UK Diary, Days 11-12

In which we hit the pub and head to Shrewsbury for worship

Greetings from Northampton, my friends. We finished our time in Shropshire on Friday, and headed east to Northampton, where we will stay for the remainder of a time here. I write from a Holiday Inn lobby very early in the morning: 5:15 am. I actually got a decent night’s sleep here in the hotel, because we went to bed around 10 pm. I find that the early morning is the best time for me to write my diary entries. There is something about working before dawn that has long appealed to me and inspired me: my awareness waking up with the world, or something like that.

Before I get into the today’s diary, I want to share something from Bishop Thomas Ken (d. 1711). He was Anglican Bishop of Bath and Wells, an important voice in the orthodox-catholic tradition within Anglicanism, an ecclesiastical writer as well as advocate of hymnody. He is responsible for the words of the “Doxology” often sung during the Offertory in Anglican liturgy. What follows is a meditation on the Eucharist:

O blessed Savior, what more powerful motives can I have to persuade me to communicate [receive Holy Communion] than Thy command, and the blessed effects of this holy Sacrament?

I come to testify my sense of Thy love, O heavenly Father, in Thy so loving the world as to give up Thy only Son to die for me.

I come to testify my faith in Thee, and my love towards Thee, O blessed Saviour, and thankfully commemorate Thy wonderful love in dying for me.

I come, Lord, to testify my steadfastness in the communion of Thy Church, and my charity to all the world.

I come to Thy Table, O Lord, from a sense that I want to spiritual food to which Thou there invitest me.

Alas, I am soon apt to grow weary of well-doing; a few prayers tire me; every slight temptation overcomes me; but I know that Thy Body can strengthen my soul, and Thy Blood revive my drooping obedience; and it is Thy most blessed Body and Blood after which I hunger and thirst: O gracious Lord, grant that I, and all who communicate with me, may feel their saving efficacy. O Lord, feed, refresh, and nourish our souls with them to life everlasting and that for Thy own infinite mercy’s sake, which moved Thee to offer up Thy Body and Blood for us. Amen.

And now to the recap: