Grace unto you, and peace, from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ
News of the Order and commentary appear after the Proper Collect, Epistle and Gospel
The First Sunday after Epiphany
O LORD, we beseech thee mercifully to receive the prayers of thy people who call upon thee; and grant that they may both perceive and know what things they ought to do, and also may have grace and power faithfully to fulfil the same; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Source Sacramentary of Bishop Gregory of Rome [600 AD]. It is based on James 4:17, John 13:17, and Luke 12:47 -[Barbee and Zahl]
O GOD, who by the leading of a star didst manifest thy only-begotten Son to the Gentiles; Mercifully grant that we, who know thee now by faith, may after this life have the fruition of thy glorious Godhead; through the same thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Collect of Epiphany - said in the Octave of Epiphany
Isaiah lx. 1, Psalm 47, 48 | 66, 67; Romans xii. 1 & St. Luke ii. 41
Homilies
BULLETIN
quotation
All killing is not murder…When soldiers came to St. John the Baptist asking him what they should do, he never even remotely suggested that they ought to leave the army: Nor did Christ when he met a Roman sergeant-major—what they called a centurion. What I cannot understand…is the idea that though you have to fight, you ought to do it with long faces and as if you were ashamed of it. It is that feeling that robs a lot of magnificent young Christians in the army of something they have a right to, something which is the natural accompaniment of courage—a kind of gaiety and wholeheartedness.
[C.S. Lewis, the 20th Century Knight of Oxford: Mere Christianity, p107]
calendar
Alexander (Akimetes) Centurion, Monk - January 15 [430]
commentary
I cited the quotation from above from the book: Mere Christianity concerning the Centurion and afterward noted that it coincided with a portion of Augustine's sermon this week on Psalm XLVIII. In his commentary on the 9 th verse, Augustine reminds his listeners of the story of the Centurion of Capernaum, calling him a "Prince". Augustine, as a Roman of the 5th Century, had an excellent understanding of the place of the Centurion in society.
"The princes of the peoples are gathered together unto the God of Abraham"…
Of these princes was that Centurion too, of whom but now when the Gospel was read ye heard. For he was a Centurion having honour and power among men, he was a prince among the princes of the peoples. Christ coming to him, he sent his friends to meet Him, nay unto Christ truly passing over to him he sent his friends, and asked that He would heal his servant who was dangerously sick. And when the Lord would come, he sent to Him this message: "I am not worthy that Thou shouldest enter under my roof, but say in a word only, and my servant shall be healed." "For I also am a man set under authority, having under me soldiers." See how he kept his rank! first he mentioned that he was under another, and afterwards that another was under him. I am under authority, and I am in authority; both under some I am, and over some I am....As though he said, If I being set under authority command those who are under me, Thou who art set under no man's authority, canst not Thou command Thy creature, since all things were made by Thee, and without Thee was nothing made. "Say," then, said he, "in a word, and my servant shall be healed. For I am not worthy that Thou shouldest enter under my roof."...Admiring at his faith, Jesus reprobates the Jews' misbelief. For sound to themselves they seemed, whereas they were dangerously sick, when their Physician not knowing they slew. Therefore when He reprobated, and repudiated their pride what said he? "I say unto you, that many shall come from the east and west," not belonging to the kindred of Israel: many shall come to whom He said, "O clap your hands, all ye nations;" "and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven."
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Order of Centurions
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