Daily prayer in Lent with early English saints: 4, 17 February 2024, Saint Mellitus of London

Saint Mellitus, the first Bishop of London, depicted in a stained glass window in Canterbury Cathedral

Patrick Comerford

The Season of Lent begins this week with Ash Wednesday (14 February 2024), and tomorrow is the First Sunday in Lent. Today (17 February 2024), the Calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship remembers the life and witness of Janani Luwum (1977), Archbishop of Uganda, Martyr.

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.

This year, I am taking time each morning in Lent to reflect on the lives of early, pre-Reformation English saints commemorated by the Church of England in the Calendar of Common Worship. I began this series on Wednesday with a reflection on Saint Alban, England’s first martyr and saint.

Before today 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.

Saint Paul’s Cathedral, London … rebuilt by Sir Christopher Wren after the Great Fire (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Early English pre-Reformation saints: 4, Saint Mellitus (624), first Bishop of London

Saint Mellitus (624), the first Bishop of London, is commemorated in Common Worship on 24 April.

Saint Mellitus was an abbot in Rome when he was sent to England by Pope Gregory the Great to undergird the work of Saint Augustine, who consecrated him Bishop of the East Saxons with his see at London and his first church that of Saint Paul.

After some local setbacks that forced him to live in northern France, Saint Mellitus and his fellow bishops were recalled to England, but he was unable to return to London.

He was made Archbishop of Canterbury in the year 619 and died on 24 April 624. He was buried close to Saint Augustine in the Church of Saints Peter and Paul in Canterbury.

The site of Saint Paul’s Cross … once a preaching cross and open-air pulpit in the grounds of Old Saint Paul’s Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Luke 5: 27-32 (NRSVA):

27 After this he went out and saw a tax-collector named Levi, sitting at the tax booth; and he said to him, ‘Follow me.’ 28 And he got up, left everything, and followed him.

29 Then Levi gave a great banquet for him in his house; and there was a large crowd of tax-collectors and others sitting at the table with them. 30 The Pharisees and their scribes were complaining to his disciples, saying, ‘Why do you eat and drink with tax-collectors and sinners?’ 31 Jesus answered, ‘Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick; 32 I have come to call not the righteous but sinners to repentance.’

Saint Mellitus Church in Tollington Park, Islington, is a grand Victorian neo-classical building (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Saturday 17 February 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), has been ‘Ash Wednesday Reflection.’ This theme was introduced last Sunday by the Revd Jessie Anand, Chaplain, USPG.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (17 February 2024) invites us to pray in these words:

Let us give thanks for the vision that inspired USPG. May we, like Thomas Bray, seek to deepen our understanding of the Gospel, be attentive to the world and promote the common good.

The Collect:

God of truth,
whose servant Janani Luwum walked in the light,
and in his death defied the powers of darkness:
free us from fear of those who kill the body,
that we too may walk as children of light,
through him who overcame darkness by the power of the cross,
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 Lenten 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:

God our redeemer,
whose Church was strengthened by the blood of your martyr Janani Luwum:
so bind us, in life and death, to Christ’s sacrifice
that our lives, broken and offered with his,
may carry his death and proclaim his resurrection in the world;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Collect on the eve of Lent I:

Almighty God,
whose Son Jesus Christ fasted forty days in the wilderness,
and was tempted as we are, yet without sin:
give us grace to discipline ourselves in obedience to your Spirit;
and, as you know our weakness,
so may we know your power to save;
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.

Yesterday’s Reflection: Saint Augustine (605), first Archbishop of Canterbury

Tomorrow: Saint Oswald (642), King of Northumbria, Martyr

Inside Saint Mellitus Church, Islington, built as the New Court Congregational Church (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