The Resurrection depicted in a fresco in Analipsi Church in Georgioupoli, Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)
Sunday 7 April (Lent 5):
9.30, Parish Eucharist (Holy Communion 2), Saint Mary’s Church, Askeaton;
11.30, Morning Prayer, Saint Brendan’s Church, Kilnaughtin (Tarbert).
Readings: Isaiah 43: 16-21; Psalm 126; Philippians 3: 4b-14; John 12: 1-8.
Hymns:
517, Brother, sister, let me serve you (CD 30)
218, And can it be that I should gain (CD 14)
587, Just as I am, without one plea (CD 33)
Sunday 14 April (Palm Sunday, Lent 6):
9.30, The Parish Eucharist (Holy Communion 2), Castletown Church;
11.30, Morning Prayer, Holy Trinity Church, Rathkeale.
Readings: Isaiah 50: 4-9a; Psalm 31: 9-16; Philippians 2: 5-11; Luke 23: 1-49.
Hymns:
217, All glory, laud and honour (CD 14)
134, Make way, make way, for Christ the king (CD 8)
715, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God the Lord Almighty (CD 40)
Monday 15 April:
8 p.m., Evening Prayer, Saint Mary’s Church, Askeaton.
Readings: Psalm 36: 5-11; Hebrews 9: 11-15; John 12: 1-11.
Hymn:
217, All glory, laud and honour (CD 14).
Tuesday 16 April:
8 p.m., Late Evening Office, Saint Brendan’s Church, Kilnaughtin.
Readings: Psalm 71: 1-14; John 12: 20-36.
Hymns:
66, Before the ending of the day (CD 4)
218, And can it be that I should gain (CD 14)
Wednesday 17 April:
8 p.m., Compline, Holy Trinity, Rathkeale.
Reading: John 13: 21-32.
Hymn: 247, When I survey the wondrous cross (CD 15)
Thursday 18 April (Maundy Thursday):
8 p.m., the Maundy Eucharist, with Washing of the Feet, Castletown Church.
Readings: Exodus 12: 1-4 (5-10), Psalm 116: 1, 10-17; I Corinthians 11: 23-26; John 13: 1-17, 31b-35.
Hymns:
431, Lord, enthroned in heavenly splendour (CD 26)
432, Love is his word, love is his way (CD 26)
515, ‘A new commandment I give unto you (CD 30)
Friday 19 April (Good Friday):
12 noon to 3 p.m.: The Three Hours, Christ’s journey with the Cross to Calvary, Saint Mary’s Church, Askeaton.
Saturday 20 April (Easter Eve):
8 p.m., The Easter Eucharist (Holy Communion 2), Holy Trinity, Rathkeale;
10 p.m., The Easter Eucharist (Holy Communion 2), Castletown Church.
Readings: Isaiah 65: 17-25; the Easter Anthems (sung as Hymn 286, CD 17); I Corinthians 15: 19-26; Luke 24: 1-12.
Hymns:
260, Christ is alive! Let Christians sing (CD 16)
258, Christ the Lord is risen again (CD 16)
255, Christ is Risen, alleluia (CD 16)
Sunday 21 April (Easter Day):
9.30 a.m., the Easter Eucharist (Holy Communion 2), Saint Mary’s Church, Askeaton;
11.30 a.m., the Easter Eucharist (Holy Communion 2), Saint Brendan’s Church, Kilnaughtin (Tarbert).
Readings: Acts 10: 34-43; Psalm 118: 1-2, 14-24; I Corinthians 15: 19-26; John 20: 1-18.
Hymns:
286, The strife is o’er, the battle done (CD 12)
78, This is the day that the Lord has made (CD 5)
263, Crown him with many crowns (CD 14)
Sunday 28 April (Easter 2):
9.30 a.m., Morning Prayer, Castletown Church;
11.30 a.m., the Parish Eucharist (Holy Communion 2), Holy Trinity Church, Rathkeale (with the Revd Joe Hardy).
Readings: Acts 5: 27-32 or Job 42: 1-6; Psalm 118: 14-29 or 150; Revelation 1: 4-8; John 20: 19-31.
Hymns:
646, Glorious things of thee are spoken (CD 37)
239, See, Christ was wounded for our sake (CD 15)
307, Our great redeemer, as he breathed (CD 18)
The Resurrection … a stained glass window in Saint Michael’s Church, Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
31 March 2019
Mothers’ broken hearts,
expanding hearts, and
souls that are pierced
‘Mother and Child’ … a sculpture by Anna Raynoch in Auschwitz (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Patrick Comerford
Sunday 31 March 2019: the Fourth Sunday in Lent, Mothering Sunday)
11 a.m.: United Group Service for the Fifth Sunday:
Holy Trinity Church, Rathkeale.
The Parish Eucharist (Holy Communion 2),
Readings: Exodus 2: 1-10; Psalm 34: 11-20; II Corinthians 1: 3-7; Luke 2: 33-35.
The distress of refugee Syrian mothers and fathers seen by the artist Kaiti Hsu
May I speak to you in the name of God, + Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen.
I grew up on a solid diet of English boys’ comics, graduating from the Beano and the Dandy in the 1950s to the Victor, the Valiant and the Hotspur in the early 1960s, and books and films set in places like Stalag Luft III, such as The Wooden Horse and The Great Escape.
There were limited storylines, and the characters never had any great depth to them.
In those decades immediately after World War II, Germans were caricatures rather characters, portrayed as Huns who had a limited vocabulary.
And I remember how they always referred to the Vaterland. Somehow, seeing your country as the Father-land made you harsh, unforgiving, demanding and violent. While those who saw their country as a mother, whether it was Britannia or Marianne, or perhaps even Hibernia, were supposed to be more caring, empathetic and ethical, endowed with justice and mercy.
These images somehow played on, pandered to, the images a previous generation had of the different roles of a father and a mother.
So, culturally it may come as a surprise, perhaps even a cultural challenge, to many this morning, that the other Gospel readings provided for Mothering Sunday include a Parable that tells us what it is to be a good father, the Parable of the Prodigal Son.
Culturally we are predisposed to thinking of this parable as the story of the Prodigal Son. But this is not a story telling us to be wayward children. The emphasis is three-way: the wayward son, the unforgiving or begrudging son, and the loving Father.
Who is missing from this story? … the Mother of these two sons.
The people who first heard that parable – eager tax collectors and sinners, grumbling Pharisees and Scribes – may well have been mindful of the Old Testament saying: ‘A wise son makes a glad father, but a foolish son is a mother’s grief’ (Proverbs 10:1).
Or inwardly they may have been critical of the father, recalling another saying in the Book of Proverbs: ‘Train children in the right way, and when old, they will not stray’ (Proverbs 22: 6).
We all know what bad parenting is like. I know myself. I know what it is to have two sets of parents, and four sets of grandparents, who came with different gifts and different deficiencies. But I am also aware of my own many failings as a parent too, and hope on this Mothering Sunday that where I have failed as a father, a loving mother has been more than compensation.
In the story of the Prodigal Son – a story with which most of us are familiar with, I imagine – Christ rejects all the dysfunctional models of parenting we have inherited and received.
Those first listeners to this parable may well have had wayward sons and jealous sons, and the story, initially, would have been no surprise, would have been one they knew only too well.
But they no longer need to be challenged as adult children. The challenge they need is about their own parenting skills. And they may well have been distressed as they hear a story about a man who behaves not like a father would be expected to behave but like a mother.
Where was the mother of the Prodigal Son? Did she have a role in this family drama?
Had she been praying ever since her wayward son left home, asking God to keep him safe, to bring him home?
Perhaps it was her prayers that reached him in some way and reminded her son of home?
But the Father in the parable is also both Father and Mother to the Son.
He behaves just like a mother would in these circumstances.
He is constantly looking and waiting and watching for him until the day he sees him.
And when he sees him, instead of being the perfectly behaved gentleman he is filled up with emotions, he runs, he hugs, he kisses. He finds him clean clothes, he finds clean shoes, he feeds him. And like a good mother, he probably also tells him his room is made up, it has always been there for him.
The father of the Prodigal Son bucks all the images of parenting we have inherited: he is both mother and father to his children.
The sufferings and compassion of three images in recent times illustrate for me how loving parents can be reflections of divine majesty and grace.
I think of the pregnant mother, a qualified solicitor who had been homeless, told Valerie Cox on RTÉ radio some years ago how she was forced to walk the streets of Dublin because the hostel where she was staying would not allow her in until 7.30 in the evening.
Like the Prodigal Son, no one gave her anything and she had no proper bed at night. She was 6½ months pregnant, had an eight-year-old daughter, and Mother Ireland has betrayed her.
Or I think of Syrian mothers who are refugees crossing the Aegean Sea, and see their children drown just before they reach the shores of Greece … a story largely forgotten by media outlets today.
We see it as our problem rather than seeing it as a problem for the people fleeing war and savage violence.
Or I think of Nuala Creane, who spoke movingly ten years ago at the funeral of her son Sebastian, who was murdered in Bray in 2009. In a well-sculpted eulogy, carved with all the beauty, precision, delicacy and impact of a Pieta being sculpted by a Michelangelo, she told all present that ‘my story, my God is the God of Small Things. I see God’s presence in the little details.’
She spoke of the heartbreak and the choice that faces everyone confronted with the deepest personal tragedies, admitting, ‘Our hearts are broken but maybe our hearts needed to be broken so that they could expand.’
Broken hearts, expanding hearts, souls that have been pierced, rising to the challenge with unconditional love … this is how I hope I understand the majesty and the glory of Christ, at the best of times and at the worst of times.
How as a society – whether it is our local community, this island, or in Europe – are we mothers to mothers in need?
How, as a Church, so often spoken of lovingly as ‘Mother Church,’ do we speak up for God’s children in their time of need and despair?
I suppose, on this Mothering Sunday, that Christ had good experiences of mothering as he was growing up. Just a few verses before the parable of the Prodigal Son, he uses a most maternal image as he laments over Jerusalem and declares: ‘Jerusalem, Jerusalem … How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings …’ (Luke 13: 34).
The Christ Child, when he was born, was cradled in the lap of a loving mother who at the time could never know that when he died and was taken down from the cross she would cradle him once again in her lap.
But the experience of a mother’s loss and grief that come to mind in Lent is given new hope at Easter.
On Mothering Sunday, we move through Lent towards Good Friday and Easter Day, How do we, like Christ, and like so many suffering mothers, grow to understand those who suffer, those who grieve, those who forgive?
And so, may all we think, say and do be to the praise, honour and glory of God, + Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
The Presentation in the Temple, carved on a panel on a triptych in the Lady Chapel, Lichfield Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford/ Lichfield Gazette)
Luke 2: 33-35:
33 And the child’s father and mother were amazed at what was being said about him. 34 Then Simeon blessed them and said to his mother Mary, ‘This child is destined for the falling and the rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be opposed 35 so that the inner thoughts of many will be revealed – and a sword will pierce your own soul too.’
‘A well-sculpted eulogy, carved with all the beauty, precision, delicacy and impact of a Pieta being sculpted by a Michelangelo’ … a copy of Michelangelo’s Pieta in the Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul in Athlone (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)
Liturgical Colour: Violet.
The canticle Gloria is usually omitted in Lent. Traditionally in Anglicanism, the doxology or Gloria at the end of Canticles and Psalms is also omitted during Lent.
Penitential Kyries:
Lord God, mighty God,
you are the creator of the world.
Lord, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.
Lord Jesus, Son of God and Son of Mary,
you are the Prince of Peace.
Christ, have mercy.
Christ, have mercy.
Holy Spirit,
by your power the Word was made flesh
and came to dwell among us.
Lord, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.
The Collect:
God of compassion,
whose Son Jesus Christ, the child of Mary,
shared the life of a home in Nazareth,
and on the cross drew the whole human family to himself:
Strengthen us in our daily living
that in joy and in sorrow
we may know the power of your presence
to bind together and to heal;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
The Collect of the Day:
Lord God
whose blessed Son our Saviour
gave his back to the smiters
and did not hide his face from shame:
Give us grace to endure the sufferings of this present time
with sure confidence in the glory that shall be revealed;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
The Lenten Collect:
Almighty and everlasting God,
you hate nothing that you have made
and forgive the sins of all those who are penitent:
Create and make in us new and contrite hearts
that we, worthily lamenting our sins
and acknowledging our wretchedness,
may receive from you, the God of all mercy,
perfect remission and forgiveness;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Introduction to the Peace:
Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given:
and his name is called the Prince of Peace. (Isaiah 9: 7).
Preface:
You chose the Blessed Virgin Mary
to be the mother of your Son
and so exalted the humble and meek;
your angel hailed her as most highly favoured,
and with all generations we call her blessed:
The Post Communion Prayer:
Loving God,
as a mother feeds her children at the breast,
you feed us in this sacrament with spiritual food and drink.
Help us who have tasted your goodness
to grow in grace within the household of faith;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Blessing:
Christ the Son of God, born of Mary,
fill you with his grace
to trust his promises and obey his will:
The grave of Samuel Johnson’s mother and father in Saint Michael’s Church, Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Alternative words to use at the Peace:
Dr Samuel Johnson’s ‘Last Letter to his Aged Mother,’ written 250 years ago on 20 January 1769, reads:
Dear Honoured Mother:
Neither your condition nor your character make it fit for me to say much. You have been the best mother, and I believe the best woman, in the world. I thank you for your indulgence to me, and beg forgiveness of all that I have done ill, and all that I have omitted to do well. God grant you his Holy Spirit, and receive you to everlasting happiness, for Jesus Christ’s sake. Amen. Lord Jesus receive your spirit. Amen.
Hymns:
569: Hark my soul, it is the Lord (CD 33)
541: God of Eve and God of Mary (CD 310)
125: Hail to the Lord’s anointed (CD 8)
The Presentation in the Temple … a fresco in Analipsi Church in Georgioupoli in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)
Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org
Material from the Book of Common Prayer is copyright © 2004, Representative Body of the Church of Ireland.
Patrick Comerford
Sunday 31 March 2019: the Fourth Sunday in Lent, Mothering Sunday)
11 a.m.: United Group Service for the Fifth Sunday:
Holy Trinity Church, Rathkeale.
The Parish Eucharist (Holy Communion 2),
Readings: Exodus 2: 1-10; Psalm 34: 11-20; II Corinthians 1: 3-7; Luke 2: 33-35.
The distress of refugee Syrian mothers and fathers seen by the artist Kaiti Hsu
May I speak to you in the name of God, + Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen.
I grew up on a solid diet of English boys’ comics, graduating from the Beano and the Dandy in the 1950s to the Victor, the Valiant and the Hotspur in the early 1960s, and books and films set in places like Stalag Luft III, such as The Wooden Horse and The Great Escape.
There were limited storylines, and the characters never had any great depth to them.
In those decades immediately after World War II, Germans were caricatures rather characters, portrayed as Huns who had a limited vocabulary.
And I remember how they always referred to the Vaterland. Somehow, seeing your country as the Father-land made you harsh, unforgiving, demanding and violent. While those who saw their country as a mother, whether it was Britannia or Marianne, or perhaps even Hibernia, were supposed to be more caring, empathetic and ethical, endowed with justice and mercy.
These images somehow played on, pandered to, the images a previous generation had of the different roles of a father and a mother.
So, culturally it may come as a surprise, perhaps even a cultural challenge, to many this morning, that the other Gospel readings provided for Mothering Sunday include a Parable that tells us what it is to be a good father, the Parable of the Prodigal Son.
Culturally we are predisposed to thinking of this parable as the story of the Prodigal Son. But this is not a story telling us to be wayward children. The emphasis is three-way: the wayward son, the unforgiving or begrudging son, and the loving Father.
Who is missing from this story? … the Mother of these two sons.
The people who first heard that parable – eager tax collectors and sinners, grumbling Pharisees and Scribes – may well have been mindful of the Old Testament saying: ‘A wise son makes a glad father, but a foolish son is a mother’s grief’ (Proverbs 10:1).
Or inwardly they may have been critical of the father, recalling another saying in the Book of Proverbs: ‘Train children in the right way, and when old, they will not stray’ (Proverbs 22: 6).
We all know what bad parenting is like. I know myself. I know what it is to have two sets of parents, and four sets of grandparents, who came with different gifts and different deficiencies. But I am also aware of my own many failings as a parent too, and hope on this Mothering Sunday that where I have failed as a father, a loving mother has been more than compensation.
In the story of the Prodigal Son – a story with which most of us are familiar with, I imagine – Christ rejects all the dysfunctional models of parenting we have inherited and received.
Those first listeners to this parable may well have had wayward sons and jealous sons, and the story, initially, would have been no surprise, would have been one they knew only too well.
But they no longer need to be challenged as adult children. The challenge they need is about their own parenting skills. And they may well have been distressed as they hear a story about a man who behaves not like a father would be expected to behave but like a mother.
Where was the mother of the Prodigal Son? Did she have a role in this family drama?
Had she been praying ever since her wayward son left home, asking God to keep him safe, to bring him home?
Perhaps it was her prayers that reached him in some way and reminded her son of home?
But the Father in the parable is also both Father and Mother to the Son.
He behaves just like a mother would in these circumstances.
He is constantly looking and waiting and watching for him until the day he sees him.
And when he sees him, instead of being the perfectly behaved gentleman he is filled up with emotions, he runs, he hugs, he kisses. He finds him clean clothes, he finds clean shoes, he feeds him. And like a good mother, he probably also tells him his room is made up, it has always been there for him.
The father of the Prodigal Son bucks all the images of parenting we have inherited: he is both mother and father to his children.
The sufferings and compassion of three images in recent times illustrate for me how loving parents can be reflections of divine majesty and grace.
I think of the pregnant mother, a qualified solicitor who had been homeless, told Valerie Cox on RTÉ radio some years ago how she was forced to walk the streets of Dublin because the hostel where she was staying would not allow her in until 7.30 in the evening.
Like the Prodigal Son, no one gave her anything and she had no proper bed at night. She was 6½ months pregnant, had an eight-year-old daughter, and Mother Ireland has betrayed her.
Or I think of Syrian mothers who are refugees crossing the Aegean Sea, and see their children drown just before they reach the shores of Greece … a story largely forgotten by media outlets today.
We see it as our problem rather than seeing it as a problem for the people fleeing war and savage violence.
Or I think of Nuala Creane, who spoke movingly ten years ago at the funeral of her son Sebastian, who was murdered in Bray in 2009. In a well-sculpted eulogy, carved with all the beauty, precision, delicacy and impact of a Pieta being sculpted by a Michelangelo, she told all present that ‘my story, my God is the God of Small Things. I see God’s presence in the little details.’
She spoke of the heartbreak and the choice that faces everyone confronted with the deepest personal tragedies, admitting, ‘Our hearts are broken but maybe our hearts needed to be broken so that they could expand.’
Broken hearts, expanding hearts, souls that have been pierced, rising to the challenge with unconditional love … this is how I hope I understand the majesty and the glory of Christ, at the best of times and at the worst of times.
How as a society – whether it is our local community, this island, or in Europe – are we mothers to mothers in need?
How, as a Church, so often spoken of lovingly as ‘Mother Church,’ do we speak up for God’s children in their time of need and despair?
I suppose, on this Mothering Sunday, that Christ had good experiences of mothering as he was growing up. Just a few verses before the parable of the Prodigal Son, he uses a most maternal image as he laments over Jerusalem and declares: ‘Jerusalem, Jerusalem … How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings …’ (Luke 13: 34).
The Christ Child, when he was born, was cradled in the lap of a loving mother who at the time could never know that when he died and was taken down from the cross she would cradle him once again in her lap.
But the experience of a mother’s loss and grief that come to mind in Lent is given new hope at Easter.
On Mothering Sunday, we move through Lent towards Good Friday and Easter Day, How do we, like Christ, and like so many suffering mothers, grow to understand those who suffer, those who grieve, those who forgive?
And so, may all we think, say and do be to the praise, honour and glory of God, + Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
The Presentation in the Temple, carved on a panel on a triptych in the Lady Chapel, Lichfield Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford/ Lichfield Gazette)
Luke 2: 33-35:
33 And the child’s father and mother were amazed at what was being said about him. 34 Then Simeon blessed them and said to his mother Mary, ‘This child is destined for the falling and the rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be opposed 35 so that the inner thoughts of many will be revealed – and a sword will pierce your own soul too.’
‘A well-sculpted eulogy, carved with all the beauty, precision, delicacy and impact of a Pieta being sculpted by a Michelangelo’ … a copy of Michelangelo’s Pieta in the Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul in Athlone (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)
Liturgical Colour: Violet.
The canticle Gloria is usually omitted in Lent. Traditionally in Anglicanism, the doxology or Gloria at the end of Canticles and Psalms is also omitted during Lent.
Penitential Kyries:
Lord God, mighty God,
you are the creator of the world.
Lord, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.
Lord Jesus, Son of God and Son of Mary,
you are the Prince of Peace.
Christ, have mercy.
Christ, have mercy.
Holy Spirit,
by your power the Word was made flesh
and came to dwell among us.
Lord, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.
The Collect:
God of compassion,
whose Son Jesus Christ, the child of Mary,
shared the life of a home in Nazareth,
and on the cross drew the whole human family to himself:
Strengthen us in our daily living
that in joy and in sorrow
we may know the power of your presence
to bind together and to heal;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
The Collect of the Day:
Lord God
whose blessed Son our Saviour
gave his back to the smiters
and did not hide his face from shame:
Give us grace to endure the sufferings of this present time
with sure confidence in the glory that shall be revealed;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
The Lenten Collect:
Almighty and everlasting God,
you hate nothing that you have made
and forgive the sins of all those who are penitent:
Create and make in us new and contrite hearts
that we, worthily lamenting our sins
and acknowledging our wretchedness,
may receive from you, the God of all mercy,
perfect remission and forgiveness;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Introduction to the Peace:
Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given:
and his name is called the Prince of Peace. (Isaiah 9: 7).
Preface:
You chose the Blessed Virgin Mary
to be the mother of your Son
and so exalted the humble and meek;
your angel hailed her as most highly favoured,
and with all generations we call her blessed:
The Post Communion Prayer:
Loving God,
as a mother feeds her children at the breast,
you feed us in this sacrament with spiritual food and drink.
Help us who have tasted your goodness
to grow in grace within the household of faith;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Blessing:
Christ the Son of God, born of Mary,
fill you with his grace
to trust his promises and obey his will:
The grave of Samuel Johnson’s mother and father in Saint Michael’s Church, Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Alternative words to use at the Peace:
Dr Samuel Johnson’s ‘Last Letter to his Aged Mother,’ written 250 years ago on 20 January 1769, reads:
Dear Honoured Mother:
Neither your condition nor your character make it fit for me to say much. You have been the best mother, and I believe the best woman, in the world. I thank you for your indulgence to me, and beg forgiveness of all that I have done ill, and all that I have omitted to do well. God grant you his Holy Spirit, and receive you to everlasting happiness, for Jesus Christ’s sake. Amen. Lord Jesus receive your spirit. Amen.
Hymns:
569: Hark my soul, it is the Lord (CD 33)
541: God of Eve and God of Mary (CD 310)
125: Hail to the Lord’s anointed (CD 8)
The Presentation in the Temple … a fresco in Analipsi Church in Georgioupoli in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)
Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org
Material from the Book of Common Prayer is copyright © 2004, Representative Body of the Church of Ireland.
Praying through Lent with
USPG (26): 31 March 2019
‘Jesus meets the Holy Women’ … Station VIII in the Stations of the Cross in the Friars’ Graveyard at Gormanston College, Co Meath (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Patrick Comerford
Today is the Fourth Sunday in Lent [31 March 2019], and Mothering Sunday. Later this morning, I am presiding and preaching at the Parish Eucharist in Holy Trinity Church, Rathkeale, Co Limerick (11 a.m.).
During Lent this year, I am using the USPG Prayer Diary, Pray with the World Church, for my morning prayers and reflections.
USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel) is the Anglican mission agency that partners churches and communities worldwide in God’s mission to enliven faith, strengthen relationships, unlock potential, and champion justice. It was founded in 1701.
This week (31 March to 6 April 2019), the USPG Prayer Diary is focussing on the theme of Climate. This theme is introduced this morning with a short article from the Church of South India’s Green Schools programme, which is inspiring a new generation to care for the environment:
‘We train students to observe and watch nature. This is the best education we can give them because nature will reveal its treasures to the students. Observing nature with respect and curiosity will change their mindset, which is the primary goal of the Green Schools programme. We aim to catch the students when they are young and give them training in sustainable values in the hope that this can start to solve the present ecological crisis. Interestingly, we’ve noticed that primary school students respond better than high school students.
‘We also organise training for teachers and clergy in the dioceses. Mona Robert, a teacher at Dornakal Diocese High School, said: ‘The sessions inspired me. From now on I would like to read the Bible keeping ecology in mind. I was impressed by the significance of tigers, the guardians of the forest, and how they are [badly] treated. Also, because water is the main resource for all living beings, it should be used carefully, so we have to educate people about this.’
‘In Medak Diocese, teacher K Hepsheba reported: ‘We learned how everything in the universe is interrelated. If we care about nature, nature will care for us’.’
Sunday 31 March: The Fourth Sunday in Lent :
Creator God,
the heavens declare your glory
and the earth your generosity.
Forgive our exploitation of your gracious provision
and through your bountiful goodness
guide our efforts to be better stewards of your creation.
The Collect:
Most merciful God,
who by the death and resurrection of your Son Jesus Christ
delivered and saved the world:
Grant that by faith in him who suffered on the cross,
we may triumph in the power of his victory;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
The Lenten Collect:
Almighty and everlasting God,
you hate nothing that you have made
and forgive the sins of all those who are penitent:
Create and make in us new and contrite hearts
that we, worthily lamenting our sins
and acknowledging our wretchedness,
may receive from you, the God of all mercy,
perfect remission and forgiveness;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Continued tomorrow
Yesterday’s reflection
Patrick Comerford
Today is the Fourth Sunday in Lent [31 March 2019], and Mothering Sunday. Later this morning, I am presiding and preaching at the Parish Eucharist in Holy Trinity Church, Rathkeale, Co Limerick (11 a.m.).
During Lent this year, I am using the USPG Prayer Diary, Pray with the World Church, for my morning prayers and reflections.
USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel) is the Anglican mission agency that partners churches and communities worldwide in God’s mission to enliven faith, strengthen relationships, unlock potential, and champion justice. It was founded in 1701.
This week (31 March to 6 April 2019), the USPG Prayer Diary is focussing on the theme of Climate. This theme is introduced this morning with a short article from the Church of South India’s Green Schools programme, which is inspiring a new generation to care for the environment:
‘We train students to observe and watch nature. This is the best education we can give them because nature will reveal its treasures to the students. Observing nature with respect and curiosity will change their mindset, which is the primary goal of the Green Schools programme. We aim to catch the students when they are young and give them training in sustainable values in the hope that this can start to solve the present ecological crisis. Interestingly, we’ve noticed that primary school students respond better than high school students.
‘We also organise training for teachers and clergy in the dioceses. Mona Robert, a teacher at Dornakal Diocese High School, said: ‘The sessions inspired me. From now on I would like to read the Bible keeping ecology in mind. I was impressed by the significance of tigers, the guardians of the forest, and how they are [badly] treated. Also, because water is the main resource for all living beings, it should be used carefully, so we have to educate people about this.’
‘In Medak Diocese, teacher K Hepsheba reported: ‘We learned how everything in the universe is interrelated. If we care about nature, nature will care for us’.’
Sunday 31 March: The Fourth Sunday in Lent :
Creator God,
the heavens declare your glory
and the earth your generosity.
Forgive our exploitation of your gracious provision
and through your bountiful goodness
guide our efforts to be better stewards of your creation.
The Collect:
Most merciful God,
who by the death and resurrection of your Son Jesus Christ
delivered and saved the world:
Grant that by faith in him who suffered on the cross,
we may triumph in the power of his victory;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
The Lenten Collect:
Almighty and everlasting God,
you hate nothing that you have made
and forgive the sins of all those who are penitent:
Create and make in us new and contrite hearts
that we, worthily lamenting our sins
and acknowledging our wretchedness,
may receive from you, the God of all mercy,
perfect remission and forgiveness;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Continued tomorrow
Yesterday’s reflection
Saint Dubhán and Hook Church are
part of the story of Hook Lighthouse
The ruined Hook Church or Saint Dubhán’s Church at Churchtown, north of the Hook Lighthouse in Co Wexford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)
Patrick Comerford
Hook Head and the Hook Peninsula in south-west Wexford includes hidden coves, some important mediaeval sites, including the Hook Lighthouse, and some important architectural and archaeological sites, such as the castles at Fethard, Dungulph, Houseland, Slade and Kilclogan, and Loftus Hall.
The area is replete with legends, myths and tales about the giant Finn Mac Cumhal, Celtic saints and monks, Anglo-Norman landings, ghostly sightings and early Ogham stones.
But this is also an area with a rich collection of churches, monastic sites and holy wells, including the churches at Templetown, the abbeys at Tintern and Dunbody, and early church settlements.
Hook Church or Saint Dubhán’s Church at Churchtown, seen from the north-west (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)
On the way back from visiting Hook Head and the Hook Lighthouse, I stopped to visit the ruins of Hook Church or Saint Dubhán’s Church at Churchtown, linked with Saint Dubhán, who came to the Hook from Wales in 452 AD and established a monastery on the site of the lighthouse.
The date given for his arrival is just 20 years after the supposed arrival of Saint Patrick in 432, and while Saint Patrick is said to have been working in the northern part of the island.
Saint Dubhán is said to have lit the first warning beacon for ships at Hook Head shortly after his arrival. This beacon was maintained by the monks for 700 years until the lighthouse was built.
Saint Dubhán built a church and soon the whole peninsula was known as Rinn Dubháin. The name Dubhán can be translated into English as a ‘fishing hook’ and so, it is said, the peninsula became known as Hook Head.
Saint Dubhán is said to have been an older brother of Saint Elloc, the patron of Templetown, and is name is remembered at Saint Elloc’s Well or ‘Toberluke.’
The later chancel in the ruins of Hook Church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)
The church was later attached to a house of Augustinian canons. Mediaeval references date from 1245, when the chaplains of Saint Saviour of Rindeaun were urged to maintain the lighthouse.
The remaining ruins of the church date from the 13th or 14th century. The nave dates from the 13th century and the chancel was added later.
Looking into the Hook Church from the original east wall of the mediaeval church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)
The original east wall of the mediaeval church, now in the centre of the church, includes remains of antae or projections of the side walls beyond the gable, and there is evidence of a round-headed window in which a doorway was inserted to give access to the later chancel.
The nave, which was extended in length, and the later chancel survive almost complete. The original nave is earlier, and the east wall has remains of antae and a destroyed window over the chancel arch.
The nave was extended at the west end and provided with opposing round-headed doorways towards the west end. The doorway on the north side has a stoup in situ. There are corbels at the west end to support a gallery and the west gable has an unusual double bellcote.
The surviving piscina in the chancel of the Hook Church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)
There is a blocked door towards the east end of the north nave wall. The chancel has a three-light ogee-headed window with glazing grooves on the wall and a statue shelf and niche at the north end of the east wall. There are three small windows on the south wall and one on the north wall. There is a piscina, aumbry and Easter Sepulchre in the chancel.
Inside the Hook Church at Churchtown, Co Wexford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)
The names of local families buried in the surrounding churchyard include: Barry, Chapman, Colfer, Connelly or Connolly, Crowley, Dunne, Fanning, Fortune, Holland, Kavangh, Kennedy, Mason, Moran, Murphy, O’Brien, Power, Wallace and White.
Saint Dubhán was commemorated on 11 February, and his story is still told as part of the guided tours of the Hook Lighthouse.
Looking out through one the three small windows of the south wall in the Hook Church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)
Patrick Comerford
Hook Head and the Hook Peninsula in south-west Wexford includes hidden coves, some important mediaeval sites, including the Hook Lighthouse, and some important architectural and archaeological sites, such as the castles at Fethard, Dungulph, Houseland, Slade and Kilclogan, and Loftus Hall.
The area is replete with legends, myths and tales about the giant Finn Mac Cumhal, Celtic saints and monks, Anglo-Norman landings, ghostly sightings and early Ogham stones.
But this is also an area with a rich collection of churches, monastic sites and holy wells, including the churches at Templetown, the abbeys at Tintern and Dunbody, and early church settlements.
Hook Church or Saint Dubhán’s Church at Churchtown, seen from the north-west (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)
On the way back from visiting Hook Head and the Hook Lighthouse, I stopped to visit the ruins of Hook Church or Saint Dubhán’s Church at Churchtown, linked with Saint Dubhán, who came to the Hook from Wales in 452 AD and established a monastery on the site of the lighthouse.
The date given for his arrival is just 20 years after the supposed arrival of Saint Patrick in 432, and while Saint Patrick is said to have been working in the northern part of the island.
Saint Dubhán is said to have lit the first warning beacon for ships at Hook Head shortly after his arrival. This beacon was maintained by the monks for 700 years until the lighthouse was built.
Saint Dubhán built a church and soon the whole peninsula was known as Rinn Dubháin. The name Dubhán can be translated into English as a ‘fishing hook’ and so, it is said, the peninsula became known as Hook Head.
Saint Dubhán is said to have been an older brother of Saint Elloc, the patron of Templetown, and is name is remembered at Saint Elloc’s Well or ‘Toberluke.’
The later chancel in the ruins of Hook Church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)
The church was later attached to a house of Augustinian canons. Mediaeval references date from 1245, when the chaplains of Saint Saviour of Rindeaun were urged to maintain the lighthouse.
The remaining ruins of the church date from the 13th or 14th century. The nave dates from the 13th century and the chancel was added later.
Looking into the Hook Church from the original east wall of the mediaeval church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)
The original east wall of the mediaeval church, now in the centre of the church, includes remains of antae or projections of the side walls beyond the gable, and there is evidence of a round-headed window in which a doorway was inserted to give access to the later chancel.
The nave, which was extended in length, and the later chancel survive almost complete. The original nave is earlier, and the east wall has remains of antae and a destroyed window over the chancel arch.
The nave was extended at the west end and provided with opposing round-headed doorways towards the west end. The doorway on the north side has a stoup in situ. There are corbels at the west end to support a gallery and the west gable has an unusual double bellcote.
The surviving piscina in the chancel of the Hook Church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)
There is a blocked door towards the east end of the north nave wall. The chancel has a three-light ogee-headed window with glazing grooves on the wall and a statue shelf and niche at the north end of the east wall. There are three small windows on the south wall and one on the north wall. There is a piscina, aumbry and Easter Sepulchre in the chancel.
Inside the Hook Church at Churchtown, Co Wexford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)
The names of local families buried in the surrounding churchyard include: Barry, Chapman, Colfer, Connelly or Connolly, Crowley, Dunne, Fanning, Fortune, Holland, Kavangh, Kennedy, Mason, Moran, Murphy, O’Brien, Power, Wallace and White.
Saint Dubhán was commemorated on 11 February, and his story is still told as part of the guided tours of the Hook Lighthouse.
Looking out through one the three small windows of the south wall in the Hook Church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)
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