Daily prayer in Lent with early English saints: 31, 15 March 2024, Lanfranc of Canterbury

Archbishop Lanfranc of Canterbury in the window above the High Altar in the Church of Saint Dunstan-in-the-West, Fleet Street, London (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Patrick Comerford

Lent began over a month 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.

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.

Archbishop Lanfranc of Canterbury (left) with Saint Dunstan, Saint Anselm and Archbishop Stephen Langton in the window above the High Altar in Saint Dunstan-in-the-West, Fleet Street, London (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Early English pre-Reformation saints: 31, Archbishop Lanfranc of Canterbury

Lanfranc (1089), Prior of Le Bec, Archbishop of Canterbury is remembered with a commemoration in Common Worship on 28 May. Lanfranc was born in Pavia, Italy, ca 1005. At the age of 35, he became a monk of the Benedictine Abbey in Le Bec, Normandy. There he founded the school that rose rapidly to renown throughout Europe.

William of Normandy appointed him Abbot of Caen in 1062, and then in 1070 Archbishop of Canterbury in 1070. Lanfranc was a great ecclesiastical statesman, overseeing administrative, judicial and ecclesial reforms with the same energy and rigour that the Conqueror displayed in his new kingdom.

Lanfranc did not forget his monastic formation: he wrote Constitutions for Christchurch, Canterbury, based on the customs of Le Bec, and appointed many Norman abbots to implement his vision in the English abbeys. He died in 1089.

The Church of Saint Mary-le-Bow, London, was built ca 1080 by Archbishop Lanfranc of Canterbury, who had accompanied William the Conqueror from Bec in Normandy (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

John 7: 1-2, 10, 25-30 (NRSVA):

7 After this Jesus went about in Galilee. He did not wish to go about in Judea because the Jews were looking for an opportunity to kill him. 2 Now the Jewish festival of Booths was near.

10 But after his brothers had gone to the festival, then he also went, not publicly but as it were in secret.

25 Now some of the people of Jerusalem were saying, ‘Is not this the man whom they are trying to kill? 26 And here he is, speaking openly, but they say nothing to him! Can it be that the authorities really know that this is the Messiah? 27 Yet we know where this man is from; but when the Messiah comes, no one will know where he is from.’ 28 Then Jesus cried out as he was teaching in the temple, ‘You know me, and you know where I am from. I have not come on my own. But the one who sent me is true, and you do not know him. 29 I know him, because I am from him, and he sent me.’ 30 Then they tried to arrest him, but no one laid hands on him, because his hour had not yet come.

Archbishop Lanfranc depicted in a stained-glass window in Canterbury

Today’s Prayers (Friday 15 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 (15 March 2024) invites us to pray in these words:

We pray Lord for the mission of the JustMoney Movement and their vision of a world where money is used to shape a fairer, greener future for everyone.

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 Edward the Confessor

Tomorrow: Saint Wulfstan, Bishop of Worcester

Archbishop Lanfranc depicted in a statue at Canterbury Cathedral

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