Lenten Service
Ash Wednesday Service at Anglican Cathedral
Catholic Cathedral Christchurch NZ
Arnett Trying to pick out winners no success!
On Ash Wednesday we began our Lenten journey again travelling along the troublesome and hard road to Calvary with Jesus. We know however, that this road will eventually lead us to the glory of the Resurrection on Easter Sunday. It is the knowledge of the glory at the end of the road that should help us see that Lent far from being a time of guilt and self flagellation is a time for joy: a time to prepare our selves by prayer, fasting and almsgiving, so that we too can have some share in that glory.
It always amazes me that as Christians we have been given a great privileged, and that is, we know the end of the story of the ‘Road to Calvary.’ We know the hard road to Calvary doesn’t end in the destruction of our hero Jesus Christ, but exactly the opposite his complete victory over sin and death; a victory we to can share. How blessed and graced are we to have this knowledge and believe it. It something the disciples didn’t have at first, or understand when Jesus first told them. This is why Peter denied that he ever knew Christ, for what he first saw at Calvary with his own eyes, was the death and destruction of Jesus on a cross. If Judas would have fully understood who Jesus was and what he had told him would he have betrayed him?
However even with this knowledge, because of our human frailties, we wander off the straight and hard road to Calvary. Lent, therefore is a time when we remind ourselves of the great privilege Jesus has given us and try to get back on the straight and narrow road that leads to the Kingdom that Christ has won for us.
On Wednesday we had Mass with Ashes in the morning and in the evening there was an ecumenical service of Ashes in the Anglican Cathedral which I found very moving. Both the Anglican and Catholic Bishops jointly presided, helped by the clergy of both Cathedral. The music was performed by both choirs, each doing a solo. There were readings and hymns, then both bishops came down and shared in distributing the ashes. The Cathedral was nearly full with about 200 people there. I thought it might be good for our Churches together in Crowthorne and Sandhurst to do something similar next year.
It has been quite a busy week with one thing and another and I have not really had a day off because one of the priest here in the cathedral is on holiday so I have been back and forth to the hospital and cathedral celebrating Masses. On Wednesday Arnett and myself went to Oxford which is north of Christchurch and is a lovely little place at the foothills of the Alps.
Sue and her mother Margery, who I stayed with in Sydney came over on Sunday to do a seven day tour of the South Island. So we met up with them and I took them round Christchurch and its surrounds. It was a lovely sunny evening and we enjoyed ourselves, except for the meal. We ordered Pizzas but it took nearly an hour for them to appear, then they were rushing us because they wanted to close. On the menu it had the times of opening which was from 6.30am to late. Late to them was 9.00pm I said anywhere else in the world that is the time things start to happen but not here. Meeting Sue and Margery on Saturday when they return.
I was telling Sue about a news Item that they had on the main six o’clock news. When I saw it I couldn’t believe my eyes and ears. It in a way typifies New Zealand for me as a quaint out of the way place. The news item was about a young girl who had hiccups for over two weeks. It was so funny to see because it was treated as such a serious new item. The young girl duly hiccupped every few moments to re-iterate the seriousness of her complaint. There was nothing about the war in Iraq and the awful train bomb in India. One can understand the insular character of the country as it is so far from anywhere, except the Antatic!
It always amazes me that as Christians we have been given a great privileged, and that is, we know the end of the story of the ‘Road to Calvary.’ We know the hard road to Calvary doesn’t end in the destruction of our hero Jesus Christ, but exactly the opposite his complete victory over sin and death; a victory we to can share. How blessed and graced are we to have this knowledge and believe it. It something the disciples didn’t have at first, or understand when Jesus first told them. This is why Peter denied that he ever knew Christ, for what he first saw at Calvary with his own eyes, was the death and destruction of Jesus on a cross. If Judas would have fully understood who Jesus was and what he had told him would he have betrayed him?
However even with this knowledge, because of our human frailties, we wander off the straight and hard road to Calvary. Lent, therefore is a time when we remind ourselves of the great privilege Jesus has given us and try to get back on the straight and narrow road that leads to the Kingdom that Christ has won for us.
On Wednesday we had Mass with Ashes in the morning and in the evening there was an ecumenical service of Ashes in the Anglican Cathedral which I found very moving. Both the Anglican and Catholic Bishops jointly presided, helped by the clergy of both Cathedral. The music was performed by both choirs, each doing a solo. There were readings and hymns, then both bishops came down and shared in distributing the ashes. The Cathedral was nearly full with about 200 people there. I thought it might be good for our Churches together in Crowthorne and Sandhurst to do something similar next year.
It has been quite a busy week with one thing and another and I have not really had a day off because one of the priest here in the cathedral is on holiday so I have been back and forth to the hospital and cathedral celebrating Masses. On Wednesday Arnett and myself went to Oxford which is north of Christchurch and is a lovely little place at the foothills of the Alps.
Sue and her mother Margery, who I stayed with in Sydney came over on Sunday to do a seven day tour of the South Island. So we met up with them and I took them round Christchurch and its surrounds. It was a lovely sunny evening and we enjoyed ourselves, except for the meal. We ordered Pizzas but it took nearly an hour for them to appear, then they were rushing us because they wanted to close. On the menu it had the times of opening which was from 6.30am to late. Late to them was 9.00pm I said anywhere else in the world that is the time things start to happen but not here. Meeting Sue and Margery on Saturday when they return.
I was telling Sue about a news Item that they had on the main six o’clock news. When I saw it I couldn’t believe my eyes and ears. It in a way typifies New Zealand for me as a quaint out of the way place. The news item was about a young girl who had hiccups for over two weeks. It was so funny to see because it was treated as such a serious new item. The young girl duly hiccupped every few moments to re-iterate the seriousness of her complaint. There was nothing about the war in Iraq and the awful train bomb in India. One can understand the insular character of the country as it is so far from anywhere, except the Antatic!
I have only seven more weeks in New Zealand and I have no idea what is going on in the larger world out there and whats more I am not sure if I want to know. As they say ignorance is bliss or is it?
posted by Fr Kevin @ 9:05 am
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