good morning and welcome to canterbury cathedral on this saturday the 8th of august as we say our morning prayers welcome wherever you are in the world as you come to join us on this saturday morning this is saint dominic's day and we remember the work and life of saint dominic his founding of the order of preachers dominic was born on this day in the year that thomas beckett was killed at 1170 his order of preachers was dedicated to preaching the word and was given more freedom to move about than many of the religious orders so we pray today for the order of preachers the dominicans oh 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 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 today our morning sound is psalm 40 i waited patiently for the lord he inclined to me and heard my cry he brought me out of the roaring pit out of the mire and clay he set my feet upon a rock and made my footing sure he has put a new song in my mouth a song of praise to our god many shall see and fear and put their trust in the lord blessed is the one who trusts in the lord who does not turn to the proud that follow a lie great are the wonders you have done o lord my god how great your designs for us there is none that can be compared with you if i were to proclaim them and tell of them they would be more than i am able to express sacrifice and offering you do not desire but my ears you have opened burned offering and sacrifice for sin you have not required then said i lo i come in the scroll of the book it is written of me that i should do your will o my god i delight to do it your law is within my heart i have declared your righteousness in the great congregation behold i did not restrain my lips and that o lord you know your righteousness i have not hidden in my heart i have spoken of your faithfulness and your salvation i have not concealed your loving kindness and truth from the great congregation do not withhold your compassion from me o lord let your love and your faithfulness always preserve me for innumerable troubles have come about me my sins have overtaken me so that i cannot look up they are more in number than the hairs of my head and my heart fails me be pleased o lord to deliver me o lord make haste to help me let them be ashamed and altogether dismayed who seek after my life to destroy it let them be driven back and put to shame who wish me evil let those who keep insults upon me be desolate because of their shame let all who seek you rejoice and be glad let those who love your salvation say always the lord is great though i am poor and needy the lord cares for me you are my helper and my deliverer oh my god make no delay today we come to the end of the gospel of saint luke which we have been reading together since april the 27th all through these months of lockdown and we've arrived at chapter 24 verse 36 as they were talking about these things jesus himself stood among them and said to them peace be with you but they were startled and frightened and thought they saw a spirit and he said to them why are you troubled and why do doubts arise in your hearts see my hands and my feet that it is i myself touch me and see for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that i have and when he had said this he showed them his hands and his feet and while they still disbelieved for joy and were marveling he said to them have you anything here to eat they gave him a piece of broiled fish and he took it and at it before them and he said to them these are my words that i spoke to you while i was still with you that everything written about me in the law of moses and the prophets and the psalms must be fulfilled then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures and said to them thus it is written that the christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead and repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations beginning from jerusalem you are witnesses of these things and behold i am sending the promise of my father upon you but stay in the city until you are closed with power from on high and he led them out as far as bethany and lifting up his hands he blessed them while he blessed them he parted from them and was carried up into heaven and they worshipped him and returned to jerusalem with great joy and were continually in the temple blessing god [Applause] the end of the gospel of saint luke and once again we find special things that this evangelist is trying to say to us here are the group that we left yesterday not only the disciples that those who were with them those women who had come from galilee and followed with them all the way through not leaving on the hill of the crucifixion being there at once at the empty tomb and now here they are having yesterday received at the end of our lesson yesterday the hasty visit of the two who had left them but had had the experience on the emmaus road and at their home and in sharing this news we hear that the lord has risen and appeared to simon but now he stands amongst them all and his words are words of comfort peace be with you and then there are certain affirmations given they thought they were seeing a spirit and in the book of tobit you remember when tobias goes on the journey with the archangel raphael at the end raphael when he reveals himself reveals himself as an angelic spirit one of the seven angels who wait at the throne of god and he said you may have seen me look as how i was eating i have never eaten with you meaning i'm a spirit so that something is happening here both with the showing of the hands and the feet and also the sharing of the fish with them so it complements the bread from emmaus recognized in the breaking of bread and now the fish look giving us resonance of the feeding of the five thousand but also of the twelve baskets of fragments which the twelve now have to carry out to the world from jerusalem but the hands and the feet which jesus shaves them are wounded hands and feet and he explains to them once again how the christ had a vocation of suffering and everything was prophesied we're told that he explains to them from moses the books of the law the prophets all of them and the psalms jesus is forever quoting parts of psalms even on the cross everything was a fulfillment of prophecy there is total continuity but there is also a confirmation of physicality that this has all been done in our human flesh it's what incarnation means that the word was made flesh as saint john puts it and dwelt among us and luke has shown how that is lived out from the evidence he has collected all those years later scene after scene and now here we may suppose in the upper room with all of them there he confirms those prophecies and he confirms that his suffering as the christ has been a fulfillment of everything that was prophesied and promised and there is more to come for at that point he leads them out to bethany it's a journey they've done again and again it's so familiar it has again resonances of that terrible time on the night of betrayal and arrest it has resonances no doubt for them of enormous grief and sadness but now he is here with them but the ministry of the christ which will still contain all those elements of suffering which the prophets have prophesied the ministry of the christ is now to be theirs they must make up their number as we shall see they do and then the 12 will gather the fragments of all they have learned and go out to face a dangerous world but meanwhile they're walking to bethany across the mount of olives and when they come to bethany he tells them to wait in the city for the gift that the father has promised we're still in prophecy this time we're with the prophet joel as peter will remind them on the day of pentecost the gift of the spirit will come from the father so that they too have the spirit of the anointed christ as they carry out their ministry throughout the world wait for the gift and then he blesses the little group and leaves them and they go back to the city for that's where they've been sent and for luke jerusalem which itself has to suffer as a sign of the holy city terrible destruction throughout the ages enormous suffering yet a sign of the presence of god jerusalem is the beginning as well as the ending and they go back to the city and wage and we're told that they are daily in the temple blessing god constantly in the temple so where we began on april the 27th with zechariah at his post in the temple just about to fulfill his duty according to the law and a new beginning came there in the temple with all the people waiting outside here 24 chapters later the gospel ends in the temple with the little group waiting for the promise of god we give enormous thanks for this gospel but even more thanks for the fact that luke has no intention of leaving it here we used to at the uh little church of england primary school that i had care of in in tisbury the village in wiltshire for nine years of ministry very happy ministry at the end of the terms there particularly at the end of the academic year there was a habit of the children standing up and shouting out the sentence every end is a new beginning well nothing could be more true of this passage today on monday we shall take up luke's story in the acts of the apostles it is if you like in modern terms a series two because the series one has been this wonderful retelling of the gospel narrative as discovered by luke the acts of the apostles will see how those fragments having been gathered by the twelve are taken out into a waiting world let's say our prayers as we feel ourselves blessed by saint luke's gospel and give thanks for dominic who in his ministry knew the power of the word but also in his teaching of the devotions rather like saint ignatius loyola only dominic centered himself on the rosary and the rosary would cause the fingers to go through one gospel picture after another the body keeping the mind and heart straight on those pictures as the gospel of saint luke has done for us over these past weeks and months so we give thanks for him for every member of the order of preachers on this day and as we say our prayers we pray today in the anglican communion for the diocese of ogori magongo in nigeria for festus davis the bishop and his people the diocese of brecken in scotland and andrew swift the bishop there and his people and the diocese of katakua in kenya and john akude amusee the bishop there and his people we pray for archbishop justin for bishop rose of dover and for bishop tim at lambeth and today in our own diocese for the parish of folkestone st peter for mark holden jones the priest there in his ministry to that community and the life of st peter's church of england primary school within the parish you will have many prayers on your hearts people you're thinking about people you would want to offer before god as we pray this morning first the prayer for this saint dominic's day almighty god whose servant dominic grew in the knowledge of your truth and formed an order of preachers to proclaim the faith of christ by your grace give to all your people a love for your word and a longing to share the gospel so that the whole world may come to know you and your son jesus christ our lord our men so we say each in our own language the prayer which our savior taught us to say when we come 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 are men so a moment of silence for our own prayers on this saturday 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 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