welcome to canterbury cathedral on this tuesday morning of holy week as we say our morning prayers and then move our thoughts to the reflection of the sixth station of the cross this is a morning when our hearts are filled with the sense of prayer for those suffering from coronavirus and one of them our own prime minister boris johnson in intensive care we will have on our hearts many people across the world and we shall pray for those but first we begin our morning office oh lord open our lips and our mouth shall proclaim your praise let your ways be known upon earth your saving power among the nations blessed are you lord god of salvation to you be praise and glory forever as a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief your only son was lifted up that he might draw the whole world to himself may we walk this day in the way of the cross and always be ready to share its weight declaring your love for all the world blessed be god father son and holy spirit blessed be god forever one of our psalms this morning on this seventh morning of the month is psalm 36 and i'm reading some verses from that psalm beginning at verse 5. your love o lord reaches to the heavens and your faithfulness to the clouds your righteousness stands like the strong mountains your justice like the great deep you lord shall save both man and beast how precious is your loving mercy o god all mortal flesh shall take refuge under the shadow of your wings they shall be satisfied with the abundance of your house they shall drink from the river of your delights for with you is the well of life and in your light shall we see light oh continue your loving kindness to those who know you and your righteousness to those who are true of heart our reading is taken from the gospel of mark we have seen in our morning prayer how jesus and his disciples each evening after teaching in the temple and being in its outer courtyard amongst the crowd of pilgrims there went back to the little household in bethany and the next morning came once again on foot to the holy city and here we have jesus on this day of the week coming again to jerusalem and we read in saint mark chapter 12 one of the scribes came up and heard jesus disputing with the pharisees and sadducees and seeing that jesus answered them well the scribe asked him which commandment is the first of all jesus answered the first commandment is this hear o israel the lord our god the lord is one and you shall love the lord your god with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength the second is this you shall love your neighbor as yourself there is no other commandment greater than these and the scribes said to him you are right teacher you have truly said that god is one and there is no other but he and to love him with all the heart and with all the understanding and with all the strength and to love one's neighbor as oneself is much more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices and when jesus saw that he answered wisely he said to the scribe you are not far from the kingdom of god jesus was only quoting verses from the books of the old testament in the answer he gave to the scribe there must have been verses that had been in his heart and mind through all his years of growing up and preparing for this particular ministry and he was ready with them as an answer for the scribe his teaching is a reinterpretation of all that not just for his own nation but for the whole world and we ourselves take that command to love the lord our god with all our heart and mind and soul and strength and also equally important and a demonstration of that love here on earth to love our neighbors as ourselves there are so many ways at this particular time when we can show that love of our neighbor those ways have to be imaginatively done because we are restricted by the situation in which we find ourselves at this time of lockdown and that will be different in different parts of the world but this love of neighbor can still happen we can look for those whom we ourselves can encourage bodily in terms of help offered by those who are volunteering obviously those who are working hard to heal the sick and care for them as well as bringing resources to their neighbors and safely leaving them at a distance where someone who is housebound can receive them and at the same time we can help their morale their minds by the messages we send and by our own hope of a better future when this will have been defeated and we can come together again as our queen said the other evening and thirdly help their spirit by the knowledge that we are praying for them thinking about them so many different ways for each one of us individually to love our neighbors as ourselves and obey the lord's command on this tuesday of holy week as we come to say our prayers first of all we turn to all areas of the world and here in canterbury the mother church of a worldwide communion on this day in our calendar we pray for the diocese of mexico the anglican diocese there and bishop carlos and his people the diocese of west tennessee in the united states and bishop don johnson and his people and the diocese of ediato in nigeria and caleb maduma the bishop and his people there we pray for justin our archbishop and for rose bishop of dover tim bishop at lambeth and here in the diocese of canterbury for this in george's project in ramsgate we remember all who are sick and carry them in our hearts and on our minds and all those who need our prayers this morning as we say merciful god we entrust to your tender care those who are ill or in pain and those who are looking after them and attempting to heal them and give them hope knowing that whenever danger threatens your everlasting arms are there to hold them safe comfort and heal them give them hope and restore them to health and strength through jesus christ our lord amen so the special prayer for this week almighty and everlasting god who in your tender love towards the human race sent your son our savior jesus christ to take upon him our flesh and to suffer death upon the cross grant that we may follow the example of his patience and humility and also be made partakers of his resurrection through jesus christ our lord amen so each in our own way and in our own language we say the prayer our lord taught us our father who art in heaven hallowed be thy name thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as in heaven give us today 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 so in a moment of silence we make our own prayers for those for whom we would pray this morning and we turn our thoughts now to the sixth station of the cross this is the story of veronica and it's a traditional story it's a story of loving one's neighbor there are many ways of telling this story but the simplest is to think of the house which is traditionally hers on the via dolorosa in jerusalem and i like to think of her as someone who from her kitchen window almost saw the man with the cross covered in blood from the crown of thorns and the scourging that he'd had carrying his cross along the road and instinctively she reached for a cloth and helped here's an ordinary tea towel to help us think of what sin veronica did stepping bravely out of her house into the road she wipes his face i mean it's all that noise and violence a simple tender act of human kindness it's an easy enough thing to do but it's a courageous one i remember being impatient with my own mother all those years ago when i was i don't know early teenage years that whenever it rained really hard she would run to the door and open the front door and say to anyone who'd been caught in the storm come and stand inside and i think oh mother don't fuss and now i see it as an act of simple kindness and i would say that those opportunities present themselves to us at all time and sometimes afterwards we think i wish i had just given that bit of comfort i wish i had just given that absolutely an essential word of hope they come all the time sometimes we have to say sorry in our prayers that we didn't take them but when we do then maybe that hope and comfort is given veronica the tradition of the story is that having wiped the face of jesus a memory of that act was imprinted on her ordinary detail that to me speaks of the very ordinary things of life in the kitchen in the family home in the workplace being imprinted with the love that jesus asked us to show one another on this day when we think of the sixth picture on the way of the cross and remember veronica we adore you o christ and we bless you because by your holy cross you have redeemed the world holy god holy and strong holy and immortal have mercy upon us christ crucified draw you to himself to find in him a sure ground for faith a firm support for hope and the assurance of sins forgiven and the blessing of god almighty the father the son and the holy spirit be among you and remain with you and all those whom you love today and always amen