On Tomatoes

The Eleventh Sunday after Trinity

O GOD, who declarest thy almighty power most chiefly in showing mercy and pity: Mercifully grant unto us such a measure of thy grace, that we, running the way of thy commandments, may obtain thy gracious promises, and be made partakers of thy heavenly treasure; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The process for planting a tomato is much like how the seed of our faith is planted and grows. The seed must be planted in good soil, then it must receive light from the sun and be nourished by water and nutrients of the soil. For the Christian, it is through the waters of Holy Baptism that our soil is made good for the planting of the seed of faith, and through the body and blood of Christ received in the Holy Eucharist that we are nourished. Do this and your tomato plant will grow, just as the Christian’s faith will grow. But there comes a point with a tomato plant where you will want to stake it, that is to say plant a large wooden stake in the ground which will be attached to the plant to provide support in order for it to bear the best fruit. So to in our Christian journey, if we want to bear the best fruit, such a support can be useful.

The equivalent of a tomato plant’s support stake for the Christian is a Rule of Life. CS Lewis describes a Rule of Life as, “intentional pattern of spiritual disciplines that provides structure and direction for growth in holiness.” The use of a Rule became popularized by St Benedict of Nursia and Benedictine Monasticism, and the practice continues throughout Western Christianity. Christian author Ken Shigematsu more recently wrote on the adoption of a Rule of Life using the image of a trellis, similar to the concept of the tomtato stake, but which provides not simply support but also guidance as the Christian seeks to develop a Rule which addresses all the different facets of life which affect us. The Book of Common Prayer itself exhorts all Christians to adopt a rule, saying, “Every Christian man or woman should from time to time frame for himself a RULE OF LIFE in accordance with the precepts of the Gospel and the faith and order of the Church.” (555)

The Book of Common Prayer goes on to provide a framework for the development of a Rule of Life which covers the basic areas in which each Christian needs support: the attendance at publish worship, the practice of private prayer, Bible reading and self-discipline, living by the example of Christ in every day life, witness of the faith, personal service to Church and community and offering money according to your means for the support of the Church at home and overseas. These categories are at times broad, but provide a great foundation for the formation of a Rule which ensures a rhythm of worship and support in living a Christian life and developing one’s faith.

The first exhortation reads, “the regularity of his attendance at public worship and esepcially at the holy Communion.” This first Rule is for some a rather obvious non-issue, while for others it can be a necessary reminder. There are generally three types of Christians. The first are those for whom attending a Sunday service is optional at best and really quite unnecessary. They have been baptised and confirmed, and there is really little left to do but live their lives as best they know how. The second group are those for whom it is viewed as a good thing to do, but for whom many excuses arise. Some common excuses might be experiencing God’s glory in his creation, or visiting with neighbours because surely it is evangelism to do so, or perhaps the need to spend time with family. Others might place their preference on reading Christian books or listening to Christian music because it is more to their liking than the homilies of their local rector or the music sung on a Sunday morning. There are finally those who view it as essential, particularly in order to be nourished by receiving Holy Communion. The Psalms similarly remind us (Ps 22, 107, 122) that communal worship in God’s house is important. The teaching we receive is similarly structured differently—due to the lectionary—than were we to pick and choose our own readings. It is all an element of turning ourselves over to God as we profess in our baptismal vows.

The second exhortation reads, “the practice of private prayer, Bible reading and self-discipline.” Throughout Scripture, many references are made to when we ought to pray. In public, in private, in sorrow, in gladness, in all circumstances. When we gather together in worship, we pray, but it is essential to, in our Rule, that we incorporate some manner of regular prayer, and in varied forms. This ought not to be simply prayers of thanksgiving and supplications, but might include forms of prayer like the daily examen, lectio divina, or even praying the Daily Offices. The Daily Offices go well with the next matter, that of frequent Scripture reading. This could range from using a daily or weekly Bible-reading schedule to reading the lectionary offerings from the Offices. Reading God’s word is always edifying and helps truly helps to solidify the metaphor of a Rule of Life as a support for our faith. Finally, self-discipline largely refers to the need to understand the sins we commonly fall into and taking steps to help ourselves avoid it. It might involve regular prayer for strength to avoid that particular sin, or, for example, if someone suffers from intemperance related to alcohol, part of their Rule might be to avoid going to bars where they might be tempted to drink.

The third exhortation is, “bringing the teaching and example of Christ into his everyday life.” This exhortation reinforces the importance of the previous points, namely that before a Christian may live what Nicky Gumbel calls the Jesus Lifestyle, they must know what it is, through attending worship where the weekly readings are explained in the homily and where the hymnody edifies us on Christ, and further in our own reading of Holy Scripture. Christianity is not an academic exercise, however, it is something we are each called to live out and in considering this exhortation, we consider how best in our individual circumstances we can do that.

The fourth exhortation is, “the boldness of his spoken witness to his faith in Christ.” At a time when Christians in the West are confronted with new martyrs and confessors throughout the Middle East and Africa who are suffering persecution and death for the sake of their faith and the name of Christ, it is difficult perhaps to feel bold in witnessing our own faith, yet it remains a reminder never to be ashamed of our faith. The old axiom that politics and religion are not suitable for the dinner table is sometimes used by Christians to shy away from admitting their faith as if it is something to be ashamed of, and sometimes a little boldness is needed. Nicky Gumbel, in the Alpha series, gives a great talk on how and why we tell others [of our faith], in which he discusses the need to understand both our audience and context, but that there is never any occasion in which it is wrong to profess faith in the name of Christ.

The fifth exhortation is, “his personal service to the Church and the community.” This ties in quite strongly with bringing the teaching of Christ to your everyday life. Christ came to serve and we are to do likewise. Service in the Church itself is particularly important however, as a vibrant community life in a local parish is a critical aspect of building up the Body of the Church, and deepening the relationships between brothers and sisters in Christ in that community. It takes many volunteer hours to allow a Church community to function well, and for a larger parish with a programme focus, there are many ways in which committing to a particular form of service can be of benefit to both the Church and the community, particularly when involved in forms of ministry that occur in the community rather than internally in the parish.

Finally, the last exhortation reads, “the offering of money according to his means for the support of the work of the Church at home and overseas.” The final point relates to our financial responsibilities, both to support our local Church and priest, which St Paul speaks to (I Cor 9. 7-14). The emphasis here is on identifying our individual capacities and preparing a Rule that responds to that.

The idea behind a Rule of Life is that it is to be a support and guide, to nurture our faith in certain ways to help it to bear good fruit. It is not meant to be a burdensome yoke. It should begin small and simply. A Rule might begin simply by attending one church service every Sunday barring illness or emergency. It might grow, as our faith does, to incorporate more and more Rules. As a tomato plant bears good fruit when properly supported, so will our faith.

Wisdom of Saints: St Benedict of Nursia

Feast of Benedict, Abbot of Monte Cassino, Italy, c. 540

O ALMIGHTY God, who willest to be glorified in thy Saints, and didst raise up thy servant Benedict to shine as a light in the world: Shine, we pray thee, in our hearts, that we also in our generation may show forth thy praises, who hast called us out of darkness into thy marvellous light; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

St Benedict of Nursia is considered to be the founder of monasticism in the Christian West. St Benedict founded the Benedictine Order in the 6th century, setting the tone for Western monasticism, and creating an enduring tradition which remains popular throughout the West to this day. A good deal is known about his life from the Dialogues of Pope St Gregory the Great.

St Benedict was born in Nursia, Italy. The son of a Roman noble, St Benedict moved with his family to Rome where he received his education. Around the age of twenty, he became convinced of the need to abandon the lifestyle he was growing into in Rome, and which he saw among his companions. Instead, he turned to the Gospels and sought to dedicate his life exclusively to God. Ultimately this led him to leave Rome, not to take the hermit’s path, but rather to find somewhere away from the temptations and sin on display in the Roman capital. After a brief period living in a small town 30 miles from Rome with a servant he had brought with him. There his first recorded miracle took place, as he miraculously restored a piece of earthenware his servant had accidentally broken. As news of this miracle spread, he grained significant notoriety throughout the town. This attention on him eventually convinced him to take the hermit’s path, and he moved to a cave in some nearby mountains where he lived a more ascetic lifestyle for the next three years, supported only by the abbot Romanus who had a monastery near St Benedict’s cave.

Even in seclusion, he earned a reputation for his pious asceticism and devotion to God. This eventually led to him being asked to become the abbot for a nearby monastery at Vicovaro. He ultimately agreed and went with them for a time. He attempted to impose a more rigid discipline on the monastery emulating his own more ascetic lifestyle, but soon after the monastery’s monks came to regret their invitation to St Benedict to lead them. They found it difficult to follow his strict rules, and ultimately attempted to poison him. Although they failed, St Benedict realised that his tenure as leader was not working out and he returned to his cave.

He began to earn a reputation as a miracle worker, and the number of recorded miracles attributed to him in this period are many. This attracted followers in sufficient numbers to establish twelve new monasteries in the region. In 530 he began construction of his own personal monastery at Monte Cassino in a site where he had previously destroyed a pagan temple to Apollo. In these monasteries, he began working on the development of his Rule which would be used to organize the monastic communities he had established.

The Rule he developed was based on the use of common sense, moderate asceticism, prayer, study of the Scriptures and the saints, work and a life lived in community in obedience, stability (the Rule provided for a regular daily schedule of work, prayer and rest) and the use of the Divine Offices.

He remained the Abbot at Monte Cassino until his death, but has been immortalised by his Rule.

The Rule of St Benedict is the surviving record of the Rule of Life monks in his monasteries were required to live by, but far beyond sketching out the life of a secluded monk, they are an excellent guide to the mink of pious Christian living. In the Book of Common Prayer, after the Catechism is a supplementary instruction section, at the end of which is this exhortation:

Every Christian man or woman should from time to time frame for himself a RULE OF LIFE in accordance with the precepts of the Gospel and the faith and order of the Church; wherein he may consider the following:
The regularity of his attendance at public worship and especially at the holy Communion.
The practice of private prayer, Bible-reading, and self-discipline.
Bringing the teaching and example of Christ into his everyday life.
The boldness of his spoken witness to his faith in Christ.
His personal service to the Church and the community.
The offering of money according to his means for the support of the work of the Church at home and overseas. (BCP, 555)

This exhortation contains within it a framework for a Rule of Life wholly consistent with the Rule of St Benedict.

The first suggestion is regular attendance to public worship, especially to receive the Holy Eucharist. For St Benedict’s monks, this was not necessarily possible as most monks (including St Benedict himself) were nor ordained and could not themselves celebrate the Eucharist. They were still required to attend Sunday mass and receive communion, but all monks were required to communally pray the Daily Offices. St Benedict explains why:

We believe that the divine presence is everywhere and that “the eyes of the Lord are looking on the good and the evil in every place” (Prov. 15:3). But we should believe this especially without any doubt when we are assisting at the Work of God... Let us therefore consider how we ought to conduct ourselves in sight of the Godhead and of His Angels, and let us take part in the psalmody in such a way that our mind may be in harmony with our voice. (RoB, Ch. XIX)

The second area the BCP encourages the creation of a Rule is in prayer, reading of Scripture and self-discipline. The Rule of Benedict requires prayer multiple times a day. In the first chapter it describes the character of a good monk as a person of prayer, “And first of all, whatever good work you begin to do, beg of Him with most earnest prayer to perfect it, that He who has now deigned to count us among His children may not at any time be grieved by our evil deeds.” Similarly, Scripture was read constantly. Included in the Rule was the provision that no meal should go without Scripture reading, and therefore the monks were to establish a schedule for a regular rotation of readers. The only interruption allowed would be if the Superior of the monastery wanted to briefly interrupt the reading to explain part of it. Finally, self-discipline was at the core of the Rule, which provided for poverty of monks, limits on food and clothing to avoid becoming too ostentatious (historically, some monks maintained lavish lifestyles despite vows of poverty because their monasteries became rich and the fine clothes and food the monks enjoyed technically belonged to the monastery itself and did not violate their personal vows of poverty).

The remaining four suggestions in the BCP are all related. Living a Christ-like life, speaking the Word of God boldly (in the way Christ taught), offering service to the Church and community (again in the model of Christ), offering money according to your means, as Christ taught. In the Rule of Benedict, there are a number of requirements that relate to these particular aspects of the Christian life. Chapter 4 of the Rule provides for a list of 61 “instruments of Good Works.” These include various instructions of Christ, including the Beatitudes, a summary of the Decalogue, and other rules related to the asceticism prescribed by St Benedict.

St Benedict’s rule remains in common use throughout the Western world by Christian monastics, but it also provides a guide for a Rule of Life for any Christian.

On the Use of the Prayer Book

The Fourth Sunday in Advent

RAISE up, we beseech thee, O Lord, thy power, and come among us, and with great might succour us; that whereas, through our sins and wickedness, we are sore let and hindered in running the race that is set before us, thy bountiful grace and mercy may speedily help and deliver us; who with the Father and the Holy Spirit livest and reignest, one God, world without end. Amen.

Advent

ALMIGHTY God, give us grace that we may cast away the works of darkness, and put upon us the armour of light, now in the time of this mortal life, in which thy Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility; that in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious Majesty, to judge both the quick and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal; through him who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, now and ever. Amen.

For most people familiar with the Prayer Book, they will have used it for the service of Holy Communion which begins on page 67 and runs about twenty pages long. The Prayer Book itself is over 700 pages long, though, so what is contained in the remainder of the Book, and what use is it outside of Sunday services?

The Prayer Book, unsurprisingly, contains some related elements. The section immediately following the service of Holy Communion is titled The Christian Year and contains the collects and readings appointed for every Sunday throughout the Christian calendar and also contains a number of supplementary collects for Holy Days. Following this is the Psalter which contains the Book of Psalms, arranged to be read or sung responsively and ordered for use in the Daily Offices throughout the calendar month. There are sections for private prayers and suitable for family prayer, and finally there are the Daily Offices themselves.

The Daily Offices evolved over the centuries as a practice of regular daily prayer. There are many instructions on prayer in the Bible, perhaps most famously in Lk 11. 2-4 where Jesus gives us the Lord’s Prayer. In other places there are exhortations to pray without ceasing (1 Thes 5. 17) and in all circumstances (Phil 4. 6). Some advice to the early Christians advised a practice of praying the Lord’s Prayer three times a day, once in the morning, once in the evening and once at night. This practice would have been familiar to many of the early Christians as there was a similar Jewish practice of prayer at particular hours. The Psalms were often used during these prayers, in addition to the Lord’s Prayer. There were references to the office of Morning and Evening prayer as early as the second and third centuries, but these would ultimately be expanded by the monastic traditions who added new times for prayer, and particularly to St Benedict of Nursia who strongly encouraged the praying of the Daily Offices for those of the Benedictine orders. Compline, Night Prayer, is also attributed to the creation of St Benedict.

When Archbishop Thomas Cranmer began to assemble the first Book of Common Prayer in the early 16th century, he sought to simplify the offices (of which there were at eight). For many people, it would be impossible to pray many of the daily offices because they were working in the fields. Cranmer simplified these to Matins (Morning Prayer) and Vespers (Evening Prayer, also known as Evensong). In the Canadian Book of Common Prayer, an order for Compline was ultimately separated from Vespers and included as its own liturgy for use later at night than Vespers. Despite its inclusion, and the fact that it is technically a Daily Office, usually when this term is used it still is only meant to refer to Morning and Evening Prayer, which are located at the very start of the Book of Common Prayer.

The Daily Offices may be led by laity or clergy, and as their history shows they often were engaged in by laity as a form of daily devotional prayer. Given their historical origins, they offer a link to the Christian past. They offer a way of praying through the Psalms regularly as well as additional readings. As the services are short, they are simple to, with regular practice, memorize.

Morning Prayer follows a simple format of exhortation to confession and confession and absolution concluding with the Lord’s Prayer, readings and canticles concluding with the Apostle’s Creed, appointed collects and prayers of the people, interspersed with anthems if desired, the prayer of St John Chrysostom and concluded with the Grace. Evening Prayer is even simpler, with a similar penitential introduction, readings and psalms concluding with the Gloria Patri, additional Bible readings with canticles, often nunc dimittis and magnificat, and concluding again with the Apostle’s Creed. A number of prayers and responses are then read or chanted before the liturgy concludes.

Taken together, both offer an opportunity for regular prayer and reading at the start and end of the day, helping to restore a rhythmic prayer life like that of the early Church, while also helping to read regularly through the Bible be it the Psalms or the lessons.

While not a daily office, the Forms of Prayer to be used in Families which begins on Page 728 provides prayers suitable for many common family occasions. There are prayers for the morning and evening, in the event that the full Morning or Evening Prayer cannot be said, grace at meals, prayers for family members and other occasions.

Finally pages 37 – 61 have thematically labelled collects suitable for diverse occasions.

Many Christians find prayer difficult. Spontaneous prayer can be challenging at first; figuring out what to say and how to say it. This is particularly true for some Christians who may fear they are saying things the wrong way or are simply unfamiliar with Christian prayer. There are many diverse and sundry forms of prayer, but the Prayer Book offers a resource that can be a model and guide, starting with the formal offices or even just offering collect prayers for specific circumstances or occasions, on which we can ultimately develop our own prayers.

The language and use of the Prayer Book helps us to build a prayer life with God which is intimate and sound, and helps us to pray God’s will. The prayers it offers are theologically sound, and as we use them it helps to instruct us in how we ought to pray in order to pray God’s will, something which can also be a struggle for the new Christian.

The Prayer Book is a resource that carries with it countless uses outside of a Sunday mass, and it is one with which all Anglicans ought to familiarize themselves.