20 February 2021

Praying in Lent and Easter 2021:
4, Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin

The labyrinth at Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin … I was ordained deacon and priest there and was a canon for ten years (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

During Lent and Easter this year, I am taking some time each morning to reflect in these ways:

1, a photograph of a church or place of worship that has been significant in my spiritual life;

2, the day’s Gospel reading;

3, a prayer from the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society, Partners in the Gospel).

This week, as Lent begins, I am offering photographs of the four cathedrals where I have been a chapter member. This morning’s photograph is of Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, where I was a canon for ten years from 2007 to 2017.

I was ordained deacon there in 2000 and priest 20 years ago in 2001 by Archbishop Walton Empey, and was appointed to the chapter in 2007 by Archbishop John Neill. During my ten years as a canon of Christ Church, I served on the cathedral board, on the arts and music committees, introduced many events, including exhibitions of icons and film evenings, and regularly presided at the Cathedral Eucharist as a canon-in-residence.

Luke 5: 27-32 (NRSVA):

27 After this Jesus went out and saw a tax-collector named Levi, sitting at the tax booth; and he said to him, ‘Follow me.’ 28 And he got up, left everything, and followed him.

29 Then Levi gave a great banquet for him in his house; and there was a large crowd of tax-collectors and others sitting at the table with them. 30 The Pharisees and their scribes were complaining to his disciples, saying, ‘Why do you eat and drink with tax-collectors and sinners?’ 31 Jesus answered, ‘Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick; 32 I have come to call not the righteous but sinners to repentance.’

Prayer in the USPG Prayer Diary:

The Prayer in the USPG Prayer Diary today (20 February 2021), which is also World Day of Social Justice, invites us to pray:

Let us pray for justice in all parts of our world and gives thanks for those who work toward justice and equality for all.

Yesterday’s reflection

Continued tomorrow

The chapter stalls in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, where I sat for ten years (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org

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