Patrick Comerford
Easter is a 50-day season that continues until the Day of Pentecost. Today is the Fourth Sunday of Easter (Easter IV). Throughout this Season of Easter, my morning reflections each day include the daily Gospel reading, the prayer in the USPG prayer diary, and the prayers in the Collects and Post-Communion Prayer of the day.
I am staying in Rethymnon for a little longer tgan an extended weekend, having arrived here late on Wednesday afternoon. Easter is late this year in the Calendar of the Greek Orthodox Church (Sunday 5 May 2024), so this is still the Season of Great Lent, and today is the Fifth Sunday in Lent.
The commemoration in the Greek Orthodox Church today is of Saint Mary of Egypt (ca 344-ca 421), who serves as a model of repentance in this season and who is often regarded as the patron saint of penitents. The primary source of information for her life is the Vita written by Saint Sophronius, the Patriarch of Jerusalem (634-638).
Saint Mary of Egypt was also commemorated on the Thursday before the Fifth Sunday of Lent (18 April), when her life was read during the Great Canon of Saint Andrew of Crete, and a canon in her honour was read at the end of each Ode. In parish churches the service and the canon is most often conducted on Wednesday evening.
I woke this morning to the sound of the bless in the nearby Church of the Four Martyrs and the cathedral in Rethymon, and hope to attend the Liturgy in one of this churches later this morning. But, before this day begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, for reflection, for prayer and for reading in these ways:
1, today’s Gospel reading;
2, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;
3, the Collects and Post-Communion prayer of the day.
John 10: 11-18 (NRSVA):
[Jesus said:] 11 ‘I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 12 The hired hand, who is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away—and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. 13 The hired hand runs away because a hired hand does not care for the sheep. 14 I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, 15 just as the Father knows me and I know the Father. And I lay down my life for the sheep. 16 I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. 17 For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again. 18 No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again. I have received this command from my Father.’
Today’s Prayers (Sunday 21 April 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 ‘Living by faith is hard, and it is never the obvious path.’ This theme is introduced today with an extract taken from a sermon by the Revd Chris Parkman, Chaplain at Saint John’s Menton, and volunteer for A Rocha France at Les Courmettes:
‘When we hear the call to care for and live at peace with God’s creation, it can feel hard to bear. So much evidence points to the fact it might be pointless, that we might have passed beyond a tipping point, and that it is simply impossible to see how the environmental problems of today can be addressed. Is it worth it? What difference can we make?
‘Part of the challenge that the environmental crisis presents to our faith is that it might feel extremely difficult to see (with human reason) the way out. Often, at other crisis times, it might just be a matter of remaining positive and hopeful enough in what seems a solvable situation.
‘But the environmental crisis can feel different. The crises of climate change and species loss start to feel like insurmountable and insoluble problems. But this is a challenge to us to live faithfully now and trust God will also act beyond our imaginings in due time.
‘For many of us, living more sustainably can start to feel very difficult and ultimately challenging to the way we might honestly prefer to live, and futile. What specific examples in our lives can we think of? But let’s encourage each other, in our Christian communities, to walk this path of ‘self-sacrifice’ (however we each specifically apply it) and realise that even now, we will experience some blessings which we might never have imagined.
The USPG Prayer Diary today (21 April 2024) invites us to pray:
Show us how to touch the earth lightly
and challenge one another boldly
to cherish the world in our care.
Let our doubt and greed
give way to faith and belief
that another world is possible,
Our Lord and our God!
The Collect:
Almighty God,
whose Son Jesus Christ is the resurrection and the life:
raise us, who trust in him,
from the death of sin to the life of righteousness,
that we may seek those things which are above,
where he reigns with you
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Post Communion Prayer:
Merciful Father,
you gave your Son Jesus Christ to be the good shepherd,
and in his love for us to lay down his life and rise again:
keep us always under his protection,
and give us grace to follow in his steps;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Additional Collect:
Risen Christ,
faithful shepherd of your Father’s sheep:
teach us to hear your voice
and to follow your command,
that all your people may be gathered into one flock,
to the glory of God the Father.
Yesterday’s reflection
Continued Tomorrow
A modern icon showing Saint Zozimas meeting Saint Mary of Egypt on the banks of the Jordan in the wilderness … she is remembered in the calendar of the Greek Orthodox Church todayScripture 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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