St James's Day

With today being St James's Day we began tonight's Building Committee with the Collect (or special prayer) for the day:

Merciful God, whose holy apostle Saint James, leaving his father and all he had, was obedient to the calling of your Son Jesus Christ and followed him even to death, help us, forsaking the false attractions of the world, to be ready at all times to answer your call without delay; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God now and forever.

The collect, of course, is based on this incident from Matthew 4: ' As he went from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John, in the boat with their father Zebedee, mending their nets, and he called them. ²² Immediately they left the boat and their father, and followed him' (verses 21-22, and it is a poignant thought, that James's following of his Lord led to martyrdom and an early death as recorded in Acts 12.