10 May 2024

Daily prayer in Easter 2024:
41, 10 May 2024

The Ascension depicted in the West Window in Norwich Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Patrick Comerford

Easter is a 50-day season that continues until the Day of Pentecost (19 May 2024). This week began with the Sixth Sunday of Easter (Easter VI), and yesterday was Ascension Day (9 May 2024). Easter was celebrated in the Greek Orthodox Church on Sunday (5 May), and today is known in the Orthodox Church as ‘Bright Friday.’

Throughout this Season of Easter, my morning reflections each day include the daily Gospel reading, the prayer in the USPG prayer diary, and the prayers in the Collects and Post-Communion Prayer of the day. As yesterday was Ascension Day, the Ascension theme continues in the photographs in my prayer diary this morning.

I have yet another medical appointment in Stony Stratford later this morning. But, before this day begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, for reflection, prayer and reading in these ways:

1, today’s Gospel reading;

2, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

3, the Collects and Post-Communion prayer of the day.

The Ascension depicted in the East Window in Saint Giles Church, Oxford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

John 16: 20-23 (NRSVA):

[Jesus said:] 20 ‘Very truly, I tell you, you will weep and mourn, but the world will rejoice; you will have pain, but your pain will turn into joy. 21 When a woman is in labour, she has pain, because her hour has come. But when her child is born, she no longer remembers the anguish because of the joy of having brought a human being into the world. 22 So you have pain now; but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you. 23 On that day you will ask nothing of me. Very truly, I tell you, if you ask anything of the Father in my name, he will give it to you.’

The Ascension depicted in a stained-glass window by Burlison and Gryllis in Saint Michael’s Church, St Albans (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Today’s Prayers (Friday 10 May 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 ‘Thy Kingdom Come.’ This theme was introduced on Sunday with some Reflections.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (10 May 2024) invites us to pray:

Father God, we pray in hope for all people who have not yet heard the Good News of Jesus Christ and his love for the world. May they hear it for themselves and respond and follow him.

The Collect:

O God the King of glory,
you have exalted your only Son Jesus Christ
with great triumph to your kingdom in heaven:
we beseech you, leave us not comfortless,
but send your Holy Spirit to strengthen us
and exalt us to the place where our Saviour Christ is gone before,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Post Communion Prayer:

Eternal God, giver of love and power,
your Son Jesus Christ has sent us into all the world
to preach the gospel of his kingdom:
confirm us in this mission,
and help us to live the good news we proclaim;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

Risen, ascended Lord,
as we rejoice at your triumph,
fill your Church on earth with power and compassion,
that all who are estranged by sin
may find forgiveness and know your peace,
to the glory of God the Father.

Yesterday’s reflection

Continued tomorrow

The Ascension depicted in a stained-glass window in Saint Thomas the Apostle Church, Heptonstall (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

Planet Walk sculptures in
Tamworth Castle Grounds:
a walk around the galaxy

Walenty Pytel’s Planet Walk in Tamworth Castle Grounds marked the millennium in 2000 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Patrick Comerford

I was writing yesterday about Fritz Steller’s paired mural ‘Communication and Documentation’ at the entrance to Tamworth Library. But Tamworth has impressive outdoors works of sculpture too, including Luke Perry’s sculpture of Æthelflæd, near the train station (26 July 2023), and Walenty Pytel’s ‘Anchor’ sculpture in Saint Editha’s Square, commemorating Colin Grazier (23 February 2023).

The Polish-born sculptor Walenty Pytel also created the Planet Walk in the castle grounds, which was commissioned in 2000 to mark the millennium. The Planet Walk was the brainchild of Tamworth’s Town Twinning Association, and it is based on a similar trail created in Bad Laasphe, Tamworth’s twin town in North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany.

Walenty Pytel designed the trail with the sun and nine planets in his studio in Ross-on-Wye. The distances between each of the planets was designed to relatively represent the distance between the planets in the solar system, to give some concept of the distance between us and our neighbouring – or not so neighbouring – planets.

Some of the original planets now seem to be missing. The trail takes 15-25 minutes to walk, and is easily followed by young and old alike, by with red rockets laid into the ground leading a trail around the galaxy.

Walenty Pytel is an internationally renowned artist and is recognised as a leading metal sculptor of birds and beasts. He created the Colin Grazier statue in Saint Editha’s Square, Tamworth, in 2002. His work also appears at the entrance to Birmingham International Airport and outside the House of Commons.

Earth is one of the planets in Walenty Pytel’s Planet Walk in the Tamworth Castle Grounds (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Pytel was born in 1941 in German-occupied Poland during World War II. Because of his blond features, the Nazis kidnapped him from his mother Jadwiga Pytel and had him adopted by a Gestapo officer and his childless wife. However, his mother escaped from a prison camp, snatched him from outside the couple’s home and fled Poland with him across the Alps to Italy.

He came to England at the age of five and later studied graphic design at Hereford College of Arts. After working in a publishing studio in London, he opened two studios in Hereford in 1963, initially focusing on paper sculptures for window displays but turned to metal two years later.

His first public commission came in 1965, when Hereford City Council paid £100 for Christmas decorations. Three stainless-steel angels arranged in a triangle for the centre of High Town and 400 thin metal stars were erected in the city. The works have been lost since then.

His creations are often inspired by nature and his work includes the Jubilee Fountain in New Palace Yard, Westminster, ‘Take Off’ at Birmingham Airport, and one of Europe’s largest metalwork sculptures, ‘The Fossor’ (1979), at the headquarters of JCB in Rocester, Staffordshire.

Pytel was commissioned to create four huge steel eagles for the Portuguese football club Benfica in 2005. A year later, his career was disrupted after a fall in 2006 resulted in a loss of memory. However, at 83, he has continued to receive commissions for public sculptures and he continues to live near Ross-on-Wye.

The trail around Walenty Pytel’s Planet Walk in Tamworth takes 15-25 minutes to walk (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)