Daily prayer in Easter 2026: 42, Saturday 16 May 2026

‘Ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be complete’ (John 16: 24) … in There Are No Silly Questions, Mike Rampton asks more than 200 of the questions that children take joy in asking

Patrick Comerford

Easter is a 50-day season, beginning on Easter Day (5 April 2026) and continuing until the Day of Pentecost (24 May 2026), or Whit Sunday. This week began with the Sixth Sunday of Easter (Easter VI, 10 May 2026), and Thursday was Ascension Day (14 May 2026). Tomorrow is the Seventh Sunday of Easter (Easter VII, 17 May 2026), an ‘in-between’ day, between Ascension Day and the Day of Pentecost, a day that could be full of questions and waiting.

Today, the calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship remembers the life and work of the social reformer Caroline Chisholm (1808-1877). Before today begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, to reflect, to pray and to read in these ways:

1, reading 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.

‘Ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be complete’ (John 16: 24) … Ask Italian restaurant on Bird Street, Lichfield, at night (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

John 16: 23-28 (NRSVA):

[Jesus said:] 23 ‘On that day you will ask nothing of me. Very truly, I tell you, if you ask anything of the Father in my name, he will give it to you. 24 Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be complete.

25 ‘I have said these things to you in figures of speech. The hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figures, but will tell you plainly of the Father. 26 On that day you will ask in my name. I do not say to you that I will ask the Father on your behalf; 27 for the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God. 28 I came from the Father and have come into the world; again, I am leaving the world and am going to the Father.’

‘Curiosity is one of the permanent and certain characteristics of a vigorous intellect’ … a quotation from Samuel Johnson in a bookshop in Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflections:

Have you ever wondered … If dinosaurs sneezed? How long it would take to run around the world? If moths like light so much, why do they only come out at night?

In his book There Are No Silly Questions (Nosy Crow, 2024), Mike Rampton, who was speaking at the Cambridge Literary Festival last month (25 April 2026), asks more than 200 of those questions children take joy in asking, and asks world-leading experts at the University of Cambridge for the answers. His questions range from science, maths and zoology to history, art, and sports, and the answers he gets are brought to life with illustrations by Guilherme Karsten.

Children are naturally curious. As Samuel Johnson once wrote, ‘Curiosity is one of the permanent and certain characteristics of a vigorous intellect’. Children are fascinated by the world around them and they often ask questions that to adults may seem silly or abstract. But their questions are anything but silly. Instead, they lead to valuable explanations of real science, history, sociology and more, and they help adults and experts to put complex ideas into contexts that relate to a child’s own experiences and interests.

Children want answers. They want to know the why and how of the world and things as they see them and experience them.

We should never be inhibited about or afraid about asking about the whys and hows of the world, of faith and of God. Even if we never find the answers, I am sure God delights in our childlike curiosity about him and the world around us. Indeed, I am sure God is big enough for all our questions (and even our doubts. No question, no doubt, is too great or too silly for God to grumble about, or to dismiss as silly, still less as childish. We are free to ask God questions because, for no other reason than, God is God.

Jesus asks questions too – more 300 questions throughout the Gospels – and he often answers questions with yet another question: But who do you say that I am? (Matthew 16: 15) … What do you want? (see Matthew 20: 21) … Do you not yet understand? (Matthew 16: 9; Mark 8: 21) … Where is your faith? (Luke 8: 25) … My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? (Matthew 27: 46) …

Jesus asks questions of his disciples, his followers, others, himself, even the Father … in the Garden, in the night, alone … on the Cross.

In the short Gospel reading today (John 16: 23-28), which continues the readings from the ‘Farewell Discourse’ in Saint John’s Gospel, in just six verses Jesus refers to asking six times, to the world or rather the created order or cosmos (κόσμος) twice, to the day and the hour once each, to love (φῐλέω, phĭléō) twice, and to faith (ōπιστεύω, pisteu) once.

The words translated as ask or asked refer to two different concepts. The word ἐρωτάω (erotao) and its variants verses 23, ἐρωτήσετε; verse 26, ἐρωτήσω) is a Koine Greek verb that appears frequently in the New Testament and that primarily means to ask, to question, or to inquire. It is a word we use to request or to seek information, to ask a question to gain knowledge or to inquire about something, when we are questioning someone directly.

A separate word in this reading is αἰτέω (aiteo), used when we are making a request. It specifically means to ask for a favour, to request something, to petition or to beg.

In this short reading, questioning – whether asking about something or asking for something – is directly related to faith and to the needs of the world.

The word πεπιστεύκατε (have believed) comes from πιστεύω (pisteuō), the Greek verb for ‘I believe’, ‘I have faith’, or ‘I trust’. It is derived from the noun πίστις (pistis, faith) and the adjective πιστός (pistos, faithful, or trustworthy).

The word appears 241 times in the New Testament, It can mean ‘belief that’ (intellectual assent) or ‘faith in’ (trust or allegiance), with the context defining the depth of the belief. But in the Koine Greek of the New Testament, it carries a much deeper meaning than merely agreeing with a fact intellectually. It implies active trust, reliance and placing one’s confidence in a person or thing, rather than mere passive belief.

When I ask God questions about war and peace, justice, hatred and racism, about oppression, violence and human rights, I am not asking questions to try to test God; I am simply asking to know him and his heart for humanity more deeply.

Questioning does not challenge faith; rather it strengthens faith, especially when our questions and requests are asked in love and for the sake of the world, the cosmos, the whole created order.

When we have faith, we must keep asking questions, for the sake of the world and for the sake of those Christ calls us to love. The Brazilian Franciscan, Dom Hélder Pessoa Câmara (1909-1999), who was Archbishop of Olinda and Recife (1964-1985), once said: ‘When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why they are poor, they call me a communist.’

There are no silly questions. We must keep asking questions about justice, about war and peace, about the poor, the hungry and the victims of violence, oppression and hatred, about the environment, about the world or the cosmos, for Christ’s sake, for the sake of the children, for the sake of those Christ calls us to love, for the sake of God’s whole created order.

Christ is risen!
The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia!

‘Very truly, I tell you, if you ask anything of the Father in my name, he will give it to you’ (John 16: 23) … candles in prayer in Lichfield Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Saturday 16 May 2026):

The theme this week (10-16 May 2026) in ‘Pray With the World Church’, the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel) has been ‘Parenting with Purpose’ (pp 54-55). This theme was introduced last Sunday with a Programme Update from Ella Sibley, former Regional Manager for Europe and Oceania.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Saturday 16 May 2026) invites us to pray:

Heavenly Father, we give thanks for USPG’s partnership with the Anglican Church of Melanesia. Bless this collaboration with wisdom, patience and vision.

The Collect:

O God the King of glory,
you have exalted your only Son Jesus Christ
with great triumph to your kingdom in heaven:
we beseech you, leave us not comfortless,
but send your Holy Spirit to strengthen us
and exalt us to the place where our Saviour Christ is gone before,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post Communion Prayer:

Eternal God, giver of love and power,
your Son Jesus Christ has sent us into all the world
to preach the gospel of his kingdom:
confirm us in this mission,
and help us to live the good news we proclaim;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

Risen, ascended Lord,
as we rejoice at your triumph,
fill your Church on earth with power and compassion,
that all who are estranged by sin
may find forgiveness and know your peace,
to the glory of God the Father.

Yesterday’s Reflections

Continued Tomorrow

Children are naturally curious and fascinated by the world around them and they often ask questions that adults may see as silly or abstract … a detail in the window in the Comberford Chapel in Saint Editha’s Church, Tamworth (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

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

33 million visitors to Paris, 33 million trapped in Sudan, 33 million books in a library, and 33 million blog readers

Les Deux Magots, the celebrated literary café and restaurant at Place Saint-Germain-des-Prés in Paris … Paris has 33 million visitors a year (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

The viewing and reading figures for this blog continue to surprise me. These figures have passed the million mark three times this month, reaching the 33 million mark this evening (25 April 2026), having reached 32 million at the beginning of this week (19 April 2026) and 31 million earlier this month (8 April 2026).

This blog had already passed the million figure in readership numbers five times last month, reaching the 30 million mark by 29 March, 29 million four days earlier (25 March), 28 million on 20 March, 27 million on 12 March, and 26 million at the beginning of that month (1 March). The number of hits on two days last month were the highest daily figures I have ever recorded: 323,156 on 27 March 2026 and 318,307 on 1 March.

This year so far has seen a phenomenal amount of traffic on this blog, and continues to reach a volume of readers that I could never have expected when I first started blogging 16 years ago. Half the total hits (16.5 million) have been within little more than seven months, since 19 September 2025. The total hits last month were the highest monthly total ever (4,523,648), following the previous month’s record total of 3,386,504 in February 2026.

At the end of last year, this blog had 21 million hits (31 December 2025). So far this year, there have been more than 12 million hits or visitors in 2026, with about 2.5 million hits so far in April.

I first began blogging in 2010, and it took almost two years until July 2012 to reach half a million readers. Throughout this year and last, the daily figures continue to be overwhelming on many occasions. Of the 12 days of busiest traffic on this blog, two were this month (18 and 22 April 2026), five were last month, three were in February, one was in January, and two were in January 2025:

• 323,156 (27 March 2026)
• 318,307 (1 March 2026)
• 314,018 (28 February 2026)
• 301,449 (2 March 2026)
• 289,076 (11 January 2025)
• 285,366 (12 January 2025)

• 280,802 (26 February 2026)
• 273,022 (27 February 2026)
• 270,983 (25 March 2026)
• 267,134 (22 April 2026)
• 261,422 (13 January 2026)
• 256,384 (18 April 2026)

The number of readers continues to be overpowering and the daily averages are running at 100,000 or more hits a day so far this month. Ten years ago, the daily average was around 1,000.

More than 33 million people are trapped in Sudan in the largest humanitarian crisis in the world (Photograph: Medecins Sans Frontieres)

To put today’s figure of 33 million in context:

About 33 million people visit Paris each year.

More than 33 million people are trapped in Sudan in what Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) describes as the largest humanitarian crisis in the world. More than 33 million people now require assistance, while nearly half the population faces acute food insecurity.

The metropolitan area of Tokyo in Japan has a population of about 33 million, making it the world’s third most populous megapolis, after Jakarta in Indonesia with 42 million people and Dhaka in Bangladesh with 37 million.

More than 33 million people were affected by floods in Pakistan in September 2022, and more than 1,700 people died, including more than 400 children.

33 million people in the US live with food allergies – 1 in 10 adults and 1 in 15 children.

The biggest library in the world is the Library of Congress in Washington DC with 33 million volumes of books … the world could be a little safer, I imagine, if the present incumbent of the White House had read even a tiny number of books

33 million square metres is 33,000 sq km and 33 million metres is 33,000 km.

Hainan Island in China is 33,000 sq km and is the 42nd largest island in the world. It was one of the last Nationalist strongholds to be taken over by the Communists in 1950. This is also size of the Odess oblast in Ukraine and the extent of Lake Tanganyika Lake i between Tanzania, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Burundi and Zambia and second deepest lake in the world.

Giorgio Fouarge became the first man to travel around the world on a wooden bike. On his epic journey, Giorgio cycled over 33,000 km, across four continents and through 31 countries in 378 days. He has documented his journey in his book 33,000 km on a piece of wood.

Astronomers last year uncovered record-breaking supersonic winds on exoplanet WASP-127b, with speeds reaching up to 33,000 km per hour. This marks the first time such high-speed winds have been measured on a planet outside our solar system, setting a new record for the fastest jet stream winds observed on any planet.

WASP-127b is approximately 520 light years from Earth in the Milky Way galaxy. The jet streams on WASP-127b move almost six times faster than the planet rotates, reaching speeds of 9 km per second, approximately 33,000 km per hour.

33 million minutes is about 62 years, 9 months and 12 days. In other words, if this blog was getting only one hit a minute, it would take almost 63 years, from July 1963, to reach today’s latest figure of 33 million.

It is now more than four years since I retired from active parish ministry on 30 March 2022. These days, though, about 120-140 people on average are reading my daily prayer diary posted on this blog each morning. A similar number are reading my current series of postings on churches in the Rugeley and Stafford areas, and were reading my recent series of postings on the churches and chapels of Walsingham. I imagine many of my priest-colleagues would be prayerfully thankful if the congregations in their churches totalled 800-1,000 or more people each week.

This evening, I am very grateful to the real readers among those 33 million hits on this blog to date, and in particular I remain thankful to the faithful core group of about 100-120 people who join me in prayer, reading and reflections each day.

The biggest library in the world is the Library of Congress in Washington DC with 33 million volumes of books … how many have been read by Donald Trump? (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Peter Walker’s sculpture of Izaak Walton in Stafford and the missing rod of the ‘Compleat Angler’

Peter Walker’s statue of Izaak Walton on the banks of the River Sow in Victoria Park, Stafford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Patrick Comerford

The sculptor and artist Peter Walker’s work can be seen in towns, cities and cathedrals throughout England and around the world. His art includes large-scale sculptures, commissioned and bespoke sculptural works, as well as paintings, drawings, film, and sound and light installations.

He has had a major impact in recent decades on Lichfield and Lichfield Cathedral, and is singularly responsible for transforming Lichfield into the City of Sculpture. I often take the opportunity to appreciate another aspect of his sculpture and work in Lichfield, where he has undertaken, developed and commissioned artistic projects since 2006.

When I was in Stafford earlier this week, I saw his one of Peter Walker’s earlier works. His statue of Izaak Walton (1593-1683) stands on the banks of the River Sow in Victoria Park, close to Stafford Station, and was made as part of a millennium project in 2000.

Izaak Walton, best-known for The Compleat Angler (1653), was born in Stafford in 1593 and baptised in Saint Mary’s Church, Stafford, on 21 September 1593. He left Stafford in his teens to serve an apprenticeship in London, and by 1624 he was running a linen and drapery shop in the city. He lived in Chancery Lane, which gave him access to the River Thames and River Lea to go fishing.

Walton was related by marriage to both Archbishop Thomas Cranmer and the nonjuror Bishop Thomas Ken. He got to know the poet-priest John Donne while the future Dean of Saint Paul’s was the vicar of Saint Dunstan-in-the-West Church, Fleet Street, and Walton was a churchwarden and vestry member there in 1632-1644.

As a strong supporter of both the Anglican church and the Royalist cause during the Civil War, Walton was forced to sell his business following the Royalist defeat at Marston Moor in 1644 and move from the Parliamentarian-controlled City of London to Clerkenwell.

Walton also returned to his home county of Staffordshire, and bought Halfhead Farm in Shallowford, five miles outside Stafford, in 1655. He regularly visited his friends in Staffordshire, including Charles Cotton of Beresford Dale on the banks of the River Dove, and I first got know of him and his works in my late teens when I visited Dovedale and stayed at Ilam Hall.

The restoration of the monarchy in 1660 brought new roles for Walton. Bishop George Morley appointed him as his steward first in Worcester and later in Winchester. He died in Winchester on 15 December 1683 at the age of 90.

Walton wrote a biography of the priest-poet John Donne in 1640, and later published biographies of Richard Hooker (1665) and George Herbert (1670). These books earned him a place in Anglican theology and church history, although he is best known for The Compleat Angler, first published in 1653. It was not just a guide to fishing but also offered a window into life in 17th century England, particularly during the English Civil War. It secured Walton’s place in literary history, and became one of the most reprinted books in the world. His friend Cotton wrote a supplement on fly fishing for the final edition of The Compleat Angler.

In The Compleat Angler, Walton points out that fishing can teach us patience and discipline. Fishing takes practice, preparation, discipline; like discipleship, it has to be learned, and learning requires practice before there are any results. And sometimes, the best results can come from going against the current.

Izaak Walton, best-known for The Compleat Angler (1653), was born in Stafford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Peter Walker was a student at Stafford College and his sculpture of Izaak Walton in Victoria Park was cast in 2000 by Morris Singer Art Foundry, founded in 1927. The statue was presented to the town by the Staffordshire Newsletter to mark the Secon Millennium, and was funded by staff and readers of the Staffordshire Newsletter, with support from Staffordshire County Council’s Public Art Fund. It was unveiled by the newspaper proprietor Lord Illife on 5 September 2000.

Victoria Park in the centre of Stafford is close to Saint Mary’s Church, the High House on Greengate and the train station, with the River Sow, a tributary of the Trent, running through the park.

Izaak Walton Walk was developed in the 1880s as part of Stafford Corporation’s river improvement scheme. Seats and railings were put in place, and trees were added around 1900 to improve the appearance of what was a marshy area prone to flooding.

The corporation bought the land In 1903 and raised its level by 3 ft. The area was laid out as Victoria Park, the bandstand was moved to the park from Market Square. The park was created by T Fobbs & Co of Wolverhampton and opened on 15 June 1908.

Peter Walker’s bronze sculpture of Izaak Walton was unveiled on 5 September 2000. A quarter of a century later it is one of only a handful of survivors from Statues in the Park, planned then as a millennial sculpture walk. The life-size figure originally originally held a sculpted fishing rod but this has since been removed. The missing rod is replaced on occasion by a real fly rod – appropriate, I suppose for a writer best remembered for The Compleat Angler.

The half-timbered cottage where Walton lived in Shallowford is now maintained by Stafford Borough Council as a museum. There is a wall tablet to Walton in Saint Mary’s Church, Stafford, where he was baptised, with a marble bust in the north aisle. The bust was created by RC Bett in 1878 after a public fundraising drive.

I was back in Stafford this week hoping to see inside Saint Mary’s, thinking there was a mid-day celebration of the Eucharist there on Tuesdays. However, I had not counted on the town centre parish church being closed after all the busy-ness of Holy Week and Easter.

I never got to see the monument to Izaak Walton in the church. But more about Saint Mary’s Church tomorrow, hopefully, and more in the days to come about some of the other places I visited in Stafford, Wolseley and Rugeley this week.

The River Sow and Victoria Park, Stafford, with Peter Walker’s sculpture of Izaak Walton to the right, on the river bank (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

The ‘30 million-word-gap’, $30 million for the rich few, 30 million tourists in Greece, and 30 million blog readers

Professor Dana Suskind, the founder and director of the Thirty Million Words Initiative … this blog had an accumulated a total of 30 million hits by late yesterday afternoon

Patrick Comerford

The viewing and reading figures for this blog continue to surprise me, and these figures passed the 30 million mark by lunchtime this afternoon (29 March 2026).

This is the fifth time this month alone that the million figure in readership numbers has been passed: 29 million four days ago (25 March), 28 million on 20 March, 27 million on 12 March, and 26 million at the beginning of the month (1 March). The number of hits on two days this month have been the highest daily figures I have ever recorded: 323,156 on Friday (27 March 2026) and 318,307 on 1 March.

This year so far has seen a phenomenal amount of traffic on this blog, reaching a volume of readers that I never have expected when I first started blogging 16 years ago. Half the total hits (15 million) have been within little more than eight months, since 25 July 2025. The total hits last month (February 2026) had been the highest monthly total ever (3,386,504), but that figure has already been outpaced this month, with a total of over 4.2 million by early this afternoon.

At the end of last year, this blog had 21 million hits (31 December 2025). So far this year, there have been more than 9 million hits or visitors in 2026.

I first began blogging in 2010, and it took almost two years until July 2012 to reach half a million readers – a number reached eight times this month alone. Half of the 29.5 million hits have been within the last nine or ten months, since mid-July.

Throughout this year and last, the daily figures have been overwhelming on many occasions. Of the 12 days of busiest traffic on this blog, six were this month (March), three were in February, one was in January, and two were in January 2025:

• 323,156 (27 March 2026)
• 318,307 (1 March 2026)
• 314,018 (28 February 2026)
• 301,449 (2 March 2026)
• 289,076 (11 January 2025)
• 285,366 (12 January 2025)

• 280,802 (26 February 2026)
• 273,022 (27 February 2026)
• 270,983 (25 March 2026)
• 261,422 (13 January 2026)
• 234,737 (26 March 2026)
• 228,931 (18 March 2026)

The number of readers continues to be overpowering and the daily averages are currently running at almost 145,000 hits a day so far this month. Ten years ago, the daily average was around 1,000.

The west façade of the cathedral in Santiago de Compostela … Galicia in Spain covers 30 million square metres or 30,000 sq km (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

To put today’s figure of 30 million in context:

In her book Thirty Million Words: Building a Child’s Brain, Professor Dana Suskind, the founder and director of the Thirty Million Words Initiative, explains why the most important yet simple thing a parent can do for a child’s future success in life is to talk to him or her. Her book, first published in 2015, looks at the recent science behind this truth, and outlines how parents can best put it into practice.

She argues that academic achievement begins on the first day of life with the first word said by a mother just after birth.

A study by Betty Hart and Todd Risley in 1995 found that some children heard 30 million fewer words by their fourth birthdays than others. The children who heard more words were better prepared when they entered school. These same children, when followed into third grade, had bigger vocabularies, were stronger readers, and got higher test scores. This disparity in learning is referred to as the achievement gap.

Professor Dana Suskind learned of this 30 million word gap in the course of her work as a cochlear implant surgeon at University of Chicago Medical School and began a new research programme along with her sister-in-law, Beth Suskind, to find the best ways to bridge that gap.

The Thirty Million Word Initiative has developed programmes for parents to show the kind of parent-child communications that enables optimal neural development and has tested the programmes in and around Chicago across demographic groups.

They encourage parents to follow the three Ts:

• Tune in to what the child is doing;

• Talk more to the child using lots of descriptive words;

• Take turns with your child as you engage in conversation.

She shows parents how to make the words they serve up more enriching. For example, instead of telling a child, ‘Put your shoes on,’ one might say instead, ‘It is time to go out. What do we have to do?’ The lab’s five-year longitudinal research programme received funding so they can further corroborate their results.

The neuroscience of brain plasticity could contribute to some of the valuable and revolutionary research in medical science today. It enables us to think and do better and is making a difference in the lives of people both the old and young.

The term ‘30-million-word gap’, often shortened to ‘word gap’, was originally coined by Betty Hart and Todd R Risley in their book Meaningful Differences in the Everyday Experience of Young American Children and later reprinted in the paper ‘The Early Catastrophe: The 30 Million Word Gap by Age 3’. In their study of 42 Midwestern families in the US, Hart and Risley recorded an hour’s worth of language in each home once a month over 2½ years.

Prior to the 30-million-word-gap study, extensive research had noted strong institutional variation in student success on standardised tests. Sperry, Sperry, and Miller (2018) replicated Hart and Risley's study and found that the number of word gaps varied within the same backgrounds of socioeconomic status. Garcia and Otheguy (2016) were interested in the origins and validity of the Language Gap, and how the preconceptions of it impact bilingual and bidialectical children, specifically from Latino and Black backgrounds.

Hart and Risley’s research has been criticised by scholars. Paul Nation criticises the methodology, noting that comparing the tokens (words produced) and number of types (number of different words) in unequal samples is not comparing vocabulary sizes. Other critics theorise that the language and achievement gaps are not a result of the amount of words a child is exposed to, but rather alternative theories suggest it could derive from the disconnect of linguistic practices between home and school.

A recent replication of Hart and Risley’s study with more participants has found that the ‘word gap’ may be closer to 4 million words, not the oft-cited 30 million words previously proposed. Hart and Risley’s research has also been criticised for a perceived racial bias, with the majority of the welfare families and working-class families being African American, or that it ignores the fact that language and culture are taught differently.

Nonetheless, the 30-million-word gap has received widespread attention. The Clinton foundation’s ‘Too Small to Fail’ initiative which hosted the White House Word Gap event in 2014, resulted in the US Department of Health and Human services funding remedial efforts to address the Word Gap.

The University of Chicago, School of Medicine's Thirty Million Words Initiative provides intervention for caregivers and teaches to show them how to optimise their talk with their children. The Word Gap theory can be seen as part of a larger development in modern educational reform and movement: the Achievement Gap discourse.

The effects of the Achievement Gap Discourse cause several cultural phenomena – ‘cultural gate-keeping’, in which policy makers and education reformers decide and label students as more or less capable and worthy than others. The achievement gap became an especially strong interest for study at the turn of the century, and the early 2000s when a plethora of studies looked at factors such as standardised test scores, presence in class, GPA, enrolment, and dropout rates in secondary and post-secondary education.

The Oxford Word Gap is used to describe the word gap found between ethnic groups and socioeconomic classes in the UK.

Meanwhile, in other measurements, according to the 2024 Knight Frank Wealth Report, there are about 225,000 individuals in the US with net assets of $30 million or more, just 0.07% of the population. Yet, about a third of Americans cannot cover a $500 emergency, and more than 11% – almost 38 million people – live in poverty in the US. Meanwhile, a tiny fraction of individuals control more wealth than entire nations.

This imbalance destabilises democracy, distorts our economy, and limits human potential. A recent report in Time magazine points out that far from expanding opportunity, this excessive wealth locks millions out of the chance to innovate and build, weakening growth for all. The report says a simple wealth tax of 50% annually on household wealth above $30 million would not dismantle ambition. Instead, it would convert excessive wealth for the very few into opportunity for all.

Countries with populations of about 30 million people include the Ivory Coast and Nepal. Greece is one of the world's most popular tourist destinations – more than 30 million visitors travel there every year. But a report by ABC in Australia last month suggests the population of Greece is in freefall, with predictions it will drop by 20 per cent by 2050.

30 million square metres is 30,000 sq km, or the size of Lesotho, a country that is landlocked in Southern Africa and the largest of only three sovereign enclaves in the world, the others being San Marino and Vatican City, which are surrounded by Italy. It is also the approximate size of Armenia and of Galicia in Spain and Normandy in France.

30 million minutes is 57 years and 14 days. In other words, if this blog was getting only one hit a minute, it would take 57 years, from March 1969, to reach this latest figure of 30 million.

It is four years since I retired from active parish ministry on 30 March 2022. These days, though, about 100-120 people on average are reading my daily prayer diary posted on this blog each morning. A similar number have been reading my recent series of postings on the churches and chapels of Walsingham over the past two weeks. I imagine many of my priest-colleagues would be prayerfully thankful if the congregations in their churches totalled 700-800 or more people each week.

This afternoon, I am very grateful to the real readers among those 30 million hits on this blog to date, and in particular I remain thankful to the faithful core group of about 100-120 people who join me in prayer, reading and reflections each day.

Greece has more than 30 million visitors travel there every year, but an Australian news report suggests the population of Greece will drop by 20 per cent by 2050 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

A book launch in Prague links the Comerford family with Walter Devereux and the murder of Wallenstein

The Czech artist Josef Ryzec has spent decades seeking to prove a 400-year tradition in his family that they are descended from Walter Devereux

Patrick Comerford

This two-week visit to Kuching means I never even began to consider going to Prague for the launch of a new book that mentions several times for my genealogical research on the Comerford family and that includes several photographs of me.

My Irish-Norman Ancestor is a new book by Josef Ryzec, that has been adapted to English by Sean O’Sullivan from Dublin, edited by Louise Kelleher and published by the Wild Geese Historical Society of Czechia. It is being launched in the Irish Embassy in Prague this evening (25 February 2025) by Alan Gibbons, who has been the Irish ambassador to Prague for the past three years

The Irish embassy in the Wratislaw Palace in Prague is close to Charles Bridge, at the heart of the city’s historic Malá Strana (Lesser Town). This evening’s launch of Josef Ryzec’s book also marks the anniversary of the assassination of Albrecht von Wallenstein on 25 February 1634, a pivotal moment in the Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648).

The Thirty Years War, ostensibly beginning as a religious one, engaged nearly every European country in one way or another. The major forces involved were Sweden, supported by France, and the Hapsburg Empire, and the brunt was borne mainly by the German provinces and the Czech lands.

Wallenstein wasthe successful commander of the Austrian army, with several significant military victories. By December 1633, however, he was hoping to link up with the Swedes under Prince Bernhard. Colonel Walter Butler (1600-1634) of Ballinakill Castle, Roscrea, a direct descendant of James Butler, 3rd Earl of Ormond, was the commander of a regiment of Irish dragoons, remained loyal to the Habsburg Emperor. At the imperial command, Butler and two Scots colonels, Walter Leslie and John Gordon, plotted to get rid of Wallenstein.

Wallenstein’s trusted inner circle were invited to a feast at Eger Castle, where Butler’s kinsman, Captain Walter Devereux (1615) from Co Wexford, killed the traitorous general. The room were Devereux disposed of Wallenstein remains in the castle, now the Cheb Museum.

Butler died the following year and Devereux succeeded him as colonel of the regiment. He was rewarded for his deed with a confiscated estate and remained in the Czech lands. His brother had inherited the Devereux family castle at Balmagyr in Co Wexford and there was nothing to return to in Ireland.

The murder is described in a contemporary account by an Irish priest, FatherThomas Carew, who was a chaplain to both Butler and Devereux in the imperial army. It is also the subject of Schiller’s The Death of Wallenstein, one of a trilogy of plays about the general that holds a place in German culture akin to that of Shakespeare’s history plays.

Many historians of central Europe is regard Walter Devereux as a murderous mercenary, a drunk and a gambler. His son, or grandson, changed his family name to Ryzec, which is the name of a red-coloured Czech mushroom, suggesting that Walter was red-haired. He was reputedly buried in the Irish Franciscan church in Prague, to which he had contributed generously. The church is Malá Strana in Prague, beside the Charles Bridge and close to the Irish Embassy in the Wratislaw Palace.

The Thirty Years’ War had devastated Europe, killing millions through violence, famine or disease. It came to an end with the Peace of Westphalia in 1648 which united Europe for the first time in a treaty of peace – perhaps a foretaste of the European Union, as some suggest.

The religious differences, however, remained for much longer, and influenced markedly historians of the period. The end of the war left in the Austrian Empire to dominate the Czechs for hundreds of years, whereas Wallenstein’s reward, had he succeeded in his treachery, would have been to become king of the Czech lands.

Walter Butler is said to have been buried in the Irish Franciscan church beside the Charles Bridge in Prague (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The Czech artist Josef Ryzec has endeavoured for decades to prove a 400-year tradition in his family that they are descended from Walter Devereux. In the course of his research, he says, a DNA test proved that his family tradition is correct. The book being launched in Prague this evening tells of his driving obsession to establish his family’s tradition and the many obstacles he faced and overcame.

He is confident he has now traced his ancestry back to the assassin Walter Devereux from Co Wexford. Walter’s parents were Philip Devereux (1583-1635) of Ballymagir Castle, Co Wexford, and Joan Walsh (1587-1660); Joan’s sister, Ellinor Walsh, married the Revd Thomas Comerford (1596-1635), Vicar of The Rower from 1630 until his death. They were daughters of Walter Walsh of The Mountains, Co Kilkenny, and Courthoyle, near Carrigbyrne, Co Wexford, and his wife, Ellinor Butler of New Ross, Co Wexford, daughter of Richard Butler, 1st Viscount Mountgarret.

This connection with the Conerford family led artist Josef Ryzec to contact me, and eventually three photographs of me, and references to my genealogical research are part of his book being launched this evening.

He believes there is no verifiable evidence that Walter Butler was buried in the Irish Franciscan church beside the Charles Bridge in Prague. It has been presumed by many that Walter Devereux died in December 1639, but Josef suggests that at the age of 55 he fathered a son Matej Ryzec who was born in 1670, and that he may have lived on for many more years after.

Sean O’Sullivan, who has been a generous publisher and supporter of this research, is originally from Dublin, and first came to Prague as a Pre-Accession Adviser to the Czech Ministry of Finance in 2002, advising the Czech government on meeting the requirements for EU membership. He loved Prague so much and felt so at home there that he decided to stay on after retirement, and devotes much his time to the Wild Geese Society of Bohemia.

A former Ambassador, Alison Kelly, introduced him to Josef Ryzec and he helped Josef research his family legend that he is descended from Walter Devereux who was only 19 at the time of the assassination.

As for Ballymagyr Castle it is now part of Richfield House and Cottages in Duncormick, near Kilmore Quay, Co Wexford.

The Charles Bridge in Prague at dawn … close to the Irish Embassy and the Irish Franciscan Church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Daily prayer in Lent 2026: 8, Wednesday 25 February 2026

‘The shoe is … a sign that we must gather shoes together in abundance’ (Monty Python, ‘The Life of Brian’) … sandals provide street numbers at Antika Irish Bar on Arampatzoglou street in Rethymnon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

Lent began a week ago on Ash Wednesday, and this week began with the First Sunday in Lent (Lent I). This visit to Kuching coincides not only with Lent but also with Ramadan and the continuing celebrations of Chinese New Year.

Later this evening, a new book by the Czech artist Josef Ryzecis, My Irish-Norman Ancestor, is being launched in the Irish embassy in Prague, and it includes a number of photographs of me in the context of my genealogical research and the history of the Comerford family. However, this visit to Kuching means there was never a possibility of travelling to Prague for the event. Meanwhile, before this day begins, I am taking some quiet time in Kuching 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.

‘The people of Nineveh … repented at the proclamation of Jonah’ (Luke 11: 32) … a reconstruction of the gates of an Assyrian palace in the Pergamon Museum, Berlin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Luke 11: 29-32 (NRSVA):

29 When the crowds were increasing, he began to say, ‘This generation is an evil generation; it asks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah. 30 For just as Jonah became a sign to the people of Nineveh, so the Son of Man will be to this generation. 31 The queen of the South will rise at the judgement with the people of this generation and condemn them, because she came from the ends of the earth to listen to the wisdom of Solomon, and see, something greater than Solomon is here! 32 The people of Nineveh will rise up at the judgement with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the proclamation of Jonah, and see, something greater than Jonah is here!’

‘Hold up the sandal, as he has commanded us!’ (Monty Python, ‘The Life of Brian’) … sandals outside a shop in Rethymnon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflection:

Signs are part of the humour throughout Monty Python’s Life of Brian, also known as Life of Brian, a controversial 1979 film by the Monty Python team, including Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Michael Palin.

Scene 18, ‘The Holy Gourd of Jerusalem’, includes this dialogue:

FOLLOWERS: … Look! Ah! Oh! Oh!

ARTHUR: He has given us a sign!

FOLLOWER: Oh!

SHOE FOLLOWER: He has given us … His shoe!

ARTHUR: The shoe is the sign. Let us follow His example.

SPIKE: What?

ARTHUR: Let us, like Him, hold up one shoe and let the other be upon our foot, for this is His sign, that all who follow Him shall do likewise.

EDDIE: Yes.

SHOE FOLLOWER: No, no, no. The shoe is …

YOUTH: No.

SHOE FOLLOWER: … a sign that we must gather shoes together in abundance.

GIRL: Cast off …

SPIKE: Aye. What?

GIRL: … the shoes! Follow the Gourd!

SHOE FOLLOWER: No! Let us gather shoes together!

FRANK: Yes.

SHOE FOLLOWER: Let me!

ELSIE: Oh, get off!

YOUTH: No, no! It is a sign that, like Him, we must think not of the things of the body, but of the face and head!

SHOE FOLLOWER: Give me your shoe!

YOUTH: Get off!

GIRL: Follow the Gourd! The Holy Gourd of Jerusalem!

FOLLOWER: The Gourd!

HARRY: Hold up the sandal, as He has commanded us!

ARTHUR: It is a shoe! It is a shoe!

HARRY: It's a sandal!

ARTHUR: No, it isn't!

GIRL: Cast it away!

ARTHUR: Put it on!

YOUTH: And clear off!

How often do we pray unusual signs as indications of God’s blessing, favour, approval or intervention, or even God’s judgment?

In today’s Gospel reading (Luke 11: 29-32), Jesus faces this sort of request too. with that in his own day. People wanted some spectacular sign from him to establish beyond doubt that he was who he said he was.

In this reading, he addresses the crowds who gather around him as a wicked generation because they are asking for a sign. Today people can be very impressed by visionaries who claim to have visions that are denied to the rest of believers.

The church has traditionally been very wary of all such claims. In the Gospel reading, Jesus accuses his contemporaries of failing to see what is there before them. They want signs and yet all they need already stands in front of them in the person of Jesus, someone greater than Solomon, greater than Jonah, greater than all the prophets and kings.

If the people of Nineveh responded to Jonah and if the Queen of the South responded to Solomon, how much more should Jesus’ contemporaries respond to him?

Jonah serves 40 days’ notice on the city. These are the years of wandering in the wilderness after the Exodus, the days and nights Moses spends on Mount Sinai, the days the spies spend in the land of Canaan, the days Ezekiel spends repenting for the sins of Judah, the days Elijah spends without food or water on his way to Mount Horeb, the days Jesus spends fasting in the wilderness, the days between the Resurrection and the Ascension …

To Jonah’s dismay, the people of Nineveh take his words to heart; even the king puts on sackcloth and ashes and prays for God’s redemption. They turn from their evil ways, and God changes his mind about the calamity they had faced. They are 40 days that are comparable to our observance of Lent, and at the end the promise of mew life is fulfilled.

But, instead of being pleased with a mission accomplished, Jonah is not only displeased but is angry. He is convinced that the king and the city are not sincere about their repentance. Is he fearful that, having survived, they are now going to turn their attention to his people? This is the Jonah who, only some time earlier, had faced drowning and being devoured, but now he is so angry he would prefer to be dead. And when he survives, he goes away, separating himself from God and people, and sulks.

Even then, when he might have been saved from the harsh weather and climate only to find his shelters destroyed, he is angry with God yet again.

The story of Jonah ends not with an answer to Jonah’s complaints, or a solution to Israel’s conflict with Assyria, or even an indication of whether the king and people of Nineveh remain faithful, but with a question from God: should God not be concerned for the lives of people – even their animals – no matter how immoral or sinful I may see them as being, not knowing their right hand from their left?

It is a salutary lesson for the Church when we think at times that we have heard God’s word, think we are following God’s ways, but are reluctant to share with others – whether they are outside our parish, outside our society or culture, outside our country.

Are there times when I limit God’s salvation to those I want to be counted in?

Are there times when I resent calls to recognise that God loves others beyond my circle or circles of faith, family or friends?

No matter how threatening I see outsiders to be, does this justify putting limits on reaching out to them, on my compassion for them?

‘The people of Nineveh … repented at the proclamation of Jonah’ (Luke 11: 32) … a whale depicted in the Saint Brendan window in Saint Michael’s Church, Sneem, Co Kerry (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Wednesday 25 February 2026):

The theme this week (22-28 February 2026) in ‘Pray With the World Church,’ the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is: ‘Behold, I make all things new!’ (pp 30-31). This theme was introduced on Sunday with Reflections by the Right Revd Jorge Pina Cabral Jorge, Diocesan Bishop of the Lusitanian Church (Portugal).

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Wednesday 25 February 2026) invites us to pray:

God of wisdom, guide cooperation in theological training and Christian education across Portugal and Spain. Raise up faithful leaders who will serve with integrity, courage, and truth.

The Collect:

Almighty God,
whose Son Jesus Christ fasted forty days in the wilderness,
and was tempted as we are, yet without sin:
give us grace to discipline ourselves in obedience to your Spirit;
and, as you know our weakness,
so may we know your power to save;
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:

Lord God,
you have renewed us with the living bread from heaven;
by it you nourish our faith,
increase our hope,
and strengthen our love:
teach us always to hunger for him who is the true and living bread,
and enable us to live by every word
that proceeds from out of your mouth;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

Heavenly Father,
your Son battled with the powers of darkness,
and grew closer to you in the desert:
help us to use these days to grow in wisdom and prayer
that we may witness to your saving love
in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s Reflections

Continued Tomorrow

Saint Michael with the whales in a window depicting the stories of Jonah and Saint Brendan in Saint Michael’s Church, Sneem, Co Kerry (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

Arthur Fields, ‘The Man on the Bridge’, is a bridge between Dublin and Kyev, and with Jewish refugees from Ukraine

The photographer Arthur Fields (1901-1994), known affectionately to generations of Dubliners as the ‘Man on the Bridge’

Patrick Comerford

Tuesday next marks the fourth anniversary of the Russia’s launch of a large-scale invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022, expanding its war against Ukraine and creating Europe’s largest refugee crisis since World War II.

Of course, the Russia-Ukraine War began eight years earlier, in February 2014, with Russia’s covert invasion and annexation of Crimea. The conflict escalated significantly with Russia’s full-scale invasion on 24 February 2022, which expanded the existing conflict in eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region.

The life story of the photographer Arthur Fields (1901-1994), known affectionately to generations of Dubliners as the ‘Man on the Bridge’, provides a link between Ireland and Ukraine, a link between Dublin and Kyiv, and is a reminder of the sufferings of Jewish refugees who fled pogroms, antisemitism and oppression in the Russian Empire and of the positive contributions refugee families to countries that receive and welcome them.

Arthur Fields was born Abraham Feldman on 27 October 1901 in Dublin to Ukrainian Jewish parents Malka, also known as Molly or Mary (Sweed) and Simon Feldman, a draper, of 6 Raymond Street off the South Circular Road. He had four brothers: Oran, Jacob, David and Moses, and a sister who died in infancy.

Simon Feldman was originally from Kyiv, Ukraine, where his father had been a prosperous rabbi. Simon Feldman fled Ukraine with his wife and their two eldest sons, in 1891 or 1885, escaping the pogroms that spread across the Tsarist empire following the assassination of Tsar Alexander II of Russia. About two million Jews fled the Russian empire between 1881 and 1914, with around 3,500 arriving in Ireland, the majority settling in Dublin.

Feldman is family name found in a number of Jewish refugees who fled Ukraine at the time, and a number of Feldman families were living in Dublin by the end of the 19th and the early 20th century; the comedian Marty Feldman (1934-1982) was a son of Myer Feldman, an East End gown manufacturer who was a Ukrainian Jewish immigrant from Kyiv.

Simon Feldman left Kyiv in the middle of the night with his family in a horse-drawn carriage, taking whatever valuables they could manage. Like many of the new ‘foreign Jews’ who arrived in Dublin, they settled around the South Circular Road and Portobello area of Dublin, and lived at a number of addresses in the ‘Little Jerusalem’ area, including 20 Windsor Terrace (1897), 24 Saint Kevin’s Road (1899) and 6 Raymond Street (1901), when Arthur was born as Abraham Feldman on 27 October 1901.

The Feldman family later changed their name to Fields and the children took on English-sounding versions of their Hebrew-sounding names: Oran became Harry, Jacob became Jack, Moses became Morris, David remained David, and Abraham became Arthur, although continued to be known to his family as Abby.

Arthur Fields went to Saint Catherine’s School, Donore Avenue, and then to Wesley College on Saint Stephen’s Green, before going into the tailoring trade. As a young man, he visited his elder brother Jack who had a successful real estate business in the US and his brothers Harry, Morris and David in England.

For a time, he lived in Chalkwell in Southend-on-Sea, Essex, where he and his brother David Fields (1897-1956) bought a house. He met his wife-to-be, Doreen Cracknell (1917-1990) from the East End in London, at a dance in Southend in 1934. Doreen was 17 and Arthur was 33 when they married and moved to Dublin. They first lived Sandymount, but then lived for the rest of their married life at 602 Howth Road, Raheny. They were the parents of one daughter, Norma, and three sons, Bernard, Philip and David.

Doreen was an Anglican, and Arthur was largely non-observant as a Jew, but he retained a strong personal religious commitment and attended Adelaide Road Synagogue on high days and holy days.

Arhur Fields began working as a street photographer in the 1930s and worked on O’Connell Bridge for half a century

Arhur Fields left the tailoring business and moved into street photography in the 1930s. Alongside other street photographers jostling for customers, Arthur established his patch on O’Connell Bridge, but also worked on O’Connell Street, particularly at night to photograph young people visiting the street’s cafés, ballrooms and cinemas, at a time when the street was at the heart of bustling night life in Dublin

He would approach potential customers, take their photograph, ask whether they would like the picture, give them a ticket for a local studio, where they could pay for the photograph have it posted out to them. His wife Doreen developed the photographs – first in premises on Pearse Street, then in a darkroom at home – and posted the prints out to customers.

Arthur was a sturdy and committed man, and would walk from Raheny to the bridge each day and back home again, a 10-mile round trip. He was cautioned for peddling or selling with a licence on several occasions in the early days. But he persevered and was eventually tolerated by the gardai. He began using a Polaroid camera in the 1960s so he could give customers their photographs on the spot.

For almost half of his 50-year career on the bridge, Fields worked one side while his older brother David worked the other. The brothers shared a close bond, David lived with Arthur and his family in Raheny, and the two spoke Yiddish to each other at home. Their mother Molly died at Kilworth Road, Drimnagh, in 1940.

David died on 13 June 1956, leaving his younger brother bereft: Arthur had a breakdown and was given a course of electric shock treatment, before returning to work on the bridge. He travelled further afield at times, taking photographs in resorts like Bray, Co Wicklow, and Bundoran, Co Donegal, or at the Spring Show at the RDS, Ballsbridge, or at the Ploughing Championships.

The ‘Man on Bridge’ multimedia project was launched in 2014

Privately, Fields did not have good social skills, nor did he have close bonds with many other people outside his family circle, nor did he take part in family occasions or attend any of the weddings of his four children, choosing to work instead.

But, while Arthur Fields may have been just one among the many street photographers in Dublin in his day, he was the most prominent and had the lengthiest career. He finally left his pitch on O’Connell Bridge in 1988 at the age of 87. Doreen died two years later on 2 April 1990. He continued to live alone at home in Raheny with the help of his neighbours and family. He died of heart failure in Beaumont Hospital on 11 April 1994 at the age of 92. At his funeral and cremation in Glasnevin Cemetery, many people brought photographs he had taken to share with his family.

The Irish Times described him as ‘one of Dublin’s best known characters’, while the Evening Herald called him a ‘Dublin institution for thousands of people visiting the city’. Declan Kiberd wrote in the Irish Press: ‘Those who mourned the Man on the Bridge … may have been lamenting not just their lost youth, but the lost innocence of an era which Arthur Fields in a way symbolised.’

The legacy of Arthur Fields is his archive of city life in Dublin. During his 50-year career from the 1930s to the 1980s, it is estimated, he took at least 182,500 photographs. These photographs chart the many changes in the city, from fashions in clothing and changes in hairstyles to the disappearance of Nelson’s Pillar. The many celebrities he photographed on O’Connell Bridge or on O’Connell Street include Noel Purcell, Gene Tierney, Bing Crosby, Margaret Rutherford, Brendan Behan, Jack Doyle and George Harrison.

Fields never kept any negatives or copies of his images. His archives survive primarily in homes across Ireland. To bring some of these images together, the ‘Man on Bridge’ multimedia project was launched on the Late Late Show on RTÉ in 2014, asking people to submit their photographs. This resulted in a book of 250 images and an exhibition of 3,400 photographs at the Gallery of Photography in Dublin later that year.

RTÉ broadcast a documentary, Man on Bridge on 28 December 2014. A further book, Man on the Bridge: more photos by Arthur Fields, was published in 2017, when the archive had reached 6,000 photographs.

Shabbat Shalom, שבת שלום‎

Daily prayer in Lent 2026: 1, Wednesday 18 February 2026, Ash Wednesday

Lent offers a time for renewed reflection … February reflections at night at Minster Pool in Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Patrick Comerford

Lent begins today with Ash Wednesday (5 March 2025), which is being marked in this parish today with the imposition of ashes and the Eucharist or Holy Communion in All Saints’ Church, Calverton, this morning (10:30) in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford, this evening (6 pm).

I m going to miss both as later today two of us set off on an epic journey to Kuching, with a flight from Heathrow that leaves this evening and arrives in Muscat early tomorrow morning local time (07:15), but still the middle of the night back in England (03:15). We have barely breathing time to connect with the next flight from Muscat (09:20) to Kuala Lumpur, and a similar short gap there tomorrow tonight, before our connecting flight, hopefully getting to Kuching after midnight and in the very early hours of Friday (20 February).

But before my day begins, before packing and making sure I have all my papers, 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.

Lenten array in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford, this week (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Matthew 6: 1-6, 16-21 (NRSVA):

[Jesus said:] 1 ‘Beware of practising your piety before others in order to be seen by them; for then you have no reward from your Father in heaven.

2 ‘So whenever you give alms, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be praised by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. 3 But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4 so that your alms may be done in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

5 ‘And whenever you pray, do not be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, so that they may be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. 6 But whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

16 ‘And whenever you fast, do not look dismal, like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces so as to show others that they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. 17 But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, 18 so that your fasting may be seen not by others but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

19 ‘Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; 20 but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.’

‘Dancing to the Heartbeat of God, Stories of Discipleship’ (SPCK) is the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Lent Book for 2026, with a foreword by Archbishop Sarah Mullally


Today’s Reflections:

It is striking how often in the Bible encounters with God take place on a mountain top: Mount Sinai, Mount Zion, the Mount of Olives, Calvary and the Ascension from the Mount called Olivet.

In the Gospel reading on Sunday (Matthew 17: 1-9, 15 February 2026), we heard the story of the Transfiguration, where Christ is presented on a high mountain as the Father’s beloved Son, and placed on either side of him are Moses and Elijah – for Christ is truly the fulfilment of the Law and the Prophets, of all of God’s promises.

In the Gospel reading for Ash Wednesday, we meet Christ as we listen to his Sermon on the Mount.

And there is a link between this mountain-side sermon and the Transfiguration.

The Transfiguration presents an opportunity not only for us to Christ as he truly is – the incarnate, living God; but also an opportunity for us to be reminded of how God sees us – made in his image and likeness.

The first reading the previous Sunday (Genesis 1: 1 to 2: 3), which I read at the Parish Eucharist in Stony Stratford on the Sunday before Lent (8 February 2025), is a reminder that when God made us, God made us from the earth, but also that God made us in God’s own image and likeness. What a compliment.

Then, at Christmas, God takes on our image and likeness. God in Christ does not just look like us, Christ is truly one of us, both God and flesh. Again, what a compliment.

On Calvary, Christ shows he is truly flesh. It is not that he appears to die. He dies. He truly is like us, is one of us. Again, what a compliment.

In the Resurrection, we are called to be what we are truly made to be – to be restored so that once again we are in God’s image and likeness. And once again, what a compliment.

So Lent is an opportunity to look back on who we are, and to look forward to who we are truly called to be: made in God’s image and likeness, and restored to God’s image and likeness.

One way of reminding us of this is to read this Gospel reading reminding us to pray, fast, to do good, to give alms, to seek our rewards in pursuing the values of the Kingdom of God.

This Gospel reading can be understood when it is read within the context of the full Sermon on the Mount, including the Beatitudes.

To be like Christ is to what he asks us to do.

A second way of reminding us of how we are made in God’s image and likeness, and how we are to be restored to God’s image and likeness, is the tradition of using ashes on Ash Wednesday.

It is a Biblical paradox that we are both made from the earth and yet are made in God’s image and likeness. We are made from the soil, yet in Saint John’s understanding of the cosmos all creation also dwells within God’s womb.

Our ashes on Ash Wednesday call us back to our beginnings, so that we can look forward to our glory in the Risen Christ at Easter. We are made of the earth, yet we are made in God’s image and likeness.

Quite often, we mark Lent with traditional customs such as giving up things, donating to charity, deliberate attitudes of kindness, or taking part in parish Bible studies. These customs are like New Year’s resolutions: they make us feel good for as long as we keep them, but they make us feel guilty when we fall behind.

But Lent is not about either: about feeling guilty or about feeling better … even if it is a good idea that I should become less self-centred and it is a good for me if, after a few weeks, I feel fitter and healthier.

In Old English, the word ‘Lent’ has the same meaning as ‘Spring.’ It means the days are lengthening – hence ‘Lent’ – and that signs of life are beginning to emerge after the coldness of winter.

As Spring prepares us to look forward to days that are longer and are warmer, so, Lent as a season prepares us to look forward to Easter: to the conquest of death and to new life through the Resurrection of Christ.

In the early Church, Easter was the time to receive new members of the Church in Baptism, the gift of new life in Christ. Baptism was, and is, a second birth, a way of being made one with Christ and one in the great company of believers who are his body, the Church on earth and in heaven.

Before Baptism, the early Church had a careful period of preparation for all new members. This was a period of instruction in Christian faith and practice, leading to Baptism on Easter Eve.

New Christians were taught to turn their back on old ways, superstitions and idolatries, and to replace them in Lent with acts such as generosity to the poor, the sick and those in prison. As their Baptism and Easter approached, they practised fasting, almsgiving and prayer, supported and encouraged by members of the Church. It was a communal exercise and experience.

And so began the customs and traditions we associate with the season of Lent. They were seen as an imitation of Christ during his 40 days of fasting and temptation in the wilderness after his baptism by Saint John the Baptist.

The traditional Ash Wednesday invitation or exhortation begins:

‘Brothers and sisters in Christ: since early days Christians have observed with great devotion the time of our Lord's passion and resurrection. It became the custom of the Church to prepare for this by a season of penitence and fasting.

‘At first this season of Lent was observed by those who were preparing for baptism at Easter and by those who were to be restored to the Church’s fellowship from which they had been separated through sin. In course of time the Church came to recognize that, by a careful keeping of these days, all Christians might take to heart the call to repentance and the assurance of forgiveness proclaimed in the gospel, and so grow in faith and in devotion to our Lord.

‘I invite you, therefore, in the name of the Lord to observe a holy Lent, by self-examination and repentance; by prayer, fasting, and self-denial; and by reading and meditating on God’s holy word.’

There are some ways I could suggest for observing Lent this year:

1, Come and See, Discovering Jesus through the Eucharist, is a free online invitation in the Diocese of Oxford to explore spirituality and find out more about the Christian faith. People are invited receive daily emails through Lent, with reflections, readings and encouragements. Each Sunday, there is a video from Bishop Steven Croft unpacking another aspect of the Eucharist. More information here.

2, My reading for Lent this year is Dancing to the Heartbeat of God, Stories of Discipleship, the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Lent Book for 2026, with a foreword by Archbishop Sarah Mullally and an introduction by Archbishop Stephen Cottrell of York. This book brings together around 30 contributors from across the globe, who reflect the breadth, diversity and vitality of the Anglican Communion, and who offer a confident and hopeful vision of faith lived out in everyday life through personal stories, testimonies and reflections on what it means to follow Christ faithfully.

3, USPG’s Lent Appeal this year seeks to bring hope for the future to Myanmar. Through the Church of the Province of Myanmar’s Integrated Education Programme, vulnerable children are finding sanctuary in classrooms, sustenance in daily meals, and strength in community. USPG is supporting this partnership of faith and action throughout Lent 2026. Find out more and support the appeal here.

4, Pope Leo XIV, in his invitation for Lent this year, says: ‘I would like to invite you to a very practical and frequently unappreciated form of abstinence: that of refraining from words that offend and hurt our neighbour. Let us begin by disarming our language, avoiding harsh words and rash judgement, refraining from slander and speaking ill of those who are not present and cannot defend themselves.’ This is a wonderful way to start Lent, and a wonderful way roo to show we are listening to what Christ asks of us.

There is a necessary rigour to Lent. It is meant to offer a time for change to take place.

Fasting also allows us to learn the extraordinary richness of God’s creation: we can appreciate it more if we seek to tame our appetites for a while. Put this alongside prayer and almsgiving and we cannot but help to turn away from self a little more and so have space for God and the claims of God and neighbour on our lives. Over the past four years, I have been in and out of hospitals and clinics in Milton Keynes, Oxford, Sheffield and London, for tests related to a battery of conditions and injuries falling a fall. I did not need to read today’s Gospel to be reminded ‘whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret.’

Spring follows winter and holds the promise of summer; Lent holds the hope of Easter and the Resurrection. And the next six weeks of Lent offer a fresh opportunity to do those things, and to pray in those ways, that make us less self-centred, that make us feel fitter and healthier – spiritually as well as physically – and that renew and refresh our faith, our hope, our love.

A window ledge in the chapel in Dr Miley’s Hospital, Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Wednesday 18 February 2026, Ash Wednesday):

The theme this week (15-21 February 2026) in ‘Pray With the World Church,’ the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is: ‘Look to the Amazon!’ (pp 28-29). This theme was introduced on Sunday with a Programme Update by the Most Revd Marinez Bassotto, Bishop of Amazonia and Archbishop of the Igreja Episcopal Anglicana do Brasil.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Wednesday 18 February 2026, Ash Wednesday) invites us to pray:

Merciful God, as we begin this season of Lent, remind us to seek your presence with humble hearts. Teach us to give, to pray, and to fast however we can out of love of you. May we walk each day in the light of your grace.

The 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 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:

Almighty God,
you have given your only Son to be for us
both a sacrifice for sin
and also an example of godly life:
give us grace
that we may always most thankfully receive
these his inestimable gifts,
and also daily endeavour
to follow the blessed steps of his most holy life;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

Holy God,
our lives are laid open before you:
rescue us from the chaos of sin
and through the death of your Son
bring us healing and make us whole
in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s Reflections

Continued Tomorrow

Lent offers a time for renewed reflection … night-time reflections in the February rain in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Churchyard, Stony Stratford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

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