good morning and welcome to the january garden at canterbury cathedral as we come to say our morning prayers on this thursday morning oh lord open our lips and our mouth shall proclaim your praise in your resurrection o christ let heaven and earth rejoice alleluia christ our passover has been sacrificed for us so let us celebrate the feast not with the old leaven of corruption and wickedness but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth christ once raised from the dead dies no more death has no more dominion over him in dying he died to sin once for all in living he lives to god see yourselves therefore as dead to sin and alive to god in jesus christ our lord christ has been raised from the dead the first fruits of those who sleep the night has passed and the day lies open before us let us pray with one heart and mind and as we rejoice in the gift of this new day so may the light of your presence so god set our hearts on fire with love for you now and forever amen this is the last day of april and the 30th of the month in the morning gives us as one of the psalms psalm 145 i'll read some verses from it now i will exalt you o god my king and bless your name forever and ever every day will i bless you and praise your name forever and ever great is the lord and highly to be praised his greatness is beyond all searching out one generation shall praise your works to another and declare your mighty acts they shall speak of the majesty of your glory and i will tell of all your wonderful deeds they shall speak of the might of your marvelous acts and i will also tell of your greatness they shall pour forth the story of your abundant kindness and joyfully sing of your righteousness the lord is gracious and merciful long-suffering and of great goodness the lord is loving to everyone and his mercy is over all his creatures all your works praise you o lord and your faithful servants bless you they tell of the glory of your kingdom and speak of your mighty power to make known to all peoples your mighty acts and the glorious splendor of your kingdom your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom your dominion endures throughout all ages the lord is sure in all his words and faithful in all his deeds the lord upholds all those who fall and lifts up all those who are bowed down the eyes of all wait upon you o lord and you give them their food in due season you open wide your hand and fill all things living with plenty gradually we are reading morning by morning saint luke's gospel and today we come to the conclusion of chapter one we are at the house of elizabeth and zechariah mary has gone home and we leave them together in their own house zechariah is still silent following the encounter with the angel gabriel when he doubted the angel's words and now comes the time that the angel prophesied i'm starting in verse 57 now the time came for elizabeth to give birth and she bore a son and her neighbors and relatives heard that the lord had shown great mercy to her and they rejoiced with her and on the eighth day they came to circumcise the child and they would have called him zechariah after his father but his mother answered no he shall be called john and they said to her none of your relatives is called by that name so they made signs to his father inquiring what he wanted him to be called and zechariah asked for a writing tablet and on it he wrote his name is john and they all wondered but immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue loosed and he spoke blessing god and fear came on all their neighbors and all these things were talked about through all the hill country of judea and all who heard them laid them up in their hearts saying what then will this child be for the hand of the lord was with him and his father zechariah was filled with the holy spirit and prophesied saying blessed be the lord god of israel for he has visited and redeemed his people and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant david as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old that we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us to show the mercy promise to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant the oath that he swore to our father abraham to grant us that we being delivered from the hand of our enemies might serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness before him all our days and you child will be called the prophet of the most high for you will go before the lord to prepare his ways to give knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins because of the tender mercy of our god whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death and to guide our feet into the way of peace and the child grew and became strong in spirit and he was in the wilderness until the day of his public appearance to israel as we said luke's first chapter and indeed his second chapter are full of songs mary sang her magnificat but today zechariah now that he has seen that the message of the angel is fulfilled and his tongue is loosed and ready to speak and sing again sings his benedictus as we call it which has enriched the worship of the church from that time on i think the most moving line in it when he looks at the baby in his arms is a new child shall be called the prophet of the most high he speaks to the child of what his vocation will be to prepare the way of the lord but also it gives an image of the very old man holding the newborn baby and shows us how diverse and also how fragile life is i'm going to go into the house now and just gain a little help from those who are newly born so come with me so we've come inside into the warmth of shall we call it the chick nursery to have uh two little friends who've been newly born uh join us they're very different one is a borton blue chick and the other one is a black maron a copper black marine chick and they are only uh just over 24 hours old and so they're here in the warmth with two other chicks that they're getting used to they're very lively and in a moment i'll put them back but i wanted to show you just how fragile a thing life is and also how distinct each creature is there are four here at the moment and uh with these two um they will actually show completely different characteristics we've got to know them over the last 24 hours and we can only guess it what they'll become i'm just going to put one of them back in and we'll return to the other one so the copper black marin has rejoined his friends and i've got here a little borton blue chick which um we guess she's a little girl and she's very beautiful indeed and is becoming quite a little character she will join the others in a moment and they've learned to have lovely times with the food and the water that they're given the moment as you'll see we have to put pebbles in the water so that they are safe as they put their toes into it fragility and diversity it's what uh zechariah was saying in his song to the newborn john the baptist john will have a particular role as i'm sure this little chick will as well let me put her back to we come to say our prayers but first i just thought i'd show you how different and how distinct these are here is a borton blue egg it's pale blue and those are the kind of eggs from which the little gray chick hatched and here is a copper black maroon egg it's bigger it's dark brown distinction in all kinds of ways and life as we come to say our prayers we use the prayers for the diocese and for the world for the world on this last day of the month we are praying for in tanzania and jacob chimelidaya the bishop there and his people for yambio in south sudan and for samuel penny and his people and for yangon in myanmar the bishop there is called steven mientu and he is also the primate there of that province in our own diocese as we pray for justin archbishop of canterbury for rose bishop of dover and for tim bishop at lambeth today we pray for the onesome group of parishes and ask god's blessing on richard brady and karen gooding on vicky coneys and michael darkins in their ministry that and all the people they look after so first the easter prayer for this week 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 from our own diocesan website you walk with us lord in this season of global turbulence you walk with us lord when normal changes day by day you walk with us lord as together becomes different you walk with us lord always in your risen presence amen so we say the prayer that our lord taught us to say in whatever language and in whichever way you like to say it 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 we've been thinking about the fragility of life and especially newborn life and i think we would on this morning before the blessing like to congratulate boris and carrie on the birth of a new son new birth always cheers people and i hope as he returns to work we will feel the same kind of cheer for our prime minister 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 among you and upon all those whom you love this day and always amen you