good morning and welcome to the deanery garden at canterbury cathedral as we come to say our morning prayers on this monday morning we've come up to the orchard near the beehives this morning to remember this day which commemorates the poet christina rossetti who appears in our calendar so we give thanks for her poetry this morning and we'll come back to her a little later on but meantime we'll begin our prayers on this third week of the easter season oh lord open our lips and our mouth shall proclaim your praise in your resurrection o 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 firstfruits 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 psalms on this 27th morning of the month begin the short pilgrim psalms and probably that the most well-known and also favored one of those is psalm 122 which has been written by so many musicians into anthems so i'm reading those verses now 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 gate so 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 there are 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 plenteousness 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 as we come to our lesson this morning the lectionary plays us a trick almost it's our custom at ordinary times of year to read through the books of the scriptures morning by morning afternoon by afternoon consecutively so that we read them all and today is a new beginning and happily it's the beginning of the gospel of luke which we shall read through morning by morning over the coming weeks it therefore takes us to seasons which seemed surprising at this time of year but nevertheless christina rossetti the the poet of christmas and also of spring freshness of loss in memories and echoes of the garden of eden and the hope of gain in the beauty of the tree of life in heaven all these feed into our readings and our prayers on this beautiful spring morning as we read the first chapter of the gospel of saint luke beginning at the first verse and going up to verse 25 in as much as many have overtake have undertaken to compile a narrative of the things that have been accomplished among us just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word have delivered them to us it seemed good to me also having followed all things closely for some time past to write an orderly account for you most excellent theophilus that you may have certainty concerning the things you have been taught in the days of herod king of judea there was a priest named zechariah of the division of abijah and he had a wife from the daughters of aaron and her name was elizabeth and they were both righteous before god walking blamelessly in all the commandments and statutes of the lord but they had no children because elizabeth was barren and both were well advanced in years now while zechariah was serving as priest before god when his division was on duty according to the custom of the priesthood he was chosen by lot to enter the temple of the lord and burn incense and the whole multitude of the people were praying outside at the hour of incense and there appeared to him an angel of the lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense and zechariah was troubled when he saw him and fear fell upon him but the angel said to him do not be afraid zechariah for your prayer has been heard and your wife elizabeth will bear you a son and you shall call his name john and you will have joy and gladness and many will rejoice at his birth for he will be great before the lord and he must not drink wine or strong drink he will be filled with the holy spirit even from his mother's womb and he will turn many of the children of israel to the lord their god and he will go before him in the spirit of the power of elijah to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just to make ready for the lord a people prepared and zechariah said to the angel how shall i know this for i am an old man my wife is advanced in years and the angel answered him i am gabriel i stand in the presence of god and i was sent to speak to you and to bring you this good news and behold you will be silent and unable to speak until the day that these things take place because you did not believe my words which will be fulfilled in their time people were all outside waiting for zechariah and wondering at his delay inside the temple when he came out he was unable to speak to them and they realized that he had seen a vision in the temple and he kept making signs to them but remained mute and when his time of service was ended he went home and after these days his wife elizabeth conceived and for five months she kept herself hidden saying thus the lord has done for me in the days when he looked on me to take away my reproach among the people the beginning of the gospel of saint luke it's a wonderful thing how each of the four gospels have an atmosphere entirely of their own which you begin to glean as you read them through individually we will now soak ourselves in the gospel of saint luke for two or three weeks ahead now and this morning were at a beginning and as i said before this is the day when we give thanks for christina rossetti there are many of her poems which speak of spring freshness they always remind her of echoes of the garden of eden which suddenly come with a total innocence of freshness or they speak about something wonderful that is yet to be after the confines of this world have broken down and in her sense we are set free one of her poems is called shut out and so she's looking into a beautiful garden which she has memories of but she can't and this morning we remember with thanksgiving all her vision but we also remember how she became or inadvertently the poet of our christmases with her carol which became by 1906 she had died in 1894 the most popular of all christmas carols at that time in the bleak mid-winter frosty wind made moan earth stood hard as iron water like a stone snow had fallen snow on snow snow on snow in the bleak mid-winter long ago it was she also who wrote love came down at christmas love all lovely love divine love was born at christmas star and angels gave the sign it's sometimes wonderful to realize that the messages of the christian year the birth of christ at christmas the resurrection of christ at easter are for every day and to read the beginning of the gospel of luke at springtime gives us a new dimension of freshness we shall tomorrow move on to the message of the angel to mary very much a spring tide new beginning but christina rossetti remembered her when she wrote her carol and spoke about the sense of angels and archangels may have gathered there cherubim and seraphim thronged the air but only his mother in her maiden bliss worshipped the beloved with a kiss we give thanks for her poetry but above all we give thanks for the poetry of the gospel of saint luke as we begin our journey through his gospel in these spring days we will pass through many moods and be taught many lessons and hold ourselves afresh to the truth of that good news which luke was determined to set down for us so we turn to our prayers on this lovely day and pray for each other and for all those who need our prayers on this morning in this mother church of the anglican communion as we pray day by day for the dioceses of the communion throughout the world this morning we have three kenyan dioceses to remember mount kenya central and timothy gacheri the bishop and his people there mount kenya south and the bishop timothy ranji and his people there and mount kenya west and joseph kagunda and the bishop and his people there and in this diocese as always we pray for justin our archbishop for rose bishop of dover for tim bishop at lambeth and for all the parishes but especially on this 27th of april the parish of saint luke's ramsgate and paul wowlidge the parish priest and all the people he serves there so we say an easter prayer at this easter season a prayer of thanksgiving almighty father who in your great mercy gladdened the disciples with the sight of the risen lord give us such knowledge of his presence with us that we may be strengthened and sustained by his risen life and serve you continually in righteousness and truth through jesus christ our lord amen and a prayer of offering from rosetta's christmas season as she receives the gift of the birth of jesus christ which as i said before is for every day and gives her prayerful response what can i bring him poor as i am if i were a shepherd i would bring a lamb if i were a wise man i would do my part but what i can i give him gives my heart say the prayer that he taught us to say in whatever language and in whatever way we normally would use 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 are men so we hold silence for a moment for our own prayers all those we know to be in need of them on this monday morning [Music] [Music] god of peace who brought again from the dead our lord jesus christ 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 the blessing of god almighty the father the son and the holy spirit be upon you and upon all whom you would pray for this day now and always amen