A signed copy of The Defilers for Christmas

If you would like a signed copy of The Defilers in time for Christmas, please hit the PayPal button below. For $20, I will send you a signed copy of the novel. PayPal allows you to include shipping information in your email.

Thanks! And thanks to those who have requested the novel via Haloscan.


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Lo, He comes with clouds descending . . .

Lo! he comes, with clouds descending,
once for our salvation slain;
thousand thousand saints attending
swell the triumph of his train:
Alleluia! alleluia! alleluia!
Christ the Lord returns to reign.

Every eye shall now behold him,
robed in dreadful majesty;
those who set at nought and sold him,
pierced, and nailed him to the tree,
deeply wailing, deeply wailing, deeply wailing,
shall the true Messiah see.

Those dear tokens of his passion
still his dazzling body bears,
cause of endless exultation
to his ransomed worshipers;
with what rapture, with what rapture, with what rapture
gaze we on those glorious scars!

Now redemption, long expected,
see in solemn pomp appear;
all his saints, by man rejected,
now shall meet him in the air:
Alleluia! alleluia! alleluia!
See the day of God appear!

Yea, amen! let all adore thee,
high on thine eternal throne;
Savior, take the power and glory;
claim the kingdom for thine own:
Alleluia! alleluia! alleluia!
Thou shalt reign, and thou alone.

Yuval Levin's Obamacare update

He writes at The Corner:

The CBO assessment of the bill tells the appalling story. We are going to raise taxes by half a trillion dollars over the next ten years, increase spending by more than a trillion dollars, cut Medicare by $470 billion but use that money to fund a new entitlement rather than to fix Medicare itself, bend the health care cost curve up rather than down, insert layers of bureaucracy between doctors and patients, and compel and subsidize universal participation in a failed system of health insurance rather than reform or improve it. Indeed, this bill will make it exceedingly difficult to fix our health insurance financing system in the future, since it sucks dry the potential means of such reform but leaves the fundamental cost problem essentially untouched (and in some respects worsened.) After all the back and forth, pulling and tugging, it is hard to see what is left in this bill that any member of Congress, liberal or conservative, would want to support.

Fr. Hunwicke on the need for inherited rituals around sex and drink

He really has a point. He writes:

I thought about that departed age when I heard a news bulletin about a new government initiative. Apparently there is so much violence against girls - of thirteen years or even as young as eleven - including a great deal of sexual violence from boyfriends - that the government is going to take action. What sort of action? Somehow reinforcing patterns of parental control? Ensuring that parents know how their young are dressed and where they're going and what they're doing and who they're with and what time they come home? A long and up-hill struggle to reintroduce patterns of courtship and of gradualism in the development of relationships? Seminars for the young on Modesty? Not on your life. I'm not making this up: children aged five and upwards are to be taught in school about the wrongness of violence against females. (Mind you, this news item was slightly undermined by the next one: about a murderer who had escaped from prison where she was serving Life for beating up and then stabbing her boyfriend to death [why, you ask, did I not write "murderess? Because that would have subverted my paraprosdokian].)

Sex and drink need ritual. They need inherited and formalised restraints. For, as Euripides taught the Athenians in their theatre, Aphrodite and Dionysus are dangerous gods. If you fail to treat them with respect, they will take you to the cleaners. What is wrong with our society is not that the schools fail adequately to drive home the imperatives of political correctness; it is that members of the cultural elite have in the last generations prided themselves on destroying the restraints and deriding the rituals; and now the gods have descended upon them and, my goodness, with what a vengeace. And they don't like it. And the only remedy they seem to be capable of discerning is the ancient mantra: "Doctor says keep on taking the pills". But what the Modern Girl needs is not more skill in contraception and better access to abortifacients, but careful lessons on how to entertain a boy to Tea.

The Octave of All Souls by Robert Eady

I don't have a lot of time to do reviews for the Catholic papers. I usually have such a deluge of material that I must cover that I seem to never get around to writing them. But I felt Robert Eady's The Octave of All Soul's deserved a special mention. I'm glad to see the Western Catholic Reporter has published my review. An excerpt:

One might not think much would happen in the life of a shy, aging spinster,
but Eady, with great tenderness and insight, shows how monumental under the
surface even seemingly circumscribed lives can be.

It is a story of unrequited love, of despair and grace, of an uneducated woman's finding a mentor in her former high school English teacher, now retired, who forms a book club that exposes her to literature.

There is a profound mystery at the core of this book that opens up the meaning of the communion of the saints in eternity. Eady is able to show this in a way that resonates to the bone.

The novel reminds me of Marilynne Robinson's Pulitzer Prize-winning Gilead in its
structure and craftsmanship. Like Eady's book, Gilead is a first-person account
via letters from an elderly pastor, who knows he is dying, to his six-year-old
son.

The Octave of All Souls can be purchased from the publisher at PO Box
315, Combermere, ON K0J 1L0 ($29.95 Cdn. which includes mailing.) Email queries
can be sent to OctaveofAllSouls@live.com.

Horrid "Nativity" scenes

It's enough to make the compiler of this post want to cancel Christmas. H/t The Corner.

Evensong

Minister. O Lord, open thou our lips;

People. And our mouth shall show forth thy praise.

Minister. O God, make speed to save us;

People. O Lord, make haste to help us.

GLORY be to the Father, and to the Son, and the the Holy Ghost;
People. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.
Minister. Praise ye the Lord;
People. The Lord's Name be praised.

Then shall follow THE PSALMS.

Psalm 89

PART 2

THOU spakest sometime in a vision unto thy saints, and saidst, / 'I have laid help upon one that is mighty; I have exalted one chosen out of the people.

20 I have found David my servant: / with my holy oil have I anointed him.

21 My hand shall hold him fast, / and my arm shall strengthen him.

22 The enemy shall not be able to do him violence: / the son of wickedness shall not hurt him.

23 I will beat down his foes before his face, / and smite them that hate him.

24 My faithfulness also and my mercy shall be with him: / and in my Name shall his horn be exalted.

25 I will set his hand also on the sea, / and his right hand on the rivers.

26 He shall call me, "Thou art my Father, / my God, and the rock of my salvation."

27 And I will make him my first-born, / the highest of the kings of the earth.

28 My mercy will I keep for him for evermore; / and my covenant shall stand fast with him.

29 His seed also will I make to endure for ever, / and his throne as the days of heaven.

30 But if his children forsake my law, / and walk not in my judgements;

31 If they break my statutes, and keep not my commandments, / I will visit their offences with the rod, and their sin with scourges.

32 Nevertheless, my loving-kindness will I not utterly take from him, / nor suffer my faithfulness to fail.

33 My covenant will I not break, / nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips.

34 Once for all I have sworn by my holiness; / I will not lie unto David;

35 His seed shall endure for ever, / and his throne is like as the sun before me.

36 It shall stand fast for evermore as the moon, / and as the faithful witness in the sky.'

37 BUT thou hast abhorred and forsaken thine anointed, / and art displeased at him.

38 Thou hast broken the covenant with thy servant, / and cast his crown to the ground.

39 Thou hast overthrown all his fences, / and broken down his strongholds.

40 All they that go by spoil him, / and he is become a reproach to his neighbours.

41 Thou hast set up the right hand of his adversaries, / and made all his enemies to rejoice.

42 Thou hast turned back the edge of his sword, / and givest him not victory in the battle.

43 Thou hast put out his glory, / and cast his throne down to the ground.

44 The days of his youth hast thou shortened, / and covered him with dishonour.

45 How long, O LORD? wilt thou hide thyself for ever? / how long shall thy wrath burn like fire?

46 O remember how short my time is; / wherefore hast thou made all men for nought?

47 What man is he that shall live on, and not see death? / and shall he deliver his soul from the power of the grave?

48 Where are thy former loving-kindnesses, O Lord, / which thou swarest unto David in thy faithfulness?

49 Remember, Lord, the reproach that thy servants have, / and how I do bear in my bosom the insults of the peoples;

50 Wherewith thine enemies have reproached, O LORD, / wherewith they have reproached the footsteps of thine anointed.

51 PRAISED be the LORD for evermore. / Amen and Amen.

Then the FIRST LESSON as appointed.

Isaiah 44 (King James Version)

Is

Isaiah 47

¹Come down, and sit in the dust, O virgin daughter of Babylon, sit on the ground: there is no throne, O daughter of the Chaldeans: for thou shalt no more be called tender and delicate.

²Take the millstones, and grind meal: uncover thy locks, make bare the leg, uncover the thigh, pass over the rivers.

³Thy nakedness shall be uncovered, yea, thy shame shall be seen: I will take vengeance, and I will not meet thee as a man.

⁴As for our redeemer, the LORD of hosts is his name, the Holy One of Israel.

⁵Sit thou silent, and get thee into darkness, O daughter of the Chaldeans: for thou shalt no more be called, The lady of kingdoms.

⁶I was wroth with my people, I have polluted mine inheritance, and given them into thine hand: thou didst shew them no mercy; upon the ancient hast thou very heavily laid thy yoke.

⁷And thou saidst, I shall be a lady for ever: so that thou didst not lay these things to thy heart, neither didst remember the latter end of it.

⁸Therefore hear now this, thou that art given to pleasures, that dwellest carelessly, that sayest in thine heart, I am, and none else beside me; I shall not sit as a widow, neither shall I know the loss of children:

⁹But these two things shall come to thee in a moment in one day, the loss of children, and widowhood: they shall come upon thee in their perfection for the multitude of thy sorceries, and for the great abundance of thine enchantments.

¹⁰For thou hast trusted in thy wickedness: thou hast said, None seeth me. Thy wisdom and thy knowledge, it hath perverted thee; and thou hast said in thine heart, I am, and none else beside me.

¹¹Therefore shall evil come upon thee; thou shalt not know from whence it riseth: and mischief shall fall upon thee; thou shalt not be able to put it off: and desolation shall come upon thee suddenly, which thou shalt not know.

¹²Stand now with thine enchantments, and with the multitude of thy sorceries, wherein thou hast laboured from thy youth; if so be thou shalt be able to profit, if so be thou mayest prevail.

¹³Thou art wearied in the multitude of thy counsels. Let now the astrologers, the stargazers, the monthly prognosticators, stand up, and save thee from these things that shall come upon thee.

¹⁴Behold, they shall be as stubble; the fire shall burn them; they shall not deliver themselves from the power of the flame: there shall not be a coal to warm at, nor fire to sit before it.

¹⁵Thus shall they be unto thee with whom thou hast laboured, even thy merchants, from thy youth: they shall wander every one to his quarter; none shall save thee.

O Adonai

O Adonai [Lord] and Leader of the house of Israel, who appearedst in the bush to Moses in a flame of fire, and gavest him the Law in Sinai: Come and redeem us with an outstretched arm.


MAGNIFICAT. St. Luke 1:46

MY soul doth magnify the Lord, / and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour.

For he hath regarded / the lowliness of his handmaiden.

For behold, from henceforth / all generations shall call me blessed.

For he that is mighty hath magnified me; / and holy is his Name.

And his mercy is on them that fear him / throughout all generations.

He hath showed strength with his arm; / he hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.

He hath put down the mighty from their seat, / and hath exalted the humble and the meek.

He hath filled the hungry with good things; / and the rich he hath sent empty away.

He remembering his mercy / hath holpen his servant Israel;

As he promised to our forefathers, / Abraham and his seed for ever.

GLORY be to the Father, and to the Son, / and to the Holy Ghost;

As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, / world without end. Amen.

O Adonai

O Adonai and Leader of the house of Israel, who appearedst in the bush to Moses in a flame of fire, and gavest him the Law in Sinai: Cone and redeem us wiht an outstretched arm.

THE SECOND LESSON

Revelation 21

¹And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.

²And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

³And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.

⁴And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.

⁵And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful.

⁶And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely.

⁷He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son.

⁸But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.

⁹And there came unto me one of the seven angels which had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues, and talked with me, saying, Come hither, I will shew thee the bride, the Lamb's wife.

¹⁰And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and shewed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God,

¹¹Having the glory of God: and her light was like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal;

¹²And had a wall great and high, and had twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and names written thereon, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel:

¹³On the east three gates; on the north three gates; on the south three gates; and on the west three gates.

¹⁴And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and in them the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.

And after that shall be sung or said Nunc Dimittis (or the Son of Simeon).
NUNC DIMITTIS. St. Luke 2:29.

LORD, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, / according to thy word.
For mine eyes have seen thy salvation, / which thou has prepared before the face of all people;
To be a light to lighten the Gentiles, / and to be the glory of thy people Israel.
GLORY be to the Father, and to the Son, / and to the Holy Ghost;
As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, / world without end. Amen.
Or else Deus Misereatur, Psalm 67, page 409.

Then shall be said or sung the Confession of the Faith, called the Apostles' Creed.

I BELIEVE in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth:
And in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord, Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, Born of the Virgin Mary, Suffered under Pontius Pilate, Was crucified, dead, and buried: He descended into hell; The third day he rose again from the dead; He ascended into heaven, And sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty; From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Ghost; The holy Catholic Church; The Communion of Saints; The Forgiveness of sins; The Resurrection of the body, And the Life everlasting. Amen.

And after the Creed these prayers following, all devoutly kneeling, the Minister first pronouncing:

The Lord be with you;
People. And with thy spirit.
Minister. Let us pray.
Lord, have mercy upon us.
Christ, have mercy upon us.
Lord, have mercy upon 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 them that trespass against us; And lead us not into temptation, But deliver us from evil. Amen.

Then the Priest standing up shall say:
O Lord, show thy mercy upon us;
People. And grant us thy salvation.
Priest. O Lord, save the Queen;
People. And mercifully hear us when we call upon thee.
Priest. Endue thy Ministers with righteousness;
People. And make thy chosen people joyful.
Priest. O Lord, save thy people;
People. And bless thine inheritance.
Priest. Give peace in our time, O Lord;
People. And evermore mightily defend us.
Priest. O God, make clean our hearts within us;
People. And take not thy Holy Spirit from us.

Then shall follow THE COLLECT OF THE DAY, together with any other Collects appointed to be said, and these two prayers in order.

O GOD, who didst bestow upon thy Saints such marvellous virtue, that they were able to stand fast, and have the victory against the world, the flesh, and the devil: Grant that we, who now commemorate thy Martyr St. Ignatius, Bishop of Antioch, Martyr in Rome (c. 115), may ever rejoice in their fellowship, and also be enabled by thy grace to fight the good fight of faith and lay hold upon eternal life; through our Lord Jesus Christ, who with thee and the Holy Spirit liveth and reigneth, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

ALMIGHTY God, the giver of all good gifts, who of thy divine providence hast appointed divers Orders in thy Church: Give thy grace, we humbly beseech thee, to all those who are to be called to any office and administration in the same; and so replenish them with the truth of thy doctrine, and endue them with innocency of life, that they may faithfully serve before thee, to the glory of thy great Name, and to the benefit of thy holy Church; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

ALMIGHTY God, give us grace that we may cast away the works of darkness, and put upon us the armour of light, now in the time of this mortal life, in which thy Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility; that in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious Majesty, to judge both the quick and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal; through him who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, now and ever. Amen.


The Second Collect, for Peace.

O GOD, from whom all holy desires, all good counsels, and all just works do proceed: Give unto thy servants that peace which the world cannot give; that our hearts may be set to obey thy commandments, and also that by thee we being defended from the fear of our enemies may pass our time in rest and quietness; through the merits of Jesus Christ our Saviour. Amen.
The Third Collect, for Aid against all Perils.

LIGHTEN our darkness, we beseech thee, O Lord; and by thy great mercy defend us from all perils and dangers of this night; for the love of thy only Son, our Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.
Here may follow an Anthem or a Hymn.

A Prayer of Saint Chrysostom.
ALMIGHTY God, who hast given us grace at this time with one accord to make our common supplications unto thee; and dost promise that when two or three are gathered together in thy Name thou wilt grant their requests: Fulfil now, O Lord, the desires and petitions of thy servants, as may be most expedient for them; granting us in this world knowledge of thy truth, and in the world to come life everlasting. Amen.

2 Corinthians 13:14.
THE grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Ghost, be with us all evermore. Amen.

Postmodernism invades the hard sciences

A bishop has been sending me some interesting links. Here's a Dec. 3 opinion piece from Daniel Henninger of the Wall Street Journal about how so-called Climategate aka the events at East Anglia illustrate the invasion of postmodernism into the hard sciences.

What is happening at East Anglia is an epochal event. As the hard sciences—physics, biology, chemistry, electrical engineering—came to dominate intellectual life in the last century, some academics in the humanities devised the theory of postmodernism, which liberated them from their colleagues in the sciences. Postmodernism, a self-consciously "unprovable" theory, replaced formal structures with subjectivity. With the revelations of East Anglia, this slippery and variable intellectual world has crossed into the hard sciences.

The Climate Emails

The Economics of Climate Change
Rigging a Climate 'Consensus'
Global Warming With the Lid Off
Climate Science and Candor
Richard Lindzen: The Climate Science Isn't Settled
Bret Stephens: Climategate: Follow the Money

This has harsh implications for the credibility of science generally. Hard science, alongside medicine, was one of the few things left accorded automatic stature and respect by most untrained lay persons. But the average person reading accounts of the East Anglia emails will conclude that hard science has become just another faction, as politicized and "messy" as, say, gender studies. The New England Journal of Medicine has turned into a weird weekly amalgam of straight medical-research and propaganda for the Obama redesign of U.S. medicine.

The East Anglians' mistreatment of scientists who challenged global warming's claims—plotting to shut them up and shut down their ability to publish—evokes the attempt to silence Galileo. The exchanges between Penn State's Michael Mann and East Anglia CRU director Phil Jones sound like Father Firenzuola, the Commissary-General of the Inquisition.

People who lived under the totalitarian Soviet yoke get it

Unfortunately so many others in the west don't, including President Obama.

Former Czech President Vaclav Havel does, however:

FP: After President Obama's decision to postpone his meeting with the Dalai Lama, you said something to the effect that these small gestures seem harmless, but over time can have a powerful, cumulative effect. For the hardhearted realists, can you explain that effect?

Havel: We know this from our modern history. When [French Prime Minister Edouard] Daladier returned from the [1938] Munich conference, the whole nation was applauding him for saving the peace. He made a miniscule compromise in the interest of peace. But it was the beginning of a chain of evil that subsequently brought about many millions of deaths. We can't just say, "This is just a small compromise that can be overlooked. First we will go to China and then perhaps talk with the Dalai Lama." . . .

FP: You make it sound so easy. But how, as president, do you decide when these small compromises are worth it and when they might lead to something more dangerous?

Havel: Politics . . . means, every day making some compromises, and to choose between one evil and another evil, and to decide which is bigger and which is smaller. But sometimes, some of these compromises could be very dangerous because it could be the beginning of the road of making a lot of other compromises, which are results of the first one, and there are very dangerous compromises. And it's necessary, I think, to have the feeling which compromise is possible to do and which, could be, maybe, after ten years, could be somehow very dangerous.

I will illustrate this with my own experience. Two days after I was elected president, I invited the Dalai Lama to visit. I was the first head of the state who invited him in this way, directly. And everybody was saying that it was a terribly dangerous act and issued their disapproving statements and expressions. But it was a ritual matter. Later, the Chinese deputy prime minister and the foreign minister came for a visit and brought me a pile of books about the Dalai Lama and some governmental documents about what good care they have taken of Tibet, and so on. They were propagandist, fabricated books, but he felt the need to explain something to me.

I had a press conference with this minister of foreign affairs. And he said, "It was wonderful, meeting, because we were speaking openly. Mr. Havel gave me his opinion, and I explained the opinion of our government. I gave him this book, and he thanked me for it."

This was unbelievable! Why did they feel the need to explain their point of view to the leader of such a small nation? Because they respect it when someone is standing his ground, when someone is not afraid of them. When someone soils his pants prematurely, then they do not respect you more for it.

My Cornwall Inquiry story gets picked up in Baltimore

I always like it when my byline appears in the United States and elsewhere around the globe. This is from a Baltimore paper.

OTTAWA – Bishop Paul-Andre Durocher of Alexandria-Cornwall, Ontario, apologized for the clergy sexual abuse in his diocese and urged remaining survivors to come forward.

His public statement came as the Cornwall Inquiry, which looked into the response of public institutions to decades of sexual abuse allegations that first became public in 1992, was released at a Dec. 15 news conference.

Led by Normand Glaude, an Ontario court justice, the four-year inquiry offers more than 200 recommendations for public agencies and the church on dealing with abuse cases.

“We know that there were some appalling occasions a few decades ago when people in authority, including priests, sexually abused young people,” Bishop Durocher told reporters. “I have had the occasion a number of times to listen first hand to the painful stories of survivors of sexual abuse and have been shaken by their testimony.

“I repeat what I have said on previous occasions: I am truly and deeply sorry for the pain that has been visited upon some of our young people and their families,” the bishop continued. “On behalf of the Catholic diocese that I lead, I want to apologize to you for the suffering and indignity caused by those in a position of trust and authority who have robbed you of your innocence. That should never have happened. Period.”

Bishop Durocher also invited sexual abuse survivors to continue meeting with him in order “to engage in any steps that will lead to healing and reconciliation.”

The bishop welcomed Glaude’s recommendations for ongoing healing and reconciliation in the community that could cost the province another $9 million.

And here's a story that appeared in the The Boston Pilot about the Apostolic Constitution for Anglicans.

OTTAWA (CNS) -- The primate of the Traditional Anglican Communion said he hopes churches take action to enter into full communion with the Catholic Church before Easter.

Archbishop John Hepworth said he reacted "with overwhelming joy" to the apostolic constitution published Nov. 9 establishing the structure for Anglicans to be in full communion with the Catholic Church.

The archbishop described the constitution as "generous at every turn" in its description of the Anglican heritage, its dogmatic provisions and its pastoral language.

"We've been asked to show the rich heritage to the whole church, not just to ourselves," he said in an interview from Australia.

The Traditional Anglican Communion includes Anglican churches that have left the much larger Anglican Communion over the ordination of women and sexually active homosexuals as priests. The Traditional Anglican Communion is among the largest group of Anglicans likely to embrace the Vatican's action to welcome them into full communion with the church.

Standing ovation for Hugo Chavez

This is chilling news from Copenhagen. This story from an Australian paper starts off with the response to Australian climate change minister Penny Wong:

But before she rose to speak the conference proceedings were interrupted by people with whistles and sirens chanting “stop green capitalism” – a sign of the anger in the developing world that the Danish host government is trying to wrest the process from the professional negotiators, who have failed to make any progress, and hand it to politicians, who might have some chance of achieving something before we all leave on Saturday.

Speaker after speaker from the developing world railed against this idea, with the Sudanese vice president Nafie Ali Nafie speaking on behalf of the developing world and declaring that they stood ready to agree to a new commitment period under the Kyoto Protocol. That would be the agreement where developing countries aren’t obliged to do anything. The other proposed agreement that would require big developing country emitters to bind themselves to their own type of emission reductions they are a lot less keen on.

Then President Chavez brought the house down.

When he said the process in Copenhagen was “not democratic, it is not inclusive, but isn’t that the reality of our world, the world is really and imperial dictatorship…down with imperial dictatorships” he got a rousing round of applause.

When he said there was a “silent and terrible ghost in the room” and that ghost was called capitalism, the applause was deafening.

But then he wound up to his grand conclusion – 20 minutes after his 5 minute speaking time was supposed to have ended and after quoting everyone from Karl Marx to Jesus Christ - “our revolution seeks to help all people…socialism, the other ghost that is probably wandering around this room, that’s the way to save the planet, capitalism is the road to hell....let’s fight against capitalism and make it obey us.” He won a standing ovation.

Roger Scruton on liberals and conservatives

This is one of the best essays I have seen outlining the differences...from The American Spectator.

An excerpt:

By contrast, as conservatives also know, the compassion displayed by the liberal is precisely that -- compassion displayed, though not necessarily felt. The liberal knows in his heart that his "compassionating zeal," as Rousseau described it, is a privilege for which he must thank the social order that sustains him. He knows that his emotion toward the victim class is (these days at least) more or less cost-free, that the few sacrifices he might have to make by way of proving his sincerity are nothing compared to the warm glow of approval by which he will be surrounded by declaring his sympathies. His compassion is a profoundly motivated state of mind, not the painful result of a conscience that will not be silenced, but the costless ticket to popular acclaim.

Why am I repeating those elementary truths, you ask? The answer is simple. The USA has descended from its special position as the principled guardian of Western civilization and joined the club of sentimentalists who have until now depended on American power. In the administration of President Obama we see the very same totalitarian sentimentality that has been at work in Europe, and which has replaced civil society with the state, the family with the adoption agency, work with welfare, and patriotic duty with universal "rights." The lesson of postwar Europe is that it is easy to flaunt compassion, but harder to bear the cost of it. Far preferable to the hard life in which disciplined teaching, costly charity, and responsible attachment are the ruling principles is the life of sentimental display, in which others are encouraged to admire you for virtues you do not possess. This life of phony compassion is a life of transferred costs. Liberals who wax lyrical on the sufferings of the poor do not, on the whole, give their time and money to helping those less fortunate than themselves. On the contrary, they campaign for the state to assume the burden. The inevitable result of their sentimental approach to suffering is the expansion of the state and the increase in its power both to tax us and to control our lives.

So, tell me, why are so many Christians now sentimental liberals who want the state to do everything not only for the poor but for our children (universal daycare) and our old age? Is it because the state breeds dependency and we Christians are addicted to its embrace too?

All creation groans . . .

Ruth Gledhill compiles some of Dr. Alison Peden's "prophetic" remarks from her sermons. Gledhill touts Peden has possibly the United Kingdom's first bishopess.

In Lent 2007, somewhat prophetically, she preached: 'The doomsday of the moment is global warming. I can remember at my secondary school hearing the first discussions about ‘ecology’ (as it was called then). It’s taken a while – a fair amount of ‘putting it off’ – to put pollution and conservation at the top of the agenda. But most people accept that action cannot be delayed, and climate change shows that time is running out. We seem to be prepared to act, to save our own skins, our houses, our landscape. The threat is severe enough.

'And in our Christian lives?

'The second coming and the Last Judgement are scarcely compelling ‘deadlines’ for most of us. We do not look each week (as many medieval worshippers would have done) at a large scene of the jaws of hell waiting to swallow us up. You rarely see the proverbial sandwich-board with the words: “The end is nigh”. If Christians in the first century AD had to come to terms with the possibility that Christ might not return to earth during their lifetime, then how much more so do we discount it – 2000 years on.

'Have you noticed how we talk about ‘journeying’ in our Christian lives now – the journey of faith; the pilgrimage of life. ‘Journeying’ and ‘pilgrimage’ are very good words for our experience of life – we travel through life reflecting and growing and – we hope – journeying with God. But the temptation is to meander along, picking up this good idea or that interesting practice; enjoying the experience and coming and going as we will.

'And so we become dull; we are not alert and we miss the signs that there is a crisis coming: a ‘kairos’ moment – the moment when we are brought up sharply and given a deadline, notice is served on us;

'We’ve looked at how this happens on the wider stage – massive floods show us that there is a climate crisis; ghastly killings of young people show us that society is in trouble; and perhaps we are confronted with death. The ‘journeying’ comes to an abrupt halt. We have to take stock and face ourselves and our life.'

I sure would hate to have this woman has my pastor. Because it seems to me the vision of the God she has in mind is a friendly buddy who accompanies us on our journey, a little pocket genie one can conjure every now and then when we need comfort and assurance. I do not hear the voice of the Shepherd. How would she help me to know better the Living Lord, our Savior Jesus Christ?

Here's a little something from the Litany to cleanse your spiritual palate:

FROM all evil and mischief; from sin, from the crafts and assaults of the devil; from thy wrath, and from everlasting condemnation,
Good Lord, deliver us.

From all blindness of heart; from pride, vainglory, and hypocrisy; from envy, hatred, and malice, and all uncharitableness,
Good Lord, deliver us.

From all uncleanness in thought, word, and deed; and from all the deceits of the world, the flesh, and the devil,
Good Lord, deliver us.

From lightning and tempest; from earthquake, fire, and flood; from plague, pestilence, and famine; from battle and murder, and from sudden death,
Good Lord, deliver us.

From all sedition, conspiracy, and rebellion; from all false doctrine, heresy, and schism; from hardness of heart, and contempt of thy Word and Commandment,
Good Lord, deliver us.

I think Global Warming is the least of our worries. I am more afraid of the totalitarian, anti-western, anti-capitalism schemes that ignore the importance of inculcating virtue in free societies where civil society flourishes and the power of the state is limited. What if our outer climate corresponded somehow with the inner pollution of our spiritual climate? Our spiritual climate is ghastly. Could we not be facing judgment through not only the pollution of our environment but also the rise of hostile forces bent on our destruction from within and without?

Here's the answer---and where the focus should be when it comes to being proper stewards of our environment. It is not in chucking capitalism out the window and kowtowing to the likes of Robert Mugabe and Hugo Chavez and their thuggish vision of a new world order. It is in the Scriptural exhortation we find in Romans 8 and believing it, renewing our minds through it, until we are transformed by the image of Christ:

¹⁶The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:

¹⁷And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with [him], that we may be also glorified together.

¹⁸For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time [are] not worthy [to be compared] with the glory which shall be revealed in us.

¹⁹For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.

²⁰For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected [the same] in hope,

²¹Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.

²²For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.

²³And not only [they], but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, [to wit], the redemption of our body.

I believe liberal Christians have a truncated view of what it means to be a son or daughter of the living God. Inclusiveness where we are all fine just as we are with a little pocket God to accompany us on our journey vs. the glorious liberty of the children of God? I'll choose the latter, thank you very much. We all have an internal war to win against inner spiritual pollution, greed, selfishness and until that war is won, we have to do the best we can with the sinful human beings and sin-ridden human structures. Until the reign of Christ on earth, we will not be able to create the perfect structure or the perfect human being. Thus any attempt to create from human power some kind of one-world government can only end in disaster or, thankfully, the Babel sound coming from Copenhagen right now.

Father Z did some analysis of the Holy Father's 2010 Message for World Day of Peace, his bolds and comments in red.

5.  It should be evident that the ecological crisis cannot be viewed in isolation from other related questions, since it is closely linked to the notion of development itself and our understanding of man in his relationship to others and to the rest of creation. Prudence would thus dictate a profound, long-term review of our model of development, one which would take into consideration the meaning of the economy and its goals with an eye to correcting its malfunctions and misapplications. [For example, is it in Oregon or Washington that thousands of jobs were lost because of the Spotted Owl? In central California farms are being devastated because of a lack of irrigation due to some minnow or other.] The ecological health of the planet calls for this, but it is also demanded by the cultural and moral crisis of humanity whose symptoms have for some time been evident in every part of the world.[8] Humanity needs a profound cultural renewal; [Do I hear an "Amen!"?] it needs to rediscover those values which can serve as the solid basis for building a brighter future for all. Our present crises – be they economic, food-related, environmental or social – are ultimately also moral crises, and all of them are interrelated. They require us to rethink the path which we are travelling together. Specifically, they call for a lifestyle marked by sobriety and solidarity, with new rules and forms of engagement,[Ummm… set down by…. who exactly?] one which focuses confidently and courageously on strategies that actually work, while decisively rejecting those that have failed. Only in this way can the current crisis become an opportunity for discernment and new strategic planning.

6.  Is it not true that what we call “nature” in a cosmic sense has its origin in “a plan of love and truth”? The world “is not the product of any necessity whatsoever, nor of blind fate or chance… The world proceeds from the free will of God; he wanted to make his creatures share in his being, in his intelligence, and in his goodness”.[9] The Book of Genesis, in its very first pages, points to the wise design of the cosmos: it comes forth from God’s mind and finds its culmination in man and woman, made in the image and likeness of the Creator to “fill the earth” and to “have dominion over” it as “stewards” of God himself (cf. Gen 1:28). The harmony between the Creator, mankind and the created world, as described by Sacred Scripture, was disrupted by the sin of Adam and Eve, by man and woman, who wanted to take the place of God and refused to acknowledge that they were his creatures. As a result, the work of “exercising dominion” over the earth, “tilling it and keeping it”, was also disrupted, and conflict arose within and between mankind and the rest of creation (cf. Gen 3:17-19). Human beings let themselves be mastered by selfishness; they misunderstood the meaning of God’s command and exploited creation out of a desire to exercise absolute domination over it. But the true meaning of God’s original command, as the Book of Genesis clearly shows, was not a simple conferral of authority, but rather a summons to responsibility. The wisdom of the ancients had recognized that nature is not at our disposal as “a heap of scattered refuse”.[10] Biblical Revelation made us see that nature is a gift of the Creator, who gave it an inbuilt order and enabled man to draw from it the principles needed to “till it and keep it” (cf. Gen. 2:15).[11] Everything that exists belongs to God, who has entrusted it to man, albeit not for his arbitrary use. Once man, instead of acting as God’s co-worker, sets himself up in place of God, he ends up provoking a rebellion on the part of nature, “which is more tyrannized than governed by him”.[12] Man thus has a duty to exercise responsible stewardship over creation, to care for it and to cultivate it.[13]

-snip-

9.  To be sure, among the basic problems which the international community has to address is that of energy resources and the development of joint and sustainable strategies to satisfy the energy needs of the present and future generations. This means that technologically advanced societies must be prepared to encourage more sober lifestyles, while reducing their energy consumption and improving its efficiency. [Materialistic lifestyle.] At the same time there is a need to encourage research into, and utilization of, forms of energy with lower impact on the environment and “a world-wide redistribution of energy resources, so that countries lacking those resources can have access to them”.[20] [It seems to me that in time a free market will do that.] The ecological crisis offers an historic opportunity to develop a common plan of action aimed at orienting the model of global development [And who will develop that "common plan"?] towards greater respect for creation and for an integral human development inspired by the values proper to charity in truth. [He gives direct advice now…] I would advocate the adoption of a model of development based on the centrality of the human person, on the promotion and sharing of the common good, on responsibility, on a realization of our need for a changed life-style, and on prudence, the virtue which tells us what needs to be done today in view of what might happen tomorrow.[21] [The Pope talking to the world about a virtue. How do you think that will go over?]

Father Z asks several times who will develop the international plan that Pope Benedict seems to refer to--what body. It reminds me of a similar reference in Caritas in Veritate that also pointed to one world-governing regulatory body of some kind.

Well---this can be read many ways and one way is out of context. Another way is to be assured that Benedict would not be advocating any worldwide regulatory body that violated the principles of subsidiarity or laws based on natural law, the dignity of the human person or that imposed "virtue" by force. Respect for the human conscience and for religious freedom would be sacrasanct in his vision. It would not be advocating a Leviathan version of the state. At least I hope to the bottom of my heart he isn't.

Obviously he is offering some practical suggestions for the world as it is.

But I think the only way we'll ever have a one-world regulating body that is not some kind of Tower of Babel or something the Beast would conceive of is when all kingdoms are under the Kingdom of Christ our Lord.

Because it is only when we truly have incorporated what Jesus did for us on the Cross, when we understand that by grace we are now adopted sons and daughters of God and live out by faith the radical transformation that is 'already but not yet in us' that we can leave a better world in our wake.

More on Anglicanorum Coetibus and ecumenism

Here's the text of one of the talks on the Apostolic Constitution given at an information day at Atonement Parish, an Anglican Use parish within the Roman Catholic Church in the United States. Ralph Johnston said, my bolds:

I refer of course to the two competing models of ecumenism. The question: When we resolve the issues that divide the Church, should we compromise Church doctrine? To use a sacramental analogy that all Roman Catholics and all Anglicans will immediately recognize, Are we satisfied to achieve the accidents of communion, or do we strive for the substance of communion? Leo’s answer was the answer of every Council that has confronted a question of doctrine: we must strive for the substance of communion. True communion exists only when there is a willingness to subscribe to a common creed. The disagreement on this point is an old story, one born of our fallen nature. Our Lord Jesus confronted it among His followers, even before He instituted the Church. As we read in John Chapter 6, when Jesus gave his teaching on the Bread of Life, many of the disciples responded by saying “This is a hard teaching; who can follow it?” Today, we continue to ask that question, because we are a stubborn and sinful people. This question will be asked again, many times, in the coming months, and it will be one of the challenges that our returning brethren will face, and the Church will face, in implementing the new apostolic constitution.

-snip (but go read it, most interesting)

The Pastoral Provision was a great gift, and in this parish, we have benefited from it. I personally have benefited tremendously from the Pastoral Provision, and I am eternally grateful. Literally. (laughter) There are people outside our parish, in other places, who have benefited. But for some others, the benefits have not been available. If you were a member of an Episcopalian parish whose reunion was rejected by a Roman Catholic bishop, then you either came into full communion as an individual, or not at all. If you were an Anglican clergyman who was not able to gain access to the Pastoral Provision process, perhaps because you were told that as a Continuer you were ineligible, or perhaps because you were told that no more than two candidates could be in the process in any one diocese, then you either came in as an individual layman, or you gave up, or you are still waiting. I don’t argue that these are moral questions; after all, no one has a right to come in as a member of a group, and no one has a right to demand ordination. But these are pastoral accommodations that the pope wants to be made, and under Anglicanorum Coetibus they will be made, more easily, and more often.

Morning Prayer Thursday

Minister. O Lord, open thou our lips;
People. And our mouth shall show forth thy praise.

Minister. O God, make speed to save us;
People. O Lord, make haste to help us.

GLORY be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
People. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.
Minister. Praise ye the Lord;
People. The Lord's Name be praised.

The Lord is glorious in his saints: / O come, let us worship.

Venite Exultemus Domino. Psalm 95

O COME, let us sing unto the LORD: / let us heartily rejoice in the strength of our salvation.
Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving, / and show ourselves glad in him with psalms.
For the LORD is a great God, / and a great King above all gods.
In his hand are all the corners of the earth: / and the strength of the hills is his also.
The sea is his, and he made it: / and his hands prepared the dry land.
O COME, let us worship, and fall down, / and kneel before the LORD our Maker.
For he is the Lord our God; / and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand.
TO-DAY, O that ye would hear his voice: / 'Harden not your hearts as in the Provocation, and as in the day of Temptation in the wilderness;
When your fathers tempted me, / proved me, and saw my works.
Forty years long was I grieved with that generation, and said, / "It is a people that do err in their hearts, for they have not known my ways";
Unto whom I sware in my wrath, / that they should not enter into my rest.'
GLORY be to the Father, and to the Son, / and to the Holy Ghost;
As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, / world without end. Amen.

The Lord is glorious in his saints: / O come, let us worship.

Then shall follow THE PSALMS.

PSALM 89. Misericordias Domini.

PART 1

MY song shall be alway of the loving-kindness of the LORD; / with my mouth will I ever be showing thy faithfulness from one generation to another.

2 For I have said, 'Loving-kindness shall be built up for ever; / thy faithfulness shalt thou stablish in the heavens.'

3 'I HAVE made a covenant with my chosen: / I have sworn unto David my servant;

4 Thy seed will I stablish for ever, / and set up thy throne from one generation to another.'

5 O LORD, the very heavens shall praise thy wondrous works, / and thy faithfulness in the congregation of the holy ones.

6 For who is he in the skies that shall be compared unto the LORD? / and what is he among the gods that shall be like unto the LORD?

7 God is very greatly to be feared in the council of the holy ones, / and to be had in reverence above all them that are round about him.

8 O LORD God of hosts, who is like unto thee? / thy faithfulness, most mighty LORD, is on every side.

9 Thou rulest the raging of the sea; / thou stillest the waves thereof when they arise.

10 Thou didst crush Rahab as one that is pierced; / thou didst scatter thine enemies abroad with thy mighty arm.

11 The heavens are thine, the earth also is thine: / thou hast laid the foundation of the round world, and all that is therein.

12 Thou hast made the north and the south: / Tabor and Hermon rejoice in thy Name.

13 Thou hast a mighty arm: / strong is thy hand, and high is thy right hand.

14 Righteousness and justice are the foundation of thy throne: / mercy and truth go before thy face.

15 Blessed is the people that can rejoice in thee: / they shall walk, O LORD, in the light of thy countenance.

16 Their delight shall be in thy Name all the day long; / and in thy righteousness shall they be exalted.

17 For thou art the glory of their strength, / and by thy favour our horn is exalted.

18 For to the LORD belongeth our shield, / and our king to the Holy One of Israel.

Then shall be read THE FIRST LESSON

Isaiah 46

¹Bel boweth down, Nebo stoopeth, their idols were upon the beasts, and upon the cattle: your carriages were heavy loaden; they are a burden to the weary beast.

²They stoop, they bow down together; they could not deliver the burden, but themselves are gone into captivity.

³Hearken unto me, O house of Jacob, and all the remnant of the house of Israel, which are borne by me from the belly, which are carried from the womb:

⁴And even to your old age I am he; and even to hoar hairs will I carry you: I have made, and I will bear; even I will carry, and will deliver you.

⁵To whom will ye liken me, and make me equal, and compare me, that we may be like?

⁶They lavish gold out of the bag, and weigh silver in the balance, and hire a goldsmith; and he maketh it a god: they fall down, yea, they worship.

⁷They bear him upon the shoulder, they carry him, and set him in his place, and he standeth; from his place shall he not remove: yea, one shall cry unto him, yet can he not answer, nor save him out of his trouble.

⁸Remember this, and shew yourselves men: bring it again to mind, O ye transgressors.

⁹Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me,

¹⁰Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure:

¹¹Calling a ravenous bird from the east, the man that executeth my counsel from a far country: yea, I have spoken it, I will also bring it to pass; I have purposed it, I will also do it.

¹²Hearken unto me, ye stouthearted, that are far from righteousness:

¹³I bring near my righteousness; it shall not be far off, and my salvation shall not tarry: and I will place salvation in Zion for Israel my glory.

TE DEUM LAUDAMUS.

WE praise thee, O God; we acknowledge thee to be the Lord.

All the earth doth worship thee, the Father everlasting.

To thee all Angels cry aloud, the Heavens and all the Powers therin.

To thee Cherubim and Seraphim continually do cry,

Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of hosts;

Heaven and earth are full of the Majesty of thy glory.

The glorious company of the Apostles praise thee;

The goodly fellowship of the Prophets praise thee;

The noble army of Martyrs praise thee;

The holy Church throughout all the world doth acknowledge thee,

The Father, of an infinite Majesty;

Thine honourable, true, and only Son;

Also the Holy Ghost, the Comforter.

THOU art the King of Glory, O Christ.

Thou art the everlasting Son of the Father.

When thou tookest upon thee to deliver man, thou didst not abhor the Virgin's womb.

When thou hadst overcome the sharpness of death, thou didst open the kingdom of heaven to all believers.

Thou sittest at the right hand of God, in the glory of the Father.

We believe that thou shalt come to be our Judge.

We therefore pray thee, help thy servants, whom thou hast redeemed with thy precious blood.

Make them to be numbered with thy Saints, in glory everlasting.

O LORD, save thy people, and bless thine heritage;

Govern them, and lift them up for ever.

Day by day we magnify thee;

And we worship thy Name, ever world without end.

Vouchsafe, O Lord, to keep us this day without sin.

O Lord, have mercy upon us, have mercy upon us.

O Lord, let thy mercy lighten upon us, as our trust is in thee.

O Lord, in thee have I trusted: let me never be confounded.

THE SECOND LESSON

Mark 9

²And after six days Jesus taketh with him Peter, and James, and John, and leadeth them up into an high mountain apart by themselves: and he was transfigured before them.

³And his raiment became shining, exceeding white as snow; so as no fuller on earth can white them.

⁴And there appeared unto them Elias with Moses: and they were talking with Jesus.

⁵And Peter answered and said to Jesus, Master, it is good for us to be here: and let us make three tabernacles; one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias.

⁶For he wist not what to say; for they were sore afraid.

⁷And there was a cloud that overshadowed them: and a voice came out of the cloud, saying, This is my beloved Son: hear him.

⁸And suddenly, when they had looked round about, they saw no man any more, save Jesus only with themselves.

⁹And as they came down from the mountain, he charged them that they should tell no man what things they had seen, till the Son of man were risen from the dead.

¹⁰And they kept that saying with themselves, questioning one with another what the rising from the dead should mean.

¹¹And they asked him, saying, Why say the scribes that Elias must first come?

¹²And he answered and told them, Elias verily cometh first, and restoreth all things; and how it is written of the Son of man, that he must suffer many things, and be set at nought.

¹³But I say unto you, That Elias is indeed come, and they have done unto him whatsoever they listed, as it is written of him.

¹⁴And when he came to his disciples, he saw a great multitude about them, and the scribes questioning with them.

¹⁵And straightway all the people, when they beheld him, were greatly amazed, and running to him saluted him.

¹⁶And he asked the scribes, What question ye with them?

¹⁷And one of the multitude answered and said, Master, I have brought unto thee my son, which hath a dumb spirit;

¹⁸And wheresoever he taketh him, he teareth him: and he foameth, and gnasheth with his teeth, and pineth away: and I spake to thy disciples that they should cast him out; and they could not.

¹⁹He answereth him, and saith, O faithless generation, how long shall I be with you? how long shall I suffer you? bring him unto me.

²⁰And they brought him unto him: and when he saw him, straightway the spirit tare him; and he fell on the ground, and wallowed foaming.

²¹And he asked his father, How long is it ago since this came unto him? And he said, Of a child.

²²And ofttimes it hath cast him into the fire, and into the waters, to destroy him: but if thou canst do any thing, have compassion on us, and help us.

²³Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.

²⁴And straightway the father of the child cried out, and said with tears, Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief.

²⁵When Jesus saw that the people came running together, he rebuked the foul spirit, saying unto him, Thou dumb and deaf spirit, I charge thee, come out of him, and enter no more into him.

²⁶And the spirit cried, and rent him sore, and came out of him: and he was as one dead; insomuch that many said, He is dead.

²⁷But Jesus took him by the hand, and lifted him up; and he arose.

²⁸And when he was come into the house, his disciples asked him privately, Why could not we cast him out?

²⁹And he said unto them, This kind can come forth by nothing, but by prayer and fasting.

³⁰And they departed thence, and passed through Galilee; and he would not that any man should know it.

³¹For he taught his disciples, and said unto them, The Son of man is delivered into the hands of men, and they shall kill him; and after that he is killed, he shall rise the third day.

³²But they understood not that saying, and were afraid to ask him.

Benedictus. St Luke 1:68

BLESSED be the Lord God of Israel; / for he hath visited and redeemed his people;
And hath raised up a mighty salvation for us, / in the house of his servant David;
As he spake by the mouth of his holy Prophets, / which have been since the world began;
That we should be saved from our enemies, / and from the hands of all that hate us;
To perform the mercy promised to our forefathers, / and to remember his holy covenant;
To perform the oath which he sware to our forefather Abraham, / that he would grant us
That we being delivered out of the hands of our enemies / might serve him without fear,
In holiness and righteousness before him, / all the days of our life.
AND thou, child, shalt be called the Prophet of the Highest: / for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways;
To give knowledge of salvation unto his people / for the remission of their sins;
Through the tender mercy of our God; / whereby the day-spring from on high hath visited us;
To give light to them that sit in darkness, and in the shadow of death, / and to guide our feet into the way of peace.
GLORY be to the Father, and to the Son, / and to the Holy Ghost;
As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, / world without end. Amen.

Then shall be said or sung the Confession of the Faith, called the Apostles' Creed

I BELIEVE in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth:

And in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord, Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, Born of the Virgin Mary, Suffered under Pontius Pilate, Was crucified, dead, and buried: He descended into hell; The third day he rose again from the dead; He ascended into heaven, And sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty; From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Ghost; The holy Catholic Church; The Communion of Saints; The Forgiveness of sins; The Resurrection of the body, And the Life everlasting. Amen.

And after the Creed these prayers following, all devoutly kneeling, the Minister first pronouncing:

The Lord be with you;

People. And with thy spirit.

Minister. Let us pray.

Lord, have mercy upon us.

Christ, have mercy upon us.

Lord, have mercy upon 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 them that trespass against us; And lead us not into temptation, But deliver us from evil. Amen.

Then the Priest standing up shall say:

O Lord, show thy mercy upon us;

People. And grant us thy salvation.

Priest. O Lord, save the Queen;

People. And mercifully hear us when we call upon thee.

Priest. Endue thy Ministers with righteousness;

People. And make thy chosen people joyful.

Priest. O Lord, save thy people;

People. And bless thine inheritance.

Priest. Give peace in our time, O Lord;

People. And evermore mightily defend us.

Priest. O God, make clean our hearts within us;

People. And take not thy Holy Spirit from us.

Then shall follow THE COLLECT OF THE DAY , together with any other Collects appointed to be said, and these two prayers in order.

O GOD, who didst bestow upon thy Saints such marvellous virtue, that they were able to stand fast, and have the victory against the world, the flesh, and the devil: Grant that we, who now commemorate thy Martyr St. Ignatius, Bishop of Antioch, Martyr in Rome (c. 115), may ever rejoice in their fellowship, and also be enabled by thy grace to fight the good fight of faith and lay hold upon eternal life; through our Lord Jesus Christ, who with thee and the Holy Spirit liveth and reigneth, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

ALMIGHTY God, give us grace that we may cast away the works of darkness, and put upon us the armour of light, now in the time of this mortal life, in which thy Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility; that in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious Majesty, to judge both the quick and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal; through him who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, now and ever. Amen.

The Second Collect, for Peace.

O GOD, who art the author of peace and lover of concord, in knowledge of whom standeth our eternal life, whose service is perfect freedom: Defend us thy humble servants in all assaults of our enemies; that we, surely trusting in thy defence, may not fear the power of any adversaries; through the might of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Third Collect, for Grace.

O LORD our heavenly Father, Almighty and everlasting God, who hast safely brought us to the beginning of this day: Defend us in the same with thy mighty power; and grant that this day we fall into no sin, neither run into any kind of danger; but that all our doings may be ordered by thy governance, to do always that is righteous in thy sight; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
LMIGHTY and everlasting God, from whom cometh every good and perfect gift: Send down upon our Bishops and Clergy, and all Congregations committed to their charge, the healthful Spirit of thy grace; and that they may truly please thee, pour upon them the continual dew of thy blessing. Grant this, O Lord, for the honour of our Advocate and Mediator, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Then may be read any of the Occasional Prayers or Thanksgivings, or any prayers sanctioned by the Ordinary, always ending with the Prayer of St Chrysostom and the Grace; and before any of the prayers may be said Let us pray for —, and before any of the thanksgivings, Let us give thanks for —.

A Prayer for all Conditions of men.

* This to be said when any desire the Prayers of the Congregation.

O GOD, the Creator and Preserver of all mankind, we humbly beseech thee for all sorts and conditions of men; that thou wouldest be pleased to make thy ways known unto them, thy saving health unto all nations. More especially we pray for the good estate of the Catholic Church; that it may be so guided and governed by thy good Spirit, that all who profess and call themselves Christians may be led into the way of truth, and hold the faith in unity of spirit, in the bond of peace, and in righteousness of life. Finally we commend to thy fatherly goodness all those, who are any ways afflicted or distressed in mind, body, or estate; [* especially those for whom our prayers are desired;] that it may please thee to comfort and relieve them, according to their several necessities, giving them patience under their sufferings, and a happy issue out of all their afflictions. And this we beg for Jesus Christ his sake. Amen.

A General Thanksgiving, to be said by the Minister alone, or by the Minister and people together.

* This to be said when any that have been prayed for desire to return thanks.

ALMIGHTY God, Father of all mercies, We thine unworthy servants do give thee most humble and hearty thanks For all thy goodness and loving-kindness To us and to all men; [* particularly to those who desire now to offer up their praises and thanksgivings.] We bless thee for our creation, preservation, and all the blessings of this life; But above all for thine inestimable love In the redemption of the world by our Lord Jesus Christ; For the means of grace, And for the hope of glory. And we beseech thee, give us that due sense of all thy mercies, That our hearts may be unfeignedly thankful, And that we show forth thy praise, Not only with our lips, but in our lives; By giving up ourselves to thy service, And by walking before thee in holiness and righteousness all our days; Through Jesus Christ our Lord, To whom, with thee and the Holy Ghost, be all honour and glory, world without end. Amen.

A Prayer of Saint Chrysostom.

ALMIGHTY God, who hast given us grace at this time with one accord to make our common supplications unto thee; and dost promise that when two or three are gathered together in thy Name thou wilt grant their requests: Fulfil now, O Lord, the desires and petitions of thy servants, as may be most expedient for them; granting us in this world knowledge of thy truth, and in the world to come life everlasting. Amen.

2 Corinthians 13:14.

THE grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Ghost, be with us all evermore. Amen.

The dangers of group think

Dr. Sanity recalls the Challenger disaster and the lessons it gives for today about group think and the madness of crowds. Please read it all, but here's an excerpt to whet your appetite:

I was there, right in the middle of all the events of Challenger. As a lowly flight surgeon (who also had a biomedical engineering degree) I watched and listened to the debate in launch control over the effects of the weather. Like many others in that room I was a bit skeptical about the decision to launch, especially since we could see icicles on the SRB and we had all driven to the Cape that early morning in temperatures below 20 degrees. Most of us knew that the o-rings had not been tested at temperatures below freezing (as confirmation of this, hours after the explosion of the orbiter, there were many discussions about the o-rings and the temperature issue as being the most likely cause; so I know it was a subject on many people's minds. Most of us had heard about the Morton Thiokol engineers' reluctance to ok a "go" for launch; though unless you were in upper management, you were not aware of the details of this.)

What I remember most of all was my own sense of trust: trust that the mission managers knew what they were doing; and a calm acceptance of their decision to launch. My own thoughts at the time are still very clear to me: this was NASA , after all. The people here were the "best and brightest" (of course I included myself in this) and our scientific credentials would insure that we would never ignore objective reality. Though I was young and foolish, I clearly understood that wishing and wanting something to be true did not make it so. I had faith that the system was relatively immune to psychosis (i.e., being out of touch with reality).

Needless to say, it was an extremely painful lesson that nature taught us that day, and I have never forgotten it. Of course, I internalized that lesson in a way that is not always consistent with being a psychiatrist, in that I learned you cannot take the "human" out of "human nature"; and that wishes and hopes are all very nice and all, but that reality is not in the least interested in your wishes and hopes--or any of your feelings for that matter.

Evensong

I blew it. I missed posting Evensong last night. Then I missed posting Morning Prayer this morning.

Yesterday I was swamped trying to file a story on the mammoth Cornwall Inquiry and got it sent off with moments to spare to get ready for the Prime Minister's Christmas reception for press gallery members at 24 Sussex. When I got home, I had to prepare for a very early start this morning so I could to try to get a photo of Bishop Lahey as he entered court. I got into town before dawn, then walked to the courthouse from Parliament Hill and waited and waited in the cold but he never showed up. I am tired and grumpy and really don't feel like doing blogging this, but I know I'll be in a better frame of mind once I do. I'm also going to go and actually pray this with the books and light one of my blessed candles.

What I'm going to do is include all the readings from yesterday's missed Evensong, Morning Prayer and tonight's within the Evensong and I will have the two O Antiphons to catch up.

Archbishop Prendergast explains the O Antiphons on his blog here.

Here goes.

Minister. O Lord, open thou our lips;

People. And our mouth shall show forth thy praise.

Minister. O God, make speed to save us;

People. O Lord, make haste to help us.

GLORY be to the Father, and to the Son, and the the Holy Ghost;
People. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.
Minister. Praise ye the Lord;
People. The Lord's Name be praised.

Then shall follow THE PSALMS.

Psalm 78

PART 2

MANY a time did God's people rebel against him in the wilderness, / and grieve him in the desert.

43 They turned back and tempted God, / and provoked the Holy One of Israel.

44 They thought not of his hand, / and of the day when he delivered them from the hand of the enemy;

45 How he had wrought his miracles in Egypt, / and his wonders in the field of Zoan.

46 He turned their rivers into blood, / so that they could not drink of their streams.

47 He sent among them swarms of flies, which devoured them, / and frogs, which destroyed them.

48 He gave their fruit unto the caterpillar, / and their labour unto the locust.

49 He destroyed their vines with hail-stones, / and their sycamore-trees with the frost.

50 He smote their cattle also with hail-stones, / and their flocks with hot thunderbolts.

51 He cast upon them the fury of his wrath, anger, displeasure, and trouble: / a band of destroying angels.

52 He made a way for his indignation, and spared not their soul from death, / but gave their life over to the pestilence;

53 And smote all the first-born in Egypt, / the firstlings of their strength in the dwellings of Ham.

54 BUT as for his own people, he led them forth like sheep, / and guided them in the wilderness like a flock.

55 He brought them out safely, that they did not fear, / and overwhelmed their enemies in the sea.

56 He brought them unto his holy border, / even to the mountain which he had purchased with his right hand.

57 He cast out the nations also before them, / caused their land to be divided among them for an heritage, and made the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tents.

58 YET they tempted and rebelled against the Most High God, / and kept not his testimonies;

59 But turned back, and fell away like their forefathers, / starting aside like a broken bow.

60 For they grieved him with their hill-altars, / and provoked him to displeasure with their images.

61 When God heard this, he was wroth, / and took sore displeasure at Israel;

62 So that he forsook the tabernacle in Shiloh, / even the tent that he had pitched among men.

63 He delivered his strength into captivity, / and his glory into the enemy's hand.

64 He gave his people over also unto the sword, / and was wroth with his inheritance.

65 The fire consumed their young men, / and their maidens were not given to marriage.

66 Their priests were slain with the sword; / and their widows made no lamentation.

67 So the Lord awaked as one out of sleep, / and like a giant refreshed with wine.

68 He smote his enemies backward, / and put them to a perpetual shame.

69 He refused the tabernacle of Joseph, / and chose not the tribe of Ephraim;

70 But chose the tribe of Judah, / even the hill of Sion which he loved.

71 And he built his sanctuary like the heights of heaven, / and like the earth which he hath founded for ever.

72 He chose David also his servant, / and took him away from the sheep-folds.

73 As he was following the ewes with their young he brought him, / that he might feed Jacob his people, and Israel his inheritance.

74 So he fed them with a faithful and true heart, / and ruled them prudently with all his power.

Psalm 119

PART 4. Adhaesit pavimento.

MY soul cleaveth to the dust; / O quicken thou me, according to thy word.

26 I have acknowledged my ways, and thou heardest me: / O teach me thy statutes.

27 Make me to understand the way of thy precepts; / and so shall I meditate upon thy wondrous works.

28 My soul melteth away for very heaviness: / comfort thou me according unto thy word.

29 Take from me the way of lying, / and graciously grant me thy law.

30 I have chosen the way of truth, / and thy judgements have I laid before me.

31 I cleave unto thy testimonies: / O LORD, confound me not.

32 I will run the way of thy commandments, / when thou hast set my heart at liberty.

PART 5. Legem pone.

TEACH me, O LORD, the way of thy statutes, / and I shall keep it unto the end.

34 Give me understanding, and I shall keep thy law: / yea, I shall keep it with my whole heart.

35 Make me to go in the path of thy commandments; / for therein is my desire.

36 Incline my heart unto thy testimonies, / and not to covetousness.

37 O turn away mine eyes, lest they behold vanity, / and quicken thou me in thy ways.

38 O stablish thy word to thy servant, / that I may fear thee.

39 Take away the reproach that I am afraid of; / for thy judgements are good.

40 Behold, I have longed for thy precepts: / O quicken me in thy righteousness.

PART 6. Et veniat super me.

LET thy loving mercy come also unto me, O LORD, / even thy salvation according unto thy word.

42 So shall I make answer unto my blasphemers; / for my trust is in thy word.

43 O take not the word of truth utterly out of my mouth; / for my hope is in thy judgements.

44 So shall I alway keep thy law, / yea, for ever and ever.

45 And I will walk at liberty; / for I seek thy precepts.

46 I will speak of thy testimonies also, even before kings, / and will not be ashamed.

47 And my delight shall be in thy commandments, / which I have loved.

48 My hands also will I lift up unto thy commandments, which I have loved; / and my study shall be in thy statutes.

PART 7. Memor esto verbi tui.

O THINK upon thy word as concerning thy servant, / wherein thou hast caused me to put my trust.

50 The same is my comfort in my trouble; / for thy word hath quickened me.

51 The proud have had me exceedingly in derision; / yet have I not shrinked from thy law.

52 For I remembered thine everlasting judgements, O LORD, / and received comfort.

53 Horror hath taken hold of me, / because of the ungodly that forsake thy law.

54 Thy statutes have been my songs / in the house of my pilgrimage.

55 I have thought upon thy Name, O LORD, in the night-season, / and have kept thy law.

56 This I have had, / because I kept thy precepts.

PART 8. Portio mea, Domine.

THOU art my portion, O LORD: / I have promised to keep thy words.

58 I made my humble petition in thy presence with my whole heart: / O be merciful unto me, according to thy word.

59 I called mine own ways to remembrance, / and turned my feet unto thy testimonies.

60 I made haste and prolonged not the time, / to keep thy commandments.

61 The cords of the ungodly have encompassed me; / but I have not forgotten thy law.

62 At midnight I will rise to give thanks unto thee, / because of thy righteous judgements.

63 I am a companion of all them that fear thee / and keep thy precepts.

64 The earth, O LORD, is full of thy mercy: / O teach me thy statutes.

Then the FIRST LESSON as appointed.

Isaiah 44 (King James Version)

Isaiah 44

¹Yet now hear, O Jacob my servant; and Israel, whom I have chosen:

²Thus saith the LORD that made thee, and formed thee from the womb, which will help thee; Fear not, O Jacob, my servant; and thou, Jesurun, whom I have chosen.

³For I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground: I will pour my spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thine offspring:

⁴And they shall spring up as among the grass, as willows by the water courses.

⁵One shall say, I am the LORD's; and another shall call himself by the name of Jacob; and another shall subscribe with his hand unto the LORD, and surname himself by the name of Israel.

⁶Thus saith the LORD the King of Israel, and his redeemer the LORD of hosts; I am the first, and I am the last; and beside me there is no God.

⁷And who, as I, shall call, and shall declare it, and set it in order for me, since I appointed the ancient people? and the things that are coming, and shall come, let them shew unto them.

⁸Fear ye not, neither be afraid: have not I told thee from that time, and have declared it? ye are even my witnesses. Is there a God beside me? yea, there is no God; I know not any.

⁹They that make a graven image are all of them vanity; and their delectable things shall not profit; and they are their own witnesses; they see not, nor know; that they may be ashamed.

¹⁰Who hath formed a god, or molten a graven image that is profitable for nothing?

¹¹Behold, all his fellows shall be ashamed: and the workmen, they are of men: let them all be gathered together, let them stand up; yet they shall fear, and they shall be ashamed together.

¹²The smith with the tongs both worketh in the coals, and fashioneth it with hammers, and worketh it with the strength of his arms: yea, he is hungry, and his strength faileth: he drinketh no water, and is faint.

¹³The carpenter stretcheth out his rule; he marketh it out with a line; he fitteth it with planes, and he marketh it out with the compass, and maketh it after the figure of a man, according to the beauty of a man; that it may remain in the house.

¹⁴He heweth him down cedars, and taketh the cypress and the oak, which he strengtheneth for himself among the trees of the forest: he planteth an ash, and the rain doth nourish it.

¹⁵Then shall it be for a man to burn: for he will take thereof, and warm himself; yea, he kindleth it, and baketh bread; yea, he maketh a god, and worshippeth it; he maketh it a graven image, and falleth down thereto.

¹⁶He burneth part thereof in the fire; with part thereof he eateth flesh; he roasteth roast, and is satisfied: yea, he warmeth himself, and saith, Aha, I am warm, I have seen the fire:

¹⁷And the residue thereof he maketh a god, even his graven image: he falleth down unto it, and worshippeth it, and prayeth unto it, and saith, Deliver me; for thou art my god.

¹⁸They have not known nor understood: for he hath shut their eyes, that they cannot see; and their hearts, that they cannot understand.

¹⁹And none considereth in his heart, neither is there knowledge nor understanding to say, I have burned part of it in the fire; yea, also I have baked bread upon the coals thereof; I have roasted flesh, and eaten it: and shall I make the residue thereof an abomination? shall I fall down to the stock of a tree?

²⁰He feedeth on ashes: a deceived heart hath turned him aside, that he cannot deliver his soul, nor say, Is there not a lie in my right hand?

²¹Remember these, O Jacob and Israel; for thou art my servant: I have formed thee; thou art my servant: O Israel, thou shalt not be forgotten of me.

²²I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and, as a cloud, thy sins: return unto me; for I have redeemed thee.

²³Sing, O ye heavens; for the LORD hath done it: shout, ye lower parts of the earth: break forth into singing, ye mountains, O forest, and every tree therein: for the LORD hath redeemed Jacob, and glorified himself in Israel.

²⁴Thus saith the LORD, thy redeemer, and he that formed thee from the womb, I am the LORD that maketh all things; that stretcheth forth the heavens alone; that spreadeth abroad the earth by myself;

²⁵That frustrateth the tokens of the liars, and maketh diviners mad; that turneth wise men backward, and maketh their knowledge foolish;

²⁶That confirmeth the word of his servant, and performeth the counsel of his messengers; that saith to Jerusalem, Thou shalt be inhabited; and to the cities of Judah, Ye shall be built, and I will raise up the decayed places thereof:

²⁷That saith to the deep, Be dry, and I will dry up thy rivers:

²⁸That saith of Cyrus, He is my shepherd, and shall perform all my pleasure: even saying to Jerusalem, Thou shalt be built; and to the temple, Thy foundation shall be laid.

Isaiah 45

¹Thus saith the LORD to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have holden, to subdue nations before him; and I will loose the loins of kings, to open before him the two leaved gates; and the gates shall not be shut;

²I will go before thee, and make the crooked places straight: I will break in pieces the gates of brass, and cut in sunder the bars of iron:

³And I will give thee the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places, that thou mayest know that I, the LORD, which call thee by thy name, am the God of Israel.

⁴For Jacob my servant's sake, and Israel mine elect, I have even called thee by thy name: I have surnamed thee, though thou hast not known me.

⁵I am the LORD, and there is none else, there is no God beside me: I girded thee, though thou hast not known me:

⁶That they may know from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that there is none beside me. I am the LORD, and there is none else.

⁷I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.

⁸Drop down, ye heavens, from above, and let the skies pour down righteousness: let the earth open, and let them bring forth salvation, and let righteousness spring up together; I the LORD have created it.

⁹Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker! Let the potsherd strive with the potsherds of the earth. Shall the clay say to him that fashioneth it, What makest thou? or thy work, He hath no hands?

¹⁰Woe unto him that saith unto his father, What begettest thou? or to the woman, What hast thou brought forth?

¹¹Thus saith the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, and his Maker, Ask me of things to come concerning my sons, and concerning the work of my hands command ye me.

¹²I have made the earth, and created man upon it: I, even my hands, have stretched out the heavens, and all their host have I commanded.

¹³I have raised him up in righteousness, and I will direct all his ways: he shall build my city, and he shall let go my captives, not for price nor reward, saith the LORD of hosts.

¹⁴Thus saith the LORD, The labour of Egypt, and merchandise of Ethiopia and of the Sabeans, men of stature, shall come over unto thee, and they shall be thine: they shall come after thee; in chains they shall come over, and they shall fall down unto thee, they shall make supplication unto thee, saying, Surely God is in thee; and there is none else, there is no God.

¹⁵Verily thou art a God that hidest thyself, O God of Israel, the Saviour.

¹⁶They shall be ashamed, and also confounded, all of them: they shall go to confusion together that are makers of idols.

¹⁷But Israel shall be saved in the LORD with an everlasting salvation: ye shall not be ashamed nor confounded world without end.

¹⁸For thus saith the LORD that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited: I am the LORD; and there is none else.

¹⁹I have not spoken in secret, in a dark place of the earth: I said not unto the seed of Jacob, Seek ye me in vain: I the LORD speak righteousness, I declare things that are right.

²⁰Assemble yourselves and come; draw near together, ye that are escaped of the nations: they have no knowledge that set up the wood of their graven image, and pray unto a god that cannot save.

²¹Tell ye, and bring them near; yea, let them take counsel together: who hath declared this from ancient time? who hath told it from that time? have not I the LORD? and there is no God else beside me; a just God and a Saviour; there is none beside me.

²²Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else.

²³I have sworn by myself, the word is gone out of my mouth in righteousness, and shall not return, That unto me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear.

²⁴Surely, shall one say, in the LORD have I righteousness and strength: even to him shall men come; and all that are incensed against him shall be ashamed.

²⁵In the LORD shall all the seed of Israel be justified, and shall glory.

O Sapienta

O WISDOM, which camest out of the mouth of the Most High, and reachest from one end to another, mightily and sweetly ordering all things: Come and teach us the way of prudence.


MAGNIFICAT. St. Luke 1:46

MY soul doth magnify the Lord, / and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour.

For he hath regarded / the lowliness of his handmaiden.

For behold, from henceforth / all generations shall call me blessed.

For he that is mighty hath magnified me; / and holy is his Name.

And his mercy is on them that fear him / throughout all generations.

He hath showed strength with his arm; / he hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.

He hath put down the mighty from their seat, / and hath exalted the humble and the meek.

He hath filled the hungry with good things; / and the rich he hath sent empty away.

He remembering his mercy / hath holpen his servant Israel;

As he promised to our forefathers, / Abraham and his seed for ever.

GLORY be to the Father, and to the Son, / and to the Holy Ghost;

As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, / world without end. Amen.

O Sapienta

O WISDOM, which camest out of the mouth of the Most High, and reachest from one end to another, mightily and sweetly ordering all things: Come and teach us the way of prudence.



THE SECOND LESSON

Revelation 19

¹And after these things I heard a great voice of much people in heaven, saying, Alleluia; Salvation, and glory, and honour, and power, unto the Lord our God:

²For true and righteous are his judgments: for he hath judged the great whore, which did corrupt the earth with her fornication, and hath avenged the blood of his servants at her hand.

³And again they said, Alleluia And her smoke rose up for ever and ever.

⁴And the four and twenty elders and the four beasts fell down and worshipped God that sat on the throne, saying, Amen; Alleluia.

⁵And a voice came out of the throne, saying, Praise our God, all ye his servants, and ye that fear him, both small and great.

⁶And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Alleluia: for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth.

⁷Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready.

⁸And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints.

⁹And he saith unto me, Write, Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he saith unto me, These are the true sayings of God.

¹⁰And I fell at his feet to worship him. And he said unto me, See thou do it not: I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus: worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.

¹¹And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war.

¹²His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself.

¹³And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God.

¹⁴And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean.

¹⁵And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.

¹⁶And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.

¹⁷And I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven, Come and gather yourselves together unto the supper of the great God;

¹⁸That ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses, and of them that sit on them, and the flesh of all men, both free and bond, both small and great.

¹⁹And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse, and against his army.

²⁰And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone.

²¹And the remnant were slain with the sword of him that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of his mouth: and all the fowls were filled with their flesh.

Revelation 20

¹And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand.

²And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years,

³And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season.

⁴And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.

⁵But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection.

⁶Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.

⁷And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison,

⁸And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog, and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.

⁹And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them.

¹⁰And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.

¹¹And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them.

¹²And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.

¹³And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works.

¹⁴And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.

¹⁵And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.

Second reading from Morning Prayer this morning:

Mark 8

¹¹And the Pharisees came forth, and began to question with him, seeking of him a sign from heaven, tempting him.

¹²And he sighed deeply in his spirit, and saith, Why doth this generation seek after a sign? verily I say unto you, There shall no sign be given unto this generation.

¹³And he left them, and entering into the ship again departed to the other side.

¹⁴Now the disciples had forgotten to take bread, neither had they in the ship with them more than one loaf.

¹⁵And he charged them, saying, Take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, and of the leaven of Herod.

¹⁶And they reasoned among themselves, saying, It is because we have no bread.

¹⁷And when Jesus knew it, he saith unto them, Why reason ye, because ye have no bread? perceive ye not yet, neither understand? have ye your heart yet hardened?

¹⁸Having eyes, see ye not? and having ears, hear ye not? and do ye not remember?

¹⁹When I brake the five loaves among five thousand, how many baskets full of fragments took ye up? They say unto him, Twelve.

²⁰And when the seven among four thousand, how many baskets full of fragments took ye up? And they said, Seven.

²¹And he said unto them, How is it that ye do not understand?

²²And he cometh to Bethsaida; and they bring a blind man unto him, and besought him to touch him.

²³And he took the blind man by the hand, and led him out of the town; and when he had spit on his eyes, and put his hands upon him, he asked him if he saw ought.

²⁴And he looked up, and said, I see men as trees, walking.

²⁵After that he put his hands again upon his eyes, and made him look up: and he was restored, and saw every man clearly.

²⁶And he sent him away to his house, saying, Neither go into the town, nor tell it to any in the town.

²⁷And Jesus went out, and his disciples, into the towns of Caesarea Philippi: and by the way he asked his disciples, saying unto them, Whom do men say that I am?

²⁸And they answered, John the Baptist; but some say, Elias; and others, One of the prophets.

²⁹And he saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am? And Peter answereth and saith unto him, Thou art the Christ.

³⁰And he charged them that they should tell no man of him.

³¹And he began to teach them, that the Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders, and of the chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again.

³²And he spake that saying openly. And Peter took him, and began to rebuke him.

³³But when he had turned about and looked on his disciples, he rebuked Peter, saying, Get thee behind me, Satan: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but the things that be of men.

³⁴And when he had called the people unto him with his disciples also, he said unto them, Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.

³⁵For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel's, the same shall save it.

³⁶For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?

³⁷Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?

³⁸Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation; of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.

Mark 9

¹And he said unto them, Verily I say unto you, That there be some of them that stand here, which shall not taste of death, till they have seen the kingdom of God come with power.

And after that shall be sung or said Nunc Dimittis (or the Son of Simeon).
NUNC DIMITTIS. St. Luke 2:29.

LORD, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, / according to thy word.
For mine eyes have seen thy salvation, / which thou has prepared before the face of all people;
To be a light to lighten the Gentiles, / and to be the glory of thy people Israel.
GLORY be to the Father, and to the Son, / and to the Holy Ghost;
As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, / world without end. Amen.
Or else Deus Misereatur, Psalm 67, page 409.

Then shall be said or sung the Confession of the Faith, called the Apostles' Creed.

I BELIEVE in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth:
And in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord, Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, Born of the Virgin Mary, Suffered under Pontius Pilate, Was crucified, dead, and buried: He descended into hell; The third day he rose again from the dead; He ascended into heaven, And sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty; From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Ghost; The holy Catholic Church; The Communion of Saints; The Forgiveness of sins; The Resurrection of the body, And the Life everlasting. Amen.

And after the Creed these prayers following, all devoutly kneeling, the Minister first pronouncing:

The Lord be with you;
People. And with thy spirit.
Minister. Let us pray.
Lord, have mercy upon us.
Christ, have mercy upon us.
Lord, have mercy upon 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 them that trespass against us; And lead us not into temptation, But deliver us from evil. Amen.

Then the Priest standing up shall say:
O Lord, show thy mercy upon us;
People. And grant us thy salvation.
Priest. O Lord, save the Queen;
People. And mercifully hear us when we call upon thee.
Priest. Endue thy Ministers with righteousness;
People. And make thy chosen people joyful.
Priest. O Lord, save thy people;
People. And bless thine inheritance.
Priest. Give peace in our time, O Lord;
People. And evermore mightily defend us.
Priest. O God, make clean our hearts within us;
People. And take not thy Holy Spirit from us.

Then shall follow THE COLLECT OF THE DAY, together with any other Collects appointed to be said, and these two prayers in order.

ALMIGHTY Lord and everlasting Father, who wouldest have the kingdoms of the world become the kingdom of thy Son Jesus Christ: Bestow thy blessing, we beseech thee, upon all who labour for peace and righteousness among the nations, that the day may be hastened when war shall be no more, and thou shalt take the nations for thine inheritance; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

ALMIGHTY God, the giver of all good gifts, who of thy divine providence hast appointed divers Orders in thy Church: Give thy grace, we humbly beseech thee, to all those who are to be called to any office and administration in the same; and so replenish them with the truth of thy doctrine, and endue them with innocency of life, that they may faithfully serve before thee, to the glory of thy great Name, and to the benefit of thy holy Church; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

ALMIGHTY God, give us grace that we may cast away the works of darkness, and put upon us the armour of light, now in the time of this mortal life, in which thy Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility; that in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious Majesty, to judge both the quick and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal; through him who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, now and ever. Amen.


The Second Collect, for Peace.

O GOD, from whom all holy desires, all good counsels, and all just works do proceed: Give unto thy servants that peace which the world cannot give; that our hearts may be set to obey thy commandments, and also that by thee we being defended from the fear of our enemies may pass our time in rest and quietness; through the merits of Jesus Christ our Saviour. Amen.
The Third Collect, for Aid against all Perils.

LIGHTEN our darkness, we beseech thee, O Lord; and by thy great mercy defend us from all perils and dangers of this night; for the love of thy only Son, our Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.
Here may follow an Anthem or a Hymn.

A Prayer of Saint Chrysostom.
ALMIGHTY God, who hast given us grace at this time with one accord to make our common supplications unto thee; and dost promise that when two or three are gathered together in thy Name thou wilt grant their requests: Fulfil now, O Lord, the desires and petitions of thy servants, as may be most expedient for them; granting us in this world knowledge of thy truth, and in the world to come life everlasting. Amen.

2 Corinthians 13:14.
THE grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Ghost, be with us all evermore. Amen.

Dockers is onto something

Dockers is onto something

John Robson at the Free Speech and Liberty Symposium

Thanks to Vlad Tepes Blog and h/t Blazing Cat Fur:

John Robson for Vimeo - Computer from Vlad Tepes on Vimeo.

Also, here's the text of Gerry Nicholls excellent talk on Election Gag Laws and Free Speech from the same Symposium, also a tip to 'Fur.

Gerry writes:

For you see, on November 28, 2001 an RCMP officer burst into my office. I thought he was there to sell me tickets to the policeman’s ball. But it turns out he was actually there to charge me with a crime.

Or more precisely he was there to charge the National Citizens Coalition, the group I worked for at the time with a crime.

And the crime, according to the police was that the NCC violated what we called the “election gag law.”

The reason I want to discuss this legal tiff this morning is that illustrates why gag laws are wrong, why gag laws are dangerous and why all Canadians who cherish free speech should work to have gag laws repealed.

Let me first begin my discussion by defining the gag law. The gag law is technically part of the Canada Elections Act. This section essentially imposes severe legal restrictions on how much money citizens or independent groups can spend on “political advertising” during federal elections.

In other words, this law makes if virtually impossible for citizens to effectively express political opinions during elections – the most crucial period of any democracy.

Or to put it another way, the gag law gives politicians and political parties a monopoly on election debate -- everybody else has to shut up.

My pictures and comments on the symposium here and here.

Archeologism and various views of the via media

Fr. Anthony Chadwick writes at The AngloCatholic:

Whilst researching the situation of the liturgy in the early sixteenth century, I made a number of discoveries. The most important is the desire to attempt to reproduce the religion of the early Church of something like the second and third centuries. This is archæologism, an idealised and mechanical reproduction of the primitive Church and its worship in so far as they could be ascertained by the very imperfect scholarship of the time. The Reformation was insufficiently critical of its own assumptions concerning the liturgy of the primitive Church. The reformers believed that a return to the purity of the Gospel meant taking as the liturgical norm the Low Mass and to suppress the medieval accretions such as the Offertory and the Canon, except the words of Institution. They emphasised the penitential features of the Low Mass, reducing everything to the dimensions of a Eucharistic meal and the memory of the Passion.

All the Reformers actually succeeded in doing was to reinforce the worst aspects of medieval Catholicism. They had taken their penitential prayers, not from patristic sources, but from the various apocryphal rites of Holy Communion outside Mass, which originated after the end of the thirteenth century. Their devotion of the suffering Humanity of Christ originated in the Expositiones Missæ. The sacramental element of the liturgy had given way to a sentimental and allegorical remembrance of the past actions of Christ. Largely, the reformers had kept the medieval accretions and had thrown away the most authentic aspects of the liturgy of the early Church, an observation made by the Anglican liturgist and Benedictine monk Dom Gregory Dix. The chief characteristic of Protestant worship is its artificial nature; it had not developed from centuries of tradition, as did the ancient eastern and western liturgies.

I have thus understood what the Caroline Divines tried to do. Actually, they were not concerned with the liturgy other than minor modifications. The Prayer Book was considered as a “given”. The Caroline Divines in the seventeenth century forged a vision that would provide something of a basis for what we could call Anglican patrimony, but not the be-all-and-end-all. After all Pope Clement VIII said of Richard Hooker after reading some of the major passages of the Ecclesiastical Polity:

“There is no learning that this man has not searched into: nothing too hard for his understanding: this man indeed deserves the name of an author: his books will be reverenced as they grow in age, for there is in them such seeds of eternity that if the rest be like this, (that he had read) they shall endure until the last fire shall consume all learning.”

Some Anglicans were beginning to see the way out of the chaos caused by the Protestant and Puritan revolutions, and this is something that is now firing the imagination of a great man of the intellectual stature of Benedict XVI. The Caroline Divines reacted from within their own system against its own excesses, from whence the overriding idea of the via media. But, it can be argued that a via media represents an inability to say yes or no. In the greater and more elevated minds, the idea led not to compromise between two wrongs, but to a transcendent vision of beauty and truth.

12 Things Marion Den Boers likes about The Defilers

She writes:

Deborah Gyapong
told me she spent 10 years writing
The Defilers
and that writing this book was a lot of work.

It shows.
............................................................................

Twelve things I like about "The Defilers"

1) The characters are real and multi-dimensional

2) The issues are real

3) The main character grows and changes

4) The supernatural is naturally included

5) This is a novel by a Christian about Christian stuff

6) There is suspense

7) There is romance

8) The Defilers is well-written

9) The story flows

10) It’s even better than the Frank Peretti books

11) I read The Defilers instead of doing the 101 other things calling for my attention

12) I feel good about recommending The Defilers to my friends

I heard Marian read from her book Blooming: This Pilgrim's Progress at a recent event for Canadian Christian writers. You can see her picture, here--she's the second one down. Most entertaining and heartwarming, as is her blog. I look forward to reading her book.

I desire Jesus and not quail, thank you!

^{I love the readings of Advent. They remind me that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.}

^{In today's Psalm 78 Part I, we read:}

23 Because they believed not in God, / and put not their trust in his help.

24 Yet he commanded the clouds above, / and opened the doors of heaven.

25 He rained down manna also upon them for to eat, / and gave them food from heaven.

26 So man did eat angels' bread; / for he sent them food enough.

27 He caused the east wind to blow in the heavens; / and through his power he brought in the south-west wind.

28 He rained flesh upon them as thick as dust, / and feathered fowls like as the sand of the sea.

29 He let it fall among their tents, / even round about their habitations.

30 So they did eat and were well filled; / for he gave them their own desire.

31 But before they had satisfied their craving, and while the food was yet in their mouths, / the heavy wrath of God came upon them,

^{Before I got back into journalism, I did some work with authors who were writing manuscripts that fell into the personal coaching field. Both authors were Christian men. At the time I also had my heart set on getting my novel The Defilers published and was thinking of developing my own personal coaching business, as I was steeped in various ideas about goal-setting, visualization techniques like those athletes use, and other techniques that can really help one achieve one's desires.}

^{But what always drew me back from "The Secret" kind of visualization of grandiose riches and bestsellerdom was this Psalm about quail and some things I had heard Penn Clark say about this and that someone wrote on a writers' listserve I belong to.}

I am deathly afraid of desiring something other than God's best for me, and being abandoned to my own desires and getting quail. So my heart's desire that I cultivate is Jesus--that I may know Him and love Him and serve Him and through Him love others the way He loves me.

Let me be abandoned to that heart's desire. No danger of quail in that.

And thankfully, when I have had obsessive desires in the past for quail, God has often put a hedge about me and prevented me from getting what I want. The few times He's allowed me to have my quail, his "wrath" or chastisement has been a severe mercy that broke me of my pride, shattered my willfulness (at least temporarily!) and made me aware that Jesus alone is truly faithful.

So I know he will not break the bruised reed or quench the burning flax as we have read recently in Isaiah.

And I draw great comfort from these words that we read yesterday from Isaiah 43:

¹But now thus saith the LORD that created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel, Fear not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine.

²When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.

³For I am the LORD thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour: I gave Egypt for thy ransom, Ethiopia and Seba for thee.

⁴Since thou wast precious in my sight, thou hast been honourable, and I have loved thee: therefore will I give men for thee, and people for thy life.

⁵Fear not: for I am with thee: I will bring thy seed from the east, and gather thee from the west;

⁶I will say to the north, Give up; and to the south, Keep not back: bring my sons from far, and my daughters from the ends of the earth;

⁷Even every one that is called by my name: for I have created him for my glory, I have formed him; yea, I have made him.

⁸Bring forth the blind people that have eyes, and the deaf that have ears.

⁹Let all the nations be gathered together, and let the people be assembled: who among them can declare this, and shew us former things? let them bring forth their witnesses, that they may be justified: or let them hear, and say, It is truth.

¹⁰Ye are my witnesses, saith the LORD, and my servant whom I have chosen: that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am he: before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me.

¹¹I, even I, am the LORD; and beside me there is no saviour.

¹²I have declared, and have saved, and I have shewed, when there was no strange god among you: therefore ye are my witnesses, saith the LORD, that I am God.

¹³Yea, before the day was I am he; and there is none that can deliver out of my hand: I will work, and who shall let it?

Morning Prayer Tuesday

Minister. O Lord, open thou our lips;
People. And our mouth shall show forth thy praise.

Minister. O God, make speed to save us;
People. O Lord, make haste to help us.

GLORY be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
People. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.
Minister. Praise ye the Lord;
People. The Lord's Name be praised.

Our King and Savior draweth nigh: / O come, let us worship.

Venite Exultemus Domino. Psalm 95

O COME, let us sing unto the LORD: / let us heartily rejoice in the strength of our salvation.
Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving, / and show ourselves glad in him with psalms.
For the LORD is a great God, / and a great King above all gods.
In his hand are all the corners of the earth: / and the strength of the hills is his also.
The sea is his, and he made it: / and his hands prepared the dry land.
O COME, let us worship, and fall down, / and kneel before the LORD our Maker.
For he is the Lord our God; / and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand.
TO-DAY, O that ye would hear his voice: / 'Harden not your hearts as in the Provocation, and as in the day of Temptation in the wilderness;
When your fathers tempted me, / proved me, and saw my works.
Forty years long was I grieved with that generation, and said, / "It is a people that do err in their hearts, for they have not known my ways";
Unto whom I sware in my wrath, / that they should not enter into my rest.'
GLORY be to the Father, and to the Son, / and to the Holy Ghost;
As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, / world without end. Amen.

Our King and Savior draweth nigh: / O come, let us worship.

Then shall follow THE PSALMS.

PSALM 78. Attendite, popule.

PART 1

HEAR my teaching, O my people: / incline your ears unto the words of my mouth.

2 I will open my mouth in a parable; / I will utter dark sayings from of old;

3 Which we have heard and known, / and such as our fathers have told us.

4 We will not hide them from their children, but tell them to the generation to come, / even the praises of the LORD, and his might, and his wonderful works that he hath done.

5 HE made a covenant with Jacob, and gave Israel a law, / which he commanded our forefathers to teach their children;

6 That the next generation might know it, / and the children which were yet unborn;

7 To the intent that when they rose up, / they might show their children the same;

8 That they might put their trust in God, / and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments;

9 And not be as their forefathers, a faithless and stubborn generation, / a generation that set not their heart aright, and whose spirit was not faithful to God;

10 Like as the children of Ephraim, who being armed, and carrying bows, / turned themselves back in the day of battle.

11 They kept not the covenant of God, / and would not walk in his law;

12 But forgat what he had done, / and the wonderful works that he had showed for them.

13 Marvellous things did he in the sight of their fathers, / in the land of Egypt, even in the field of Zoan.

14 He divided the sea, and let them go through; / and he made the waters to stand as a heap.

15 In the day-time also he led them with a cloud, / and all the night through with a light of fire.

16 He rent the hard rocks in the wilderness, / and gave them drink abundantly as from the deep.

17 He brought water out of the stony rock, / so that it gushed out like the rivers.

18 YET for all this they sinned more against him, / and provoked the Most High in the wilderness.

19 They tempted God in their hearts, / demanding the food which they craved.

20 They spake against God also, saying, / 'Can God prepare a table in the wilderness?

21 He smote the stony rock indeed, that the waters gushed out, and the streams flowed withal; / but can he give bread also, or provide flesh for his people?'

22 When the LORD heard this, he was wroth; / so the fire was kindled in Jacob, and there came up heavy displeasure against Israel;

23 Because they believed not in God, / and put not their trust in his help.

24 Yet he commanded the clouds above, / and opened the doors of heaven.

25 He rained down manna also upon them for to eat, / and gave them food from heaven.

26 So man did eat angels' bread; / for he sent them food enough.

27 He caused the east wind to blow in the heavens; / and through his power he brought in the south-west wind.

28 He rained flesh upon them as thick as dust, / and feathered fowls like as the sand of the sea.

29 He let it fall among their tents, / even round about their habitations.

30 So they did eat and were well filled; / for he gave them their own desire.

31 But before they had satisfied their craving, and while the food was yet in their mouths, / the heavy wrath of God came upon them,

32 And he slew the strongest of them, / and smote down the chosen men that were in Israel.

33 BUT for all this they sinned yet more, / and believed not his wondrous works.

34 Therefore their days did he consume in vanity, / and their years in terror.

35 When he slew them, they sought him, / and turned them back, and inquired earnestly after God.

36 And they remembered that God was their strength, / and that God Most High was their redeemer.

37 Nevertheless, they did but flatter him with their mouth, / and dissembled with him in their tongue.

38 For their heart was not stedfast with him, / neither continued they faithful in his covenant.

39 But he was so merciful, that he forgave their misdeeds, / and destroyed them not.

40 Yea, many a time turned he his wrath away, / and would not suffer his whole displeasure to arise.

41 For he considered that they were but flesh, / and that they were even a wind that passeth away, and cometh not again.

Then shall be read THE FIRST LESSON

Isaiah 43

¹⁴Thus saith the LORD, your redeemer, the Holy One of Israel; For your sake I have sent to Babylon, and have brought down all their nobles, and the Chaldeans, whose cry is in the ships.

¹⁵I am the LORD, your Holy One, the creator of Israel, your King.

¹⁶Thus saith the LORD, which maketh a way in the sea, and a path in the mighty waters;

¹⁷Which bringeth forth the chariot and horse, the army and the power; they shall lie down together, they shall not rise: they are extinct, they are quenched as tow.

¹⁸Remember ye not the former things, neither consider the things of old.

¹⁹Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.

²⁰The beast of the field shall honour me, the dragons and the owls: because I give waters in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert, to give drink to my people, my chosen.

²¹This people have I formed for myself; they shall shew forth my praise.

²²But thou hast not called upon me, O Jacob; but thou hast been weary of me, O Israel.

²³Thou hast not brought me the small cattle of thy burnt offerings; neither hast thou honoured me with thy sacrifices. I have not caused thee to serve with an offering, nor wearied thee with incense.

²⁴Thou hast bought me no sweet cane with money, neither hast thou filled me with the fat of thy sacrifices: but thou hast made me to serve with thy sins, thou hast wearied me with thine iniquities.

²⁵I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins.

²⁶Put me in remembrance: let us plead together: declare thou, that thou mayest be justified.

²⁷Thy first father hath sinned, and thy teachers have transgressed against me.

²⁸Therefore I have profaned the princes of the sanctuary, and have given Jacob to the curse, and Israel to reproaches.

Isaiah 44

¹Yet now hear, O Jacob my servant; and Israel, whom I have chosen:

²Thus saith the LORD that made thee, and formed thee from the womb, which will help thee; Fear not, O Jacob, my servant; and thou, Jesurun, whom I have chosen.

³For I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground: I will pour my spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thine offspring:

⁴And they shall spring up as among the grass, as willows by the water courses.

⁵One shall say, I am the LORD's; and another shall call himself by the name of Jacob; and another shall subscribe with his hand unto the LORD, and surname himself by the name of Israel.

SURGE, ILLUMINARE. Isaiah 60. 1.

ARISE, shine, for thy light is come, / and the glory of the LORD is risen upon thee.

For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people.

But the LORD shall arise upon thee, / and his glory shall be seen upon thee.

And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, / and kings to the brightness of thy rising.

Thy gates shall be open continually; / they shall not be shut day nor night.

The sons also of them that afflicted thee / shall come bending unto thee;

And all they that despised thee / shall bow themselves down at the soles of thy feet.

And they shall call thee the City of the LORD, / the Zion of the Holy One of Israel.

Violence shall no more be heard in thy land, / wasting nor destruction within thy borders.

But thou shalt call thy walls Salvation, / and thy gates Praise.

The sun shall be no more thy light by day, / neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto thee,

But the LORD shall be unto thee an everlasting light, / and thy God thy glory.

GLORY be to the Father, and to the Son, / and to the Holy Ghost;

As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, / world without end. Amen.

THE SECOND LESSON

Mark 7

²⁴And from thence he arose, and went into the borders of Tyre and Sidon, and entered into an house, and would have no man know it: but he could not be hid.

²⁵For a certain woman, whose young daughter had an unclean spirit, heard of him, and came and fell at his feet:

²⁶The woman was a Greek, a Syrophenician by nation; and she besought him that he would cast forth the devil out of her daughter.

²⁷But Jesus said unto her, Let the children first be filled: for it is not meet to take the children's bread, and to cast it unto the dogs.

²⁸And she answered and said unto him, Yes, Lord: yet the dogs under the table eat of the children's crumbs.

²⁹And he said unto her, For this saying go thy way; the devil is gone out of thy daughter.

³⁰And when she was come to her house, she found the devil gone out, and her daughter laid upon the bed.

³¹And again, departing from the coasts of Tyre and Sidon, he came unto the sea of Galilee, through the midst of the coasts of Decapolis.

³²And they bring unto him one that was deaf, and had an impediment in his speech; and they beseech him to put his hand upon him.

³³And he took him aside from the multitude, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spit, and touched his tongue;

³⁴And looking up to heaven, he sighed, and saith unto him, Ephphatha, that is, Be opened.

³⁵And straightway his ears were opened, and the string of his tongue was loosed, and he spake plain.

³⁶And he charged them that they should tell no man: but the more he charged them, so much the more a great deal they published it;

³⁷And were beyond measure astonished, saying, He hath done all things well: he maketh both the deaf to hear, and the dumb to speak.

Mark 8

¹In those days the multitude being very great, and having nothing to eat, Jesus called his disciples unto him, and saith unto them,

²I have compassion on the multitude, because they have now been with me three days, and have nothing to eat:

³And if I send them away fasting to their own houses, they will faint by the way: for divers of them came from far.

⁴And his disciples answered him, From whence can a man satisfy these men with bread here in the wilderness?

⁵And he asked them, How many loaves have ye? And they said, Seven.

⁶And he commanded the people to sit down on the ground: and he took the seven loaves, and gave thanks, and brake, and gave to his disciples to set before them; and they did set them before the people.

⁷And they had a few small fishes: and he blessed, and commanded to set them also before them.

⁸So they did eat, and were filled: and they took up of the broken meat that was left seven baskets.

⁹And they that had eaten were about four thousand: and he sent them away.

¹⁰And straightway he entered into a ship with his disciples, and came into the parts of Dalmanutha.

Benedictus. St Luke 1:68

BLESSED be the Lord God of Israel; / for he hath visited and redeemed his people;
And hath raised up a mighty salvation for us, / in the house of his servant David;
As he spake by the mouth of his holy Prophets, / which have been since the world began;
That we should be saved from our enemies, / and from the hands of all that hate us;
To perform the mercy promised to our forefathers, / and to remember his holy covenant;
To perform the oath which he sware to our forefather Abraham, / that he would grant us
That we being delivered out of the hands of our enemies / might serve him without fear,
In holiness and righteousness before him, / all the days of our life.
AND thou, child, shalt be called the Prophet of the Highest: / for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways;
To give knowledge of salvation unto his people / for the remission of their sins;
Through the tender mercy of our God; / whereby the day-spring from on high hath visited us;
To give light to them that sit in darkness, and in the shadow of death, / and to guide our feet into the way of peace.
GLORY be to the Father, and to the Son, / and to the Holy Ghost;
As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, / world without end. Amen.

Then shall be said or sung the Confession of the Faith, called the Apostles' Creed

I BELIEVE in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth:

And in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord, Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, Born of the Virgin Mary, Suffered under Pontius Pilate, Was crucified, dead, and buried: He descended into hell; The third day he rose again from the dead; He ascended into heaven, And sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty; From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Ghost; The holy Catholic Church; The Communion of Saints; The Forgiveness of sins; The Resurrection of the body, And the Life everlasting. Amen.

And after the Creed these prayers following, all devoutly kneeling, the Minister first pronouncing:

The Lord be with you;

People. And with thy spirit.

Minister. Let us pray.

Lord, have mercy upon us.

Christ, have mercy upon us.

Lord, have mercy upon 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 them that trespass against us; And lead us not into temptation, But deliver us from evil. Amen.

Then the Priest standing up shall say:

O Lord, show thy mercy upon us;

People. And grant us thy salvation.

Priest. O Lord, save the Queen;

People. And mercifully hear us when we call upon thee.

Priest. Endue thy Ministers with righteousness;

People. And make thy chosen people joyful.

Priest. O Lord, save thy people;

People. And bless thine inheritance.

Priest. Give peace in our time, O Lord;

People. And evermore mightily defend us.

Priest. O God, make clean our hearts within us;

People. And take not thy Holy Spirit from us.

Then shall follow THE COLLECT OF THE DAY , together with any other Collects appointed to be said, and these two prayers in order.

O LORD Jesu Christ, who at thy first coming didst send thy messenger to prepare thy way before thee: Grant that the ministers and stewards of thy mysteries may likewise so prepare and make ready thy way, by turning the hearts of the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, that at thy second coming to judge the world we may be found an acceptable people in thy sight; who livest and reignest with the Father and the Holy Spirit, ever one God, world without end. Amen.

ALMIGHTY God, give us grace that we may cast away the works of darkness, and put upon us the armour of light, now in the time of this mortal life, in which thy Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility; that in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious Majesty, to judge both the quick and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal; through him who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, now and ever. Amen.

The Second Collect, for Peace.

O GOD, who art the author of peace and lover of concord, in knowledge of whom standeth our eternal life, whose service is perfect freedom: Defend us thy humble servants in all assaults of our enemies; that we, surely trusting in thy defence, may not fear the power of any adversaries; through the might of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Third Collect, for Grace.

O LORD our heavenly Father, Almighty and everlasting God, who hast safely brought us to the beginning of this day: Defend us in the same with thy mighty power; and grant that this day we fall into no sin, neither run into any kind of danger; but that all our doings may be ordered by thy governance, to do always that is righteous in thy sight; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
LMIGHTY and everlasting God, from whom cometh every good and perfect gift: Send down upon our Bishops and Clergy, and all Congregations committed to their charge, the healthful Spirit of thy grace; and that they may truly please thee, pour upon them the continual dew of thy blessing. Grant this, O Lord, for the honour of our Advocate and Mediator, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Then may be read any of the Occasional Prayers or Thanksgivings, or any prayers sanctioned by the Ordinary, always ending with the Prayer of St Chrysostom and the Grace; and before any of the prayers may be said Let us pray for —, and before any of the thanksgivings, Let us give thanks for —.

A Prayer for all Conditions of men.

* This to be said when any desire the Prayers of the Congregation.

O GOD, the Creator and Preserver of all mankind, we humbly beseech thee for all sorts and conditions of men; that thou wouldest be pleased to make thy ways known unto them, thy saving health unto all nations. More especially we pray for the good estate of the Catholic Church; that it may be so guided and governed by thy good Spirit, that all who profess and call themselves Christians may be led into the way of truth, and hold the faith in unity of spirit, in the bond of peace, and in righteousness of life. Finally we commend to thy fatherly goodness all those, who are any ways afflicted or distressed in mind, body, or estate; [* especially those for whom our prayers are desired;] that it may please thee to comfort and relieve them, according to their several necessities, giving them patience under their sufferings, and a happy issue out of all their afflictions. And this we beg for Jesus Christ his sake. Amen.

A General Thanksgiving, to be said by the Minister alone, or by the Minister and people together.

* This to be said when any that have been prayed for desire to return thanks.

ALMIGHTY God, Father of all mercies, We thine unworthy servants do give thee most humble and hearty thanks For all thy goodness and loving-kindness To us and to all men; [* particularly to those who desire now to offer up their praises and thanksgivings.] We bless thee for our creation, preservation, and all the blessings of this life; But above all for thine inestimable love In the redemption of the world by our Lord Jesus Christ; For the means of grace, And for the hope of glory. And we beseech thee, give us that due sense of all thy mercies, That our hearts may be unfeignedly thankful, And that we show forth thy praise, Not only with our lips, but in our lives; By giving up ourselves to thy service, And by walking before thee in holiness and righteousness all our days; Through Jesus Christ our Lord, To whom, with thee and the Holy Ghost, be all honour and glory, world without end. Amen.

A Prayer of Saint Chrysostom.

ALMIGHTY God, who hast given us grace at this time with one accord to make our common supplications unto thee; and dost promise that when two or three are gathered together in thy Name thou wilt grant their requests: Fulfil now, O Lord, the desires and petitions of thy servants, as may be most expedient for them; granting us in this world knowledge of thy truth, and in the world to come life everlasting. Amen.

2 Corinthians 13:14.

THE grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Ghost, be with us all evermore. Amen.

Evensong for Monday

Minister. O Lord, open thou our lips;

People. And our mouth shall show forth thy praise.

Minister. O God, make speed to save us;

People. O Lord, make haste to help us.

GLORY be to the Father, and to the Son, and the the Holy Ghost;
People. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.
Minister. Praise ye the Lord;
People. The Lord's Name be praised.

Then shall follow THE PSALMS.

SALM 74. Ut quid, Deus?

O GOD, wherefore hast thou cast us off for ever? / why is thy wrath so hot against the sheep of thy pasture?

2 O think upon thy congregation, / which thou hast purchased of old;

3 Which thou hast redeemed to be the tribe of thine inheritance: / think upon mount Sion, wherein thou hast dwelt.

4 Direct thy steps unto the perpetual ruins: / all the evil that the enemy hath done in the sanctuary.

5 Thine adversaries roar in the midst of thy congregation, / and set up their banners for tokens.

6 They seem like men that lift up axes upon a grove of trees; / for now they break down all the carved work thereof with axes and hammers.

7 They have set thy sanctuary on fire, / and have defiled the dwelling-place of thy Name, even unto the ground.

8 Yea, they said in their hearts, 'Let us make havoc of them altogether': / thus have they burnt up all the houses of God in the land.

9 We see not our tokens; there is no more any prophet: / no, not one is there among us that knoweth how long.

10 O God, how long shall the adversary do this dishonour? / shall the enemy blaspheme thy Name for ever?

11 Why dost thou draw back thy hand, / and keep thy right hand in thy bosom?

12 YET God is my King of old: / the help that is done upon earth, he doeth it himself.

13 Thou didst divide the sea through thy power: / thou didst break the heads of the dragons in the waters.

14 Thou didst crush the heads of Leviathan, / and gavest him to be food for the creatures of the wilderness.

15 Thou didst cleave open fountain and flood: / thou driedst up ever-flowing streams.

16 The day is thine, and the night is thine: / thou hast prepared the light and the sun.

17 Thou hast set all the borders of the earth: / thou hast made summer and winter.

18 REMEMBER this, O LORD, how the enemy hath reproached, / and how a foolish people hath blasphemed thy Name.

19 O deliver not the soul of thy turtle-dove unto the wild beast: / and forget not the life of thy poor for ever.

20 Look upon the covenant; / for the dark places of the earth are full of the habitations of cruelty.

21 O let not the oppressed go away ashamed; / but let the poor and needy give praise unto thy Name.

22 Arise, O God, maintain thine own cause: / remember how the foolish man blasphemeth thee all the day long.

23 Forget not the voice of thine enemies: / the tumult of them that hate thee increaseth ever more and more.

Then the FIRST LESSON as appointed.

Isaiah 42

¹⁸Hear, ye deaf; and look, ye blind, that ye may see.

¹⁹Who is blind, but my servant? or deaf, as my messenger that I sent? who is blind as he that is perfect, and blind as the LORD's servant?

²⁰Seeing many things, but thou observest not; opening the ears, but he heareth not.

²¹The LORD is well pleased for his righteousness' sake; he will magnify the law, and make it honourable.

²²But this is a people robbed and spoiled; they are all of them snared in holes, and they are hid in prison houses: they are for a prey, and none delivereth; for a spoil, and none saith, Restore.

²³Who among you will give ear to this? who will hearken and hear for the time to come?

²⁴Who gave Jacob for a spoil, and Israel to the robbers? did not the LORD, he against whom we have sinned? for they would not walk in his ways, neither were they obedient unto his law.

²⁵Therefore he hath poured upon him the fury of his anger, and the strength of battle: and it hath set him on fire round about, yet he knew not; and it burned him, yet he laid it not to heart.

Isaiah 43

¹But now thus saith the LORD that created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel, Fear not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine.

²When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.

³For I am the LORD thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour: I gave Egypt for thy ransom, Ethiopia and Seba for thee.

⁴Since thou wast precious in my sight, thou hast been honourable, and I have loved thee: therefore will I give men for thee, and people for thy life.

⁵Fear not: for I am with thee: I will bring thy seed from the east, and gather thee from the west;

⁶I will say to the north, Give up; and to the south, Keep not back: bring my sons from far, and my daughters from the ends of the earth;

⁷Even every one that is called by my name: for I have created him for my glory, I have formed him; yea, I have made him.

⁸Bring forth the blind people that have eyes, and the deaf that have ears.

⁹Let all the nations be gathered together, and let the people be assembled: who among them can declare this, and shew us former things? let them bring forth their witnesses, that they may be justified: or let them hear, and say, It is truth.

¹⁰Ye are my witnesses, saith the LORD, and my servant whom I have chosen: that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am he: before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me.

¹¹I, even I, am the LORD; and beside me there is no saviour.

¹²I have declared, and have saved, and I have shewed, when there was no strange god among you: therefore ye are my witnesses, saith the LORD, that I am God.

¹³Yea, before the day was I am he; and there is none that can deliver out of my hand: I will work, and who shall let it?

MAGNIFICAT. St. Luke 1:46

MY soul doth magnify the Lord, / and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour.

For he hath regarded / the lowliness of his handmaiden.

For behold, from henceforth / all generations shall call me blessed.

For he that is mighty hath magnified me; / and holy is his Name.

And his mercy is on them that fear him / throughout all generations.

He hath showed strength with his arm; / he hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.

He hath put down the mighty from their seat, / and hath exalted the humble and the meek.

He hath filled the hungry with good things; / and the rich he hath sent empty away.

He remembering his mercy / hath holpen his servant Israel;

As he promised to our forefathers, / Abraham and his seed for ever.

GLORY be to the Father, and to the Son, / and to the Holy Ghost;

As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, / world without end. Amen.

THE SECOND LESSON

Revelation 18

¹And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory.

²And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird.

³For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies.

⁴And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.

⁵For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.

⁶Reward her even as she rewarded you, and double unto her double according to her works: in the cup which she hath filled fill to her double.

⁷How much she hath glorified herself, and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her: for she saith in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow.

⁸Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire: for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her.

⁹And the kings of the earth, who have committed fornication and lived deliciously with her, shall bewail her, and lament for her, when they shall see the smoke of her burning,

¹⁰Standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, Alas, alas that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come.

¹¹And the merchants of the earth shall weep and mourn over her; for no man buyeth their merchandise any more:

¹²The merchandise of gold, and silver, and precious stones, and of pearls, and fine linen, and purple, and silk, and scarlet, and all thyine wood, and all manner vessels of ivory, and all manner vessels of most precious wood, and of brass, and iron, and marble,

¹³And cinnamon, and odours, and ointments, and frankincense, and wine, and oil, and fine flour, and wheat, and beasts, and sheep, and horses, and chariots, and slaves, and souls of men.

¹⁴And the fruits that thy soul lusted after are departed from thee, and all things which were dainty and goodly are departed from thee, and thou shalt find them no more at all.

¹⁵The merchants of these things, which were made rich by her, shall stand afar off for the fear of her torment, weeping and wailing,

¹⁶And saying, Alas, alas that great city, that was clothed in fine linen, and purple, and scarlet, and decked with gold, and precious stones, and pearls!

¹⁷For in one hour so great riches is come to nought. And every shipmaster, and all the company in ships, and sailors, and as many as trade by sea, stood afar off,

¹⁸And cried when they saw the smoke of her burning, saying, What city is like unto this great city!

¹⁹And they cast dust on their heads, and cried, weeping and wailing, saying, Alas, alas that great city, wherein were made rich all that had ships in the sea by reason of her costliness! for in one hour is she made desolate.

²⁰Rejoice over her, thou heaven, and ye holy apostles and prophets; for God hath avenged you on her.

²¹And a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone, and cast it into the sea, saying, Thus with violence shall that great city Babylon be thrown down, and shall be found no more at all.

²²And the voice of harpers, and musicians, and of pipers, and trumpeters, shall be heard no more at all in thee; and no craftsman, of whatsoever craft he be, shall be found any more in thee; and the sound of a millstone shall be heard no more at all in thee;

²³And the light of a candle shall shine no more at all in thee; and the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no more at all in thee: for thy merchants were the great men of the earth; for by thy sorceries were all nations deceived.

²⁴And in her was found the blood of prophets, and of saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth.

And after that shall be sung or said Nunc Dimittis (or the Son of Simeon).
NUNC DIMITTIS. St. Luke 2:29.

LORD, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, / according to thy word.
For mine eyes have seen thy salvation, / which thou has prepared before the face of all people;
To be a light to lighten the Gentiles, / and to be the glory of thy people Israel.
GLORY be to the Father, and to the Son, / and to the Holy Ghost;
As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, / world without end. Amen.
Or else Deus Misereatur, Psalm 67, page 409.

Then shall be said or sung the Confession of the Faith, called the Apostles' Creed.

I BELIEVE in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth:
And in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord, Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, Born of the Virgin Mary, Suffered under Pontius Pilate, Was crucified, dead, and buried: He descended into hell; The third day he rose again from the dead; He ascended into heaven, And sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty; From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Ghost; The holy Catholic Church; The Communion of Saints; The Forgiveness of sins; The Resurrection of the body, And the Life everlasting. Amen.

And after the Creed these prayers following, all devoutly kneeling, the Minister first pronouncing:

The Lord be with you;
People. And with thy spirit.
Minister. Let us pray.
Lord, have mercy upon us.
Christ, have mercy upon us.
Lord, have mercy upon 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 them that trespass against us; And lead us not into temptation, But deliver us from evil. Amen.

Then the Priest standing up shall say:
O Lord, show thy mercy upon us;
People. And grant us thy salvation.
Priest. O Lord, save the Queen;
People. And mercifully hear us when we call upon thee.
Priest. Endue thy Ministers with righteousness;
People. And make thy chosen people joyful.
Priest. O Lord, save thy people;
People. And bless thine inheritance.
Priest. Give peace in our time, O Lord;
People. And evermore mightily defend us.
Priest. O God, make clean our hearts within us;
People. And take not thy Holy Spirit from us.

Then shall follow THE COLLECT OF THE DAY, together with any other Collects appointed to be said, and these two prayers in order.

O GOD, our heavenly Father, who by thy Son Jesus Christ didst call thy blessed Apostles and send them forth to preach thy Gospel of salvation unto all the nations: We bless thy holy Name for thy servant Herman, whose labours we commemorate this day, and we pray thee, according to thy holy Word, to send forth many labourers into thy harvest; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

ALMIGHTY God, give us grace that we may cast away the works of darkness, and put upon us the armour of light, now in the time of this mortal life, in which thy Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility; that in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious Majesty, to judge both the quick and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal; through him who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, now and ever. Amen.


The Second Collect, for Peace.

O GOD, from whom all holy desires, all good counsels, and all just works do proceed: Give unto thy servants that peace which the world cannot give; that our hearts may be set to obey thy commandments, and also that by thee we being defended from the fear of our enemies may pass our time in rest and quietness; through the merits of Jesus Christ our Saviour. Amen.
The Third Collect, for Aid against all Perils.

LIGHTEN our darkness, we beseech thee, O Lord; and by thy great mercy defend us from all perils and dangers of this night; for the love of thy only Son, our Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.
Here may follow an Anthem or a Hymn.

A Prayer of Saint Chrysostom.
ALMIGHTY God, who hast given us grace at this time with one accord to make our common supplications unto thee; and dost promise that when two or three are gathered together in thy Name thou wilt grant their requests: Fulfil now, O Lord, the desires and petitions of thy servants, as may be most expedient for them; granting us in this world knowledge of thy truth, and in the world to come life everlasting. Amen.

2 Corinthians 13:14.
THE grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Ghost, be with us all evermore. Amen.

Happy Birthday! Bishop Carl

Bishop Carl Reid celebrates his 59th birthday today. (He loves the fact that he's younger than I am.)

He got a little help from little Noa blowing out the candles on the birthday cake we had for him in our parish hall yesterday.

Happy Birthday, Bishop Carl and may you have many more healthy and joyful celebrations ahead.

Free Thinking Film Society sponsors film and party tonight

The Free Thinking Film Society was established in 2007 in Ottawa to provide an outlet for filmmakers and moviegoers alike who are looking for an alternative to the ‘alternative’. In other words, we celebrate the efforts of risk-taking documentarians whose work espouses the values of limited, democratic government, free market economies, equality of opportunity rather than equality of result, and the dignity of the individual, all underscored by a healthy and patriotic respect for Western culture and traditions. Although there are a lot of courageous voices in the non-fiction film industry producing thoughtful pieces of art which reject cultural relativism, central economic planning and American culpability for all that ills the world, you wouldn’t know it by looking at the listings for most art house cinemas.

We’re dedicated to changing that by bringing these exciting and challenging documentaries to Canada’s capital.

For a look at some clips of films we have shown, are about to show, or are considering please click here for our clips page.

Our Next Program:

Join us for a Christmas/Hannukah party and an incredible movie - “Do As I Say” - a film about liberal hypocrisy.

December 14, 2009, 7:00 PM

National Archives/Library of Canada, 395 Wellington

Admission: $8.00

Anglican Bishop praises Taliban's good points

Fr. Dwight Longenecker responds:

Just when you thought an Anglican bishop couldn't do anything crazier they do something crazier. England is in an uproar this morning because Bishop Venner-- the newly appointed bishop of the armed forces-- has publicly praised the 'faith, religious conviction and their loyalty' of the Taliban to their religion. The news story is here. Damian Thompson's typically waspish comment is here.

I am sure Bishop Venner meant well, and the media has probably taken his words out of context and bashed him with them. At very least he should choose his words carefully and have someone who is media saavy look them over first. At worst, he actually means to give the Taliban the benefit of the doubt. What tickles me most about this ridiculous comment is that an Anglican bishop (like all the naieve and snobbish English chattering class) bend over backward to accomodate Muslims while they run down their own church.

Here's an Anglican bishop who tries to cut the Taliban a break. The Taliban themselves rape boys and girls then set them up as teen suicide bombers. These are people who throw acid in the face of girls who dare to go to school. But I wonder what the bishop's attitude would be to Christian fundamentalists? He probably sneers at them like everyone else does.

The Bishopess-elect speaks

Ruth Gledhill reports:

The lesbian bishop recently elected in the United States insisted last night that there would be no “closing of the door” on the question of equal rights for homosexuals.

She said that evangelical opponents of homosexuals in the Church were more concerned about power and authority than with sexuality.

Canon Mary Glasspool, 55, whose election as a suffragan bishop in the Los Angeles diocese has led to protests from conservatives worldwide, including the Archbishop of Canterbury, said that the issues at the heart of the debate tearing the Anglican Communion apart were not really about sex. What was at stake had more to do with power, authority and a postcolonial Church.

-snip-

She also queried whether the Bible texts often quoted against homosexuality were being accurately represented. “The Biblical authority is of love and justice and the gospel of Jesus Christ,” she said, implicitly criticising those who took individual verses out of context. “The overriding message is that love is the good news.”

She said that the liberal approach of the Episcopal Church had been a lifeline for many: “There are many people who have been freed from the prison they have been put in.” She defended her Church’s stance on the issue of homosexuality, taken without agreement from the other 37 provinces of the worldwide Anglican Communion.

Interesting. I think it is people like herself that are more concerned about power. But they project their power-hunger or power-envy onto people like Pope Benedict, who is a servant leader par excellence.

Love is the Good News? It depends on the meaning of the word "love" I suppose.

The Love of the Good News is a consuming fire not an Oprah-type acceptance as you are.

The prison that Christ's love frees us from is our sinful nature, not from a prison of shame because we are not accepted for who we are.

Yes, Anglican Use parishes want to be part of the ordinariates

I was speaking with a bishop recently who told me he didn't think the Anglican Use parishes in the United States would be part of the personal ordinariate structure the Holy Father has offered to groups of Anglicans, since these Anglican Use parishes are already part of the Roman Catholic Church.

I have known for quite some time they want to be part of something like this and that they have praying that the Traditional Anglican Communion's request for communion as a body would be successful.

One of the biggest Anglican Use parishes in the U.S. held an information session on Anglicanorum Coetibus on Saturday. Here's something from Atonement Parish's blog about the event:

As members of various Anglican groups move closer to being part of the future Ordinariate, we'll be living in the same house. For a whole generation it's just been the parishes and communities of the Pastoral Provision who've been holding up the flag within the Catholic Church, and it was easy to think we were on our own. But the steady progress of other groups, like the Traditional Anglican Communion, is bearing fruit.

I'm excited that we'll be moving in together, to take up residence in this wonderful new structure being given to us by our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI.

Why would they want to be part of an ordinariate? Because Anglican use parishes have only flourished where the local Roman Catholic bishop has been welcoming and supportive. Atonement Parish, for example, has grown from 18 people to 500 families in 20 years. But where the local bishop has not been supportive, these parishes have either never been set up or have fizzled.

The reason why the Anglican Use parishes want the ordinariate structure is they want the ability to pass this patrimony on to the next generation. Many Roman Catholic bishops seemed to view the Anglican Use has a transition into Roman Catholicism that would fade. Many viewed it as a temporary dispensation, a concession to make those making the plunge more comfortable but not something for the long term.

The Apostolic Constitution has no "best before" date on it. It's a recognition of a valid diversity of expression of the one true Catholic faith within the Latin-rite Church.

When crowds start doing things I get nervous

Though I grew up in a rather progressive ethos in Massachusetts and was a civil rights marching, radical feminist, anti-war protesting leftist once I reached college, I recall even back then some things about crowds made me nervous.

I remember up at Dartmouth, where I spent my senior year, Sly and the Family Stone came for a concert. Okay, I enjoyed Sly back then, but I got a little freaked out at how all these white students were literally standing on their chairs frantically dancing and arms waving. It wasn't that they couldn't dance. It was this over-the-top unison response that reminded me of Hitler youth or something. I did not like it at all.

From day one, I have also found chants like "One two three four, we don't want your f****** war" embarrassing. And I have always detested using chanting or swarming a podium to shut other speakers down, even back in the days when I agreed with the views of those doing that kind of thing.

I did have the mindset back then, however, that saw those who disagreed with my liberal anti-Vietnam war views as ignorant if not evil. I recall berating the gal who lived across the hall from me in my dorm when I discovered she was for Nixon. How could she be for Nixon when it was so obvious that he was an awful man? I'm not proud of that conversation. I guess when people treat me the same way I treated her it's karma, eh?

Civility on the part of those with whom I vehemently disagreed, contrasted with the brown shirt tactics of those with whom I agreed, started to change my mind.

But what really did it was seeing up close some tactics in the environmental movement. I wrote about that here. I was reminded of that when I saw this magnificent article by Martin Cohen that starts off like this:

Is belief in global-warming science another example of the "madness of crowds"? That strange but powerful social phenomenon, first described by Charles Mackay in 1841, turns a widely shared prejudice into an irresistible "authority". Could it indeed represent the final triumph of irrationality? After all, how rational is it to pass laws banning one kind of light bulb (and insisting on their replacement by ones filled with poisonous mercury vapour) in order to "save electricity", while ploughing money into schemes to run cars on ... electricity? How rational is it to pay the Russians once for fossil fuels, and a second time for permission (via carbon credits) to burn them (see box page 36)? And how rational is it to suppose that the effects of increased CO2 in the atmosphere take between 200 and 1,000 years to be felt, but that solutions can take effect almost instantaneously?

Whether rational or not, global warming theory has become a political orthodoxy. So entrenched is it that those showing any resistance to it are described as "heretics" or even likened to "Holocaust deniers".

Especially when he recounted this little anecdote that reminded me of my experience.

I have seen the effects of this up close, witnessing how truth can go out of the window in the rush to save the planet. I was co-ordinator of a small Yorkshire Friends of the Earth group, charged with protecting, among other things, the local river, the Wharfe, from a water company. In 1995, Yorkshire experienced just slightly less rain than normal, and the local water company found itself faced with the prospect of empty reservoirs. As standpipes went up in the cities of Leeds and Bradford, and trucks brought water in from afar, it desperately turned to the local rivers to try to make up the shortfall. The national press featured large photos of dried-up reservoir beds, waxed lyrical about how British society would soon break down in water wars, and urged its readers to sympathise with Yorkshire Water.

But our local group was not sympathetic because we felt that the company had failed to invest in its reservoirs and infrastructure. We proposed to put an advert in the Yorkshire Post highlighting this. And at this point, an official of Friends of the Earth formally instructed us that this independent line could not be permitted because it was national policy to attribute the shortages of water in the county that summer to runaway climate change. The "small is beautiful", "start locally" element of environmental tradition had disappeared. We were instructed that if we continued to argue that Yorkshire's water shortages were the result of anything other than global warming, we had to do so outside Friends of the Earth.

Read the whole article, because it also takes issue with the C02 levels in the atmosphere being dangerously high:

In An Inconvenient Truth, Al Gore unveils as the "scientific" highlight a graph offering a clear correlation between temperature and CO2, as discovered in core samples of polar ice, with these words: "The relationship is actually very complicated, but there is one relationship that is far more powerful than all the others - and it is this. When there is more carbon dioxide, the temperature gets warmer, because it traps more heat from the Sun inside."

He then asks "Do they go together?" and extends the lines on the graph to terrifying levels.

Well, hang on a minute. First of all, historically, CO2 levels and temperatures have not marched in "lock step". Over geological time, the only thing the two variables share is a random walk. The Late Ordovician period saw CO2 concentrations nearly 12 times higher than those of today - and it was also an Ice Age. In fact, over the past 600 million years, only on two occasions have CO2 levels been as low as they are now, at below 400 parts per million.

Morning Prayer

Today we honor Herman, a missionary monk in Alaska (1837)

Minister. O Lord, open thou our lips;
People. And our mouth shall show forth thy praise.

Minister. O God, make speed to save us;
People. O Lord, make haste to help us.

GLORY be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
People. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.
Minister. Praise ye the Lord;
People. The Lord's Name be praised.

The Lord is glorious in his saints: / O come, let us worship.

Venite Exultemus Domino. Psalm 95

O COME, let us sing unto the LORD: / let us heartily rejoice in the strength of our salvation.
Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving, / and show ourselves glad in him with psalms.
For the LORD is a great God, / and a great King above all gods.
In his hand are all the corners of the earth: / and the strength of the hills is his also.
The sea is his, and he made it: / and his hands prepared the dry land.
O COME, let us worship, and fall down, / and kneel before the LORD our Maker.
For he is the Lord our God; / and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand.
TO-DAY, O that ye would hear his voice: / 'Harden not your hearts as in the Provocation, and as in the day of Temptation in the wilderness;
When your fathers tempted me, / proved me, and saw my works.
Forty years long was I grieved with that generation, and said, / "It is a people that do err in their hearts, for they have not known my ways";
Unto whom I sware in my wrath, / that they should not enter into my rest.'
GLORY be to the Father, and to the Son, / and to the Holy Ghost;
As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, / world without end. Amen.

The Lord is glorious in his saints: / O come, let us worship.

Then shall follow THE PSALMS.

PSALM 73. Quam bonus Israel!

TRULY God is loving unto Israel: / even unto such as are of a clean heart.

2 Nevertheless, my feet were almost gone; / my treadings had well-nigh slipt.

3 And why? I was grieved at the wicked: / I do also see the ungodly in such prosperity.

4 For they have no torments, / but are lusty and strong.

5 They come in no misfortune like other folk; / neither are they plagued like other men.

6 Therefore pride is as a chain about their neck, / and violence covereth them as a garment.

7 Their iniquity cometh forth from the heart, / and the imaginations of their mind overflow.

8 They scoff and speak of evil, / and talk proudly of oppression.

9 They stretch forth their mouth unto the heavens, / and their tongue goeth through the world.

10 Therefore turn the people unto them, / and find no fault in them.

11 'Tush,' say they, 'how should God perceive it? / is there knowledge in the Most High?'

12 Lo, these are the ungodly; / they are alway at ease, and get riches in possession.

13 Then surely in vain have I cleansed my heart, / and washed my hands in innocency.

14 For all the day long have I been punished, / and chastened every morning.

15 If I had said, 'I will speak thus', / lo, then I should have condemned the generation of thy children.

16 THEN thought I to understand this, / but it was too hard for me,

17 Until I went into the sanctuary of God, / and considered the end of these men;

18 For surely thou dost set them in slippery places, / and castest them down, and destroyest them.

19 Oh, how suddenly do they consume, / perish, and come to a fearful end!

20 Yea, even like as a dream when one awaketh, / so, O Lord, when thou awakest, thou shalt despise their image.

21 Thus my soul was grieved, / and my heart within me was stricken.

22 So foolish was I, and ignorant, / even as it were a beast before thee.

23 NEVERTHELESS, I am alway by thee; / for thou hast holden me by my right hand.

24 Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, / and after that receive me with glory.

25 Whom have I in heaven but thee? / and there is none upon earth that I desire in comparison of thee.

26 My flesh and my heart faileth; / but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever.

27 For lo, they that forsake thee shall perish: / thou destroyest all them that are unfaithful unto thee.

28 But it is good for me to hold me fast by God, to put my trust in the Lord GOD, / and to speak of all thy works in the gates of the daughter of Sion.

Then shall be read THE FIRST LESSON

Isaiah 42

¹Behold my servant, whom I uphold; mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth; I have put my spirit upon him: he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles.

²He shall not cry, nor lift up, nor cause his voice to be heard in the street.

³A bruised reed shall he not break, and the smoking flax shall he not quench: he shall bring forth judgment unto truth.

⁴He shall not fail nor be discouraged, till he have set judgment in the earth: and the isles shall wait for his law.

⁵Thus saith God the LORD, he that created the heavens, and stretched them out; he that spread forth the earth, and that which cometh out of it; he that giveth breath unto the people upon it, and spirit to them that walk therein:

⁶I the LORD have called thee in righteousness, and will hold thine hand, and will keep thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles;

⁷To open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house.

⁸I am the LORD: that is my name: and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images.

⁹Behold, the former things are come to pass, and new things do I declare: before they spring forth I tell you of them.

¹⁰Sing unto the LORD a new song, and his praise from the end of the earth, ye that go down to the sea, and all that is therein; the isles, and the inhabitants thereof.

¹¹Let the wilderness and the cities thereof lift up their voice, the villages that Kedar doth inhabit: let the inhabitants of the rock sing, let them shout from the top of the mountains.

¹²Let them give glory unto the LORD, and declare his praise in the islands.

¹³The LORD shall go forth as a mighty man, he shall stir up jealousy like a man of war: he shall cry, yea, roar; he shall prevail against his enemies.

¹⁴I have long time holden my peace; I have been still, and refrained myself: now will I cry like a travailing woman; I will destroy and devour at once.

¹⁵I will make waste mountains and hills, and dry up all their herbs; and I will make the rivers islands, and I will dry up the pools.

¹⁶And I will bring the blind by a way that they knew not; I will lead them in paths that they have not known: I will make darkness light before them, and crooked things straight. These things will I do unto them, and not forsake them.

¹⁷They shall be turned back, they shall be greatly ashamed, that trust in graven images, that say to the molten images, Ye are our gods.

TE DEUM LAUDAMUS.

WE praise thee, O God; we acknowledge thee to be the Lord.

All the earth doth worship thee, the Father everlasting.

To thee all Angels cry aloud, the Heavens and all the Powers therin.

To thee Cherubim and Seraphim continually do cry,

Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of hosts;

Heaven and earth are full of the Majesty of thy glory.

The glorious company of the Apostles praise thee;

The goodly fellowship of the Prophets praise thee;

The noble army of Martyrs praise thee;

The holy Church throughout all the world doth acknowledge thee,

The Father, of an infinite Majesty;

Thine honourable, true, and only Son;

Also the Holy Ghost, the Comforter.

THOU art the King of Glory, O Christ.

Thou art the everlasting Son of the Father.

When thou tookest upon thee to deliver man, thou didst not abhor the Virgin's womb.

When thou hadst overcome the sharpness of death, thou didst open the kingdom of heaven to all believers.

Thou sittest at the right hand of God, in the glory of the Father.

We believe that thou shalt come to be our Judge.

We therefore pray thee, help thy servants, whom thou hast redeemed with thy precious blood.

Make them to be numbered with thy Saints, in glory everlasting.

O LORD, save thy people, and bless thine heritage;

Govern them, and lift them up for ever.

Day by day we magnify thee;

And we worship thy Name, ever world without end.

Vouchsafe, O Lord, to keep us this day without sin.

O Lord, have mercy upon us, have mercy upon us.

O Lord, let thy mercy lighten upon us, as our trust is in thee.

O Lord, in thee have I trusted: let me never be confounded.

THE SECOND LESSON

Mark 7

¹Then came together unto him the Pharisees, and certain of the scribes, which came from Jerusalem.

²And when they saw some of his disciples eat bread with defiled, that is to say, with unwashen, hands, they found fault.

³For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, except they wash their hands oft, eat not, holding the tradition of the elders.

⁴And when they come from the market, except they wash, they eat not. And many other things there be, which they have received to hold, as the washing of cups, and pots, brasen vessels, and of tables.

⁵Then the Pharisees and scribes asked him, Why walk not thy disciples according to the tradition of the elders, but eat bread with unwashen hands?

⁶He answered and said unto them, Well hath Esaias prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.

⁷Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.

⁸For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men, as the washing of pots and cups: and many other such like things ye do.

⁹And he said unto them, Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition.

¹⁰For Moses said, Honour thy father and thy mother; and, Whoso curseth father or mother, let him die the death:

¹¹But ye say, If a man shall say to his father or mother, It is Corban, that is to say, a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me; he shall be free.

¹²And ye suffer him no more to do ought for his father or his mother;

¹³Making the word of God of none effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered: and many such like things do ye.

¹⁴And when he had called all the people unto him, he said unto them, Hearken unto me every one of you, and understand:

¹⁵There is nothing from without a man, that entering into him can defile him: but the things which come out of him, those are they that defile the man.

¹⁶If any man have ears to hear, let him hear.

¹⁷And when he was entered into the house from the people, his disciples asked him concerning the parable.

¹⁸And he saith unto them, Are ye so without understanding also? Do ye not perceive, that whatsoever thing from without entereth into the man, it cannot defile him;

¹⁹Because it entereth not into his heart, but into the belly, and goeth out into the draught, purging all meats?

²⁰And he said, That which cometh out of the man, that defileth the man.

²¹For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders,

²²Thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness:

²³All these evil things come from within, and defile the man.

Benedictus. St Luke 1:68

BLESSED be the Lord God of Israel; / for he hath visited and redeemed his people;
And hath raised up a mighty salvation for us, / in the house of his servant David;
As he spake by the mouth of his holy Prophets, / which have been since the world began;
That we should be saved from our enemies, / and from the hands of all that hate us;
To perform the mercy promised to our forefathers, / and to remember his holy covenant;
To perform the oath which he sware to our forefather Abraham, / that he would grant us
That we being delivered out of the hands of our enemies / might serve him without fear,
In holiness and righteousness before him, / all the days of our life.
AND thou, child, shalt be called the Prophet of the Highest: / for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways;
To give knowledge of salvation unto his people / for the remission of their sins;
Through the tender mercy of our God; / whereby the day-spring from on high hath visited us;
To give light to them that sit in darkness, and in the shadow of death, / and to guide our feet into the way of peace.
GLORY be to the Father, and to the Son, / and to the Holy Ghost;
As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, / world without end. Amen.

Then shall be said or sung the Confession of the Faith, called the Apostles' Creed

I BELIEVE in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth:

And in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord, Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, Born of the Virgin Mary, Suffered under Pontius Pilate, Was crucified, dead, and buried: He descended into hell; The third day he rose again from the dead; He ascended into heaven, And sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty; From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Ghost; The holy Catholic Church; The Communion of Saints; The Forgiveness of sins; The Resurrection of the body, And the Life everlasting. Amen.

And after the Creed these prayers following, all devoutly kneeling, the Minister first pronouncing:

The Lord be with you;

People. And with thy spirit.

Minister. Let us pray.

Lord, have mercy upon us.

Christ, have mercy upon us.

Lord, have mercy upon 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 them that trespass against us; And lead us not into temptation, But deliver us from evil. Amen.

Then the Priest standing up shall say:

O Lord, show thy mercy upon us;

People. And grant us thy salvation.

Priest. O Lord, save the Queen;

People. And mercifully hear us when we call upon thee.

Priest. Endue thy Ministers with righteousness;

People. And make thy chosen people joyful.

Priest. O Lord, save thy people;

People. And bless thine inheritance.

Priest. Give peace in our time, O Lord;

People. And evermore mightily defend us.

Priest. O God, make clean our hearts within us;

People. And take not thy Holy Spirit from us.

Then shall follow THE COLLECT OF THE DAY , together with any other Collects appointed to be said, and these two prayers in order.

O GOD, our heavenly Father, who by thy Son Jesus Christ didst call thy blessed Apostles and send them forth to preach thy Gospel of salvation unto all the nations: We bless thy holy Name for thy servant Herman, whose labours we commemorate this day, and we pray thee, according to thy holy Word, to send forth many labourers into thy harvest; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

ALMIGHTY God, give us grace that we may cast away the works of darkness, and put upon us the armour of light, now in the time of this mortal life, in which thy Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility; that in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious Majesty, to judge both the quick and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal; through him who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, now and ever. Amen.

The Second Collect, for Peace.

O GOD, who art the author of peace and lover of concord, in knowledge of whom standeth our eternal life, whose service is perfect freedom: Defend us thy humble servants in all assaults of our enemies; that we, surely trusting in thy defence, may not fear the power of any adversaries; through the might of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Third Collect, for Grace.

O LORD our heavenly Father, Almighty and everlasting God, who hast safely brought us to the beginning of this day: Defend us in the same with thy mighty power; and grant that this day we fall into no sin, neither run into any kind of danger; but that all our doings may be ordered by thy governance, to do always that is righteous in thy sight; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
LMIGHTY and everlasting God, from whom cometh every good and perfect gift: Send down upon our Bishops and Clergy, and all Congregations committed to their charge, the healthful Spirit of thy grace; and that they may truly please thee, pour upon them the continual dew of thy blessing. Grant this, O Lord, for the honour of our Advocate and Mediator, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Then may be read any of the Occasional Prayers or Thanksgivings, or any prayers sanctioned by the Ordinary, always ending with the Prayer of St Chrysostom and the Grace; and before any of the prayers may be said Let us pray for —, and before any of the thanksgivings, Let us give thanks for —.

A Prayer for all Conditions of men.

* This to be said when any desire the Prayers of the Congregation.

O GOD, the Creator and Preserver of all mankind, we humbly beseech thee for all sorts and conditions of men; that thou wouldest be pleased to make thy ways known unto them, thy saving health unto all nations. More especially we pray for the good estate of the Catholic Church; that it may be so guided and governed by thy good Spirit, that all who profess and call themselves Christians may be led into the way of truth, and hold the faith in unity of spirit, in the bond of peace, and in righteousness of life. Finally we commend to thy fatherly goodness all those, who are any ways afflicted or distressed in mind, body, or estate; [* especially those for whom our prayers are desired;] that it may please thee to comfort and relieve them, according to their several necessities, giving them patience under their sufferings, and a happy issue out of all their afflictions. And this we beg for Jesus Christ his sake. Amen.

A General Thanksgiving, to be said by the Minister alone, or by the Minister and people together.

* This to be said when any that have been prayed for desire to return thanks.

ALMIGHTY God, Father of all mercies, We thine unworthy servants do give thee most humble and hearty thanks For all thy goodness and loving-kindness To us and to all men; [* particularly to those who desire now to offer up their praises and thanksgivings.] We bless thee for our creation, preservation, and all the blessings of this life; But above all for thine inestimable love In the redemption of the world by our Lord Jesus Christ; For the means of grace, And for the hope of glory. And we beseech thee, give us that due sense of all thy mercies, That our hearts may be unfeignedly thankful, And that we show forth thy praise, Not only with our lips, but in our lives; By giving up ourselves to thy service, And by walking before thee in holiness and righteousness all our days; Through Jesus Christ our Lord, To whom, with thee and the Holy Ghost, be all honour and glory, world without end. Amen.

A Prayer of Saint Chrysostom.

ALMIGHTY God, who hast given us grace at this time with one accord to make our common supplications unto thee; and dost promise that when two or three are gathered together in thy Name thou wilt grant their requests: Fulfil now, O Lord, the desires and petitions of thy servants, as may be most expedient for them; granting us in this world knowledge of thy truth, and in the world to come life everlasting. Amen.

2 Corinthians 13:14.

THE grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Ghost, be with us all evermore. Amen.