good morning and a warm welcome to the dinery garden at canterbury cathedral on this tuesday the 8th of december as we come to say our morning prayers i'm sitting here in the kitchen garden and i'll explain what's all around me but i'm here for one very good reason because our tree today is standing beside me it's the silver birch bachelor pendulum and it's quite often known as the lady of the woods because of its elegance which fits this day for the 8th of december is the feast of the conception of the blessed virgin mary and we can think about that too in our reflection later if we look at things which are happening around us and and and dates which are significant on december the 8th as we look back in history we see that in 1660 a woman first appeared on a public stage for the first time before that women's parts had been played by young men but from then on women took their rightful place on the stage and this woman played desdemona in shakespeare's ocelo we remember back to 1865 and the composer sebelius was born and he is known for many many things but perhaps if i just mentioned his overture finlandia this morning and say that that also is well known to many as a tune which has been set to the hymn be still my soul in 1292 john peckham the archbishop of canterbury died we could say much about him but the most important thing probably is that he is the only archbishop who was a franciscan and his tomb is very near the martyrdom chapel in the cathedral and on special days of the year franciscans will come and celebrate a little mass by the tomb there and they are most welcome as their community comes here in 1932 gertrude whom we've spoken about before the famous horticulturalist died and as i said the inspiration to our new head gardener steve edney in 1864 this is important to me having grown up only 10 miles from the city of bristol the clifton suspension bridge was opened five years after brunel's death but such an elegant and beautiful conjunction of the gorge there as one looks up at it or the excitement especially as a child of standing on it and having picnics on the clifton downs behind us and looking across to abbott's lee after from there so many things today as always some of them sad in 1863 uh huge numbers 2500 people celebrating this feast in the church of the company the jesuit church in santiago were killed when the church caught fire and the doors had been made to open in the wrong direction inwards and the mass to get out simply created a terrible holocaust for them so we remember as always scenes of human tragedy we remember that in 1941 on this day the second world war opened out right across the pacific yesterday we remembered pearl harbor and today the attacks on shanghai malaya thailand hong kong the philippines the duchy cindy's as they then were all of which followed and escalated that conflict into a worldwide conflict in 1955 maybe um a nice thing to remember the flag of europe was adopted from the 12 stars around the virgin mary's head with the blue background and that i've seen as a stained glass window in strasbourg cathedral which was part of the inspiration for that flag in 1955 for the council of europe and what else can we say just briefly well in 1815 mary bosenkay fletcher persuaded john wesley to allow women to preach and she became a a a very strong methodist preacher in her life and she died on this day in 1815 mr dale said that the battle of the falkland islands in 1914 a naval battle between the english admirals said upton sturdy and the german admiral graf von bay not the ship but the admiral was fought right down in the south atlantic at the very beginning of the first world war so um all those things but also another sad event on this day in 1980 the former beatle john lennon was murdered in new york city so at the end we've put on a a clip of of uh one of his songs and one of support mccartney's songs i i a year ago when we had the funeral of my sister in the crypt the beatles had been a huge inspiration to her earlier on in life before she she became very much the the ph is the editor of the guardian for many years um and so we we put paul mccartney's song um let it be and uh that i've put on the end of of this service it was played at the end of her funeral and with paul mccartney singing at that point not live of course um so let's begin our prayers all right we'll go on far too long oh lord open our lips and our mouth shall proclaim your praise reveal among us the light of your presence that we may behold your power and glory blessed are you sovereign god of all to you be praise and glory forever in your tender compassion the dawn from on high is breaking upon us to dispel the lingering shadows of night as we look for your coming among us this day open our eyes to behold your presence and strengthen our hands to do your will that the worlds 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 does 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 the psalms this morning give us 38 39 and 40. i'm going to use 39 for a reason i'll explain when we are in our reflection i said i will keep watch over my ways so that i offend not with my tongue i will guard my mouth with a muzzle while the wicked are in my sight so i held my tongue and said nothing i kept silent but to no avail my distress increased my heart grew hot within me while i mused the fire was kindled and i spoke out with my tongue lord let me know my end and the number of my days that i may know how short my time is you have made my days but a hands breath and my lifetime is as nothing in your sight truly even those who stand upright are but a breath we walk about like a shadow and in vain we are in turmoil we heap up riches but cannot tell who will gather them and now what is my hope truly my hope is even in you deliver me from all my transgressions and do not make me the taunt of the fool i fell silent and did not open my mouth for surely it was your doing take away your plague from me i am consumed by the blows of your hand with rebukes for sin you punish us like a moth you consume our beauty truly everyone is but a breath hear my prayer o lord and give ear to my cry hold not your peace at my tears for i am but a stranger with you away fairer as all my forebears were turn your gaze from me that i may be glad again before i go my way and no more our reading this morning from the second chapter of the first letter of paul to the thessalonians and i'm going to read the first 12 verses of chapter 2. you remember i said yesterday if you were with us that the first letter to the thessalonians is the earliest of paul's letters that we have and the earliest uh words to be written down as part of our new testament everything else in its present form came later and so this is very much a beginning this thessalonians chapter 2 for you yourselves know brothers and sisters that our coming to you was not in vain but though we had already suffered and been shamefully treated at philippi as you know we had boldness in our god to declare to you the gospel of god in the midst of much conflict for our appeal does not spring from error or impurity or any attempt to deceive but just as we have been approved by god to be entrusted with the gospel so we speak not to please mortals but to please god who tests our hearts for we never came with words of flattery as you know nor with a pretext for greed god is witness nor did we seek glory from people whether from you or from others though we could have made demands as apostles of christ but we were gentle among you like a nurse taking care of her own children so being affectionately desirous of you we were ready to share with you not only the gospel of god but also our own selves because you had become very dear to us for you remember brothers and sisters our labor and toil we worked night and day that we might not be a burden to any of you while we proclaim to you the gospel of god you are witnesses and god also how holy and righteous and blameless was our conduct towards you believers for you know how like a father with his children we exhorted each one of you and encouraged you and charged you to walk in a manner worthy of god who calls you into his own kingdom and glory immensely affectionate words from paul to his beloved church in thessalonica and those affectionate words are heartfelt because he's longing to be with them but circumstances again and again have prevented his returning and yet the news which timothy and silas or sylvanus have brought to him is that the church there is prospering and doing well as an example to the early christian communities in that part of the world and is much spoken about it's a beautiful part of the letter but it also shows paul's anguish at trying desperately to give them the gift of this gospel which as we saw in chapter one is already in his mind a gospel of faith and hope and love from the creator and the lord of lords his son jesus christ and the gift of the holy spirit all that in these earliest chapters of the writings of saint paul as he goes forward there's also anguish about all they suffered there now as i said yesterday one can go back to the acts of the apostles which we studied earlier in the year and find luke writing there and telling the story of that visit to thessalonica and what it meant and how there was a a scene of disturbance and really rough treatment but at the same time many who were mostly gentiles turned from their idols to paul but he'd been bundled out of the city and gone on to athens and corinth and was feeling low about the success of that ministry and then suddenly in came silas and timothy with the good news and that becomes a really important stepping stone in paul's enthusiasm for all of this despite the suffering and so he is moved to write this letter and here we are in chapter 2 of all of that now i wanted to talk about something else on this day of the conception of the blessed virgin mary in our calendar december the 8th i don't know about you but maybe you look back on certain conversations and think i wish i'd said something to make that clear then and some of those are with those who taught us very early on but i remember sitting in an english lesson and the master was going through this was a level english i was probably a 17. master was going through a poem by a poet i didn't really know about much then and the poem was a hard poem and it's called the wreck of the deutschland and it's by gerard manny hopkins but uh it's a really important work for him but i remember the scene well because the master taking up hopkins's um reference to the fact that this poem was written about an event a tragic event on the day before the feast of the conception of the blessed virgin mary made a joke and said that the church clearly can't do it sums because the conception on the 8th of december is followed by the the birth of jesus on the 25th in the church's calendar and i wanted to say but it's it's not the conception of of jesus himself that takes place on the 25th of march with with the angel gabriel coming the church keeps that in that calendar with the nine months between 25th of march and 25th of december this is the conception with joe kim and anna of the person of mary herself in her mother's womb by the activity of her father and mother and that introduces into our humanity the one whose womb will bear jesus well of course i didn't say anything i was too shy to say it and thought i might have been you know looking this or that and but i it did introduce me to that poem in a different way and i just want to talk a little bit about hopkins this morning and the wreck of the deutschland and that's why i read the psalm 39 because when hopkins received the hard call to enter into the society of jesus and become a jesuit with all its strict training he left behind as john henry newman had many many friends and his parents were devastated that relationship was made up afterwards but at that time it must have been very hard indeed but at the same time he felt that his desire always to be writing poetry was something which got in the way of his vocation so he became silent with poetry placed himself under obedience and then the reading of the story of the wreck of the deutschland and of the five franciscan sisters who had been exiled from germany by the falklaws and had died on a ship which bound um for the united states eventually founded on the kentish knock a treacherous treacherous sandbank on the 7th of december in 1875 and hopkins read the passage in the times which described that and suddenly everything my heart was hot within me says the psalms and the end i spoke out and he asked his superior when the superior said someone should write a poem about this whether he might and was given permission and a long outpouring of everything pent up in his creativity then happened i've got my copy of hopkins here and here is the wreck of the deutschland to the happy memory of five franciscan nuns exiles by the falklaws drowned between midnight and morning of december the 7th 1875 on this eve of the feast of the blessed virgin mary but the first part of the poem is about his vocation and it becomes very clear hopkins has to be read aloud punctuation has to be observed but really lines and verses don't here's the first verse and the second and the first line of the second thou mastering me god giver of breath and bread world strand sway of the sea lord of living and dead thou hast bound bones and veins in me fastened me flesh and after it almost unmade what with dread by doing and thus sound touch me afresh over again i feel thy finger and find thee i did say yes it's the beginning of his vocation which he finds terrifying and he's recalling it in this poem which he is now in his obedience allowed to write and it floods out but the important words to god's call is i did say yes and then in verse 4 he sees his life like an hourglass on the wall with every grain of sand day by day just sifting through i am soft sift in an hourglass at the wall fast but mined with emotion adrift and it crows and it comes to the fall i steady as a water in a well to a poise to a pain but rope twist always all the way down from the tall fells or flanks of the voil a vein of the gospel prophet a pressure a principle christ's gift always held and being asked to answer as he did at the beginning i did say yes two things gave him inspiration and he'd have loved to be sitting here this morning with the gold of the asparagus ferns here growing up from where the asparagus gives us shoots to eat until may but then we allow it to to live as a plant and it becomes wonderful and fern for florist decorations it's surrounded by box hedges and here the lady of the woods on this feast the silver birch uh standing very strongly here but supple and elegant with a blue sky above it how he would have loved that for creation was everything to him but for the moment he's being inspired to write of a tragedy creation i kiss my hand to the stars lovely asunder starlight wafting him out of it and glow glory and thunder kiss my hand to the dappled with damson west since though he is under the world splendor and wonder his mystery must be instressed stressed for i greet him the days i meet him and bless when i understand and the other thing which moved him apart from creation and that lovely description of the sunset that dappled with dams and west is the gospel itself [Music] it dates from day of his going in galilee warm-lade grave of a womb-life grey manger maiden's knee the dents and the driven passion and frightful sweat thence the discharge of it there it's swelling to be they've felt before they're in high flood yet what none would have known of it only the heart at bay well one could go on with the the poem because what has moved him is the death of five nuns and the tallest of them in that storm which is breaking the ship to pieces on the kentish knock she raises her voice and cries out oh christ come quickly it's a a cry of of terror and pain but faithfulness that the lord is near all of that and he writes in verse 24 away in the lovable west on a pastoral forehead of wales i was under a roof here i was at rest and they the prey of the gales she to the black about heir to the breaker the thickly falling flakes to the throng that catches and quails was calling o christ christ come quickly the cross to her she calls christ to her christens her wild worst best that so matches so much of saint paul's anguish and it will reappear in hopkins poetry when he senses himself a stranger and sick at the end of his life but for the moment he offers the poem for prince and it's rejected because nobody can understand it and so it's so new in its shape and form and instead he thinks doesn't matter i'll begin to write poetry again and enjoy it for myself so hence we get all the beauty of nature in his poetry but the the wreck of the deutschland is the foundation stone on the eve of this feast day of hopkins vocation like mary's vocation i did say yes behold the handmaid of the lord be it unto me according to thy word a day of vocation maybe this silver birch with all its fruitfulness beginning to show in its little catkins is a really good symbol a symbol of this day of the conception of mary herself memory of her parents joachim and anna sindan and also a memory of all that she will go through the sword will pierce your heart also so i give thanks for the memory of that school master who first calls me to look into that poem more and then to take joy from the way in which hopskins in sentences can bring all this to life and at the same time hold fast to his vocation so we say our prayers on this morning of the year on this lovely morning when the sun is going to break through the mist and give us a an early winter morning the frost was here hard at the beginning our prayers this morning on this 8th of december are for the diocese of shiyogway in rwanda in the anglican communion and the bishop there jared kalimba the community which she looks after the diocese of egba in nigeria and emmanuel adekunle and the community that he cares for and lafayette in nigeria and godwin a robinson the bishop there and his people there in that diocese we are asked to give thanks on this day for unexpected blessings in our diocese well actually we've been talking about that at all times sometimes the moment of tragedy when we notice it can be the moment of a new shoot springing a new coming to birth and we give thanks also for this feast of the conception of the blessed virgin mary we pray for justin our archbishop for rose bishop of dover and for tim bishop at lambeth pray for all the communities around where we are and bring your own prayers as we say first of all the special prayer for this feast day and then the advent college which we say day by day almighty and everlasting god who stooped to raise fallen humanity through the child bearing of blessed mary grant that we who have seen your glory revealed in our human nature and your love made perfect in our weakness may daily be renewed in your image and conform to the pattern of your son jesus christ our lord amen so the daily collect for advent almighty god give us grace that we may cast away the works of darkness and put upon us the armor of light now in the time of this mortal life in which your son jesus christ came to visit us in great humility that when he shall come again in his glorious majesty to judge both the living and the dead we may rise to the life immortal through him who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the holy spirit one god now and forever amen notice how often in the letter to the thessalonians paul says it wasn't just the words we were giving it was our example among you which gave the good news of jesus christ in our humanity and we would want you to have that same example for others brothers and sisters let's pray for that today and bring your own intentions in this moment of silence [Music] christ the son of righteousness shine upon you scatter the darkness from before your path and make you ready to meet him when he comes in glory and the blessing of god almighty the father the son and the holy spirit be upon you upon those whom you love those whom you would pray for today and always are men you