The First Sunday after the Epiphany.
Psalm
13
Usque quo, Domine?
HOW long wilt thou forget me, O Lord, for ever : how long wilt thou
hide thy face from me?
2. How long shall I seek counsel in my soul, and be so vexed in my
heart : how long shall mine enemies triumph over me?
3. Consider, and hear me, O Lord my God : lighten mine
eyes, that I sleep not in death.
4. Lest mine enemy say, I have prevailed against him : for
if I be cast down, they that trouble me will rejoice at it.
5. But my trust is in thy mercy : and my heart is joyful
in thy salvation.
6. I will sing of the Lord, because he hath dealt so
lovingly with me : yea, I will praise the Name of the Lord most Highest.
The Collect.
O LORD, we beseech thee
mercifully to receive the prayers of thy people which 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.
Old
Testament Reading: Isaiah 60.1-9
Psalter:
Psalm 47, 48 | 66, 67
Epistle
Reading: Romans 12.1-5
Gospel
Reading: St. Luke 2.41-52
Toon: “Having prayed since the Feast of the Epiphany to be given the
grace to contemplate the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ in heaven,
five days later the Church makes two further and inter-connected petitions of
her heavenly Father, the Lord our God, in the name of her Saviour and Mediator,
Jesus Christ our Lord.
The first is that God will receive in mercy and compassion the desires,
vows and prayers of his people who supplicate, with bended knee, before him.
However, the Church does not ask God to answer them as asked, but rather to
receive them and then in the judgment of his perfect wisdom and mercy to
respond to them for the true good of his people. For, if God gave to his people
merely what they desired and asked for, he would not be a merciful God, since
we often desire and ask for that which is not for our short-term or long-term
good!
The force of the verb "grant" in prayer is that of "give
and supply for no other is able to do so." Of God the Church asks that she
will be inspired by the Holy Ghost to recognize and see what is her duty according
to the divine will, and that, further, she will have the will and strength to
perform that duty in its totality.
In relating to God, we need to know him, to perceive by his inspiration
what is his will and then knowing the will, to perform and do the same. It is
so easy for us to assume that our own best human wisdom and insights are in
fact God's will for us and his Church. Such an assumption is best avoided and
in its place there should be a humble recognition that we need to know from God
what is his purpose and plan, and then we need his help to fulfil the same!
The Epistle calls for wholehearted commitment to the Lord and his
service by each and every member of the congregation of Christ's flock and that
they all be conformed to his perfect will. The Gospel provides us with an
example of the developing consecration of Jesus to the Father's will and his
growing sense of being uniquely the Father's Son. Thus he is the One to whom we
go in order to know and come to the same Father.
Because of the Gospel lesson, this Sunday is sometimes called "A
Feast of the Holy Family".
A final comment. If the original Latin prayer in the Gregorian
Sacramentary had been translated literally by Archbishop Cranmer, it would have
been something like this:
"O Lord, we beseech thee, regard with the compassion of a heavenly
Father the fervent desires of thy people, who make their supplications unto
thee, that they may both see what things ought to be done, and may have
strength to fulfil what they see. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen."
It will be observed that each prayer seeks the same blessings from the
one and the same Lord God” ()http://www.pbs.org.uk/bcp/commentary_detail.php?CommentaryID=10.
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