foreign [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] Canterbury Cathedral on this morning of Tuesday the 4th of January it's the 11th day of Christmas and we're continuing our journey of pondering in hearts and Minds with the Blessed Virgin Mary as Sin Luke told us she did treasuring all things in her heart and pondering on them as the child unable to speak a word yet the Eternal Word lay before her in her lap or in the manger where he was laid at the time of his birth so we've come back to revisit a scene which we visited earlier in the days of Christmas and I'm sitting beside This Tall Christmas tree which is predominantly in the red color that we were using on the martyrdom of Saint Thomas's day on the 29th of December we've had two significant accidents in uh coming in here first of all the the tree itself had toppled and uh it meant that many of the decorations had fallen on the floor and fish are in in putting it back and popping it up and making it safe and secure then had to try to recreate the pattern the intricate pattern of what was there before and he said this is this is really like a friendship you you make it up bit by bit on the way through by putting it together but if something disturbs the pattern of all that it's impossible to recreate it one has almost to start again but we have tried to recreate what is here but at the same time much more disastrous for me my pair of spectacles which I've not treated very well over the last eight or nine years that I've had them suddenly snapped in half yesterday so I've dug out an old Power and I'm a complicated person with eyesight and that's why I've treated the spectacles so badly because when I'm reading I see very well without spectacles and my short-sightedness has got better and better through but I still need them to drive or to look in a a fair distance away but I've got these which are an old pair which I need to take off to read and I must learn not simply to put them down because I don't need them for a bit because I end up losing them and find them in the grass in the orchard or in some bookcase that or standing on a bookcase that I have no idea where they were but I'll put these down and until I go to the optician and get a proper new pair of spectacles I must just do with these as we go on this morning so let's say our morning prayers and enjoy coming together on this 11th day of Christmas Twelfth Night tomorrow and then Epiphany the day after which brings a completely new season and dimension to our thinking oh Lord open our lips and our mouths shall Proclaim your praise you laid the foundation 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 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 a Psalm on this fourth morning of the month is Psalm 19. the heavens are telling the glory of God and the firmament proclaims his handiwork one day pours out its song to another and one night on Phil's knowledge to another they have now the speech nor language and their voices are not heard yet their sound has gone out into all lands and their words to the ends of the world in them has he set a tabernacle for the Sun that comes forth as a bridegroom out of his chamber and rejoices as a champion to run his course it goes forth from the end of the heavens and runs to the very end again and there is nothing hidden from its heat the law of the Lord is perfect Reviving The Soul the testimony of the Lord is sure and gives wisdom to the simple the statutes of the Lord are right and rejoice the heart the Commandment of the Lord is pure and gives light to the eyes the fear of the Lord is clean and endures forever the judgments of the Lord are true unrighteous altogether more to be desired are they than gold more than much fine gold sweeter also than honey dripping from the honeycomb by them also is your servant torch and in keeping them there is great rewards who can tell how often they offend o cleanse me from my secret faults keep your servant all safe from presumptuous sins lest they get dominion over me so shall I be undefiled and innocent of great offense let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight O Lord my strength and my redeemer marvelous Psalm of creation on this fourth morning of the month and I'm turning now to a section from the prophet Isaiah again this time some verses from chapter 61. a prophecy looking forward to this time of nativity and the time of the pondering of the Blessed Virgin Mary in heart and mind of what does this mean what is the significance of all this I will greatly rejoice in the Lord my soul shall exult in my God who has closed me with the garments of Salvation and has covered me with the cloak of integrity as a bridegroom decks himself with a Garland and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels for as the Earth puts forth her blossom and as seeds in the garden spring up social Gods make righteousness and praise Blossom before all the nations for Zion's sake I will not keep silent and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest until her Deliverance shines out like the Dawn and her salvation as a burning torch the nation shall see your deliverance and all rulers shall see your glory then you shall be called by a new name which the mouth of God will give you shall be a Crown of Glory in the hand of the Lord a royal diadem in the hand of your God a prophecy from hundreds of years before the time of the birth of Jesus and yet a prophecy looking forward to a time of great Glory and the prophecy connected with the birth of the anointed one verse 1 of that prophecy I will greatly rejoice in the Lord my soul shall exult in my God reminds us of Mary's own song The Magnificat the magnifying of Gods and the Wonder at the fact that she also an importance in her own mind from an unimportant place in the world not someone there in a position of power in the capital city but someone in the rural province of Galilee all unnoticed and it seems picked out for this particular and special vocation but it will be a vocation which becomes a vocation of pain as well as of joy and very soon now different dimensions will be entering the Christmas story we shall take wait 40 days from Christmas day until we come to the feast of Christ's presentation in the temple when Mary and Joseph go with their child in fulfillment of the law born under the law born of a woman born under the law as Sin Paul says in his epistle to the Galatians about the birth of Jesus and when they get to the temple on that occasion there's much more for Mary to ponder on and think about from the words of old Simeon and also the words of Anna who had been waiting with such patience in the temple and once again when we go forward 12 years to the bringing of Jesus at his 12th birthday to the temple at that time and Mary and Joseph wondering at what is going on with their child they know that he is special but on this occasion there's a great sense of pondering and wondering how that will work itself out and they're entering really for Jesus hidden years after that but for the moment here we are on the 11th day of the Christmas festival and we are still concentrating on the fragility and silence in terms of human words and wisdom of the Christ child tomorrow 12th night and then on uh Thursday the Feast of the Epiphany and New Dimensions begin to enter into this story with the coming of the Magi and the Gathering of the people of power in herod's Palace as the wise men come and stand before Herod and announce why they've come all of that for Thursday but at the same time the kind of gifts they bring and the balancing of different dimensions these things will enter into what Mary Treasures up in her heart and Ponders on twice in this second chapter of Saint Luke that verse Comes Mary kept all these things treasured them and pondered them in her heart not in her mind but in her heart and we think of all of that as we ourselves follow the footsteps of the Blessed Virgin and ourselves Ponder what does this birth mean for us we've said day by day through Christmas that this becomes a time of patiently waiting and certain things just cannot be hurried you brought in this morning from the greenhouse this Orchid this cymbidium because it had come to the time of its flowering nothing could force it on and we've now brought it in here flowering and wonderful on this day it's the moment for flowering but seasons and times in our human life become important and waiting and being patient becomes important so in following the footsteps of the Blessed Virgin Mary through all those years most of them hidden until the time when Jesus comes into Galilee proclaiming the message of the good news we've come in here for the night I'm going to move over and take more Daylight and then we can think of two particular people that we have connection with today because of their birth date or their Year's mind and the first one of those is the writer T.S Eliot Elliot died on this day in 1965. and we've come to him quite a lot in our thinking as a garden congregation and I want first of all to go to an occasion in 1935 when the play the murder in the cathedral was being produced in the cathedral and at that point as the rehearsals were going on the producer turned to Elliot and said I can't use those two lines they don't fit here I I don't know how to use them and Elliot cut them out and they don't appear now in Murder in the cathedral but he kept them and at the same time had gone on a visit to a Manor House in the cotswirls in gloucestershire called burnt Norton and while he was there the German of an idea came to him and something began to sprout and then flowered into one poem which he called after the manor house burnt Norton but it's not much about the manor house it's a great deal about the garden outside and it's a poem which speaks of The Impressions that he wanted to put together and he began it with those two lines that were cut out of matter in the cathedral and so those things that have been thrown away suddenly found their moment I'm going to read the first paragraph of burnt Norton it's probably one of the four quartets the one that's least read maybe dry salvages would come into the uh sorry I must say that Salvage is because he tells us to say it like assuages but I think Bart Norton is the one we perhaps know least and here's the beginning with those two lines and a third one added present and time passed are both perhaps present in time future and time future contained in time past if all time is eternally present all time is unredeemable What Might Have Been is an abstraction remaining a Perpetual possibility only in a world of speculation What Might Have Been and what has been point to one end which is always present footfalls echo in the memory down the passage which we did not take towards the door we never opened into the Rose Garden my words Echo thus in your mind but to what purpose disturbing the dust on a bowl of rose leaves I do not know other Echoes inhabit the garden shall we follow quick said the bird find them find them Round the Corner through the first gate into our first world shall we follow there we find the thrush to guide us a bit farther into the garden but Elliot is playing with the concept of time and we know that as human beings we have to live in time the Eternal Dimension gives glimpses of itself and is that that Mary is pondering but time marks our steps in our human life and we live always as Elliot says in the present and yet time passed and time future are influences upon that but when we pray for the gift with of with Thanksgiving for the gift of this new day always we are living in the present and its opportunities the moment for those two lines which had been thrown away suddenly came and what was thought to be useless was for another purpose the beginning of what I would say was Elias greatest works which would flower into four poems and throughout them that concept of time as a gift is given to us and also the concept of things which are perhaps thought to be irrelevant useless not at the time very important suddenly become important Elliot actually wrote a poem I'm not going to read it today it'll come better at it at the Feast of the presentation of Jesus in the temple but it's called a song for Simeon and in that there are these lines before the certain hour of maternal sorrow now at this Birth season of decease let the infants the still unspeaking and unspoken word Grant Israel's consolation to one who has 80 years and no tomorrow the voice of Simeon but he's already expressed his prophecy that Mary will know a sword which pierces her own soul at what is to happen to the child she born she had born in her Earthly life time present time passed and time future stretching ahead in a way that we know not what Elliot is the first of our people the second is that the writer J.R.R Tolkien we missed him yesterday he was born on the 3rd of January and our theme was different yesterday so I pick him up today he was born on this day in 18 in in the 3rd of January on in 1892 in blumfontaine in South Africa at the time which was part of the orange free state then and talking becomes important because he too in his Monumental work the Lord of the Rings which has grown to such a popularity and also a familiarity mostly through its films and his book The Hobbit as well points to the unimportant as being the ones that we should notice I've said that on Thursday different dimensions enter our story the wise travel to find the Christ child so that wisdom then meets power at herod's court evil power given to Temptations for its own glory and magnificence and well-being in terms of wealth and power wisdom power and in the midst the fragility of innocence in the child with no power and in human terms at that time no wisdom and yet representing the Eternal words the one most unnoticed is the one who becomes important and that would be so with Mary herself in all her humility my soul magnifies the Lord and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my savior for he has regarded the loneliness of his handmaiden and I'm wanting to just read a passage from the very first volume of The Lord of the Rings here's my old copy and the uh passages from the chapter called the Council of elrond if you know that book very well then you will know that at Rivendell which is a community of the Elves and the elves are the almost that Holy Mystic ones and Tolkien was a very fervent and loyal Roman Catholic and the elves sing songs which have a Holiness about them and there's a scene also which doesn't appear at all in any of the films when Frodo and His companion set off from the Shire and they meet a group of what's called High Elves and Freddie recognizes their song as being from there and the next day they are given lembas the Elven bread for their Journey there's a great sacramental quality about all of that but at the council the leaders of those who are now threatened by the Demonic power of the dark Lords meet together to see who shall be the one who carries the ring of power which controls all the other rings to the Mountain of Fire Mount Doom and casts it in and elrons who is the leader of the Elven people at that time River delis's home knows what a danger it is for any of the wise and any of the powerful to take the ring of power for the temptation to use it would be too great now you remember that in the story of The Hobbit it's Bilbo Baggins who is the one who finds the ring at that time but it's in his possession for a while and then it's now become a possession of Frodo who's also traveled to Rivendell but in retirement and in older years Bilbo is sitting there listening to the council which elrond the leader of the elves is chairing and you've got there the leaders of of men and dwarves and elves and The Wizard Gandalf a different order all wanting the good and Welfare of creation but at the same time you've got the little Hobbits from the country Shire and bilberry is sitting there remembering his journey and the great silence Falls when the wise are trying to think of who will carry the ring with safety Bilbo breaks the silence very well very well Master elrond said Bilbo suddenly say no more it is plain enough what you're pointing at Bilbo the silly Hobbit started this affair and Bilbo had better finish it or himself I was very comfortable here and getting on with my book if you want to know I'm just writing an ending for it I had thought of putting and he lived happily ever afterwards to the end of his days it's a good ending and none the worst for having me news before now I shall have to alter that it does not look like coming true and anyway they will evidently have to be several more chapters if I live to write them it is a frightful nuisance when all Titus starts Boromir looked in surprise at Bilbo but the laughter died on his lips when he saw that all the others regarded the old Hobbit with grave respect only glowing Smiles but his smile came from old memories of course my dear Bilbo said Gandalf if you had really started this affair you might be expected to finish it but you know well enough now that starting is too great a claim for any and that only a small part is played in great Deeds by any hero uni dot bow though the word was meant and we do not doubt that under jest you are making a valiant offer but one beyond your strengths Bilbo you cannot take this thing back it has passed on if you need my advice any longer I should say that your parties ended unless there's a recorder finish your book leave the ending unaltered there is still hope for it but get ready to write a sequel when they come back Bilbo laughed I've never known you give me Pleasant advice Gandalf before as all your unpleasant advice has been good I wonder if this advice is not bad still I don't suppose I have the strength or luck left to deal with the ring it has grown and I have not but tell me what do you mean by they The Messengers who are sent with the ring exactly who are they to be that seems to me what this Council has to decide and all that it has to decide elves May thrive on speech alone and dwarves into your great weariness but I'm only an old Hobbit and I miss my meal at noon can't you think of some names now or put it off till after dinner no one answered the noon bell rang still no one spoke Frodo glanced at all the faces but they were not turned to him all the council sat with downcast eyes as if in deep thought a great dread fell on him as if he was awaiting the pronouncement of some Doom that he had long foreseen and vainly hoped might after all never be spoken an overwhelming longing to rest and remain at Peace by Bilbo's side in Rivendell filled his heart that at last with an effort he spoke and wandered to hear his own words as if some other will was using his small voice I will take the ring he said though I do not know the way elrond raised his eyes and looked at him and Freddie felt his heart pierced by the sudden keenness of the glance if I understand the right all that I have heard El Ron said I think that this task is appointed for you Frodo and that if you do not find a way no one will this is the hour of the Charlotte folk when they arise from their quiet fields to shake the towers and councils of the Great who of all the wise could have foreseen it or if they are wise why should they expect to know it until the hour has struck but it is a heavy burden so heavy that none could lay it on another I do not lay it on you but if you take it freely I will say that your choice is right and though all the mighty elf friends of old were assembled together your seat should be among them but you won't send him off alone surely Master cried Sam unable to contain himself any longer and jumping up from the corner where he'd been quietly sitting on the floor know indeed said elrond turning towards Sam with a smile you at least shall go with him it is hardly possible to separate you from him even when he is summoned to a secret Council and you are not Sam sat down blushing and muttering a nice pickle we've landed ourselves in Mr Frodo he said shaking his head It's a Wonderful Passage of willing vocation but not understanding the dimensions of what is being embraced and also willing vocation but not knowing the way and relying on some other intuition and companions to help find that way well the way is the whole story of tolkien's enormous meditation from beginning to end but the most important thing is that the vocation belongs to the least powerful the least noticed and the one who really longs to stay in the Simplicity of the Home and Community that they know and love and here we have an image a vocation which we can set besides the image of the Blessed Virgin Mary for whom uh Tolkien had the most intense affection and devotion in his worshiping of the Christ child as he did as a faithful Roman Catholic every time he received the sacrament and at all times in his prayers I give thanks for passages like that but also I give thanks for Elliot's concept of time being always for us in the present for as humankind we can live nowhere else at any one moment I am me now and in a few minutes time who knows where I shall be but I know that I shall be in another present which is always eluding me and I can with the intuition of spirituality and the wisdom of others and the companionship and also the physical strengths allotted to me for this bit of life with or without its spectacles I live out this day and I embrace what it brings knowing that the Eternal words walks the steps with me having given himself to our Humanity in the manger and already when Simeon prophesies that the pain of the Cross is there lead across Mary as well as the Christ himself who will come to that moment a moment of present tense for the one who always likes to begin sentences of real Heavenly definition I am I am the way the truth and the life so on this 11th day of Christmas we remember all of that in the vocation of the Blessed Virgin Mary as she Ponders and we Ponder too so it's time to say our prayers on this morning and we've been thinking of those unnoticed and those fragile and so I'm going to go and I'm back to our flower back here which we've brought inside and say our prayers back over here by the window with the sunshine coming through and this lovely cymbidium orchid here in all its fragility we are thinking ourselves this morning uh in the diocese and I'll mention this in a moment to the of the Parish of Saint Peter's alesham but when I say ailsham I'm reminded and some of you will have noticed this happening uh the of the service that we held here after the tragic murder of the police Support Officer Julia James who was walking her dog and how that cut through the community at alesham and and Julia's family they then had to suffer the the loss of Julia's father also who died not too long after and we remember them this morning in our prayers we also are remembering Mike who was a faithful member of our garden congregation who's died after a a brave struggle and we think of his sister Marilyn who lives in Vancouver and again a loyal member of the garden country irrigation pray for her and her husband Andrew and also Mike's son Rob at this time of bereavement you will have many names that you want to mention as we say our prayers we're praying in the Anglican communion for the Diocese of Israel saos in the Church of Nigeria Abba Province yesterday we prayed for the Diocese of itself now this is a different section and then in this diocese for Justin our Archbishop for Rose Bishop of Dover for Emma Bishop at Lambeth and as I said for the Parish of Saint Peter's at alesham and for Stefan Thomas and Nick Ratcliffe in their Ministry there so we use the prayer for this day of Christmas time and the 11th day of Christmas almighty God in the birth of your son you have poured on us the new light of your Incarnate Word and shown us the fullness of Your Love help us to walk in his light and dwell in his love that we may know the fullness of his Joy who is alive and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit one God now and forever amen to each in our own language 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 moment of silence now for reflection [Music] [Music] [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] at Christmas time gathered into one things Earthly and things Heavenly fill you with the spirit of peace and good will 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 we wish you a happy continuation of Christmas just for one more day tomorrow for 12th night [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] foreign [Music]