Daily prayer in Easter 2026: 28, Saturday 2 May 2026

‘If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it’ (John 14: 14) … sunset in Rethymnon in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

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. Tomorrow is the Fifth Sunday of Easter (Easter V, 3 May 2026). Today, the Calendar of the Church remembers Saint Athanasius (296-373), Bishop of Alexandria and Teacher of the Faith.

This is a bank holiday weekend here. Later this morning, I hope to drop in to Το Στεκι Μας, Our Place, the pop-up Greek café that opens every first Saturday of the month at the Swinfen Harris Church Hall beside the Greek Orthodox Church on London Road, Stony Stratford, between 10:30 am and 3 pm. Before today begins, though, 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.

‘If you know me, you will know my Father also’ (John 14: 7) … an icon of the Holy Trinity in Saint Nektarios Church, Tsesmes, near Rethymnon in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

John 14: 7-14 (NRSVA):

[Jesus said:] 7 ‘If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.’

8 Philip said to him, ‘Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.’ 9 Jesus said to him, ‘Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, “Show us the Father”? 10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own; but the Father who dwells in me does his works. 11 Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; but if you do not, then believe me because of the works themselves. 12 Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father. 13 I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it.’

Philip said to him, ‘Lord, show us the Father’ (John 14: 8) … the Ancient of Days depicted in a fresco in the church in Piskopiano near Hersonissos in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflection:

Today’s short Gospel reading provided in the Lectionary at the Eucharist continues readings from the ‘Farewell Discourse’ in Saint John’s Gospel.

This chapter (John 14) includes questions from three of the disciple and three answers from Jesus, provided over the course of three days, yesterday, today and on Monday:

• ‘Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?’ (Thomas, John 14: 5)

• ‘Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied’ (Philip, John 14: 8)

• ‘Lord, how is it that you will reveal yourself to us, and not to the world?’ (Judas Thaddeus, John 14: 22)

These are also the questions and problems faced by the communities and churches gathered around Saint John in Ephesus and in Asia Minor. The answers Jesus gives to these three questions are like a mirror in which those communities find a response to their doubts and difficulties.

Jesus is preparing his friends to separate themselves and reveals to them his friendship, communicating to them security and support.

Today’s reading begins with Jesus reminding the disciples: ‘If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him’ (verse 17).

This continuing use of encouraging words in the face of troubles and differences reflects the many disagreements within those communities, each claiming to have the right approach to living out the faith and believing the others are living in error.

Jesus’ words in this morning’s reading are reminders that the unity of the church should reflect the unity found in the Trinity.

Jesus then makes a statement that at first seems strange: ‘Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father’ (verse 12).

How can we possibly do far greater things than Jesus did? Yet, in a way, it is very true. Because of his human nature, Jesus’ accomplishments were limited during his short time on earth. He lived in one small place, he reached relatively few people and he was intimate with only a small number.

Christians today, with the means of easier travel and modern communications, can bring his message to far greater numbers and more efficiently.

Jesus, now in his risen Body, the Church, can indeed ‘do greater works than these’, and this is made possible by his going back to the Father and passing on his work into our hands.

Given the instruments at our disposal today, we have a great responsibility to do those ‘greater works’. But to do that work we need, of course, to rely on his help and guidance of Jesus through his Spirit. As he says in conclusion today: ‘If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it’ (verse 14).

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

Philip said to him, ‘Lord, show us the Father’ (John 14: 8) … an icon of Saint Philip the Apostle in the chapel at Saint Columba’s House, Woking (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Saturday 2 May 2026):

‘Prayer and Action in Pakistan’ provides the theme this week (26 April to 2 May 2026) in ‘Pray With the World Church’, the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), pp 50-51. This theme was introduced last Sunday with Reflections from the Revd Davidson Solanki, Senior Regional Manager for Asia and the Middle East.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Saturday 2 May 2026) invites us to pray:

Heavenly Father, we thank you for USPG’s partnership with the Church of Pakistan. May our collaboration be strengthened so that all may know of your love.

The Collect:

Ever–living God,
whose servant Athanasius testified
to the mystery of the Word made flesh for our salvation:
help us, with all your saints,
to contend for the truth
and to grow into the likeness of your Son,
Jesus Christ 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:

God of truth,
whose Wisdom set her table
and invited us to eat the bread and drink the wine
of the kingdom:
help us to lay aside all foolishness
and to live and walk in the way of insight,
that we may come with Athanasius to the eternal feast of heaven; =
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Collect on the Eve of Easter V:

Almighty God,
who through your only–begotten Son Jesus Christ
have overcome death and opened to us the gate of everlasting life:
grant that, as by your grace going before us
you put into our minds good desires,
so by your continual help
we may bring them to good effect;
through Jesus Christ our risen Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Yesterday’s Reflections

Continued Tomorrow

Philip said to him, ‘Lord, show us the Father’ (John 14: 8) … Saint Philip (left) in a window in the Chapel of Saint John’s Hospital, Lichfield (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

Daily prayer in Easter 2026: 27, Friday 1 May 2026, Saint Philip and Saint James

‘In my Father’s house there are many dwelling-places’ (John 14: 2) … colourful houses in the Cathedral Close in Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Patrick Comerford

Our Easter celebrations continue in the Church Calendar, and this week began with the Second Sunday of Easter (Easter II). Easter is a 50-day season that continues until the Day of Pentecost (24 May 2026), or Whit Sunday.

The Church calendar today celebrates the feast of Saint Philip and Saint James, Apostles. This is also May Day (1 May) in many European countries, although the Bank Holiday in Britain and Ireland is on Monday next (4 May 2026). Today is also Staffordshire Day. 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.

Saint Philip (left) and Saint James (right) in stained glass windows in Saint Editha’s Church, Tamworth (Photographs: Patrick Comerford)

John 14: 1-14 (NRSVA):

[Jesus said:] 1 ‘Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. 2 In my Father’s house there are many dwelling-places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also. 4 And you know the way to the place where I am going.’ 5 Thomas said to him, ‘Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?’ 6 Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.’

8 Philip said to him, ‘Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.’ 9 Jesus said to him, ‘Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, “Show us the Father”? 10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own; but the Father who dwells in me does his works. 11 Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; but if you do not, then believe me because of the works themselves. 12 Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father. 13 I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it.’

‘In my Father’s house there are many dwelling-places’ (John 14: 2) … colourful houses and shopfront on the Main Bazaar in Kuching (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Today’s Gospel reading (John 14: 1-14) is also the Gospel reading for net Sunday(John 14: 1-14, 3 May 2026, Easter V). This reading is set within the context of the Last Supper, Christ’s Passover meal with the Disciples, and introduces his ‘Farewell Discourse’ in Saint John’s Gospel, in which Christ responds to the disciples’ questions by telling them he is the way, the truth and the life.

Judas Iscariot has left the table and the upper room and has gone out into the dark (John 13: 30), about to betray Christ.

Christ then gives his disciples the new commandment, ‘that you love one another’ (John 13: 34). In response to questions from Peter, Thomas, Philip and Jude, Christ now prepares his disciples for his departure.

This Gospel reading includes some well-known sayings, including:

• ‘In my Father's house are many mansions’ (KJV), translated in the NRSV and NRSVA as ‘In my Father’s house there are many dwelling-places’ (John 14: 2)

• ‘I am the way, the truth and the life’ (John 14: 6), the sixth of the seven ‘I AM’ (Ἐγώ εἰμι) sayings in Saint John’s Gospel

• ‘If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it’ (John 14: 14)

Saint Philip and Saint James have been associated since ancient times: an ancient inscription shows the Basilica of the Twelve Apostles in Rome had an earlier dedication to Philip and James.

In Shakespeare’s play Measure for Measure (III, ii, 204), a child’s age is given as ‘a year and a quarter old, come Philip and Jacob,’ meaning, ‘a year and a quarter old on the first of next May, the feast of Philip and James.’ This day has also given us the word ‘popinjay’ for a vain or conceited person or ‘fop.’

But, despite the cultural legacy they have left us, the Philip and James recalled on 1 May are, to a great degree, small-bit players – almost anonymous or forgotten – in the New Testament, and in the Church calendar.

The Western Church commemorates James the Greater on 25 July, and James the Brother of the Lord on 23 or 25 October. But James the Less has no day for himself, he shares it with Philip, on 1 May. Philip the Apostle who has to share that same commemoration is frequently confused with Philip the Deacon (Acts 6: 7; 8: 5-40; 21: 8 ff) – but Philip the Deacon has his own day on 6 June or 11 October.

The Saint James that the Church remembers on May Day is James, the Son of Alphaeus. We know nothing about this James, apart from the fact that Jesus called him to be one of the 12. He is not James, the Brother of the Lord, later Bishop of Jerusalem and the traditional author of the Letter of James. Nor is he James the son of Zebedee, also an apostle and known as James the Greater. He appears on lists of the 12 – usually in the ninth place – but is never mentioned otherwise.

Philip the Apostle, not Philip the Deacon, came from the same town as Peter and Andrew, Bethsaida in Galilee. When Jesus called him directly, he sought out Nathanael and told him about ‘him about whom Moses … wrote’ (John 1: 45).

Like the other apostles, Philip took a long time coming to realise who Jesus was. On one occasion, as we shall read tomorrow (John 6: 1-15), when Jesus sees the great multitude following him and wants to give them food, he asks Philip where they should buy bread for the people to eat. We are told Jesus says ‘this to test him, for he himself knew what he was going to do’ (John 6: 6). Philip answers unhelpfully, perhaps in a disbelieving way: ‘Six months’ wages would not buy enough bread for each of them to get a little [bit]’ (John 6: 7).

When Christ says in today’s reading, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life … If you know me, then you will know my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him’ (John 14: 6a, 7), Philip then says: ‘Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied’ (John 14: 8).

Satisfied?

Enough?

Jesus answers: ‘Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father’ (John 14: 9a).

Yet, despite the near-anonymity of James and the weaknesses of Philip, these two became foundational pillars in the Church. They display total human helplessness, yet they become apostles who bring the Good News into the world. Indeed, from the very beginning, Philip has an oft-forgotten role in bringing people to Christ. Perhaps because he had a Greek name, some Gentile proselytes came and asked him to introduce them to Jesus.

We see in James and Philip ordinary, weak, every-day, human, men who, nevertheless, become pillars of the Church at its very foundation. They show us that grace, holiness and the call to follow Christ come to us not on our own merits, or as special prizes to be achieved. They are entirely the gift of God, not a matter of human achieving.

We need not worry about questions and doubts … there are many dwelling places in God’s house, and faith grows and develops and matures, just as a child learns, through questions.

Questioning is not a sign of weakness, it is a sign of willingness to learn.

It is OK not to have all the answers. It is OK not to have all the answers. For Christ is ‘the way, the truth and the life’ (John 14: 6).

In following Christ, we need not worry about our human weakness or that others may even forget us. God sees us as we are, and loves us just as we are. It is just as we are that we are called to follow Christ.

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

‘In my Father’s house there are many dwelling-places’ (John 14: 2) … street art seen in Iraklion at Easter last year (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Friday 1 May 2026, Saint Philip and Saint James):

‘Prayer and Action in Pakistan’ provides the theme this week (26 April to 2 May 2026) in ‘Pray With the World Church’, the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), pp 50-51. This theme was introduced on Sunday with Reflections from the Revd Davidson Solanki, Senior Regional Manager for Asia and the Middle East.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Friday 1 May 2026, Saint Philip and Saint James) invites us to pray:

Gracious God, we give thanks for the faithful witness of Philip and James. May we, inspired by this example, share your love through service, strengthen communities, and bear witness to your light in all we do.

The Collect:

Almighty Father,
whom truly to know is eternal life:
teach us to know your Son Jesus Christ
as the way, the truth, and the life;
that we may follow the steps
of your holy apostles Philip and James,
and walk steadfastly in the way that leads to your glory;
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,
who on the day of Pentecost
sent your Holy Spirit to the apostles
with the wind from heaven and in tongues of flame,
filling them with joy and boldness to preach the gospel:
by the power of the same Spirit
strengthen us to witness to your truth
and to draw everyone to the fire of your love;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s Reflections

Continued Tomorrow

A return visit to Comberford yesterday … today (1 May) is also Staffordshire Day (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

Daily prayer in Easter 2026: 26, Thursday 30 April 2026

Waiting at a table at Katostari, below the Fortezza in Rethymnon … how we respond to waiters is an interesting test of character (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

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 Fourth Sunday of Easter (Easter IV, 26 May 2026), and we have now passed the half-way point in the Season of Easter.

The calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship today remembers Pandita Mary Ramabai (1858-1922), Translator of the Scriptures. 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.

‘The one who ate my bread has lifted his heel against me’ (Psalm 41: 9; John 13: 18) … bread on the table in Rethymnon, Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

John 13: 16-20 (NRSVA):

[Jesus said:] 16 ‘Very truly, I tell you, servants are not greater than their master, nor are messengers greater than the one who sent them. 17 If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them. 18 I am not speaking of all of you; I know whom I have chosen. But it is to fulfil the scripture, “The one who ate my bread has lifted his heel against me.” 19 I tell you this now, before it occurs, so that when it does occur, you may believe that I am he. 20 Very truly, I tell you, whoever receives one whom I send receives me; and whoever receives me receives him who sent me.’

A signboard waiter at the Taverna Garden in Platanias near Rethymnon … ‘the test of a true gentleman is in how he treats waiters’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflection:

I had an unhappy relationship with my father that was never resolved by the time he died. But I still have some good memories of him, including him teaching me to row on Lough Ramor in Virginia, Co Cavan, when I was in my teens, encouraging my interests in rugby and art, his childhood tales of ‘Little Jerusalem’, Rathmines and Portrane, or sharing his trade union activism and his memories of World War II.

He enjoyed dinners in his golf club in Rathfarnham, with the Cavalry Club in the officers’ mess in McKee Barracks, and his club on Saint Stephen’s Club. I was hardly ever with him on those evenings, but I remember him giving me solid advice: ‘The test of a true gentleman is in how he treats waiters.’

Ever since, the way people treat waiters and staff in restaurants has continued to be a way of telling me a lot about someone’s character. A man or woman who is rude to waiters or, conversely, patronises them, is probably best avoided.

Perhaps good manners in general are in decline. But I cannot count the number of times I have heard demanding and rude people in restaurants bawl, bellow, question why the couple who came in after them have served already, click their fingers at waiters, pretend to know something about wine only to send back what they ordered, change their minds and blame waiters for getting things wrong, or at the end of the evening quibble about small details on the bill and walk out without saying thank you or leaving an appropriate tip.

Waiters are not my friends, nor are they doing me a favour. But they do work that brings me joy and pleasure, they work hard, they have long hours, they are knowledgeable, fluent in more languages than I am, and often are underpaid for their long hours.

On the other hand, it brings me great pleasure when someone in a restaurant remembers me or my face when I go back, or, even more pleasantly, remembers my name.

Waiters are the messengers most of the time, from the tables to the kitchen staff and the kitchen staff to the tables, and sometimes between the kitchen staff and the proprietor. As I realise so often in Greece, waiters may be part of the family that owns a restaurant, and the same could be said too about the people in the kitchens.

Messengers are not ‘greater than the one who sent them’ – neither the table, the kitchen nor the proprietors. Nor, for that matter, are they lesser beings either. The one who receives them well receives those who send them well too. How they treat me tells me a lot about the kitchen and the proprietor. But how I treat them says a lot about what I think of people in general.

Saying thanks is never optional. The word Eucharist comes from the Greek ευχαριστία eukharistia), thanksgiving or gratitude, and grateful or pleasant ( ευχάριστος). The Eucharist (Εὐχαριστία) and Ευχαριστούμε (efcharistoúme), ‘Thank You’, are inseparable.

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

‘Thank you, Ευχαριστουμε’ (Eucharistoume), in a restaurant in Agios Georgios, Corfu (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Thursday 30 April 2026):

Before my day begins, I am remebering in my prayers Richard Harries, the former Bishop of Oxford, who died yesterday. We differed on many issues when we are part of a teleivsion planel debate during my active CND days in the 1980s, but he was a thoughtful, considerate and kind debater, with a great intellect. We bumped into each other when I was visiting the House of Lords with a friend in 2012, but little did I know then that I was going to move to the Diocese of Oxford. We sat together at lunch at a USPG Bray Day event he spoke at in London in 2024. He was a fount of knwledge on TS Eliot and was a critical thinker and engaing writer. May he rest in peace and rise in glory.

‘Prayer and Action in Pakistan’ provides the theme this week (26 April to 2 May 2026) in ‘Pray With the World Church’, the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), pp 50-51. This theme was introduced on Sunday with Reflections from the Revd Davidson Solanki, Senior Regional Manager for Asia and the Middle East.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Thursday 30 April 2026) invites us to pray:

Loving God, we pray too for The Most Revd Dr Azad Marshall, Moderator/President Bishop of the Church of Pakistan and Bishop of Raiwind and for all Bishops and members of other dioceses of the Church of Pakistan. Be their hope and strength, ever present by your Spirit.

The Collect:

Almighty God,
whose Son Jesus Christ is the resurrection and the life:
raise us, who trust in him,
from the death of sin to the life of righteousness,
that we may seek those things which are above,
where he reigns with you
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

Merciful Father,
you gave your Son Jesus Christ to be the good shepherd,
and in his love for us to lay down his life and rise again:
keep us always under his protection,
and give us grace to follow in his steps;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

Risen Christ,
faithful shepherd of your Father’s sheep:
teach us to hear your voice
and to follow your command,
that all your people may be gathered into one flock,
to the glory of God the Father.

Collect on the Eve of Saint Philip and Saint James:

Almighty Father,
whom truly to know is eternal life:
teach us to know your Son Jesus Christ
as the way, the truth, and the life;
that we may follow the steps
of your holy apostles Philip and James,
and walk steadfastly in the way that leads to your glory;
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 Reflections

Continued Tomorrow

An evening meal well-served at the Sunset Taverna in Rethymnon (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

Daily prayer in Easter 2026: 25, Wednesday 29 April 2026

‘I have come as light into the world, so that everyone who believes in me should not remain in the darkness’ (John 12: 46) … looking out into the village of Piskopiano in Crete from the Church of the Transfiguration (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

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 Fourth Sunday of Easter (Easter IV, 26 April 2026), sometimes known as ‘Good Shepherd Sunday’.

The calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship today remembers Saint Catherine of Siena (1347-1380), Teacher of the Faith. Today also marks the 75th anniversary of the death of the philsopher Ludwig Wittgenstein, and I hope to say more about that anniversary in a blog posting later today. Later this evening, I hope to take part choir rehearsals in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford. But, 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.

‘Whoever sees me sees him who sent me’ (John 12: 45) … the Ancient of Days depicted in a fresco in the Church of the Transfiguration in Piskopiano in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

John 12: 44-50 (NRSVA):

44 Then Jesus cried aloud: ‘Whoever believes in me believes not in me but in him who sent me. 45 And whoever sees me sees him who sent me. 46 I have come as light into the world, so that everyone who believes in me should not remain in the darkness. 47 I do not judge anyone who hears my words and does not keep them, for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world. 48 The one who rejects me and does not receive my word has a judge; on the last day the word that I have spoken will serve as judge, 49 for I have not spoken on my own, but the Father who sent me has himself given me a commandment about what to say and what to speak. 50 And I know that his commandment is eternal life. What I speak, therefore, I speak just as the Father has told me.’

‘The Light of the World’ by William Holman Hunt (1827-1910) in a side chapel in Keble College, Oxford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflections:

In the Gospel reading at the Eucharist today (John 12: 44-50), we come to the end of what is known as the ‘Book of Signs’ in Saint John’s Gospel (chapters 1 to 12). Through these seven signs, Christ clearly indicates who he is and what his mission is.

Today’s reading recapitulates all that Christ has said in the ‘Book of Signs’. We hear how Jesus ‘cried aloud’ and spoke. This gives extra emphasis to what he is proclaiming. It is once again a call to believe in Jesus where ‘believing in’ means much more than mere acceptance of the truth of his words. It implies too a personal commitment to Christ and to his mission.

To believe in Christ is also to believe in, to surrender oneself entirely to, the One who sent him, the Father. All through this Gospel, Jesus emphasises the inseparability of the Father and the Son.

The Father sends Christ as light into the world so that ‘whoever sees me sees him who sent me. I have come as light into the world, so that everyone who believes in me should not remain in the darkness’ (John 12: 45-46).

One of the first images of Christ that I remember being show as a child by my grandmother in her house in Cappoquin, Co Waterford, is Holman Hunt’s ‘The Light of the World’. It remains my favourite image of Christ and my favourite Pre-Raphaelite painting.

Saint Catherine of Siena, the Dominican doctor of the church remembered today, says, ‘It is only through shadows that one comes to know the light.’ Addressing Chrit in The Dialogue of Saint Catherine, where she touches topics on prayer, divine providence, and obedience, she writes, ‘You are the Fire that takes away the cold, illuminates the mind with its light, and causes me to know the truth’.

The ‘word’ of Christ is a challenge. It offers a way of living and of inter-relating with God, with others and with ourselves. Christ tells us that his Father’s commands – which he also observes – mean eternal life. Everything that Jesus did was the carrying out of his Father’s will. We are called to follow the same path, which is the way to total freedom.

But how do we follow that path, how do we walk that path?

During the week, I found myself re-reading the hymn ‘Attend and Keep this Happy Fast’ by the English Roman Catholic theologian and one-time Dominican priest, Roger Ruston. He has been strongly influential in Christian CND and similar movements. He is best known for both his careful critique of the ‘deterrence’ theory and the reliance on nuclear weapons and for his work on human rights, including his book Human Rights and the Image of God (SCM-Canterbury Press, 2004), and the conference with that name organised that year by the Dominican Justice and Peace Commission at Blackfriars, Oxford.

Roger Ruston’s insights have a pressing relevance in today’s dismal global political realities. He has also written a number of hymns that are informed by his theological priorities. His hymn ‘Attend and Keep this Happy Fast’ is based on Isaiah 58: 5-9 and expresses the idea that love is better than fasting, and looks to ‘the dawn your light will break’ and that time when ‘the glory of the Lord will shine’:

Attend and keep this happy fast
I preach to you this day.
Is this the fast that pleases me,
that takes your joy away?
Do I delight in sorrow’s dress,
says God, who reigns above,
the hanging head, the dismal look,
will they attract my love?

But is this not the fast I choose,
that shares the heavy load;
that seeks to bring the poor man in
who’s weary of the road;
that gives the hungry bread to eat,
to strangers gives a home;
that does not let you hide your face
from your own flesh and bone?

Then like the dawn your light will break,
to life you will be raised.
And all will praise the Lord for you;
be happy in your days.
The glory of the Lord will shine,
and in your steps his grace.
And when you call he’ll answer you;
He will not hide his face.

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

Rembering Mika Chrysaki who gave her name to Mika Villas in Piskopiano in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Wednesday 29 April 2026):

I have been recalling my own grandmother in my reflections this morning. In my prayers, I am also remebering a family of dear friends in Crete who are burying a dear mother, mother-in-law and grandmother, in Iraklion this afternoon. Mika was a warm, welcoming member of the family, and her son proudly gave her name to the family hotel in Piskopiano in the hills above Hersonissos. I have stayed in or visited there countless times since the mid-1990s.

‘Prayer and Action in Pakistan’ provides the theme this week (26 April to 2 May 2026) in ‘Pray With the World Church’, the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), pp 50-51. This theme was introduced on Sunday with Reflections from the Revd Davidson Solanki, Senior Regional Manager for Asia and the Middle East.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Wednesday 29 April 2026) invites us to pray:

Lord, bless the Church of Pakistan as they seek to serve all neighbours. Particularly after the devastation of the floods, may their acts of care demonstrate Christ’s love in action even across faiths.

The Collect:

God of compassion,
who gave your servant Catherine of Siena
a wondrous love of the passion of Christ:
grant that your people may be united to him in his majesty
and rejoice for ever in the revelation of his glory;
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

God of truth,
whose Wisdom set her table
and invited us to eat the bread and drink the wine
of the kingdom:
help us to lay aside all foolishness
and to live and walk in the way of insight,
that we may come with Catherine to the eternal feast of heaven;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s Reflections

Continued Tomorrow

‘It is only through shadows that one comes to know the light’ … Saint Catherine of Siena seen in a window in Saint Giles Church, Cambridge (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

Daily prayer in Easter 2026: 22, Sunday 26 April 2026

Christ as the Good Shepherd … a window in Saint Ailbe’s Church in Emly, Co Tipperary (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

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. Today is the Fourth Sunday of Easter (Easter IV, 26 April 2026), sometimes known as ‘Good Shepherd Sunday’.

Later this morning, I hope to sing with the choir at the Parish Eucharist in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford. But, 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.

Christ the Good Shepherd, with the Virgin Mary and Saint John the Baptist on each side … a stained-glass window in Saint Mary’s Church, Lichfield. The words below Christ read ‘Pastor Bonus’ … ‘The Good Shepherd’; the words on Saint John's scroll read ‘Ecce Agnus Dei’ … ‘This is the Lamb of God’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

John 10: 1-10 (NRSVA):

[Jesus said:] 1 ‘Very truly, I tell you, anyone who does not enter the sheepfold by the gate but climbs in by another way is a thief and a bandit. 2 The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. 3 The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep hear his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 When he has brought out all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. 5 They will not follow a stranger, but they will run from him because they do not know the voice of strangers.’ 6 Jesus used this figure of speech with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them.

7 So again Jesus said to them, ‘Very truly, I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. 8 All who came before me are thieves and bandits; but the sheep did not listen to them. 9 I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture. 10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.’

Sheep at the Balancing Lakes in Wolverton (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflection:

The Gospel reading today (John 10: 1-10) on the theme of the Good Shepherd, is opening part-of the ‘Good Shepherd Discourse’ in Saint John’s Gospel (John 10: 1-42).

When I was a child on my grandmother’s farm at Cappoquin in West Waterford, all the summer days, it seems, were filled with sunshine, and there was endless time to go fishing in the brooks, and walking through the meadows.

But there were two tasks I hated. One was trying to milk the cows: inevitably, I ended up covered in something more odious than milk – and I never even liked the smell of milk, anyway.

The other task was one that came around, it seemed, every time I was around – the great sheep dip. My city friends and cousins joked at the time about television ads about liver fluke and sheep dipping. But I knew all about it – and it was no joking matter.

Sheep are easy to call together – that was not the problem – and no, I did not have to milk them. But the smell of the sheep dip was only surpassed by the smells I associate with milking the cows. It was pungent … and there was always some fresh-faced younger uncle who thought it funny, seeing my face, to ensure that I ended up in the dipping area too.

So, when Jesus says he is the Good Shepherd and the Gate for the sheep, he has no romantic city delusions.

I imagine that the Good Shepherd is one of the most popular images for stained glass windows in churches. But we portray him dressed in dry-cleaned or freshly-laundered and pressed red and white clothes, when everyone knows that it is impractical for any shepherd to dress like that.

He has a cuddly, white lamb draped around his shoulders, when any shepherd knows that a lamb that needs to be rescued is only that is likely to be covered in briars and brambles, cut and dirty, lost and bewildered and frightened.

At this time of the year, we have moved beyond lambing time, and the little ones are beginning to grow although still suckling.

I remember hearing many year ago on Achill Island about a man who died when he climbed down a cliff face in search of sheep that had strayed. He lost his footing and fell to the sea below. It was a risky undertaking, and he paid the price. And someone commented on the low price sheep were fetching marts at the time. The lost sheep worked their way back up the cliff face, in any case, but they were not worth it.

Shepherding has seldom been a good career move. It is not on the list of most guidance teachers or careers advisers.

That is why the Christmas story is so shocking to those who first heard about it.

Sheep were cheap meat, and the shepherds were easy prey – to wolves, to hyenas, to thieves and to sheep rustlers. Sheep provided wool, meat, milk, cheese and yoghurt. Yet, shepherds were cheap to hire, and they did a lowly job. They were exposed to unprotected heat in the day, and to the bitter cold at night.

Christ is humbling himself when he calls himself the Good Shepherd.

The Prophet Ezekiel compared the well-off politicians and rulers of his day with negligent, impoverished shepherds: ‘My sheep were scattered, they wandered over all the mountains and on every high hill; my sheep were scattered over all the face of the earth, with no one to search or seek for them’ (Ezekiel 34: 6).

And Ezekiel, of course, is reminding the people that they too were once like lost sheep. They had wandered like lost sheep in the wilderness.

Everyone expected the Messiah to be a king, but kings were not good role models. No-one expected the Messiah to be a shepherd, and so it is shocking when the shepherd boy David is chosen to be king, and shocking when Jesus compares himself not with kings but with shepherds.

This is costly leadership. This is leadership that allows itself to be vulnerable, to be a potentially victimised.

When Christ becomes the good shepherd, he becomes vulnerable and compassionate, and he expresses his compassion for the lost sheep in going to meet them where they are, in their towns and villages, teaching them, bringing them the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness.

Yes, the one who is hailed by Saint John the Baptist as the Lamb of God (John 1: 35), becomes the Good Shepherd. And the God Shepherd becomes the Lamb of God.

Christ calls us to turn our values upside down, not for the fun of it, but out of compassion for the vulnerable and the lost, those who have fallen by the wayside, those everyone else thinks are not worth the risk of going after.

Who are the lost sheep for you this morning?

Who do you think Christ is foolhardy in going after?

Will we follow him to find them?

Will they be welcome back in through the gate?

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

Sheep on a small holding near the beach in Platanias, east of Rethymnon in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Sunday 26 April 2026, Easter IV):

‘Prayer and Action in Pakistan’ provides the theme this week (26 April to 2 May 2026) in ‘Pray With the World Church’, the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), pp 50-51. This theme is introduced today with Reflections from the Revd Davidson Solanki, Senior Regional Manager for Asia and the Middle East:

The Church of Pakistan, founded in 1970 through the merger of Anglican, Methodist, Lutheran, and Presbyterian churches, unites worship, service, and faith. Comprising eight dioceses and governed by a synod of bishops and clergy, the Church focuses on evangelism, education, healthcare, social development, youth and women’s empowerment, and climate action. It provides disaster relief and champions human rights, a mission made urgent by the recent devastating floods.

Since the start of the monsoon in June 2025, severe flooding has torn through multiple provinces, with Punjab particularly hard hit. The Ravi, Sutlej, and Chenab Rivers have burst their banks, marking the largest flood in Punjab’s history and the first time all three rivers have carried such high-water levels simultaneously. Evacuations in Punjab alone exceeded 1.2 million people, and more than 3.3 million are affected across the east, with over 3,300 villages and towns inundated.

Within the Church, dioceses including Raiwind, Lahore, Sialkot, Faisalabad, and Multan have suffered significant damage. Many people have lost homes, crops, and livelihoods, and rural churches require urgent repair. Christians have been particularly affected, raising concerns that their plight may be overlooked in broader relief efforts.

In response, the Church continues to call on the faithful to offer ‘prayer and action’ for those most vulnerable. The Diocese of Raiwind is mobilising parish networks to provide food, clean water, and other essential support, helping communities cope with the immediate impact of the floods and prevent disease. Working alongside USPG and other partners, these efforts aim not only to assist Christians but also to support Muslim neighbours, building solidarity and demonstrating Christ’s love in action.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Sunday 26 April 2026, Easter IV) invites us to pray by reading and meditating on today’s Gospel reading: John 10:1-10.

The Collect:

Almighty God,
whose Son Jesus Christ is the resurrection and the life:
raise us, who trust in him,
from the death of sin to the life of righteousness,
that we may seek those things which are above,
where he reigns with you
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

Merciful Father,
you gave your Son Jesus Christ to be the good shepherd,
and in his love for us to lay down his life and rise again:
keep us always under his protection,
and give us grace to follow in his steps;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

Risen Christ,
faithful shepherd of your Father’s sheep:
teach us to hear your voice
and to follow your command,
that all your people may be gathered into one flock,
to the glory of God the Father.

Yesterday’s Reflections

Continued Tomorrow

The Good Shepherd … the Hewson Memorial Window in Saint Mary’s Church, Askeaton, Co Limerick (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

13 million blog readers: but what does 13 million mean for the disabled, for tourism or for deforestation?

Greece is more than 13 million hectares in size, with a total land area of 13.2 ha, and has a coastline of 13.6 million metres (13,676 km) … the coastline below the Fortezza in Rethymnon in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Patrick Comerford

This blog reached yet another new peak late last night (17 June 2025), totalling up 13 million hits since I first began blogging about 15 years ago, back in 2010.

Yet again, I find this is both a humbling statistic and a sobering figure that leaves me not with a sense of achievement but a feeling of gratitude to all who read and support this blog and my writing.

After I began blogging, it took almost two years until July 2012 to reach half a million readers. It was over a year before this figure rose to 1 million by September 2013. It climbed steadily to 2 million, June 2015; 3 million, October 2016; 4 million, November 2019; 5 million, March 2021; 6 million, July 2022; 7 million, 13 August 2023; 8 million, April 2024; and 9 million, October 2024.

But the rise in the number of readers has been phenomenal over the past few months, reaching 9.5 million on 4 January 2025, 10 million over a week later (12 January 2025), 10.5 million two days after that (14 January 2025), 11 million a month later (12 February 2025), 11.5 million a month after that (10 March 2025), 12 million early last month (3 May 2025), 12.5 million a month later (6 June 2025) and 13 million shortly before midnight last night (17 June 2025).

Indeed, January 2025 was the first month this blog ever had 1 million hits in one single month – or even within a fortnight – with 1 million hits by mid-January, in the early hours of 14 January, and a total of 1,420,383 by the end of that month (31 January 2025).

In recent months, the daily figures have been overwhelming on occasions. Seven of the 12 days of busiest traffic on this blog were in January 2025 alone, and the other five of those 12 busiest days were in this month (June 2025):

• 289,076 (11 January 2025)
• 285,366 (12 January 2025)
• 261,422 (13 January 2025)
• 100,291 (10 January 2025)
• 64,077 (14 January 2025)
• 55,614 (17 June 2025)

• 55,344 (25 January 2025)
• 52,831 (27 January 2025)
• 48,819 (15 June 1015)
• 46,920 (7 June 2025)
• 46,420 (8 June 2025)
• 46,042 (14 June 2025)

This blog has already had about 3.6 million hits this year, almost 28 per cent of all hits ever, by 6 pm this evening (18 June 2025) it had almost 49,000 hits.

Joseph Heller wrote in Catch-22, ‘Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they aren’t after you.’ But I have noticed that seven of these days were in the week before and after Trump’s inauguration, the others were in the days around his outrageous military prade in Washington DC on 14 June and that the overwhelming number of hits are not from Ireland, the UK and Greece, as I might expect, but from the US.

The bots at work in Washington must be trawling far and wide for anyone critical of the Trump regime, but I doubt my criticisms of Trump, Vance and Musk are going to make it easy to get a visa to visit the US over the next four years, should I ever want to under the present regime. I’d prefer to boos my ego and cnvince myself that my popularity is growing and that I have become a ‘must-read’ writer for so many people every day. But, sadly, I don’t think that’s so. And if a minor critic of the Trump regime outside the US such as me is being intimidated, imagine how many critics inside the US feel they are being intimidated and bullied into success.

About 13 million tourists visit Venice each year … gondolas waiting for tourists near Saint Mark’s Square (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

With this latest landmark figure of 13 million hits by today, over 1.4 million hits in January alone, and almost three quarters of a million hits during June so far, I once again find myself asking questions such as:

• What do 13 million people look like?
• Where do we find 13 million people?
• What does £13 million, €13 million or $13 million mean, or what would it buy?

13 million or more people in the UK are disabled, from dyspraxia to impaired vision to Tourette’s.

It is estimated that there are about 13 million undocumented migrants in the US.

Burundi has a population of over 13 million people, and cities with a population of about 13 million people include Rio de Janeiro, Tianjin and Kinshasa.

There are have been protests throughout southern Europe about the over-tourism. About 13 million tourists visit Venice each year, 13 million tourists visited Berlin and the island of Mallorca last year (2024), Cyprus is expecting 13 million tourists this year, and already 13 million tourists have visited Hanoi and Thailand this year. Twice that number of tourists, 26 million, are said to have visited Barcelona, last year.

Greece is more than 13 million hectares in size, with a total land area of 13.2 ha, and has a coastline of 13.6 million metres (13,676 km), the ninth longest coastine in the world.

Greenland is melting at a rate of 13 million litres per second. That’s the equivalent volume of water in five Olympic pools discharged each second into the ocean.

Each year about 13 million hectares of the world’s forests are lost due to deforestation.

The number of olive trees in Crete vary in estimates from 13 million up to 30 million. The export value of California olives and olive oil is $13 million.
Lichfield District Council spends £13 million a year on local services.

Jeff Bezsos and Lauren Sanchez plan to spend $13 million on their ‘scaled-back’ wedding in Venice, with ‘a nice small gathering of 200 people’.


Each year about 13 million hectares of the world’s forests are lost due to deforestation (Patrick Comerford)

Saifullah Abdullah Paracha from Pakistan was held without charge by the US in Guantanamo Bay for over 18 years before being released in 2022. He had interesting perspectives on $13 million when he wrote for Reprieve back in January 2020:

‘I was surprised to hear President Donald Trump complaining about the $13 million that the US spends per detainee each year, to detain us without charge at Guantánamo Bay. It is difficult to think what they spend it on. Certainly, it is not spent on us. They do not need $13 million to close my cell door on me or to send me out into a shingle compound to walk in circles for an hour. I have diabetes, arthritis, and get chest pains that are clear warnings of my mortality, but they certainly do not spend $13 million on my healthcare. I have had two heart attacks and I fear it will not be third time lucky.

‘They don’t spend the money on the guards either. I have tried to befriend many soldiers over the years, as I feel sorry for them. They are little better off than we are. They are told we are the worst of the worst terrorists in the world, and that they are being sent here to do the job for which they enlisted – to make America safe. When they get here, they discover a bunch of nobodies – an old Pakistani businessman like me, a Karachi taxi driver like Ahmed, or Abdul Latif who was meant to have been on a plane home at the end of the Obama Administration. Trump has sworn he will not transfer anyone. We are “no value” forever-detainees, marooned here on a presidential whim.

‘Is it any surprise that soldiers here reportedly suffer from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) at a rate twice as high as those on the battlefield? At least the latter are doing the job they signed up for. Here, the guards find that they are not fighting, or even serving, the country they thought was America. Instead, they are riddled with doubt as to the meaning of their lives. I don’t get any therapy here for the abuses and the losses I have suffered, but I do find myself doling out advice to soldiers in their teens or early twenties who are psychologically lost. The S.O.G. is the Sergeant of the Guard in our camp. They call me O.G., which I am told stands for “Old Granddad”. One guard even ended up calling me “Father.”

‘My lawyer asked me what I would rather spend my $13 million on. I tell him, forget the $13 million, and just give me a boarding pass for the plane back to my family.

‘If I am not allowed that, first I ask why the American people would want to waste their tax dollars. So far they have spent $6 billion on this prison that has made nobody more safe and severely damaged the USA’s reputation as a country founded on the rule of law. My best estimate is that this could have saved the lives of 100,000 Americans – if it had been spent on health care, rather than torture.

‘Yet when pressed and told I must spend it all, I do not find that hard. It is what I used to do when I was a wealthy businessman, and had money myself. I do feel a duty to thank those who have helped me over many years, so I would donate $1 million to Reprieve to continue their good work. The rest I would invest in Pakistan, to help people to love life rather than cast it away on “jihad”. I have calculated that for each $1.5 million, I could create a hospital within a sustainable community – 200 families with jobs on the premises, a school, a fruit orchard and a hive of honey bees. It may sound impossible for that kind of sum, but it is Pakistan, where money goes much further. Indeed, I have written up an entire business plan which I call the “Milk and Honey Project.”

‘Imagine – or help America’s leaders to imagine – how much goodwill this would buy. Remember, also, that this is just the money being wasted on keeping one old man locked up. There are more than twenty “no value” detainees like me held in this dreadful prison, at an annual cost to the US taxpayer of over $250 million. I must agree with the President: it is a “crazy” waste of money. A man who so often boasts about getting a good deal should recognise that it is about time he stopped throwing the money away.’

Saifullah Abdullah Paracha is reortedly back Pakistan; Donald Trump is disgracefully back in the White House.

The world has a population of 8.2 billion people, and 13 million people represent only 0.16% of all those people, a modest number I suppose.

One of the most warming figures personally in the midst of all these statistics is the one that shows my morning prayer diary continues to reach an average of 73-75 people each day in the past month. It is over three years now since I retired from active parish ministry. But I think many of my priest-colleagues would be prayerfully thankful if the congregations in their churches averaged or totalled 510 to to 530 people a week.

Today, I am very grateful to all 13 million readers and viewers of this blog to date, and for the small and faithful core group among you who join me in prayer, reading and reflection each morning.

Lichfield District Council spends £13 million a year on local services (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Tagore sculpture in Bloomsbury brings back memories of poetry and inspirational peace activists

Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) … Shenda Armery’s bronze sculpture in Gordon Square, London (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Patrick Comerford

I was first introduced to the poetry and thinking of Rabindranath Tagore in the mid-1970s by the Irish poet Brenda (Meredith) Yasin (1921-1980), who was active in many peace campaigns and in social justice issues. Brenda was a daughter of James Creed Meredith (1875-1942), a Supreme Court judge who had once been involved in the Kilcoole gunrunning in 1914 and who became a Quaker and a pacifist later in life.

I got to know Brenda and her husband Said Ahmed Yasin (1917-1998) after I moved from Wexford to Dublin in 1974 . They had married in Delhi in 1946, and he worked for the UN and the World Bank, and served in the new Ministry of Agriculture formed after the creation of Pakistan in 1947.

After they moved to Dublin in 1961, Said studied to be a vet and lectured in veterinary medicine in TCD. He was Pakistan’s Honorary Consul-General in Ireland (1970-1994), and Said and Brenda maintained close family friendships with the Bhutto family, including Zulfikar Ali Bhutto (1928-1979), a former president and prime minister of Pakistan, Begum Nusrat Bhutto (1929-2011), an advocate of women’s rights and democracy, and their daughter, Benazir Bhutto (1953-2007), Pakistan’s only female prime minister to date.

I still remember the distress of Brenda and Said when the former President Bhutto was executed on 4 April 1979, and their concern weeks later when I was due to visit Pakistan on my journeys to and from Japan as a student.

Like her father, Brenda Yasin was a Quaker. She took part in protests against the Vietnam War in Dublin, campaigned for travellers’ rights, and was very supportive when I was involved in restarting the Irish Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) later in 1979.

She was only 58 when she died on 11 April 1980 in Glengarriff, Co Cork, and she was buried in Friends’ Burial Ground, Temple Hill, Blackrock. A book of her poetry was published posthumously. Said died in 1998.

The bust of Rabindranath Tagore marked the 150th anniversary of his birth (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

I rediscovered the poetry of Rabindranath Tagore when I discovered the Service of the Heart, one of my favourite Jewish anthologies. It was published in London by the Union of Liberal and Progressive Synagogues in 1967, and the edition I have is dated 1969. It a rich treasury of spiritual resources, and later I continue to use it in my prayers and reflections.

One of the poetic prayers I have used on occasions, ‘Lord, where shall I find You?’, is a translation by Rabbi Chaim Stern (1930-2001) from David Frischmann’s Hebrew version of Rabindranath Tagore’s poem Gitanjali.

I thought of Brenda and Said Yasin, and of so many ways in which I have been enriched by both Quaker and Jewish spirituality, earlier this week when I was in Gordon Square in Bloomsbury, close to Friends’ House on Euston Road, and when I saw Shenda Armery’s bronze sculpture of Tagore, which was unveiled in 2011.

The verses of ‘Thou hast made me endless’ from Tagore’s best know-poem, ‘Gitanjali’, in English on the plinth (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) was a Bengali poet, playwright, songwriter, philosopher and environmentalist and the first Asian Nobel laureate. Two of his poems have become the national anthems of India and Bangladesh, and he also inspired the national anthem of Sri Lanka.

Tagore was born on 7 May 1861, in Kolkata, India. He wrote several poems, short stories and screenplays. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913 for his contribution to literature, specifically for his collection of collection of poems, Gitanjali, Song Offerings. He was knighted in 1915 but rejected the knighthood in 1919 in protest after the Amritsar Massacre. He died on 7 August 1941.

The bronze sculpture of Tagore in Gordon Square was unveiled by Prince Charles (now King Charles) on 7 July 2011 to commemorate Tagore’s 150th birthday. Gordon Square is close to the faculty of law at University College London, where Tagore was a student in 1878.

The date of the unveiling also marked the anniversary of the suicide bombing on a bus at Tavistock Square, close to Gordon Square, six years earlier on 7 July 2005. The bomb was part of the 7/7 bombings, and 13 passengers, as well as the bomber, Hasib Hussain, were killed on the No 30 bus from Marble Arch to Hackney.

The sculptor Shenda Armery also sculpted busts of Margaret Thatcher and the former Speaker of the House of Commons, Betty Boothroyd. Her other public work includes the Ambrika fountain in London Zoo.

In his speech, Prince Charles said ‘Tagore has always been regarded as exceptional in the breadth and depth of his work as a philosopher and writer of songs, as poet and playwright, in his interest in education, rural renewal and farming and as a painter crossing the divide between East and West.’

He descried Tagore’s work as ‘very relevant for our time, particularly his understanding of a principle which is so dear to me, so much so that I have made it the title of a recently published book – Harmony.’ Prince Charles referred to the 7/7 anniversary and hoped ‘the inscriptions on this bust will shine out as a beacon of tolerance, understanding and of unity in diversity.’

At the unveiling, Kalyan Kundu, founder and chair of the Tagore Centre UK, also referred to the bombing and described ‘the unveiling of a statue of an apostle of peace’ as ‘a significant and timely reminder that a world of resentment and fear benefits no one and only brings with it pain.’

The verses of ‘Thou hast made me endless’, from Tagore’s best know-poem, ‘Gitanjali’, in Bengali (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

The bronze bust sits on a substantial stone plinth with a carved inscription and two bronze plaques inscribed with the verses of ‘Thou hast made me endless’, from Tagore’s best know-poem, ‘Gitanjali (‘Song Offerings)’, in English and Bengali.

On the plaque on the right face of the plinth, the plaque looks like a facsimile of Tagore's handwritten original text, right down to the inserted word ‘very’:
Thou hast made me endless, such is thy pleasure.
This frail vessel thou emptiest again and again,
and fillest it ever with fresher life.

This little flute of a reed thou hast carried over hills and dales
and hast breathed through it melodies eternally new.

At the immortal touch of thy hands
my little heart loses its limits in a great joy and gives birth to utterance ineffable.

Thy infinite gifts come to me only on these very small hands of mine.
Ages pass and still thou pourest, and still there is room to fill.

Rabindranath Tagore

The plaque on the left of the plinth has the Bengali version of poem.

On the bust itself, the neck is inscribed on the right: ‘Shenda Amery, 2011’.

Gordon Square was developed by Thomas Cubitt as one part of a pair with nearby Tavistock Square. Much of the square is still occupied by ranges of four- and five-storey yellow London brick terraces, with the tallest group having balconies and a decorated cornices. The gardens of Gordon Square were restored in recent decades by the University of London.

Gordon Square was developed by Thomas Cubitt and the gardcens have been restored by the University of London (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Daily prayer in Ordinary Time with French saints and writers 5: 7 February 2024

Canon Frederic Anstruther Cardew (1866-1942) … known in Paris as the ‘chorus girls' friend’

Patrick Comerford

We are in Ordinary Time, the time between Candlemas and the 40 days of Lent, which begins next Wednesday.

Charlotte and I arrived in Paris yesterday, and we are staying here for two days. So, in these 11 days in Ordinary Time, my reflections each morning are drawing on the lives of 11 French saints and spiritual writers.

As this series of reflections began, I admitted I am often uncomfortable with many aspects of French spirituality, and that I need to broaden my reading in French spirituality. So, I have turned to 11 figures or writers you might not otherwise expect. They include men and women, Jews and Christians, immigrants and emigrants, monks and philosophers, Catholics and Protestants, and even a few Anglicans.

I am taking some quiet time early this morning for reflection, prayer and reading in these ways:

1, A reflection on a French saint or writer in spirituality;

2, today’s Gospel reading;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary.

Canon Frederic Anstruther Cardew at the wedding of Lord Dudley and Gertie Millar in Paris in 1924

French saints and writers: 5, the Revd Canon Frederic Cardew (1866-1942):

Saint George's Church, the main Church of England church in Paris, is at 7 rue Auguste Vacquerie, just a few steps from the Arc de Triomphe. Although the present church is a modern church dating from 1978, the church dates back to 1824.

Saint George’s is one of two Church of England congregations in central Paris, the other being Saint Michael’s. There are four other Church of England congregations in the suburbs. Paris also has an American Episcopal Church at avenue George V.

Saint George’s says it seeks, ‘in the very heart of this busy city, to be a place of the holy, a place of silence and of prayer,’ where visitors may experience ‘something of the wonder and loving mystery of our God, and may feel drawn gently into His sacred presence.’

The foundation stone of ‘old Saint George’s’ was laid in 1887 on the site of the present church. That church was high in both senses – Victorian Gothic and Anglo-Catholic. The church, with its colourful chaplains and curates – including Father Frederic Cardew and his ministry to English ‘dancing-girls’ – survived two World Wars and the Nazi occupation of Paris, and in more recent decades became the centre for Anglican-Roman Catholic ecumenism.

Throughout much of the first half of the 20th century, Canon Frederic Anstruther Cardew (1866-1942) was known in Paris as the ‘chorus girls' friend.’

He was born in Mean Meir in Lahore, now in Pakistan, on 6 March 1866, a son of Colonel Sir Frederic Cardew, an army officer in India, and Clara (Newton) Cardew. Sir Frederic was later the Governor of Sierra Leone (1894 -1900).

Canon Frederic Cardew had many prominent church figures in his family. His aunt Lucy Cardew was married to Frederick William Farrar (1831-1903), Dean of Canterbury; his first cousin Maud Farrar married the SPG secretary, Bishop Henry Montgomery (1847-1932) from Moville, Co Donegal, and they were the parents of Viscount ‘Monty’ Montgomery of Alamein.

Frederic Anstruther-Cardew was still in his late teens when he went to Canada in 1884, volunteered to fight Indians and sought adventure as a cowboy in the US. He returned to England, was ordained in 1891.

He was Precentor of Brisbane Cathedral when he married Norah Skye Kington in Saint Mary Abbots Church, Kensington, in 1894. Her father, Colonel William Miles Nairne Kington (1838-1898), played cricket for Gloucestershire. In Australia, Cardew was the Vicar of Charleville in Queensland for three years from 1894.

In Charleville, Cardew ministered to the biggest cattle stations in the world. It was there that he became famous across the colony as the ‘Cattle Punchers Padre.’ It was said his parish was the biggest in the world, covering 120,000 square miles.

Cardew then spent three years as the Vicar of All Saints’ Church, Brisbane. There he officiated at the wedding in 1898 of Travers Robert Goff (1863-1907), a bank manager from Dublin, and Margaret Agnes Morehead – their children included PL Travers (1899-1996), born Helen Lyndon Goff, the author of Mary Poppins.

Cardew was back in England, living in Leicestershire and Derbyshire in the early 20th century. He became the chaplain of Saint George’s Church, Paris, in 1907, and remained there until 1939. He was also the rural dean of France and a prebendary of Saint Paul’s Cathedral, London.

Soon after his arrival in Paris, Cardew founded the Cardew Theatre Girls’ Hostel in Montmartre for American and English ‘chorus girls’ in 1907. For over 30 years, he fed and sheltered countless chorus girls who sought their fame and fortune in the burlesque shows of Paris. He became the confessor, matchmaker, and legal adviser to thousands of ‘Les Girls’ and in doing so became famous across Europe as the ‘Chorus Girls’ Friend.’

During World War I he visited the frontlines, the trenches and the battlefields, and one of his sons was taken prisoner of war at the Second Battle of Ypres in 1915. At a victory dinner in Paris after the war signed himself with aplomb as ‘Chaplain of Blighty.’

Cardew continued his work among the ‘chorus girls’ after World War I. His fame and personality were so great that he was worked into the storyline of a show, The Nymph Errant, that became a musical by Cole Porter. He was also chaplain to the Actors’ Union and the Actors’ Association, was involved in the Anglo-Catholic Congress in 1923.

Canon Cardew officiated at the marriage of one of his ‘chorus girls,’ Gertie Millar (1879-1952), who married the widowed William Ward (1867-1932), 2nd Earl of Dudley, in Paris in 1924. Lord Dudley’s first wife had drowned in 1920 while she was visiting Connemara. The wedding caused a stir because Gertie was well-known on stage and in the chorus halls, while Lord Dudley had been Viceroy of Ireland (1902-1905) and Governor-General of Australia (1908-1911). He is named in James Joyce’s description of his Vice-Regal progress through Dublin in Ulysses.

But the publicity surrounding the wedding attracted public support for Cardew rather than notoriety, and in 1928 the British Ambassador in Paris presented him with a cheque for £1 million. The long list of subscribers was headed by the Prince of Wales, later Edward VIII, who had known Cardew from childhood but was also known to many of the chorus girls and was a close friend of Lord Dudley.

Canon Cardew’s first wife Norah died in London on 27 July 1931. He married his second wife, Margaret Sophie Stokes, on 17 August 1933. He had been made OBE the previous year, and the French government recognised his work by making him a Chevalier du Legion d’Honneur, the highest award from the French government.

When Edward VIII abdicated in 1936 and subsequently married Wallace Simpson at the Château de Candé in Tours on June 1937, Cardew became embroiled in the controversy. The civil marriage was followed by a Church of England service conducted by the Revd Robert Anderson Jardine, Vicar of Darlington in the Diocese of Durham.

Cardew said he the former king was ‘an old friend of mine and I have known him since he was a boy.’ But, he said, Jardine had conducted the service without his permission as Rural Dean of France and in defiance of the Bishop of Fulham, Bishop Basil Batty, who was in charge of Anglican affairs in continental Europe, and in defiance of the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of Durham.

Cardew said he was responsible for Anglican matters in France, and called for Jardine to be dismissed. He added that ‘any clergyman under my jurisdiction here in France who performed such a breach would almost certainly be deprived of his living.’ Cardew may also have disliked Jardine’s aggressive evangelical views. Jardine was eventually forced to retire and never worked again in parish ministry in the Church of England and died penniless in 1950.

Meanwhile, Cardew retired in 1939, and moved back to London. Canon Frederic Cardew died at the age of 76 in Shrewsbury House, Cheyne Walk, Chelsea, on 12 July 1942. He was the father of four sons.

After World War II, a memorial was erected to Canon Cardew in Saint George’s Church in 1950. With the help of the Girls’ Friendly Society, his widow Margaret refounded his club in 1952. In 1970, the YMCA contributed a legacy to the organisation, later known as the YMCA-Cardew Club. The club supports young English speakers, many of them au pairs, and the clubroom is at Saint George’s Church.

Saint George’s Church had been badly damaged during World War II. The site was sold to developers and the church is now housed in the ground floor and the basement of a modern apartment building on the site.

Frederic Anstruther Cardew is remembered to this day as a saintly and pastorally caring priest. The American writer Julien Green (1900-1998), who was born and lived in Paris, became a Roman Catholic in 1916. But in his autobiographical Young Years (1984) he recalled the influence on him of Cardew during his childhood days when he went to church in Saint George’s with his parents:

‘I remember that when the Reverend Cardew knelt in front of the altar and in an uncertain voice, but with an accent that did not deceive, intoned a hymn immediately taken up by the faithful, an indescribable emotion took possession of me. There was in this man a humility so deep and a faith so pure that I received something from it without even guessing what it was about. Because of this man, I loved God. I didn’t know anything about it and Reverend Cardew didn’t know anything about it either. Recently, a Catholic priest told me that this man had left behind the memory of an unblemished life after having been for a long time the chaplain of the girls at the Folies Bergère.’

Saint George’s Church was rebuilt in 1978. The Revd Mark Osborne is the chaplain, the Revd Nicolas Razafindratsima is the curate, and the former Dean of St Albans, the Very Revd Jeffrey John, is Associate Chaplain. The Sunday services include the Said Eucharist (BCP 1662) at 8:30 and Solemn Eucharist at 10:30.

Saint George’s Church, Paris, was rebuilt in 1978

Mark 7: 14-23 (NRSVA):

14 Then he called the crowd again and said to them, ‘Listen to me, all of you, and understand: 15 there is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile, but the things that come out are what defile.’

17 When he had left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him about the parable. 18 He said to them, ‘Then do you also fail to understand? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile, 19 since it enters, not the heart but the stomach, and goes out into the sewer?’ (Thus he declared all foods clean.) 20 And he said, ‘It is what comes out of a person that defiles. 21 For it is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come: fornication, theft, murder, 22 adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, folly. 23 All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.’

Édouard Manet’s ‘A Bar at the Folies-Bergère’ (1882) … Canon Frederic Cardew was known in Paris as the ‘chorus girls' friend’

Today’s Prayers (Wednesday 7 February 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 ‘Gender Justice in Christ.’ This theme was introduced on Sunday by Ellen McMibanga, Zambia Anglican Council Outreach Programme.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (7 February 2024) invites us to pray in these words:

Let us pray for gender justice across the world, remembering that gender equality can lead to the abolishment of poverty.

The Collect:

Almighty God,
you have created the heavens and the earth
and made us in your own image:
teach us to discern your hand in all your works
and your likeness in all your children;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who with you and the Holy Spirit reigns supreme over all things,
now and for ever.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

God our creator,
by your gift
the tree of life was set at the heart of the earthly paradise,
and the bread of life at the heart of your Church:
may we who have been nourished at your table on earth
be transformed by the glory of the Saviour’s cross
and enjoy the delights of eternity;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

Almighty God,
give us reverence for all creation
and respect for every person,
that we may mirror your likeness
in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s Reflection (Albert Schweitzer, 1875-1965)

Continued Tomorrow (Simon Weil, 1909-1943)

‘F Anstruther Cardew, Chaplain of Blighty’ … a post-war dinner card in Paris in 1918

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