Readings

Daily OfficeHoly EucharistHoly Days

April 19: Alphege, Archbishop of Canterbury and Martyr, 1012

The Collect of the Day

Alphege

Lord Jesus Christ, who willingly walked the way of the cross: Strengthen your church through the example and prayers of your servant Alphege to hold fast to the path of discipleship; for with the Father and Holy Spirit you live and reign, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Alphege

Lord Jesus Christ, who didst willingly walk the way of the cross: Strengthen thy church through the example and prayers of thy servant Alphege to hold fast to the path of discipleship; for with the Father and the Holy Ghost thou livest and reignest, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Born in 954, Alphege (or Aelfheah) gave his witness in the troubled time of the second wave of Scandinavian invasion and settlement in England. After serving as a monk at Deerhurst, and then as Abbot of Bath, he became, in 984, through Archbishop Dunstan’s influence, Bishop of Winchester. He was instrumental in bringing the Norse King Olaf Tryggvason, only recently baptized, to King Aethelred in 994 to make his peace and to be confirmed at Andover.

Transferred to Canterbury in 1005, Alphege was captured by the Danes in 1011. He refused to allow a personal ransom to be collected from his already over-burdened people. Seven months later he was brutally murdered, despite the Viking commander Thorkell’s effort to save him by offering all his possessions except his ship for the Archbishop’s life.

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle relates that the Danes were “much stirred against the bishop, because he would not promise them any fee, and forbade that any man should give anything for him. They were also much drunken…and took the bishop, and led him to their hustings, on the eve of the Saturday after Easter…and then they shamefully killed him. They overwhelmed him with bones and horns of oxen; and one of them smote him with an axe-iron on the head; so that he sunk downwards with the blow. And his holy blood fell on the earth, whilst his sacred soul was sent to the realm of God.”

Lessons and Psalm

First Lesson

Colossians 1:24–29

24 I am now rejoicing in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am completing what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church. 25 I became its servant according to God’s commission that was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known, 26 the mystery that has been hidden throughout the ages and generations but has now been revealed to his saints. 27 To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. 28 It is he whom we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone in all wisdom, so that we may present everyone mature in Christ. 29 For this I toil and struggle with all the energy that he powerfully inspires within me.

Psalm

1I will bless the Lord at all times; *his praise shall ever be in my mouth.

2I will glory in the Lord; *let the humble hear and rejoice.

3Proclaim with me the greatness of the Lord; *let us exalt his Name together.

4I sought the Lord, and he answered me *and delivered me out of all my terror.

5Look upon him and be radiant, *and let not your faces be ashamed.

6I called in my affliction and the Lord heard me *and saved me from all my troubles.

7The angel of the Lord encompasses those who fear him, *and he will deliver them.

8Taste and see that the Lord is good; *happy are they who trust in him!

Gospel

Loading...

✕

Luke 12:35–40

35 “Be dressed for action and have your lamps lit; 36 be like those who are waiting for their master to return from the wedding banquet, so that they may open the door for him as soon as he comes and knocks. 37 Blessed are those slaves whom the master finds alert when he comes; truly I tell you, he will fasten his belt and have them sit down to eat, and he will come and serve them. 38 If he comes during the middle of the night, or near dawn, and finds them so, blessed are those slaves. 39 “But know this: if the owner of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into. 40 You also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour.”