Patrick Comerford
The Season of Lent began on Ash Wednesday (14 February 2024), and today is the Third Sunday in Lent (Lent III, 3 March 2024).
Later this morning, I hope to be at the Parish Eucharist in the Church of Saint Mary and Saint Giles in Stony Stratford. The choir has been rehearsing Psalm 19: 7-14, which includes words that were once traditionally used by preachers before they started their sermons:
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart
Be always acceptable in thy sight:
O Lord my strength and my redeemer.
Throughout Lent this year, I am taking time each morning to reflect on the lives of early, pre-Reformation English saints commemorated 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.
Early English pre-Reformation saints: 19, Saint Aldhelm (709), Bishop of Sherborne
Saint Aldhelm (709), Bishop of Sherborne, is commemorated in Common Worship on 25 May.
Saint Aldhelm was born in Wessex in the year 639. When he was a young boy, he was sent to Canterbury to be educated under Adrian, Abbot of Saint Augustine’s, and soon impressed his teachers with his skill in studying Latin and Greek literature.
Aldhelm returned to Wessex some years later and joined the community of monks in Malmesbury, Wiltshire. He embraced the monastic life and, in 680, became the monks’ teacher. His reputation spread, and scholars from France and Scotland came to learn from him. By then, Aldhelm is said to have spoken and written fluent Latin and Greek, and was able to read the Old Testament in Hebrew. He wrote poetry, composed music and sang – King Alfred the Great placed him in the first rank of poets in the country and his ballads were popular into the 12th century. He excelled at playing many instruments, including the harp, fiddle and pipes.
Aldhelm became Abbot of Malmesbury in 683. Under his leadership, the Abbey continued to be a seat of learning and was endowed by kings and nobles. Aldhelm enlarged the monastery, and built the Church of Saint Peter and Saint Pau, and founded monasteries in Frome and Bradford-on-Avon, where he also built Saint Laurence’s Church which still stands today.
During his time as abbot, Aldhelm noticed that instead of attending to the monks at Mass, the local people preferred to spend their time gossiping and could not be persuaded to listen to the preacher. So one day, he stationed himself on a bridge, like a minstrel, and began to sing his ballads. The beauty of his verse attracted a huge crowd and, when he had caught their attention, he began to preach the Gospel.
The historian William of Malmesbury observed that if Aldhelm ‘had proceeded with severity … he would have made no impression whatever upon them.’ But by seeking out people where they were and speaking directly to them, Aldhelm had succeeded in ‘impressing on their minds a truer feeling of religious devotion.
When the Bishopric of Wessex was split into two dioceses in 705, Aldhelm was made Bishop of Sherborne. In his time as bishop, he rebuilt the church at Sherborne and helped to establish a nunnery at Wareham. He also built churches at Langton Matravers and the Royal Palace at Corfe. The headland commonly called Saint Alban’s Head in Dorset, where there is an ancient chapel, is in reality Saint Aldhelm’s Head.
Four years after his consecration, Aldhelm died at Doulting, Somerset, on 25 May 709, on his way to Malmesbury. His funeral procession travelled 50 miles from Doulting to Malmesbury and stone crosses were planted at seven-mile intervals, to mark each place where his body rested for the night.
Aldhelm was a great scholar, teacher and singer who, ‘by his preaching completed the conquest of Wessex’, according to Bede. Tradition has it that he would attract listeners by his singing and then preach the gospel to them. It seems he may have also been responsible for introducing the Rule of Saint Benedict to the area.
John 2: 13-22 (NRSVA):
13 The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 14 In the temple he found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves, and the money-changers seated at their tables. 15 Making a whip of cords, he drove all of them out of the temple, both the sheep and the cattle. He also poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables. 16 He told those who were selling the doves, ‘Take these things out of here! Stop making my Father’s house a market-place!’ 17 His disciples remembered that it was written, ‘Zeal for your house will consume me.’ 18 The Jews then said to him, ‘What sign can you show us for doing this?’ 19 Jesus answered them, ‘Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.’ 20 The Jews then said, ‘This temple has been under construction for forty-six years, and will you raise it up in three days?’ 21 But he was speaking of the temple of his body. 22 After he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this; and they believed the scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.
Today’s Prayers (Sunday 3 March 2024, Lent III):
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 ‘International Women’s Day Reflection.’ This theme is introduced today by the Right Revd Beverley A Mason MA, Bishop of Warrington, who writes:
Read Mark 7: 24-29:
Some theologians believe that the woman is teaching the Teacher that to such as she, an ‘outsider’/Gentile/Syro-Phoenician, belongs the Kingdom of God
‘A woman with a sick daughter hears of a miracle worker. But how does she get to Him? The power differences between them are too great. He is a man in a patriarchal culture; He is a teacher, what did she know? He has status and renown, she is alone. Where is her husband, brother, father? Where was the sisterhood? He is a religious leader, but it is not her religion. Imagine the mental, physical, spiritual and social barriers she must cross. Jesus calls her a ‘dog’. At any point, she could be beaten or flee in fear or shame. Yet courageously she stays, humbles herself before Him and pleads for her child.
‘Some theologians believe the woman is teaching the Teacher that to such as her belongs the Kingdom of God. Kenneth Bailey by contrast suggests Jesus is using a clever theatrical technique, speaking the words expressed on the faces of His disciples whilst warmly encouraging the woman to press on to demonstrate that to such as this woman belongs the Kingdom of God. What do you think?
‘Clearly, we’re learning that all kinds of constructs can get in the way of us and God; that the faith, hope and love of just one woman can tear down barriers between us and Jesus – freedom, truth and healing. Just imagine the transformation by faith, hope and love when many women come together! Are you up for it?’
The USPG Prayer Diary today (3 March 2024, Lent III) invites us to pray in these words:
Spirit of God, strong as the wind
and gentle as the dove,
blow into our hearts
and fill them with your love
that we may be born anew
and know life in all its fullness.
The Collect:
Almighty God,
whose most dear Son went not up to joy but first he suffered pain,
and entered not into glory before he was crucified:
mercifully grant that we, walking in the way of the cross,
may find it none other than the way of life and peace;
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:
Merciful Lord,
grant your people grace to withstand the temptations
of the world, the flesh and the devil,
and with pure hearts and minds to follow you, the only God;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Additional Collect:
Eternal God,
give us insight
to discern your will for us,
to give up what harms us,
and to seek the perfection we are promised
in Jesus Christ our Lord.
Yesterday’s Reflection: Saint Theodore of Tarsus, Archbishop of Canterbury
Tomorrow: Saint Wilfrid of Ripon (709), Bishop, Missionary
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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