Patrick Comerford
Before this day gets busy, I am taking some time this morning for reading, prayer and reflection.
Throughout this week, I am reflecting in these ways:
1, One of the readings for the morning;
2, A reflection on the stained glass windows in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford;
3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary, ‘Pray with the World Church.’
Luke 19: 1-10 (NRSVA):
1 He entered Jericho and was passing through it. 2 A man was there named Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax-collector and was rich. 3 He was trying to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was short in stature. 4 So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree to see him, because he was going to pass that way. 5 When Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, ‘Zacchaeus, hurry and come down; for I must stay at your house today.’ 6 So he hurried down and was happy to welcome him. 7 All who saw it began to grumble and said, ‘He has gone to be the guest of one who is a sinner.’ 8 Zacchaeus stood there and said to the Lord, ‘Look, half of my possessions, Lord, I will give to the poor; and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will pay back four times as much.’ 9 Then Jesus said to him, ‘Today salvation has come to this house, because he too is a son of Abraham. 10 For the Son of Man came to seek out and to save the lost.’
Stained-glass windows in Stony Stratford, 3:
Throughout this week, I am reflecting each morning on the stained glass windows in the Church of Saint Mary and Saint Giles, Stony Stratford, Buckinghamshire.
The 12 windows in Saint Mary and Saint Giles include a two-light window at the west end by Charles Eamer Kempe, depicting three archangels; a set of three windows in the south gallery, among them important work by John Groome Howe of the Hardman studios; two separate windows in the south gallery that appear to include fragments from an earlier window; and six windows – three below the gallery on the south wall and three below the gallery on the north wall – by NHJ Westlake of Lavers & Westlake.
The second window in the South Wall in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church beneath the gallery is dated 1888. It was commissioned by the Stony Stratford architect Edward Swinfen Harris (1841-1924), whose works, mainly in the Arts and Crafts style, can be seen throughout the town.
Edward Swinfen Harris commissioned this window in memory of his father, also Edward Swinfen Harris, who was the clerk to the town bench of magistrates, the Board of Guardians and other bodies in the town.
This second window is of three eyelets and depicts:
1, Joseph before Pharoah’s throne, interpreting his dreams (Genesis 41: 1-36);
2, Jesus as an apprentice in Joseph the carpenter’s shop, with Joseph and the Virgin Mary (see Luke 2: 39-40);
3, Joseph’s brothers before him with the silver cup found in Benjamin’s sack (Genesis 44: 1-34).
Each panel in this window depicts a Biblical character Joseph: the son sold into slavery in Egypt by his brothers, and Joseph with the Christ Child.
In the first panel, Joseph stands before Pharoah’s throne, interpreting his dreams (Genesis 41: 1-36). However, the vision he points to in the distance is not the years of plenty, or the years of famine, but Christ Crucified on Calvary.
The stories of Christ as an apprentice in the workshop of Joseph the carpenter are popular and pious, but are not found in any Gospel narrative (see Luke 2: 39-40). Nevertheless, this image in the second panel, showing Christ as an apprentice in Joseph the carpenter’s shop, reflects a subject that was popular among the Pre-Raphaelite artists at the time Westlake made this window.
William Holman Hunt worked on his painting, ‘The Shadow of Death’, in 1870-1873, during his second trip to the Holy Land. It depicts Christ as a young man prior to his ministry, working as a carpenter. He is shown stretching his arms after sawing wood. The shadow of his outstretched arms falls on a wooden spar on which carpentry tools hang, creating a ‘shadow of death’ prefiguring the crucifixion.
Two decades earlier, Holman Hunt’s Pre-Raphaelite colleague John Everett Millais had portrayed Christ as an apprentice carpenter, helping Joseph as a young boy, in his painting, ‘Christ in the House of his Parents’ (1849-1850).
In the third panel, Joseph’s brothers plead before him with the silver cup found in Benjamin’s sack (Genesis 44: 1-34). In the background, their ageing father with Jacob is being comforted.
In each of these panels, Westlake is suggesting to the viewer that Edward Swinfen Harris was a loyal and faithful son to his father, the late Edward Swinfen Harris, and that he had learned from him.
The Collect:
Heavenly Father,
whose blessed Son was revealed
to destroy the works of the devil
and to make us the children of God and heirs of eternal life:
grant that we, having this hope,
may purify ourselves even as he is pure;
that when he shall appear in power and great glory
we may be made like him in his eternal and glorious kingdom;
where he is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
The Post Communion Prayer:
Gracious Lord,
in this holy sacrament
you give substance to our hope:
bring us at the last
to that fullness of life for which we long;
through Jesus Christ our Saviour.
Additional Collect
Heavenly Lord,
you long for the world’s salvation:
stir us from apathy,
restrain us from excess
and revive in us new hope
that all creation will one day be healed
in Jesus Christ our Lord.
The theme in the USPG Prayer Diary this week is ‘Living Together in Peace.’ This theme was introduced on Sunday, describing the work of PROCMURA, the Programme for Christian-Muslim Relations in Africa. USPG has provided an annual grant to PROCMURA since it started in 1959.
The USPG Prayer Diary invites us to pray today in these words:
We pray for interfaith initiatives around the world. May we seek out friendships with people of other faiths and learn more about other religions.
Yesterday’s reflection
Continued tomorrow
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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