28 February 2024

A mid-Lent retreat in
Lichfield Cathedral, with
walks by Stowe Pool
and in the countryside

Stillness descends on Lichfield Cathedral and the waters of Stowe Pool after sunset (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024; click on image for full-screen viewing)

Patrick Comerford

The day is thine, and the night is thine :
thou hast prepared the light and the sun.
Thou hast set all the borders of the earth :
thou hast made summer and winter. (Psalm 74: 17-18)


I was back in Lichfield earlier this week (26 February 2024) for one of my own self-guided mini-retreats. We are mid-way through Lent, and I followed the daily liturgical cycle in Lichfield Cathedral, but also had lunch in the Hedgehog Vintage Inn, one of my favourite restaurants and bijou hotels.

There were long walks along Beacon Street and Strafford Street and in the countryside along Cross in Hand Lane, heading out towards Farewell, and shorter walks during the day around the Cathedral Close, Stowe Pool and Minister Pool, and in the Herb Garden at Erasmus Darwin House and in Beacon Park.

There were visits to visits to the chapel of Saint John’s Hospital, Saint Michael’s Church on Greenhill and Saint Mary’s Church (now the Hub) in Market Square, and a little time to browse in some bookshops.

The Hedgehog Vintage Inn, once the home of the composer Muzio Clementi (1752-1832), who rented the house from the Earl of Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

I attended the mid-day Eucharist at the High Altar in the cathedral, and returned at the end of the day Evening Prayer in the Lady Chapel, with some quiet time for prayer and reflection.

I am working at the moment on proposals for two, paired guided historical walking tours, along Tamworth Street in Lichfield, and along Lichfield Street in Tamworth. So, I took time to photograph some of the older buildings on Tamworth Street, including the Methodist Church, the former Regal Cinema, and some of the locations associated with the poet Philip Larkin, who had many family connections with Lichfield.

These regular visits to Lichfield are an important part of my spiritual life and health. Lichfield – in particular, the Cathedral and the chapel in Saint John’s – helped to shape and grow my spiritual life and Anglican values when I was a teenager. For most of my life, they have been like a spiritual home for me, and, for more than 50 years, I have continued to return constantly, a few times each year, to pray, to reflect, to give thanks, for pilgrimage, and to be still.

Comberford Hall seen from the train between Tamworth and Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

The train journey between Milton Keynes and Lichfield Trent Valley rakes only an hour, making it much easier to plan these return visits.

On the final part of the train journey, between Tamworth and Lichfield, the train passes by Comberford Hall and Comberford village as it crosses the River Tame, and a smile comes across my face. The place has given me joy ever since my teens, when I decided to follow in the footsteps of my great-grandfather in search of the family history.

But there are reminders throughout Lichfield of Comberford family links: a hassock with the family name in the north aisle of the Cathedral; or an antique map in the window of the Studio in the Old Garage, Bird Street, beside the Garden of Remembrance.

Comberford on a map in the Studio shop window in Lichfield … between Lichfield and Tamworth, above the ‘W’ in Offlow (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

There was no choir in the Cathedral on Monday evening, but Evening Prayer from the Book of Common Prayer was led by the Canon Chancellor, Canon Gregory Platten.

At the end of the day, there was comfort in the words of Psalm 74, the Psalm for Evening Prayer that day:

The day is thine, and the night is thine :
thou hast prepared the light and the sun.
Thou hast set all the borders of the earth :
thou hast made summer and winter. (Psalm 74: 17-18)


Another verse in that evening psalm recalls how ‘all the earth is full of darkness’ (verse 21). Before catching a late train back to Milton Keynes, I went for another walk around Stowe Pool in that interesting light we get after sunset before darkness settles in, when the sky is deep blue, there are still hints of the sun in the distant west, the cathedral and the trees are still reflected in the waters, and it is possible to imagine and pray for a world that is at peace.

Comberford on a hassock in Lichfield Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Mid-Lent, by Christina Rossetti

Is any grieved or tired? Yea, by God’s Will:
Surely God’s Will alone is good and best:
O weary man, in weariness take rest,
O hungry man, by hunger feast thy fill.
Discern thy good beneath a mask of ill,
Or build of loneliness thy secret nest:
At noon take heart, being mindful of the west,
At night wake hope, for dawn advances still.
At night wake hope. Poor soul, in such sore need
Of wakening and of girding up anew,
Hast thou that hope which fainting doth pursue?
No saint but hath pursued and hath been faint;
Bid love wake hope, for both thy steps shall speed,
Still faint yet still pursuing, O thou saint.

A walk along Cross in Hand Lane in the countryside north of Lichfield, near the Hedgehog Vintage Inn (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Daily prayer in Lent with
early English saints:
15, 28 February 2024,
Saint Hilda of Whitby

Saint Hilda (614-680), the founding Abbess of Whitby, depicted in a window in Saint Mary’s Church, Whitby (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Patrick Comerford

The Season of Lent began earlier this month on Ash Wednesday (14 February 2024), and this week began with the Second Sunday in Lent (Lent II, 25 February 2024).

Throughout Lent this year, I am taking time each morning to reflect on the lives of early, pre-Reformation English saints commemorated in Common Worship.

Before this day begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning for reflection, prayer and reading in these ways:

1, A reflection on an early, pre-Reformation English saint;

2, today’s Gospel reading;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary.

Whitby Abbey played a crucial role as the venue for the Synod of Whitby in the year 664 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Early English pre-Reformation saints: 15, Saint Hilda of Whitby

Saint Hilda of Whitby is commemorated in Common Worship on 19 November. She was born in the year 614 of the royal house of Northumbria and was baptised in York at the age of 12 by Saint Paulinus. Encouraged by Saint Aidan of Lindisfarne, she became a religious at the age of 33.

She established monasteries first at Hartlepool and two years later at Whitby. This house became a great centre of learning and was the meeting-place for the important Synod of Whitby in the year 664 at which it was decided to adopt the Roman tradition in preference to Celtic customs.

Although Hilda was a Celt in religious formation, she played a crucial rôle in reconciling others of that tradition to the decision of the Synod of Whitby. She is also remembered as a great educator, exemplified in her nurturing of Cædmon’s gift of vernacular song. She died on 17 November 680.

Cædmon, who was encouraged by Saint Hilda, is commemorated with a cross in Saint Mary’s churchyard in Whitby (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Matthew 20: 17-28 (NRSVA):

17 While Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the twelve disciples aside by themselves, and said to them on the way, 18 ‘See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn him to death; 19 then they will hand him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified; and on the third day he will be raised.’

20 Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee came to him with her sons, and kneeling before him, she asked a favour of him. 21 And he said to her, ‘What do you want?’ She said to him, ‘Declare that these two sons of mine will sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your kingdom.’ 22 But Jesus answered, ‘You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink?’ They said to him, ‘We are able.’ 23 He said to them, ‘You will indeed drink my cup, but to sit at my right hand and at my left, this is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared by my Father.’

24 When the ten heard it, they were angry with the two brothers. 25 But Jesus called them to him and said, ‘You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them. 26 It will not be so among you; but whoever wishes to be great among you must be your servant, 27 and whoever wishes to be first among you must be your slave; 28 just as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.’

The Synod of Whitby was called in 664 to resolve differences, including the calculation of the date of Easter (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Today’s Prayers (Wednesday 28 February 2024):

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 ‘Lent Reflection: Freedom in Christ.’ This theme was introduced on Sunday by the Revd Bianca Daébs (Igreja Episcopal Anglicana do Brasil).

The USPG Prayer Diary today (28 February 2024) invites us to pray in these words:

Thank you for our Salvation in Christ, and thank you Father, for the freedom we have in him.

The Collect:

Almighty God,
you show to those who are in error the light of your truth,
that they may return to the way of righteousness:
grant to all those who are admitted
into the fellowship of Christ’s religion,
that they may reject those things
that are contrary to their profession,
and follow all such things as are agreeable to the same;
through our Lord Jesus Christ,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

Almighty God,
you see that we have no power of ourselves to help ourselves:
keep us both outwardly in our bodies,
and inwardly in our souls;
that we may be defended from all adversities
which may happen to the body,
and from all evil thoughts which may assault and hurt the soul;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

Almighty God,
by the prayer and discipline of Lent
may we enter into the mystery of Christ’s sufferings,
and by following in his Way
come to share in his glory;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s Reflection: Saint Etheldreda, Abbess of Ely

Tomorrow: Saint Cuthbert of Lindisfarne

Whitby Abbey was suppressed in 1539 at the dissolution of the monastic houses (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

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