good morning and welcome on this thursday the 13th of august to the deanery garden in canterbury cathedral as we come together to say our morning prayers welcome wherever you are in the world and i invite you to bring your own prayers and intentions in heart and mind to join us here we have three commemorations in our liturgical calendar in the lectionary the day when we commemorate bishop jeremy taylor a 17th century divine and christian writer known for his book holy living and holy dying i'll say a little bit more about him in our reflection also we remember two immensely important women in the work of the church and the world florence nightingale who died in 1910 on this day and whom we remembered when we were remembering nursing in england quite recently so we pray for all who are involved in nursing throughout the world and give thanks for florence nightingale but also in 1912 on this day olivia hill a great social reformer and a person of enormous energy in providing housing for those in terrible conditions in london working with the ecclesiastical commissioners in their properties but also found a member of the national trust because she's so much believed in green spaces for everyone and so we can give her thanks for helping to save places like hampstead heath and parliament hill fields and also many green spaces through the work of the trust as i said yesterday on international youth day the results of so many examinations in this nation were released and today will be communicated to those who have to be assessed for their academic career going on we remember them after a particularly difficult academic year and here in canterbury we're reminded of them by our own king's school we think of those who have left us who will go on to different times in their lives and and are waiting for results the year was difficult for them and would normally have ended with a great arts festival and filled this precincts with all kinds of young creative activity all that had to be done virtually you can still find it online and it gives a sense of all the energy and skill but today results will be being given and we remember them all jeremy taylor the anglican divine that i was thinking of he was a chaplain to king charles the first and was imprisoned during the years of the commonwealth um wrote not only books about spirituality he was the bishop of down and connor in the reign of charles ii in ireland but he also wrote poems and two of his little poems uh i'll just read because they convey his kind of spiritual thinking one is called hindrances just four lines he that will sew his field with hopeful seed must every bramble every thistle weed and when each hindrance to the grain is gone a fruitful crop shall rise of corn alone and another four line poem help in adversity friends are two friends as lesser gods while they honor and service to each other pay but when a dark cloud comes grudge not to lend thy head thy heart thy fortune to a friend let's start our morning prayers o lord open our lips and our mouth shall proclaim your praise may christ the true the only light banish all darkness from our hearts and minds blessed are you creator of all to you be praise and glory forever as your dawn 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 o god set our hearts on fire with love for you now and forever amen on this 13th morning of the month our psalm is psalm 68 and i'll read some verses from that now let god arise and let his enemies be scattered let those that hate him flee before him as the smoke vanishes so may they vanish away as wax melts at the fire so let the wicked perish at the presence of god but let the righteous be glad and rejoice before god let them make merry with gladness sing to god sing praises to his name exalt him who rides on the clouds the lord is his name rejoice before him father of the fatherless defender of widows god in his holy habitation god gives the solitary a home and brings forth prisoners to songs of welcome but the rebellious inhabit a burning desert oh god when you went forth before your people when you marched through the wilderness the earth shook and the heavens dropped down rain at the presence of god the lord of sinai at the presence of god the god of israel you sent down a gracious reign o god you refreshed your inheritance when it was weary your people came to dwell there for in your goodness o god you provide for the poor blessed be the lord who bears our burdens day by day for god is our salvation god is for us the god of our salvation god is the lord who can deliver from death sing to god you kingdoms of the earth make music in praise of the lord he rides on the ancient heaven of heavens and sends forth his voice a mighty voice ascribe power to god whose power is above the clouds so we return to st luke's acts of the apostles and we begin today at verse 22 of chapter 2 peter continues his speech on the day of pentecost to the crowds outside fellow israelites hear these words jesus of nazareth a man attested to you by god with mighty works and wonders and signs that god did through him in your midst as you yourselves know this jesus delivered up according to the definite plan and for knowledge of god you crucified and killed by the hands of men outside the law god raised him up loosing the pangs of death because it was not possible for him to be held by it for david says concerning jesus i saw the lord always before me for he is at my right hand that i may not be shaken therefore my heart was glad and my tongue rejoiced my flesh also will dwell in hope for you will not abandon my soul to hades or let your holy one see corruption you have made known to me the paths of life you will make me full of gladness with your presence i may say to you with confidence about the patriarch david that he both died and was buried and his tomb is with us to this day being there for a prophet and knowing that god had sworn with an oath to him that he would set one of his descendants on his throne he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the christ that he abandoned nor did his flesh see corruption this jesus god raised up and of that we are all witnesses being therefore exalted at the right hand of god and having received from the father the promise of the holy spirit he has poured out this day that you yourselves are seeing and hearing for david did not ascend into the heavens but he himself says the lord said to my lord sit at my right hand until i make your enemies your footstool let all the house of israel therefore know for certain that god has made him both lord and christ this jesus whom you crucified luke shapes the acts of the apostles like a skillful classical writer and places within it as a framework a trellis across which every everything else may grow a series of set speech again and again and as he does this he gives us the theology the thinking about jesus that was developing in the early church here is the second speech the first having been the one that peter made when they were about to make up the number of the twelve as we said then it was written in a very old testament way purposely for the promised gift had not yet been given but now here on the day of pentecost full of the promised power that jesus had promised at the end of the gospel of luke and at the beginning of the acts of the apostles the gift of the father that gift that jesus had promised them which now filled them with the power to be the twelve the sign of those who took up the fragments of jesus's ministry in those symbolic 12 baskets to take out to the whole world but peter is very definitely founding it on the foundation stone of prophecy all this was prophesied and he quotes not only joel the prophet which we read yesterday but today the psalmist and for the galileans at that time that meant absolutely the voice of david prophet and also musician psalm writer and do you remember how at the end of the gospel of saint luke simply to affirm the psalms part in prophecy jesus teaches them as they walk out to bethany before their farewell that all this was prophesied about his messianic vocation his vocation as the christ the messiah in moses books of the law the prophets and the psalms luke is the one to add that for the psalms were prophetic and as we say them day by day or better still sing them we're not allowed to do that at the moment so we have pre-recorded our choirs singing of the psalms it's even song on some of the nights but as the psalms are sung there are sentences which spring out as the foundation stone of the christ's vocation and messiahship and here's one psalm 16 and peter quotes it you did not suffer your holy one to see corruption he was raised from the dead and that gift is given and then again psalm 110 the lord said to my lord sit at my right hand and jesus himself has quoted that in his temple teaching with the pharisees and sadducees asking them questions about it before he was betrayed and arrested all those things are really important as the theology the thinking of the early church develops moses went up into the mountain to receive the law jesus going up into the mountain of ascension and farewell with his disciples blesses them and promises that the gift they will receive from the father is the spirit of power like wind and flame and here they are exercising it in a way that people can understand today is also a day when we remember the birth in 1879 of the composer john ireland we so depend on his music in terms of setting of the communion of the even song services the magnificat and nunctimitis we remember his wonderful ansem with a sentence taken from the song of songs at the beginning many waters cannot quench love neither can the floods drown it and we remember also his little song on the words of it is a thing most wonderful he calls it exora energentium out of the mouths of the innocence for they have perfected praise all taken from the scriptures but so often sentences from the old testament think of handel's messiah how is the resurrection proclaimed it's proclaimed with these words from psalm 16 but thou didst not leave his soul in hell nor did thou suffer by holy one to see corruption wonderful tenor solo but then the whole of the resurrection and new life narrative in messiah the oratorio which so many of us know so well is made in old testament sentences of prophecy fulfilled i know that my redeemer liveth and that he shall rise up at the last day beautiful soprano solo but words from the book of job it's a day when we give thanks for the music of the church and shout out for it that it may soon be here with us again both in our own singing of hymns and psalms and choral foundations because as the sentences ring out and we say the psalms in the mornings day by day prophecy becomes fulfilled not only then in the time of the apostles at pentecost but also now in us day by day as we ourselves take the fragments of the ministry of jesus in our own basket and share them with the world as nourishment jeremy taylor wrote a poem about charity and let's end our reflection with that here it is full of mercy full of love look upon us from above thou who torts the blind man's night to entertain a double light thine and the days and that line too the lame away his crutches through the parched crust of leprosy returned unto its infancy the dumb amazed was to hear his own unchained tongue strike his ear thy powerful mercy did ian chase the devil from his usurped place where thou thyself should dwell not he oh let thy love our pattern be let thy mercy teach one brother to forgive and love another that copying thy mercy here thy goodness may hereafter rear our souls unto thy glory when our dust shall cease to be with men let's say our prayers and we pray today in the anglican communion for the diocese of okini in nigeria and for bishop emmanuel onsaki and all his people and community the diocese of buhiga in burundi and bishop everest and his community and also in burundi the diocese of bujumbura and their bishop erasti biga ramana and all of his people here we pray for archbishop justin and for bishop rose of dover bishop tim at lambeth today we are praying for the diocesan children's schools and young people team and also for our director of education quentin roper we bring our own prayers to together now we remember all those who have suffered continuing to pray for the people of beirut and lebanon at this time bringing those you know who are in suffering praying for the repose of the souls of those who died at the railway crash at stonehaven yesterday those who've been injured and those helping them and we also today say the prayer of thanksgiving for all spiritual writers and remember those were commemorating but particularly jeremy taylor holy and loving god you dwell in the human heart and make us partakers of the divine nature in christ our great high priest help us who remember your servant jeremy taylor to put our trust in your heavenly promises and follow a holy life in virtue and true godliness through jesus christ our lord amen so we say each in our own language and in our own way 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 a moment of silence now for your own prayers on this day [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 today and always amen you