[Music] good morning and welcome to the dinery garden on this sunday the 7th of march the third sunday in lent as we come together to see say our morning prayers wherever you are in the world please feel welcome on this day we've come into the front garden of the deanery because this lovely dismay display of small daffodils are blooming under the leafless meta sequoia tree the smaller cousin of the redwood tree and also hyacinths are beginning to blossom out here as well and there's a good sound a bird song it's a grey morning and quite chilly um this is a day when we continue to pray for the health of his royal highness the duke of edinburgh prince philip as he recovers in the king edward vii hospital and we hope for a full recovery for him pray obviously also for her majesty the queen and the whole royal family on this day it's the eve of commonwealth day so we remember them and all their household and staff as they uh the queen broadcast to the nation with other members of her family this afternoon as a prelude to commonwealth's day and a message to the 54 nations of the commonwealth on this day of uh unity of the commonwealth itself and hopes for the future but we can talk more about that tomorrow because the 8th of march is commonwealth day itself also this day people who have a commemoration on this day saints who have a commemoration on this day when it's a sunday always get bypassed but let's just give a shout for uh perpetua and felicity the uh martyrs who are normally remembered on the 7th of march they were martyred with some of their christian companions in carthage in the year 203 but we remember them constantly here because we planted a rose called perpetual felicity uh and uh we planted it in in uh honor of one of our great friends because she had told us also her name is felicity she told us that that rose flowers very well and sure enough it does flower on the front of the deanery and in the hedges here beautifully and flowered right until the snows this year through christmas through january until we had the snows here so we remember on this day since perpetua and felicity but the rose i think is named after perpetual happiness and that's what it gives us when it's flowering so let's say our morning prayers 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 praised 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 our morning psalm on the seventh morning of the month is psalm 36 sin whispers to the wicked in the depths of their heart there is no fear of god before their eyes they flatter themselves in their own eyes that their abominable sin will not be found out the words of their mouth are unrighteous and full of deceit they have ceased to act wisely and to do good they think out mischief upon their beds and have set themselves in no good way nor do they abhor that which is evil your love o lord reaches to the heavens and your faithfulness to the clouds your righteousness stands like the strong mountains your justice like the great deep you lord shall save both man and beast how precious is your loving mercy o god all mortal flesh shall take refuge under the shadow of your wings they shall be satisfied with the abundance of your house they shall drink from the river of your delights for with you is the well of life and in your light shall we see light o continue your loving kindness to those who know you and your righteousness to those who are true of heart let not the foot of pride come against me nor the hand of the ungodly thrust me away there are they fallen all who work wickedness they are cast down and shall not be able to stand it's sunday morning so our morning prayer gets a special lesson and we leave the gospel of saint john and find ourselves at the beginning of saint paul's letter to the philippians the christians in philippi were especially dear to him and that becomes apparent in this letter or something portions of three letters which have been put together by the one collecting paul's letters but certainly this is the beginning and we're reading from verse 1 of chapter 1 to verse 26 and paul is in prison probably in rome though some think it dates from his prison imprisonment in ephesus and some from his imprisonment in caesarea it matters not think of him in prison as he writes and so many words of holiness and reaching out to god in faith have been written when people have been in prison paul and timothy is servants of christ jesus to all the saints in christ jesus who are at philippi with the overseers and deacons greece grace to you and peace from god our father and the lord jesus christ i thank my god in all my remembrance of you always in every prayer of mine for you for you all making my prayer with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now and i'm sure of this that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of jesus christ it is right for me to feel this way about you all because i hold you in my heart for you are all partakers with me of grace both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel for god is my witness how i yearn for you all with the affection of christ jesus and it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more with knowledge and all discernment so that you may approve what is excellent and so be pure and blameless for the day of christ filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through jesus christ to the glory and praise of god i want you to know brothers and sisters that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel so that it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for christ and most of the brothers and sisters having become confident in the lord by my imprisonment are much more bold to speak the word without fear some indeed preach christ from envy and rivalry but others from goodwill the latter do it out of love knowing that i am put here for the defense of the gospel the former proclaimed christ out of selfish ambition not sincerely but thinking to afflict me in my imprisonment what then only that in every way whether in pretense or in truth christ is proclaimed and in that i rejoice yes and i will rejoice for i know that through your prayers and the help of the spirit of jesus christ this will turn out for my deliverance as it is my eager expectation and hope that i will not be at all ashamed but that with full courage now as always christ will be honored in my body whether by life or by death for to me to live is christ and to die is gain if i am to live in the flesh that means fruitful labor for me yet which i shall choose i cannot tell i am hard-pressed between the two my desire is to depart and be with christ for that is far better but to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account convinced of this i know that i will remain and continue with you all for your progress and joy in the faith so that in me you may have ample cause to glory in christ jesus because of my coming to you again well if that imprisonment is the second imprisonment in rome then paul's choice will be made for him because of course he and peter both meet their martyrdom as we thought about felicity and perpetual and their companions they met their martyrdom in rome just as the others met theirs in carthage felicity and perpetua and gave their life for that but paul is saying to his beloved philippian christians that whatever situation we find ourselves in in life or in death we are able to proclaim christ in body mind and spirit as we keep telling each other during these days of lent and pluck a thought like these little daffodils from what we hear in the scriptures or see in creation or in each other as we go through day by day and note that down as paul notes all these things down in his writings to the philippians and we give thanks for that i also give thanks for the collect for this day to me the third sunday in lent colleagues in our new prayer books is one of the loveliest comics of the year and it's an easy one to remember we'll say it in our prayers but i'm going to say it now as well because it fits so well with what paul is saying 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 it's a beautiful connect and those words as i say are easy to remember they stay in my head well and i wondered where it came from and then almost by accident because i don't know by heart the exhortation to those who are sick and ill and and very ill in the um book of common prayer the 1662 book of common prayer but there is an exhortation in that and right in the middle of that i found that sentence in emulating christ in copying christ the sentence who went not up to joy but first he suffered pain and entered not into glory before he was crucified that is the absolute heartland of what paul is saying to his beloved philippians and to those whom he knows will face and some already are facing persecution those letters were collected in all probability after paul's death from the various churches and as we've said before when we were studying philippians it's a pity that more more letters weren't found but what we have we treasure and as with the gospels treat them in the present tense always as speaking to us in whatever situation we are in for me to live is christ says sinful to die is gain for it means the total fulfillment of all expectation and the absolute presence of christ in glory we've been reading sin john's gospel and eventually when the greeks want to see jesus at the end of john's gospel when he's teaching in the temple and philip and andrew come and say there are some should we say tourists here almost uh who want to see you let's think in the present tense and it's then that jesus says the hour has now come my hours come for the son of man of the emblem of our humanity giving us the gift of divinity the spirit in our own lives and that gift absolutely crosses barriers between life and death between those whom we know now and work with and those whom we have known who are waiting for us beyond and all of that is given in the sentence when jesus says i when i am lifted up when not up to joy but first he suffered pain and entered not into glory before he was crucified when i am lifted up i will draw all people to me the sign of unity crossing boundaries of cultures and all kinds of human divides whatever they might be and creating a unity well let's think a little bit as we think of that wonderful topic let's think first of dates on march the 7th of a a smaller kind that we can look through quite quickly but then we have some quite heavy thinking to do with some characters who appear on this day who are of immense importance and we can couple two of them and make a trio with saint paul as well first of all though we think that two creative cells were born on this day 1802 edwin lancia great portrait artist of natural life and creatures and also used his creative gifts to create in sculpture the four lions of trafalgar square a symbol of london there by the great nelson column and each lion slightly different so we give thanks for that sense of identity of a particular place also in 1804 john wedgewood was born son of josiah wedgwood who made wedgewood pottery but john was the founder of the royal horticultural society and we give thanks for all the work of that magnificent society which has developed from strengths to strength over the years some interesting things too right back in the year 161 a.d marcus aurelius became emperor for a short time together with lucius ferris but then after that the emperor of of rome and we're talking of the the western roman empire not the um eastern one of the polio roman empire either right this is actually the roman empire itself which paul and peter would have known and we knew in england of course because we lived under their imperial power for hundreds of years but marcus aurelius was a philosopher and we still read his book of philosophical sayings and treasure them and although he wasn't a christian there are things in it which mirror things that we ourselves would say yes that is right and the the the work of marcus aurelius is something that we very much treasure uh some other creative things in 1875 the composer moise ravel was born and then in uh let's see what else 1999 the film director stanley kubrick died remember his 2001 space odyssey i'd want also to mention that in 2017 on this day malta's famous landmark the azure window fell into the sea after a storm nothing is forever even those great rocks and the scene after the storm quite quite different 1530 this is quite an important date henry viii divorce from catherine of aragon and his request for an annulment to pope clement vii so that he could marry anne berlin and get this is what he so desperately wanted a male heir to succeed him and and continue the peace which his father henry vii had created in this land he was frightened to death of of leaving chaos when he died but the pope himself could not grant that annulment he was actually at that moment in the power of the emperor charles v the holy roman emperor who was catherine of catherine of aragon's uh uh um nephew and he certainly wasn't able to grant that and and so that actually caused a turn in the history of our country which you know know only too well so we remember that on this particular day and also remember what was happening to the papacy and and the fight between child suffix and king francis of france and the pope caught in the middle of that clement vii and then just a bit of interest too before we go on to the painting um this was the day in 1896 when at the savoy theater in london the last gilberton sullivan opera was produced the last of their partnerships there was a glittering premiere with everyone there prince of wales everyone in and everything masses of applause but in fact really the opera never caught on here's my vocal score of it which is called the grand duke and uh i've got the date in there christmas 1966 when someone gave it to me as a christmas present so i could play it on the piano that's the only way i've known it i've never seen it performed but really what had happened was that the the time for their partnership here we are on times again the season for that partnership was over but the dolly cart company recognized that the freshness of that partnership lay not in this tale which had become over complicated it's set in a penniless grand duchy in the pody roman empire the grand duchy of hub fini halpheny half any fennig halfini penny hate me we'd have said in england a penny hate me grand duchy and uh the duke there is is actually thread that he's got no money at all um but the whole thing becomes a very complicated plot indeed and there's some beautiful music and some funny things happen in it but it's never caught on and the last real hara for goblin sullivan was the performance of the gondoliers when and and that was the the last one that has become really popular the two two followed utopia limited in the grand duke but we remember the gladness of that partnership and all the music it's given us over the years and now let's go on because this is the day when we remember in the year 384 bc the birth of aristotle and uh 322 bc remember we're counting backwards he died aristotle was a philosopher he was also the tutor to alexander the great and he was uh someone who who founded a lyceum of peripatetic walking about scholars later on after he'd been tutored alexander the great his influence at that time was massive he taught physics biology zoology metaphysics logic ethics aesthetics poetry theater music rhetoric psychology linguistics economics politics and government and he himself had been a pupil of plato but aristotle's work survived to become a linchpin of western philosophy and medieval philosophy first because all his work was translated into latin the same thing hadn't happened to plato and and greek became something that was partly forgotten in medieval latin western christianity so aristotle survived and fed through his thinking of imminent reality of of seeing things on the earth and and logically deducing what was happening plato was very much more for seeing a perfect perfect uh aspect of everything in heaven of forms in heaven and then seeing imperfect copies on earth whereas aristotle began here and worked in a way the other way around you can't be simplistic about philosophy so it's wrong would be to even try but what did happen was that his thought went on then to another person who comes today massively important to the western church and the way in which our theologies have developed sin thomas aquinas who on the 7th of march uh um 1225 was born he died in 1274. he was known as the angelic doctor and he wrote but didn't quite finish it a summer theologica a sum of all theologies in which he was trying to synthesize philosophies and here comes the the theology of sin paul for that was hugely influential as was saint augustine of hippo to thomas aquinas and yet he was trying to synthesize that too with the greek thought of aristotle and that we give thanks for for so many truths come through from that realization of what it means to be finite creatures reaching out for that which is infinite and thomas aquinas at the end of his life when he died had had a mystical experience just a little before and were told by those who knew him that he had sensed when kneeling on after mass one day that the lord was speaking to him and saying thomas you have written many things for me what do you want from me and thomas's reply was only you lord see sir we would see jesus he never dictated or took up his pen again on his theology he died soon afterwards but we give thanks for that mighty theology and some of his hymns too in helping us in our sacramental life um interestingly dante now if we think of aristotle in uh 384-322 bc and thomas aquinas 1225 to 1274 a.d then dante the great parrot was 1265-1321 bit after um he just just slightly crossed with thomas aquinas a long time after aristotle but both of those appear in his divine comedy and you remember how dante has a guide through the inferno and it's virgil the latin poet who when they get to the limbo of those who had lived before christ but therefore weren't in heaven but were there when he gets there aristotle and plato and socrates and homer are all there because they pointed the way but virgil is a latin parrot showing him through and takes him all the way through up the slopes of mount purgatory and up to the top where virgil has to stop and the figure of beatrice the one whom he had loved in his use from a distance and has seen from time to time in florence but she was the perfect emanation for him of divine love and beatrice shows him almost to the vision of god leads him into heaven through the circles until she leaves him in canto 31 of the paradiso and saint bernard of clairvaux takes over to show him the glory of the divine light poetry philosophy so much to think about but the reality is of us here on earth and in our pain and our sickness and in our joy and in our health we can equally proclaim christ knowing that the spirit which he has given us as the precious gift of divinity and the image of god in our lives carries us over the river to where as in pilgrim's progress the trumpet sound beyond and those who have made that journey are waiting for us perhaps a lovely thing to have this room of golden daffodils here we've started the week with daffodils for saint david and we end them with these little daffodil flowers of gold in the middle of trees with which a bear of leaves or the the conifers looking green but waiting for the spring and the glory of easter at the end of our linton journey so let's also this morning say thanks be to god for the mass which pope francis was able to celebrate for the christians of iraq and the reconciliation that we as i spoke about the commonwealth data more the reconciliation between nations and different cultures and a recognition of different faiths but then the ability whatever to proclaim christ in all of that who came to draw all to himself as a bridge of unity so let's say our prayers on this day and uh we are going first to use the collect for perpetua and felicity and then the colleagues which i already read that beautiful one for the third sunday in lent when we say our prayers we're thinking particularly on this day the seventh of march for the uh clergy who are given permission to officiate in all the parishes of the area deanery of elam and we'll be thinking of that dinner throughout this in its villages throughout the week coming and then in the anglican communion the province of uh the anglican church in the democratic republic of the congo pray for justin our archbishop for rose bishop of dover and tim bishop at lambeth and for those whom you have on your heart today here's the quality for perpetua and felicity holy god who gave great courage to perpetua felicity and their companions grant that we may be worthy to climb the ladder of sacrifice and be received into the garden of peace through jesus christ our lord amen and the collect for this week almighty god whose most dear son jesus christ 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 to be none other than the way of life and peace through jesus christ our lord amen so 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 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 your own prayers on this third sunday in lent christ gives 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 today and always amen you