good morning and welcome to canterbury cathedral on this monday morning the 15th of june as we come to say our morning prayers it's early but the sun is already high on these long days of june and really quite warm here in the garden so welcome from wherever you are in the world june the 15th is a date which has source kinds of significance it was the day that edward the black prince was born and he was important to the life of the cathedral here much of the decoration of the chapel of our lady undercroft and the the stone workings around the crypt were his benefaction to the cathedral and when he died he asked to be buried here and his father that the king edward iii who was still alive edward the black prince was buried very near the shrine of thomas beckett and his tomb very much still exists there also the 15th of june was the sealing day shall we call it as king king john didn't sign but sealed the magna carta on the island of ranimed in the year 1215 another great date in in the history of the world really for magna carta was the sign of so many freedoms and the archbishop stephen langton who had so much to do with that is also buried here in the cathedral and a place where people come to see and think about the liberties which magna carta won for them but the the person i wanted to remember today who is in our calendar is the great early 20th century spiritual writer evelyn underhill she was the first woman to give a retreat here in canterbury cathedral for all the clergy in october 1927 but that was one of many that she gave she held the banner aloft for the importance of the inner life and her book which was written in 1911 as a beginning of books mysticism was one of the most popular books on any spiritual subject for the first half of the 20th century so we shall think about her in our reflection as our lord in our lesson from st luke speaks very much about the inner life and how much that grounds and gives strength to our outer life so we begin our morning prayers on this monday morning oh lord open our lips and our mouth shall proclaim your praise visit us with your salvation and sustain us with your gracious spirit blessed are you creator of all to you be praise and glory forever as your sunshine renews the face of the earth bringing light and life to all creation may we rejoice in this day you have made as we wake refreshed from the depths of sleep open our eyes to behold your presence and strengthen our hands to do your will that the world may rejoice and give you praise 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 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 the psalm for this fifteenth morning of the month is psalm 76 which tells of god's almighty might against the powers of the earth who think themselves so powerful in judah god is known his name is great in israel at salem is his tabernacle and his dwelling place in zion they're brokey the flashing arrows of the bow the shield the sword the weapons of war in the light of splendor you appeared glorious from the eternal mountains the boastful were plundered they have slept their sleep none of the warriors can lift their hand at your rebuke oh god of jacob both horse and chariot fell stunned terrible are you in majesty who can stand before your face when you are angry you caused your judgment to be heard from heaven the earth trembled and was still when god arose to judgment to save all the meek upon earth you crushed the ross of the peoples bridled the rostful remnant make a vow to the lord your god and keep it let all who are round about him bring gifts to him that is worthy to be feared for he breaks down the spirit of princes and strikes terror in the kings of the earth here we return to our reading of the gospel of saint luke and find ourselves now in chapter 12 the first verse in the meantime when so many thousands of the people had gathered together that they were trampling on one another jesus began to say to his disciples first beware of the leaven of the pharisees which is hypocrisy nothing is covered up that will not be revealed or hidden that will not be known therefore whatever you have said in the dark shall be heard in the light and what you have whispered in private rooms shall be proclaimed on the housetops i tell you my friends do not fear those who kill the body and after that have nothing more that they can do i will warn you whom to fear fear him who after he has killed has authority to cast into hell yes i tell you fear him are not five sparrows sold for two pennies and not one of them is forgotten before god why even the hairs of your head are all numbered fear not you are of more value than many sparrows and i tell you everyone who acknowledges me before men the son of man also will acknowledge before the angels of god but the one who denies me before men will be denied before the angels of god and everyone who speaks a word against the son of man will be forgiven but the one who blasphemes against the holy spirit will not be forgiven and when they bring you before the synagogues and the rulers and the authorities do not be anxious about how you should define yourself for what you should say for the holy spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say all this is an aside to the disciples before beginning once again to talk to the crowds the thousands whom we're told are so many that they are trampling on one another to get near to jesus if we find audibility even with all our mechanism today difficult how many of those people must have been straining to listen to jesus's voice amongst all the thousands and as we've thought before how many times must he have used those parables and teachings over and over again to different groups but here is some teaching for his disciples and it is really teaching about the gift that he is going to give them the gift of the holy spirit for in the building up of the spiritual life all things are given strength for the outward journey while that lasts in this world he talks about forgiveness being impossible without the acceptance of the spirit of grace and that becomes apparent when he gives the gift those whom you withhold grace from retain sins it's our task to make sure that that spirit of grace permeates everywhere that sins are repented and forgiven over and over again as each new day dawns well that is the special grace of the spirit and the inner life and see how god's care is there in jesus's words he's talking about the sparrows which often amuse us as they fly around the garden chirping and twittering in their little flocks and finding themselves up in the leaves we know when sparrows are around they make themselves noisy not one of them is forgotten before god says jesus in that wonderful image and not one hair of your head is unnumbered showing the care of the creator infinitely for all his creation so today we remember with enormous thanksgiving the life and writings and continual teaching of the spiritual writer evelyn underhill she was important here because she was invited to come and give a retreat to all the clergy of the diocese of canterbury in october 1927. that may seem commonplace but she was the first woman ever to do so as in election theology in oxford also she was invited to give she was the first and she's the most unlikely and self-effacing person she grew up really with an agnostic feeling to both her family and herself and her own thinking and her early books on mysticism are very much shall we call it theistic it was baron von hugel the great catholic spiritual writer who became a great influence who caused her to be more centered on jesus christ i have in front of me evelyn under hill's crucifix it's very beautiful and very simple and it hangs in the all saints chapel in the cathedral and that's where it will return immediately after this reflection it shows that she was centered on jesus and when she died in 1941 on june the 15th she left this cross to canterbury cathedral because this holy place meant so much to her and also so that the power of incarnation of the humanity of jesus and the gift of the same spirit which filled him totally and was given to his disciples and to their disciples and so on through history so all those things could be remembered it's too much to give too many quotes from evelyn underhill but she wrote in such a lovely way and spoke in such a lovely way and i have a a picture a verbal picture from an incident at the theological college where i was where robert runcie who then became archbishop of canterbury was the principal at the time and he spoke about his young days before the war being given hospitality by evelyn underhill at her home and the way he described her has stayed in my mind of great tranquility but at the same time massive energy taken from that inner life which she so much wanted all of us to develop she says in her quotes after all it's those who have a deep and real inner life who are best able to deal with the irritating details of outer life also never forget that the key to the situation lies in the will and not in the imagination and one i love and too often tempted not to obey on every level of life from housework to the heights heights of prayer in all judgments and efforts to get things done hurry and impatience are sure marks of the amateur i take that to heart but most deeply god is always coming to you in the sacrament of the present moment meet and receive him there with gratitude in that sacrament we mostly spend our lives conjugating three verbs to want to have and to do forgetting that none of these verbs have any ultimate significance except so far as they are transcended and included in the fundamental verb to be and her crucifix holds before us the one who again and again said i am the present moment of the verb to be i am the way the truth and the life i am if god were small enough to be understood he would not be big enough to be worshipped he said and she in all her thinking never never belittled the mystery of god but she believed in incarnation in the humanity of christ showing in all its totality insofar as we are able to receive it step by step in this human journey everything that god would give us in terms of the quality of his creation with which he surrounds us she was also a poet and here's one of her little poems early in life it's called lady poverty i met her on the umbrian hills her hair unbound her feet unshod as one whom secret glory fills she walked alone with god i met her in the city street oh changed was all her aspect then with heavy eyes and weary feet she walked alone with men a very powerful image and a tiny one but an image of incarnation about how we perceive those whom we meet and in how how in each of them we are able to receive the human christ and also the gift of the holy spirit and return that so let's say our prayers for this particular day as we remember those in any kind of healthcare this morning and particularly nursing care we remember that on this day in 1860 at st thomas's florence nightingale founded the first school for nursing we give thanks for that and how that has developed so much ever since we pray today in our anglican communion for the diocese of ngubo in nigeria and for godwin awoke the bishop there and his people and also the diocese of antar nana arevo in the indian ocean in madagascar with which this diocese has great links pray for the bishop there samaela rana rivelo and all his people on that island which is shall we say full of biodiversity and the diocese of jalingo in nigeria and the bishop there foreman nedisen and his people too pray for justin our archbishop for rose bishop of dover and for tim bishop at lambeth for the sitting born deanery chaplains the area around sitting born all his communities the chaplains who serve for communities and organizations there we remember of course all those whom we know and love and our own communities and we in this cathedral give thanks that today from 4 30 this afternoon until eight in the evening and every day this week people can once again enter the cathedral to say prayers individually or in their family groups safely distanced light a candle and be glad to be back in this holy place and take something of its great atmosphere of the cathedral church of jesus christ away mission statement is to show people jesus may many receive him today the collect for today oh god the strength of all those who put their trust in you mercifully accept our prayers and because through the weakness of our mortal nature we can do no good thing without you grant us the help of your grace that in the keeping of your commandments we may please you both in will and deed through jesus christ our lord amen the psalm connect majestic and gracious god more awesome than the agents of war more powerful than the anger of the nations restrain the violence of the peoples and draw the despised of the earth into the joyful life of your kingdom where you live and reign for ever and ever amen as we come to say the our father we remember that yesterday was the anniversary of the grenfell tower three years ago last night here at six o'clock as in other churches throughout the land bell harry in our great cathedral tower chimed out 72 times for the lives lost and then two minutes silence was held and then three strikes for the three years since that awful time the people still grieve but also there's much determination to make sure that such a thing cannot happen again we took a little film of the solemn locked cathedral waiting for the 72 strikes each representing a life and then the bell then the silence then the three years and we will make sure that goes on the website today so that you two can have the sense of that memory for memories make us resolute to be active just as the inner life feeds into the activity of christ's friends in all the world so in whatever way you would like to say it and in whichever language we say together 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 of silence for our own prayers on this monday morning 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 the blessing of god almighty the father the son and the holy spirit be upon you upon those whom you love and would pray for today and always amen i