good morning and welcome to the Deery Garden at Canterbury Cathedral on this Saturday the 30th of April the last day of the month as we meet in the garden to say our morning prayers feel welcome wherever you are right across the world and of course we begin as we always do with our prayers for Ukraine and its people wherever they are some in great danger with the war itself still in their own land many millions who have left uh families and their homes to find shelter and safety for their children and themselves in other places so we think of them this morning on this Saturday morning and you will have other concerns that you want to bring and we do that together in prayer across the world we've come this morning into the orchard because it's in full bloom but I'm also sitting by the stream and that will become an image for us later on in our reflection so let's begin our prayers on this Saturday morning together oh Lord open our lips and our mouths shall Proclaim your praise in your Resurrection o Christ let Heaven and Earth Rejoice Allelujah 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 first fruits 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 night has passed and the day lies open before us let us pray with one heart and mind as we rejoice in the gift of this new day so may the light of your presence oh God set our hearts on fire with love for you now and forever amen we have quite a choice of Psalms this morning and I'm going to use Psalm 145 the Psalms are leading up to the last Psalm of the month which will be sung as one of the four this afternoon in the cathedral all triumphantly Psalm 150 but for this morning this also is a Psalm of great Thanksgiving to God for his gifts in creation Psalm 145 I will exalt you oh 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 work to another and declare your Mighty acts they shall speak of the Majesty of your glory and I will tell all 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 longsuffering 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 the Lord is righteous in all his ways and loving in all his works the Lord is near to those who call him to all who call upon Him Faithfully he fulfills the desire of those who fear Him he hears their cry and saves them the Lord watches over those who love him but all the wicked shall he destroy my mouth shall speak the praise of the Lord and let All Flesh bless His holy name forever and ever a great Psalm of the bounty of the Lord in his creation and also something of the glory of creation going on around us as the orchard here blossoms in full glory and we are surrounded by bird song of different types the robins are very active this morning and Leo is very jealous of them so he's running around making sure that the camera has an opportunity for him as well but at the same time I'm surrounded by the sound of garden warblers who are really spring and summer visitors and here they are singing their hearts out with the blossom all around them and the water of the brook babbling along beside me so let's go to our lesson in St John's gospel from where we left that lesson yesterday and read a little more of the conversation remembered by the disciples later and set together in those passages in the later chapters of St John where the Lord is giving a farewell discourse is normally called to his disciples talking to the 11 whether around the supper table or in the temple Courtyard or on their way across the brook kedon to the Garden of Gethsemane I'm in chapter 16 and shall I say halfway through verse 4 he's talking to the disciples I did not say these things to you from the beginning because I was with you but now I am going to him who sent me and none of you asks me where are you going but because I have said these things to you sorrow has filled your heart nevertheless I tell you the truth it is to your advantage that I go away for if I do not go away the helper will not come to you but if I go I will send him to you and when he comes he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment concerning sin because they do not believe in me concerning righteousness because I go to the father and you will see me no longer concerning judgment because the ruler of this world is judged I still have many things to say to you but you cannot bear them now when the spirit of truth comes he will guide you into all the truth for he will not speak on his own authority but whatever he hears he will speak and he will declare to you the things that are to come he will glorify me for he will take what is mine and declare it to you all that the father has is mine mine therefore I said that he would take what is mine and declare it to you a little while and you will see me no longer and again a little while and you will see me so some of his disciples said to one another what is this that he says to us a little while and you will not see me and again a little while and you will see me and and because I am going to the father so they were saying what does he mean by a little while we do not know what he is talking about Jesus knew that they wanted to ask him so he said to them is this what you are asking yourselves what I meant by saying a little while and you will not see me and again a little while and you will see me truly truly I say to you you will weep and lament but the world will rejoice you will be sorrowful but your sorrow will turn into Joy when a woman is giving birth she has sorrow because her hour has come but when she has delivered the baby she no longer remembers the anguish for joy that a human being has been Born Into the world so also you have sorrow now but I will see you again and your hearts will rejoice and no one will take your joy from you in that day you will ask nothing of me truly truly I say to you whatever you ask of the father in my name he will give it to you until now you have asked nothing in my name ask and you will receive that your joy may be full we've not got to the end quite of the discourses but at the same time we are with that puzzlement still and we have it set down and if the disciples are remembering back well of course they're remembering the fact that while he was saying all these things to them they seem to have no real idea or grasp of what was being spoken of Jesus is of course talking about the work of the paracletos the holy spirit in this translation I'm using that was translated as the helper nevertheless I tell you the truth it is to your advantage that I go away for if I do not go away the helper will not come to you we've said in the last few days that that can be translated in a multitude of different ways the comforter the counselor The Advocate and later even here in this conversation with the 11 Jesus talks about the spirit of Truth he's in a spiritual landscape which is so much trying in Earthly words to convey to them but they've not yet had the experience which will cause them to realize absolutely what he is talking about it will happen but it will unfold to them Episode by episode through their lives from then on but for the moment that gift will be given after he has risen from the dead and in this gospel it is given receive the Holy Spirit and that's done later in the upper room but they've gone through terrible things between this occasion when they're not understanding and walking over the brook kedran and into the Garden of Gethsemane where Jesus prays and then the horror begins in the darkness of that night and we have seen through passion tide and holy week and Good Friday and the Darkness of Easter to Eve when the tomb is sealed and then again the almost puzzlement of Easter Day the doubting of some the misunderstanding of others and the energy which is gradually being released and the spirit is full of that kind of energy but we are talking in spiritual terms in a spiritual landscape and whatever words Jesus uses become almost a parable because it's the only way things like that can be expressed we'll come to that in a moment in a different part of our reflection but for the moment let's think how they're saying to one another and puzzling and beginning to feel troubled on this occasion what's he meaning we don't understand what he means and then he uses another image it's an image which takes us back to St Luke's gospel with Simeon in in the temple and Mary and Joseph standing with the uh 40-year-old 40 sorry 40-day old baby Jesus in their arms presenting him in the temple and old Simeon who's been waiting for this moment comes up and says to them both and especially to Mary this child is set for the fall and rising of many in Israel and at the same time time a sword will pierce your own heart also and all of those all of those things come to mind when he uses this image of a human child being born in pain and the moment the pain is over the sense of joy as the child is held in human arms and there's a a a completely different sensation well that pain for the apostle is still to come and also throughout Christian history that pain is part of the the Deliverance of a a spiritual Dimension so that words like joy and life and love and pain and grief very often when we experience them we find it hard to express in words because words are a poor vehicle for doing this and nor normally we resort if we're using words to Poetic imagery same thing is saying we resort to picture IM imagery of The Parables and this is exactly what Jesus is saying uh and uh at the same time we we have the the sense of of sorry he's realizing what the disciples are going through he's also realizing exactly why the uh disciples can't understand because they don't yet understand the spiritual landscape and uh we have at the same time the sense of this is still to come truly truly I say to you whatever you ask of the father in my name he will give it to you until now you have asked nothing in my name ask and you will receive that your joy may be full there remembering back and as they remember back they set it down for us and the gift of the spirit however we translate paracletos in terms of The Advocate the comforter the counselor the one who is within us helping us perceive spiritual landscape but also giving us words like courage and faith and belief because the spirit proceeds from the Father the Creator and the son the humanity of Jesus going with us being with us always and yet the disciples cannot until they receive it understand any of this it's quite comforting for us to think that those uh disciples are getting so much so wrong and throughout the days which follow they will still get things wrong throughout their whole lives they will get things wrong until the perception is given and there's always a sense of beginning again with all of that there's quite a little exercise going on with the the robins and also with uh Leo's uh uh real um irritation that there here this morning Mr Robin is sitting on the twig of a tree here looking down at me from the the blossoming tree but there are others around too and we've got lots of warning sounds from the birds as they warm one another this is my territory and I'm feeding a family so you keep off here he is hello good morning how are you all right uh Leo's far away at the moment he's sitting on a chair over there so let's think what we're going to think about today as a date because it's important to us I'm actually thinking of the poet and himym writer James Montgomery who was born in 1771 but died on this day the 30th of April 1854 at the age of 82 a very respected citizen of Sheffield and there is a statue of James Montgomery standing near to Sheffield cathedral but he'd been born in Scotland and was the son of a Moravian minister or pastor and his parents had for him the image of going on to be a Moravian Pastor himself and they sent him uh to school at F neck and the Moravian school there banned all secular books but James was a poet and also a dreamer and someone wanting to express himself in poetry and he managed to get hold of all kinds of books of poetry and at the same time decided that this vocation was not for him his parents went to the West Indies and both died there as missionaries there but he himself decided no this isn't my vocation and for a while he didn't know what his vocation was he was a shop assistant in a baker shop in in F neck and he began to write to write poetry to start with but from his Moravian background there was a great interest in humanitarian causes and so he would write long poems urging the abolition of slavery or urging the ceasing of exploitation of children of using boys's Chimney Sweep assistance to climb up chimneys or exploiting children in fact iies which were beginning to develop and he found himself in the end in Sheffield and was appr prentist to a book seller and printer who ran a little newspaper as well now the printer got in trouble for the Articles he was publishing at that time and had to um go away and and and flee the country for a while and so the newspaper went into the hands of James Montgomery and he himself began to be a journalist writing articles and using words to express everything he wanted to say and that meant first of all that the Articles and the poems gained notice later on in his life he was even given a pension by the conservative prime minister Sir Robert Peele because his poems of that kind were so valued they were long poems they described all kinds of things but it's not what we remember him for and in a way he knew that that was going to be the case it's not how we remember James Montgomery what we remember of him are hymns written in huge quantity he lived a solitary life at home but as I say became a very well respected citizen of Sheffield but of his 400 hymns many are still sung and we think of him with Thanksgiving for hymns like angels from the Realms of glory and then the Epiphany hymn which it does US good to read Because James was a great writer in metrical verse of the Psalms and as I've said so many times the Psalms by being sung in metrical form give us scripture in our minds and hearts here again is my school hym book and I wanted to read you Psalm 72 as written in metrical form by James Montgomery it's poetic like the psalm and it takes images from the psalm about the anointed one who is prophesied in the Psalms and at the same time if you read Psalm 72 you'll find those images there but he sets them out in rhyme and in verse and we love to sing it particularly at Epiphany here it is and you'll know it well Hail to the Lord's anointed great David's greater son hail in the time appointed his Reign on Earth begun he comes to break oppression to let the captive free to take away transgression and rule in equity there's James's desire for social justice coming through in this hymn and this translation of the Psalms he comes with sucker Speedy to those who suffer wrong to help the poor and needy and bid the weak be strong to give them songs for sighing their Darkness turned to light whose Souls condemned and dying were precious in His sight he shall come down like showers upon the fruitful Earth and love joy hope like flowers spring in his path to birth before him on the mountains shall peace The Herald go and righteousness in fountains from Hill to Valley flow Arabia's desert Ranger to him shall bow the knee the Ethiopian stranger his glory come to see with offerings of devotion ships from the aisles shall meet to pour the wealth of ocean in tribute At His Feet Kings shall fall down before him and gold and incense bring all nations shall adore him his praise all people sing to him shall prayer unceasing and daily vows Ascend his kingdom still increasing a kingdom Without End or every foe Victorious he on his throne shall rest from age to age more glorious all blessing and all blessed the tide of time shall never his Covenant remove his name shall stand forever that name to us is love it's a wonderful metrical translation of the themes and pictures of Psalm 72 the psalm is quite different in its order but here is James exalting not only in mountains and flowers and flowing rivers and streams but at the same time exalting in the fact that the Lord cares about people and that should we say social justice and the welfare of of others is very much part of our prayer life and I wanted to go on to say that there is no one like James Montgomery who for me sets out the spiritual landscape and the landscape of prayer on Ash Wednesday I always believe that the best hymn that we can sing is one of James Montgomery's hymns I've got here my uh grandfather's uh uh hym book Thomas Willis a present from his sister Rachel on his 50th birthday August the 5th 1922 and opposite my father has written Thomas Willis age 17 his father had died when he was 14 March 1927 5 years later but in Father's book there is a marker in one of James Montgomery's hymns and here it is it's a hymn as I say which I believe is the the best hymn to start us off in Lent before ever we go to IM Imes of the Wilderness Lord teach us how to pray a right with reverence and with fear though dust and ashes in thy sight we may we must draw near we perish if we cease from prayer oh grant us power to pray and when to meet thee we prepare Lord meet us by the way God of all Grace we bring to thee a broken contrite heart give what thine eye Delights to see truth in the inward part faith in the only sacrifice that can for sin atone to cast our hopes to fix our eyes on Christ on Christ Alone patience to watch and wait and weep though Mercy long delay courage are fainting souls to keep and Trust thee though thou slay give these and then thy will be done thus strengthened with all might we through thy spirit and thy son shall pray and pray a right it is a glorious setting out of the spiritual landscape and it's a hymn we love to sing but I don't think it's his best hymn on the landscape of prayer that comes in a hymn we've really ceased to sing and I'll read that one now because I very much believe that it sets out the whole landscape of prayer for all Humanity here it is some of you may know it others may not but it is worth the reading because of that sense of setting out the spiritual landscape and the gifts of the Spirit which feed our prayer life and make prayer possible it's the air we breathe and this is what he's saying prayer is the Soul's sincere desire uttered or unexpressed the motion of a hidden fire that trembles in the breast prayer is the burden of a sigh the falling of a tear the upward glancing of an eye when none but God is near prayer is the simplest form of speech that infant lips can cry prayer the sublimest strains that reach the Majesty on high prayer is the contrite Sinner's voice returning from his ways while angels in their songs rejoice and cry behold he prays prayer is the Christian's vital breath the Christian's native air is watch word at the gates of death he enters heaven with prayer nor prayer is made on Earth alone the Holy Spirit pleads and Jesus on the Eternal throne for Sinners intercedes oh thou by whom we come to God the life the truth the way the path of prayer thyself Hast tro Lord teach us how to pray it is the most glorious description of what prayer means and in that sense of description of the spiritual landscape it gives a form of everyone being invited to prayer in so many different ways and it also shows how prayer doesn't need words often it's the praying of the anguish or the joy of heart prayer is the burden of a sigh the falling of a tear the upward glancing of an eye when none but God is near those two Landscapes that this gospel has been trying to show the disciples and us all the way through but here James Montgomery in his strange and quite solitary life uh as well as being a respected Citizen and Urgent for social justice was the one who uttered best the sense of the landscape of prayer and we give thanks for that tiger good morning how are you you've arrived Tiger Tiger I have nothing really to give him this morning so he's there with the milk jug I think the robins are oh here he is come on come on Tiger Come on good boy that's right we don't want to startle the robins away there we are everyone is oh no he's back so um we're going to say our prayers together at this point and we are using the collect for the Second Sunday of Easter this is the last day we shall use that a new one for tomorrow and use your own intentions and prayers as we say this collect and then when the disciples ask that question which James Montgomery has used in both those hymns the one marked in my father's book lord teach us how to pray a right and the other one right at the end Lord teach us us how to pray well when the disciples asked that Jesus gave us those words so we'll say that together in whatever language we use Almighty father you have given your only son to die for our sins and to rise again for our justification grant us so to put away the leaven of malice and wickedness that we may always serve you in pureness of living and Truth through the merits of your son Jesus Christ Our Lord amen so we say the prayer Our T Our Savior taught us when his disciples asks him to teach them in words to pray but we well know that prayer is much more than a form of words so let's say together 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 now of reflection for your own prayers on this Saturday morning in Easter tide [Music] prayer is the song all sincere desire uttered or [Music] unexpressed the motion of a hidden fire that trembles in the breath prayer is the birden of of a s the falling of a tear the upward glancing of an eye when none but God is near [Music] prayer is the simplest form of speech that inant lips can try prayer the sublim M drains that reach the mest on high prayer is the Chan vital breath the Christian native his watch word at the Gate of death he enters heav with [Music] [Applause] [Music] pray prayer is the contrite sinner voice returning from his way while Ang angels in their songs rejoice and cry behold he praise and cry behold he praise nor prayer is made on Earth alone the Holy Spirit plead and Jesus at the father throne for siners inter [Music] intercede oh thou by whom we come to to God the life the truth the way the path of prayer thyself has Lord teach us how to [Applause] pray oh thou by whom we come to God lord teach us how to pray [Music] [Applause] [Music] we include in our prayers for this morning the dasis of Lango in the Church of the province of Uganda and also pray for Justin our Archbishop Bishop Rose Bishop of DOA Emma Bishop at Lambeth and today in the dasis for the beautiful Church of bordon St Peter and St Paul bordon and the parish priests there Robert Lane and bordon Church of England primary school so we give thanks for the life of that Parish 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 upon you upon those whom you love and Those whom you would pray for now and always amen I always think a a hm book is a lovely compendium of spirituality and it takes no notice whatsoever of denominational differen is it's a place where Christians of all kinds can sit together and when they sing or pray the words in the book they are united as they focus their attention on prayer uh so let's do our riddle for this morning it's a gray morning here but we're told the Sun is going to break through and make the orchard shine I'm sure later in the day I gave you uh yesterday I have no eyes and no legs I have no ears and I am strong enough to move the Earth what am I and the answer is a worm and then secondly I only point in One Direction but I guide people around the world what am I and the answer is a compass if we go on two more I am higher without a head than with one what am I and then I am a key that can open a banana what am I we'll leave those for tomorrow and an esops Fable on this day yesterday let's have a look yesterday we were looking at the monkey as King today the fox and the grapes this is a very famous one and here's a fox looking up at the bunch of grapes beautifully painted and drawn The Fox and the grapes a Hungry Fox saw some fine Bunches of grapes hanging from a Vine that was trained along a high tree and he did his best to reach them by jumping as high as he could into the air but it was all in vain for they were just out of his reach so the fox gave up trying and walked away with an air of dignity and unconcern remarking I thought those grapes were Rip but I see now they are quite sourah and the answer of the the moral is it is easy to despise what you cannot get but of course that's not how we know that it's by using the image of sour grapes when someone knowing a thing is very valuable pours scorn on it because it's not attainable for them and we say don't we in a in in a way World he's he or she is just calling sour graes and that comes from this old classical Fable of the fox and the grapes for which we thank ESOP so enjoy your Saturday morning this is the beginning in England of a bank holiday weekend and so people tend to take a little break because Monday is not a work day for them in the ordinary sense of the word but enjoy your day wherever you are in the world k is