good morning and welcome to the dinery garden at canterbury cathedral as we keep on this wednesday the 2nd of february the feast of candlemas otherwise known as the presentation of christ in the temple or the purification of the blessed virgin mary we came out here expecting that we would show something of the marian blue sky but when we came to the place where we wanted to be we found a small crocus of marion blue pushing its way up through the leaves on the lawn so we're showing you that now with a lone snowdrop also and snowdrop so the flower of today as i shall say in a moment or two and so we are just concentrating on that as a focus of this wonderful feast of new beginnings and we have come outside to find a place with its stones reminiscent of the temple to which mary and joseph bring the baby jesus 40 days after his birth in looking for that location we've been walking around this morning under the most beautiful blue sky marian blue sky and we are without wind on quite a a mild day for early february and we've come under the magnolia tree here and we have come to one of our not our biggest patchy patch of snowdrops but one which is near the house and because it was catching the sun earlier the petals have opened so you see the beauty of this little white flower it's almost a winter flower because it flowed at the end of january and into february but on this day in many parts of the country they're known as mary's tears and that references the vocation that she is given by simeon and they are taken into church on this day of all days as mary's tears a sign of this feast of candle mass and we're in this morning uh saying it not only with the flowers but also with candles it's candle mass and so we've we've lit some candles to give character to the people who take part in this story we'll read that story of course later on but as you'll be looking at the moment at the the the three plain glasses and the one blue glass in the sunshine it may be difficult to see there's a candle burning in each of them and the blue glass of course represents the blessed virgin mary and below the larger white glass saint joseph and then the two tall glasses simeon and anna and if we come a little higher i've got here the two doves and also by his own volition but i'm sure he'll make himself felt um leo playing a temple guard or something of that sort um but uh this is a lovely vas which has a snowdrop decoration on it and is full of snowdrops which will later be taken into the cathedral but the the the vas is very much ours from a dear friend of ours kathy hall who is a member of the garden congregation the other side of the atlantic but when she and her husband gary were staying with us she brought this beautiful vars decorated with snowdrops i think it's french's favorite vars in in the house so i'm going to put it in pride of place here outside in the air this morning before it goes to the cathedral itself with its precious burden of mary's tears i'm going to um think just a moment before we start our worship of areas of the world which need our prayers most we think with sadness of tonga now wrestling with kovid having arrived there inadvertently everyone took the greatest care and at the moment there's no answer to how that got there but it has given an added burden not only to tonga but to the related islands with with more care because of that pandemic which wasn't there before and also we have floods in south australia which are causing a devastation you'll hear aircraft in the sky of course going over but the day before yesterday we were given an enormous sound of an aircraft of the helicopter which got nearer and nearer and nearer and then suddenly landed in front of the house it was the air ambulance helicopter in an emergency landing and uh they then ran to to get the the person who needed that they'd chosen the green spot that they wanted to land in and uh fesher managed to take a a film of that happening so we'll put that on at the end and also reference that wonderful charity the air ambulance in the way it's able to to rescue people at a moment's notice from medical emergency or any any kind of danger of that sort so let's say our prayers on this day oh lord open our lips and our mouth shall proclaim your praise your light springs up for the righteous and all the peoples have seen your glory blessed are you sovereign god king of the nations to you be praise and glory forever from the rising of the sun to its setting your name is proclaimed in all the world as the sun of righteousness dawns in our hearts anoint our lips with the seal of your spirit that we may witness to your gospel and sing your praise in all the earth 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 special psalm for this principled feast of the church psalm 122. it's a psalm about coming to the temple as mary and joseph did on that day in fulfillment of the law i was glad when they said to me let us go to the house of the lord and now our feet are standing within your gates o jerusalem jerusalem built as a city that is at unity in itself that the tribes go up the tribes of the lord as is decreed for israel to give thanks to the name of the lord for thou art set the thrones of judgment the thrones of the house of david o pray for the peace of jerusalem may they prosper who love you peace be within your walls and tranquility within your palaces for my kindred and companion's sake i will pray that peace be with you for the sake of the house of the lord our god i will seek to do you good it's a day when we remember all kinds of prophecies about the lord coming to the temple but also our lord's determination that it should be a house of prayer for all nations as we hear him saying in the gospel of saint mark and also the disciples nervous about the anger of the authorities growing and quoting that verse 10 i think it is in this sort here sometimes in nine in the more old fashioned soldiers of psalm 69 which says zeal for your house will consume me and that's remembered in in the early chapters of the gospel of saint john by the disciples when jesus is feeling such zeal for the house of the lord in his adult ministry but for today we remember mary and joseph bringing their son their baby son 40 days old according to the law which is set out for them in fulfillment of the law which is set out for them and you can find that law in leviticus chapter 12. i'm not reading that this morning i'm going to read the story of the presentation of the baby jesus in the temple from the second chapter of the gospel of saint luke and it begins at verse 22. when the time came for their purification according to the law of moses mary and joseph brought him up to jerusalem to present him to the lord as it is written in the law of the lord every male who first opens the womb shall be called holy to the lord and to offer a sacrifice according to what is said in the law of the lord a pair of turtle doves or two young pigeons now there was a man in jerusalem whose name was simeon and this man was righteous and devout waiting for the consolation of israel and the holy spirit was upon him and it had been revealed to him by the holy spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the lord's christ and simeon came in the spirit into the temple and when the parents brought in the child jesus to do for him according to the custom of the law simeon took him up in his arms and blessed god and said lord now you let your servants depart in peace according to your word for my eyes have seen your salvation that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples a light for revelation to the gentiles and for glory to your people israel the child's father and mother marveled at what was said about him but simeon blessed them and said to mary his mother behold this child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in israel and for a sign that is opposed and a sword will pierce through your own soul also so that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed now there was a prophet anna the daughter of faneuil of the tribe of asher she was advanced in years having lived with her husband seven years from when she was a virgin and then as a widow until she was 84 she did not depart from the temple worshiping with fasting and prayer night and day and coming up at that very hour she began to give thanks to god and to speak of him to all who were waiting for the redemption of jerusalem now when mary and joseph had performed everything according to the law of the lord they returned into galilee to their own town of nazareth the child grew and became strong with wisdom and the favor of god was upon him so we have this lovely story of the presentation of jesus in the temple as a baby 40 days old as the law prescribed in that chapter 12 of leviticus which i gave you to read if you wanted to see what the law was actually saying and in that it prescribes the offering that an ordinary family would bring the turtle doves or two young pigeons and at the same time the fulfillment of that law and we remember that on this day as i was thinking of this day a latin motto came in to my mind and uh i can i can say it to you in church latin pronunciation recipe che a speech a prospect or if you want it in classical latin textbook pronunciation which we learned at school respi-k aspica prospike it means look back look around you look forward no better motto for today for that's exactly what this does for us this feast day of the church it causes us to look back very necessarily so and it's a good motto for every day but to look back and here we're looking back at the fulfillment of the law for mary and joseph are faithful and righteous to the law and the customs of their own community and they have traveled specifically to come to the temple on that 40th day according to the law of the lord bringing their firstborn son to the temple so looking back that sense of fulfillment of the law is that and as we go on let's say also look around and what are we seeing there well that becomes what we're getting from anna and simeon for that is the present tense experience of mary and joseph as they bring their baby son into the temple simeon and anna have no official positions they're not the priests that the parents have brought their baby son to probably in a long line of such children coming that day this was the ordinary work of the temple but they have brought in their baby son and as we think of that and we'll we'll delve into that a bit more in in a moment we think of the present tense of the vocation which mary is given on that day by simeon this child is set to be a sign that will be rejected but a sign of light for the nations of the world the gentiles and of glory to his people israel you have here maybe a sign for us it was a a lovely present from parents of our friend christoph uh the the vet who's looked after all our animals whom you've got to know well by name and his parents live in bavaria and so this is from bavaria but let's look and see that here is a sign of the baby jesus and simeon takes the baby into his arms not officially he's just an old man of great insight great faithfulness great devotion and in the spirit so that the spirit has guided him into the temple at that time and uh mary and joseph probably having finished what they had to do are set to to pack up and make the journey back but then this happens and it's recounted and it's recounted and of course so those sentences in luke's gospel in those first two chapters of mary kept all these things and treasured them in her heart so there i'm saying these incidents for them are look around you look back look around you they become incidents on which mary will look back and find their meaning developing as the life of her son and his vocation develops also the sword will pierce your heart too it will be a painful vocation and the snowdrops are speaking of mary's chairs which won't be offered on this day in the temple as they proudly hold their infant son but they will be offered at the foot of the cross and on many other occasions as jesus's ministry develops and she sees him as a human sign which is opposed and rejected let me put the child here actually in the sunshine as it happens for the moment and continue look back respiratory look around you a speeche look forward prospecting the prospect the aspect and then looking back in a sense of reflection but for the moment let's look forward for from this day our hearts and minds turn towards a different season of the churches here tomorrow we enter ordinary time work a day ordinary time but our next journey in the liturgical calendar will be the journey of ash wednesday and lent looking forward to passion time when those cheers will certainly flow uh and good friday holy week good friday and and easter before now we've been looking back to all the events of what we call the incarnation the making of of of or the the the revelation of god in our human form and then we look forward to what happens during that human lifetime of our lord jesus christ and then beyond easter of course to a completely different season then look forward but if we do it in our own lives of course then we we sift into a very uh different area and what happens next for mary and joseph well shall we say ordinary time they then with those prophecies of simeon and anna these two very old people who've waited and waited for this stay and the spirit leads them that to that moment in the middle of all those crowds in the temple don't think of this as a quiet scene there will be so much business going on in the temple and eventually that the official business there is completed but then this moment happens and what happens next they begin the journey home back to their own home in nazareth in galilee and what we call the hidden years of our lord's life begin so luke gives us one more incident and that's the incident when jesus is 12 years old and he is brought once again in fulfillment of the law to one of the feasts of the temple i don't need to describe that story that's not our story for today but that's the only little incident that takes place before jesus's own public ministry begins so we give huge thanks for luke's account today of this presentation of jesus in the temple just if i look back i look back to the psalm 69 with its first zeal for your house has consumed me but we could also look back to the last book of the old testament as we might call it the old covenant the book of malachi and in malachi chapter 3 we we we hear the lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple and that coming had always been seen as the coming of a glorious one almost a war leader and the lord whom they sought did suddenly come to his temple not suddenly in a case of hurry but suddenly in the case of unexpected and unnoticed on this day when mary and joseph brought jesus as a 40 year old a 40 day old baby into the temple to be recognized the lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple watchfulness in all things to see when the lord whom we all seek visits us with a new dimension of what is expected of us in our own vocation as we go on there are so many threads so many images to this day that's why we chose to set it out epiphany as we said was a time of signs and we've certainly used signs this morning none more so than these little white flowers giving a promise of spring beginning to happen but also giving a memory of how they were called and are called mary's tears on this day and the glass of just standing alone here for one sense is mary holding that vocation alone and watching and waiting for it to be fulfilled in a life of prayer and devotion to her son but also to the creator who overarches all things and infuses all life with his spirit now this is a day um when we remember that on the 2nd of february 1594 the composer giovanni pia luigi de palestrina was born sorry died he was born on the 3rd of february it's tomorrow 1525 but we're just going to keep him today because this is his year's mind and it gives us an opportunity to say that he really is the best known 16th century representative of the roman school of composition long lasting influence on development of church and secular music in europe and especially of counterpoint his work is considered the the absolute fulfillment and culmination of renaissance polyphony and we simply get that from the amount of music that he created most of his life was lived in rome palestrina is a community still a community uh in those days it was in the papal states it's now in italy uh not too far from rome and he became for a while organists of his own cathedral church there uh er sint agapito in palestrina between 1544 and 1551 but he had already been in rome as a chorister at santa maria maggiore and he'd learned literature and music there and had moved to rome to study and then came back to rome as a maestro de capella a director of music and uh as he came back to um rome he returned not to santa maria maggiore with which of course we have very very close connections because the tunical of thomas beckett was going to come across here and we've had to put that off because of the pandemic but that famous church of our lady of the snows as it's sometimes called in is a papal basilica in rome and we send our loving greetings to the uh clergy and people of santa maria maggiore today but at the same time he then came back and himself served in the the main basilica of saint peter and uh he published now here's the statistics it's extraordinary how much he set out in music to stay in our hearts and minds he wrote 105 masses 68 offertories 140 madrigals 300 motets 72 hymns 35 magnificats 11 litanies and his masses were published in 13 volumes seven of them after his life ended his music largely is church music and we use it constantly in our worship as a particular style of worship and she's regarded really as one of the great composers uh mendelson said of him that he would put him in his pantheon of great composer the greatest composers but he also said i like this quote from mendelssohn who discovered bach and brought it back to the people all of that but mendelson said i always get upset when some praise only beethoven others only palestrina others only mozart others only bark all four of them i say or none at all well that's good advice we saw how mendelson helped in discovering schubert again because people pour out their creativity in their particular creative vocation i keep saying god has made each of us utterly distinct and today we're looking at the vocation of the blessed virgin mary which will be a painful vocation but we remember in those first two chapters of luke not only her vocation given in that song of obedience magnificat set to music here 35 times by palestrina and sung at even song in our worship each afternoon when the choir is there never an even song without magnificat being sung or said on the rare occasions we say it at the same time it's always coupled with the prophecy of simeon being recorded and also the song which simeon sang about his own vocation in old age fulfilled to wait until he had been shown the lord's christ and physically taken the lord's christ into his arms and then in the old words you get lord now let us sign thy servant depart in peace according to thy word and we can give you some music of a dimitis as we contemplate simeon's own vocation but also his prophecy of mary's vocation a sword shall pierce your heart so foreign [Music] see [Music] yes [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] [Music] is [Applause] [Music] is [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] jesus [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] when we think of the vocation of simeon and anna at the end of that num dimitis it's perhaps a a really true statement to say that we're never both of us never more conscious of the fact that when people come to the cathedral and it's usually without pandemic years milling with with thousands of people it's generally not the clergy and and and officers of the church in in that uh area that will have noticed them it's usually those who have time to greet them welcome them and and find that vocation notice them hear their stories and so it's it's a a time to think of of those like um chris and her team of shepherds uh who uh welcome the people and of guides and welcomers and at the same time to think of helen and her team of of of stewards uh who help people find their seats and feel comfortable when they come to large and small acts of worship the verges chris and his team are verges because they also are around and about noticing people and taking care of them but also having time to to listen sometimes to their their stories and chaplains who volunteered their their time sometimes in retirement and sometimes from their parishes to come and be here and just give a sense of that and then if one thinks of the people in our lodge where they go to stay richard and his team there it's these folks who very often have an intuition about the way in which people are when they come here and you can carry that as we feel immense gratitude for all of that but at the same time we can carry that lesson out into ordinary life and become those people ourselves um in in that way i'm thinking now of zoe at the education department here when groups of school teachers and and children come and and they walk around dressed up as beckett and the knights or augustine and the monks and enjoy themselves in that way and caroline in the friends office and and her teams just keeping people in touch with one another but also having time to listen and of course time in a busy place is is a really important thing one thinks of mary and joseph going in queues of people to have that done and then these two people who just simply noticed them gave value to that day in a very different way and this is a day to to think of of all that too and the fact that simeon and anna uh were in extreme old age and yet this was their moment and uh that became so immensely important in this story as we tell it day by day so many many lessons today as we think forward and i received um very recently a lovely letter from victor de val was the dean here from 1976 to 1986 and it's his 93rd birthday today his son edmund was here on monday with his wife susan uh edmond's wife susan uh and uh also um we send our greetings to victor and a happy birthday greeting but we remember esther his wife and and also the four uh sons um but victor actually was writing about candle mass and he said uh i i send robert i send you a poem that i wrote which was set as a hymn many many years ago and here it is it's such a lovely candlemas poem it's a good way to end this reflection lady i sing to thee tender humility puzzling the grace in thy son's face lady that lookest far a voyage as the star thou gave his sight to the world's light holy lady that stood under the cruel wood that didst borrow thy son's sorrow lady i sing to thee crowned in eternity blessed in the grace of thy son's face lovely poem for candle mass and so thank you victor for that and sharing it and happy birthday to you on this very special day i should have said um at the end of victor's letter he says wishing you and all the garden congregation a blessed new year so that's a lovely looking forward as well as looking backward to that lovely poem that he wrote all those years ago was victor who actually had the joy of welcoming pope john paul ii into the cathedral here to pray at the site of martyrdom of saint thomas and that was in 1981 all those years ago respiche a speech a prospeci look back look around you look forward so let's come to say our prayers on this particular day a very special day we're thinking in the anglican communion on this day of the diocese of western kansas and the episcopal that's in the episcopal church of the united states of course and we're thinking also with the sanit deanery of their ministry to those who are in uh old age and that are homebound or or in care homes or in any way needing some kind of encouragement and care very often that encouragement and and care is repaid a thousand-fold by their own wisdom and intuition into our lives when we care for them uh we pray for justin of course and uh rose uh bishop of dover and emma bishop at lambeth and here is the special colleague today for the presentation of christ in the temple candle mass almighty and ever-living god closed in majesty whose beloved son was this day presented in the temple in substance of our flesh grants that we may be presented to you with pure and clean hearts by your son jesus christ our lord amen so 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 to deliver us from evil for thine is the kingdom the power and the glory forever and ever amen what you're seeing now is last night's beautiful sunset which will accompany our time of reflection and the music you'll hear is palestrina uh opem nobis toma uh an anthem in honor of thomas beckett and of course all the signs of of this day will accompany that in our hearts and minds in our reflection [Music] is foreign [Music] foreign [Music] is [Music] so [Applause] [Music] is [Music] jesus christ [Music] boys [Music] 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 and the blessing of god almighty the father the son and the holy spirit be upon you upon those whom you love and those whom you would pray for this scandalness day and always are men so i said earlier that the house was thunderously awakened in the uh um early afternoon the uh the other day when fletcher was editing the uh a film for for our use and looking out of his window wondering what earth was happening the helicopter landed there on the green court uh with easily seen from his window later on he had an opportunity to go upstairs and look from the tower down onto the helicopter taking off we'll show all that footage and as we do so we give thanks for the wonderful work of the air ambulance which is a charity which provides such medical emergencies with such a necessary service and we also pray for the well-being of the person who was was taken away with such dispatch by that that rescue helicopter so i think it's time to take the child jesus back to his parents and return him to the scene or bring him down here and he once again becomes part of this scene which we look back on now as we ourselves begin to look forward to a completely different season of the christian year so [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] hey [Music] is [Music] so is [Music] [Applause] [Music] you