Daily prayers during Christmas and Epiphany: 33, 26 January 2024

A copy of Lorna May Wadsworth’s monumental altarpiece, ‘A Last Supper’, in St Albans Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Patrick Comerford

The celebrations of Epiphany-tide continue today. This week began with the Third Sunday of Epiphany (21 January 2024), and the Calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship today recalls Saint Timothy and Saint Titus, Companions of Saint Paul (26 January).

Because I was born a day after the feast of Saint Paul, my mother wanted to call me Paul. Although my uncle, Arthur Comerford, had me baptised with the name Patrick, my mother continued to call me Paul throughout my life – the only person to do so. I might have been fine with the name Timothy too, but I wonder how I would have gone through life calling me Titus.

Before this day begins, I am taking some time for reading, reflection and prayer. Christmas is a season that lasts for 40 days that continues from Christmas Day (25 December) to Candlemas or the Feast of the Presentation next Friday (2 February). The Gospel reading on Sunday (John 2: 1-11) told of the Wedding at Cana, one of the traditional Epiphany stories.

In keeping with the theme of Sunday’s Gospel reading, my reflections each morning throughout the seven days of this week include:

1, A reflection on one of seven meals Jesus has with family, friends or disciples;

2, the Gospel reading of the day;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary.

An icon of the Mystical Supper or the Last Supper in a shop window in Rethymnon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

6, The Last Supper:

The Last Supper has always been a popular subject for artists, from early icon writers through the great artists of Renaissance, to today.

Some of the earliest depictions can be seen in frescoes in the Catacombs in Rome, where Christ and the disciples are depicted reclining around semi-circular tables.

The three major themes depicted in paintings of the Last Supper: the washing of the disciples’ feet by Christ, the betrayal by Judas, and the Eucharist meal.

Byzantine artists sometimes used semi-circular tables in their depictions, but more frequently they focused on the Communion of the Apostles, rather than the reclining figures having a meal.

By the Renaissance, the Last Supper was a favourite subject in Italian art, especially in monastic refectories. These paintings often show the reactions of the disciples to the announcement of the betrayal of Christ.

The depictions of the Eucharist meal are generally solemn and mystical. They may show either Christ while he speaks the dominical words or words of institution over the bread and wine, with all still seated, or show the disciples moving forward to receive from Christ, with Christ standing and delivering the bread and wine of the Communion to each apostle, like a priest giving the sacrament of Holy Communion.

Leonardo da Vinci’s ‘Last Supper’ (1498) is considered the first work of High Renaissance art. He balances the varying emotions of the individual apostles when Christ states that one of the 12 would betray him. He shows a variety of attitudes, from anger and surprise to shock.

Most Italian Renaissance paintings present an oblong table rather that a semi-circular one, and sometimes Judas is shown by himself clutching his money bag. With an oblong table, the artist had to decide whether to show the apostles on both sides, so that some of the 12 are seen from behind, or all on one side of the table facing the viewer.

Sometimes, only Judas is on the side nearest the viewer, allowing his bag of money to be seen.

Placing the Disciples on both sides is further complicated when haloes are needed, so that some haloes are placed either in front of the faces of other apostles, or obscure the view. Duccio was the first artist to omit haloes, albeit the haloes of those apostles nearest the viewer. Giotto, in his fresco in the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua (1305), uses flat haloes, but the view from behind causes difficulties, and Saint John’s halo has to be reduced in size.

As artists became more interested in realism and the depiction of space, a three-sided interior setting became clearer and more elaborate, sometimes with a landscape view behind, as in the wall-paintings by Leonardo da Vinci and Perugino.

Some of the apostles are identifiable in some works; Judas often has his bag with 30 pieces of silver visible; Saint John the Evangelist is normally placed on Christy’s right side, usually ‘reclining in Jesus’ bosom’ as his Gospel says, or even asleep; Saint Peter is generally on Christ’s left.

The food on the table often includes a paschal lamb. In Byzantine versions, fish is the main dish. In later works, the bread may look more like a Communion host. Later still, we see more food, eating, and even waiters and servers, including women.

In some paintings, Judas may only be identifiable because he is stretching out his hand for the food, as the other apostles sit with their hands out of sight, or because he has no halo. In the West, he often has red hair. Sometimes Judas takes the sop in his mouth directly from Christ’s hand, and when he is shown eating it a small devil may be shown next to or on it.

Domenico Ghirlandaio, in his ‘Last Supper’ (1480), depicts Judas separately. The painting in Old Saint Peter’s Church, Strasbourg, dating from1485, shows Saint John leaning across, and Judas in yellow carries his 30 pieces of silver in a bag. Pietro Perugino’s paining in Florence (ca 1493-1496), which is regarded as one of his best pieces, also shows Judas sitting separately.

Tintoretto’s ‘Last Supper’ (1590-1592) in the Basilica di San Giorgio Maggiore in Venice, depicts the announcement of the betrayal, and includes an array of additional people carrying in food or taking out dishes from the table.

Tintoretto painted the Last Supper several times during his career. His earlier paintings for the Chiesa di San Marcuola (1547) and for the Chiesa di San Felice (1559) from the scene from a frontal perspective, following a convention observed in most paintings at the time, including Leonardo da Vinci’s mural in Milan.

This scene by Tintoretto, painted in his final years, departs drastically from this style of composition. The setting is similar to a Venetian inn, in which the centre is occupied not by the apostles but by secondary characters, including a woman carrying a dish and servants taking the dishes from the table.

This is a complex and radically asymmetrical composition. The apostles sit at table that recedes into space on a steep diagonal. His use of light is also worth noting – see how it appears to come from the light on the ceiling and from Christ’s aureola.

The Last Supper was one of the few subjects that continued in Lutheran altarpieces after the Reformation, sometimes portraying leading Reformers as the apostles. For example, the painting by Lucas Cranach the Younger (1565) portrays leading Reformers as the Apostles, and also show the Elector of Saxony kneeling.

The betrayal scene may also be combined with the other episodes of the meal, sometimes with a second figure of Christ washing Peter’s feet. The ‘Last Supper’ by Rubens (1630/1631) introduces a dog near Judas, perhaps representing Satan (see John 13: 27).

In the 20th century, Salvador Dalí’s depiction combines the typical Christian themes with modern approaches of Surrealism and also includes geometric elements of symmetry and polygonal proportion.

During my visits to St Albans Cathedral earlier this month, I admired a fine print of ‘A Last Supper’ (2009), by the Sheffield artist Lorna May Wadsworth in the north transept. Recently I also saw a charcoal cartoon of the painting in the Chapel of the Holy Spirit in Sheffield Cathedral.

The Jamaican-born fashion model Tafari Hinds was her model for Christ. The original, monumental 12 ft painting is behind the altar in Saint George’s Church in Nailsworth, Gloucestershire. There it was shot at in 2020, and the painting was damaged on Christ’s right side, the same place a Roman solider pierced his body with a spear as he hung dead on the Cross.

Lorna May Wadsworth’s charcoal cartoon for her monumental altarpiece, ‘A Last Supper’, in Sheffield Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Luke 10: 1-9 (NRSVA):

1 After this the Lord appointed seventy [other ancient authorities read seventy-two] others and sent them on ahead of him in pairs to every town and place where he himself intended to go. 2 He said to them, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into his harvest. 3 Go on your way. See, I am sending you out like lambs into the midst of wolves. 4 Carry no purse, no bag, no sandals; and greet no one on the road. 5 Whatever house you enter, first say, “Peace to this house!” 6 And if anyone is there who shares in peace, your peace will rest on that person; but if not, it will return to you. 7 Remain in the same house, eating and drinking whatever they provide, for the labourer deserves to be paid. Do not move about from house to house. 8 Whenever you enter a town and its people welcome you, eat what is set before you; 9 cure the sick who are there, and say to them, “The kingdom of God has come near to you”.’

The Last Supper … an icon in the Lady Chapel in Lichfield Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Today’s Prayers (Friday 26 January 2024):

The theme this week in ‘Pray With the World Church,’ the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is: ‘Provincial Programme on Capacity Building in Paraná.’ This theme was introduced on Sunday by Christina Takatsu Winnischofer, Igreja Episcopal Anglicana do Brasil.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (26 January 2024, Saint Timothy and Saint Paul) invites us to pray in these words:

Today is the feast of both Saint Timothy and Saint Titus. May we discern our roles in the Church and commit to them, whether in positions of leadership or as faithful members of the laity.

The Collect:

Heavenly Father,
who sent your apostle Paul to preach the gospel,
and gave him Timothy and Titus
to be his companions in faith:
grant that our fellowship in the Holy Spirit
may bear witness to the name of Jesus,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

Holy Father,
who gathered us here around the table of your Son
to share this meal with the whole household of God:
in that new world where you reveal
the fullness of your peace,
gather people of every race and language
to share with Timothy and Titus and all your saints
in the eternal banquet of Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s reflection (The meal with Simon the Pharisee)

Continued tomorrow (The meal at Emmaus)

The Last Supper … a painting in the Chapel of the Holy Grail in Valencia Cathedral (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

The Last Supper, by Mikhail Damaskinos, ca 1585-1591, in the Museum of Christian Art in the Church of Saint Catherine of Sinai, Iraklion (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Daily prayers during Christmas and Epiphany: 19, 12 January 2024

The pillars of the Byzantine Church of Saint John in Philadelphia frame the view of a mosque in present-day Alaşehir … the church in Philadelphia is addressed in the sixth of seven letters in the Book of Revelation (Photograph: Simon Jenkins / Wikipedia)

Patrick Comerford

The celebrations of Epiphany-tide continue today (12 January 2023). The week began with the First Sunday of Epiphany (7 January 2024). Christmas is a season that lasts for 40 days that continues from Christmas Day (25 December) to Candlemas or the Feast of the Presentation (2 February).

Today, the Calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship remembers Aelred of Hexham (1167), Abbot of Rievaulx, and Benedict Biscop (689), Abbot of Wearmouth, Scholar. Before today begins, I am taking some time for reading, reflection and prayer.

My reflections each morning during the seven days of this week include:

1, A reflection on one of the seven churches named in Revelation 2-3 as one of the recipients of letters from Saint John on Patmos;

2, the Gospel reading of the day;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary.

‘I will make you a pillar in the temple of my God’ (Revelation 3: 11) … a carved stone slab in the Church of Saint John In Alaşehir, ancient Philadelphia (Photograph Murat Bengisu / Wikipedia)

The Churches of the Book of Revelation: 6, Philadelphia:

Philadelphia is one of the seven churches in Asia Minor to receive a letter from Saint John as he describes his revelation on Patmos: Ephesus (Revelation 2: 1-7), Smyrna (Revelation 2: 8-11), Pergamum (Revelation 2: 12-17), Thyatira (Revelation 2: 18-29), Sardis (Revelation 3: 1-6), Philadelphia (Revelation 3: 7-13) and Laodicea (Revelation 3: 14-22).

The sixth letter in these chapters is addressed to the Church in Philadelphia (Revelation 3: 7-13), which is known for its patient endurance and keeping God’s word (3: 10).

Several ancient cities bore the name of Philadelphia, but the city named as the sixth city church in the Book of Revelation is a small town in Lydia identified present-day Alaşehir. This Philadelphia (Φιλαδέλφεια) is also located in Manisa province. It lies in the valley of the Kuzuçay, at the foot of the Bozdağ or Mount Tmolus, about 105 km from Smyrna.

Philadelphia was established in 189 BCE by King Eumenes of Pergamon, who named it so because of his love for his brother, who succeeded him as Attalos II.

This region still produces some of the best grapes and wine in Turkey, and as a centre of vine-growing and wine-making, Philadelphia was a centre for the worship of Dionysius (Bacchus), the god of wine and merry-making. Under Roman rule, the city was in the administrative district of Sardis.

When the city suffered badly in an earthquake in 17 CE, the Emperor Tiberius relieved it from having to pay taxes. It was renamed Neo Caesarea and became a centre of the imperial cult. It remained an important centre in the early Christian and Byzantine times.

In the sixth century, prosperous Philadelphia was known as ‘little Athens’ because of its festivals and temples, which indicates the city was not entirely converted to Christianity. Ammia, the Montanist prophetess, was from Philadelphia.

The domed Basilica of Saint John was built around the year 600. Its remains are the principal archaeological attraction there today, and include three of the six original pillars, with some barely visible 11th century painting; a fourth pillar is half-buried in the soil.

In the 14th century, the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Constantinople made Philadelphia the metropolis of Lydia, a status it still holds. Philadelphia was the last Byzantine stronghold in inner Asia Minor.

Philadelphia remained a strong centre of Orthodox Christianity until the early 20th century. During the Asia Minor ‘catastrophe’ and the war between Greece and Turkey in the aftermath of World War I, Philadelphia was attacked by Atatürk’s supporters was razed to the ground by fire. Atatürk’s biographer Patrick Kinross wrote, ‘Alaşehir was no more than a dark scorched cavity, defacing the hillside. Village after village had been reduced to an ash-heap.’ It is estimated that in the genocide that followed at least 3,000 people were killed, and 4,300 out of 4,500 buildings were destroyed in the burning of Philadelphia or Alaşehir.

In Athens and Thessaloniki, the suburbs of Nea Filadelfia (Νέα Φιλαδέλφεια, New Philadelphia) are named after Greek refugees from Philadelphia who settled in the cities after the war and the ‘population exchange’ between Greece and Turkey in 1923. Today it is known as Alaşehir.

A Greek gravestone by the Church of Saint John In Alaşehir, ancient Philadelphia (Photograph: Simon Jenkins/Wikipedia)

The letter from Patmos to the Church in Philadelphia gives the impression that it was small in numbers, or poor, or both. But it had remained faithful, and had not denied Christ. In this letter, Philadelphia, like Smyrna, receives no warning or condemnation. The Church has lived through difficult circumstances and is urged to hold fast in the face of further difficulties.

Verse 7: The key of David is a symbol of authority and allows access to the king’s palace (see Isaiah 22: 15-22), but earlier in Revelation we have also encountered the keys of Hades and Death (1: 18) that give access to the eschatological kingdom.

Verse 8: An open door symbolises opportunity.

Verse 9: According to this letter, the Christians in Philadelphia were suffering persecution at the hands of the local Jews, who are called the ‘synagogue of Satan.’ Once again, this is a difficult passage to deal with, and refers to clashes at the time rather than anything in the future – it cannot be applied to Jewish communities today.

Verse 12: Those Christians in Philadelphia who are persistent in the faith and are victorious are to become the pillars of the temple of God. This means that the people themselves become the temple of God. The metaphor may refer to the pillars of Solomon’s Temple (see I Kings 7: 21 and II Chronicles 3: 17).

But the city’s history of earthquakes may lie behind the reference to making this church a pillar in the temple, for permanency was of vital importance to the city’s residents. These pillars are given new names – there is the name of God, the name of the city of God, Jerusalem, and the new name of the Lamb, Christ. Each of these promises point to a new and promised reality.

As with all seven churches, the church in Philadelphia is called on to hear the message: ‘Let anyone who has an ear listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches’ (Revelation 3: 13).

The healing of the paralytic man (see Mark 2: 1-12) … a fresco in Analipsi Church in Georgioupoli in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Mark 2: 1-12 (NRSVA):

1 When he returned to Capernaum after some days, it was reported that he was at home. 2 So many gathered around that there was no longer room for them, not even in front of the door; and he was speaking the word to them. 3 Then some people came, bringing to him a paralysed man, carried by four of them. 4 And when they could not bring him to Jesus because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him; and after having dug through it, they let down the mat on which the paralytic lay. 5 When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, ‘Son, your sins are forgiven.’ 6 Now some of the scribes were sitting there, questioning in their hearts, 7 ‘Why does this fellow speak in this way? It is blasphemy! Who can forgive sins but God alone?’ 8 At once Jesus perceived in his spirit that they were discussing these questions among themselves; and he said to them, ‘Why do you raise such questions in your hearts? 9 Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, “Your sins are forgiven”, or to say, “Stand up and take your mat and walk”? 10 But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins’ – he said to the paralytic – 11 ‘I say to you, stand up, take your mat and go to your home.’ 12 And he stood up, and immediately took the mat and went out before all of them; so that they were all amazed and glorified God, saying, ‘We have never seen anything like this!’

The ruins of the Church of Saint John In Alaşehir or ancient Philadelphia (Photograph Simon Jenkins / Wikipedia)

Today’s Prayers (Friday 12 January 2024):

The theme this week in ‘Pray With the World Church,’ the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is: ‘Whom Shall I Send’ – Episcopal Province of Jerusalem and the Middle East. This theme was introduced on Sunday by the Revd Davidson Solanki, USPG Regional Manager, Asia and the Middle East.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (12 January 2024) invites us to pray in these words:

O God of all justice and peace, we cry out to You amid the pain and trauma of violence and fear that prevails in the Holy Land. We pray for an end to violence and the establishment of peace in the region.

The Collect:

Almighty God,
who endowed Aelred the abbot
with the gift of Christian friendship
and the wisdom to lead others in the way of holiness:
grant to your people that same spirit of mutual affection,
so that, in loving one another,
we may know the love of Christ
and rejoice in the eternal possession
of your supreme goodness;
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 God,
who gave such grace to your servant Aelred
that he served you with singleness of heart
and loved you above all things:
help us, whose communion with you
has been renewed in this sacrament,
to forsake all that holds us back from following Christ
and to grow into his likeness from glory to glory;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s reflection (Sardis)

Continued tomorrow (Laodicea)

A carved stone slab in the Church of Saint John In Alaşehir or ancient Philadelphia (Photograph Murat Bengisu / Wikipedia)

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

Daily prayers during Christmas and Epiphany: 18, 11 January 2024

The remains of the Temple of Artemis in Sardis, with the acropolis in the background … the church in Sardis is addressed in the fifth of seven letters in the Book of Revelation (Photograph: Carole Raddato, Wikipedia)

Patrick Comerford

The celebrations of Epiphany-tide continue today (11 January 2023). The week began with the First Sunday of Epiphany (7 January 2024).

Christmas is a season that lasts for 40 days that continues from Christmas Day (25 December) to Candlemas or the Feast of the Presentation (2 February).

Today, the Calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship also remembers Mary Slessor (1915), Missionary in West Africa. Before today begins, I am taking some time for reading, reflection and prayer.

My reflections each morning during the seven days of this week include:

1, A reflection on one of the seven churches named in Revelation 2-3 as one of the recipients of letters from Saint John on Patmos;

2, the Gospel reading of the day;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary.

The synagogue in Sardis, dating from the late third century CE … evidence of a strong and long-surviving Jewish community in the city (Photograph: Carole Raddato, Wikipedia)

The Churches of the Book of Revelation: 5, Sardis:

Sardis is one of the seven churches in Asia Minor to receive a letter from Saint John as he describes his revelation on Patmos: Ephesus (Revelation 2: 1-7), Smyrna (Revelation 2: 8-11), Pergamum (Revelation 2: 12-17), Thyatira (Revelation 2: 18-29), Sardis (Revelation 3: 1-6), Philadelphia (Revelation 3: 7-13) and Laodicea (Revelation 3: 14-22).

The fifth letter in these chapters is addressed to the Church in Sardis (Revelation 3: 1-6), which is admonished for being spiritually dead, despite its reputation, and it is told to wake up and repent (3: 2-3).

Sardis, or Sardes (Σάρδεις) is modern Sartmustafa in the Manisa province of Turkey.

Sardis stood in the middle of the Hermus Valley, about 4 km south of the Hermus. Today, the village of Sart is close to the main road from Izmir to Ankara, about 72 km from Izmir (Smyrna). It was an important city because of its military strength, its place on an important highway leading from the interior to the Aegean coast, and its position commanding the wide and fertile plain of the Hermus.

The earliest reference to Sardis is by Aeschylus in The Persians (472 BCE). In the Persian era, it was captured from the fabulously wealthy and greedy King Croesus by Cyrus the Great, whose consequent wealth is referred to in Isaiah 45: 3.

Sardis then became the end station for the Persian Royal Road which began in Persepolis. During the Ionian Revolt, the Athenians burnt the city, and Sardis finally surrendered to Alexander the Great in 334 BCE.

At the time the Book of Revelation was written, Sardis was a city known for its luxury and licentiousness. It was a centre of the imperial cult and had a great temple dedicated to Artemis, built along similar lines to the temple in Ephesus.

The remains at Sardis include the bath-gymnasium complex, the synagogue and Byzantine shops. The recent discovery of the large synagogue in Sardis has reversed previous assumptions about Judaism in the later Roman Empire, and provides evidence for the continued vitality of Jewish communities in Asia Minor into the third or fourth century at a time when many scholars previously assumed that Christianity had eclipsed Judaism.

The name Sardis may have been the origin of the word Sephardic, which describes many Jewish communities of Oriental and Mediterranean origin. A place named ‘Sepharad’ is mentioned in the Book of Obadiah, where the prophet refers to the exiles from Jerusalem in Sepharad. There is no scholarly consensus om to the geographical location of the original Sepharad: some scholars suggest locations in Mesopotamia, Sardis in Asia Minor, or Sparta in Greece. However, from late Roman times, some Jews assumed Sepharad referred to Spain, so that by the Middle Ages Sepharad was the normal term used by Jews to refer to Spain.

Sardis remained one of the great cities of western Asia Minor until the later Byzantine period. By the 19th century, Sardis was in ruins.

Verses 1 and 2: The Church in Sardis is addressed by Christ as the one who has the seven spirits and the seven stars of God. The letter implies that the people of Sardis were notoriously soft and faint-hearted. They appear to be alive but may as well be dead, appear to be awake but are asleep. The church exists only in name and not in deed.

Verse 3: The image of being the unsuspecting and unprepared victim of a cunning thief is particularly apt for Sardis: the city was twice captured, first by Cyrus and then Antiochus III because no guard was posted above the steep slopes. The Church in Sardis is now in danger of finding out that it is what has been stole.

Verse 4: Yet, there is a faithful remnant within the Church, who have not soiled their clothes.

Verse 5: White robes are the robes of baptism and the robes of pure worship. The Letter says that Christ will grant to those who are pure in this world a white robe and walk with Christ. The white robes or garments point to the resurrected body. The book of life is the register of God containing the names of the redeemed (see Exodus 32: 32; Psalm 69: 28; Daniel 12: 1; Malachi 3: 16).

As with all seven churches, the church in Sardis is called on to hear the message: ‘Let anyone who has an ear listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches’ (Revelation 3: 6).

The Bath-Gymnasium complex at Sardis, dating from the late second or early third century CE (Photograph: Carole Raddato, Wikipedia)

Mark 1: 40-45 (NRSVA):

40 A leper came to him begging him, and kneeling he said to him, ‘If you choose, you can make me clean.’ 41 Moved with pity, Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, and said to him, ‘I do choose. Be made clean!’ 42 Immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean. 43 After sternly warning him he sent him away at once, 44 saying to him, ‘See that you say nothing to anyone; but go, show yourself to the priest, and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.’ 45 But he went out and began to proclaim it freely, and to spread the word, so that Jesus could no longer go into a town openly, but stayed out in the country; and people came to him from every quarter.

The gymnasium complex at Sardis (Photograph: Carole Raddato, Wikipedia)

Today’s Prayers (Thursday 11 January 2024):

The theme this week in ‘Pray With the World Church,’ the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is: ‘Whom Shall I Send’ – Episcopal Province of Jerusalem and the Middle East. This theme was introduced on Sunday by the Revd Davidson Solanki, USPG Regional Manager, Asia and the Middle East.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (11 January 2024) invites us to pray in these words:

Help us remember Lord, in all that we do, that we are all your children. We are all equal.

The Collect:

Eternal Father,
who at the baptism of Jesus
revealed him to be your Son,
anointing him with the Holy Spirit:
grant to us, who are born again by water and the Spirit,
that we may be faithful to our calling as your adopted children;
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 of all time and eternity,
you opened the heavens and revealed yourself as Father
in the baptism of Jesus your beloved Son:
by the power of your Spirit
complete the heavenly work of our rebirth
through the waters of the new creation;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

Heavenly Father,
at the Jordan you revealed Jesus as your Son:
may we recognize him as our Lord
and know ourselves to be your beloved children;
through Jesus Christ our Saviour.

Yesterday’s reflection (Thyatria)

Continued tomorrow (Philadelphia)

The remains of Byzantine shops and the gymnasium in Sardis (Photograph: Carole Raddato, Wikipedia)

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

Daily prayers during Christmas and Epiphany: 16, 9 January 2024

The ruins of Hellenistic Pergamon … Pergamum is one of the seven churches in Asia Minor to receive a letter from Saint John in the Book of Revelation (Photograph: Haluk Comertel/Wikipedia)

Patrick Comerford

The celebrations of Epiphany-tide continue today (9 January 2023). The week began with the First Sunday of Epiphany (7 January 2024).

Christmas is a season that lasts for 40 days that continues from Christmas Day (25 December) to Candlemas or the Feast of the Presentation (2 February).

Before today begins, I am taking some time for reading, reflection and prayer.

My reflections each morning during the seven days of this week include:

1, A reflection on one of the seven churches named in Revelation 2-3 as one of the recipients of letters from Saint John on Patmos;

2, the Gospel reading of the day;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary.

The Library of Pergamum rivalled those in Alexandria and Ephesus and was given to Cleopatra as a wedding present

The Churches of the Book of Revelation: 3, Pergamum:

Pergamum is one of the seven churches in Asia Minor to receive a letter from Saint John as he describes his revelation on Patmos: Ephesus (Revelation 2: 1-7), Smyrna (Revelation 2: 8-11), Pergamum (Revelation 2: 12-17), Thyatira (Revelation 2: 18-29), Sardis (Revelation 3: 1-6), Philadelphia (Revelation 3: 7-13) and Laodicea (Revelation 3: 14-22).

The third letter in these chapters is addressed to the Church in Pegamum. Pergamum, Pergamon, or Pérgamo (Πέργαμος) is an ancient Greek city about 105 km north of Ephesus, and is known today as Bergama. Pergamum’s wealth, library, temples and beauty were surpassed in the region only by those of Ephesus.

The earliest mention of Pergamon in literary sources is in Xenophon’s Anabasis, and the march of the Ten Thousand under Xenophon’s command ended at Pergamon in 400/399 BCE. Pergamon became the capital of the Kingdom of Pergamon in 281-133 BCE under the Attalid dynasty, who transformed it into one of the major cultural centres of the Greek world.

The most famous structure from the city is the monumental altar, sometimes called the Great Altar, probably dedicated to Zeus and Athena. Many scholars believe the reference in the Book of Revelation to ‘Satan’s throne’ (2: 13) in Pergamon is to the great altar due to its resemblance to a gigantic throne.

The foundations of the altar are still located in the upper city, but the remains of the Pergamon frieze, which originally decorated it, are in the Pergamon Museum in Berlin, where they have been installed in a partial reconstruction. The frieze is 2.30 metres high and 113 metres long, making it the second longest frieze surviving from antiquity, after the Parthenon Frieze in Athens.

The Theatre of Pergamon dates from the Hellenistic period and had space for around 10,000 people. It is 36 metres high and the steepest of all ancient theatres.

Pergamum’s library on the Acropolis was the second best in the ancient Greek civilisation. When the Ptolemies stopped exporting papyrus from Egypt, the Pergamenes invented a new substance to use in codices, called pergaminus or pergamena (parchment) after the city. This was made of fine calf skin, and was a predecessor of vellum. The library at Pergamon was said to have 200,000 scrolls, rivalling the libraries of Alexandria and Ephesus – Mark Antony later gave them to Cleopatra as a wedding present.

On the highest point of the citadel is the Temple of Trajan or Traianeum, also called the Temple of Zeus Philios. The Temple of Dionysus was built by Eumenes II in the second century BCE. Pergamon’s oldest temple, the Temple of Athena, dates from the 4th century BCE.

The Lower Acropolis includes a large gymnasium, the Sanctuary of Hera, the Sanctuary of Demeter, and the Sanctuary of Asclepius or Asclepieion. The Asklepion of Pergamum, after those of Kos and Epidavros, was the most important in the Roman world, attracting pilgrims and people in search of healing from all over the known world. There, a live serpent was kept in a mystical chest as an object of veneration.

The city was also a noted centre of idolatrous worship and of the Roman imperial cult. In Saint John’s time, there was a statue of Caesar Augustus in the Temple of Athena on the summit of the acropolis, and the walls of the Great Altar were decorated with reliefs showing the battle between the Greek gods and the giants.

The church was planted at an early stage in Pergamum, and the best-known surviving church building is the Church of Saint John.

Saint Antipas, the first bishop of Pergamum is said to have been ordained by Saint John the Apostle. was a victim of an early clash between Serapis worshippers and Christians. An angry mob is said to have burned Saint Antipas alive in the year 92 CE in front of the Temple of Serapis inside a brazen bull-like incense burner, which represented the bull god Apis.

The German engineer Carl Humann first visited Pergamon in 1864-1865, and returned in 1869-1871. He removed two fragments of a great frieze and sent them to Berlin, where the Pergamon Museum opened in 1907.

Meanwhile, at the beginning of the 19th century, with to the increase of the local Christian population, Pergamon became part of a newly established metropolitan district, but still part of the Metropolis of Ephesus. The district eventually became a diocese and the see was transferred to Pergamon (Bergama) in 1905.

After the Greco-Turkish War in 1919-1922, the ‘Asia Minor disaster’ and the genocide that ensued, the remaining Orthodox population was forced to leave the area. The distinguished Greek Orthodox theologian, Metropolitan John Zizioulas, was the titular Metropolitan of Pergamon and Adramyttium from 1986 until he died last year (2023).

Metropolitan John Zizioulas of Pergamon (front, right) with Metropolitan Kallistos Ware and Archbishop Rowan Williams at a celebration organised by the Institute for Orthodox Christian Studies in Westcott House, Cambridge, in 2014

In the Book of Revelation, the Christians in Pergamum (Revelation 2: 12-17) were told they were living where ‘Satan’s throne is’ and that they needed to repent for allowing heretics to teach (2: 16).

Verse 12:

Christ is introduced to the Church of Pergamum as the one with the two-edged sword (see 1: 16; see also Hebrews 4: 12, and Psalm 149: 6).

Verse 13:

The great altar to Zeus with its motifs, the statue of the divine Caesar and the veneration of the snake may all have inspired Saint John to describe Pergamum as ‘Satan’s throne.’ The Christians there are commended for holding fast to their faith, despite martyrdom and murder. Antipas, one of the Church leaders in Pergamum, was martyred by being roasted in a brazen bull for his refusal to take part in the imperial cult.

Verse 14:

However, it appears some Christians in Pergamum had been compromised by the imperial cult, described here the cult of Balaam, eating food sacrificed to idols and engaging in fornication. Balaam, a greedy false prophet, was asked to curse the Israelites, and induced them in engage in prostitution with Moabite women and to eat food sacrificed by their neighbours to their gods (see Numbers 22-25). In this instance, John may be referring to those who had taken part in the imperial cult. Participation in sacrifices to the emperor amounts to spiritual unfaithfulness and prostitution.

Verse 15:

The Church in Pergamum, like the Church of Ephesus, also suffered inroads from the Nicolaitans.

Verse 16:

Those who do not take the opportunity to abandon idolatry and heresy are warned of the consequences facing them.

Verse 17:

But those who listen and believe are promised the ‘hidden manna’ which Christ gives to those who conquer with him. Manna sustained the children of Israel in the wilderness; now, in the wilderness of persecution, those who abandon idolatry and follow Christ are promised the hidden manna, which may refer to the Eucharistic banquet.

In the classical world, stones of various kinds served as tickets and admission passes. The white stone and the new name may refer to the believer’s baptismal name, written on a stone, which can be compared with a ticket or a right to enter into the higher heavens.

As with all seven churches, the church in Pergamum is called on to hear the message: ‘Let anyone who has an ear listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches’ (Revelation 2: 17).

‘When the sabbath came, he entered the synagogue and taught’ (Mark 1: 21) … the Old Synagogue in Krakow, built in 1407, is the oldest Jewish house of prayer in Poland (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Mark 1: 21-28 (NRSVA):

21 They went to Capernaum; and when the sabbath came, he entered the synagogue and taught. 22 They were astounded at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes. 23 Just then there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit, 24 and he cried out, ‘What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God.’ 25 But Jesus rebuked him, saying, ‘Be silent, and come out of him!’ 26 And the unclean spirit, throwing him into convulsions and crying with a loud voice, came out of him. 27 They were all amazed, and they kept on asking one another, ‘What is this? A new teaching – with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him.’ 28 At once his fame began to spread throughout the surrounding region of Galilee.

‘At once his fame began to spread throughout the surrounding region’ (Mark 1: 28) … spreading fame and news at a kiosk in Rethymnon, Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Tuesday 9 January 2024):

The theme this week in ‘Pray With the World Church,’ the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is: ‘Whom Shall I Send’ – Episcopal Province of Jerusalem and the Middle East. This theme was introduced on Sunday by the Revd Davidson Solanki, USPG Regional Manager, Asia and the Middle East.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (9 January 2024) invites us to pray in these words:

We pray for Archbishop Hosam Naoum and other Christian leaders in the Episcopal Province of Jerusalem and the Middle East as they continue to serve their people and work for peace and reconciliation.

The Collect:

Eternal Father,
who at the baptism of Jesus
revealed him to be your Son,
anointing him with the Holy Spirit:
grant to us, who are born again by water and the Spirit,
that we may be faithful to our calling as your adopted children;
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 of all time and eternity,
you opened the heavens and revealed yourself as Father
in the baptism of Jesus your beloved Son:
by the power of your Spirit
complete the heavenly work of our rebirth
through the waters of the new creation;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

Heavenly Father,
at the Jordan you revealed Jesus as your Son:
may we recognize him as our Lord
and know ourselves to be your beloved children;
through Jesus Christ our Saviour.

Yesterday’s reflection (Symrna)

Continued tomorrow (Thyatira)

The Altar of Pergamon in the Pergamon Museum in Berlin (Photograph: Raimond Soekking/Wikipedia)

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

‘We Three Kings of Orient are’: an Epiphany carol with Irish links

Bishop John Henry Hopkins, Dublin-born Bishop of Vermont father of the composer of ‘We Three Kings’ Frontispiece, The life of the late Right Reverend John Henry Hopkins, first Bishop of Vermont, and seventh presiding bishop (1873)

Patrick Comerford

The Christmas or (more correctly) Epiphany carol, ‘We Three Kings of Orient are,’ ranks alongside ‘O Little Town of Bethlehem’ by Bishop Phillips Brooks among the best-known and popular American carols, but few people in Ireland realise that the author’s father was born in Dublin and was one of the bishops who played a pivotal role in the formation of the Anglican Communion.

‘We Three Kings of Orient are’ was written in 1859 by the Revd John Henry Hopkins junior (1820-1891). He was the Rector of Christ Church in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, when he wrote this carol for a Christmas pageant in the General Theological Seminary, New York, although it did not appear in print for another six years. He was the son of John Henry Hopkins (1792-1868), an Irish-born Episcopal bishop who was the first Bishop of Vermont and later the eighth Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church.

Bishop John Henry Hopkins was born in Dublin on 30 January 1792, the son of Thomas Hopkins and his wife Elizabeth (née Fitzackerly). Thomas and Elizabeth Hopkins emigrated from Dublin in 1800 to Philadelphia. There, the young John Henry Hopkins began his education at home with his mother, and he was reading Shakespeare before the age of nine. Elizabeth established a school for girls in Trenton, New Jersey, and eventually sent her son to a Baptist boys’ school in Bordentown, and then to Princeton University. Because of his family’s straitened circumstances, Hopkins took a job at a counting-house. At the time, he was not particularly religious and his parents’ marriage was troubled. When his mother moved to Frederick, Maryland, to establish another school, he remained in Philadelphia with his father and friends.

Hopkins worked for an ironmaster in New Jersey and in Philadelphia before moving west to manage the ironworks at Bassenheim in Butler County. James O’Hara (1752-1819), an immigrant from County Mayo who became the wealthiest man in Pittsburgh, employed Hopkins to run the ironworks in the Ligonier Valley. There Hopkins got to know the Muller family, descended from a long line of German Lutheran ministers, and, after a religious awakening, he began studying the Bible and other religious books. He travelled back to Harmony, Pennsylvania, to marry Caspar Muller’s daughter Melusina and they settled at Hermitage Furnace. The iron business failed, however, and Hopkins returned to Pittsburgh where he taught drawing and painting while studying law. He was called to the bar in 1819 and set up a legal practice in Pittsburgh.

John and Melusina attended the Presbyterian Church, but he was also the organist and choirmaster at Trinity Church, the local Episcopal Church. When the Rector of Trinity Church moved to New Jersey and the next priest proved inadequate, Hopkins applied to be accepted for the priesthood, planning to combine his ministerial and legal vocations. He was licensed as a lay reader in 1823 by William White, bishop of Pennsylvania, was ordained deacon on 14 December and was ordained priest on 12 May 1824. He was placed in charge of Trinity Church, Pittsburgh, and he was Professor of Rhetoric and Belles-Lettres in the Western University of Pennsylvania (now the University of Pittsburgh) in 1824-30. He read the works of the Church Fathers in the original Greek and Latin and, although in principle committed to high church liturgical practices, he opposed the introduction of the confessional to the Episcopal Church.

In 1827 he stepped back from the opportunity to become a coadjutor bishop to Bishop White, who was also the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church. He realised his own vote would have decided the election in his favour, and he lost by one vote. Later he told his son that had he voted for himself he would have wondered for the rest of his life whether his will or God’s had been done.

In 1831, he moved to Trinity Church, Boston, where his vision was to establish a diocesan seminary. In 1832 he was elected the first bishop of Vermont and was consecrated in St Paul’s Church, New York, on 31 October. At the same time, he became the rector of St Paul’s, Burlington. While he was bishop of Vermont, the diocese faced financial depressions, mass migration to the west which was opening up, personal bankruptcy and controversies.

Hopkins is credited with introducing Gothic architecture to the Episcopal Church, and was the architect of Trinity Church, Rutland, where he was the rector in 1860-1. In 1861 he published a controversial pamphlet, A scriptural, ccclesiastical, and historical view of Slavery, in which he argued that slavery was not a sin per se but an institution that was objectionable and should be abrogated by agreement. His dream of a diocesan seminary was realised in 1860 with the opening of the Vermont Episcopal Institute near Burlington. For a time, he was also the Chancellor of the University of Vermont.

He was elected the presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church in January 1865, and presided that October at the general convention in Philadelphia. Largely through his friendship with Bishop Stephen Elliott of Georgia, the presiding bishop of the breakaway Protestant Episcopal Church in the Confederate States of America, the Northern and Southern branches of the Episcopal Church were reunited in 1866 after the end of the American Civil War.

Hopkins took a leading role in the first Lambeth Conference in 1867, bringing together all bishops in the Anglican Communion. He survived only two months after his return to Burlington and died on 9 January 1868, aged 75. His funeral took place in St Paul’s Church, Burlington, and he was buried beside the seminary he founded.

John and Melusina Hopkins had 13 children. In 1866, most of their large family gathered at the family home to celebrate their Golden Wedding anniversary. The University of Vermont and Harvard University hold many of the family papers.

The bishop’s son, the Revd John Henry Hopkins junior, the author of ‘We Three Kings of Orient are,’ was born on 28 October 1820, in Pittsburgh. He graduated from the University of Vermont with an AB in 1839, and received his master’s degree in 1845. He worked for some time as a journalist before entering the General Theological Seminary, New York. After ordination, he was the seminary’s first music teacher (1855-7), composed several hymns and edited the Church Journal. As the rector of Christ Church in Williamsport, Pennsylvania (1876-1887), he delivered the eulogy at the funeral of President Ulysses S Grant in 1885. He died in Hudson, New York, on 14 August 1891 and is buried beside his father.

Hopkins wrote the words and music of ‘We Three Kings of Orient are’ for a Christmas pageant in 1859 while he was visiting his father’s home in Vermont, although it did not appear in print until his Carols, Hymns and Songs was published in New York in 1863. The carol is based on the story of the Visit of the Magi (Matthew 2: 1-12). Three male voices each sing a single verse by himself, corresponding with the three kings. The first and last stanzas are sung together by all three as ‘verses of praise,’ while the intermediate stanzas are sung individually, with each king describing his gift and revealing the sacramental nature of the gifts offered to the Christ Child. The refrain praises the beauty of the Star of Bethlehem.

This is the first Christmas carol from the US to win widespread popularity, and it was included in Bramley and Stainer’s Christmas carols old and new in London in 1871. In 1916, it was published in the hymnal for the Episcopal Church. When it was included in the Oxford Book of Carols (1928), it was described as ‘one of the most successful of modern composed carols.’

Sources and Further Reading:

John Henry Hopkins III, ‘The Rev. John Henry Hopkins, Jr.,’ Historical Magazine of the Protestant Episcopal Church, Vol 4, No 4, (Historical Society of the Episcopal Church Vol 4, No 4, December 1935), pp 267-280.

‘We Three Kings of Orient are’: an Epiphany carol with Irish links is published in Christmas and the Irish: a miscellany, ed Salvador Ryan (Dublin: Wordwell Books, 2023, 403 pp, €25, ISBN: 978-1-913934-93-4), pp 103-107.

The list of contributors includes this note on p 400:

Patrick Comerford is an Anlican priest living in retirement near Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire. He is a former adjunct assistant professor in Trinity College Dublin

‘Christmas and the Irish: a miscellany’ was launched in the Royal Irish Academy, Dublin, on 30 November 2023

Daily prayers during Christmas and Epiphany: 13, 6 January 2024

The Magi at the Crib … the Epiphany depicted in a window in Holy Trinity Church, Coventry (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Patrick Comerford

Patrick Comerford

Today is the Feast of the Epiphany (6 January 2024), also known in many places as ‘Little Christmas.’ Christmas is not a season of 12 days, despite the popular song. Christmas is a 40-day season that lasts from Christmas Day (25 December) to Candlemas or the Feast of the Presentation (2 February).

Before today begins, I am taking some time for reading, reflection and prayer.

My reflections each morning during the ‘12 Days of Christmas’ included a reflection on a verse from the popular Christmas song ‘The Twelve Days of Christmas’, as well as the Gospel reading of the day, and a prayer from the USPG prayer diary.

A year ago, Charlotte and I had started our visit to Budapest and spent the next three or four days visiting the Anglican Church of Saint Margaret of Hungary and Father Frank Hegedus with the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel) to see how the church and church agencies in Hungary are working with refugees from the war in Ukraine.

That journey to Budapest – for Charlotte and me, and for so many of the Ukrainian refugees – reminds me this morning how much Epiphany is contained in stories about people on the move: the Magi visiting Bethlehem, and returning home ‘by another route’; the Holy Family making their journey as refugees fleeing to Egypt; or Christ journeying to the Banks of the River Jordan, where he is baptised by Saint John the Baptist.

So, once again this morning, for my Epiphany reflection today, I am returning to TS Eliot’s ‘The Journey of the Magi’, with photographs of Epiphany scenes seen in the past year.

‘And three trees on the low sky’ (TS Eliot) … three trees against the setting sun in winter on Cross in Hand Lane, Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Eliot wrote ‘The Journey of the Magi’ after hs conversion to Christianity and his confirmation in the Church of England in 1927, and it was published in Ariel Poems in 1930. This poem is truly a sermon in poem, and often on this feast, instead of preaching a sermon on this day, I have read this poem instead.

Eliot wrote ‘The Journey of the Magi’ after his conversion to Christianity and his confirmation as an Anglican on 29 June 1927, and it was published in 1930 in Ariel Poems. Later, Eliot became a churchwarden at Saint Stephen’s in Gloucester Road, London, and he remained a lifelong Anglo-Catholic.

The poem recalls ‘Dover Beach’ by Matthew Arnold (1822-1888), with the rhythm of journey and also Arnold’s recollection of how

Sophocles long ago
Heard it on the Ægæan, and it brought
Into his mind the turbid ebb and flow
Of human misery; we
Find also in the sound a thought,
Hearing it by this distant northern sea.

Or where Arnold writes:

Ah, love, let us be true
To one another! for the world, which seems
To lie before us like a land of dreams,
So various, so beautiful, so new,
Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light,
Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain;
And we are here as on a darkling plain
Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,
Where ignorant armies clash by night.

The poem also shows some influences of the earlier ‘The Magi’ by WB Yeats. But, unlike Yeats, Eliot’s ‘The Journey of the Magi’ is a truly Anglican poem, for the first five lines are based on the 1622 ‘Nativity Sermon’ of Lancelot Andrewes (1555-1626), Bishop of Winchester, who first summarised Anglicanism in the dictum ‘One canon reduced to writing by God himself, two testaments, three creeds, four general councils, five centuries and the series of Fathers in that period … determine the boundary of our faith.’

The Magi prepare to arrive at the crib in Lichfield Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Eliot’s poem recalls the journey of Magi to Bethlehem from the point of view of one of the Wise Men. In this way, the poem continues Eliot’s use of the dramatic monologue – a form adapted from Robert Browning. In this poem, Eliot chooses an elderly speaker who is world weary, reflective and sad – he works in a similar way in ‘The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock,’ ‘Gerontion,’ and with the Tiresias narrator of ‘The Waste Land,’ and possibly also with the narrator of ‘The Hollow Men.’

In this poem, Eliot’s narrator is a witness to momentous historical change who seeks to rise above that historical moment, a man who, despite material wealth and prestige, has lost his spiritual bearings. The speaker is agitated, his revelations are accidental and born out of his emotional distress, and he speaks to the reader directly.

Instead of celebrating the wonders of the journey, the wise man recalls a journey that was painful and tedious. He remembers how a tempting, distracting voice was constantly whispering in their ears on that journey that ‘this was all folly.’

The poem picks up Eliot’s persistent theme of alienation and a feeling of powerlessness in a world that has changed.

Instead of celebrating the wonders of his journey, the surviving Magi complains about a journey that was painful, tedious, and seemingly pointless. The speaker says that a voice was always whispering in their ears as they went that ‘this was all folly.’ The magus may have been unimpressed by the new-born infant, but he realises that the incarnation changes everything, and he asks:

… were we led all that way for
Birth or Death?

The birth of the Christ was the death of the old religions. Now in his in old age, he realises that with this birth his world had died, and he has little left to do but to wait for his own death.

On their journey, the Magi see ‘three trees against a low sky’ – a vision of the future Crucifixion on Calvary. The Incarnation points to the Cross. Without Good Friday and Easter Day, Christmas has no significance for us at all. The birth of Christ leads to the death of old superstitions and old orders.

The ‘running stream’ may refer to the Baptism of Christ by John the Baptist in the River Jordan, which is also an Epiphany moment.

The ‘six hands at an open door dicing for pieces of silver’ recall both the betrayal of Christ by Judas for 30 pieces of silver, and the dice thrown for Christ’s garment at the foot of the cross.

The empty wineskins recall the miracle at the Wedding in Cana, which is also recalled at Epiphany time.

The early morning descent into a ‘temperate valley’ evokes three significant Christian events: the nativity and the dawning of a new era; the empty tomb of Easter; and the Second Coming and the return of Christ from the East, dispelling darkness as the Sun of Righteousness.

In his old age, as he recalls these events, has the now-elderly Wise Man little left to do apart from waiting for his own death?

He is a witness of historical change, does he manage to rise above his historical moment?

With his material wealth and prestige, has he lost his spiritual bearings?

Or has he had spiritual insights before his time?

The Adoration of the Magi depicted in a mosaic in All Saints’ Church, Margaret Street, London (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

The Journey of the Magi, by TS Eliot

A cold coming we had of it,
Just the worst time of the year
For a journey, and such a long journey:
The ways deep and the weather sharp,
The very dead of winter.
And the camels galled, sore-footed, refractory,
Lying down in the melting snow.
There were times when we regretted
The summer palaces on slopes, the terraces,
And the silken girls bringing sherbet.
Then the camel men cursing and grumbling
And running away, and wanting their liquor and women,
And the night-fires going out, and the lack of shelters,
And the cities dirty and the towns unfriendly
And the villages dirty and charging high prices:
A hard time we had of it.
At the end we preferred to travel all night,
Sleeping in snatches,
With the voices singing in our ears, saying
That this was all folly.

Then at dawn we came down to a temperate valley,
Wet, below the snow line, smelling of vegetation;
With a running stream and a water mill beating the darkness,
And three trees on the low sky,
And an old white horse galloped away in the meadow.
Then we came to a tavern with vine-leaves over the lintel,
Six hands at an open door dicing for pieces of silver,
And feet kicking the empty wineskins.
But there was no information, and so we continued
And arrived at evening, not a moment too soon
Finding the place; it was (you may say) satisfactory.

All this was a long time ago, I remember,
And I would do it again, but set down
This set down
This: were we led all that way for
Birth or Death? There was a Birth, certainly,
We had evidence and no doubt. I had seen birth and death,
But had thought they were different; this Birth was
Hard and bitter agony for us, like Death, our death.
We returned to our places, these Kingdoms,
But no longer at ease here, in the old dispensation,
With an alien people clutching their gods.
I should be glad of another death.

The Adoration of the Magi depicted in the reredos in All Saints’ Church, Calverton (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Matthew 2: 1-12 (NRSVA):

1 In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, wise men[a] from the East came to Jerusalem, 2 asking, ‘Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we observed his star at its rising, and have come to pay him homage.’ 3 When King Herod heard this, he was frightened, and all Jerusalem with him; 4 and calling together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born. 5 They told him, ‘In Bethlehem of Judea; for so it has been written by the prophet:

6 “And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;
for from you shall come a ruler
who is to shepherd my people Israel”.’

7 Then Herod secretly called for the wise men and learned from them the exact time when the star had appeared. 8 Then he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, ‘Go and search diligently for the child; and when you have found him, bring me word so that I may also go and pay him homage.’ 9 When they had heard the king, they set out; and there, ahead of them, went the star that they had seen at its rising, until it stopped over the place where the child was. 10 When they saw that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy. 11 On entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother; and they knelt down and paid him homage. Then, opening their treasure-chests, they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. 12 And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for their own country by another road.

The Magi arrive at a crib in a house on High Street, Stony Stratford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Today’s Prayers (Saturday 6 January 2024):

The theme this week in ‘Pray With the World Church,’ the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), has been ‘Looking to 2024 – Freedom in Christ.’ This theme was introduced on Sunday by the Revd Duncan Dormor, USPG General Secretary.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (6 January 2024, the Epiphany) invites us to pray in these words:

Today we celebrate the baptism of Jesus. May we continue to be His witnesses, spreading the Gospel wherever we go.

The Collect:

O God,
who by the leading of a star
manifested your only Son to the peoples of the earth:
mercifully grant that we,
who know you now by faith,
may at last behold your glory face to face;
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,
the bright splendour whom the nations seek:
may we who with the wise men have been drawn by your light
discern the glory of your presence in your Son,
the Word made flesh, Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

Creator of the heavens,
who led the Magi by a star
to worship the Christ–child:
guide and sustain us,
that we may find our journey’s end
in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Collect on the Eve of Baptism of Christ:

Eternal Father,
who at the baptism of Jesus
revealed him to be your Son,
anointing him with the Holy Spirit:
grant to us, who are born again by water and the Spirit,
that we may be faithful to our calling as your adopted children;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Yesterday’s reflection

Continued tomorrow

The Three Wise Men in Saint Mary’s Church, Bletchley (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

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