right over there it's a bit wobbly for you okay good good morning and welcome to the dinery garden at canterbury cathedral on this morning or saturday morning of the 12th of march and welcome wherever you are in the world uh bring your own prayers your own intentions your own concerns so many of them i know will be concerned with the people of ukraine and the surrounding nations there the russian people also as we think of the the war in that area of europe which also is a concern for the whole world so our prayers are not only for the people there but also for leaders of the nations as they make decisions and also nations as they give hospitality to the now millions who have fled from ukraine and are being given hospitality comfort resources and shelter in other lands all these things uh we think of as we begin our prayers this morning and at the same time there will be other concerns that we have these must not be forgotten of course and you will bring those to our prayers as well uh an an interesting date this morning and a lovely date for the church of england to remember in 1994 on this date march the 12th in bristol cathedral the first women priests of the church of england 32 of them in bristol cathedral were ordained and that was followed of course soon after by ordinations in the other cathedrals and so we give thanks for that ministry which began on that day uh with the ordination of those 32 women priests at the same time our son will remind us of all that we were saying yesterday about the the wonderful charity hospices of hope because they in their call to prayer said that verses from psalm 62 which is our morning psalm this morning and that's the right one for this day of the month um the verses which the psalm starts with over arches their day of prayer and you remember we set out the 12 arrow prayers each to be said at the beginning of an hour whenever you like as we said god is is is present in all time and our prayers are effective in all time so if you want to go back to those and then see how you can pray for hospices of hope and also read and hear all about them then you can do that by going back to yesterday's morning prayer but for this morning on this saturday the 12th of march let's begin our morning prayers together 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 oh god set our hearts on fire with love for you now and forever amen so our psalm this morning on this 12th morning of the month psalm 62 and we've said before that the first sentence is almost like a a sentence of the psalm to be kept in our memories a knapsack sentence as we call it uh and no needing no book because we know it by heart and it's a it's a sentence that overarches all of salmady here we are psalm 62 on god alone my soul in stillness waits from him comes my salvation he alone is my rock and my salvation my strongholds say that i shall never be shaken how long will all of you assail me to destroy me as you would a tottering wall or a leaning fence they plot only to thrust me down from my place of honor lies are their chief delight they bless with their mouth but in their heart they curse wait on god alone in stillness o my soul for in him is my hope he alone is my rock and my salvation my stronghold so that i shall not be shaken in god is my strength and my glory god is my strong rock in him is my refuge put your trust in him always my people pour out your hearts before him for god is our refuge the peoples are but a breath the whole human race a deceit on the scales they are altogether lighter than air put no trust in oppression in robbery take no empty pride their wealth increase set not your heart upon it god spoke once and twice have i heard the same that power belongs to god steadfast love belongs to you o lord for you repay everyone according to their deeds notice the verse let me move you a bit nearer because you're finding the leap there we are that's better um notice that the verse one is almost repeated in the same way in verse five on god alone my soul in stillness waits from him comes my salvation and wait on god alone in stillness so my soul for in him is my hope tiger that's no good that was for the robin and he's already been frightened off by you being here he's sitting in the street screaming at us at the moment so i don't think that's for you we're going now to our reading from saint john chapter six and as we do so we remember that jesus is in a conversation with the jewish authorities and speaking about the words he is teaching the people and the important verse 27 where we started starting not only ended yesterday but is beginning today the lectionary gives it twice because it's such an important verse do not work for the food that perishes but for the food that endures to eternal life which the son of man will give to you for on him god the father has set his seal then they said to jesus what must we do to be doing the works of god jesus answered them this is the work of god that you believe in him whom he has sent so they said to jesus then what sign do you do that we may see and believe you what work do you perform our fathers at the manor in the wilderness as it is written he gave them bread from heaven to eat jesus then said to them very truly i say to you it was not moses who gave you the bread from heaven but my father gives you the true bread from heaven for the bread of god is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world they said to jesus sir give us this bread always jesus said to them i am the bread of life whoever comes to me shall not hunger and whoever believes in me shall never thirst but i said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe all that the father gives me will come to me and whoever comes to me i will never cast out for i have come down from heaven not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me and this is the will of him who sent me that i should lose nothing of all that he has given me but raise it up on the last day for this is the will of my father that everyone who looks on the sun and believes in him should have eternal life and i will raise them up on the last day it really is the most crucial passage and it's a wonderful almost compendium of all those things that we've seen being affected in jesus ministry in those earlier chapters and also spoken about to the various people that he's had conversations with and also witnessed in the works he is performing of compassion and healing and the expected response is faith or belief and we've seen that day after day as we've gone through the passages of st john's gospel it's why i think and i i'm nervous to say but that's why i think that william temple is wrong in thinking that this order of the way the evangelist chapters are places has never been dislocated and that chapter six should follow chapter five because it is actually going back and as we might say picking up the stitches of the knitting and saying look this is where we've come to and you've witnessed it all how can you not respond with faith and belief and the gift for that response is eternal life as we keep saying about this fourth gospel everything is being lived out on two stages i mean like stages in the theater not stages which go onwards the stage the platform of earthly physical life and also the stage of eternal values and you might call heavenly life and metaphorically it's down here and up there and jesus easily transfers to one to the other but he's wanting people also to open their spirits to be able to transfer in the same way so that the gifts being given the signs being given the bread and the wine the wine at cana of galilee and the wine at the last supper the bread which he has just given to 5 000 people and the bread of the last supper is seen as each one seen as a sign of something of eternal life and and the gift of god to be responded to in faith and in belief a capacity of our human nature because we're made in the image of god that's one of the things which we actually embrace but so often even the disciples the 12 are responding on a human level with puzzlement and the jewish authorities very often at this time responding on a human level with hostility and all of that is set out in this passage it is a crucial passage that's why verse 27 was repeated twice and then they say um they talk about the work of god now we'll come across that a bit later on the latin for that is office day the work of god and in a moment i'm going to deal with a date which is important today and also a date important for this nation particularly as you'll see but for the moment uh the the instruction from jesus is that the believing on on the one who is sent and the embracing of the gifts of god at all levels physical mental and spiritual is the work of god and they then say but what sign can you give us our forbid their saw and at the manor in the wilderness physically it satisfied their earthly hunger and then you get that great statement one of those amen amen lego soy or human um that jesus says verily verily i say to you singular or plural i say to you and then you get something that's you know sit up and listen now three lines and underlining that if i say this then i mean you to listen and on this occasion he is saying it was not moses who gave you the bread in the wilderness but the father who gives you present tense always with god present tense the bread of god he says is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world and then they say and the the word kyrie is translated sir give us this bread always i like that translation that you could translate it lord if you wanted kyrie or master it's it's it's got a a quantity of meanings and sometimes it's lord with a capital l meaning god himself as in the first kirier on lord have mercy but on this occasion the scriptures translated sir give us this bread always and i like that because it instantly takes me to the greeks in the temple later on in saint john's gospel when jesus is going to respond with that that sentence the hour has come for the son of man to be glorified and in him god is glorified and i when i am lifted up will draw all people to myself and that has been prompted by the greek tourists on the outskirts of the crowd where jesus is speaking in the temple courtyard speaking to philip and say saying sir we would like to see jesus well of course they can see him philip tells andrew andrew tells jesus but at the same time so can we in a multitude of different ways and in the lives of those and sometimes they hardly know it who have that belief and faith and seeing jesus and having him walk with us can be both a physical thing and also a mental thing in our studying of the scriptures but also most of all when our souls on god in stillness wait most of all a spiritual gift sir give us this bread always and then the great statement the present tense and as we hear it it's present tense today as well jesus says to them i am the bread of life whoever comes to me will never be hungry feeding of the five thousand whoever believes in me will never thirst woman at the well in chapter four and the woman at the well responded as you well know with faith and went back immediately to her own townsfolk in psycho and said come and see come and see a man who told me everything i ever knew can he be the messiah she's become the messenger of the evangel the evangelist herself and in her first of all they see jesus and we can do the same in one another and by grace people can see that in us too if we let ourselves believe i am the bread of life whoever comes to me will never be hungry whoever believes in me will never thirst is collecting together all those things but to some it is you have seen me and yet you do not believe i've not come to affect my own will i've come to affect the will of the one who sent me now that is a recurring statement of jesus don't think i've come here to do my own will i have come to effect the will of the creator in giving you these gifts and even in gethsemane when he's totally alone it's to the to the creator your will not mine be done if i must drink this cup once again a metaphor an illustration if i must drink this then your will not mine be done and in that two in this conversation in chapter six he says to them um everything that has been given to me all those who have been given to you i will lose nothing of them they will be raised to life in the last day and that reminds us instantly of his instructions to the disciples who will all become leading messengers of the evangel the instruction gather up the fragments that nothing be lost that was in chapter 5 if you remember and they gathered 12 baskets of jigsaw pieces for their own ministry and life that they haven't put together yet until the true picture but all those things are contained in this wonderful passage in chapter six and it deserves some bible study of your own just just uh on god alone myself and stillness weights well here's a passage very much to have before you as you're waiting and also the passage which it takes us on to with sir give us this bread always sir we would see jesus the greeks in the temple how do they see jesus why in those who believe and have faith and then translate that into the works of god in so many different ways well i wanted to do a very special date this morning and uh this isn't the reason that we've come here that's for a very different reason but we're sitting here in the garden and we are thinking that on this date in the year 604 that is what uh um seven years after augustine came here to canterbury sin gregory the great died and he was the pope who sent the gregorian mission a major large scale the first large-scale mission from rome to convert the anglo-saxons here in this land to christianity and that's generally called the gregorian mission because it was the intention of pope gregory the great that augustine should come and augustine was nervous as you well know and we'll think about that in a moment but let's just think first about gregory because this is technically his what we call year's mind the anniversary of his death and for a long time his feast day was kept today but then when the instructions came from uh one of the the popes that lent must be taken more seriously and you can't have great festivals then a great festival was needed for gregory the great and so it was transferred to the date of his installation as pope the third of september which is when our calendar keeps him properly but today we remember this was his year's mind and this is his year's mind and he is really well known to us not only because of the gregorian mission but because so many of his writings and his letters and his commentaries on the books of the bible old and new testament and his music think of gregorian chant make him a patron saint of musicians and singers and students and teachers and we remember that gregory was born in rome after the christian presence was restored following not only an enormous plague when famine and panic and rioting took place but gregory was of a noble family and it's believed the family withdrew to their sicilian lands during all that happening and also another sack and destruction of rome before it was restored and when it was restored his family returned to their villa on the trailion hill and when gregory's father died he created that family house into a monastery at first it was a monastery of saint andrew that's a nice thing because it was andrew who with philip led the greeks to see jesus and the monastery of saint andrew but now of course it is the monastery of san gregorio manuel alcelio gregory the great on the challenge hill and it still has some of the furnishings of his family house the table and a wonderful chair uh and that chair is is is there by the altar of the chapel there and uh we have both been there and i've had the privilege of celebrating the communion at that altar by courtesy of the monastic order who was a wonderful ecumenical gift of grace and at the same time i wanted to just mention at this time another wonderful ecumenical symbol of grace because i brought out today this very precious reliquary in which is a relic of sin gregory the great which was given to me by the vatican as a sign of our ecumenical fellowship and work done by both of us in rome and across the world to further the unity of all christians but unum sint that they may all be one the great prayer of jesus and this tiny little corporal corporeal relic is is here and um that is put in a very um special reliquary but what is there is absolutely tiny and it was a precious gift given and i want to to remember in prayer today our our great friend uh father robert mcculloch of the community of colomba and he is also a great shall we say ambassador to christians in pakistan and that's been part of his life's work but he's also a very very constant in non when the pandemic has not prevented his traveling constant traveler here and a welcome guest here and at the same time we have received his hospitality very much in rome itself and we pray for all those too many to name in rome today and give thanks for the unity which is developing between christian churches of all kinds across the world and which is so very necessary at this time of pandemic now i'm going to put this down safely in a precious place say that our friend here who is quite um active this morning has no chance of knocking it over but i want to come back to gregory because of course gregory had the vision of sending a mission to england here the anglo-saxons rather who were pagans at the time when it's traditionally thought he saw two fair-haired children in the slave market in rome and uttered those latin words when he asked who they were and the slave seller in the slave market said they are they are angles angli in latin and the the pope replied clyde well he wasn't the pope at the time uh he was the the head of the monastery there replied known angli said angeli not not angles but angels simply for the look of them that's a traditional story but at the same time it was thought that it prompted the fact that he wanted himself to lead a mission to england i've told this story before and uh he set off as you remember and then as they were going along his party stopped to say the office and let's remember that the monastic office the rhythm of saying the office through the day is called the opus dei the work of god and he stopped to do that and and opened the breviary and then someone pointed to a locust that was standing on the book and said lo costa it's a locust but what gregory heard was lochus star which in latin means stay in this place so he saw it as a sign and stayed for a while longer than the break they'd minted and then hoof beats were heard and horses came and said you must come back because you've been chosen as our next pope our next bishop of rome so back went gregory and he fulfilled that function properly that vocation as bishop of rome and was known most of all as the service servorum dei the servant of the servants of god and insisted that all the church's resources in terms of clothes and food and welfare and shelter was given to the poor of rome and the surrounding areas because they were suffering famines and also there was great poverty and so the not only did he insist on collections being made and resources being made and think of this now for the people of ukraine but they were brought to the office of a deacon in every city church and there the deacon was told to give them out without cost to the poor to seek out the poor of the city and those who were having no shelter in home and then the surrounding lands and when food became difficult to find he sent out and farmed the church's lands of of the the foods and things that they could actually distribute and it was all to be given away grain and wine and cheese and meat and fish and oil from the monastic lands and the lands of the church at that time given to the poor for he was a servant of the servants of god and that's how he saw himself in his ministry in those 14 years that he was the bishop of rome so that when he died he was made a saint almost at once but as they say public acclamation because people loved him because he showed the compassion of christ and at the same time wrote and thought and wrote letters and commentaries and sang and established that the rhythm and order of the gregorian chant well you see there's so much we can say about sin gregory but i wanted to remember him on this day because of his shall we say charity in the best sense of the word and charity is the translation for that love which wills and others good and at the same time those who have resources are called on at this time to will the good of the people of ukraine and to will resources and hospitality for them and to share their own resources at this time when that is so needed so thanks be to god for gregory the great thanks be to god for his encouragement of others when augustine got she would say cold feet and because uh he thought that he would not be the one who could do this he wasn't brave enough then gregory took one of the most wonderful gifts of the gospels illustrated gospels and sent them to saint augustine or augustine as he then was in isle and said no go on you can do this and take this gift that'll make it easier if you've got a present to give then give it and of course those gospels still survive and i've held them now on two occasions for an archbishop of canterbury to make his oath on before he takes over as the archbishop of canterbury here augustine having been the first so lots to say on that particular topic but i wanted to go on to something else because this is why we've come here and it's it's really fun having dates that we can that on to we've already mentioned the date of the first women priests in bristol cathedral on this day in 1994 but here's another date and this is long back on the 12th of march 1613 the landscape gardener for louis xiv andre lenotre was born and he had the imagination to use the gifts of creation to create wonderful gardenscapes which we can now all enjoy and many of you will know the gardens of the chateau versailles it's always a trip that we love to make out from paris to wander there but le notre was really grand at choosing the right plants and the right patterns and he was very much a french gardener and there wasn't the shall we say that the way in which the plants grow in a more natural way in english gardens this is a very formal garden but what he did love was the use of the horse chestnut tree and i'm sitting under one today and the horse chestnut tree is sipper castaner is very much a tree of south eastern europe and also it's one of the symbols of the city of kiev and so we're sitting here for a multitude of different reasons because horse chestnuts are trees that give a really handsome status when they grow up and then bloom in great candles of light and when you walk down a horse chestnut colonnade in the dusk or the early morning when those candles are burning it's one of the most handsome trees in creation and of course it gives great shade in hot countries too so that it can become a collecting point for people to settle under the shade of the tree but at the same time at this time of year we've got here what we used to call these children sticky buds and i won't put my hand on them but they're already they're ready to flower and leaf and at the same time you will remember that the places where those leaves and flowers break off and i can see one here are in the shape of a horse's horseshoe with the nail marks as well hence their name horse chestnut and we remember how many gardeners rather like john trudeska and here uh great canterbury gardener at the same time as leonora and in philippa gregory's uh um uh life her novel about the trudescans the first novel which is called earthly joys she imagines it might have taken place a conversation between the english gardener tridescant and the french gardener lenortro but we give thanks for the chestnut tree for very many reasons because of course in the autumn we get wonderful what we in england call conquers from them and as children we used to play the game called conquers it was quite a a dangerous game and i think it's been banned in playgrounds today because you could come with bruised knuckles from the fact that you're conquer beautiful horse chestnut conker and they when you take them out of the pod they're shining in the most wonderful color but at the same time we had methods of trying to make them harder and some would soak them in vinegar or all of those things everyone had their own method and in the playground you then thread them with string and see who could break another's conquer and very often your knuckles will get hit by the conker but never mind if yours was a a a sixer or a tenner it meant it would break it had already broken ten conquers a wonderful game to play at any kind of school break so that it it it's a a tree that was massively popular and people would go out picking conkers but at the same time going out to collect sticky buds in the the intention of learning to identify trees when we were learning those kinds of things in school and it's wonderful to sit under this one today so many of the conquer trees the horse chestnut trees are threatened by uh the the kinds of diseases that the trees seem to be getting from one another these days when they moved around the world too fast but we're hoping that the each year the chestnut comes out and it blooms in a wonderful way and if it has that canker it actually only seems to appear later in the season and we're hoping that something can be done about that so we pray for that to happen because these trees are too beautiful and too wonderful to let go and we must must keep planting them and rejoicing in their shade it's standing here amongst all the other trees which at the moment are without leaves but will very soon begin to to uh to put leaves and flowers out and uh already the spring is all around us so as we look around this morning already we're seeing crocuses coming up and wonderful narcissism daffodils and the hellebores have been around quite a long time of course because they're a winter flower so thanks be to god for people like linortra who use their creative gifts in gardening and many of you will be the same using your creative gifts in gardening because the pandemic has been a time when we've rediscovered gardens and rediscovered the glory of the signs which the creator gives us of wanting to give us good gifts and to share them with each other let's then say our prayers on this day as we continue to pray for the people of ukraine and we pray also for many other intentions from right across the world in our garden congregation and undergird every situation with prayer i'm going to use first of all the special prayer for gregory the great and then we'll use the lenten prayer in our anglican communion today we're praying for the diocese of kimberly and kuruman in the anglican church of southern africa and were returning to pray for in the diocese for justin our archbishop for rose bishop of dover for emma bishop at lambeth and the churches of the maidstone area dinery that's churches around our county town of maidstone and we pray today for the ignite communities that's trying to kindle aflame with new communities with of christian faith and the enabler that melanie bannister so bring your own prayers and intentions here is the prayer forcing gregory the great merciful father who chose your bishop gregory to be a servant of the servants of god grant that like him we may ever long to serve you by proclaiming your gospel to the nations and may ever rejoice to sing your praises through jesus christ our lord amen so the collect for lent itself 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 together each in our own language across the world we join in 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 now for your own reflections and we have this morning a song called i am the bread of life fletcher found this and has got in contact with two american musicians uh steve angrizano and tom booth who have a ministry of writing songs based on the gospels and this one is very much based on the i am of the i am the bread of life and you'll hear other i am statements coming out in the song from the gospels but this fits absolutely into what we've been saying this morning and fletcher was in contact with steve by email last night and he responded it once and was thrilled that we were going to use the song of steve and tom on our garden congregation broadcast this morning and wanted to send prayers and good wishes to all of you across the world this morning so here is the song i am the bread of life as you have your own reflections [Music] i am the bread of life i am the hope and night i am the door wide open [Music] i am the shepherd's might i am the truth and light i am the way in life i am who i am and i am for you come and follow me [Music] i am bred for the [Music] come to me and know that i'll always be there with my arms open wide i am who i am and i am for you come and follow me [Music] i am who i am and i am for you come and follow me i give my heart to those in sorrow i come to those who are in need hope for the day and for tomorrow a light for all who want to [Music] [Music] i am who i am and i am for you come and follow me i am who i am and i am for you come and follow me [Music] wonderful song from steve and tom in the united states capturing something of that passage which we've read this morning and give thanks for don't forget that we're sitting under the chestnut tree as a sign of the city of kiev and i was talking about how we would say our conqueror was a tenor well we we we pray that the city of kiev in its resistance will be more than a tenor and our pr prayers are are with them um we as we've said before reclaim the zed because uh that zed which is actually used as a a weapon against them uh if you actually take it and use it for good and as we said said was for zelensky when he was actually addressing our democratic assembly all of those things we can do through the power of christ and baptize that which is intentionally hurtful into something which becomes harmless and good and we want that with compassion of peace restored to the people of ukraine christ give you grace to grow in holiness to deny yourselves 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 are men well we've been talking about uh contests with conkers and let me say to you it's a saturday which is a rugby day so we'll have a noisy afternoon and because england are playing ireland and uh so uh no um guesses as to whom we're supporting but uh we see how that match goes and a friendly contest so that too is something that we rejoice in so now tiger we're going to give you some proper breakfast over in your own place but thanks for being with us in so energetic away this morning always good to see you yeah i don't think the robin thought that as he was sitting on the bow looking at you okay great excitement [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] you