Readings:
Psalm 115:9-15
Isaiah 55:1-5
Acts 1:1-9
Luke 10:1-9Preface of Apostles
PRAYER (traditional language)
O Lord our God, who dost call whom thou
willest and send them whither thou choosest: We thank thee for sending
thy servant Willibrord to be an apostle to the Low Countries, to turn them
from the worship of idols to serve thee, the living God; and we entreat
thee to preserve us from the temptation to exchange the perfect freedom
of thy service for servitude to false gods and to idols of our own devising;
through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the
Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
PRAYER (contemporary language)
O Lord our God, who call whom you will
and send them where you choose: We thank you for sending your servant Willibrord
to be an apostle to the Low Countries, to turn them from the worship of
idols to serve you, the living God; and we entreat you to preserve us from
the temptation to exchange the perfect freedom of your service for servitude
to false gods and to idols of our own devising; through Jesus Christ our
Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever
and ever.
Lessons revised at GC 2009.
Return to Lectionary Home Page
Webmaster: Charles Wohlers
Last updated: 19 Sept. 2009
WILLIBRORD OF UTRECHT
ARCHBISHOP AND MISSIONARY (NOV 7, 739)
Willibrord,
first Archbishop of Utrecht, is one of the missionaries sent out by the
Anglo-Saxon Christians about a century after they had themselves been
Christianized by missionaries in the south and east of England from Rome
and the Continent, and in the north and west from the Celtic peoples of
Scotland, Ireland, and Wales.
Our information about Willibrord comes to us from the
Venerable Bede (History of the English Church and People, v. 10-11)
and from a biography by his younger kinsman Alcuin (see 20 May), Minister
of Education under the Emperor Charlemagne. Willibrord was born in Northumbria
in England about 658, and studied in France and Ireland. In 690 he set
out with 12 companions to preach to the pagans of Frisia (a region roughly
coextensive with the province of Friesland in the Netherlands, including
some adjacent territories and the Frisian islands in the North Sea). His
work was interrupted several times by wars, and he left for a while to
preach to the Danes instead. He died 7 November 739.
Willibrord is a symbol of ties between the Christians
of England and those of Holland. Today the historic See of Utrecht is
in full communion with the Church of England.
by James Kiefer
(These stamps honor Willibrord because of his founding of the Abbey at Echternach, in Luxemburg, and were used to aid renovations there.)