Praying with the Psalms in Ordinary Time: 14 June 2022 (Psalm 111)

‘The works of his hands are truth and justice’ (Psalm 111: 7) … ‘For Liberty and Justice’ carved by Eric Gill in 1921 on the War Memorial in Trumpington (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

In the Calendar of the Church, we are now in Ordinary Time. Before today begins, I am taking some time this morning to continue my reflections from the seasons of Lent and Easter, including my morning reflections drawing on the Psalms.

In my blog, I am reflecting each morning in this Prayer Diary in these ways:

1, Short reflections on a psalm or psalms;

2, reading the psalm or psalms;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary.

Psalm 111:

Psalm 111 is a psalm in praise of the divine attributes. In the slightly different numbering system in the Greek Septuagint and the Latin Vulgate, this is Psalm 110.

This psalm, along with Psalm 112, is acrostic by phrase. Each 7-9 syllable phrase begins with a letter of the Hebrew alphabet in order. Psalm 119 is also acrostic, with each eight-verse strophe commencing with a letter of the Hebrew alphabet in order.

Psalm 111 is a hymn of praise, thanking God for his great deeds, especially for making and keeping his covenant with his people. The psalmist is a wise person, and for him holding the Lord in awe is the beginning of knowing him, for him wisdom comes from increasing knowledge of God.

He praises God for his works and deeds, his interventions in the world and his commandments. He is holy and awesome, and living by his commandments is the start to understanding him.

Psalm 111 tells us how great the works of the Lord are, and ends with that wonderful verse (10):

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom;
all those who practise it have a good understanding.
His praise endures for ever.

Saint Francis of Assisi says (in Admonition 27): ‘Where there is charity and wisdom, there is neither fear nor ignorance.’

‘The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom’ (Psalm 111: 10) … the Cave of Wisdom in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Psalm 111 (NRSVA):

1 Praise the Lord!
I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart,
in the company of the upright, in the congregation.
2 Great are the works of the Lord,
studied by all who delight in them.
3 Full of honour and majesty is his work,
and his righteousness endures for ever.
4 He has gained renown by his wonderful deeds;
the Lord is gracious and merciful.
5 He provides food for those who fear him;
he is ever mindful of his covenant.
6 He has shown his people the power of his works,
in giving them the heritage of the nations.
7 The works of his hands are faithful and just;
all his precepts are trustworthy.
8 They are established for ever and ever,
to be performed with faithfulness and uprightness.
9 He sent redemption to his people;
he has commanded his covenant for ever.
Holy and awesome is his name.
10 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom;
all those who practise it have a good understanding.
His praise endures for ever.

Today’s Prayer:

The theme this week in the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel) is ‘Focus 9/99,’ which was introduced on Sunday by the Revd M Benjamin Inbaraj, Director of the Church of South India’s SEVA department.

Tuesday 14 June 2022:

The USPG Prayer invites us to pray today in these words:

We pray that we may be involved in making churches more child friendly. May we welcome all and exclude no one from worship.

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

In search of books and the lost bookshops of Charing Cross Road

No 84 Charing Cross Road is no longer a bookshop (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

Patrick Comerford

During a visit to London last week, two of us walked along Charing Cross Road in search of some of the best-known and some of the lost bookshops of London.

Charing Cross Road, north of Saint Martin-in-the-Fields and Trafalgar Square, is still known for specialist and second-hand bookshops. From Leicester Square station to Cambridge Circus, the street is home to antiquarian, specialist and second-hand bookshops. Between Cambridge Circus and Oxford Street, the street includes more generalist bookshops.

Foyles was once listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the world’s largest bookshop in terms of shelf length, at 30 miles (48 km), and for number of titles on display. It was a tourist attraction in the past and was known for its literary lunches and for its eccentric business practices.

Foyles moved from 111-119 Charing Cross Road to 107 Charing Cross Road, once the premises of Central Saint Martin’s College of Art and Design. It was bought by Waterstones in 2018 and now has a chain of seven shops in England.

A plaque at 84 Charing Cross Road recalls Helene Hanff’s search for books and her correspondence (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

The New York-based writer Helene Hanff had a 24-year correspondence from 1949 with Frank Doel, the chief buyer of Marks & Co, antiquarian booksellers on Charing Cross Road. She was in search of obscure classics and British literature titles that she could not find in New York.

The books she bought ranged from Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice and John Donne’s Sermons to the writings of Samuel Johnson and Kenneth Grahame’s The Wind in the Willows.

Their exchange inspired her book 84 Charing Cross Road (1970). It has been made into a film starring Anne Bancroft and Anthony Hopkins (1987), and also into a play and a BBC radio drama.

Charing Cross Road still has a selection of second-hand bookshops (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

Like so many other premises, 84 Charing Cross Road is no longer a bookshop; it eventually closed in December 1970. It is now part of a McDonald’s outlet, with its entrance around the corner in Cambridge Circus. A brass plaque on a stone pilaster facing Charing Cross Road commemorates the former bookshop and Hanff’s book.

Helen Hanff was searching for obscure books she could not find in New York. She and Doel developed a long-distance friendship and their letters discussed diverse topics, from the Brooklyn Dodgers and the coronation of Elizabeth II, to how to make Yorkshire Pudding,

I first came across her book many years ago, and so appropriately, on a table in Zozimus Bookshop in Gorey, founded in 2011 by the late John Wyse Jackson. It was one of the most unusual second-hand and antiquarian bookshops I have visited in many years, and ranked alongside David’s in Cambridge and the lost and much-lamented Staffs Bookshop in Lichfield.

Every town and city deserves a good second-hand bookshop.

‘84 Charing Cross Road’ … an appropriate find in a second-hand bookshop (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)