Patrick Comerford
We are beginning the last week of Lent, Holy Week, today on Palm Sunday, the Sixth Sunday in Lent (24 March 2024). The Orthodox Calendar is slightly different, and today is the first Sunday of Great Lent. It is called the Sunday of Orthodoxy and commemorates the restoration of the Holy Icons and the triumph of the Orthodox Faith against the heresy of the iconoclasts.
In the Jewish calendar, the festival of Purim began last night (23 March) and continues until this evening (24 March).
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.
Later this morning, I hope to take part in the Palm Sunday liturgy in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford, reading the part of the Narrator in the Passion Gospel. But, 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.
Early English pre-Reformation saints: 40, Saint Edmund Rich of Abingdon
Saint Edmund Rich of Abingdon is remembered in Common Worship on 16 November. He was born ca 1175 in Abingdon, once the country town of Berkshire but now part of Oxfordshire. His father was a merchant whose wealth probably led to Edmund being later surnamed ‘Rich’, and who himself became a monk later in life.
Edmund was educated at Oxford and in Paris. He is said to have been the first person to teach Aristotle in Oxford. After also teaching in both Oxford and Paris, he became Treasurer of Salisbury Cathedral in 1222 and was eventually made Archbishop of Canterbury in 1233.
He was a reforming bishop and, as well as bringing gifts of administration to his task, appointed clergy of outstanding talent to senior positions in the Church. He also acted as peacemaker between the king and his barons, many believing that his actions averted civil war. He died in Pontigny, France, on 16 November 1240, on a journey to Rome. He was canonised in 1247.
Saint Edmund gives his name to St Edmund Hall in Oxford. There, the mediaeval well in the centre of the front quad is believed to be the original well from which Saint Edmund drew water. The Latin inscription, haurietis aquas in gaudio de fontibus salvatoris, ‘with joy, draw water from the wells of salvation’ (Isaiah 12: 3), is said to be the last words by Saint Edmund on his deathbed.
Mark 11: 1-1 (NRSVA):
1 When they were approaching Jerusalem, at Bethphage and Bethany, near the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples 2 and said to them, ‘Go into the village ahead of you, and immediately as you enter it, you will find tied there a colt that has never been ridden; untie it and bring it. 3 If anyone says to you, “Why are you doing this?” just say this, “The Lord needs it and will send it back here immediately”.’ 4 They went away and found a colt tied near a door, outside in the street. As they were untying it, 5 some of the bystanders said to them, ‘What are you doing, untying the colt?’ 6 They told them what Jesus had said; and they allowed them to take it. 7 Then they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks on it; and he sat on it. 8 Many people spread their cloaks on the road, and others spread leafy branches that they had cut in the fields. 9 Then those who went ahead and those who followed were shouting,
‘Hosanna!
Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!
10 Blessed is the coming kingdom of our ancestor David!
Hosanna in the highest heaven!’
11 Then he entered Jerusalem and went into the temple; and when he had looked around at everything, as it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the twelve.
Today’s Prayers (Sunday 24 March 2024, Palm Sunday):
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 ‘Holy Week Reflection.’ This theme is introduced today by the Revd Canon Dr Peniel Rajkumar, Theologian and Director of Global Mission, USPG:
‘Holy Week is, for many, a time of spiritual pilgrimage. It is an opportunity to follow Jesus on his journey towards the Cross, from which flows possibilities for the fullness and wholeness of all life.
‘At the heart of Holy Week is the theme of solidarity. Jesus’s solidarity is a YES to self-identification with all those pushed to the margins of society by the powerful, and a NO to the powers of the world.
‘The NO to the powers of the world comes out clearly on Maundy Thursday, where according to John, Jesus knowing fully well that God “had given all things into His hands” takes the form of a slave and washes His disciples’ feet. Jesus replaces the love of power with the power of love – teaching the powerful a lesson in giving up power.
‘The YES to Jesus’s self-identification with the marginalised comes on Good Friday in the way Jesus suffers “outside the city gate” (Hebrews 13: 12) in solidarity with the many outcasts, who have been made scapegoats of unjust systems.
‘It is in this solidarity – resisting the patterns and powers of this world, and embracing the broken and the broken hearted into His own bruised body – that Jesus the crucified Christ opens up possibilities for healing and hope.
‘During Holy Week, as we focus on the Cross, we are reminded that our resources for hope are often found in places where we least expect it – even on the Cross.’
The USPG Prayer Diary today (24 March 2024, Palm Sunday) invites us to pray in these words:
Christ in our darkness risen,
help all who long for light
to hold the hand of promise
till faith receives its light.
(Brian Wren, b. 1936).
The Collect:
Almighty and everlasting God,
who in your tender love towards the human race
sent your Son our Saviour Jesus Christ
to take upon him our flesh
and to suffer death upon the cross:
grant that we may follow the example of his patience and humility,
and also be made partakers of his resurrection;
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:
Lord Jesus Christ,
you humbled yourself in taking the form of a servant,
and in obedience died on the cross for our salvation:
give us the mind to follow you
and to proclaim you as Lord and King,
to the glory of God the Father.
Additional Collect:
True and humble king,
hailed by the crowd as Messiah:
grant us the faith to know you and love you,
that we may be found beside you
on the way of the cross,
which is the path of glory.
Yesterday: Saint Hugh of Lincoln
Tomorrow: Saint Richard of Chichester
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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