Introducing a new weekly feature here on the Orthodox-Catholic Anglican. It is called: Evenings With Bede.
These will come from the Sunday Evensong services in my parish. For these weekly plainsong services, I select a passage from the writing of the Venerable S. Bede, English monk and scholar who fell asleep in the Lord in the year 735 and who is depicted above in the icon by Aidan Hart. The passage I select is appropriate for where we are in the Liturgical Kalendar, and then that is paired with whatever Scripture passage Bede happens to be interpreting.
The format here is simple. First is the Scripture passage. Second is the passage from S. Bede. And third is my short homily. Each of those is recorded and edited into one audio track, which is found above. The two passages are also found below.
My Evensong preaching tends to have a different mood than my Mass preaching. The mood is more reflective, mellow, and free-wheeling. Perhaps that is because this preaching is extemporaneous, whereas I prepare a manuscript for Sunday Mass. It could also be that I am a bit weary from the long day!
I hope you find this edifying. If you do, please consider (if you haven’t already) becoming a paid subscriber. Your support goes directly to supporting the ministry of Akenside Institute for English Spirituality, a project I started 12 years ago.
A Lesson from the Gospel according to S. Matthew 5.1
There was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, which is called in Hebrew, Bethesda, having five porches. In these lay a great multitude of sick people, blind, lame, paralyzed, waiting for the moving of the water. For an angel went down at a certain time into the pool and stirred up the water; then whoever stepped in first, after the stirring of the water, was made well of whatever disease he had. Now a certain man was there who had an infirmity thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he already had been in that condition a long time, He said to him, “Do you want to be made well?” The sick man answered Him, “Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; but while I am coming, another steps down before me.” Jesus said to him, “Rise, take up your pallet and walk.” And immediately the man was made well, took up his pallet, and walked.
A Lesson from a Homily by the Venerable S. Bede (Homily 1.23)
The Lord taught mystically as He healed the weak man, when He said, “Rise, take up your pallet, and walk.” “Rise” means: shake off the sluggishness of the vices in which you have been ailing for a long time, and rouse yourself to the practice of virtues, by which you will be eternally saved. “Take up your pallet” means: lovingly carry your neighbor, patiently tolerating his weaknesses, since he patiently put up with you for a long time when you were still weighed down by the burden of temptations. As Paul says, “Bear one another’s burdens, and thus you will fulfill the law of Chfist,” and as he says elsewhere, “bearing with one another in charity, being solicitous to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bonds of peace.” “Walk” means: love God with your whole heart, your whole soul, and your whole strength, so that you may be worthy to reach the vision of Him; go forward by making daily strides of good works from virtue to virtue. Do not desert a brother whom by your support you are directing on account of the love of the One toward Whom you are proceeding, nor turn aside from the right direction of your path, on account of the love of a brother, away from your quest for the One with Whom you desire to abide. But so to be perfectly saved, Rise, take up your pallet and walk, that is, Leave behind your earlier sins, and come to the aid of your brother’s needs. In everything you do, see to it that you do not fix your mind upon this world, but that you hurry to see the face of your Redeemer. Rise, by doing good works. Carry your pallet, by loving your neighbor. And walk, by awaiting the blessed hope and coming of the glory of the great God.
Evenings with Bede: Episode 1