Morning Prayer: 11 July – Psalm 123:2-4; Isaiah 7:14; Matthew 2:1-11 ~ on adoration

Morning Prayer

+ In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

Opening sentences

One thing I have asked of the Lord, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life; to behold the beauty of the Lord and to seek Him in His temple.

Praise to You, Lord Jesus Christ, King of endless glory.

Pilgrimage

Psalm 123:2-4 NLT

Adoration of the Magi Andrea Mantegna Italian, about 1495 - 1505 J. Paul Getty Museum, Malibu, CA — Adoration of the Magi
Andrea Mantegna
Italian, about 1495 – 1505
J. Paul Getty Museum, Malibu, CA

We keep looking to the Lord our God for his mercy, just as servants keep their eyes on their master, as a slave girl watches her mistress for the slightest signal. Have mercy on us, Lord, have mercy, for we have had our fill of contempt. We have had more than our fill of the scoffing of the proud and the contempt of the arrogant.

Isaiah 7:14 NLT

All right then, the Lord himself will give you the sign. Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son and will call him Immanuel (which means ‘God is with us’).

Matthew 2:1-11 NLT

Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the reign of King Herod. About that time some wise men from eastern lands arrived in Jerusalem, asking, “Where is the newborn king of the Jews? We saw his star as it rose, and we have come to worship him.”

King Herod was deeply disturbed when he heard this, as was everyone in Jerusalem. He called a meeting of the leading priests and teachers of religious law and asked, “Where is the Messiah supposed to be born?”

“In Bethlehem in Judea,” they said, “for this is what the prophet wrote:

‘And you, O Bethlehem in the land of Judah, are not least among the ruling cities of Judah, for a ruler will come from you who will be the shepherd for my people Israel.’”

Then Herod called for a private meeting with the wise men, and he learned from them the time when the star first appeared. Then he told them, “Go to Bethlehem and search carefully for the child. And when you find him, come back and tell me so that I can go and worship him, too!”

After this interview the wise men went their way. And the star they had seen in the east guided them to Bethlehem. It went ahead of them and stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they were filled with joy! They entered the house and saw the child with his mother, Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasure chests and gave him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

Reflections

HADDINGTON

The annual pilgrimage to Haddington in Scotland is quite an occasion. Time for ecumenical liturgy, for buses and sandwiches and quiet excitement. Then suddenly the moment as you look at the scene of Mary holding up her child and the royal visitors kneeling before Him: the wonder of it all, He came right down to me!
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In the white falling snow the pilgrim travels on, his face towards the sun. Beyond the open road he travels on past the lamp shining windows and faces in the fire before the midnight hour, for Christmas time has come around again… (Chris Simpson)
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Say, shall we yield Him, in cosly devotion, odours of Edom and offerings divine? Gems of the mountain and pearls of the ocean, myrrh from the forest or gold from the mine?

Vainly we offer each ample oblation, vainly with gifts would His favour secure; richer by far is the heart’s adoration, dearer to God are the prayers of the poor. (R. Huber)
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T.S. Eliot in his ‘Journey of the Magi’ writes as if he were one of the pilgrims who came from so far away. To us their significance lies in the moment of arrival, their kneeling, their gifts and adoration. For them, there is also a problem, for they return where they came from, but changed, no longer at ease as they were before.

Aidan Readings – Aidan of Lindisfarne
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Canticle:

Christ, as a light… illumine and guide me. Christ, as a shield… overshadow me. Christ under me; Christ over me; Christ beside me on my left and my right. This day be within and without me, lowly and meek, yet all-powerful. Be in the heart of each to whom I speak; in the mouth of each who speaks unto me. This day be within and without me, lowly and meek, yet all-powerful. Christ as a light; Christ as a shield; Christ beside me on my left and my right.

Blessing

May the peace of the Lord Christ go with you, wherever He may send you. May He guide you through the wilderness, protect you through the storm. May He bring you home rejoicing at the wonders He has shown you. May He bring you home rejoicing once again into our doors.

+ In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

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Peanut Gallery: The general format for Morning Prayer is adapted from the Northumbrian Community‘s Daily Office, as found in Celtic Daily Prayer (see online resources here.) Our Scripture readings and reflections will be taken from the Aidan Daily Readings (Celtic Daily Prayer) during the month of July. On Sundays, we’ll return to the USCCB readings (see online resources here) and various liturgical resources in order to reflect the Church’s worship and concerns throughout the world. Photo illustrations and music videos, available online, are included as they illustrate or illuminate the readings. I will try to give credit and link to sources as best I can.

Morning Prayer: 05 July – Psalm 121:4-7; Song of Songs 1:4, 8:14; Romans 13:9-10 ~ on following

Morning Prayer

+ In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

Opening sentences

One thing I have asked of the Lord, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life; to behold the beauty of the Lord and to seek Him in His temple.

Praise to You, Lord Jesus Christ, King of endless glory.

Pilgrimage

Psalm 121:4-7 NLT

Indeed, he who watches over Israel never slumbers or sleeps.

The Lord himself watches over you! The Lord stands beside you as your protective shade. The sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon at night.

The Lord keeps you from all harm and watches over your life.

Song of Songs 1:4; 8:14 NLT

Take me with you; come, let’s run! The king has brought me into his bedroom.

How happy we are for you, O king. We praise your love even more than wine.

How right they are to adore you.
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Come away, my love! Be like a gazelle or a young stag on the mountains of spices.

Romans 13:9-10 NLT

For the commandments say, “You must not commit adultery. You must not murder. You must not steal. You must not covet.” These — and other such commandments — are summed up in this one commandment: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no wrong to others, so love fulfills the requirements of God’s law.

Reflections

LITTLE GIDDING

The Church of Saint John the Evangelist, erected in 1714 to replace an earlier church at the site.

In 1620 Nicholas Ferrar, his mother, brother and brother-in-law with their families restored a derelict village church at Little Gidding. There they said the daily office of prayer. They were Church of England, and tried to combine the monastic values with normal family life.
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For many people the name ‘Little Gidding‘ is at first familiar because of the poem of the same name by T.S. Eliot published as one of his ‘Four Quartets.’ He seems in these verses to capture something of the nature of pilgrimage – the precise directions to somewhere awkward to find; and you’re not sure quite why you came or what it was you’re looking for. If you find it, or it finds you, words cannot easily convey what has happened but it becomes part of the journey that continues.
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Not waiting for You, climbing up the hill, I slip and stumble. Still, Your hand upon my shoulder is so strong; and every boulder sings a song of love while, high above, Your laughter draws me on and on; and ever since that morning there has been no right or wrong, but love. (From Hillclimbing for Beginners)
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Wherever He may guide me, no want shall turn me back; My Shepherd is beside me, and nothing can I lack. His wisdom ever waketh, His sight is never dim, He knows the way He taketh, and I will walk with Him.

Aidan Readings – Aidan of Lindisfarne
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Canticle:

Blessing

+ In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

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Morning Prayer: 04 July – Psalm 121:1-3; Habakkuk 3:16-19; John 10:14-26 ~ on treading upon the heights

Morning Prayer

+ In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

Opening sentences

One thing I have asked of the Lord, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life; to behold the beauty of the Lord and to seek Him in His temple.

Praise to You, Lord Jesus Christ, King of endless glory.

Pilgrimage

Psalm 121:1-3 NLT

Rocky Mountain Goats—B.C. Michael Coleman (1989) National Museum of Wildlife Art Collection — Rocky Mountain Goats—B.C.
Michael Coleman (1989)
National Museum of Wildlife Art Collection

I look up to the mountains — does my help come from there?

My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth! He will not let you stumble; the one who watches over you will not slumber.

Habakkuk 3:16-19 NLT

I trembled inside when I heard this; my lips quivered with fear. My legs gave way beneath me, and I shook in terror. I will wait quietly for the coming day when disaster will strike the people who invade us.

Even though the fig trees have no blossoms, and there are no grapes on the vines; even though the olive crop fails, and the fields lie empty and barren; even though the flocks die in the fields, and the cattle barns are empty, yet I will rejoice in the Lord! I will be joyful in the God of my salvation!

The Sovereign Lord is my strength! He makes me as surefooted as a deer, able to tread upon the heights.

John 10:14-26 NLT

“I am the good shepherd; I know my own sheep, and they know me, just as my Father knows me and I know the Father. So I sacrifice my life for the sheep. I have other sheep, too, that are not in this sheepfold. I must bring them also. They will listen to my voice, and there will be one flock with one shepherd.

“The Father loves me because I sacrifice my life so I may take it back again. No one can take my life from me. I sacrifice it voluntarily. For I have the authority to lay it down when I want to and also to take it up again. For this is what my Father has commanded.”

When he said these things, the people were again divided in their opinions about him. Some said, “He’s demon possessed and out of his mind. Why listen to a man like that?” Others said, “This doesn’t sound like a man possessed by a demon! Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?”

It was now winter, and Jesus was in Jerusalem at the time of Hanukkah, the Festival of Dedication. He was in the Temple, walking through the section known as Solomon’s Colonnade. The people surrounded him and asked, “How long are you going to keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.”

Jesus replied, “I have already told you, and you don’t believe me. The proof is the work I do in my Father’s name. But you don’t believe me because you are not my sheep.”

Reflections

THE HIGH PLACES

The life of the praying person is a journey farther up and farther in, to places God Himself has spoken about to the attentive heart. On one such occasion the Shepherd said to Much-Afraid,

When you continue your journey there may be much mist and cloud. Perhaps it may even seem as though everything you have seen here of the high places was just a dream, or the work of your imagination… But you have seen reality, and the mist which seems to swallow it up is an illusion. Believe steadfastly in what you have seen. Even if the way up to the high places appears to be obscured and you are led to doubt whether you are following the right path, remember the promise, ‘Thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand and when ye turn to the left.’ Always go forward along the path of obedience as far as you know it until I intervene, even if it seems to be leading you where you fear I could never mean you to go.

Hannah Hurnard, Hind’s Feet on High Places

Aidan Readings – Aidan of Lindisfarne
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Canticle:

Blessing

+ In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

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Morning Prayer: 03 July – Psalm 120:5-7; Zechariah 8:3-5; Luke 15:13-20 ~ on returning home

Morning Prayer

+ In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

Opening sentences

One thing I have asked of the Lord, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life; to behold the beauty of the Lord and to seek Him in His temple.

Praise to You, Lord Jesus Christ, King of endless glory.

Pilgrimage

Psalm 120:5-7 NLT

How I suffer in far-off Meshech. It pains me to live in distant Kedar. I am tired of living among people who hate peace. I search for peace; but when I speak of peace, they want war!

Zechariah 8:3-5 NLT

“And now the Lord says: I am returning to Mount Zion, and I will live in Jerusalem. Then Jerusalem will be called the Faithful City; the mountain of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies will be called the Holy Mountain.

“This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies says: Once again old men and women will walk Jerusalem’s streets with their canes and will sit together in the city squares. And the streets of the city will be filled with boys and girls at play.”

Luke 15:13-20 NLT

The Return of the Prodigal Son (1773) by Pompeo Batoni — The Return of the Prodigal Son (1773)
by Pompeo Batoni

“A few days later this younger son packed all his belongings and moved to a distant land, and there he wasted all his money in wild living. About the time his money ran out, a great famine swept over the land, and he began to starve. He persuaded a local farmer to hire him, and the man sent him into his fields to feed the pigs. The young man became so hungry that even the pods he was feeding the pigs looked good to him. But no one gave him anything.

“When he finally came to his senses, he said to himself, ‘At home even the hired servants have food enough to spare, and here I am dying of hunger! I will go home to my father and say, “Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you, and I am no longer worthy of being called your son. Please take me on as a hired servant.”’

“So he returned home to his father. And while he was still a long way off, his father saw him coming. Filled with love and compassion, he ran to his son, embraced him, and kissed him.”

Reflections

DERRY

One sort of pilgrimage is to go back to a place full of memories, of joy, of childhood. Many things will have changed, not least ourselves, and it is a bitter-sweet experience.

A popular and famous song talks of one man’s return to Derry:

But when I returned how my eyes were burned to see how that town had been broought to its knees by the armoured cars and the bombed-out bars and the gas that hangs on every tree.
Now the army’s installed by the old gas-yard wall and the damned barbed wire gets higher and higher.
With their tanks and their guns, oh my God, what have they done to the town that I loved so well?

T.S. Eliot writes:

You are not here to verify, instruct yourself, or inform your curiosity or carry report. You are here to kneel where prayer has been valid. And prayer is more than an order of words, the conscious occupation of the praying mind, or the sound of the voice praying.

Aidan Readings – Aidan of Lindisfarne
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Canticle:

Blessing

+ In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

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Morning Prayer: 02 July – Psalm 120:2-4; Job 1:6-8; Luke 4:1-13 ~ on testing

Morning Prayer

+ In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

Opening sentences

One thing I have asked of the Lord, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life; to behold the beauty of the Lord and to seek Him in His temple.

Praise to You, Lord Jesus Christ, King of endless glory.

Pilgrimage

Psalm 120:2-4 NLT

Rescue me, O Lord, from liars and from all deceitful people.

O deceptive tongue, what will God do to you? How will he increase your punishment? You will be pierced with sharp arrows and burned with glowing coals.

Job 1:6-8 NLT

One day the members of the heavenly court came to present themselves before the Lord, and the Accuser, Satan, came with them. “Where have you come from?” the Lord asked Satan.

Satan answered the Lord, “I have been patrolling the earth, watching everything that’s going on.”

Then the Lord asked Satan, “Have you noticed my servant Job? He is the finest man in all the earth. He is blameless — a man of complete integrity. He fears God and stays away from evil.”

Luke 4:1-13 NLT

Driven by the Spirit Stanley Spencer (1891 – 1959) — Driven by the Spirit
Stanley Spencer (1891 – 1959)

Then Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan River. He was led by the Spirit in the wilderness, where he was tempted by the devil for forty days. Jesus ate nothing all that time and became very hungry.

Then the devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become a loaf of bread.”

But Jesus told him, “No! The Scriptures say, ‘People do not live by bread alone.’”

Then the devil took him up and revealed to him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. “I will give you the glory of these kingdoms and authority over them,” the devil said, “because they are mine to give to anyone I please. I will give it all to you if you will worship me.”

Jesus replied, “The Scriptures say, ‘You must worship the Lord your God and serve only him.’”

Then the devil took him to Jerusalem, to the highest point of the Temple, and said, “If you are the Son of God, jump off! For the Scriptures say, ‘He will order his angels to protect and guard you. And they will hold you up with their hands so you won’t even hurt your foot on a stone.’”

Jesus responded, “The Scriptures also say, ‘You must not test the Lord your God.’”

When the devil had finished tempting Jesus, he left him until the next opportunity came.

Reflections

INNER FARNE
Then I saw that there was a way to hell even from the gate of heaven, as well as from the City of Destruction. So I awoke, and behold it was a dream. [John Bunyan, Pilgrim’s Progress]
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In general we pray, Lead us not into temptation, but at the same time the Spirit of God may draw us into a deserted place to be tested.

The island of Inner Farne which was Cuthbert‘s ‘lonely battlefield’ had the reputation of being just such a place. Geoffry of Coldingham, in the twelfth century writes:

Farne, which was formerly the fortress of devils, is now a cloister and a school of saints… It always contains, indeed it actually forms, men of virtue, because when someone is led there by the Spirit into the desert, he must expect to be tempted by the devil. Consequently he either cultivates sanctity or else he leaves this holy place. And the strength of temptation is greatly increased by the island’s poverty and the cold caused by the sea… There is a continual assault from the waves and ceaseless conflict with them. Sometimes the island is completely covered with foam, which flows in from the sea and is blown over it by the wind, and this is a great mortification to those who live there, and it makes them cold and afraid…

Aidan Readings – Aidan of Lindisfarne
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