George Street in St Albans was once known as Church Street and was lined with inns and taverns (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)
Patrick Comerford
St Albans, the cathedral city in Hertfordshire, is known as one of the most beautiful small cities in England and the Sunday Times has named it among the best places to live in the south-east of England. It is 50 km (30 miles) south-east of Milton Keynes and 32 km (20 miles) north-west of London, and lies within the London commuter belt and the Greater London Built-up Area.
For visitors and tourists, it is best known for St Albans Cathedral, formerly St Albans Abbey, and for the ruins of the Roman city of Verulamium. The abbey and the areas around Fishpool Street provided locations in the 1960s television comedy All Gas and Gaiters and some places in St Albans substituted for locations in Oxford in some episodes of Inspector Morse.
But St Albans has a rich heritage of mediaeval, Tudor and Georgian buildings. Many of these buildings are former inns and taverns that benefitted from the steady flow of pilgrims visiting St Albans. Others are reminders that St Albans was also a turbulent place during the Peasants Revolt in the 14th century and the Wars of the Roses in the 15th century.
A plaque on the former town hall recalls the execution of John Ball and his role in the Peasants’ Revolt (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)
A plaque on the former town hall, now St Albans Museum and Gallery, recalls how John Ball (1338-1381), a priest who played a prominent role in the Peasants’ Revolt in 1381, was tried before Richard II in St Albans and executed on 15 July 1381.
Although Ball is often associated with John Wycliffe and the Lollards, he was active at least a decade before Wycliffe. He trained as a priest in York and then moved to Norwich and Colchester. He became a roving preacher without any parish link and his sermons insisting on social equality brought him into conflict with Simon of Sudbury, Archbishop of Canterbury.
When the Peasants’ Revolt began, Ball was freed from prison by the Kentish rebels. He preached to them at Blackheath in an open-air sermon in which he asked: ‘When Adam delved and Eve span, who was then the gentleman? From the beginning all men by nature were created alike, and our bondage or servitude came in by the unjust oppression of naughty men. For if God would have had any bondmen from the beginning, he would have appointed who should be bond, and who free. And therefore I exhort you to consider that now the time is come, appointed to us by God, in which ye may (if ye will) cast off the yoke of bondage, and recover liberty.’
Ball was taken prisoner at Coventry, tried in St Albans in the presence of Richard II and was hanged, drawn and quartered on 15 July 1381. His head was placed on a pike on London Bridge, and the quarters of his body were displayed in four different towns.
Ball later became a hero for radicals, revolutionaries, socialists and communists and he is a recurring figure in literature. In Hamlet (Act V Scene 1), Shakespeare has the Gravedigger discuss the line ‘When Adam delved and Eve span, Who was then the gentleman?’ but in a reversed sense: in Adam’s time there were none but gentlemen, as through Scripture was being quoted.
William Morris wrote a short story, A Dream of John Ball, that was serialised in the Commonweal in 1886-1887 and published as a book in 1888. Sydney Carter wrote a song about John Ball, and the question, ‘When Adam delved and Eve span, Who was then the gentleman?’ is also the epigraph to Zadie Smith’s novel NW (2012).
The former St Albans Town Hall, now St Albans Museum and Gallery (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)
St Albans Town Hall was built between 1829 and 1831 and served as the council meeting place until the 1960s, when the council moved to new premises at the City Hall. The town hall was commissioned to replace the Moot Hall in the Market Place which was completed in 1570. The new building was designed in the neoclassical style by George Smith was completed in 1826.
St Albans Museum and Gallery is a newly created state-of-the-art gallery set over three floors in the former town hall. The displays include local, national and world treasures, from priceless 2,000-year-old pieces to contemporary artworks, with regularly changing exhibitions and cutting edge art installations and programmes.
The museum is housed in the former town hall, with its restored assembly room, octagonal courtroom and subterranean cells. Several new spaces have also been created: glazed links added to the first floor provide rooftop views; a new basement gallery houses the museum’s flagship exhibitions; and the ground floor has a new learning studio, gift shop and café.
The assembly room, originally a venue for balls, galas and concerts, has been fully restored to its former glory with Georgian architectural flourishes, ornate chandeliers, lustrous gold leaf and a double height ceiling and large windows that flood the room with light.
The courtroom and cells tell the stories of law and order in St Albans. The subterranean cells, where defendants were once held, lead up directly to the dock in the courtroom.
St Albans Clock Tower is the only surviving mediaeval town belfry in England (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)
St Albans Clock Tower is a symbol of civic pride in the cathedral city. It is the only surviving mediaeval town belfry in England.
The people of St Albans built the tower, which was completed by 1405 as a symbol of their resistance against the power of the Abbot of St Albans. The tower allowed the town to sound its own hours and, until 1863, the curfew.
Thomas Wolvey was employed to build the clock tower in the Market Place. The original bell, named for the Archangel Gabriel, sounds F-natural and weighs one ton. Gabriel sounded each morning at 4 am and in the evening at 8 or 9 pm for the curfew.
The ground floor of the tower was a shop until the 20th century. The first-floor and second-floor rooms were designed as living space. The shop and the first floor were connected by a spiral stairs. Another flight rises the whole height of the tower by 93 narrow steps and gave access to the living chamber, the clock and the bell without disturbing the tenants of the shop.
The Clock Tower bell rang out for the first Battle of St Albans during the Wars of the Roses in 1455. Today, the tower, with its 600-year-old bell, still stands facing the abbey’s tower and offers views across over St Albans and across the countryside of Hertfordshire.
The Clock Tower was closed on the two occasions I visited St Albans this month, but it opens again from Good Friday, 29 March 2024, on weekends and bank holidays. It is run by volunteers from St Albans Civic Society and St Albans and Hertfordshire Architectural and Archaeological Society.
Near the clock tower once stood the Eleanor Cross, where Queen Eleanors’s rested in St Albans for one night on her funeral journey from Harby to Westminster on 13 December 1290.
The Boot on High Street is one of the smallest inns in St Albans (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)
Facing the clock tower, the Boot on High Street is one of the smallest inns in St Albans. The mediaeval tannery and leather market was nearby, and may have given the Boot its name.
During the War of the Roses, the Battle of St Albans was fought outside the doors of the Boot in 1455, which explains why it is the first pub in England to be adopted by the Battlefields Trust.
But 600 years ago it was two buildings housing several shops. It had been knocked into one building by the 17th century, with an outside chimney and attic rooms. It did not become a licenced inn until 1719.
George Street was once lined with timber-framed late mediaeval and Tudor inns and taverns (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)
George Street was known as Church Street originally and was once lined with inns and taverns, including the George which gave the street its name. The inns and hostelries on the north side of George Street included the White Horse, the Bear, also known as the Bull, the Tabard, later known as the Antelope, and the Valiant Trooper, also known as the White Bear.
The Thai restaurant in Nos 26-28 at the top of George Street, near the corner with Verulam Street, is a black-and-white timber-framed building that has been on the site since the 1400s, and it is one of the oldest buildings in St Albans.
Originally it was two different inns – the Swan and the George. The oldest part, dating from ca 1400, fronts onto Verulam Road. The inn known as the George is known as early as 1401, when it belonged to the Nunnery of Saint Mary’s, Sopwell. Its full name seems to have been the George and Dragon. The cellars of the building include an arched passageway said to run across the street towards the Abbey.
The abbot granted a licence to the proprietor in 1484 for the celebration of Mass for the convenience of ‘great men and others’ lodging at the inn. It was an inn until to 1932. Since then it has been a pub and a restaurant of various types and is still known to many local people as the Tudor Tavern.
The Swan became the King’s Head in the 1600s and continued until ca 1790. Later, the building became houses and shops and from 1906 it was Mayle’s antique shop. It was taken into council ownership in the 1960s to preserve it and keep it open to the public. When it became a Thai restaurant, it was a condition that it continues to allow public access.
No 37 and 39 Holywell Hill is one of the oldest and best-preserved mediaeval buildings in St Albans (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)
No 37 and 39 Holywell Hill, on the corner with Sopwell Lane, is one of the oldest and best-preserved mediaeval buildings in St Albans. It was built in the late 15th century as a hostel for visitors to the abbey. At the dissolution of the monasteries in 1539, it became the Crane, then the Chequers and finally the Crown and Anchor, always providing food, drink and bed for travellers.
Over 70 coaches a day came up Sopwell Lane in the early 1800s. But the inn lost business when London Road was built and the railway arrived in St Albans. It became a pub and a grocery shop.
It was an antique shop in the late 20th century, then an estate agent’s and is now a private residence. It is believed most of the original features are still intact after 500 years.
Torrington Hall stands on part of the site of Holywell House (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)
On the facing corner stood Holywell House. It passed from Sir Ralph Rowlett in the late 16th century through the Jennings family and then to Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough, who was born there in 1660. She later bought the house outright and she and her husband, John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, often stayed there.
Holywell House was demolished in 1837, and the name is now used by another house, No 40 Holywell Hill. But a blue plaque on the walls of Torrington House marks the spot where the former Holywell House stood.
Torrington Hall was built by the Longmire family in 1882. The house was planned as the retirement home for John Chapple, Mayor of St Albans, but he did not live long enough to enjoy it.
Later, it was the home of Eleanor Ormerod (1828-1901), the scientist who pioneered studies into the negative impact insects have on animals and crops. Although she worked at a time when women were not encouraged to pursue academic careers, she was the first woman to receive an honorary from Edinburgh University for her contributions to science in 1900, the year before her death.
24 January 2024
Daily prayers during
Christmas and Epiphany:
31, 24 January 2024
James Tissot, ‘Zacchaeus in the Sycamore Awaiting the Passage of Jesus’ (Brooklyn Museum)
Patrick Comerford
The celebrations of Epiphany-tide continue today, and the week began with the Third Sunday of Epiphany (21 January 2024). Today is also the seventh day of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, and in the Calendar in Common Worship, the Church of England remembers Saint Francis de Sales (1622), Bishop of Geneva and Teacher of the Faith.
Christmas is a season that lasts for 40 days that continues from Christmas Day (25 December) to Candlemas or the Feast of the Presentation (2 February) The Gospel reading on Sunday (John 2: 1-11) told of the Wedding at Cana, one of the traditional Epiphany stories.
In keeping with the theme of Sunday’s Gospel reading, my reflections each morning throughout the seven days of this week include:
1, A reflection on one of seven meals Jesus has with family, friends or disciples;
2, the Gospel reading of the day;
3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary.
An icon showing Jesus calling Zacchaeus down from a tree in Jericho
4, The meal with Zacchaeus (Luke 19: 1-10):
The story of Jesus becoming the guest of Zacchaeus in Jericho is one of those stories that is unique to Saint Luke. Shortly after telling the story of the Pharisee and the Publican in the Temple, Jesus arrives in Jericho – perhaps the home city of the man who was helped on the side of the road by the Good Samaritan.
There, a man who wants to see Jesus is probably pushed to the back of the crowd for two reasons that count him out: he is small in stature, and he is a tax collector.
The physical problem shows how Zacchaeus is pushed to the margins by those who should have counted him into their social and religious community. He is of little stature not just physically, but socially too.
Can you imagine yourself as a little child trying to see a great parade, or standing among adults at a football match when you were so small?
Did everyone want to let you through?
Or did you not count?
No-one stood aside for you. And no-one is going to stand aside for Zacchaeus. They belittle him, and they probably think he deserves it – after all, the taxes he collects support the Roman occupation and administration.
But Zacchaeus overcomes, rises above, his exclusion, by climbing the tree – is there a symbolic reference here to clinging to the Cross? In any case, Zacchaeus climbs the tree to see Jesus – something you could imagine a child doing, but surely not the sort of thing a well-paid civil servant should be seen doing?
Zacchaeus sees Jesus and Jesus sees Zacchaeus.
And Jesus invites himself not just to dine with Zacchaeus, but to stay with him.
‘Zacchaeus, make haste and come down, for I must stay at your house today’ (verse 5).
Normally, it is the potential host rather than the intended guest who does the inviting. So once again, Jesus the Guest becomes Jesus the Host.
Zacchaeus is delighted. But the good burghers of Jericho are unsettled. They murmur that Jesus is heading off to dine with sinners.
We are so self-righteous at times in our churches that we are very unwilling to welcome those who would be seen today as the little people. One rector I know in a comfortable parish challenged his parishioners, who are very generous in their giving, especially when it comes to development agencies, mission agencies and what we once called Third World causes.
He asked them how they would react if Syrian refugees were moved into a vacant hotel or hostel in the parish on a Saturday night, and all of them presume.
In welcoming Jesus, Zacchaeus has what only be described as a conversion experience.
The NRSV translation tells us that he promises to amend his ways and that, in the future, he will give half his possessions to the poor, and return anything extra he has squeezed out of people when he has been collecting taxes.
Oh, the joys of being a PAYE/PRSI worker in the tax system we have in Ireland!
Unfortunately, the NRSV translation is a little inaccurate here. Zacchaeus makes no such promise about the future. He says, in the original Greek, that this is what he is doing in the present – the present tense is used.
If he is telling the truth, then Zacchaeus has been grossly misrepresented, misunderstood and libelled by his neighbours and within his own community, even at the point where he is dining with Jesus.
The present tense is important. For this day, on this day, Jesus affirms that Zacchaeus too is a child of Abraham, that he too is an heir to those promises made long, long ago to Abraham.
Those who needed conversion were not Zacchaeus and others like him on the margins, who were in need of seeing people as Christ sees them.
Jesus seeks out the sinners, the lost, those who are excluded, those counted out, and invites them to the heavenly banquet. Like Zacchaeus, they too are brought from the margins into the centre.
The one person everyone thought was outside, is on the inside as far as Jesus is concerned. And those who think they are on the inside are in danger of finding that they are on the outside.
Are we welcoming enough, as individuals and as a Church?
How would you feel if Jesus came to your town or your parish one Saturday night but decided not to come to your church on Sunday morning, but to go somewhere else?
What if you were left without Jesus being present in your church on Sunday morning … in either Word or Sacrament?
How often are we prepared to welcome Christ’s presence among us only in the way we choose?
For those in the Catholic traditions, do we neglect Christ’s presence in the Word too often?
To those in the Protestant traditions, do we neglect Christ’s presence in the Sacrament too often?
Mark 4: 1-20 (NRSVA):
4 Again he began to teach beside the lake. Such a very large crowd gathered around him that he got into a boat on the lake and sat there, while the whole crowd was beside the lake on the land. 2 He began to teach them many things in parables, and in his teaching he said to them: 3 ‘Listen! A sower went out to sow. 4 And as he sowed, some seed fell on the path, and the birds came and ate it up. 5 Other seed fell on rocky ground, where it did not have much soil, and it sprang up quickly, since it had no depth of soil. 6 And when the sun rose, it was scorched; and since it had no root, it withered away. 7 Other seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no grain. 8 Other seed fell into good soil and brought forth grain, growing up and increasing and yielding thirty and sixty and a hundredfold.’ 9 And he said, ‘Let anyone with ears to hear listen!’
10 When he was alone, those who were around him along with the twelve asked him about the parables. 11 And he said to them, ‘To you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God, but for those outside, everything comes in parables; 12 in order that “they may indeed look, but not perceive,
and may indeed listen, but not understand;
so that they may not turn again and be forgiven”.’
13 And he said to them, ‘Do you not understand this parable? Then how will you understand all the parables? 14 The sower sows the word. 15 These are the ones on the path where the word is sown: when they hear, Satan immediately comes and takes away the word that is sown in them. 16 And these are the ones sown on rocky ground: when they hear the word, they immediately receive it with joy. 17 But they have no root, and endure only for a while; then, when trouble or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately they fall away. 18 And others are those sown among the thorns: these are the ones who hear the word, 19 but the cares of the world, and the lure of wealth, and the desire for other things come in and choke the word, and it yields nothing. 20 And these are the ones sown on the good soil: they hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirty and sixty and a hundredfold.’
Christ calls Zacchaeus down from the sycamore tree … is this story too familiar that it is difficult to find fresh insights? (Illustration © Henry Martin)
Today’s Prayers (Wednesday 24 January 2024):
The theme this week in ‘Pray With the World Church,’ the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is: ‘Provincial Programme on Capacity Building in Paraná.’ This theme was introduced on Sunday by Christina Takatsu Winnischofer, Igreja Episcopal Anglicana do Brasil.
The USPG Prayer Diary today (24 January 2024, International Day of Education) invites us to pray in these words:
Let us pray for teachers, professors and all those involved in educating children and young adults. May we care for them as they care for those they are educating.
The Collect:
Holy God, who called your bishop Francis de Sales
to bring many to Christ through his devout life
and to renew your Church with patience and understanding:
grant that we may, by word and example,
reflect your gentleness and love to all we meet;
through Jesus Christ our Saviour,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
The Post-Communion Prayer:
God of truth,
whose Wisdom set her table
and invited us to eat the bread and drink the wine
of the kingdom:
help us to lay aside all foolishness
and to live and walk in the way of insight,
that we may come with Francis de Sales to the eternal feast of heaven;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Collect on the Eve of the Conversion of Paul:
Almighty God,
who caused the light of the gospel
to shine throughout the world
through the preaching of your servant Saint Paul:
grant that we who celebrate his wonderful conversion
may follow him in bearing witness to your truth;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Yesterday’s reflection (The meal with Mary and Martha)
Continued tomorrow (The unwelcoming host: the meal with Simon the Pharisee)
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
Patrick Comerford
The celebrations of Epiphany-tide continue today, and the week began with the Third Sunday of Epiphany (21 January 2024). Today is also the seventh day of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, and in the Calendar in Common Worship, the Church of England remembers Saint Francis de Sales (1622), Bishop of Geneva and Teacher of the Faith.
Christmas is a season that lasts for 40 days that continues from Christmas Day (25 December) to Candlemas or the Feast of the Presentation (2 February) The Gospel reading on Sunday (John 2: 1-11) told of the Wedding at Cana, one of the traditional Epiphany stories.
In keeping with the theme of Sunday’s Gospel reading, my reflections each morning throughout the seven days of this week include:
1, A reflection on one of seven meals Jesus has with family, friends or disciples;
2, the Gospel reading of the day;
3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary.
An icon showing Jesus calling Zacchaeus down from a tree in Jericho
4, The meal with Zacchaeus (Luke 19: 1-10):
The story of Jesus becoming the guest of Zacchaeus in Jericho is one of those stories that is unique to Saint Luke. Shortly after telling the story of the Pharisee and the Publican in the Temple, Jesus arrives in Jericho – perhaps the home city of the man who was helped on the side of the road by the Good Samaritan.
There, a man who wants to see Jesus is probably pushed to the back of the crowd for two reasons that count him out: he is small in stature, and he is a tax collector.
The physical problem shows how Zacchaeus is pushed to the margins by those who should have counted him into their social and religious community. He is of little stature not just physically, but socially too.
Can you imagine yourself as a little child trying to see a great parade, or standing among adults at a football match when you were so small?
Did everyone want to let you through?
Or did you not count?
No-one stood aside for you. And no-one is going to stand aside for Zacchaeus. They belittle him, and they probably think he deserves it – after all, the taxes he collects support the Roman occupation and administration.
But Zacchaeus overcomes, rises above, his exclusion, by climbing the tree – is there a symbolic reference here to clinging to the Cross? In any case, Zacchaeus climbs the tree to see Jesus – something you could imagine a child doing, but surely not the sort of thing a well-paid civil servant should be seen doing?
Zacchaeus sees Jesus and Jesus sees Zacchaeus.
And Jesus invites himself not just to dine with Zacchaeus, but to stay with him.
‘Zacchaeus, make haste and come down, for I must stay at your house today’ (verse 5).
Normally, it is the potential host rather than the intended guest who does the inviting. So once again, Jesus the Guest becomes Jesus the Host.
Zacchaeus is delighted. But the good burghers of Jericho are unsettled. They murmur that Jesus is heading off to dine with sinners.
We are so self-righteous at times in our churches that we are very unwilling to welcome those who would be seen today as the little people. One rector I know in a comfortable parish challenged his parishioners, who are very generous in their giving, especially when it comes to development agencies, mission agencies and what we once called Third World causes.
He asked them how they would react if Syrian refugees were moved into a vacant hotel or hostel in the parish on a Saturday night, and all of them presume.
In welcoming Jesus, Zacchaeus has what only be described as a conversion experience.
The NRSV translation tells us that he promises to amend his ways and that, in the future, he will give half his possessions to the poor, and return anything extra he has squeezed out of people when he has been collecting taxes.
Oh, the joys of being a PAYE/PRSI worker in the tax system we have in Ireland!
Unfortunately, the NRSV translation is a little inaccurate here. Zacchaeus makes no such promise about the future. He says, in the original Greek, that this is what he is doing in the present – the present tense is used.
If he is telling the truth, then Zacchaeus has been grossly misrepresented, misunderstood and libelled by his neighbours and within his own community, even at the point where he is dining with Jesus.
The present tense is important. For this day, on this day, Jesus affirms that Zacchaeus too is a child of Abraham, that he too is an heir to those promises made long, long ago to Abraham.
Those who needed conversion were not Zacchaeus and others like him on the margins, who were in need of seeing people as Christ sees them.
Jesus seeks out the sinners, the lost, those who are excluded, those counted out, and invites them to the heavenly banquet. Like Zacchaeus, they too are brought from the margins into the centre.
The one person everyone thought was outside, is on the inside as far as Jesus is concerned. And those who think they are on the inside are in danger of finding that they are on the outside.
Are we welcoming enough, as individuals and as a Church?
How would you feel if Jesus came to your town or your parish one Saturday night but decided not to come to your church on Sunday morning, but to go somewhere else?
What if you were left without Jesus being present in your church on Sunday morning … in either Word or Sacrament?
How often are we prepared to welcome Christ’s presence among us only in the way we choose?
For those in the Catholic traditions, do we neglect Christ’s presence in the Word too often?
To those in the Protestant traditions, do we neglect Christ’s presence in the Sacrament too often?
Mark 4: 1-20 (NRSVA):
4 Again he began to teach beside the lake. Such a very large crowd gathered around him that he got into a boat on the lake and sat there, while the whole crowd was beside the lake on the land. 2 He began to teach them many things in parables, and in his teaching he said to them: 3 ‘Listen! A sower went out to sow. 4 And as he sowed, some seed fell on the path, and the birds came and ate it up. 5 Other seed fell on rocky ground, where it did not have much soil, and it sprang up quickly, since it had no depth of soil. 6 And when the sun rose, it was scorched; and since it had no root, it withered away. 7 Other seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no grain. 8 Other seed fell into good soil and brought forth grain, growing up and increasing and yielding thirty and sixty and a hundredfold.’ 9 And he said, ‘Let anyone with ears to hear listen!’
10 When he was alone, those who were around him along with the twelve asked him about the parables. 11 And he said to them, ‘To you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God, but for those outside, everything comes in parables; 12 in order that “they may indeed look, but not perceive,
and may indeed listen, but not understand;
so that they may not turn again and be forgiven”.’
13 And he said to them, ‘Do you not understand this parable? Then how will you understand all the parables? 14 The sower sows the word. 15 These are the ones on the path where the word is sown: when they hear, Satan immediately comes and takes away the word that is sown in them. 16 And these are the ones sown on rocky ground: when they hear the word, they immediately receive it with joy. 17 But they have no root, and endure only for a while; then, when trouble or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately they fall away. 18 And others are those sown among the thorns: these are the ones who hear the word, 19 but the cares of the world, and the lure of wealth, and the desire for other things come in and choke the word, and it yields nothing. 20 And these are the ones sown on the good soil: they hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirty and sixty and a hundredfold.’
Christ calls Zacchaeus down from the sycamore tree … is this story too familiar that it is difficult to find fresh insights? (Illustration © Henry Martin)
Today’s Prayers (Wednesday 24 January 2024):
The theme this week in ‘Pray With the World Church,’ the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is: ‘Provincial Programme on Capacity Building in Paraná.’ This theme was introduced on Sunday by Christina Takatsu Winnischofer, Igreja Episcopal Anglicana do Brasil.
The USPG Prayer Diary today (24 January 2024, International Day of Education) invites us to pray in these words:
Let us pray for teachers, professors and all those involved in educating children and young adults. May we care for them as they care for those they are educating.
The Collect:
Holy God, who called your bishop Francis de Sales
to bring many to Christ through his devout life
and to renew your Church with patience and understanding:
grant that we may, by word and example,
reflect your gentleness and love to all we meet;
through Jesus Christ our Saviour,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
The Post-Communion Prayer:
God of truth,
whose Wisdom set her table
and invited us to eat the bread and drink the wine
of the kingdom:
help us to lay aside all foolishness
and to live and walk in the way of insight,
that we may come with Francis de Sales to the eternal feast of heaven;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Collect on the Eve of the Conversion of Paul:
Almighty God,
who caused the light of the gospel
to shine throughout the world
through the preaching of your servant Saint Paul:
grant that we who celebrate his wonderful conversion
may follow him in bearing witness to your truth;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Yesterday’s reflection (The meal with Mary and Martha)
Continued tomorrow (The unwelcoming host: the meal with Simon the Pharisee)
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
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