good morning and welcome to the dinery garden on this wednesday the 2nd of march welcome to canterbury as we begin lent together on this ash wednesday and of course we begin our prayers with prayers for the people of ukraine as that situation grows more and more dangerous and the people become more and more resistant to the unjustified attack on them by such huge armed forces in danger of their lives in danger for their homes we see them fleeing their homes in great quantities and we pray also not only for them and for president zielenski and the government of the ukraine but we pray also for those who will receive those fleeing from the borders of ukraine and seeking refuge and comfort and help and safety in the lands around all those in our prayers with great seriousness and i've said day by day continue those prayers throughout the day so we begin today the holy season of lent ash wednesday is what's called in our calendar a principal holy day there are principal feast days like christmas day and easter day and ascension day the feast of pentecost and there are principal holy days three of them ash wednesday morning thursday and good friday not feasts but days of holiness where we just quietly make reflections and intentions and none more important than today later on and particularly on the first sunday of lent we shall be considering our lord in the wilderness in the desert without human companionship but in the uh companionship of the creatures of the wilderness and there were plenty of those but also of the sense of both temptations from evil and the presence of angels representing comfort and also the the spiritual vocation which is calling him but for today we are actually thinking of our own intentions and the fire is burning here because as we saw in st john's gospel since john the baptist said the one who was to come would baptize with the spirit and with fire and that fire means um let's think of one of the the great hymns of today and that's the the uh hymn uh lord teach us how to pray a right in reverence and in fear though dust and ashes in thy sight we may we must draw near we perish if we cease from prayer or grant us power to pray and when to meet thee we prepare lord meet us on the way or one could go to the hymn that is normally sung at pentecost come down our love divine and think of that uh verse of the the invitation of the spirit into our lives think of that verse which begins oh let it freely burn till earthly passions turn to dust and ashes in thy heat consuming that's what the fire means it means an abnegation of those things which keep us from our true selves which god has created us to be and we set out on a way jesus often called his disciples apart to spend time in hearing his teaching but in simple reflection and we shall be looking at one of those today in our reflection a special reflection for today we're not in the gospel of sin john we're in the gospel of saint matthew but we will come to that when we arrive at the time for our reflection meanwhile as we bring our own intentions and our prayers as well of those as those for ukraine and its people we begin our prayers on this ash wednesday morning by the brazia here with flames uh created by the burning of the logs and ashes falling from them oh lord open our lips and our mouth shall proclaim your praise hear our voice o lord according to your faithful love according to your judgment give us life blessed are you god of compassion and mercy to you be praise and glory forever in the darkness of our sin your light breaks forth like the dawn and your healing springs up for deliverance as we rejoice in the gift of your saving help sustain us with your bountiful spirit and open our lips to sing your praise 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 so may the light of your presence o god set our hearts on fire with love for you now and forever amen set our hearts on fire with love i baptize you with water said john the baptist after me comes one who were baptized with the holy spirit and with fire a proper psalm today i mean a special sound not one of the the regular ones for this second morning of the month but the psalm is psalm 51 which we normally call the misery and it's sung to the beautiful music of allegri but this morning we shall simply read it from our book daily prayer psalm 51 have mercy on me o god in your great goodness according to the abundance of your compassion blot out my offenses wash me thoroughly from my wickedness and cleanse me from my sin for i acknowledge my faults and my sin is ever before me against you only have i sinned and done what is evil in your sight so that you are justified in your sentence and righteous in your judgment i have been wicked even from my birth a sinner when my mother conceived me behold you desire truth deep within me and shall make me understand wisdom in the depths of my heart purge me with hyssop and i shall be clean wash me and i shall be whiter than snow make me hear of joy and gladness that the bones you have broken may rejoice turn your face from my sins and blot out all my misdeeds make me a clean heart oh god and renew a right spirit within me cast me not away from your presence and take not your holy spirit from me give me again the joy of your salvation and sustain me with your gracious spirit then shall i teach your ways to the wicked and sinners shall return to you deliver me from my guilt o god the god of my salvation and my tongue shall sing of your righteousness o lord open my lips and my mouth shall proclaim your praise for you desire no sacrifice else i would give it you take no delight in burnt offerings the sacrifice of god is a broken spirit a broken and contrite heart oh god you will not despise [Music] 18 verses of psalm 51 the miserie expressing our intention to allow god to do his work with us during this time of lent it is six and a half weeks which we go through in journey and pilgrimage so as i say we're having a a special lesson today not from st john's gospel we'll continue that tomorrow but today our lesson is from the gospel of saint matthew well teaching is connected into five different sets of teaching as though to proclaim jesus as the one giving a new law the five books of the law open the old testament and matthew in his gospel has placed five blocks of teaching and probably the one that is best known is the sermon on the mount which people are overhearing but began as teaching to jesus's disciples and i'm reading from chapter 6 verses 1 to 21 of matthew's gospel chapter 6. beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them for then you will have no reward from your father who is in heaven thus when you give to the needy sound no trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets that they may be praised by others truly i say to you they have received their rewards but when you give to the needy do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing so that your giving may be in secret and your father who sees in secret will reward you and when you pray you must not be like the hypocrites for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners that they may be seen by others truly i say to you they have received their rewards but when you pray go into your room and shut the door and pray to your father who is in secret and your father who sees in secret will reward you and when you pray do not heap up empty phrases as the gentiles do for they think that they will be heard for their many words do not be like them for your father knows what you need before you ask him pray then like this our father in heaven hallowed be your name your kingdom come your will be done on earth as it is in heaven give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our sins as we have forgiven us those who sin against us and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil for if you forgive others their trespasses your heavenly father will also forgive you but if you do not forgive others their trespasses neither will your father forgive your trespasses and when you fast do not look gloomy like the hypocrites for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others truly i say to you they have received their reward but when you fast anoint your head and wash your face that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your father who is in secret and your father who sees in secret will reward you do not lay out for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal for where your treasure is there will your heart be also teaching of jesus essentially to his disciples overheard in matthew's gospels by the crowds who came up onto the mountain when he went there to take his seat and called his disciples to him and began that sermon with those eight statements which are generally called the beatitudes but here is different teaching and it's teaching proper to this time teaching for us and there are certain things he assumes that will be happening in our lives the first is the giving of alms the giving of resources to those who are needy jesus doesn't say in any sense if you give alms but when you give alms when you give to the needy and do it the old way let not your left hand know what your right hand does do it in humility and in secret and your father who sees in secret will reward you and then once again he doesn't say if you pray but when you pray and again it mustn't be like the hypocrites who are doing it for show and he says they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and street corners aloud and one thinks of that little parable in luke's gospel where the pharisee and the tax collector come into the synagogue or into the temple and uh the the pharisee is parading everything he is in righteousness and the tax collector afar off is kneeling in repentance and saying lord have mercy on me a sinner and jesus says i tell you this is the one who went home justified when you pray do so secretly and that i think would not only count as our own rooms or with the family or those of our close companionship with whom we're praying but also when we go into our churches and places of worship that those would count as places that we've drawn apart to be together to pray for uh in the seminal on the mount and jesus says when two or three are gathered together in my name i am there amongst them so when you give alms when you pray and when you pray do it in this way and we'll come back to that in a moment the prayer that jesus gave to the disciples and then lastly when when you fast and jesus takes it for granted that there will be times when you do when you set aside intention on uh rich food or anything that is going to get in the way of the mind and spirit seeking clarity of wisdom but also a pathway which leads nearer and nearer to god and that when you fast is the last of them and perhaps that's the the one we think of most today and he says don't let the disfiguring of your faces uh be that so that people are seeing gosh she or he is fasting what a good person they must be the ash cross is placed on our heads in places of secret in our churches as a sign of all this though dust and ashes in thy sight we may we must draw near and when to meet thee we prepare lord meet us on the way that lovely hymn of of ash wednesday or uh um the oh let it freely burn till earthly passions turn to dust and ashes in its heat consuming so all of that is proper for ash wednesday this morning as we begin this journey of lent but at the same time i wanted to go back to the way in which jesus is teaching here and here translation fails us if we are in a modern translation of the scriptures in english because we have lost the capacity to speak in the second and the first person singular a second person singular the second person singular used to be thou and the second person plural you the problem with the thou is that it takes an enormous amount of old-fashioned as it would seem now verb endings thou givest thou dost all of those and they've dropped out of use unless we're reading in an older translation of the scriptures now why am i saying that because jesus speaking in a language and the greek of the gospel speaking in a language like so many european languages in other languages which keep the second person singular so you know if it's just directed to you often it's kept as an affectionate way of doing it as in french too instead of vu but they're both there in common use and you can play with them and uh in in other languages sometimes when you're wanting to be more formal with someone rather than more intimate you will drop into the third person singular but in english it's become impossible and so as we read through all this and i read it in a modern translation it's you all the way so we don't know whether jesus is speaking as you to many or you to you but actually he's going backwards and forwards and the only way you can know that is by picking up your maybe king james bible the authorized version of the bible as it used to be and reading the passage i've just read in that version where plural becomes you and singular is thou all the way through and you'll see how when jesus is giving those instructions for prayer and for arms giving and for fasting he is going between the two words sometimes he's speaking to all collectively but at the the really significant moments he's in the second person singular and the thing comes straight to you thou not you collective and it's an interesting thing to do because you see how jesus plays with the words and in this our own language lets us down in the way it's developed it's one way in which the older version of the our father which i didn't read this morning but which we'll say a bit later on but you'll say it in your own way in whatever way you like to do it in your own languages even then our father who art in heaven hallowed be thy name gives a family a familiar familiarity and singularity to god which you doesn't you're it's it's a different way of speaking um and i always remember that c.s lewis uh statement the prayer which precedes all prayer is may it be the real i that i'm talking to you and the real vow to god that i am speaking to no masks no hippocrates the old word mask where that word comes from um but the real me i'm the real father the real god the real creator that i'm speaking to and that the thou gives us that um but that's not that i'm suggesting you should go out and start talking in that uh 17th century way of uh thou knowest but often in prayers it's interesting to see and in the scriptures how jesus is using that so today we begin that intention in our own lives and we will all have different intentions as to how we're going to keep lent this holy season and this day this principle holy feast and i wanted to look at particular dates today um but also a particular uh well two particular people one of them is uh the former cardinal archbishop of westminster basil hume and the other is the spiritual writer esther davao who at one time she and her husband victor who was the the dean of canterbury lived in this house and worshiped in this cathedral and i often wonder whether that love of the rule of saint benedict in the way in which she speaks so easily about it and helps us to understand what parts of that rule can be important in our daily lives and she's still very much she's a great friend of ours as the whole family but she's still very much someone who is teaching and writing and we give thanks for that but i am starting with basil hume because this was the day on the 2nd of march 1923 when he was born and so there's a significant date march the second and this is march the second this year ash wednesday falling on march the 2nd and he lived his life as a benedictine monk and then as the first monk since the reformation to be made uh the cardinal archbishop of westminster the leader of the roman catholic church in this country he was appointed to that position and sorry he was appointed in 1976 and all utterly unexpectedly um really for everyone his appointment was a great surprise and certainly once to himself he said he was having his dinner when this came through and he didn't enjoy much of the meal after that for a huge responsibility was being placed in public life and in leadership on one who had given his life as a monk to the rule of saint benedict i'm saying all this because he continued very much to live out the benedictine and he like esther davao began to write books which would help others to follow a rule of benedict and as i've said many times this place was a benedictine monastery for almost a thousand years before uh it became a cathedral with a dean and chapter but the word chapter still comes from that habit of the community of the benedictine abbey of gathering together every morning and before they did their brief business together they would read a chapter of the rule of benedict and basil hume uh became the cardinal archbishop of westminster and of course had then to lead a a more public life but at the same time he kept to the rule of benedict and his first duty was as a benedictine monk i've got in my hand one of his books which i bought soon after it was published and it was published in 1977 after a year after he had become cardinal archbishop of westminster but it's called searching for god and it goes through the way in which the benedictine rule assists a community in its life by the rhythms of the day and talking about uh each part of our humanity body mind and spirit being exercised in a particular way each day and as we've said so many times some of us are better with physical things some of us are better thinkers and students and use our minds creatively and others are those who lead us spiritually and so all of that becomes um greased to the mill of exercising our total humanity and uh he in this book just sets that out in a way that others can use sorry it's not the smoke it's me um so then uh also later in his life i've also got his book which is called to be a pilgrim and this and it it simply says basil hume osb at the top order of saint benedict and then underneath in much smaller letters cardinal archbishop of westminster but um the the pilgrims tale goes through the what one would expect on the christian journey and this what he calls a spiritual notebook which is what i hope we're going to be keeping day by day with our one line a day uh and he starts by talking about how humankind finds himself and a human being is a pilgrim and then after that god the pilgrim which is the first one is us in search of god the second section god in search of us and then section three is called the pilgrims secret and that very much goes into that secret place that jesus was suggesting that we have when we say our prayers or come together and and uh make our confession or something of that sort and then the pilgrims tasks and then the pilgrims end and the pilgrims tasks actually are that that those that the tasks are the tasks of us as a human being exercising the creative gifts of god and finally the pilgrims end and there he talks about the evening of life the hour of our death after death and the moment of ecstasy so those books and i've said that uh esther davao has done the same thing perhaps even more so as someone who's lived out in the world and she i think her seeking for god was published while she was here she'll correct me if i'm wrong um but it's very very much this is searching for god has was called seeking for god and just seeking god i think um and in that she uses the tenets and chapters of the rule of sin benedict to show how they can be used in ordinary life in the most ordinary situations this is household domestic stuff and i think the book's been in print ever since but she's written many things since then and not only does she explore benedictine spirituality she also very tellingly explores celtics spirituality which we were with yesterday with the life of saint david and his monks in david's the celtic spirituality let's come back to basil hume because um basil hume went right through it was was very well known and honored by the nation and respected in that way and i have a a a lovely memory of him when westminster cathedral was celebrating its centenary and that was in 1995 and i was invited to a wonderful mass which the cardinal archbishop celebrated in the middle of i think the best flower festival i've ever experienced westminster cathedral looked just as though you were entering um something like a tropical forest but all the flowers of the seasons were and that the creepers were breaking out from the galleries and the little lady chapel was an orange grove and and in front of us was just the most spectacular all around a spectacular flower festival for that centenary year and in the middle the figure of basil hume in all his usual humility celebrating mass and preaching at that time it was a lovely thing to be part of it was may the 16th 1995. i remember well and in 1998 when he became 75 he offered his retirement and asked for his retirement to a pope john paul ii and it was refused pope john paul saw him as so important an icon and example of the benedictine life and so he remained cardinal archbishop until his death the next year in 1999. so we give thanks for him today and thanks for the writings of esther davao helping us to see how a rule of life this one the benedictine is not the only rule of life but uh this the order of sin benedict and how that can help us day by day as the fires of the spirit are kindled so let's begin to say our prayers so i was going to say sorry um i was sent this book by a member of our garden congregation is called the rule of benedict a spirituality for the 21st century inspired lady called joan chittister chittister that's c-h-i-t-t-i-s-t-e-r chittissa and it goes right through the um rule of sin benedict and with a meditation on each i'm not ready yeah so i can't comment on it but it's it's another of the books which help us on our way oh and here's the sign of our notebook beside me so don't forget um what i did today one good thing one line and we said how that will work itself through day by day to form a spiritual notebook which is what basil hume calls his book to be a pilgrim we're praying today for um the diocese of khartoum uh city of cartoon i remember very well in in in difficult days being there waiting for connections during civil wars and standing by the river nile and looking up the nile in khartoum that would have been in sort of 1979 1981 that sort of time and so i have a a heartfelt affection for the diocese of khartoum and uh the omdaman and all the places involved there so we pray for that diocese today pray for justin our archbishop for rose bishop of dover and for emma bishop at lambeth and as we pray for them we pray for all the churches of our diocese and the faith communities as they begin lent together and you will bring your own intentions and prayers for those as we pray to of course for the people of ukraine and those attempting to help them in their desperate need so the collect today is of course a special one for ash wednesday and this will be a collect that we use every day through lent sometimes we'll use others but this one will stay with us day by day almighty and everlasting god you hate nothing that you have made and forgive the sins of all those who are penitent create and make in us new and contrite hearts that we worthily lamenting our sins and acknowledging our wretchedness may receive from you the god of all mercy perfect remission and forgiveness through jesus christ our lord amen so each in our own way and in our own language we say 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 for reflection now on this ash wednesday morning me [Music] so [Music] is [Music] [Music] yes is [Music] r [Music] let me is [Music] my [Music] [Music] oh [Music] [Music] r [Music] is [Music] is [Music] times [Music] oh [Music] let us [Music] is [Music] oh [Music] foreign [Music] somebody [Music] me um is [Music] foreign [Music] is [Music] [Music] is foreign [Music] so it's a sentence from basil humes searching for god before the blessing he writes it is better to walk through darkness the lord guiding you than to sit enthroned in light that radiates from yourself christ give you grace to grow in holiness to deny yourself take up your cross daily and follow him 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 this day and always amen