Saint Patrick’s Church on Soho Square is one of the oldest post-Reformation Catholic parish churches in London (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)
Patrick Comerford
As I was walking around Soho Square recently, in search of Soho’s Jewish history and of local architectural landmarks, I also visited the two churches on the square: Saint Patrick’s Roman Catholic Church and the French Protestant Church.
Saint Patrick’s on Soho Square is one of the oldest post-Reformation Catholic parishes in London, and the original church on the site was the first Catholic place of worship to open in London after the Roman Catholic Relief Acts were passed in 1778 and 1791 and the first post-Reformation church in England dedicated to Saint Patrick.
The first church on the site was in a building behind Carlisle House and was consecrated in 1792. The present church, built in 1891-1893, is a Grade II* listed building designed by the Leeds architect John Kelly.
Inside Saint Patrick’s Church, Soho Square, designed by the Leeds architect John Kelly and built in 1891-1893 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)
Catholic martyrs on their way to execution at Tyburn in the 16th and 17th centuries, were given their last drink in Saint Giles’s and were buried in the churchyard of Saint Giles-in-the-Fields. The last of these martyrs, Saint Oliver Plunkett, Archbishop of Armagh, was executed at Tyburn in 1681.
Several embassies were in Soho in the 18th century, and they had private chapels where Catholics attended Mass. The French Embassy and chapel were in Greek Street in the 1730s; the Neapolitan Embassy and chapel were at 13 Soho Square for a time; and 21 Soho Square housed the Spanish Embassy and chapel in the 1770s, although it later became the White House, an unsavoury hotel and high-class brothel.
Carlisle House was built in 1690 as the town house of the Earl of Carlisle. It was leased in the 1760s by Teresa Cornelys, a Venetian adventuress and sometime opera singer, whose former lovers included Casanova. The house was a venue for masquerade balls, operas and recitals until she was fined for staging operas without a licence. The old mansion was demolished in 1788 and two houses, 21a and 21b Soho Square, were built on the site.
The number of Catholics living in the area rose significantly in the 18th century, with thousands of Irish immigrants living around the Rookery, a squalid slum on the edge of Soho often called ‘Little Ireland’ or ‘Little Dublin’. In response to their plight, the Confraternity of Saint Patrick was founded in October 1791 by a group of prosperous Irish Catholics who wanted to acquire Carlisle House and convert it into a chapel.
The monument to Father Arthur O’Leary in Saint Patrick’s Church, Soho Square (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)
Father Arthur O’Leary (1729-1802), a celebrated Irish Capuchin preacher and controversialist who was staying at Wardour Street, raised the funds to lease Carlisle House. He was born in Fanlobbus, Dunmanway, Co Cork. He was educated by the Capuchins in Saint Malo, where he was ordained and spent 24 years as a prison chaplain. He returned to Cork in 1777 and his preaching soon attracted large numbers. He played a key role in the ‘Paper War’, arguing for Catholic Emancipation, and later supported the Act of Union as a means to Catholic emancipation.
Father O’Leary moved to London and he was a chaplain at the Spanish Embassy from 1789 until he died. His social circle included Edmund Burke, Richard Brinsley Sheridan and Charles James Fox.
O’Leary acquired a 62-year lease on the property on Soho Square, and the chapel was solemnly opened on 29 September 1792. Bishop John Douglass (1743-1812) presided at the Mass and Father O’Leary preached the sermon.
A statue of Saint Patrick in Saint Patrick’s Church, Soho Square (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)
Father Daniel Gaffey became the chaplain of the new church, but for many years it continued to be known as ‘Father O’Leary’s Chapel’. Its fittings included a painting of the Crucifixion by Van Dyck or a pupil. The organ was built by Robert and William Gray in 1793 and the early organists included Vincent Novello, the musician, composer and music publisher.
When Pope Pius VI died in captivity in France in 1799 a prisoner of Napoleon, the papal envoy in London, Cardinal Charles Erskine (1739-1811), chose Saint Patrick’s for the official papal requiem. The Mass began at 10 in the morning and finished at 3:30 in the afternoon, with Father O’Leary preaching. O’Leary died a few years later in January 1802, aged 72, and was buried in Old Saint Pancras Churchyard.
The most densely crowded part of Saint Giles’s Rookery was demolished in the 1840s to make way for New Oxford Street. The number of very poor Catholics then numbered about 10,000 people. Most lived in the part of the Rookery that remained, south of New Oxford Street around Church Lane, until this too was demolished later in the 19th century.
The High Altar and sanctuary in Saint Patrick’s Church, Soho Square (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)
The original Saint Patrick’s Chapel was in an unsafe conditions when it was demolished in 1889. The present church, designed by John Kelly of Leeds, was built on the site in 1891-1893.
John Kelly (1840-1904) and Edward Birchall (1839-1903) were partners in Kelly and Birchall, an architectural practice in Leeds from 1886 to 1904, specialising in churches in the Italianate and Gothic Revival styles. Kelly’s other churches include Saint Alban and Saint Stephen in St Albans, Hertfordshire (1903).
Kelly made the fullest use of the available space on a narrow site as he skilfully planned the interior, and his church transformed the site.
The church was built in the Italian Renaissance style with small-gauge dark red brick, with rubbed brick detail. It has a west campanile tower, vestibule, antechapel, aisled, apsidal sanctuary and south chapel. The main entrance has a Roman-style porch with Corinthian columns. Above the entrance is the inscription: Ut Christiani ita et Romani sitis (‘Be ye Christians as those of the Roman Church’), a quotation from the writings of Saint Patrick.
Inside Saint Patrick’s Church, Soho Square, facing the west end (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)
The main entrance has a portico in Portland stone, with Corinthian columns and pilasters, and the Papal tiara and keys set into the pediment. This forms the base of the imposing 125 ft high campanile that rises in arcaded stages. A niche in the tower has a statue of Saint Patrick by Boulton and Sons.
The tower, the main body of the church and the narthex are built in red brick. A blind arcade forms the north wall of the nave along Sutton Street (now Sutton Row) with a clerestory and another blind arcade above. The octagonal vestibule at the bottom of the campanile, and the antechapel beyond it, occupy the entire width of the old presbytery.
Inside, the church has an elegant, light and airy nave without aisles. The round-headed arches are separated by tall Corinthian pilasters that form shallow recesses along the sides. These bays accommodate a series of side chapels, shrines and the confessionals.
A plain-glassed clerestory runs along the north and south sides of the nave and along the west end wall over the gallery, and the west wall has a large, round window. The barrel-vaulted ceiling is coffered. The nave ends in an apsidal sanctuary, the two separated by marble altar rails with intricately carved, pierced panels.
The Baptistry in Saint Patrick’s Church, Soho Square (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)
The high altar is built of white marble with amber marble panels. The two tiers of the apse wall, above and below the cornice, are ornamented with Corinthian pilasters. The arch and domed ceiling of the sanctuary are ribbed and panelled, in the same manner as the nave.
The iron and brass tabernacle from the old chapel was adapted to the new high altar. The Gray organ had been rebuilt by Hill in 1882 and was installed on the left of the sanctuary.
The Stations of the Cross from the old chapel were re-erected in the nave. The former high altar was used in Our Lady of Sorrows Chapel, with the altarpiece of the Crucifixion. Phyffers’s Pietà and the Mater Dolorosa attributed to Dolci were in the same chapel, along with a relic of Saint Oliver Plunkett.
The elaborate, neo-Renaissance Carrara marble altar in Our Lady of Lourdes Chapel, at the west end of the nave on the south side, was donated to the church in 1892.
The 18th-century Carrara marble Pietà in the vestibule (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)
The 18th-century Carrara marble Pietà in the vestibule features an angel holding the body of Christ. A large mural memorial commemorating Father O’Leary, with his portrait carved in relief, was re-erected in the antechapel on the right. I also noticed a copy of Murillo’s ‘Mater Dolorosa’ at the back of the church, below the gallery.
The church holds several old pre-Reformation vestments, including chasubles once used in the private chapel of Catherine of Aragon, the first wife of Henry VIII. Their original embroidery and orphreys have been restored and, 500 years later, they are still worn on special occasions.
During the Blitz, a German bomb penetrated the church roof on 19 November 1940, struck a pier on the south side of the nave and hit the floor, but failed to detonate.
A copy of Murillo’s ‘Mater Dolorosa’ at the back of the church, below the gallery (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)
Many alterations have been made to Kelly’s church since it was built. The old Stations of the Cross were replaced by ones in cast relief, the former high altar was moved to the Our Lady of Sorrows Chapel, and the altar to Saint Anthony of Padua in the antechapel dates from the 1920s.
Archbishop Fulton Sheen, the first Catholic television evangelist, was a regular preacher in Saint Patrick’s from the 1920s to the 1960s. He once described himself as the ‘unappointed curate of the Parish’ and often stayed in the parish house.
In the 1960s, in response to the reforms following the Second Vatican Council, the high altar was adapted from the mensa of the original and brought forward to a lower position, leaving the reredos in situ.
Saint Patrick’s Church was renovated and refurbished at a cost of £4 million in 2010-2011. During the renovations, Mass was celebrated nearby in the Chapel of Saint Barnabas, at the House of Saint Barnabas.
Today, only a handful of resident Catholics remains in the parish. Hundreds of people continue to attend Saint Patrick’s Church, but they are mostly visitors, tourists and people working in the area. The church continues to attract immigrants and migrant workers from across London, and Mass is regularly celebrated in both Spanish and Portuguese.
Looking out on Soho Square from Saint Patrick’s Church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)
16 February 2025
Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2025:
14, Sunday 16 February 2025,
the Third Sunday before Lent
‘He came down with them and stood … with a great multitude of people from … the coast’ (Luke 6: 17) … by the coast in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Patrick Comerford
We are in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar. Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent are less than three weeks away (5 March 2025), and today is the Third Sunday before Lent (16 February 2025), once known as Septuagesima.
Later this morning, I hope to sing with the choir at the Parish Eucharist in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford. Before today begins, however, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, to reflect, to pray and to read in these ways:
1, today’s Gospel reading;
2, a short reflection;
3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;
4, the Collects and Post-Communion prayer of the day.
‘Power came out of him and he healed them’ (Luke 6: 19) … the chapel in Dr Milley’s Hospital, Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Luke 6: 17-26 (NRSVA):
17 He came down with them and stood on a level place, with a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea, Jerusalem, and the coast of Tyre and Sidon. 18 They had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases; and those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured. 19 And all in the crowd were trying to touch him, for power came out from him and healed all of them.
20 Then he looked up at his disciples and said:
‘Blessed are you who are poor,
for yours is the kingdom of God.
21 ‘Blessed are you who are hungry now,
for you will be filled.
‘Blessed are you who weep now,
for you will laugh.
22 ‘Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man. 23 Rejoice on that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven; for that is what their ancestors did to the prophets.
24 ‘But woe to you who are rich,
for you have received your consolation.
25 ‘Woe to you who are full now,
for you will be hungry.
‘Woe to you who are laughing now,
for you will mourn and weep.
26 ‘Woe to you when all speak well of you, for that is what their ancestors did to the false prophets.
‘They had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases’ (Luke 6: 18) (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Today’s Reflection:
Septuagesima, by John Betjeman:
Septuagesima—seventy days
To Easter’s primrose tide of praise;
The Gesimas—Septua, Sexa, Quinc
Mean Lent is near, which makes you think.
Septuagesima—when we’re told
To “run the race,” to “keep our hold,”
Ignore injustice, not give in, and practice stern self-discipline;
A somewhat unattractive time
Which hardly lends itself to rhyme.
But still it gives the chance to me
To praise our dear old C. of E.
So other churches please forgive
Lines on the church in which I live,
The Church of England of my birth,
The kindest church to me on Earth.
There may be those who like things fully
Argued out, and call you “woolly”;
Ignoring Creeds and Catechism
They say the C. of E.’s “in schism.”
There may be those who much resent
Priest, Liturgy, and Sacrament,
Whose worship is what they call “free,”
Well, let them be so, but for me
There’s refuge in the C. of E.
And when it comes that I must die
I hope the Vicar’s standing by,
I won’t care if he’s “Low” or “High”
For he’ll be there to aid my soul
On that dread journey to its goal,
With Sacrament and prayer and Blessing
After I’ve done my last confessing.
And at that time may I receive
The Grace most firmly to believe,
For if the Christian’s Faith’s untrue
What is the point of me and you?
But this is all anticipating
Septuagesima—time of waiting,
Running the race or holding fast.
Let’s praise the man who goes to light
The church stove on an icy night.
Let’s praise that hard-worked he or she
The Treasurer of the P.C.C.
Let’s praise the cleaner of the aisles,
The nave and candlesticks and tiles.
Let’s praise the organist who tries
To make the choir increase in size,
Or if that simply cannot be,
Just to improve its quality.
Let’s praise the ringers in the tower
Who come to ring in cold and shower.
But most of all let’s praise the few
Who are seen in their accustomed pew
Throughout the year, whate’er the weather,
That they may worship God together.
These, like a fire of glowing coals,
Strike warmth into each other’s souls,
And though they be but two or three
They keep the church for you and me.
These few weeks before Lent are seen in the Church as a time for preparation, a time to get ready, a time to think and reflect before we move into Lent itself.
I remember how this Sunday, the Third Sunday before Lent, was once known as Septuagesima. These Latin names were a reminder that Lent is just around the corner. But, of course, Lent itself is a reminder too that Holy Week and Easter are just around the corner – a reminder to prepare for Good Friday and Easter Day, to get ready for the Crucifixion and the Resurrection.
The Gospel reading this morning (Luke 6: 17-26), therefore, tells us what this faith should look like to the outsider. Saint Luke’s version of the ‘Sermon on the Mount’ sets out what our Christian faith, our faith in the Risen Christ, should look like to everyone else.
Saint Luke presents a set of contrasts between the two sets of people, although those who first heard this must have been surprised by who fits into which category.
Christ has ascended a mountain to pray. While there, he has chosen twelve of his disciples. Now he descends the mountain as far as a level place. Here he finds a large number of people, including other followers, as well as many Jews (‘people from all Judea and Jerusalem’) and many Gentiles (‘people from … the coast of Tyre and Sidon’). They come to hear and to be healed – they are here in mind and body, expecting their spiritual and their physical needs to be met.
Many are healed, so they realise in their own bodies that they have been restored to their rightful place in the Kingdom of God: those who were once regarded as unclean now have a place in the religious and worshipping community.
Saint Luke then narrates his account of the ‘Sermon on the Mount’ (verses 20-26). Here he tells of four beatitudes and four corresponding woes or warnings. It is a form of blessing that we have heard in the psalm (Psalm 1).
The word blessed (Greek μακαριοι, makarioi) also means ‘happy’ or ‘fortunate.’
Some are blessed, happy, fortunate to be included in the Kingdom of God, others are warned of the consequences of their choices in life.
The paired blessings and warnings are:
• to the poor (verse 20), and to the rich (verse 24);
• to the hungry (verse 21), and to the ‘full’ (verse 25a);
• to those who weep (verse 21), and to those are laughing (verse 25);
• to those who are hated, excluded, reviled and defamed (verse 22), and to those who are held in esteem (verse 26).
Saint Luke records the ‘poor’ without any qualification (verse 20), compared with Saint Matthew’s ‘poor in spirit’ (see Matthew 5: 3). In Jewish tradition, the poor and the hungry are not cursed or impure, but are deserving recipients of divine and earthly care (see Deuteronomy 11: 15; Isaiah 49: 10; Jeremiah 31: 25; Ezekiel 34: 29). The poor are to receive the Kingdom of God; the rich have their reward today in their comfortable lifestyles.
Those who are excluded are denied their right to worship in the Temple and in the synagogue. But in the past, the prophets – including Jeremiah – were hated, excluded, reviled and defamed (verse 23), while the people in power spoke well of the false prophets (verse 26; see Jeremiah 5: 31).
The Gospel reading this morning begins by telling us a large crowd of people came to hear Jesus and to be healed, and that those who were troubled were cured. If the same people came to our churches today – if they came to me as a priest of the church today – would they know from how we behave – from how I behave – that Jesus cares for them, that he seeks to restore them to the fullness of life?
Poverty comes in many forms today. Exclusion and marginalisation are common experiences for many in our society today.
Those who hunger and who weep are not just around us, but among us, in the Church, in our community, in this society.
If you feel you are excluded or marginalised, if you know you are hungry and you are often close to tears, do you feel the rest of us in the Church do enough to see to it that you know you are counted in when it comes to the Church being a a sign of the Kingdom of God?
If you think you are financially secure, that you have enough to eat, if you have plenty of good reason to laugh and be happy, if you know people respect you and treat you properly, do you see the rest of us in the Church as a blessing to you, as an opportunity to share your blessings, to share your joys, to share your Easter faith in the Risen Christ?
In Oscar Wilde’s satirical play, A Woman of No Importance (1893), Lord Illingworth observes wisely: ‘The only difference between the saint and the sinner is that every saint has a past, and every sinner has a future.’
In the past, the Church made Lent, and these few weeks before Lent, as a time of gloom and doom, of penitence and of sorrow.
But perhaps we ought to have also stressed that this a time to take stock again, to realign our priorities, so that we can show one another that we truly are looking forward to the Church being a living sign of our faith in the Living, Risen, Christ and in the Kingdom of God.
‘And all in the crowd were trying to touch him …’ (Luke 6: 19) … the Battle of Cable Street mural in the East End, London (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Today’s Prayers (Sunday 16 February 2025, the Third Sunday before Lent):
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 ‘The Struggle for Indigenous Land Rights in Brazil.’ This theme is introduced today with a Programme Update by the Revd Dr Rodrigo Espiúca dos Anjos Siqueira, Coordinator of the Department of Advocacy, Human, Environmental and Territorial Rights of the Anglican Diocese of Brasília. Pastor of Espírito Santo Parish, Novo Gama, Goiás:
Brazil’s Indigenous people have had their rights attacked for centuries. Not least regarding their rights to possession and ownership of ancestral lands. Since the 16th century, with the arrival of Portuguese colonisers, and in the 19th century, with the waves of immigration from Italy, Germany and Poland, the Indigenous people of Brazil have been losing more and more space due to large-scale agriculture, livestock farming and the clearing of forests and jungles. In addition, the indiscriminate use of pesticides is seriously affecting the health of Indigenous populations, especially children.
In this sense, Indigenous peoples and traditional communities (e.g. Quilombolas – Afro Brazilians, farmers, and fishermen) are clamouring for immediate and urgent action to stop the violations of their rights. The most recent violation, comes from the legislative branch itself, which with the approval of a new law, reinforces the ‘Marco Temporal’ clause, according to which only people who were occupying ancestral lands on 5 October 1988 (the date of the promulgation of the 1988 Federal Constitution) would have the right to remain and use the land. Indigenous people and traditional communities who were expelled from their ancestral lands by waves of immigration, and did not obtain official demarcation of their lands before October 1988, therefore do not have the right to occupy the land of their ancestors.
The USPG Prayer Diary today (Sunday 16 February 2025, the Third Sunday before Lent) invites us to pray reflecting on these words:
Thus says the Lord: Act with justice and righteousness, and deliver from the hand of the oppressor anyone who has been robbed. And do no wrong or violence to the alien, the orphan, and the widow, or shed innocent blood in this place (Jeremiah 22: 3).
The Collect:
Almighty God,
who alone can bring order
to the unruly wills and passions of sinful humanity:
give your people grace
so to love what you command
and to desire what you promise,
that, among the many changes of this world,
our hearts may surely there be fixed
where true joys are to be found;
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.
The Post-Communion Prayer:
Merciful Father,
who gave Jesus Christ to be for us the bread of life,
that those who come to him should never hunger:
draw us to the Lord in faith and love,
that we may eat and drink with him
at his table in the kingdom,
where he is alive and reigns, now and for ever.
Additional Collect:
Eternal God,
whose Son went among the crowds
and brought healing with his touch:
help us to show his love,
in your Church as we gather together,
and by our lives as they are transformed
into the image of Christ our Lord.
Yesterday’s Reflection
Continued Tomorrow
‘Let’s praise the organist who tries / To make the choir increase in size’ (John Betjeman) … the ‘Father Willis’ organ in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
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
We are in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar. Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent are less than three weeks away (5 March 2025), and today is the Third Sunday before Lent (16 February 2025), once known as Septuagesima.
Later this morning, I hope to sing with the choir at the Parish Eucharist in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford. Before today begins, however, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, to reflect, to pray and to read in these ways:
1, today’s Gospel reading;
2, a short reflection;
3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;
4, the Collects and Post-Communion prayer of the day.
‘Power came out of him and he healed them’ (Luke 6: 19) … the chapel in Dr Milley’s Hospital, Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Luke 6: 17-26 (NRSVA):
17 He came down with them and stood on a level place, with a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea, Jerusalem, and the coast of Tyre and Sidon. 18 They had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases; and those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured. 19 And all in the crowd were trying to touch him, for power came out from him and healed all of them.
20 Then he looked up at his disciples and said:
‘Blessed are you who are poor,
for yours is the kingdom of God.
21 ‘Blessed are you who are hungry now,
for you will be filled.
‘Blessed are you who weep now,
for you will laugh.
22 ‘Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man. 23 Rejoice on that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven; for that is what their ancestors did to the prophets.
24 ‘But woe to you who are rich,
for you have received your consolation.
25 ‘Woe to you who are full now,
for you will be hungry.
‘Woe to you who are laughing now,
for you will mourn and weep.
26 ‘Woe to you when all speak well of you, for that is what their ancestors did to the false prophets.
‘They had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases’ (Luke 6: 18) (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Today’s Reflection:
Septuagesima, by John Betjeman:
Septuagesima—seventy days
To Easter’s primrose tide of praise;
The Gesimas—Septua, Sexa, Quinc
Mean Lent is near, which makes you think.
Septuagesima—when we’re told
To “run the race,” to “keep our hold,”
Ignore injustice, not give in, and practice stern self-discipline;
A somewhat unattractive time
Which hardly lends itself to rhyme.
But still it gives the chance to me
To praise our dear old C. of E.
So other churches please forgive
Lines on the church in which I live,
The Church of England of my birth,
The kindest church to me on Earth.
There may be those who like things fully
Argued out, and call you “woolly”;
Ignoring Creeds and Catechism
They say the C. of E.’s “in schism.”
There may be those who much resent
Priest, Liturgy, and Sacrament,
Whose worship is what they call “free,”
Well, let them be so, but for me
There’s refuge in the C. of E.
And when it comes that I must die
I hope the Vicar’s standing by,
I won’t care if he’s “Low” or “High”
For he’ll be there to aid my soul
On that dread journey to its goal,
With Sacrament and prayer and Blessing
After I’ve done my last confessing.
And at that time may I receive
The Grace most firmly to believe,
For if the Christian’s Faith’s untrue
What is the point of me and you?
But this is all anticipating
Septuagesima—time of waiting,
Running the race or holding fast.
Let’s praise the man who goes to light
The church stove on an icy night.
Let’s praise that hard-worked he or she
The Treasurer of the P.C.C.
Let’s praise the cleaner of the aisles,
The nave and candlesticks and tiles.
Let’s praise the organist who tries
To make the choir increase in size,
Or if that simply cannot be,
Just to improve its quality.
Let’s praise the ringers in the tower
Who come to ring in cold and shower.
But most of all let’s praise the few
Who are seen in their accustomed pew
Throughout the year, whate’er the weather,
That they may worship God together.
These, like a fire of glowing coals,
Strike warmth into each other’s souls,
And though they be but two or three
They keep the church for you and me.
These few weeks before Lent are seen in the Church as a time for preparation, a time to get ready, a time to think and reflect before we move into Lent itself.
I remember how this Sunday, the Third Sunday before Lent, was once known as Septuagesima. These Latin names were a reminder that Lent is just around the corner. But, of course, Lent itself is a reminder too that Holy Week and Easter are just around the corner – a reminder to prepare for Good Friday and Easter Day, to get ready for the Crucifixion and the Resurrection.
The Gospel reading this morning (Luke 6: 17-26), therefore, tells us what this faith should look like to the outsider. Saint Luke’s version of the ‘Sermon on the Mount’ sets out what our Christian faith, our faith in the Risen Christ, should look like to everyone else.
Saint Luke presents a set of contrasts between the two sets of people, although those who first heard this must have been surprised by who fits into which category.
Christ has ascended a mountain to pray. While there, he has chosen twelve of his disciples. Now he descends the mountain as far as a level place. Here he finds a large number of people, including other followers, as well as many Jews (‘people from all Judea and Jerusalem’) and many Gentiles (‘people from … the coast of Tyre and Sidon’). They come to hear and to be healed – they are here in mind and body, expecting their spiritual and their physical needs to be met.
Many are healed, so they realise in their own bodies that they have been restored to their rightful place in the Kingdom of God: those who were once regarded as unclean now have a place in the religious and worshipping community.
Saint Luke then narrates his account of the ‘Sermon on the Mount’ (verses 20-26). Here he tells of four beatitudes and four corresponding woes or warnings. It is a form of blessing that we have heard in the psalm (Psalm 1).
The word blessed (Greek μακαριοι, makarioi) also means ‘happy’ or ‘fortunate.’
Some are blessed, happy, fortunate to be included in the Kingdom of God, others are warned of the consequences of their choices in life.
The paired blessings and warnings are:
• to the poor (verse 20), and to the rich (verse 24);
• to the hungry (verse 21), and to the ‘full’ (verse 25a);
• to those who weep (verse 21), and to those are laughing (verse 25);
• to those who are hated, excluded, reviled and defamed (verse 22), and to those who are held in esteem (verse 26).
Saint Luke records the ‘poor’ without any qualification (verse 20), compared with Saint Matthew’s ‘poor in spirit’ (see Matthew 5: 3). In Jewish tradition, the poor and the hungry are not cursed or impure, but are deserving recipients of divine and earthly care (see Deuteronomy 11: 15; Isaiah 49: 10; Jeremiah 31: 25; Ezekiel 34: 29). The poor are to receive the Kingdom of God; the rich have their reward today in their comfortable lifestyles.
Those who are excluded are denied their right to worship in the Temple and in the synagogue. But in the past, the prophets – including Jeremiah – were hated, excluded, reviled and defamed (verse 23), while the people in power spoke well of the false prophets (verse 26; see Jeremiah 5: 31).
The Gospel reading this morning begins by telling us a large crowd of people came to hear Jesus and to be healed, and that those who were troubled were cured. If the same people came to our churches today – if they came to me as a priest of the church today – would they know from how we behave – from how I behave – that Jesus cares for them, that he seeks to restore them to the fullness of life?
Poverty comes in many forms today. Exclusion and marginalisation are common experiences for many in our society today.
Those who hunger and who weep are not just around us, but among us, in the Church, in our community, in this society.
If you feel you are excluded or marginalised, if you know you are hungry and you are often close to tears, do you feel the rest of us in the Church do enough to see to it that you know you are counted in when it comes to the Church being a a sign of the Kingdom of God?
If you think you are financially secure, that you have enough to eat, if you have plenty of good reason to laugh and be happy, if you know people respect you and treat you properly, do you see the rest of us in the Church as a blessing to you, as an opportunity to share your blessings, to share your joys, to share your Easter faith in the Risen Christ?
In Oscar Wilde’s satirical play, A Woman of No Importance (1893), Lord Illingworth observes wisely: ‘The only difference between the saint and the sinner is that every saint has a past, and every sinner has a future.’
In the past, the Church made Lent, and these few weeks before Lent, as a time of gloom and doom, of penitence and of sorrow.
But perhaps we ought to have also stressed that this a time to take stock again, to realign our priorities, so that we can show one another that we truly are looking forward to the Church being a living sign of our faith in the Living, Risen, Christ and in the Kingdom of God.
‘And all in the crowd were trying to touch him …’ (Luke 6: 19) … the Battle of Cable Street mural in the East End, London (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Today’s Prayers (Sunday 16 February 2025, the Third Sunday before Lent):
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 ‘The Struggle for Indigenous Land Rights in Brazil.’ This theme is introduced today with a Programme Update by the Revd Dr Rodrigo Espiúca dos Anjos Siqueira, Coordinator of the Department of Advocacy, Human, Environmental and Territorial Rights of the Anglican Diocese of Brasília. Pastor of Espírito Santo Parish, Novo Gama, Goiás:
Brazil’s Indigenous people have had their rights attacked for centuries. Not least regarding their rights to possession and ownership of ancestral lands. Since the 16th century, with the arrival of Portuguese colonisers, and in the 19th century, with the waves of immigration from Italy, Germany and Poland, the Indigenous people of Brazil have been losing more and more space due to large-scale agriculture, livestock farming and the clearing of forests and jungles. In addition, the indiscriminate use of pesticides is seriously affecting the health of Indigenous populations, especially children.
In this sense, Indigenous peoples and traditional communities (e.g. Quilombolas – Afro Brazilians, farmers, and fishermen) are clamouring for immediate and urgent action to stop the violations of their rights. The most recent violation, comes from the legislative branch itself, which with the approval of a new law, reinforces the ‘Marco Temporal’ clause, according to which only people who were occupying ancestral lands on 5 October 1988 (the date of the promulgation of the 1988 Federal Constitution) would have the right to remain and use the land. Indigenous people and traditional communities who were expelled from their ancestral lands by waves of immigration, and did not obtain official demarcation of their lands before October 1988, therefore do not have the right to occupy the land of their ancestors.
The USPG Prayer Diary today (Sunday 16 February 2025, the Third Sunday before Lent) invites us to pray reflecting on these words:
Thus says the Lord: Act with justice and righteousness, and deliver from the hand of the oppressor anyone who has been robbed. And do no wrong or violence to the alien, the orphan, and the widow, or shed innocent blood in this place (Jeremiah 22: 3).
The Collect:
Almighty God,
who alone can bring order
to the unruly wills and passions of sinful humanity:
give your people grace
so to love what you command
and to desire what you promise,
that, among the many changes of this world,
our hearts may surely there be fixed
where true joys are to be found;
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.
The Post-Communion Prayer:
Merciful Father,
who gave Jesus Christ to be for us the bread of life,
that those who come to him should never hunger:
draw us to the Lord in faith and love,
that we may eat and drink with him
at his table in the kingdom,
where he is alive and reigns, now and for ever.
Additional Collect:
Eternal God,
whose Son went among the crowds
and brought healing with his touch:
help us to show his love,
in your Church as we gather together,
and by our lives as they are transformed
into the image of Christ our Lord.
Yesterday’s Reflection
Continued Tomorrow
‘Let’s praise the organist who tries / To make the choir increase in size’ (John Betjeman) … the ‘Father Willis’ organ in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
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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