The site of Saint Alphege or Saint Alphage London Wall, also known as Saint Alphege Cripplegate (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Patrick Comerford
Lent began four weeks ago on Ash Wednesday (14 February 2024), and this week began with the Fourth Sunday in Lent (Lent IV), also known as Laetare Sunday and Mothering Sunday or Mother’s Day (10 March 2024).
Throughout Lent this year, I am taking time each morning to reflect on the lives of early, pre-Reformation English saints commemorated in the Calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship.
I am taking part in a meeting of local clergy later this morning in Water Eaton, and later this evening hope to take part in a choir rehearsal in Stony Stratford. But, before this day begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning for reflection, prayer and reading in these ways:
1, A reflection on an early, pre-Reformation English saint;
2, today’s Gospel reading;
3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary.
The west end of Bath Abbey … Saint Dunstan called on Saint Alphege to be Abbot of Bath (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Early English pre-Reformation saints: 29, Saint Alphege of Canterbury
Saint Alphege of Canterbury (1012), Martyr, is commemorated in Common Worship on 19 April. He became a monk at Deerhurst near Gloucester and withdrew in later life to be a hermit in Somerset. Saint Dunstan, Archbishop of Canterbury, called him back to be Abbot of Bath and, in 984, Bishop of Winchester.
Saint Alphege became Archbishop of Canterbury in 1005. His austere life and lavish almsgiving made him a revered and much-loved man. In the year 1011, the Danes overran south-east England, taking Alphege prisoner. They put the enormous ransom of £3,000 on his head, but Alphege refused to pay it and forbade anyone from doing so, knowing that it would impoverish the ordinary people even more. He was brutally murdered by his captors at Greenwich on 19 April 1012.
Saint Dunstan depicted in a stained glass window in Saint Dunstan-in-the-West Church, London … he called Alphege back to be Abbot of Bath and then Bishop of Winchester (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)
John 5: 17-30 (NRSVA):
17 But Jesus answered them, ‘My Father is still working, and I also am working.’ 18 For this reason the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because he was not only breaking the sabbath, but was also calling God his own Father, thereby making himself equal to God.
19 Jesus said to them, ‘Very truly, I tell you, the Son can do nothing on his own, but only what he sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, the Son does likewise. 20 The Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing; and he will show him greater works than these, so that you will be astonished. 21 Indeed, just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whomsoever he wishes. 22 The Father judges no one but has given all judgement to the Son, 23 so that all may honour the Son just as they honour the Father. Anyone who does not honour the Son does not honour the Father who sent him. 24 Very truly, I tell you, anyone who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life, and does not come under judgement, but has passed from death to life.
25 ‘Very truly, I tell you, the hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. 26 For just as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself; 27 and he has given him authority to execute judgement, because he is the Son of Man. 28 Do not be astonished at this; for the hour is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice 29 and will come out – those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation.
30 ‘I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge; and my judgement is just, because I seek to do not my own will but the will of him who sent me.’
The outline of the mediaeval church marked out in Saint Alphage Gardens in London (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Today’s Prayers (Wednesday 13 March 2024):
The theme this week in ‘Pray With the World Church,’ the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘Lent Reflection: JustMoney Movement.’ This theme was introduced on Sunday by Matt Ceaser, Movement Builder, JustMoney Movement.
The USPG Prayer Diary today (13 March 2024) invites us to pray in these words:
Oh Lord, may you keep our minds open and our hearts generous.
The Collect:
Merciful Lord,
absolve your people from their offences,
that through your bountiful goodness
we may all be delivered from the chains of those sins
which by our frailty we have committed;
grant this, heavenly Father,
for Jesus Christ’s sake, our blessed Lord and Saviour,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
The Post-Communion Prayer:
Lord God,
whose blessed Son our Saviour
gave his back to the smiters
and did not hide his face from shame:
give us grace to endure the sufferings of this present time
with sure confidence in the glory that shall be revealed;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Additional Collect:
Merciful Lord,
you know our struggle to serve you:
when sin spoils our lives
and overshadows our hearts,
come to our aid
and turn us back to you again;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Yesterday: Saint Dunstan of Canterbury
Tomorrow: Saint Edward the Confessor
Bath Abbey seen above the city’s ancient Roman baths (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org
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