11 January 2019

‘All the day long … until
the shadows lengthen
and the evening comes’

Walking by the River Deel at the bridge and the castle in Askeaton on Thursday evening (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

Patrick Comerford

Daffodils are already beginning to show signs of promise in this part of West Limerick, and the evenings are beginning to lengthen. The mornings are still dark, and sunrise in Askeaton is not until 8:41 this morning [11 January 2019]. But sunset is at 16:43, which is more than eight hours of daylight today.

We sometimes jest in Ireland at this time of the year, ‘There’s a grand stretch in the evening now.’

Even after sunset, there is a brightness in the skies, and the birdsong intensifies at dusk, as if to hail the lengthening days with welcoming notes of joy.

I may not get out for an early morning walk before sunrise this morning. But it was still bright when I went for a walk late yesterday afternoon by the banks of the River Deel, along past the swimming pool and the friary ruins and out to the bend on the river at Gurt where Desmond Rowing club will soon resume its evening activities and where the Deel flows out into the Shannon estuary.

The brighter weather allowed brisk walks earlier this week on the beaches at Beale and Ballybunion in north Kerry, at the harbour in Foynes and by the River Maigue in Adare.

Over the last few days, friends have been sending me photographs of heavy snow throughout Greece, including Crete, Athens, Thessaloniki and Mount Athos, so I am not being too complacent about the weather in this part of Ireland at the moment.

Although I have planned visits within the next few weeks to Prague and Porto, and to Crete for Greek Easter at the end of April, I recall all too easily how the ‘Beast from the East’ put a stop to my plans to visit Warsaw last year.

Lent and Easter are late this year, with Ash Wednesday on 6 March and Easter Day on Easter Day on 21 April in the West and on 28 April in the East.

But there is still a hint of Spring in the air, and while there is there is a spring in my step and I am enjoying the opportunities the lengthening days present for my walks by the rivers and beaches of west Limerick and north Kerry.

Walking by the River Deel at Gurt on Thursday evening (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

There is a well-known prayer by Cardinal John Henry Newman that has been adapted in prayer books throughout the Anglican Communion:

Support us, O Lord,
all the day long of this troublous life,
until the shadows lengthen and the evening comes,
the busy world is hushed,
the fever of life is over
and our work is done.
Then, Lord, in your mercy grant us a safe lodging,
a holy rest, and peace at the last;
through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Blue skies and blue seas at Beale Strand earlier this week (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

Lichfield Cathedral looks at
‘The Pilgrimage and Prayer’


Patrick Comerford

Pilgrimage is an important part of my spiritual life. Throughout the year, I regularly return to Lichfield – to Lichfield Cathedral and the Chapel of Saint John’s Hospital – for times of reflection and prayer.

Each year, I also try to spend some time, if only for a few hours, in a monastery, with time to refocus the priorities in my spiritual life and my prayer.

My pilgrimages last year also included a visit to Mount Athos, an overnight retreat in Glenstal Abbey, and visits to monasteries in both Thessaloniki and Crete. Perhaps the day spent in the ghetto in Venice in November could also be described as a pilgrimage.

In the past, I have also made pilgrim visits to Jerusalem, Rome, Mount Sinai, Mount Athos, Patmos, Arkadi and Canterbury. At some stage, I hope to visit Santiago de Compostela, even if I never walk the Camino.

Many people like me have been strongly influenced by The Way of a Pilgrim, a 19th century Russian spiritual classic that recounts the narrator’s journey as a mendicant pilgrim while practising the Jesus Prayer. It was first published in 1884, and the best-known English edition, translated by an Anglican priest, Reginald Michael (RM) French (1884-1969), was first published in 1931.

A new exhibition, ‘The Pilgrimage and Prayer,’ opens in Lichfield Cathedral on Monday next [14 January 2019]. This is the first exhibition as part of the cathedral’s year-long theme of ‘Journeys through space, light and time.’

The exhibition explores how modern understandings of pilgrimage build on the historical tradition of Christian pilgrimage, including pilgrimage to Lichfield Cathedral from the time of Saint Chad to the present day.

The exhibits include a 14th century document listing relics owned by Lichfield Cathedral, stonework linked with the mediaeval shrine of Saint Chad, a rarely seen 1420 edition of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, and a 17th century casket that contained the relics of Saint Chad after the Reformation.

The exhibit also includes loans from the British Museum.

Two lectures on modern-day pilgrimage are part of the exhibition programme.

On Wednesday 23 January, Dr Louise Hampson from the Centre of Christianity and Culture at the University of York, will speak at 7.15 p.m. on the centre’s work on the renewed popularity of pilgrimage today. Her lecture at 7.15 p.m. is titled ‘Exploring the Modern Popularity of Pilgrimage.’

In the second lecture supporting the exhibition, ‘Going on Pilgrimage Today,’ on 20 February, the Dean of Lichfield, the Very Revd Adrian Dorber, draws on his own experience of pilgrimage.

One of the Pilgrim Prayers said at the end of the Camino in Santiago concludes:

Make us strong in faith
and happy in hope
on our pilgrim journey
following the path of Christian life,
and sustain us so that
we may finally reach the glory of God the Father.
Amen.