the Hebrews we've used that once or twice recently and the epistle to the Hebrews has marvelous sentences in it but the one I'm thinking of you will know very well it's be not forgetful to entertain strangers for in so doing some have entertained angels unaware I love that sentence angels unaware how can you ever know who will be to you the voice of God for very often those words are heard in the voice of another but the Ruf icon is very much in the church's mind an aspect of the Trinity how in the Sacred Scriptures Old and New Testament God shows himself as Father Son and Holy Spirit Creator Redeemer and giving of the spirit to others to make all things holy all of that and the three persons sitting there are invited by Abraham to share hospitality and this old man runs around In the Heat of the day but the first thing as we've said this before the first thing is the gift of water to wash their feet and make them less tired then of shade and shelter this is the oak of mamory what a wonderful um icon for people to paint and in in great pictures you find this but think of the great magnolia tree yesterday under which I was sitting with its great shade In the Heat of the day and Abraham taking as in what countries is a custom a rest at that time and inviting people to join his rest and from that comes the promise of God Hospitality given and a gift given in exchange as the voice says and in the lesson notice sometimes it's talking about the three but sometimes it's talking about the Lord's voice and as we receive that the voice of God to Abraham says I will return next year and Sarah shall have a son and once again the ridiculous nature of This Promise is brought home it's not Abraham who laughs this time as he did yesterday or the day before in our lesson it's Sarah but when that accusation is turned around on her she quite naturally is quite afraid and says I didn't laugh uh but the honesty has to come back to her oh yes you did laugh but with god let's go back to that sentence because we have it here again not just at that moment but before with God nothing is impossible so Embrace and receive the promises of God often given as a result of human Hospitality what we see also is the time it is taking in patience for that promise to be fulfilled remember how yesterday even Abraham doubted and said you could use ishmail giving God a way out because nothing is happening and they're growing older and older but patience and waiting for the right time as we do through the whole of the fourth gospel when Jesus is my time is not yet my time is not yet until the moment when he says the hour has come for the son of man to be glorified and that is an aspect of this story too the patient waiting and the invitation to obedience well this is a day when we remember St B Ard of clavo and he died on this day August the 20th in 1153 he was a follower of the cian order which had come about because there were those who felt that the Benedictine order had become too easy shall we say and was not keeping strictly to the rule of St Benedict and so at Sito this new order was founded and Bernard became one of those in early days and was asked to form a cyan Monastery at clo which he did now cians and if you look at the places in England where cyan monasteries are tended to separate themselves unlike Benedictine abies separate themselves from the ordinary society and keep a life rather separate so so many of the the beautiful cian monasteries are out in the countryside away from busy communities and I would um like to think of the cian monasteries I could do the ones in provance where the fires are bur burning at the moment but I'm not going to do that I'm going to do tin turn Abbey which itself is so absolutely beautiful and which in its ruined State used to provide me with holy hospitality often in the kiosk the visitors kiosk there by the river y when I was Dean of Herford and my father was still alive in South gloucestershire I would go down that road and across the river 7 but I'd follow the track of the river Y which actually flowed through the Deery Garden in uh uh Herford I used to watch otter play on the stone steps down there um but I'd come all the way down down that beautiful road which leads from Monmouth down to chepo and on the the way you passed through tin turn Abbey the ruins of its standing you can imagine how it was but the best Hospitality for me in a sense of quiet reflection was always given on Christmas Day Afternoon for father was still alive and after I had finished uh services at Herford Cathedral I would get in the car and by then it was already dark and motor down through that lovely road often with a moon and no traffic for Christmas Day in England is a very quiet place and I take my own flask of tea just to have a break at tin turn and pull into the empty car park and sit there by the ruins of The Abbey in all its Silence with often the stars and frosty atmosphere and a a moon maybe overhead before going on to the hospitality of of home and Christmas dinner in the evening all of that was uh an important aspect of the sense of what is sashan Monastery meant and St Bernard himself wanted that kind of Simplicity he insisted that Leo deina which is a Benedictine habit of reflection quietly on the scriptures and also mixing that in quietness with one's own life it's something done in silence often with a reading first icons like the ruf can help other things can help or memories from the past as we do morning by morning can help but all of that was brought home to me with the cian Habit there in uh of of of reflection at the in quiet places beautiful places set aside from busy communities there there was much work to do in a cachan community of course and there are three quotes I I wanted from St Berard one I I know very well and remember always the road to hell is paved with good intentions it's a nice quote but uh even better what we love we shall grow to resemble and that too becomes uh both a warning but also a lovely message from St Bernard and then something else which has come more and more too me and to you as a garden congregation through the year Bernard said what I know of the Divine Science and Holy Scripture I learned in the woods and in the fields well we take that to heart this morning I wanted also though on this day uh not only to give thanks for William and Katherine Boo Boo and the work of the Salvation Army but also to think perhaps you'll think this is an odd thought but on the 20th of August 1823 Pope pus iith died now he had been the pope since 181 and uh I think that uh he must have had one of the most difficult papes in history for everything was in total Destruction and disarray Pas the the 6 his predecessor had been captured by the French taken away and died in captivity all the accoutrements of the papacy had as a result of the the French Revolutionary Wars and the coming of Napoleon been just simply taken away and for a while there was no Pope and then they managed to conclave and they had the conclave in Venice in the very beautiful Monastery of sanio magor which is if you know Venice and you look across from St Mark's square right across you see the great Bell Tower or across the waters and the Dome of of uh San Georgio magori and also the great Monastery beside it it was a Benedictine Monastery at that time and a conclave was held in all the disarray of Europe at that time and a pope was elected and he was a Benedictine Monk and he became Pi I 7th and they had no way of being in Rome for uh a a Papal uh coronation as it was then and so they did it and it must have pleased him in the monastic Church of uh San georgo maor there were no accoutrements and this is the best bit of all they made a papier mashe Crown Triple Crown resembling the Papal crown and painted it and used that as the coronation and then Pope pus iith was almost bundled into an Austrian ship which didn't even have a galley and in a 12-day goodness knows what the voyage was like a 12-day journey all the way round in war torn Europe he finally arrived in Rome and began to start again a different beginning but it was a beginning that was to end in a kinds of of different crisis for Pope Pas iith himself was uh captured by Napoleon and taken to Paris to nraam so that he could be present and I think Napoleon at the beginning thought the pope would crown him that was in his mind and then when the event happened and the captive Pope was sitting there po Napoleon sees the crown and crowned himself there was no more fitting person to Crown this new emperor than he himself now all of that as many of you will know you can see in that fantastic portrait of the whole event with everyone sitting there in the Lou by David and that portrait of the coronation of Napoleon by David stays in my mind it's one I can never not go to see when I'm in in Paris because there in the middle of everything is the face of p i 7th beautifully painted wondering what on Earth is going to happen next what does he do now and indeed eventually he went back to Rome but was captured again and things just until 1815 how much accommodation and he was criticized on one side for making too much accommodation in order to help Catholics in their life in France and on the other side he was criticized for not making enough eventually from 1815 to 1823 when he died on this day he made an attempt to begin again in Rome and begin to put things back and his face I won't say haunts me but uh if I think of that David portrait it's not Napoleon I think of it's the figure of Pope Pas the s sitting in the middle of everything inactive because Napoleon wasn't going to have his hands put the crown on him who was the winner on that day that's the question to ask and one has to go on on on to find out uh in terms of time and patience but what must have been going through the Pope's mind when all that was happening I dread to think it's a day then to think also of those who have to make decisions in immensely difficult dangerous damaging and hostile situations at this time so let's give thanks for the fact that there are those who Faithfully attempt to do so and find the will of God in one another be not forgetful to entertain strangers for in so doing some have welcomed and entertained angels unaware so many themes this morning but it's essentially a theme of hospitality Hospitality which we receive and give thanks for Hospitality which we gratefully give to the best of our ability and one thinks of old Abraham racing around and Sarah racing to prepare the the cakes to go with the the the the meat which is going to prepare be prepared for these honored guests who become the voice of god let's say our prayers on this particular day we're praying in the the Anglican communion for the dasis of Edmonton in the Anglican Church of Canada that's way up in the rupertsland province and we pray for Justin our Archbishop and for Rose Bishop of DOA and also for Tim Bishop at Lambeth but today in this dasis for the Parish of Borton under bleen not too far away from here lovely Parish but at the moment is vacant and so we pray for those who have the task of appointing someone to fulfill Ministry in that Village of Borton and Blen on this day bring your own prayers and intentions and thanksgivings as we pray for one another with the prayer for this week oh God you declare your Almighty power most chiefly in showing mercy and pity Mercy ly Grant to us such a measure of your grace that we running the way of your Commandments may receive your gracious promises and be made partakers of your heavenly treasure through Jesus Christ Our Lord amen so we say the prayer Our Savior taught us in whichever language you like to use Our Father who art in heaven Hallowed be thy name thy kingdom come thy will be done on Earth as it is in heaven give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us and lead us not into temptation but Deliver Us from Evil for thine is the kingdom the power and the glory forever and ever amen moment of silence now from some Leo deina if you like some reflection but also for your own prayers for the peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and Minds in the knowledge and love of God and of his son Jesus Christ Our Lord and the blessing of God Almighty the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit be upon you upon those whom you love and Those whom you would pray for today and always amen