Readings (Click the links to see the readings)

Isaiah 35.1-10 | Ps 96.7-13 | Luke 5.17-26

Mosaic of the Nativity (Serbia, Winter 1993)
Jane Kenyon

On the domed ceiling God
is thinking:
I made them my joy,
and everything else I created
I made to bless them.
But see what they do!
I know their hearts
and arguments:

"We're descended from
Cain. Evil is nothing new,
so what does it matter now
if we shell the infirmary,
and the well where the fearful
and rash alike must
come for water?"text-align:center"

God thinks Mary into being.
Suspended at the apogee
of the golden dome,
she curls in a brown pod,
and inside her the mind
of Christ, cloaked in blood,
lodges and begins to grow.

Prayer

Dancing God,
you exult over us with joy;
as we celebrate what has past
renew us by your love
that we may face the future with hope and joy;
through our Saviour Jesus Christ,
who is alive with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God now and for ever. Amen.
— Bosco Peters

Justice, mercy and peace

International Human Rights Day: anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948. In 1966, the concepts of the UDHR were expanded and made binding by the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights.

Work by Hildegard of Bingen, 11th Century.

"On the domed ceiling God is thinking: I made them my joy, and everything else I created." — Jane Kenyon

Psalm 96.7-13 (Coverdale version, Book of Common Prayer) to a chant by Alan Gray (1855-1935). The National Service of Thanksgiving to Celebrate the Diamond Jubilee of Her Majesty the Queen, St Paul's Cathedral, 5 June 2012. Combined Choirs of the Cathedral and Her Majesty's Chapel Royal, directed by Andrew Carwood.