good morning and welcome to the deanery garden in canterbury cathedral on this thursday the 2nd of july and i've brought tiger out here for his breakfast or rather he's joined me for his breakfast and we've come here so that first of all you can enjoy the beauty of the lilies and the lovely sunshine also this is a huge festival day for canterbury it would have been our canterbury cathedral school the king's school canterbury commemoration and speeches day and all week long at the end of their academic year in others years and for the is one of the oldest festivals that go back really uh to just after the war and we would have enjoyed all kinds of performances but of course the place is completely empty and so we we wish our our pupils well over the air but they have been imaginative and created a marvelous program called virtually kings week and if you go into youtube and tap those words in and add canterbury you'll see all the wonderful creative activities that they have produced so congratulations on the academic year to them and also a happy holiday and i say the same to all whose terms are ending in a way that they weren't expecting but it's a case of we'll meet again in september in some way or another and meanwhile have a a happy summer um this is a day when we remember the birth of the wonderful novelist the german swiss novelist hermann hess who was born on this day in 1877 i find several of his works like long parables i think my favorites are narcissus and goldmand set mostly in a medieval monastery and also the glass speed game which is a very clever construction indeed and a mighty parable of life but i've come here specifically and i'm sorry we're a bit in shadow but the madonna lilies are flowering and i'm sitting in the garden with the box hedges and enjoying that and it's reminding me of this day july the 2nd in 1972 it was the day that i was ordained deacon i mentioned yesterday my priesthood but today is the day that i was ordained deacon now in a strange way that day and its preparation i remember more strongly than the year after and i was trying to think this morning why that should be i think first of all it was because it was that day that changed my life into a regular life of ordained ministry and also because the retreat in the gardens of shalford house in weather just like this with pure blue skies and it was a silent retreat through thursday friday and saturday until the sunday morning of the ordination itself that retreat meant so much to me the tension of getting ready of moving from theological college back home to collect possessions to go to accuracy all of that had been startlingly uh strong as a memory and then suddenly everything stopped in quietness and i give great thanks for that the other thing and i have to crave your indulgence with this is that the 2nd of july in those days until 1980 was in our calendar the feast of the visitation of the blessed virgin mary to elizabeth and still there's an option of keeping it on this day so when i was ordained in the the uh ordained deacon in the cathedral church of saint marian's and chad at litchfield it was in fact the feast of the blessed virgin mary's visitation to her cousin and that image stayed with me we'll reflect on that later i've taken therefore to celebrating that free space on may the 31st when our modern calendar gives it to us and also today the 2nd of july as a special thanksgiving for my diaconate because you never stop being a deacon through your whole ministry and that we'll reflect on a little later but for now we begin our morning prayers o 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 assumed 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 oh god set our hearts on fire with love for you now and forever amen our psalm this morning on this second morning of the month is psalm 9 and i'm going to read some verses from that i will give thanks to you lord with my whole heart i will tell of all your marvelous works i will be glad and rejoice in you i will make music to your name almost high when my enemies are driven back they stumble and perish at your presence for you have maintained my right and my cause and sat on your throne giving righteous judgment you have rebuked the nations and destroyed the wicked you have blotted out their name forever and ever the enemy was utterly laid waste you uprooted their cities their very memory has perished but the lord shall endure forever he has made fast his throne for judgment for he shall rule the world with righteousness and govern the peoples with equity then will the lord be a refuge for the oppressed a refuge in the time of trouble and those who know your name will put their trust in you for you lord have never failed those who seek you for the needy shall not always be forgotten and the hope of the poor shall not perish forever arise o lord and let not mortals have the upper hand let the nations be judged before your face put them in fear o lord that the nations may know themselves to be but mortal so we come not to our regular reading of saint luke but to verses in luke chapter 1 which speaks of the festival day of the visitation in those days mary arose and went with haste into the hill country into 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 it's a wonderful story of a pilgrimage if you like of mary having everything which she had puzzled about and everything that she was carrying within her the one she was to give birth to and wanting to share that news with one she loved well and who was much older than she but who had news to share with her as well and as she journeyed along the people she passed on the way would have known none of that it was only when she arrived at the house of elizabeth that the one who greeted her recognized at once that here was the mother of her lord and she greeted her accordingly i was wondering earlier why this day this day of my deaconing would seem so important to me and always has and i think it's because the office and work of a deacon in service to others for that's what a deacon is someone who serves is such a powerful vocation and it undergirds and gives foundation to anything else that you're asked to do either in priestly or episcopal orders but also in human life that word mary has used it twice not the word diaconos in the greek but the word dulos or for her doule in the feminine form she's used it to the angel when the angel comes with her vocation and there's a little bit of questioning and then she says behold i am the lord's servant. that's what the word means and then again when elizabeth greets her with a magnificent greeting she talks about the lord's vocation and how he has looked on the earlier state of his humble servant there's the same word and jesus himself uses that word many times in the sense of i came not to be served but to serve and to give my life as a ransom for many and i think that most of all the vision of the deacon is set out in that scene at the last supper his last act of care and service to the twelve whom he has so protected and helped along the way and and must so many times have tried to hide his irritation with the fact that they they just don't get what he's saying but he knows in his heart and mind that they will and painfully so and he stoops and washes their feet having gut himself with a towel there is the image of the deacon and mary's part in it really is more than that if you go not in st luke's gospel but in st john's gospel to the wedding feast in cana of galilee where the waiters around the tables are called diaconoy mary is the one who prompts jesus to begin his ministry of service should we say early because he's in the my time has not yet come mode and she is in but there are people with needs here and she knows that he will meet those needs so she says to the deacons the diaconoy around the tables and here's the great sentence from the blessed virgin mary do whatever he tells you and when we come eventually to the end of that story and the steward of the feast tastes the the wine the new wine it says he did not know where it came from but the deacons knew the de akanoi knew and there's a sense of realization of the gift we are carrying as deacons and the service that must be performed and the voice of the blessed virgin mary saying in our ears the mother of the lord saying in our ears do whatever he tells you it's in thinking in that way that i know why this day was so important to me for that ministry i shall never lose sin francis of assisi never wanted to be more than a deacon and was never ordained priest nicholas the pharah at little gidding that place whereas t.s eliot said you come to kneel where prayer has been valid nicholas ferrer never wanted to be more than a deacon leading his family with the exploration of the word and in the regular rhythmic life of service to all those around them and hospitality and serving at table but also the rhythm of the daily offices said as we are saying morning prayer now all of that began for me on that second of july in the presence of my parents and sister and so many of so many friends most of whom my close older friends have long since gone to glory and are being served in a different way in the kingdom of heaven but here we're here to offer service and it's a work we're all involved in at a deacon's ordination the gospel from saint luke is read let your loins be girded about and your lamps burning and be like those who wait for their lord's return and the extraordinary thing is that you can put that right okay right at the end of time or you can put that at the end of your life but in fact i'd rather put it as jesus has helped us to do in the gospel of saint matthew i'd rather put it that when the eyes of anyone look into yours and you know their need the lord has returned for you and needs serving the master wants his diaconos to go forward and serve that person any opportunity in the day so that the blooming of the madonna lilies which remind me of my quiet retreat in the garden of shadowfed house making an interval between the busyness of preparation and the time of the time of the the the morning of my ordination as deacon that interval was intensely precious and i'm so glad as in so many ways that i kept a full diary of it because when i read it the whole scene at the blue sky and the lovely gardens of the retreat house of the diocese of litchfield which is still there comes back to me and i thank god for it and thank god for my ordination as deacon because that will never leave me until the day i hand over this mortal life into a much wider life in the kingdom of heaven itself the fruits of which i can taste even now let's then say our prayers in thanksgiving for all of that and each of us for our own vocation for everyone who follows christ showed us the sense of being a deacon of service to those who need it first of all the prayer of the visitation 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 before we say the colleague for this week we remember those that we would pray for in the anglican communion today in the diocese of north karamoja in uganda and pray for james nassak the bishop there and his people and the diocese of auckland in the province of aotearoa new zealand and polynesia and pray for bishop ross bay and his people and the diocese of magui in south sudan and the bishop organo charles parker the bishop there all his people in this diocese we pray for justin our archbishop and give thanks that he'll be coming on sunday to celebrate and preach at our eucharist inside the cathedral again and then we pray for rose bishop of dover and tim bishop at lambeth and today the parish of gouthurst saint mary the virgin with kilndown christ church that's it present vacant but we pray for the reader there sonja drew and all those keeping ministry going in that parish pray for your own places that you would like to pray for your own communities and also grace to execute the office of a deacon in your own life with those around you of service to others here's the prayer for this week almighty god you have broken the tyranny of sin and have sent the spirit of your son into our hearts whereby we call you father give us grace to dedicate our freedom to your service that we and all creation may be brought to the glorious liberty of the children of god through jesus christ our lord amen so as we say the our father we ask for grace always in every situation to hear the words of the mother of the lord saying to us do whatever he tells you and we give thanks for them so in whichever language and whichever way you like to say it we 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 no matter silence for your own prayers this morning i've been a bit in shadow this morning and i don't think that's a bad thing for that's the role of a deacon to be somehow allowing the sun to shine on everything but slightly shaded oneself in the acts of service that we are able to perform for one another god give you grace to follow the blessed virgin mary and all his saints in faith and hope and love and the blessing of god almighty the father the son and the holy spirit be upon you and upon those whom you love and would pray for today and always amen you