Book of Common Prayer Sunday Eucharistic Lectionary Propers

Appointed for the Week of

The Sixteenth Sunday After Trinity

(In the Octave of St. Michaels & All Angels)

THE COLLECTS.

O LORD, we beseech thee,

let thy continual pity cleanse and defend thy Church;

and, because it cannot continue in safety without thy succour,

preserve it evermore by thy help and goodness;

through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.

O EVERLASTING God,

who hast ordained and constituted the services of Angels and men in a wonderful order:

Mercifully grant that, as thy holy Angels alway do thee service in heaven,

so by thy appointment they may succour and defend us on earth;

through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.

THE EPISTLE. Ephesians 3. 13.

I DESIRE that ye faint not at my tribulations for you, which is your glory.

For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father,

from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named,

that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory,

to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man;

that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith;

that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints,

what is the breadth,

and length,

and depth,

and height;

and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge,

that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.

Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think,

according to the power that worketh in us,

unto him be glory in the Church and in Christ Jesus,

throughout all ages,

world without end.

Amen.

THE GOSPEL. St Luke 7. 11.

And it came to pass the day after, that Jesus went into a city called Nain;

and many of his disciples went with him, and much people.

Now when he came nigh to the gate of the city,

behold, there was a dead man carried out,

the only son of his mother,

and she was a widow;

and much people of the city was with her.

And when the Lord saw her,

he had compassion on her,

and said unto her,

Weep not.

And he came and touched the bier;

and they that bare him stood still:

and he said,

Young man, I say unto thee, Arise.

And he that was dead sat up, and began to speak:

and he delivered him to his mother.

And there came a fear on all,

and they glorified God, saying,

that a great Prophet is risen up among us,

and that God hath visited his people.

And this rumour of him went forth throughout all Judaea,

and throughout all the region round about.

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Book of Common Prayer Sunday Eucharistic Lectionary Message

A Sermon for the Sixteenth Sunday After Trinity

(In the Octave of St. Michaels & All Angels)

By: Fr. William Sisterman

“As Jesus approached the gate of the town,

a dead man was being carried out, the only son of a widowed mother.”

(St. Luke 7:12)

The little town of Nain is a place that you can visit in the Holy Land today.

You have to make an effort,

since it’s about eight miles from the city of Nazareth, off the beaten path.

It’s located on the Plain of Esdraelon at the foot of a mountain called Little Hermon.

Nain isn’t much of a town.

There may be two hundred people living there today and it’s completely Moslem.

If it were in the United States, you would say it’s only a “wide spot in the road”.

But there they don’t have wide spots in the road;

the streets are narrow and the buildings are very close to each other.

If you go into this little bit of a town, you can visit a church,

a beautiful white chapel, that is maintained by some Franciscan Friars.

It commemorates the event that we heard in the Gospel this morning.

To understand just what happened there, we have to have a bit of background about the event.

We also have to say,

“What has this got to do with us?

It’s wonderful that Jesus raised this man from the dead, but it hasn’t happened lately”.

But we must remember that what was written in the Scripture

is for our benefit twenty centuries later.

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