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Book of Common Prayer Sunday Eucharistic Lectionary Propers

Appointed for the Week of

The First Sunday in Lent

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THE COLLECTS.

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O LORD,

who for our sake didst fast forty days and forty nights:

Give us grace to use such abstinence, that, our flesh being subdued to the Spirit,

we may ever obey thy godly motions in righteousness and true holiness,

to thy honour and glory;

who livest and reignest with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, world without end. 

Amen.

 

ALMIGHTY and everlasting God,

who hatest nothing that thou hast made, and dost forgive the sins of all them that are penitent:

Create and make in us new and contrite hearts,

that we worthily lamenting our sins, and acknowledging our wretchedness,

may obtain of thee, the God of all mercy,

perfect remission and forgiveness;

through Jesus Christ our Lord

Amen.

 

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THE EPISTLE. 2 Corinthians 6. 1.

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WE then, as workers together with him, beseech you also,

that ye receive not the grace of God in vain; (for he saith,

 

I have heard thee in a time accepted,
And in the day of salvation have I succoured thee:

 

behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation;)

giving no offence in any thing, that the ministry be not blamed;

but in all things approving ourselves as the ministers of God,

in much patience,

in afflictions,

in necessities,

in distresses,

in stripes,

in imprisonments,

in tumults,

in labours,

in watchings,

in fastings;

by pureness,

by knowledge,

by long-suffering,

by kindness,

by the Holy Spirit,

by love unfeigned,

by the word of truth,

by the power of God;

by the armour of righteousness on the right hand and on the left;

by honour and dishonour,

by evil report and good report;

as deceivers, and yet true;

as unknown, and yet well known;

as dying, and behold, we live;

as chastened, and not killed;

as sorrowful, yet alway rejoicing;

as poor, yet making many rich;

as having nothing, and yet possessing all things.

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THE GOSPEL. St Matthew 4. 1.

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THEN was Jesus led up by the Spirit into the wilderness, to be tempted by the devil.

And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an-hungred.

And when the tempter came to him, he said,

If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.

But he answered and said, It is written,

 

Man shall not live by bread alone,
But by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.

 

Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on the pinnacle of the temple,

and saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down; for it is written,

 

He shall give his angels charge concerning thee,
And in their hands they shall bear thee up,
Lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone.

 

Jesus said unto him, It is written again,

 

Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.

 

Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain,

and showeth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them;

and saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me.

Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan; for it is written,

 

Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God,
And him only shalt thou serve.

 

Then the devil leaveth him, and behold, angels came and ministered unto him.

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Book of Common Prayer Sunday Eucharistic Lectionary Message

A Sermon for

The First Sunday in Lent

By:  Fr. David Curry

(9th March 2025,

Christ Church, Windsor, NS)

Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.

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At first glance it reads like a debating challenge, a war of words. And in one sense it is, yet not as a contest for what most persuades but rather as a testament to what is most true. That is what is at issue in the temptations of Christ.

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They are our temptations. Matthew and Luke, though ordering them differently, present three temptations which encompass the meaning and nature of all temptation. Yet they all come down to one thing really: the denial of God, on the one hand, and a picture of the truth of our humanity as found in Christ, the word and son of the Father, on the other hand. All temptations are about turning to what are partial, incomplete, and distorted forms of the truth.

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The three categories of temptation vary only in the degree to which God is denied. The three temptations can be understood as the temptation to distrust, the temptation to presumption, and the temptation to defiance and denial explicitly. All the temptations common to our humanity are comprehended in these three and all belong to the Lenten project of setting our loves in order over and against the forms of the disarray of our affections and thoughts. But what is the point of this whole matter of temptation? To highlight for us and to compel us to the realization of what properly belongs to the truth of our humanity and to the redemption of our humanity in the one who overcomes the tendencies in us to lose sight of the truth of our being which is only found in the truth and goodness of God.

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Book of Common Prayer

Daily Office Lectionary

Appointed for the Week of

The First Sunday in Lent

Holy Scripture Readings for Morning and Evening Prayer
as appointed by the 1962 Canadian Book of Common Prayer (BCP).

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