Patrick Comerford
The Season of Lent begins today with Ash Wednesday (14 February 2024). I have a local clergy meeting in Wolverton at lunchtimes, and later today I hope to be present with the Parish Choir at the Ash Wednesday liturgy in the Church of Saint Mary and Saint Giles in Stony Stratford at 6 pm.
In previous years, my Lenten reflections have journeyed with the saints, looked at Lent in Art, read poems in Lent, reflected on the music of Vaughan Williams, selected sayings from Samuel Johnson (1709-1784), the Lichfield lexicographer, and similar themes.
In the days before Lent, I have been looking back on some interesting French saints and writers from a variety of backgrounds. This year, I am planning to take time each morning throughout Lent reflecting on the lives of early, pre-Reformation English saints commemorated by the Church of England in the Calendar of Common Worship.
As Lent begins, but before the day begins, I am taking some quiet time early 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.
Early English pre-Reformation saints: 1, Saint Alban (ca 250)
For many people, today is more likely to be marked as Saint Valentine’s Day rather than as Ash Wednesday. Saint Valentine is not named in the Calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship. But that calendar has an extensive list of saints and saintly individuals. They are the ‘celebrities’ of the Church, and they include angels, members of Christ’s immediate family, apostles, evangelists, martyrs, figures throughout Church history, writers, poets, Church reformers and social reformers, with a wide and ecumenical embrace.
At least 40 to 50 if not more of those saints and figures of holiness have immediate associations and connections with England.
The Saints and Martyrs of England are commemorated on 8 November. The date when Christianity first came to these islands is not known, but there were British bishops at the Council of Arles in the year 314, indicating a Church with order and worship.
Since those days, Christians from these lands have shared the message of the good news at home and around the world. As the worldwide fellowship of the Anglican Communion has developed, incorporating peoples of many nations and cultures, individual Christian men and women have shone as beacons, heroically bearing witness to their Lord, some through a simple life of holiness, others by giving their lives for the sake of Christ.
The English saints and martyrs of the Reformation are commemorated on 4 May, a day set aside to remember all who witnessed to their Christian faith during the conflicts in church and state that lasted from the 13th to the 17th centuries but that were at their most intense in the 16th century. Although the reform movement was aimed chiefly at the papacy, many Christian men and women of holiness suffered for their allegiance to what they believed to be the truth of the gospel.
As the movement grew in strength, it suffered its own internecine struggles, with one group determined that they were the keepers of truth and that all others were therefore at best in a state of ignorance and at worst heretical. In the 20th century, ecumenical links drew the churches closer to each other in faith and worship and all now recognise both the good and evil that evolved from the Reformation Era.
The first saint I have chosen to remember during this season of Lent is Saint Alban, regarded as the first Christian martyr in England.
Saint Alban was a citizen of the Roman city of Verulamium – now St Albans in Hertfordshire – who gave shelter to Saint Amphibalus, a priest fleeing persecution, hiding him in his house for several days. Greatly influenced by his devotion to prayer, Alban received instruction from the priest and was converted.
When the priest’s hiding-place was discovered, Alban dressed himself in the priest’s cloak and was arrested in his place. Tortured by the Roman authorities, Alban refused to renounce his faith. He was beheaded, probably in the year 250, and so is acknowledged as the first martyr on these islands. The remains of his shrine stand today as a place of pilgrimage in St Albans Cathedral.
Matthew 6: 1-6, 16-21 (NRSVA):
1 ‘Beware of practising your piety before others in order to be seen by them; for then you have no reward from your Father in heaven.
2 ‘So whenever you give alms, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be praised by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. 3 But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4 so that your alms may be done in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
5 ‘And whenever you pray, do not be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, so that they may be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. 6 But whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
16 ‘And whenever you fast, do not look dismal, like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces so as to show others that they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. 17 But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, 18 so that your fasting may be seen not by others but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
19 ‘Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; 20 but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Today’s Prayers (Wednesday 14 February 2024, Ash Wednesday):
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 ‘Ash Wednesday Reflection.’ This theme was introduced on Sunday by the Revd Jessie Anand, Chaplain, USPG.
The USPG Prayer Diary today (14 February 2024) invites us to pray in these words:
Let us pray for our broken world and sinful selves. May our hearts be turned and Your passion for justice be released.
The Collect:
Almighty and everlasting God,
you hate nothing that you have made
and forgive the sins of all those who are penitent:
create and make in us new and contrite hearts
that we, worthily lamenting our sins
and acknowledging our wretchedness,
may receive from you, the God of all mercy,
perfect remission and forgiveness;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
The Post-Communion Prayer:
Almighty God,
you have given your only Son to be for us
both a sacrifice for sin
and also an example of godly life:
give us grace
that we may always most thankfully receive
these his inestimable gifts,
and also daily endeavour
to follow the blessed steps of his most holy life;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Additional Collect:
Holy God,
our lives are laid open before you:
rescue us from the chaos of sin
and through the death of your Son
bring us healing and make us whole
in Jesus Christ our Lord.
Yesterday’s Reflection: Vladimir Lossky (1903-1958)
Tomorrow: Petroc, Abbot of Padstow
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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