Sunday the 18th after Trinity and the 19th after Pentecost

This was our processional this morning.  Very familiar tune but it took almost the whole first stanza before it registered:  it's the old Czarist national anthem.   Different words, of course, and not in English for a start.  But what a delight for an unreconstructed monarchist.  Da Zdra'stvuyet Tsar!

Someone also recorded a bit of our choir singing the Kyrie and Gloria.   Somewhere in that polyphonic mix is my dulcet baritone masquerading as a bass.  Not quite sure how to imbed Soundcloud files so let us hope that whatever I'm about to post below is correct.




By George, I think I've got it.

And finally the Sunday collect, one that goes right to the heart of the matter

LORD, we beseech thee, grant thy people grace to withstand the temptations of the world, the flesh, and the devil: and with pure hearts and minds to follow thee the only God; through Jesus Christ thy Son our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, ever one God, world without end. Amen.