good morning and welcome to the deanery garden and canterbury cathedral on this saturday the 23rd of april it's a saturday of easter week but this is a day when the church's liturgical calendar is well out of kilter with the nation's consciousness because it's also april the 23rd sin george's day now our liturgical calendar says that no saints day can be kept in easter week and so it has to be transferred to next week and monday is not a day for it because it's in mark's day so it has to go to tuesday i doubt that anyone in the nation will be thinking this is saint george's day because since george's day is always william shakespeare's year's mind and in all probability also his birthday and is kept as such and the 23rd of april becomes england's national day so i i'll have to ask the liturgical calendar to forgive me uh because we are showing our slightly tattered sin george's flag it's seen good service on the flagpole on the roof through hurricane and storm uh but we've got it down here at the moment and put it up and i said it's looking rather tattered and uh fletcher said um uh when i said it looks a bit like a pirate flag and he said well what's wrong with that thinking of the way in which the spanish ambassador in elizabethan times used to address sir francis drake and many of the english sea captains as pirates well here's the flag of st george and it's not long since we read the story about the reluctant dragon where saint george suddenly appeared and had a good conversation in all courteousness with the dragon so we keep our national day today and we'll also literally keep it here in the cathedral on tuesday to be faithful to the liturgical calendar it is not only uh uh william shakespeare's uh memory of his his years mind and his birthday it's also the birthday of four-year-old prince louis of wales and we've got charming pictures taken by catherine his mother uh and we wish prince louis a very happy birthday on this st george's day which is always his birthday from then on the 23rd of april so let's say our prayers but first of course we undergird our prayers with a prayer for the ukrainian people because that situation is still in extremely dangerous it grows more dangerous daily and we think very much of all the capacity for war to escalate and the responsibility of leaders across the world to bring back a sense of peace and tranquility by whatever means to ukraine and its people so let's begin our prayers on this saturday in easter week oh lord open our lips and our mouths to proclaim your praise in your resurrection oh christ let heaven and earth rejoice alleluia blessed are you lord god of our salvation to you be praise and glory forever as once you ransomed your people from egypt and led them to freedom in the promised land so now you have delivered us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of your risen son may we the first fruits of your new creation rejoice in this new day you have made and praise you for your mighty acts 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 as 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 it's uh a saturday morning um and yesterday we missed forest friday and today once again we've come to the beach by the brazia so perhaps tomorrow we can have a sylvan sunday but uh for for the present uh let's just remind ourselves that we've come near to this brazier which is lit again and burning but this time on the beach on monday thursday in the high priest courtyard it was a brazilian beside which peter denied even knowing our lord now today in the second part of this reading as we complete st john's gospel which we've carefully gone through in the last few weeks we hear of the restoration of saint peter and also the vocation of the beloved disciple and we um with the tradition of the church that would be john the son of zebedee and peter and john are seen often together in those early chapters of the acts of the apostles so let's say the restoration of peter and the vocation of john but for the moment let's say our psalm and that is this morning of the month 23rd there are four but i'm going to read psalm 111. alleluia i will give thanks to the lord with my whole heart in the company of the faithful and in the congregation the works of the lord are great sought out by all who delight in them his work is full of majesty and honor and his righteousness endures forever he appointed a memorial for his marvelous deeds the lord is gracious and full of compassion he gave food to those who feared him he is ever mindful of his covenant he showed his people the power of his works in giving them the heritage of the nations the works of his hands are truth and justice all his commandments are sure they stand fast forever and ever they are done in truth and equity he sent redemption to his people he commanded his covenant forever holy and awesome is his name the fear of the lord is the beginning of wisdom a good understanding have those who live by it his praise endures forever so we come to our last reading from the fourth gospel as we complete that gospel we may go back next week to some of the conversations around the supper table but this today is the ending the second ending of this gospel added i would think a bit later than the first ending which we saw at the end of chapter 20. i'm starting when we where we left off yesterday the disciples were having breakfast with jesus who had been the stranger on the shore signaling to them and they suddenly have recognition that this is jesus and have come ashore and found breakfast waiting for them with a charcoal fire and bread and fish and then they have breakfast together we're taking up from there verse 15 of chapter 21 of saint john's gospel when they had finished breakfast jesus said to simon peter simon son of john do you love me more than these he said to him yes lord you know that i love you he said to him feed my lambs he said to him a second time simon son of john do you love me you said to him yes lord you know that i love you he said to him tend my sheep he said to him the third time simon son of john do you love me peter was grieved because he said to him the third time do you love me and he said to him lord you know everything you know that i love you jesus said to him feed my sheep truly truly i say to you when you were young you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted but when you are old you will stretch out your hands and another will bind you and carry you where you do not want to go this he said to show by what kind of death peter was to glorify god and after saying this he said to him follow me peter turned and saw the disciple whom jesus loved following them the one who also had leaned back against him during the supper and had said lord who is it that is going to betray you when peter saw him he said to jesus lord what about this man jesus said to him if it is my will that he remain until i come what is that to you follow me so the saying spread abroad among the disciples that this disciple was not to die yet jesus did not say to him that he was not to die but if it is my will that he remain until i come what is that to you and this is the disciple who is bearing witness about these things and who has written these things and we know that his testimony is true now there are also many other things that jesus did were every one of them to be written i suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written this starts when breakfast has been completed we don't know the tone of the conversation at breakfast jesus has said to them come and have breakfast and has nourished them with the bread and with the fish and we saw that the sign of that feeding of the five thousand uh which is then followed by the storm on the lake when jesus quietens the storm all of that has come much earlier in john's gospel but this is a gospel full of signs that you can connect through and still to me new signs of connection occur every time i read this gospel and we both of us have had connections in this way and thinking that actually is pointing back to this and this is pointing to that and all this is pointing to this in our world of today signs are like that but now they finish breakfast and peter knows there's unfinished business i think at this point he must have called peter away from the others to walk with him and also beck and john and he follows two and as they walk along they're near enough for jesus to point to the others simon son of john do you love me more than these now why does he say that that more than these i think because peter had said in his huge boast on that morning thursday evening even though everyone those around you deserts you i will never disown you and just a couple of hours later he buy the brazier in the high crease courtyard denies knowing jesus three times as the evening proceeds until the crows so simon son of john do you love me more than these that's the first question but jesus is actually using that word from which we get the word agape which is a common one in uh christian parliaments and especially when there there is a a a breakfast which isn't a a fully consecrated communion service or a mass but it's actually a breaking of bread together and agape which in which all can share with without any distinctions at all it's a pure untainted form of love which wills the total welfare of another and he uses that word peter responds differently and says yes lord you know that i love you using the greek verb filio you know that i'm your friend and that word means that heart and soul i am drawn to you i am your friend for friends are those that we know our soul mates in a particular way whereas within the christian community whom we are asked and and commanded to love it's the other word that jesus is using that is is current and here we are with one word being used by jesus and another being responded so if we do as uh william temple in his reflections for on sin john's gospel does and talk about yes lord you know that i'm your friend but i've let you down is the inference but there's a commission nevertheless feed my lambs we're back in the good shepherd image he said to him a second time simon son of john do you love me jesus still using the word he used in the beginning that perfect form of love that whatever you find in me are you loving that and on several occasions peter has been quite resistant remember the foot washing where he's actually trying to shape jesus into the kind of thing that he wants him to be doing and jesus says unless you let me wash your feet you can i you can have no part in me all the way through when jesus turns around to peter and says in matthew's gospel get behind me satan because peter has tried to shape jesus his vocation in the way that he wants it and it's because he loves him he wants to keep him out of danger he wants to honor him but jesus says no you have to love me in that way which embraces the vocation that i have and not the vocation that you want it to be second time and the disciples are farther away now so he doesn't talk about a comparison he says simon son of john do you love me and peter responds yes lord using the other verb you know that i'm your friend jesus now says tend my sheep we're still in the good shepherd image and then three denials three questions he said to him the third time but now jesus himself relents and and is is seeming to say to him let me offer it as you want it so he says to him the third time and this time he changes his own verb simon son of john are you my friend peter was grieved because he said to him the third time do you love me and he said to him lord you know everything you know that i love you and now both are using that verb of friendship temple says and i love his reflections on sin john's gospel but he says that he himself this is archbishop william temple um who was such a wonderful archbishop at the end of the years of the war and died before the war end as we said and tragically for the nation um he said i'm no hero like saint paul and i don't have the purity of the capacity of the purity of untainted love whatever of saint john so peter with all his mistakes and failings and frailties and his desire to have jesus as he would want him and shape the vocation himself i find a very sympathetic character he draws the three apostles peter john paul and says peter because of his mistakes because of his largeness of heart which failed him from time to time is the most sympathetic for him so now jesus then gives the commission this time peter responding lord you know everything you know that i'm your friend jesus says to him feed my sheep good shepherd image again and then underlining it with that verily verily truly truly i say to you when you were young you girded yourself and went where you wanted to go but when you are old you will find yourself stretching out your hands for another to bind you and lead you where you do not want to go and this he says prophesying the kind of death that peter is going to die and then peter becomes peter becomes peter again always comparing himself to others says well what about him pointing to john walking behind them and jesus i'm sure with a smile said never mind about him this is your vocation follow me and that becomes uh the jesus says if it's my will that he stays till i come again what is that to you follow me and then the the writer the evangelist which is that the one who is his our commentator through this part of the book not the one that gave the evidence for the book but the one who is our commentator and helper as this book is written says a saying became current amongst the disciples that this beloved disciple would never die and we know this and john lived to a very very great age and the testimony of that is is there in the early church in john's life in ephesus is set out but he didn't say he's not going to die he just said if it's my will that he waits till i come well really for saint john from the moment he'd looked into the empty tomb and believed jesus had already come in the risen state that now he is going to relate to the beloved disciple and to the others as well there is that old um version of an and it's a legend um but it's a legend that was current at the time uh of when peter on the night of his before his martyrdom in rome was set free to go and escaped and was hasting out of rome this is a legend let me stress and as he went along the road away from rome he saw a familiar figure bearing a cross coming towards him and recognized the figure of jesus and said where are you going quo vadis and jesus says i'm going to finish the work for you and at that moment peter to his shame realizes what he's doing and turns round and goes back to complete the work himself and his himself then crucified well all of that is a legend of the early church the stories of the aged saint john not a legend at all but well well well uh well witnessed but certainly in this story peter's particular character is very much to the present and we give thanks as this gospel ends with the largest claim in the world but then also it began with the largest claim that the word was in the beginning was the word and the word was with god and the word was made flesh and dwelt amongst us and we beheld his glory glory is of the only begotten of the father full of grace and truth the largest claim at the end it's almost the the evangelist and his uh emanuensis who's finishing this his disciple finishing this off saying this is such a huge and eternal work which has been begun in the life of the word made flesh and thus the holy spirit proceeding from the father and the son being given to all those that books couldn't be written enough to contain all the truth the depths of the truth is being contained well we've delved deep but it's something for a daily reflection and as we've said all the way through this gospel its stories are shallow enough for a child or those of simplicity to paddle in and deep enough for an elephant to swim in because the depth of the fourth gospel is something never-ending as we read it reflect on it and pray with it day by day peter do you love me go and feed my sheep peter do you love me take care of the weak peter do you love me stand up and be strong now i have to go away but i'll not leave you alone when they took the lord from the garden peter followed them and someone recognized him and said there's one of them peter he denied him three times in a row but his heart was broken when he heard the old roll peter do you love me go and feed my sheep peter do you love me take care of the weak peter do you love me stand up and be strong now i have to go away but i'll not leave you alone well on the day of pentecost the comforter ride he came in like a rushing wind with cloven tongues of fire peter stood up and began to preach to them the holy word and after three thousand souls were saved these words you might have heard peter do you love me go and feed my sheep peter do you love me take care of the weak peter do you love me stand up and be strong now i have to go away but i'll not leave you alone well peter grew stronger in the faith and preached throughout the land he walked and talked and prayed to god obeying his command and then they crucified him they nailed him upside down and these words you might have heard as the hammer rang out loud lord you know i love you i've tried to feed your sheep lord you know i love you i've took care of the weak lord you know i love you i've tried to be so strong thank you lord for loving me now i'm ready to go home but let's look at one or two other dates today because they're interesting i said that it was shakespeare's year's mind uh william shakespeare uh died on the 23rd of april 1616. his baptism is recorded in stratford-upon-avon parish church on the 26th of april 1564 but it's always been traditional to think he was actually born on the 23rd of april so birth and death same day and this man who is the seen as the greatest writer in the english language writing plays 39 plays which have been translated into every major living language of tragedy history comedy uh and at the same time his pure poetry in all the sonnets he wrote i think you wrote 154 sonnets and explored in those sonnets what it means to love and what it means also to enjoy all the aspects of god's gift of spring i think i may have said to you before that we were in new york on 1 23rd of april sometime back now and went into central park and found that on that day near the shakespeare garden in the amphitheater there um citizens of new york would come forward one by one they booked their name in and one after the other by different citizens uh some very poetic in in the way they read the poems some quite dead pan but nevertheless honoring shakespeare on this day say sonic 2 sonnet 3 sonnet four and a different citizen would come forward and we stayed some little while listening to the sonnets red and uh glorying in that occasion in central park [Applause] friend of smiley sonnet number 122 thy gift thy tables are within my brain full character with lasting memory which shall above thy that idol rank remain beyond all date even to eternity or at least so long as brain and heart have faculty by nature to subsist till each to raised oblivion yield his part of the thy record never can be missed that poor retention could not so much hold nor need i tallies thy dear love to score therefore to give them from me was i bold to trust those tables that receive thee more to keep an adjunct to remember thee were to import forgetfulness in me [Applause] when in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes i all alone to whip my own cast state and trouble death heaven with my rootless cries look upon myself and curse my fate wishing you like torn more rich in hope fated like him like him with friends possessed desiring this man's art that man's skull with what's a most enjoy contented list yet in this thoughts myself almost despise him happily i think on there and then mistakes like to the lark at break of day arising from sullen earth sings hymns in heaven's gate that i sweat love remembered such wealth brings then i scorned to change my state with kings my mistress eyes are nothing like the sun coral is far more red than her lips red if snow be white why then her breasts are done if hair are wires black wires grow on her head i've seen roses damask red and white but no such roses see eye in her cheeks and in some perfumes there is more delight than in the breath that from my mistress reeks i love to hear speak yet well i know that music has a far more pleasing sound i grant i never saw a goddess go my mistress when she walks treads on the ground and yet by heaven i think my love is rare as any she belied with false compare [Applause] when we returned here fischer had the idea of doing exactly the same and he just finished raising the money for the the herb garden here in the not in our own garden but in the cathedral itself um and and many of you have sat in that herb garden well in king's week the the boys and girls of our school read the sonnets in that way to honor shakespeare because shakespeare as i've said is seen as the greatest writer in the english language and we honor him on this day i got here i wasn't going to read the sonnet but at this time of year it's nice to read some shakespeare and it's a poem in his most shall we say pastoral of plays as you like it set in the forest of arden and everything is under the greenwood tree and of course one of the songs it's sung i've got it here uh is under the greenwood tree who loves to lie with me and turn his merry note unto the sweet bird's throat come hither come hither come hither here shall he see no enemy but winter and rough weather who does ambition shun and loves to live in the sun seeking the food he eats and please with what he gets come hither come hither come hither here shall he see no enemy but winter and rough weather so then also in as you like it we have that lovely love song of which has been set to music so many times but here it is actually read in the forest of arden from the play as you like it it was a lover and his lass with a hay and a hoe and a hain only know that all the green cornfield did pass in the spring time the only pretty ring time when birds do sing hey dinga ding ding sweet lovers love the spring between the acres of the rye with a hay and a hoe and a hainani no these pretty country folks would lie in springtime the only pretty ring time when birds do sing hey dinga ding ding sweet lovers love the spring this carol they began that hour with a hay and a hoe and a hain only know how that life was but a flower in springtime the only pretty ring time when birds do sing hey dinga ding ding sweet lovers love the spring and therefore take the present time with a hay and a hoe and a hainani no for love is crowned with the prime in springtime the only pretty ring time when birds do sing hey dinga ding ding sweet lovers love the spring springtime throughout the world when it comes and i know some of you will be watching this in autumn and joining your prayers in the fall in the southern hemisphere but nevertheless all of us when the spring comes loves that and now i want to go on to someone else having given thanks for shakespeare let's then think of someone else who died on this day the 23rd of april 1915 and i'm thinking of the poet rupert brooke who again loved to write about this season of the year he is best known and perhaps this is a nice thing to think of on st george's day when sin george is only the patron saint of england not scotland that's in andrew not wales that's in david not ireland that's in patrick england st george and it's england that rupert brooke when he at the beginning of the first world war joins the the forces to go out to fight for his country writes that uh poem which became it was printed in the times and became very very very popular even before his own deaths this is it and you'll know it written in november 1914 if i should die think only this of me that there's some corner of a foreign field that is forever england there shall be in that rich earth a richer dust concealed a dust whom england bore shaped made aware gave once her flowers to love her ways to roam a body of england's breathing breed a body of england's breathing english air washed by the rivers blessed by sons of home and think this heart all evil shed away a pulse in the eternal mind no less gives somewhere back the thoughts by england given her sights and sounds dreams happy as her day and laughter learnt of friends and gentleness in hearts at peace under an english heaven that i think is probably his most well-known work and a good work to read on st george's day calling people to a high vocation but there's the other famous one which was written in berlin in 1912 he was there at that time completing a thesis for a fellowship at king's college cambridge which had been part of his education and found himself working away in the heat of berlin on john webster and the elizabethan drama a thesis which actually earned him a fellowship at king's college cambridge in 1913. he was homesick and he remembered his room in granchester rectory the old vicarage rather at granchester and as he dreams he dreams of not only the garden of the vicarage you could do it with the deanery the garden of the deanery and the old house but things that had happened there in history and also beautiful things that had been part of his life there for himself and becomes even more homesick this is just a one or two tiny sections of that just now the lilac is in bloom or before my little room and in my flower beds i think smile the carnation and the pink and down the borders well i know the poppy and the pansy blow oh there the chestnuts summer through beside the river make for you a tunnel of green gloom and sleep deeply above and green and deep the stream mysterious glides beneath green as a dream and deep as death oh damn i know it and i know how the mayfield's all golden show and when the day is young and sweet guild gloriously the bare feet that run to bathe and then he talks about how he's there sweating at his work in berlin and simply longs to be home where in granchester in granchester i only know that you may lie day long and watch the cambridge sky and flower lulled in sleepy grass hear the cool laps of hours pass until the centuries blend and blur in granchester in granchester still in the dawn lit waters cool his ghostly lordship swims his pool and tries the strokes it saves the tricks long learnt on helispont or sticks dan chaucer hears the river still chatter beneath the phantom mill tennyson notes with studious eye how cambridge waters hurry by and in that garden black and white creep whispers through the grass all night and spectral dance before the dawn a hundred vicars down the lawn currents long dust will come and go on lissam clerical printless toe and oft between the bows is seen the sly shade of a rural dean a nice image of those who've lived in this house in the past and who've met here as members of chapter or diocesan clergy as ghosts now in the night dancing across the lawns of the deanery and after air the night is born do has come out about the corn oh is the water sweet and cool gentle and brown above the pool and laughs the immortal river still under the mill under the mill say is there beauty yet to find uncertainty and quiet kind deep meadows yet for to forget the lies and truths and pain oh yet stands the church clock at ten to three and is there honey still for tea it's a great couplet and i imagine that the church clock at granchester had stopped at ten to three and at that time had not been mended so it was always ten to three and he was wishing it was ten to three and there was honey still for tea amongst those meadows as he sat and sweated in berlin well rupert brooke did go to war as you well know and died actually out in the eastern mediterranean but not in battle he died from septicemia from an infected mosquito bite and all happened all too quickly very early in his time there he was only 27 and he was moved on because it began to be serious he was moved on to a french hospital ship which was moored off the greek island of skyross and on the 23rd of april 1915 his condition became very serious one of his friends another poet william brown and there were several of the war poets there at that time but william brown describes the death of rupert brooke on the hospital ship i sat with rupert at four o'clock he became weaker and at 4 46 he died with the sun shining all around his cabin and the cool sea breeze blowing through the door and the shaded windows no one could have wished for a quieter or a calmer end than in that lovely bay shielded by the mountains and fragrant with sage and thyme the body of of of seamen he was with were due to move on that that next day and so at 11 o'clock that night the very night of his death in the afternoon they buried him there in an olive grove and there he rests with a memorial now over him but of course that poem is left to us speaking on this in george's day of what he wanted to be a spot of england wherever he died and was buried and that must be the thought of so many who've become in some way separated from their nation it takes us back once again to the ukrainians who have been forced through war to leave their country but they will all be carrying something of ukraine with them wherever they go as happens with any refugee so let's send say our prayers on this day and we are praying today in the anglican communion for the diocese of lagos in the church of nigeria and then in this diocese 23rd of april we're praying for justin our archbishop for rose bishop of dover for emma bishop at lambeth but also for the kingstown creekside and high downs benefits i'll come back to that a moment don't worry uh with steve lillicrap and jim pai and caroline turvey as the clergy there now that title hides these villages and there are ten of them can you believe it that that clergy team are looking after so they are saint peter and saint paul's church at newnam saint mary at nantes norton st mary at stallisfield sent michael and all angels at throwlie all these very beautiful churches in in a lovely part of kent saint john the baptist at doddington saint mary at eastling sent peter and paul at linstead sent peter at or saint mary at tenem and saint margaret at witchling ten parishes which until um what should we say thirty years ago or so would probably all have had their own parish priests there um i'm saying that because maybe a bit longer ago than that but when i was the royal dean of chalk in the diocese of salisbury there were i think 21 parish priests in the chapter meeting that met of the local clergy and now that is that area deanery has been that rural dinner has been extended also and and far far fewer clergy so we pray very much for the team steve lilly crap jim pye and caroline turvey in their work within those beautiful rural parishes this morning here's the easter collect bring your own prayers and intentions lord of all life and power who through the mighty resurrection of your son overcame the old order of sin and death to make all things new in him grant that we being dead to sin and alive to you in jesus christ may reign with him in glory to whom with you in the holy spirit we praise and honor glory and might now and in all eternity amen and the collect forcing george which we'll use again on tuesday god of hosts who so kindled the flame of love in the heart of your servant george that he bore witness to the risen lord by his life and by his death give us the same faith and power of love that we who rejoice in his triumphs may come to share with him the fullness of the resurrection through jesus christ our lord amen so we say each in our own language the prayer our savior taught us our father who art in heaven hallowed be thy name thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil for thine is the kingdom the power and the glory forever and ever amen moment now for your own reflections and prayers on this day [Music] the answer to [Music] yours is [Music] the answer to my every needs [Music] indeed the storms you as you breathe those words peace be still love made you give your life upon a grass and love keeps you with us still [Music] friend of mine yours is jesus come and grieve your gentle words again into our hearts today we've lost sight of you it seems end of your life and we're going our own way oh man of galileo friend divine the answer to my every needs oh mother galileo friend of mine yours is [Music] so the god of peace who brought again from the dead our lord jesus that great shepherd of the sheep by the blood of the eternal covenant make you perfect in every good work to do his will working in you that which is well pleasing in his sight 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 [Music] so let's turn to a riddle and then um we have a new book for you as well and uh we hope that today's riddle won't be quite as questionable with his answer as yesterday at breakfast time so here we are let's go to the answers of the two i asked yesterday one moment while i find that and we are asking i i asked you yesterday um i sleep when you are awake i am awake when you fall asleep i can fly but have no feathers to aid my flight what am i and the answer is a bat and the other i am all around you but you cannot see me i have no throat but can roar i am welcome during the summer but despised in the winter and the answer to that is the wind so um those are those two today and let's see what we've got for tomorrow i love to twist and dance i have no wings but i fly high up into the sky what am i and then the next one you throw me out when you use me and take me in when you are done so i leave those two with you what are those [Music] so uh the new book as we finish the words this is a another um fairly slim book and it could be much much much sitcom but it's very beautiful it's actually a book of wonderful esops fables and um it's illustrated by an artist called charles santori and we'll just go through some of these because they are the sort of fables which please one and a muse one but i'm going to read today before reading the first one the preface that charles santori put in the book he's first of all he said this book is for my mother nelly santori in gratitude for passing on to me a precious gift the ability to draw and then he writes a forward and the forward has at the beginning the esop's fable in illustration of the clever crow who makes the water in the the jar rise by putting pebbles into it one by one until it's high enough for him to reach but i want to read charles's forward about esop's fables reading through various collections of esop's fables with the thought of illustrating a selection of my favorites i came upon an introduction to an early 20th century volume of the fables written by g k chesterton the great master of english letters in writing about the animals chesterton observed they have no choice they cannot be anything but themselves his words were a revelation to me i could visualize immediately the majestic lion occupying center stage the shrewd fox sidling up to a situation rather than confronting it directly the docile sheep forever doomed to plod on unaware that they are simply pawns in the game of life i realize that each animal the worldly wolf the clever fox the silly crow represents some particular aspect of the human condition whatever the situation the animals reactions resound with familiarity to us they are predictable the animals are never more or less than their essential natures and thus they never disappoint that is the great essence of each fable ancient as the fables are they have much to teach our children today every child comes to know for instance that a tortoise is slow but the lesson to be learned from the amusing interaction between tortoise and hair in the fable is no less enriching and no less entertaining than it was in esops day the universal truth is that slow and steady still wins the race i chose to expand on the idea of universal universality by including fables without humans thereby avoiding the trappings of time gender and geography once my choices were made the illustrations began to crystallize each animal whether wolf lion or lamb needed to convey convincingly in gesture and expression the entire range of human emotions from fear to arrogance from stupidity to craftiness from indifference to affection whether or not i have succeeded in this humbling task well i will let you the reader be the judge and just one little esops fable today it's the wolf and the crane a wolf once got a bone stuck in his throat so he went to a crane and begged her to put her long bill down his throat and pull it out i'll make it worth your while he added the crane did as she was asked and got the bone out quite easily the wolf thanked her warmly and was just turning away when the crane cried what about that fee of mine well what about it snapped the wolf bearing his teeth as he spoke you can go about boasting that you once put your head into a wolf's mouth and didn't get it bitten off what more do you want and underneath as always the moral is written in serving the wicked expect no reward and be thankful if you escape injury for your pains we'll go on tomorrow have an enjoyable saturday come and have breakfast then tiger we're going to end with uh because of the national day for england uh a singing of jerusalem blake's jerusalem which is about england's green and pleasant land but the best time that's ever sung is at the promenade concerts which is something very much of this land so here's blake's jerusalem and did those feet in ancient time walk upon england's mountain green sung at the last night of the province [Music] uh [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] ah [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Applause] so hubert parries him jerusalem in a setting of worse by william blake squeeze calls [Music] foreign foreign [Music] [Music] so [Music] so [Music] [Applause] so [Music] [Applause] you