Daily prayers in Ordinary Time with USPG: (4) 1 June 2023

Evie Hone’s window in Saint Patrick’s Church on the Hill of Tara, Co Meath, has images of Pentecost interspersed with images of Saint Patrick (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Patrick Comerford

The Fifty days of Easter season came to an end on Sunday, the Day of Pentecost (28 May 2023), or Whit Sunday, and Ordinary Time resumed on Monday (29 May 2023).

Today, the Calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship remembers Justin Martyr (ca 165), Martyr in Rome (1 June 2023). Later today I have a meeting of trustees of a local charity in Stony Stratford. But, before this day gets busy, I am taking some time this morning for prayer and reflection.

In this first week in Ordinary Time, between the Day of Pentecost and Trinity Sunday (4 June 2023), I am reflecting each morning in these ways:

1, Looking at an image or stained glass window in a church or cathedral I know depicting Pentecost, the Holy Spirit, or the Feast of the Day;

2, the Gospel reading of the day in the Church of England lectionary;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary.

Pentecost on the way up to the upper rooms in CITI … Evie Hone’s cartoon for her Pentecost window in Tara (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

On the way up the stairs in the Church of Ireland Theological Institute, from the chapel to the Brown Room and where I had my study on the staff corridor, there is a large cartoon on which the acclaimed Irish stained-glass artist Evie Hone (1894-1955) worked out her ideas for her Pentecost window in Tara, commissioned as ‘The descent of the Holy Spirit.’

This East Window brings together images of Pentecost and Saint Patrick on the Hill of Tara. It was commissioned for Saint Patrick’s Church on the Hill of Tara in 1936 to mark the 1,500th anniversary of Saint Patrick’s arrival and his mission to Ireland.

The church is now closed and is used as a tourism information centre. But this remains one of Evie Hone’s best-known works, so there is a treasured and valuable part of that heritage half-way up the stairs to those upper rooms in CITI.

Today, the Church Calendar remembers Justin Martyr, Saint Justin Martyr was born to pagan parents and converted to Christianity ca 130. He taught first at Ephesus and later in Rome. When he refused to offer sacrifices to the emperor, he was beheaded.

In his First Apology and Second Apology, Justin Martyr argued that Christianity was a true philosophy. He developed the concept of the “generative” or “germinative” Word, who had sown the seed of truth in all humanity and had become incarnate as Christ. He used the doctrine of the Logos to explain why Christians, while remaining monotheists, worshipped Jesus Christ, regarding him as the incarnation of the Logos, ‘in second place’ to God.

Saint Justin Martyr … argued that Christianity was a true philosophy

Mark 10: 46-52 (NRSVA):

46 They came to Jericho. As he and his disciples and a large crowd were leaving Jericho, Bartimaeus son of Timaeus, a blind beggar, was sitting by the roadside. 47 When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout out and say, ‘Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!’ 48 Many sternly ordered him to be quiet, but he cried out even more loudly, ‘Son of David, have mercy on me!’ 49 Jesus stood still and said, ‘Call him here.’ And they called the blind man, saying to him, ‘Take heart; get up, he is calling you.’ 50 So throwing off his cloak, he sprang up and came to Jesus. 51 Then Jesus said to him, ‘What do you want me to do for you?’ The blind man said to him, ‘My teacher, let me see again.’ 52 Jesus said to him, ‘Go; your faith has made you well.’ Immediately he regained his sight and followed him on the way.

What can blind Bartimaeus see that 12 have passed by? (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s prayer:

The theme in the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel) this week is ‘Pentecost.’ USPG’s Chaplain, the Revd Jessie Anand, introduced this theme on Sunday, reflecting on Pentecost and languages.

The USPG Prayer invites us to pray this morning (Thursday 1 June 2023):

Let us pray for all who communicate through sign language. May those who teach signing and those who learn to sign inspire others to do the same.

Collect:

God our redeemer,
who through the folly of the cross taught your martyr Justin
the surpassing knowledge of Jesus Christ:
remove from us every kind of error
that we, like him, may be firmly grounded in the faith,
and make your name known to all peoples;
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:

God our redeemer, whose Church was strengthened by the blood of your martyr Justin:
so bind us, in life and death, to Christ’s sacrifice
that our lives, broken and offered with his,
may carry his death and proclaim his resurrection in the world;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

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

A second chance to view sculptures on the campus of the Open University

The Open University outdoor art collection is set around the grounds of the university (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Patrick Comerford

I was back on the campus of the Open University in Milton Keynes for the second time last week. I thought I was about to receive my fifth Covid-19 vaccination in the Michael Young Building, but there was a misunderstanding and I must go back on a later date.

But once again I had time to wander around the campus, this time in late spring or early summer sunshine, with another opportunity to appreciate some of the modern architecture and sculptures on the campus, including the Wolfson Buildings, and to visit Saint Michael’s Church – this time I managed to get inside the church, which was closed when I first visited last November.

The Open University outdoor art collection consists of 16 permanent pieces set around the grounds. The one that probably stands out for most visitors is ‘Contemplation’ by Tom Harvey is on the Cedar Lawn. The sculptor created this piece in 2010 from a dying 250-year-old cedar tree, enabling it to live on to be enjoyed by students and staff at the Open University. The tree died due to an infestation by the Small Cedar Aphid.

The university decided to make good use of what remained of the tree, and in 2010 Tom Harvey designed and carved his sculpture, depicting learning in its simplest form by observing the world around us.

‘Star’ by Anthony Hayes, outside Wolfson Building (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

‘Star’ (2007) by Anthony Hayes is in a shaded corner outside the Wolfson Building). It is in a simple shape of a six-pointed star, an awkward form which never seems to stand up but always seems to have been cast aside or fallen at random, incongruous and surprising in the natural environment.

Anthony Hayes is attracted to exploring the mass of large, abstract forms that seem to exert a powerful presence, particularly as they approach human scale. He is interested in showing different ways of showing form and his work has been deliberately rusted to enhance texture and shape.

This star appears to have fallen from the sky. It was bought by the Artwork Group in 2008.

‘e = mc²’ by Scott Forrest outside the Christodoulou Meeting Room (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

‘e = mc²’ by Scott Forrest is outside the Christodoulou Meeting Room. Scott Forrest is fascinated with contrasts, between finished surface texture and raw quarried stone.

This sculpture represents Einstein’s theory, first articulated in 1905, carved into Jurassic limestone from 150,000 to 200,000,000 BC. It encapsulates an intellectual energy releasing from the unrefined mass.

On the back it reads: ‘The mass of an object warps the geometry of space time surrounding it.’

Roland Lawar is among local sculptors display their work on the campus for a short time period (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Local sculptors often ask to display their work on the campus for a short time period. The current display includes work by Roland Lawar, who says his sculptures are conceived as ‘seen’ by himself, as shapes, textures and colours, and the arrangements of these elements in a three-dimensional form.

He says they are inspired by his personal journeys, observations of daily life, and the colours and textures of nature. He is also inspired by his African origins and ideas that have blended into the way he creates his works.

Roland Lawar tries to make his sculptures highly viewer-interactive. His concepts are usually stirred by the shape of some found object and the dialogue that follows his contact with the object, or from some memento that he has held on to since childhood.

‘Contemplation’ by Tom Harvey on the Cedar Lawn of the Open University (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)