good morning and welcome to the dinery garden in canterbury cathedral on this may the 31st a monday morning but a public holiday a bank holiday as the last day of the month of may and in our calendar now we keep the feast of the visitation of the blessed virgin mary the color blue is always associated with mary and you're looking at lovely blue flowers on this morning the the sky is clear blue above but you're seeing the flowers of the bugloss and the speed well and also the gold of the greater celandine and all those flowers are contributing to the festivity of this celebration this feast used to be kept on the 2nd of july and in 1972 i was ordained deacon on that day second of july so the feast of the visitation was the feast we celebrated so in two ways this uh celebration for me of being a deacon now has two different dates during the year 31st of may when now we keep the feast itself and the second july when i keep the anniversary of my first alternation as a deacon a servant of the church diaconos for that that word is very much associated with our lord's word i came not to be served but to serve and although one then gets ordained again as a priest and some get consecrated as bishops no one ever ceases to be a deacon that's the first order nation and some have decided to stay there since francis never went beyond his ordination as a deacon and neither did nicolas ferrer and so we remember that day i remember it with gladness but this day also we give thanks for the obedience of the blessed virgin mary and all these blue flowers are reminding us of that obedience on this feast day the last day of may so let's say our prayers and we go to the special service for the virgin mary on this day oh lord open our lips and our mouth shall proclaim your praise you laid the foundations of the earth and the heavens are the work of your hands blessed are you sovereign god creator of heaven and earth to you be praise and glory forever as your living word eternal in heaven assume the frailty of our mortal flesh may the light of your love be born in us to fill our hearts with joy as we sing 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 our psalm on this day is 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 works to another and declare your mighty acts they shall speak of the majesty of your glory and i will tell of 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 the lord is righteous in all his ways and loving in all his works the lord is near to those who call upon him to all who call upon him faithfully he fulfills the desire of those who fear him he hears their cry and saves them we turn not to saint matthew today this is a special day and we turn instead to the story of the visitation of the blessed virgin mary to her cousin elizabeth and that we find in the gospel of saint luke it's in chapter one and i'm reading from verse 39 the angel gabriel has already appeared to mary and given her her vocation and told her that the holy spirit will overshadow her and that the child that she will bear will be called holy and she also is told by the angel that her cousin elizabeth has conceived and this is the six months of elizabeth who in old age had thought she would never bear a child and so mary leaves her home and goes to visit elizabeth this is a tale of the sharing of joy in those days mary arose and went with haste into the hill country to a town in judah and she entered the house of zechariah and greeted elizabeth and when elizabeth heard the greeting of mary the baby leapt in her womb and elizabeth was filled with the holy spirit and she exclaimed with a loud cry blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb and why is this granted to me that the mother of my lord should come to me for behold when the sound of your greeting came to my ears the baby in my womb leapt for joy and blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the lord and mary said my soul magnifies the lord and my spirit rejoices in god my savior for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant for behold from now on all generations will call me blessed for he who is mighty has done great things for me and holy is his name and his mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation he has shown strength with his arm he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts he has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate he has filled the hungry with good things and the rich he has sent empty away he has helped his servant israel in remembrance of his mercy as he spoke to our fathers to abraham and to his offspring forever and mary remained with her about three months and then returned to her own home mary is greeting gabriel's vocation which she is giving her with the words behold i am the servant of the lord let it be to me according to your word if you like i am the deacon of the lord one who is to serve his purpose and that story is the prelude to this one for the vocation she has is a puzzling one and as simeon later says to her in the temple will cause her pain and at present she must feel a mixture of both joy in embracing that vocation and pain and so what does she do she becomes active and goes to share both those feelings by making a journey a journey to elizabeth her cousin whom herself has accepted the vocation that has been given not to her but to her husband zechariah right at the beginning of sin luke's gospel when he is serving as a priest in the temple so as mary comes to their home to zechariah and her cousin elizabeth both of whom are in old age zechariah is not able to speak he is still under the sentence of the angel saying as a sign you will become mute until the day of the child's birth but elizabeth certainly is able to speak and elizabeth prophesies and as she does so she expresses those words which have been said in prayers by the church throughout the generations blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb and then she asked the question which so many who thought themselves unnoticed and suddenly are given a vocation which seems far too big for them the the question why why should the mother of my lord come to me i felt my own baby leap in the womb at the voice of your coming and all of that is a sharing of joy strong emotions are better shared and very often we know exactly the ones with whom a particular emotion a particular experience must be shared it's easier these days we can get it in touch at once by telephone we can get in touch at once as we are in touch this morning but at the same time nothing really takes the place of physically coming together for all the intuitions of humanity are at work when one is with someone one knows well and so you will be able to think as i can of occasions in the past when things have happened and i knew that the first person i must tell would be so and so they would be the one who understood and very often that was done by telephone or on certain occasions even by a journey here's mary making that journey through so many people along the roads leaving her own home and no one knowing that she was carrying the body of the lord and she went through all those unperceiving crowds and found her cousin elizabeth who knew it once and elizabeth says blessed is she who believed there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her she might have been actually speaking about herself for she now believes and that belief will be underlined when john the baptist is born and zechariah obeys the voice of the angel on the writing tablet he writes his name is john and his tongue is no longer mute he can speak how glad we are for these first two chapters of saint luke so full of singing and music music which the church has used ever since how many times has the angels ave maria hail mary greetings you who are highly favored full of grace been set to music by so many different composers and sung as a prayer by so many different choirs if one thinks of the ave maria's that that we know and at the same time mary's response to elizabeth is generally called our magnificat my soul magnifies the lord makes him great exalts in god and the vocation he has given me his servant the old words were behold the handmaid of the lord as i said it could easily be i am the deacon of the lord i'm here to do the lord's bidding whatever that means and that magnificat which exalts in the fact that god bypasses the powerful and the obvious and goes to those who are most lowly and exalts them to become his messengers his servants and in mary's case the bearer of the eternal word all these things on this lovely morning the last morning of the month of may in all this sunshine surrounded by all these flowers behind me is the medler tree it's a wonderful fruiting tree and its fruit really is the last fruit to hang on the tree in the autumn and we wait until it goes soft and then it can be harvested and made into lovely jams and jellies and the sweetness comes in maturity well that's a happy thing for folk like zechariah and elizabeth and the the word that we use for letting that happen is the word blet which is the same word in latin when it is used as the word for the meek those who think nothing of themselves but slowly become mature and full of sweetness a sweetness to be enjoyed and used and at the moment is pure white flowers here um behind me the mandatory rewards us rather as magnolias do in three completely different ways first of all it has the most beautiful green leaves and then when those leaves have come fully into leaf it has the most perfect white flowers and that you're looking at this morning and when those flowers turn into fruit it has first the hardest and then as they become mature and wait on the tree until it seems far past the time of fruiting they become soft and full of sweetness and able to be used for our benefit in fruitfulness all those things probably are lessons from the garden for today but as the birds sing on this lovely morning it's also a message from sin luke's gospel of the whole of creation and our psalm 145 spoke of that as well well i want to speak really only of one date today which happened in the past and that is the date may the 31st 1809 because that is the day on which the composer franz josef hayden the austrian composer died and haydn has been such a gift to choral singing to instrumental playing and to the service of the church throughout the ages in fact yesterday our visiting choir lease court sang one of his mr brevises which was a lovely thing to hear but haydn himself was someone who spent his life if you like as a deacon to a very rich and powerful aristocratic family who treated him wonderfully well throughout the whole of his life he came from a poor family his father a wheel right and he was sent off in the end because they saw musical ability with him and became a chorister steven's cathedral in vienna but his career took off in a way when prince esterhazy first prince paul esterhazy noticed him and made him at first his assistant kappelmeister the capital meister was in charge of music for great households and haydn became first the assistant cattlemeister because the esther heartsies had an old kappelmeister in place and they were not a family who ever really were faithless to their servants who'd served them well so haydn understood that he did all the work for a short time and then when the old capital meister died he became the capital meister i suppose you could translate that as chapel master but it was actually the person in charge of all the music and he found himself through his life serving one prince esterhazy after another when prince paul died in 1762 he served the new prince nicholas until the year 1790 and prince nicholas was musical and recognized all of haydn's gifts and he set him tasks and gave him resources to begin to compose for the court and so a multitude of chamber works and little operas which could be performed and music and masses which could be sung in the chapel the esther harzis had first of all their ancient palace at eisenstadt and then they built a much bigger one in rural hungary which was called esther hartzer but it meant that for much of the year haydn was away from vienna and simply working with the court musicians by whom he was adored he was clearly a man of great humor for so many of his symphonies bear the kind of title which speaks of what he was wanting to achieve and achieve with a smile i mentioned that because the court musicians on one occasion the prince was so fond of the music that he was forgetting that it was past their time to go on holiday and go back to their homes and and and be with their extended families and so haydn being very diplomatic decided that on the night that they had come to him and said look papa hyden we can't we can't stay any longer but the prince is forgetting that we should be gone by now for a bit and so haydn composed a special piece and it was uh performed with candles on the music stands of the orchestra and gradually in the last movement first of all um one of the instruments would stop playing put the candle out the musician would fold his music and walk away as the others went on and that happened over and over again as the candles were put out and the prince got the hint and that that uh symphony has always been called the farewell symphony but at the same time there's the symphony which was written because haydn was fed up with people who'd had a good dinner falling asleep just as the music started and so we have that surprise symphony where after a gentle beginning when everyone is becoming drowsy the most enormous crash happens and everyone wakes up that enormous chord and princess er hatsey was someone who saw a joke but it does give us a clue to haydn a very devout catholic and his music was placed unreservedly at the service of the church as well and so the masses that are sung and some are absolutely glorious like his nelson mass written in 1805 after the news of the battle of trafalgar he'd already written part of the mass it was a troubled time by then austria was facing the armies of napoleon and then the news came through and the mass has always been called the nelson mass but it's one of his most glorious but the there are so many serviceable masses which can be sung in the liturgy in our cathedral churches and the saint nicholas mass and the st john mass all of those are are part of that corpus of music that haydn gifted to the worship of the church at the same time he helped people wanting to perform chamber music because there were many of those in the court prince nicholas himself played an instrument now not used a baritone and so haydn would compose little pieces for him to play and pieces at the end that would be applauded and the prince loved that but at the same time haydn's fame grew i myself love playing his piano sonatas they have an order of of being put together and you you you as you play them there are movements of joy movements of solemnity and there are many of them so in the four volumes of piano sonatas of haydn that i have i know exactly where to go for different moods and that so for so many string quartets particularly piano trios oh so much music but let's come to what really set haydn's star in the heavens he was asked and this was after the death of prince esterhazy uh prince nicholas and prince anton who took over valued him just as much but wanted to reduce the musical establishment a little and was able to let haydn go and to travel and haydn decided he would come to london he'd been invited there by the impresario salomon and then he came to live for a while in partnering place he traveled in the year 1791 imagine what was happening in europe as he crossed france and came to calais the french revolution had begun in 1789 and mozart who adored haydn called him papa all the time said what will you do how would you manage with language and uh haydn jokingly smilingly said to the young mozart don't worry my boy everyone speaks my language meeting his music and he traveled mozart very worried that he would never see him again and that was prophetic because mozart died the next year much to heightened sadness but haydn crossed to london and there some of his best symphonies were composed and they too had great names that were later given to them but what came chiefly from his london visits both two visits in 1791 to 92 and 1794 to 95 he heard in westminster abbey the handle oratorios messiah and the israeli in egypt and he was completely thunderstruck and thought i must do something like this and as he was leaving in his second visit he was given a libretto which some say had been put together by charles jennings who had done the liberty for messiah there's no massive evidence for that but he was given an english libretto took it back to the imperial librarian in vienna and said can can you put this into german i'm not very good with english and baron von sweden then translated it both into german but also into an english which clipped the long libretto but also kept the sense in the rhythms that haydn would be writing in so sometimes the english libretto seems rather clumsy and choirs like singing it in german but we know it well in english in church terms when we sing bits of it as anthems and and uh uh solos in church and of course the one that's best known is the creation which was an absolute hit from the very beginning it lauded haydn to the heavens and the emperor himself hearing this also was completely taken away by this wonderful oratorio which never ceased to be performed haydn in extreme old age came for the performance of the uh creation in 1808 he was carried in on a chair and as they came to that amazing let and there was light the great chord of c major after the representation of chaos the audience burst into massive applause the old man sitting there and haydn pointed to himself shaking his head and then pointed to the heavens meaning did give god the glory and that creation has always been something that people love to sing the libretto is taken those from the book of genesis and from the psalms think of the chorus the heavens are telling the glory of god and the firmament proclaims his handiwork psalm 19 which we say on the second morning of the month and as we say sorry that is that right there the fourth morning of the month and as we say that together you'll be used to me saying it the heavens are telling the glory of god and the firmament proclaims his handiwork the music is in our heads for that his music was really worldwide by then in terms of western europe talking worldwide of course it wasn't worldwide but it was western europe and uh it was performed in all the courts commissions came thick and fast but at the end there were troubled times because as his illness progressed and haydn had had written also as an inspiration from the english national anthem thinking we ought to have one of those for our emperor he'd written the tune which we now call austria and we tend to sing to glorious things of the are spoken and germany appropriated that from austria for the tune of its national anthem now but it was written as the imperial hymn to honor the emperor franz but the emperor of france was having troubled times by 1809 and uh the french armies of napoleon surrounded the city the staff of haydn were terrified but in fact napoleon when the city was captured placed a guard on haydn's house and two or three days in a young french cavalry officer came and asked to see the composer came and bowed in front of him and then impeccably sang the tenor aria in native worth and haydn was really really pleased that this occupying french officer cavalry officer was actually seeing suleimi his name was was singing his piece and then on the that was on the 17th of may 1809 on the 26th he gathered his household together and on the harpsichord played three times the imperial hymn which we as i say sing as a hymn of our own and from that moment onwards he he began to falter and died on this day the 31st of may well you can see how much we can say about haydn but we're giving thanks for his creation of so many different works and the way in which they are performed and are a resource for all those singers who now are longing to sing again when we can break out of this lockdown so as we give thanks for mary's response to god's vocation we also use haydn to be a response for the creative gifts that we have and respond to in whatever way they are remembering that god goes around the obvious people and chooses the most unexpected people and that might be you or me to be his deacons those who will serve his will let's say our prayers on this lovely feast day we are praying in the anglican communion on this day for the diocese of canberra and gulbarn in the anglican church of australia in the new south wales province and we're continuing to pray for archbishop justin for bishop rose of dover for bishop tim at lambeth and also we pray for the missional learning communities of the recovery the parishes around recalva which we'll begin to pray for by name day by day this week so here then is the prayer for this day and bring your own prayers and intentions as we say this prayer mighty god by whose grace elizabeth rejoiced with mary and greeted her as the mother of the lord look with favor on your lowly servants that with mary we may magnify your holy name and rejoice to acclaim her son our savior who is alive and reigns with you in the unity of the holy spirit one god now and forever amen so we say each in our own language the prayer that 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 now that we've been joined by our feather friends as we say our prayers on this beautiful day up the peace of god which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in the knowledge and love of god and if 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 hope you have a really happy day and if you're in england a happy bank holiday hello taika how are you warm warm fur this you you're not too worried are you about the cockrells and things morning darcy how are you and ducky wow [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] foreign foreign [Music] is [Music] is [Music] foreign [Music] is [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh oh [Applause] is [Applause] [Music] is [Music] mistakes [Music] is [Music] jesus [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] is [Applause] [Music] me