Cathedral Reflections

Cathedral Reflections

Romans 8:26 Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness, for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with groanings too deep for words.

When we walk through the Cathedral Close what do we see? The New Testament gives us a view of the world that is not based on appearances but on the action of God. It tells us that when Jesus died, rose again and ascended he was completing the long plan to save the world that was contained in promises to Abraham 2000 years earlier. It tells us that the power of evil has been broken as Jesus has triumphed over it. It also tells us that we must wait to see this victory fully revealed and that in the meantime we should pray about and lament the evil in the world along with the Holy Spirit who utters groanings too deep for words.

Canon Graham Bennett

On November 30^th the church remembers Saint Andrew. He was the brother of the more prominent Saint Peter. Scripture suggests that he was more spiritually sensitive than his brother. Andrew is a Greek, not a Hebrew name, so he came from a family open to influence from other cultures and he seems to have been an open-minded person himself. He joined the new movement that followed John the Baptist (John 1:40) but he listened to John’s message that he was preparing the way for someone else and did not settle down into the Baptist’s group, unwilling to move on, as some did. Was Andrew present when John baptised Jesus? Something must have prepared him because, when he heard Jesus speak ,he knew that he had to move on from John’s group (John 1:35-40) to follow Jesus. He was so convinced that he went to his brother Peter with the early insight “We have found the Messiah”(John 1:41).May God grant us the grace to move on with Him and not settle comfortably in the familiar.

Canon Graham Bennett

This week the church holds a Day of Intercession and Thanksgiving for the Missionary Work of the Church. We don't know exactly when the first Christian missionaries arrived in Britain. But England's first church historian, the Venerable Bede reports in his History of the English Church and People that in156, during the reign of Roman emperor Marcus Antoninus, a British king named Lucius wrote to Pope Eleutherus in Rome requesting instruction in the Christian faith. Although this account is disputed, it does indicate how quickly the Good News spread from Jerusalem to Britain because Christianity is a missionary faith that must be shared. Lord God, we pray for those from all over the world who in this day leave their home culture to take the Good News to another country. We ask that today they may be strengthened for the task Youhave given them and be supported in all their needs. Give them wisdom to make good contacts and sensitivity to share the faith in appropriate ways.

Canon Graham Bennett

Week Beginning 19th November

Members of the Cathedral community are busy knitting angels whose presence in the Cathedral will become apparent during Advent! Angels are God’s messengers, pointing us towards God, reminding us of the spiritual dimension of our lives. What does that mean?

 “The spiritual life does not mean a mere cultivation of one’s own soul, poking about our interior life with a torch. It is also intensely social; for it is a life shared with all others…all are linked together in one single response to…God…Here all intermingle, and all, however humble and obscure their lives may seem, can and do , affect each other. Only when we recognise all this, and act on it, are we fully awake and taking our place in the connectedness of the spiritual realm.” Evelyn Underhill.

Janet Bellamy

Today the church commemorates the life and work of Isaac Watts (1674-1748). A Congregationalist minister and theologian, he is best remembered for his prolific hymn writing, including Joy to the World and Oh God our help in Ages Past. Perhaps one of his most loved and powerful hymns like this:

When I survey the wondrous cross

On which the Prince of Glory died,

My richest gain I count but loss,

And pour contempt on all my pride.

Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast,

Save in he death of Christ my God;

All the vain things that charm me most,

I sacrifice them to his blood.

See from His head, His hands, His feet,

Sorrow and love flow mingled down;

Did e’er such love and sorrow meet,

Or thorns compose so rich a crown?

Were the whole realm of nature mine,

That were an offering far too small:

Love so amazing, so divine,

Demands my soul, my life , my all.

Janet Bellamy

This week people in the USA celebrated Thanksgiving. Originally a harvest thanksgiving it has become a major holiday and a special time for families to get together to share a traditional meal (including turkey and pumpkin pie) in thanksgiving for all the blessings they enjoy.

Here is a traditional Thanksgiving prayer, in words which cross the boundaries of time and place:

We thank thee for food and remember the hungry.

We thank thee for health and remember the sick.

We thank thee for friends and remember the friendless.

We thank thee for freedom and remember the enslaved.

May these remembrances stir us to service

that thy gifts to is may be used for others.

Amen

Janet Bellamy

Week Beginning 1st October

Thomas Cantilupe 1218-1282

Hereford’s own saint was our bishop from 1275 to 1282. He was an academic and university lecturer and twice Chancellor of Oxford University during which time he led according to his own upright personal morality. He supported Simon de Montfort in his attempts to regulate the rule of Henry III but does not seem to have suffered much for this in the eyes of the King or his successor Edward I ashe became a trusted advisor to both.

As Bishop of Hereford, he was not afraid to enter into a dispute with the Archbishop of Canterbury and stand his ground so firmly that he was excommunicated. His determination to obtain a just outcome took him on a journey to Italy where he was reinstated by the Pope but then, sadly, died. 

Lord God, supreme over the powers of this world, help us to recognise the areas where we need to be involved in working for change and in striving to encourage righteousness in our society .

Francis of Assisi 1181-1226

Verses 1-5 of the Canticle of Brother Sun are our prayer of praise this week

Most High, all-powerful, good Lord, Yours are the praises, the glory, the honour, and all blessing. To You alone, Most High, do they belong, and no man is worthy to mention Your name. Praised be You, my Lord, with all your creatures, especially Sir Brother Sun, Who is the day and through whom You give us light. And he is beautiful and radiant with great splendour; and bears a likeness of You, Most High One. Praised be You, my Lord, through Sister Moon and the stars, in heaven You formed them clear and precious and beautiful.

William Tyndale 1494-1536

William Tyndale believed it was his Christian calling to translate the Bible into the English language so that it was accessible to all who could read or hear it read. He did this in the face of great opposition from the Church.

John Wycliffe had produced an English Bible in the late C14th but this caused such a religious foment that the death penalty was imposed on anyone found guilty of unlicensed possession of an English translation of the Bible. As is the way with translations, Wycliffe’s work was now out of date due to changes in the English language, so Tyndale set about making a new translation from the original Greek and Hebrew texts which had only recently been re-introduced to the West after centuries of neglect. Failing to obtain permission to translate in England, he moved to the continent and issued his first printed New Testament in 1526. Copies were smuggled into England. Any copies found by the church authorities were publicly burned.

Canon Graham Bennett