good morning and welcome on this morning of tuesday the 28th of july as we come to say our morning prayers here in the deanery garden at canterbury cathedral welcome wherever you are in the world today there are some significant anniversaries which we'll look at in the reflection and also now if we remember that this was the day in 1540 that henry viii executed thomas cromwell who had been so brutal in the dissolution of the monasteries but also on the same day married his fifth wife catherine howard we remember that piece of our history here but also um this was the day in 1844 when the poet gerard manly hopkins was born and he above all could describe in his poetry the atmosphere of new growth and spring and the beauty of creation and the autumn wheat fields all of those things we shall return to hopkins at the end of the week when we come to the anniversary of the founding of the jesuit order in ignatius loyola and so hopkins belonged to the society of jesus from the time of his first giving himself to that vocation until his death in dublin but meanwhile let's begin our morning prayers together bring your own thoughts and also those whom you would want to pray for o lord open our lips and our mouth shall proclaim your praise may christ the day star dawn in our hearts and triumph over the shades of night blessed are you creator of all to you be praise and glory forever as your dawn renews the face of the earth bringing light and life to all creation may we rejoice in this day you have made as we wake refreshed from the depths of sleep open our eyes to behold your presence and strengthen our hands to do your will that the world may rejoice and give you 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 son this morning on this 28th morning of the month is psalm 132 it's a psalm about the person of king david within the context of his royal line and his choosing of jerusalem and zion to be the place where he would set his kingship according to the will of god lord remember for david all the hardships he endured how he swore an oath to the lord and vowed a vow to the mighty one of jacob i will not come within the shelter of my house nor climb up into my bed i will not allow my eyes to sleep nor let my eyelids slumber until i find a place for the lord a dwelling for the mighty one of jacob now we heard of the ark in ephrathah and found it in the fields of jr let us enter his dwelling place and fall low before his footstool arise o lord into your resting place you and the ark of your strengths let your priests be clothed with righteousness and your faithful ones sing with joy for your servant david's sake turn not away the face of your anointed the lord has sworn an oath to david a promise from which he will not shrink of the fruit of your body shall i set upon your throne if your children keep my covenant and my testimonies that i shall teach them their children also shall sit upon your throne forevermore for the lord has chosen zion for himself he has desired her for his habitation this shall be my resting place forever here will i dwell for i have longed for her i will abundantly bless her provision her poor will i satisfy with bread i will clothe her priests with salvation and her faithful ones shall rejoice and sing there will i make a horn to spring up for david i will keep a lantern burning for my anointed as for his enemies i will close them with shame but on him shall his crown be bright we turned to the gospel of saint luke for our daily reading and yesterday in chapter 22 we left jesus with the twelve and those serving them around the supper table of the last supper in the upper room and now we return to that scene and jesus turns to look at simon peter and addresses him verse 31 of chapter 22 simon simon behold satan demanded to have you that he might sift you like wheat but i have prayed for you that your faith may not fail and when you have turned again strengthen your brothers peter said to him lord i am ready to go with you both to prison and to death jesus said i tell you peter the will not crow this day until you deny three times that you know me and he said to them all when i sent you ouch with no money bag or knapsack or sandals did you lack anything and they said nothing he said to them but now let the one who has a money bag take it and likewise a knapsack and let the one who has no sword sell his cloak and buy one for i tell you that this scripture must be fulfilled in me he was numbered with the transgressors for what is written about me has its fulfillment and they said look lord here are two swords and he said to them it is enough it's a powerful and intimate kind of lesson in terms of the way in which jesus surrounded by his little extended family those whom he has chosen to be with him in the last the absolute last steps of this journey of his vocation they are about to go out together to the garden of gethsemane in this passage luke is giving us the whole twelve judas is still there with them but it's simon peter that jesus is talking to and when he says simon simon satan has desired to sift you like wheat the you is plural the desire of evil was to claim the whole group and then jesus says but i have prayed for you that your faith may not fail that's singular to peter and then peter makes this huge promise and jesus then as always reaching for some kind of outside illustration says i tell you peter my rock his nickname the will not crow in the morning before you have denied even knowing me three times that prophecy is given in all four of the evangelists and then he talks to them all really about the kind of separation that they're going to face and the way in which they have to be prepared when he sent them out before he was there the support team were there they went out they came back did you lack anything no not a thing now and this is different and luke knows it because he's seen it so that when in luke's gospel peter says i'm ready to follow you to prison and to death although the lord says tomorrow morning before the crows you would have denied knowing me three times then luke knows that by the time he's writing this gospel in all probability peter has been imprisoned and killed he has followed jesus into prison and to death well now this morning when we were thinking of the themes here it had been pointed out to me by my companion that um this is also another significant birthday for in 1866 on this day beatrix potter was born so early this morning i took up this little book which i'm so fond of the tale of peter rabbit our niece arabella adores peter rabbit but it is as much a parable as the little prince and it's so short it's just 69 pages and mostly it's only a sentence and a beautiful illustration on each page but the wonderful thing is that in it the four small rabbits are warned by their mother mrs rabbit you have the fields you have the lanes do not go into mr mcgregor's garden because there are great dangers there your father met with an unhappy accident and there is the awful frightening drawing of the farmer's wife with the rabbit pie but what i was looking at earlier in these exquisite drawings and i i ask you to go and look at them again because the drawings the little pictures are more powerful than the words as she is sending out the four rabbits three of them are gathering around for the baskets to go and pick blackberries peter's already turned away in his blue coat and you can see on his face that the only thing he wants to do because he's been told not to do it is to go into mr mcgregor's garden it's it's such a human lesson and this is what is going to happen he goes there and as you will remember first of all all the temptations it's almost like the story of the prodigal sauna there before him he eats the lettuce he eats plentifully of the carrot and then begins to feel rather ill so goes to look for some parsley and it's there walking around the cold frame that he sees mr mcgregor and the chase and the fear begins these are real fears terrible fears there's nothing more dreadful than when he himself gets caught up he's already lost one shoe in the cabbages he's lost another shoe in the potatoes and now he gets caught up in with the buttons of his lovely blue coat in the gooseberry net and remember he gives up and begins to cry and the sparrows come down and encourage him on so leaving his coat and now running naked he runs into the garden shed hides in the watering can and finds there's water in it but he has to shiver and hide from the great danger and then again he is brave enough to run outside and the chase is on again and the door to the garden is locked there's that touching little sentence three words peter began to cry and then again there's encouragement from the scene around him until eventually i thank god he seems to gain new strength and run to the garden gate and he's out into the wood and at home again with the others exhausted naked having been punished in so many ways that he can't even eat his favorite supper he has to have only a cup of chamomile tea from his mother i can't think for a second that peter's lesson is going to keep him out of trouble all the way through but it does take us to that kind of should we call it quality of our humanity that wants to rebel sin paul says the good that i would i do not and the evil that i would not that i do he's can't understand it inside himself and here's jesus's little group all around him and he's setting them out into the wide world and is trying to keep them safe from danger and he knows how little they understand and he knows that those touching words are simon simon satan has desired to sift you like wheat in a sieve jesus again reaching for an illustration they all knew well for the wheat in a sieve with big holes would allow the chaff to stay in the sieve and the wheat to drop safely through a sieve afterwards with small holes would allow any smaller seeds and dust to drop through and leave the wheat whole but when you turn round and begin again and that scene will be played out in the lakeside after the resurrection not before the awful prophecies of the growing have to come true first well peter is going to live through all that for the moment he's brave lord i am ready to follow you to prison and to death yes that will happen but meanwhile he is the leader of the group and as we've seen through the gospels he's headstrong and at one stage jesus has to rebuke him and say get behind me satan you're giving me temptations that are not of this ministry not of this vocation they'll go out and spread across the world in terrible dangers and peter himself will meet a martyr's death but nevertheless he's held on to the faith and resisted so many temptations that would have come across him so thank god for little pictures and little parables because jesus is able to draw them everywhere even with a garden sieve remember in the story mr mcgregor almost catches peter with the sieve turned upside down and peter just escaped naked and ashamed and weeping but he's out into the world having learned many lessons well then let's say our prayers this morning our bright morning here is beginning to develop and as we say our prayers we say prayers this morning for the diocese of nsuka in nigeria and for aloysius agbo the bishop there and his people the diocese of bihar mullo in tanzania and yusuf vitalis the bishop there and his people and the diocese of karamoja in uganda and joseph abura and his people and we pray also for in this diocese justin our archbishop and rose bishop of dover tim bishop at lambeth and today the church at dover castle sent mary in castro in his own congregation we pray for them and the clergy who served them jonathan russell bob coles peter sherrid polly mason and brian duckworth so as we give thanks for the powerful little illustrations again done for children so say but powerful to us as developed adults who still have all the temptations of children right inside us and ready to spring out as we give thanks for beatrix potter we also remember her devotion to save the beautiful areas of god's creation and her founding membership of the national trust and we think of all the national parks here and also the beautiful areas of our world which we are doing so much to try and preserve pray for all those who need our prayers in sickness or sorrow and bring them now as we say the morning prayer for this day lord of all power and might the author and giver of all good things graft in our hearts the love of your name increase in us true religion nourish us with all goodness and of your great mercy keep us in the same through jesus christ our lord amen the prayer at the end of psalm 132 jesus son of david make us a priestly people clothe us in righteousness make us fruitful give us hearts to shout for joy in your salvation we pray this in the power of the spirit through jesus christ our lord amen so we pray the prayer our lord taught us in whatever language in whichever way we would like to say it 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 for your own prayers i often wonder why when people come to the beauty of these gardens in great numbers they are so often most attracted by the kitchen garden with everything growing there and the greenhouse yard and the garden sheds and i put that down to the fact of this little park for that image is in so many people's minds when they come to a kitchen garden of this size and we give thanks for that because it gives them an insight into the glory of god's creation and the way the seasons pass so may 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 the blessing of god almighty the father the son and the holy spirit be upon you upon those whom you love and would pray for today and always amen