Patrick Comerford
We are in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar, and Sunday last was the Third Sunday after Trinity. Before today (30 June 2023) becomes a busy day, I am taking some time for prayer, reading and reflection.
Over these weeks after Trinity Sunday, I have been reflecting each morning in these ways:
1, Looking at relevant images or stained glass window in a church, chapel or cathedral I know;
2, the Gospel reading of the day in the Church of England lectionary;
3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary.
Church of the Most Holy Trinity, Bunclody, Co Wexford:
The Church of the Most Holy Trinity Church, the Roman Catholic parish church in Bunclody, Co Wexford, was built in 1970 on the site of a townhouse of the Maxwell-Barry family, who had given the town its previous name, Newtownbarry.
The site of the church was previously the parochial house and its gardens. This was an 18th century house built as a lodge on the south side of the Mall for members of the Maxwell-Barry family, and was later enlarged. The Comerford family home, the Mall House, stood diagonally opposite, on the north side of the Mall.
At the end of the 18th century and during the first quarter of the 19th century, a barn in Chapel Lane, which links Irish Street and Ryland Street, served as a chapel for the Roman Catholics of Newtownbarry.
The Church of Saint Mary Magdalene, was built in 1825-1826 and designed by Richard Pierce (1801-1854), a Wexford architect who later became closely associated with the work of AWN Pugin in Co Wexford.
The FCJ Convent was built beside the convent in 1861, but both are now demolished and the convent has been replaced by a new school.
The Calvary in the churchyard was blessed in 1874 by Bishop Michael Warren, and the sermon was preached by Father James Cullen, founder of the Pioneer Total Abstinence Association. A 1798 monument was erected in the churchyard in 1875.
The Maxwell-Barry townhouse had been bought by the Diocese of Ferns in 1873 as a residence for the Catholic priests of the parish. This became the site of a new church built in 1970. The granite cross near the entrance of the Church of the Most Holy Trinity once stood on the façade of the Church of Saint Mary Magdalene, where it was erected in 1854.
Bunclody also has a Church of Ireland parish church and once had a Methodist church. Saint Mary’s Church, the Church of Ireland parish church, was built in 1775 by the Maxwell Barry family and later enlarged. The Sunday School was built in 1800, and rebuilt and enlarged in 1990.
The restaurant known as ‘The Chantry’ was originally a Methodist chapel and manse in Bunclody, and was built ca 1812. A plaque at the door commemorates the visits of John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, to Bunclody in 1769 and 1787.
The Channel in the Mall is a familiar landmark in the centre of Bunclody and part of an early urban landscape initiative. It was cut ca 1825, incorporating an earlier channel from 1775. It was provided by the Maxwell-Barry family to supply properties in The Mall with clean water through a system of underground ducts.
Lime trees were planted along the side of this small stream in the early 1800s, but some have been replaced in recent years. The water comes from the millrace, which in turn is diverted from the River Clody. The waterway is lined on each side with granite stone, and there are three small granite footbridges.
A sculpture by the stream, ‘Leaves and Spheres,’ is by the artist Declan Breen, a nephew of a former parish priest, Monsignor Richard Breen. The leaves are ‘blown on the wind; and made from bronze representing the lime trees above.
Matthew 8: 1-4 (NRSVA):
1 When Jesus had come down from the mountain, great crowds followed him; 2 and there was a leper who came to him and knelt before him, saying, ‘Lord, if you choose, you can make me clean.’ 3 He stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, ‘I do choose. Be made clean!’ Immediately his leprosy was cleansed. 4 Then Jesus said to him, ‘See that you say nothing to anyone; but go, show yourself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.’
Today’s Prayer:
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 ‘Freeing people from the Traps of Human Trafficking.’ This theme was introduced on Sunday.
The Prayer in the USPG Prayer Diary today (30 June 2023) invites us to pray:
We pray for governments, agencies and individuals who seek to prevent Human Trafficking and who support survivors. We pray that we too may play our part in ending Human Trafficking.
Collect:
Almighty God,
you have broken the tyranny of sin
and have sent the Spirit of your Son into our hearts
whereby we call you Father:
give us grace to dedicate our freedom to your service,
that we and all creation may be brought
to the glorious liberty of the children of God;
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.
Post Communion:
O God, whose beauty is beyond our imagining
and whose power we cannot comprehend:
show us your glory as far as we can grasp it,
and shield us from knowing more than we can bear
until we may look upon you without fear;
through Jesus Christ our Saviour.
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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