Fifth Sunday after Trinity

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 Fifth Sunday after Trinity

Augustine on Psalm XXI

GRANT, O Lord, we beseech thee, that the course of this world may be so peaceably ordered by thy governance, that thy Church may joyfully serve thee in all godly quietness; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Sacramentary of Leo and Gregory. They faced Goths, Huns and Vandals

2nd Samuel xii  Psalm 21, 23 | 26, 27 , 1 St. Peter iii. 8   &  St. Luke v. 1

Homily of Augustine on Psalm XXI

For thou preventest him with the blessings of goodness:
thou settest a crown of pure gold on his head.

---

 BULLETIN

 

calendar

 

Centurion at Capernaum - June 22nd

Nativity of John Baptist -- June 24th

membership

 

We remember the membership anniversary of these saints of the Order

 

Edward of Queensland, Australia

JPR of the United Kingdom

Brian of Oxford, England

 

Almighty God, we entrust these centurions who are dear to us to thy never-failing care and love, for this life and the life to come; knowing that thou art doing for them better things than we an desire or pray for; through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen

Please hold all centurions in your prayers this week. You may like to use this

 Centurion's Daily Litany

 

quotation

 

'What blows do athletes receive in their face, what blows all over their body. Yet they bear all the torture from thirst of glory. Let us also overcome all things, for our reward is not a crown or a palm branch or the trumpeter proclaiming silence for the announcement of our name, but virtue and strength of mind and peace acquired ever after'

 

 [Seneca, as quoted by J.B. Lightfoot in Dissertation on the Apostolic Age]

 

news

I commend this document to those of the Order who are orthodox Anglicans.   The Way, The Truth and the Life 

 

bidding prayer

 

For the orthodox Anglican Conference in Jerusalem which convenes this day, the Fifth Sunday after Trinity

 

ALMIGHTY and everlasting God, who by thy Holy Spirit didst preside in the Council of the blessed Apostles, and hast promised, through thy Son Jesus Christ, to be with thy Church to the end of the world; We beseech thee to be with the Council of thy Church in Jerusalem assembled in thy Name and Presence. Save them from all error, ignorance, pride, and prejudice; and of thy great mercy vouchsafe, we beseech thee, so to direct, sanctify, and govern them in their work, by the mighty power of the Holy Ghost, that the comfortable Gospel of Christ may be truly preached, truly received, and truly followed, in all places, to the breaking down the kingdom of sin, Satan, and death; till at length the whole of thy dispersed sheep, being gathered into one fold, shall become partakers of everlasting life; through the merits and death of Jesus Christ our Saviour. Amen.

 

commentary

 

Although one will not find a date on traditional church calendars to commemorate the Centurion of Caparneum, we have chosen to do so in the Order, remembering that Centurion whose faith was lauded by our Lord and has been by the Church ever since. Surly he will stand with all the saints on that last great day crowned in the glory of Eternal Bliss.

 

For thou preventest him with the blessings of goodness:

thou settest a crown of pure gold on his head.

 

Augustine explains Psalm xxi in today's homily. He speaks liberally of the verses that point to Christ, and yet, they also record David's life, as this is a "Psalm of David" Of the above verse Augustine writes:

 

 "For Thou hast presented Him with the blessings of sweetness"  Because He had first quaffed the blessing of Thy sweetness, the gall of our sins did not hurt Him. "Diapsalma. Thou hast set a crown of precious stone on His Head."  At the beginning of His discoursing precious stones were brought, and compassed Him about; His disciples, from whom the commencement of His preaching should be made.

 

The Hebrew word from which the KJV translators derived "prevented" is "Qadam". It is translated in Strong's as "to meet, come, or be in front, go before." We know from Scripture that God went before David; and on many occasions he specifically promised to do so. One finds in the 12^th Chapter of 2^nd Samuel (chosen for the OT lesson to accompany this psalm on the link above) the story of David being crowed with the booty from the defeat of Rabbah of the Amorites. This occurred shortly after God had stricken David and had taken his firstborn of Bathsheba, the consequence of the double sin of adultery and murder. God restored the contrite and penitent David and loved his son Solomon. I suspect David wrote of this event in this very verse of Psalm 21.

 

God disciplines his children because he loves them and is their Father, but he does not cast them away. God is faithful. He reads the heart of man and knows the contrite heart from the feint. He restores the penitent to the full state of grace, and continues to precede his elect with grace and blessings according to his sovereign will. As Seneca pointed out in our quotation today, and like David, and the Son of David, we may look forward to the day when God will crown us with the great prize that has no equal: Peace in Life Everlasting.

 

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Order of Centurions