good morning and welcome to canterbury cathedral to the deanery garden in rather a strange place leo is showing us his favorite place in the whole garden but it fits well with our reflection this morning i've come along here behind the potting shed over which the roses grow and there is a hugely important place here pumpkins are growing all around me but i'm if you can believe it sitting on the compost heat which is an engine of recycling in the garden and a very necessary part of all our activities leo finds this to be a favorite place because leo is our rat catcher and uh he makes sure that the compost heap is is kept clean of of of of rats but at the same time i don't think he's too upset when he finds one so here he is this morning but here i am sitting amongst the compass heat perhaps it's the best place for me this morning it's autumn and there's a fine rain falling from the heavens not not too much at all a gray cloudy morning with with no wind at all and very much the last day of september september the 30th thursday september the 30th it's in jerome's day translator of the scriptures in the um late fourth and early 5th century but we shall remember him as part of our reflection so together as we come across from the world we we um say our prayers and around me here as you see are huge leaves of pumpkins which have their roots in the compost heap and grow up over the old wall which you've become used to with all its flints at this part of the garden and later on these pumpkins and everywhere i look behind the leaves there are vast pumpkins growing we took some seeds some time back from the new york botanics called little hercules i don't think this year this is little hercules but it could well be because the pumpkins are growing fast and we remember that uh also it's it's harvest thanksgiving on sunday well this compost heap was made by fletcher in in it's got three bays and i'm sitting in the nearest to the beanstalks which you're used to and fresher made it out of old uh scaffolding planks we had so many scaffolding planks from the restoration of the cathedral and they've been made into short planks so that one can have different kinds of heights as the compass bed builds up and i'm sitting in the lowest of them at the moment because that's where where we're pushing things but behind me and behind me again are two more and one has higher compass heaps back there and that's doing its work of of just getting everything down so that everything becomes useful again to the garden as it it goes back into the earth and feeds plants and vegetation we'll talk about the cycle of the earth because that becomes also part of our reflection this morning but let's begin our prayers i wanted to mention a canterbury tragedy this morning because uh the the day before yesterday uh ian taylor one of our priests he had been until the 2003 uh a gentleman's outfitter very well known in the city and then was ordained in 2003 and holds still a a permission to officiate in the city center benefits here very well known to us all a constant attender at evensong and also the carer of his wife doris who had had a a growing sense of of of alzheimer's or and confusion so he was her carer but he was going to have a week of of respite and doris was sent to family to be with them to look after her and in going to catch his train uh just outside canterbury west station he was knocked down by a van and killed and we're all in a state of intense grief and sadness for ian because he was beloved by us all i remember him standing in cathedral even song loving the psalms and i remember him also saying to me one night robert the the verse i like best on the seventh evening of the month is when psalm 37 changes chant for verse 23 and you get the line and verse 23 is the lord ordereth a good man's going and maketh his way acceptable to himself the lord ordereth a good man's going well we pray for the repose of the soul of ian in the eternity that he is now enjoying and knowing that the lord ordering his going but at the same time we we pray for doris in in her confusion about what has happened and those who are caring for her may even rest in peace and rise in glory o lord open our lips and our mouth 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 does we rejoice in the gift of this new day say may the light of your presence o god set our hearts on fire with love for you now and forever amen our morning psalm on this last day of the month is psalm 145 i will exalt you o god my king and bless your name forever and ever every day will i bless you and praise your name forever and ever great is the lord and highly to be praised his greatness is beyond all searching out one generation shall praise your works to another and declare your mighty acts they shall speak of the majesty of your glory and i will tell of all your wonderful deeds they shall speak of the might of your marvelous acts and i will also tell of your greatness they shall pour forth the story of your abundant kindness and joyfully sing of your righteousness the lord is gracious and merciful long-suffering and of great goodness the lord is loving to everyone and his mercy is over all his creatures all your works praise you o lord and your faithful servants bless you they tell of the glory of your kingdom and speak of your mighty power to make known to all peoples your mighty acts and the glorious splendor of your kingdom your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom your dominion endures throughout all ages the lord is sure in all his words and faithful in all his deeds the lord upholds all those who fall and lifts up all those who are bowed down the eyes of all wait upon you o lord and you give them their food in due season you open wide your hand and fill all things living with plenty the lord is righteous in all his ways and loving in all his works the lord is near to those who call upon him to all who call upon him faithfully he fulfills the desire of those who fear him he hears their cry and saves them the lord watches over those who love him but all wickedness shall he destroy my mouth shall speak the praise of the lord and let all flesh bless his holy name forever and ever lovely morning sound to complete our month [Music] now that fletcher's changed position before we read our lesson you can see the three-year cycle opening out in the compost heap which he designed in in this part which is the largest part the vegetation the old vegetation and household waste and cardboard come into here and begin to rot down and so year one is here and then as that gets slightly smaller in the way in which it breaks down it will go into the the next for the next year and break down further and you find that uh small creatures and of all kinds find warmth here in very cold days because the heat at the center of all that waste breaking down the vegetation breaking down and turning into compass is intense it gets smaller still and then the the third year it goes into the the far bay and then the fourth year it is taken out from the far bay and used as compost right across the garden uh originally um when uh fisher returned here from from his a career in london and took a huge interest in the garden uh he found that compost was being bought in and we were paying people to take away an enormous amount of vegetation to elsewhere and now the whole thing can become recycled so we're making our own compost and spreading that around the same thing happens with the waste from the chickens and with the pigs to feed again the growing vegetation in a recycling again nice and in our reflection we'll come to that but i'm reading now from excuse me reading now from genesis chapter 48 and this is continuing the story of joseph and particularly of jacob after this joseph was told behold your father is ill so joseph took with him his two sons manasseh and ephraim and it was told to jacob your son joseph has come to you then israel summoned his strengths and sat up in his bed and jacob said to joseph god almighty appeared to me at las in the land of canaan and blessed me and said to me behold i will make you fruitful and multiply you and i will make of you a company of people and will give you this land to your offspring after you for an everlasting possession and now your two sons who were born to you in the land of egypt before i came to you in egypt are mine ephraim and manasseh shall be mine as reuben and simeon are and the children that you fathered after them shall be yours they shall be called by the name of their brothers in their inheritance as for me when i came from padan to my sorrow rachel died in the land of canaan the way when there was still some distance to go to ephras and i buried her there on the way to ephrath that is bethlehem now when israel saw joseph's sons he said now who are these joseph said to his father they are my sons whom god has given me here and he said bring them to me please that i may bless them now the eyes of israel were dim with age so that he could not see so joseph brought them near him and he kissed them and embraced them and israel said to joseph i never expected to see your face and behold god has let me see your offspring also then joseph removed them from his knees and he bowed himself with his face to the earth and joseph took them both ephraim in his right hand towards israel's left hand and manasseh in his left hand towards israel's right hand and brought them near him and israel stretched out his right hand and laid it on the head of ephraim who was a younger and his left hand on the head of manasseh crossing his hands for manasseh was the firstborn and he blessed joseph and said the god before whom my father abraham and isaac walked the god who has been my shepherd all my life long to this day the angel who has redeemed me from all evil bless the boys and in them let my name be carried on and the name of my fathers abraham and isaac can let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth but when joseph saw that his father laid his right hand on the head of ephraim it displeased him and he took his father's hand to move it from ephraim's head to manasseh's head and joseph said to his father not this way my father since this one is the firstborn put your right hand on his head but jacob refused and said i know my son i know he also shall become a people and he also shall be great nevertheless his younger brother shall be greater than he and his offspring shall become a multitude of nations so he blessed them that day saying by you israel will pronounce blessings saying god make you as ephraim and as manasseh thus he put ephraim before manasseh then israel said to joseph behold i am about to die but god will be with you and will bring you again to the land of your fathers moreover i have given to you rather than to your brothers one mountain slope that i took from the hand of the amorites with my sword and with my bow chapter 48 ends there and we shall continue but it's rather a moving chapter in terms of jacob blessing the sons of joseph but also blessing joseph himself and telling of his gladness in that god has blessed him enough to see joseph again and also the two sons whom he takes to himself come on see in the way in which jacob blesses crossing his hands an echo of what happened to him when he took his brothers his elder brother's birthright and asked his own father isaac to give him that blessing with uh his mother uh rebecca helping at that time well jacob is an old man now and his eyes are too dim to see the boys and we see him in old age this is showing the faithfulness of jacob right through but also his prophesying into the future i said that we would come back to brother cadfail when we remembered him on that anniversary of ellis peters edith parchetta and the writer i said that she had written those 20 books and i think that she had written the last one in preparation so that when she died she knew there would be a last one which would complete the story it's called brother canfield's penance we've been talking about the way the seasons change and i want to read a little bit from brother cadfail's penance you remember how the first book began in may time in springtime and the office mentioned i mean the canonical office that the short prayers that monks say at particular times of day which seven times a day i will praise you says the psalmist and those short offices of the hours the office mentioned is prime and and it it said about brother cadfel was up early before um prime pricking out cabbage seedlings well that's a beginning prime the beginning of the day and in daylight matins and lords have been said in the night then comes prime and then the short offices of the day come through right through till compton itself as though each day goes through from birth until the time when the body lies down to sleep and the energy is concentrated in the earlier hours and so on and so forth so this last book of brother canfield and again it's inscribed for me nicely by ellis peters who i knew in old age i'm going to read the passage at the beginning which speaks in a particular way about cad fail at the end of his days and uh hugh hugh beringar the sheriff of the city young man very young man when catfil knew him first in the second book a morbid chase for bones the first one and then one corpse too many the second and it's there that hugh as a young man first appears and can't fail overseas whose marriage becomes godfather to hughes sons and they're tremendous friends over those years of the books taking place but those aren't too many years and he was still a young and strong man and he's come down first to speak to the wonderful at abbott rodolfos and then he knows that he will go and find cad fail in his garden later brother catfell was standing in the middle of his walled herb garden looking pensively about him at the autumnal visage of his pleasants where all things grew gaunt wiry and somber most of the leaves were fallen the stems dark and clenched like fleshless fingers holding fast to the remnant of the summer all the fragrances gathered into one scent of age and decline still sweet but with the damp rotting sweetness of harvest over and decay setting in it was not yet very cold the mild melancholy of november still had lingering gold in it in falling leaves and slanting amber light all the apples were in the loft all the corn milled the hay long stacked the sheep turned into the stubble fields a time to pause to look round to make sure nothing had been neglected no fence unrepaired against the winter he had never before been quite so acutely aware of the particular quality and function of november its ripeness and its hushed sadness the year proceeds not in a straight line through the seasons but in a circle that brings the world and humanity back to the dimness and mystery in which both began and out of which a new seed time and a new generation are about to begin old folk thought cadfail believe in that new beginning but experience only the ending it may be that god is reminding me that i am approaching my november well why regret it november has beauty has seen the harvest into the barns even laid by next year's seed no need to fret about not being allowed to stay and sow it someone else will do that so go contentedly into the earth with the moist gentle skeletal leaves worn to cobweb fragility like the skins of very old men that bruise and stain the mere brushing of the breeze and flower into brown blotches as the leaves into rotting gold the colours of late autumn are the colors of the sunset the farewell of the year and the farewell of the day and of the life of man well if it ends in a flourish of gold that is no bad ending hugh coming from the abbot's lodging between haste to impart what he knew and reluctance to deliver what could only be disturbing news found his friend standing thus motionless in the middle of his small beloved kingdom staring rather within his own mind than at the straggling autumnal growth about him cadfail started back to the outer world only when hugh laid a hand on his shoulder and visibly surfaced slowly from some secret place fathoms deep in the center of his being god bless the work said hugh and took him by the arms if any works been done here this afternoon i thought you had taken root i was pondering the circular nature of human life said can't fail almost apologetically and the seasons of the years and the hours of the day i never heard you come i was not expecting to see you today it's a joyful meeting but i won't go on into the book it's one for you to find if you don't know it already for there is unfinished business in canfield's life and that he knows physically he has to accomplish even breaking one or two rules of his benedictine order of stability if he's to journey to put certain things right while health and strength remain to him and then to return and i can't help feeling also that um edith parted her in old age was considering her own state when she wrote that reflection there which i find so very moving speaks of the balance of benedictine life the way in which the the day and the seasons divide themselves up into times of prayer but also the balance of spiritual energy in that life of prayer just undergirding the day and reaching out into a beyond which we can reflect on and get glimpses of but its brightness is too much to look at face to face also the mental energy which is used in so many decisions that we have to make helped by others but essentially taking responsibility for them ourselves in the end and the physical activity according to our years which we're still able to accomplish all of that we see around us in the garden our little patch here but we see around us constantly in our planet and the way everything becomes circular the balance of our planish that nothing nothing is wasted but it's part of our stewardship at our time to keep that balance right for if the balance goes wrong then certain amounts of life die and we're a threat to ourselves as well if the balance is right and see should we say the carbon emissions and the balance between carbon dioxide and oxygen and the way in which carbon dioxide can become too much when fossil fuels are burned or too many plants are just taken away and the the sun and the light can't do its work and everything that we're seeing here begins not to happen properly we know too much about that already that circular motion which now at last people in powerful positions have become rightly concerned about all of that springing from that balance and encouragement but one can read it at any level and it's deep within our own psyche because of the way we ourselves have to maintain that particular balance this is a day when um we remember saint jerome now st jerome died on the 30th of september 4 20. he died in bethlehem because quite some time before was 40 years before he had decided that rome was not the right place for him to be translating the scriptures and this was his real life's work he wrote many many other things one of the great latin fathers of the church but at the same time we remember him best for his translation of the scriptures from greek and hebrew into latin so that the whole church could at that time read it in latin and that according to our prayer books is still something people enjoy doing that the book of common prayer of 1660 never forbade the reading of everything in latin it only forbade it if there were people who were there who couldn't understand it and so if someone was understanding it then of course it was a pleasure to read it in the way in which jerome had written it in the same way that we take pleasure in reading it in greek from time to time because it takes us right back to the roots and i'm surrounded by roots here but the best way of doing it is in a language if you're with others that people understand so that heart mind and soul can all be with body nourished and the balance kept but jerome was doing just that for the church at that time and going back to the best possible sources going back to the beginning as far as he could so where did he think was the best place to go and do that why bethlehem of course where all things began and he went there and it's heart-rending really because of course that's the place where jacob had buried rachel his beloved wife the mother of joseph and here is jerome in a cave or a lodging of great simplicity with one life's work translating translating translating the scriptures and trying to put all other things out of the way so that his energies mental spiritual and physical can be concentrating on that it's a wonderful concept there are so many lovely stories about jerome in the same way and the best one of course is the story of him removing the thorn from the lion's paw and making a friend of that particular lion there is in the getty museum in los angeles the most wonderful painting of that which on our various visits the both of us to the getty we've always much enjoyed looking at that and uh on one visit the the keeper of the pictures there brought a copy of that picture to give us uh and it it's one of the things that we treasure jerome sitting in old age with the lion not on the day of the the poor being uh relieved of the pain from the thorn there but of the lion now with paws uh outstretched and and sort of looking at jerome as if he's a companion in all that is going on the lion uh one remembers that the lion is a sign of saint mark but also the lion because of a piece of prophecy that we shall read tomorrow from jacob is the sign of the house of judah as well through which the royal line will be furthered as the the scriptures open up but meanwhile think of jerome in 410 that wasn't the year he died it's 10 years before he died receiving the news of the sack of rome the destruction of that city over three days of the whole city being sacked how could rome the center of empire fall but meanwhile quietly in bethlehem where all things began then he's still translating his scriptures and dealing with the wreckage of a huge civilization as he'd known it just as augustine in hippo at the time in north africa another of the great latin teachers of the church augustine was dealing with that that news or augustine himself was to outlive jerome a little but they're really contemporary figures and we give thanks for their scholarship takes me back again to a story i've told you so many times i think but it's an image that is deep in my mind whenever i think of translation it's of staying in the archbishop of the sudan's guest house in juba way back in 1979 and looking out each morning as i rose at the sun before it had risen uh at the philippa gilabo the aged translator of the scriptures into bari going on that was the language of spoken around juba and she was translating those scriptures into bari and getting getting words that people would understand but every morning she would sit outside her bungalow saying her prayers having her quiet time in the rhythm of the day at prime in the morning and looking and waiting as the golden sun rose up rather like the elevation of the bread at the eucharist rising into the sky and becoming too bright to look at and then too hot to work in as she went into her cooler house in the shade there to begin a day of translation working with the spirit working with the mind and then using her energy in older age philippe gillabo um using a stick from time to time um and being to me the image of the model translator as jerome was well let's then think of just one more date because on this day the 30th of september 1852 the composer sir charles williams stanford was born and he and an irishman had a great gift for melody as one would expect and wrote many lovely songs but we remember him best of all for the services magnificat and look dimitis tdm and benedictus and the communion services that he wrote for the worship of the church of england and the anglican church and anyone who would want to use them and those services contain such beauty his magnification g with this the soaring treble voice and i always think he is imagining our ladies spinning at the wheel because the organ has spinning music and even at the end the organ accompaniment just as a spinning wheel rests and instead of going on on on in the cycle actually when it doesn't have enough speeds rocks back on itself as do the notes of the organ but we constantly give thanks for not only stanford's music but the influence he had on the next generation of composers people like warren williams and host and john ireland and uh i would want to give thanks for his creativity but the beauty of his music and the pictures that that music engenders in our own minds a day of thinking of the divine offices for he wrote for matins and for even song and the day also of thinking of the fact that nothing at all in the planet's life need be wasted everything is caught up and then used again for a new springtime either in this dimension or dimensions of eternity with the good news that began at bethlehem where jerome found his home let's say a prayer today um and first of all we are thinking of the in the anglican communion of the diocese of free state in the anglican church of southern africa primate of that uh our friend archbishop tabo from cape town and we pray for him today and at the same time we're praying for the chaplains to all organizations of the ashford area deanery at the town of ashford not too far away from here but when we mention those organizations there are schools and and clubs and and hospitals and and all sorts of other organizations which need chaplaincy so thanks be to god for that ministry uh from here many of our people if they're sick go to the william harvey hospital there so the chaplaincy that becomes very important to us some little distance away from us we're using a particular prayer for sin jerome's day and we use that colic first but bring your own prayers as we say this prayer and your concerns from across the world oh god who gave your priest jerome a living and tender love for sacred scripture grant that your people may ever more fruitfully nourished by your word find in it the fount of life through our lord jesus christ your son who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the holy spirit one god forever and ever amen so we pray each in our own language the prayer our savior taught us 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 for our own prayers [Music] [Music] so so we've come round to the other end of the compost sequence and i'm standing amongst the huge foliage and leaves of the pumpkins and squashes here eventually all that foliage the moment the frosts of later autumn begin will come down and that too will be added to the compost heap the pumpkins having been taken away for other uses of course and here i have a a little pot of good compost from this end of the compass sequence it's good compass that we shall use to plant seeds in for the greenhouses and later the cold frames and then those seeds will go out into the garden and more compass will be used there too so that nothing is wasted here is lovely compost where life will germinate once again when seeds are sown from the plants that have grown up but meantime there will be the resting time of the season of winter for which already we're beginning to prepare so a blessing now as you begin whatever part of your day you're you're watching this in 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 are men i always think the benedictine life is best summed up by saying it's a life which values body mind and spirit lived out in community a community given to hospitality but the two words that i treasure from that rule of sin benedict are encouragement and balance and i always pray for grace to show both qualities in my life [Music] is [Music] is [Music] is [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] yes [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] boys [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Applause] [Music] you