成人快手

Music
Da pacem Domine 鈥� Arvo Part
Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir
CD: Arvo Part 鈥� Da Pacem (Harmonia Mundi)

I wonder if you have ever thought: 鈥業f only I could get out of here. If only I could escape. If only I could put down all the things I am carrying- the anxieties, the fears and failings and find a better way of living.鈥� I think all of us at time need escape routes. I wonder where yours is? The theme of fleeing, leaving the world behind and going into the wilderness occurs many times both in the Bible and in the writings of the Desert Fathers and Mothers. The saving event for the Jews was of course the escape from Egypt. But crossing the Red Sea was not the end of the story only the beginning of a new one of testing, struggle and temptation for forty years. After his baptism, Jesus also goes into the desert for forty days and nights and also is tested. We too are living during testing times this Lent and though we may want to turn away from all the pain, injustices, cruelty and horrors of our present world these fears are impossible to escape.

O God, when we turn away from you we fall
When we turn towards you we rise
And when we stand with you we live forever
Grant us in all our difficulties your help
In all our difficulties your guidance
In all our dangers your protection
And in all our sorrows your peace
Through Jesus Christ our Lord
础尘别苍.听

Music
Long since in Egypt鈥檚 plenteous land 鈥� C.H.H. Parry
Choristers of St Paul鈥檚 Cathedral, London
CD: How can I keep from singing? EMI

In the fourth century AD the deserts of Egypt, Palestine, Arabia became the refuge of Christian hermits and monks who had abandoned the cities of the pagan world to live in solitude. The prototype of the hermit life was St Anthony of Egypt, a Copt and a layman. He was unlettered, the son of well to do peasants. One day he heard in church the saying of Jesus 鈥楪o sell all you have, give your money to the poor and come and follow me.鈥� He felt these words were addressed to him directly . In 269 he began a life that led to increasing solitude in the desert.. St Antony of Egypt and the Desert Fathers believed that if they fled the city they would be saved. Yet in the life of St Antony written by St Athanasius we read how Antony like Christ himself struggles with the devil. Athanasius writes:

鈥楾he devil, who hates and envies what is good, first of all tried to lead him away from his discipline, whispering to him the remembrance of his wealth, care for his sister, claims of kindred, love of money, love of glory, the various pleasures of the table and the other relaxations of life, and at last the difficulty of virtue and the labour of it; he suggested also the infirmity of the body... In a word he raised in his mind a great dust of debate, wishing to debar him from his settled purpose.鈥�

Music
The Fruit of Silence 鈥� Peteris Vasks
Voces8 & Huw Watkins
CD: Music for Mindfulness (Decca)

The true wisdom of the desert is radical. Its essence is absolute simplicity, that consciousness that a man stands before God, in a relationship that is all embracing because there is nothing that is outside it. A simplicity that strips us, opens us, allows to recognise the above and beyond - the mystery of our lives - to see the world in a grain of sand- to recognise our own mortality - that we are dust and to dust we will return and the whole universe is part of our story. In the desert the seeker of God comes face to face with the person he or she is. Far from an escape from the world the desert becomes the place of struggle and transformation where the individual faces oneself and in the words of Thomas Merton 鈥渓earns to heal in oneself the sins of the world鈥� What the desert fathers and mothers sought above all else was their true self in Christ. They wished to live that faith in its most direct, elemental and simplest form. They distilled for themselves through the experience of their lives a very practical and unassuming wisdom that is at once primitive and also eternal and timeless.

Music
Adagio for strings 鈥� Samuel Barber
Academy of St Martin in the Fields
CD: 50 Bedtime Classics (by Classic FM) (Decca)

St Antony had many disciples and imitators, and it is from Antony and this tradition that many of the sayings of the Desert Fathers and Mothers come. Their stories were first collected orally and the oldest collection of saying flourished between 350鈥�450AD . And yet many of these saying are so very resonant for our time. Consider these words from St Antony as a description for today.

The time is coming when everyone will go mad. Then when they see someone who is not mad they will say 鈥淵ou are mad! Because you are not like us鈥�

These desert monks and hermits often used few words and were very often silent. It was their humility that spoke.

Abba Pambo was asked why he did not speak to the visiting Bishop of Alexandria聽 and he said: 鈥淚f he is not edified by my silence he will not be edified by my speech鈥�

We often use words to comfort and protect ourselves and give the illusion of control- but without silence and attentiveness we shall not get any closer to knowing who we are before God.

A brother went to Moses to ask for advice. He said to him, 鈥楪o and sit in your cell, and your cell will teach you everything.鈥�

Was that not true during the pandemic - confined and many of us struggling - did we not also have the chance to become more observant, more compassionate towards the elderly, more appreciative of our nurses and carers, more attentive to the song of the birds We need to find our own centre in God and it is from this inner stillness - this inner peace that we can face the anxieties and pain of the world.

Dear Lord, help us not to be fearful of what tomorrow may bring
But trust that your everlasting love
Which cares for us today will care for us tomorrow and everyday
For either you will shield us from suffering
Or give us the unfailing strength bear it.
Lord may we find our peace in you and be bearers of your peace to others
In the Name of Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.

There were three monks - one who chose to be a peacemaker, one who chose to live among the sick, one who chose to live in the silence of the desert. They came together to reflect upon their ways of life- 鈥淚 feel so overwhelmed within鈥� The monk who had chosen to live in silence took a jug of water and poured it into a bowl - what do you see the monk asked - nothing his brothers replied - for the water was murky and filled with sediment. After a little while of silence he said again, 鈥楽ee now, how clear the water has become.鈥� As they looked into the water they saw their own faces, as in a mirror. Then he said to them now you too can drink of that clear water and you will be refreshed.

This is a saying of John the Dwarf:

You don鈥檛 build a house by starting with the roof and working down. You start with the foundation.. They said 鈥渨hat does that mean?鈥� He said 鈥淭he foundation is our neighbour who we must win. The neighbour is where we start. Every commandment of Christ depends on this.鈥�

Music
Song for Athene 鈥� John Tavener
Choir of St John鈥檚 College, Cambridge
CD: English Church Music 鈥� John Tavener

What clearly emerges in all the stories of the desert fathers and mothers is that work is not to judge but to love.

There was a brother at Scetis who had committed a fault. So they called a meeting and invited Abba Moses who refused to go. The priests sent someone to say to him 鈥渢hey are waiting for you.鈥� So Abba Moses got up and set off. He took a leaky jug and filled it with water and took it with him. The others set out and met him and said 鈥淲hat is it Father? The old man said to them 鈥榤y sins are so many like this water they run out behind me and I cannot see them, yet here I am coming in judgment on the mistakes of someone else. When they heard this they called off the meeting.

In the desert tradition this depends on the continual awareness that I start each day not as a finished saint but as a beginner, a person in need of Christ, struggling to grow.

A certain brother came to Abbot Poeman and said 鈥淲hat ought I to do Father? I am in great sadness鈥�. The elder said to him 鈥淣ever despise anyone, never condemn anyone, never speak evil of anyone, and the Lord will give you peace.鈥�

At the heart of desert wisdom is a compassion for neighbour 鈥渕y life and my death are with my neighbour. One of the books I have treasured for many years and carried with me wherever I have gone is Carlo Carretto鈥檚 Letters from the Desert. It has continued to be a guide all my life. Carlo Carretto is really a twentieth century desert father - a Little Brother of Jesus - who in the desert rediscovers his true relationship with God. At the beginning of that book Carretto tells a story that I have never ever forgotten in which he reflects upon whether he will ever be capable of an act of prefect love.

Setting out into the Saharan desert, in a jeep with two blankets, Carretto notices an old man shivering in the market town and he contemplates giving one of his blankets to him, but he does not stop. He thinks he may need both blankets to keep himself warm that night. In the middle of the night he wakes to see a picture in his mind of the old man shivering. What is worse is that he himself has not used the second blanket. He knows despite his two blankets, he will never be warm again. Will he ever be capable of an act of perfect love?

I wonder what your answer would be if you ask yourself that same question 鈥淎re you capable of an act of perfect love?鈥�. Perhaps it鈥檚 easier to see the mess of our lives than it is to see the perfect love. But Perhaps it is the question that Christ would ask us when we meet him: Do you love me?

Music
Thy perfect love 鈥� John Rutter
Cambridge Singers
CD: John Rutter and the Cambridge Singers 鈥� A Double Celebration (Collegium)

Reading
Matthew 4: 1-11

The wilderness is place where we face who we are and what God really wants us to become.

The first temptation is the temptation is to provide for all material wants: 鈥業f you are the son of God command these stones to become loaves of bread.鈥� How wonderful would that be to be able to change stones into bread. To find a solution to human desire and need as simply as that. How often in our own lives we want to provide the quick fix that ends the problem and shortcuts the struggle: Our transactional ways of living make us impatient for immediate solutions and quick to blame others when we don鈥檛 get what we want. 鈥業f only, if only I had the power鈥� But Jesus replies 鈥極ne does not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.鈥� I have begun to learn that every problem does not have a solution. That sometimes you learn most from struggle and living among the stones and that actually, dare I say it, without ignoring or underestimating the anguish of the cry, it is in recognising our deeper hunger that we recognise our own mortality and begin to seek the bread which is eternal. As I brother myself in Melanesia - when the floods came we often would turn up at the community dining hall and there was no food. It was one of the greatest lessons of my life - that food is a gift and one I have so often taken for granted. We must learn to live without grasping but with open hands. 聽As I watched my mother鈥檚 gradual slide into dementia, the temptation was to long for a fix, a solution, a tablet, a diagnosis, that could reverse the loss, 聽but the recognition over the last ten years is to try to learn to live the whole journey with love and steadfastness, not dependent on a cure but dependent on love itself.

The second temptation from the pinnacle of the temple is the temptation of miraculous and spiritual power. 鈥業f you are the Son of God, throw yourself down and the angels will protect you.鈥� Have we not all somewhere within us harboured that superstition too that somehow our faith can help us live chosen, charmed lives, as though blessing and prosperity were God given rights. Notice how the devil plays upon聽 spiritual pride 鈥� if you are the special one, if you are better than others, if you are the chosen one, 聽then do this thing that is reckless, dangerous, senseless, abusive 鈥� prove yourself. For how many people does religious faith not become the path to generous wisdom and respect for all life, but leads to a sense of self-righteousness, or still more a narrow bigotry, a justification for behaviour that may be oppressive, egotistical or hypocritical? God answers my prayers. God supports what I want him to support. God agrees with me. How many lives have been senselessly sacrificed in war in the delusion that 聽God is made in their own image rather than we in God鈥檚.

And the third temptation: on the top of a high mountain the devil shows Jesus the kingdoms of the world; 鈥楢ll this will be yours if you fall down and worship me.鈥� It is the temptation of worldly power and authority. But at cost of his soul. We may think this temptation is so far removed from our own life experience, but is it? Listen to those in our world promising to make us great again. The whole of creation stands on the precipice of this mountain at this very time. The decisions that we make now will directly influence the future of our planet and the dilemma, though couched in different language is in fact very similar. Do we decide to serve God and humanity or do we continue to exploit the world for our own self-intertest and advantage? Jesus鈥� answer is very clear. 鈥楢way with you Satan! For it is written worship the Lord your God and serve him alone鈥�.

In the wilderness Christ confronts his demons and chooses his path. I wonder what path we will choose. The temptations of the devil will lead humanity to the crucifixion of the Son of God, but Christ himself points us today to a greater freedom, the place beyond the tomb. Ultimately we will be asked not how much we have struggled, or even how much we have failed but how much we have loved God and love our neighbour as ourselves. And Christ will go before us for he shows us the way.

Music
Sampha鈥檚 Plea
Stormzy
CD: This is what I mean (Hashtag Merky Music)

O gracious and holy God, Give us wisdom to know you, Intelligence to understand you, Diligence to seek you, Patience to wait for you, Eyes to behold you, A heart to meditate upon you, A life to proclaim you. To the power of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, 础尘别苍.听

Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on us
Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on us
Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on us

Lord鈥檚 Prayer

Music
The Mission: The Falls 鈥� Ennio Morricone
Yo-Yo Ma
CD: Yo-Yo Ma plays Ennio Morricone (Sony)

Father,
I abandon myself into your hands;
do with me what you will.
Whatever you may do, I thank you:
I am ready for all, I accept all.
Let only your will be done in me,
and in all your creatures 鈥�
I wish no more than this, O Lord.
Into your hands I commend my soul:
I offer it to you with all the love of my heart,
for I love you, Lord, and so need to give myself,
to surrender myself into your hands without reserve,
and with boundless confidence,
for you are my Father.聽

Go simply
Go lightly
Go humbly
Go with love
And may God go with you.
Amen.