Daily prayer in Advent 2025: 3, Tuesday 2 December 2025

‘Blessed are the eyes that see what you see!’ (Luke 10: 23) … street art in Camden Street, Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

The Season of Advent – and the real countdown to Christmas – began on Sunday with the First Sunday of Advent (30 November 2025).

I have stayed in Dublin overnight after last night’s launch of Childhood and the Irish, a new book edited my friend and colleague, Professor Salvador Ryan of Maynooth, in the Royal Irish Academy. I am catching a flight back to Birmingham later this afternoon. But, before the day begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, to reflect, to pray and to read in these ways:

1, today’s Gospel reading;

2, a short reflection;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

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

‘Blessed are the eyes that see what you see!’ (Luke 10: 23) … what do we see in our own eyes?

Luke 10: 21-24 (NRSVA):

21 At that same hour Jesus rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said, ‘I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. 22 All things have been handed over to me by my Father; and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, or who the Father is except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.’

23 Then turning to the disciples, Jesus said to them privately, ‘Blessed are the eyes that see what you see! 24 For I tell you that many prophets and kings desired to see what you see, but did not see it, and to hear what you hear, but did not hear it.’

‘Blessed are the eyes that see what you see!’ (Luke 10: 23) … street art in Plaza de Judería in Malaga (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s reflection:

In the Gospel reading provided in the lectionary at the Eucharist today (Luke 10: 21-24), Jesus tells his disciples: ‘Blessed are the eyes that see what you see! For I tell you that many prophets and kings desired to see what you see, but did not see it, and to hear what you hear, but did not hear it’ (verse 23-24).

At 73, my sight and my hearing may not quite be what they once were. But my distant ‘cousin’, the late Kevin Martin, who died two years ago (14 June 2023), would greet me on my birthdays with the traditional Jewish greeting of ‘ad meah v’esrim’, ‘may you live until 120!’ (עד מאה ועשרים שנה‎).

Deuteronomy recalls that Moses lived to be 120, at which age ‘his eye had not dimmed, and his vigour had not diminished’ (Deuteronomy 34: 7). Great rabbis of the Talmud, including Hillel, Rabbi Yohanan Ben Zakkai, Rabbi Akiva and Rabbi Yehuda Hanasi, all lived to 120 as well.

The traditional Jewish birthday blessing carries the implication that the receiver should retain full mental and physical faculties to the end of life, still able to see with ears and to hear with ears.

This short overnight visit to Dublin has brought back many places where I have lived, worked or studied over the years. But Advent is a time of looking forward rather than back.

With those implications, of my eyes not being dimmed, and my vigour not being diminished, living for many more years does not sound so dim or distant a prospect at all. Indeed, despite a stroke, sarcoidosis and B12 deficiency, it might even be a real blessing, not only with what I have seen and heard in life but with the love, care and attention I receive too.

‘Blessed are the eyes that see what you see!’ (Luke 10: 23) … street art in Brick Lane in the East End, London (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Tuesday 2 December 2025):

The theme this week (30 to 6 December 2025) in Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘The Kingdom is for All’ (pp 6-7). This theme was introduced on Sunday with a programme update from the Revd Magela, Vicar of Cristo Redentor Parish in Tocantins, Brazil and coordinator of Casa A+, a place of hope and healing for people living with HIV.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Tuesday 2 December 2025) invites us to pray:

Let us pray for justice in public health, so that HIV/AIDS care and treatment reach all people in vulnerable situations, and so that vital medicines are accessible and free of charge to those who need them.

The Collect:

Almighty God,
give us grace to cast away the works of darkness
and to put on the armour of light,
now in the time of this mortal life,
in which your Son Jesus Christ came to us in great humility;
that on the last day,
when he shall come again in his glorious majesty
to judge the living and the dead,
we may rise to the life immortal;
through him who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.

The Post Communion Prayer:

O Lord our God,
make us watchful and keep us faithful
as we await the coming of your Son our Lord;
that, when he shall appear,
he may not find us sleeping in sin
but active in his service
and joyful in his praise;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

Almighty God,
as your kingdom dawns,
turn us from the darkness of sin
to the light of holiness,
that we may be ready to meet you
in our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.

Yesterday’s Reflection

Continued Tomorrow

‘Blessed are the eyes that see what you see!’ (Luke 10: 23) … street art in Camden Place, between Camden Street and Harcourt Street, Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

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

My story of Chaim Herzog and the Levitas brothers has become a topical tale at this evening’s book launch in Dublin

The plaque unveiled by Chaim Herzog in Herzog Park, Rathgar … his Dublin childhood is recalled in one of my essays in ‘Christmas and the Irish’ edited by Professor Salvador Ryan and launched in the RIA this evening (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

I am in Dublin this evening for the launch of Professor Salvador Ryan’s new book, Childhood and the Irish, A Miscellany in the Royal Irish Academy. The book, which is being launched by RTÉ’s Miriam O’Callaghan, is published by Wordwell Books and includes two contributions from me.

One of my essays is topical this evening in a way that I never expected it to be when I was subitting my contributions to this new book. ‘In Four boys growing up in Dublin’s ‘Little Jerusalem’ and a synagogue fire’, I tell the story of how a youthful Chaim Herzog, who lived on Bloomfield Avenue, and three Levitas brothers, Max, Morry and Sol, who lived on Warren Street, all of my father’s generation, almost set fire accidentally to Lennox Street Synagogue late one Saturday 100 years ago, back in 1925.

Chaim Herzog (1918-1997), was born in Belfast but had moved to Dublin in 1919 when his father, Dr Yitzhak Herzog, became the first Chief Rabbi of Ireland. He later went to school in Wesley College, Dublin, and would become the President of Israel (1983-1993). Herzog Park in Dublin was named in his honour during one of his return visits to Dublin. He had fought against the Nazis in World War II, took part in the liberation of several Nazi concentration camps, including Bergen-Belsen, and became involved in left-wing politics as a member of the Labour Party. His son Isaac Herzog is a former leader of the Israeli Labour Party and is the present President of Israel.

The other three boys in the incident, the Levitas brothers, eventually moved to the East End of London, where they became heroes in the Battle of Cable Street in 1936 and the Spanish Civil War.

The councillors who wanted to change the name of Herzog Park at a meeting of Dublin City Council this evening, at the same time as this book is being launched, would do well to remember the true grit of these true Dubs who resisted racism and fascism all this lives. Many of them, however, continue to revere the statue in Fairview Park of the Nazi collaborator Sean Russell.

With Professor Salvador Ryan at a previous book launch in the Royal Irish Academy, Dawson Street, Dublin

The new book being launched this evening includes 80 essays from historians, folklorists, archaeologists, theologians, anthropologists, poets, novelists, artists, literature scholars and educationalists, who cast light on the lived experience of children in Ireland.

The contributions range from the scholarly to the deeply personal, with vignettes from almost every county in Ireland. This anthology offers an invaluable resource for all who are interested in the social, cultural and religious history of childhood in Ireland.

The topics include: childhood in early Irish saints’ lives; childhood in medieval Irish literature; remembering the children who died violently during the upheavals of 17th century Ireland; ‘foundlings’ and parish-based care for children in the 19th century; child prisoners; a New York Irish ‘street boy’ in the American Civil War; children and the belief in ‘changelings’; childhood disability; why Manchester City might be considered ‘Monaghan’s best youth club’; the educational experiences of Jewish children and of the children of RIC officers in early 20th century Ireland; the childhood of James Joyce; seasonal migration and childhood farm labour; the origins of the summer Gaeltacht course; the ‘sweet-shop’ culture of Irish childhood; the banbhs who went to the ball in 1930s Offaly; mid-20th century school strike; a Dublin school tour to Lourdes in 1954; childhood among the Travelling community; the evolution of First Communion rituals; a UK-based scholar’s childhood experience of learning different histories in Belfast and Dublin schools; blended family culture in contemporary Ireland; and many more.

Salvador Ryan is Professor of Ecclesiastical History at Saint Patrick’s Pontifical University, Maynooth, with an interest in religious and cultural history from the Middle Ages to the 20th century. This is the ninth book I have contributed to that he has either edited or co-edited.

Those other books include Christmas and the Irish (2023), Birth and the Irish (2021), Marriage and the Irish (2019), and Death and the Irish (2016), all from Wordwell Books; We Remember Maynooth: a College across Four Centuries (Dublin: Messenger Publications, 2020); The Cultural Reception of the Bible: explorations in theology, literature and the arts (Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2018); Treasures of Ireland, Vol III, To the Ends of the Earth (Dublin: Veritas, 2015); and Tresures of Irish Christianity, Volume II, A People of the Word (Dublin: Veritas, 2013).

He is also the editor of The Irish Theological Quarterly, to which I have contributed often, and the editor of Under Crimblin Hill, Journal of the Dunkerrin Parish History Society – I have contributed a paper to the latest volume (2026), which was launched in the Barack Obama Plaza in Moneygall last Friday night.

Among my friends, Facebook friends, and academic and clerical colleagues who are included in this new collection are Ian d’Alton, Anne Marie D’Arcy, Séamus Dooley, Crawford Gribben, Kevin Hargaden, Mark Humphries, Laurence Kirkpatrick, Michelle McGoff-McCann, Patsy McGarry, Ida Milne, Miriam Moffitt, Father Colmán Ó Clabaigh OSB, Thomas O’Loughlin, Pádraig Ó Macháin, Clodagh Tait, Natalie Wynn, and, of course, Salvador Ryan.

In ‘Within the Sound of Church Bells’, my childhood neighbour, the writer, songwriter and broadcaster Max McCoubrey, recalls many details of childhood in Dublin 6 that resonate with me.

My contributions to this book are ‘36. Four Boys Growing up in Dublin’s ‘Little Jerusalem’ (pp 153-156) and a Synagogue Fire’, and ‘39. The Children of the Holocaust who Called Ireland Home’ (pp 166-170).

I have read through some of the other essays and contributions and browsed through others at the proof-reading stages, and I am looking forward to reading many more after this evening's book lauch. But, more about this book and my two essays in the days or weeks to come. The book is out in time to include on your Christmas presents list.

• Childhood and the Irish, A Miscellany (Dublin: Wordwell Books, 2025), ISBN: 9781916742192 (paperback), xviii + 344 pp, €25. See www.wordwellbooks.com

An Advent Calendar with Patrick Comerford: 2, 1 December 2025

Christmas decorations around the door of Gelato on the High Street, Stony Stratford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Patrick Comerford

Advent began yesterday on Advent Sunday, and the countdown to Christmas is truly under way.

At noon each day in Advent this year, I am offering one image as part of my ‘Advent Calendar’ for 2025, and one Advent or Christmas carol or hymn.

‘Bethlehem Down’ is a carol for SATB choir composed in 1927 by Peter Warlock (1894-1930), the pseudonym of Philip Arnold Heseltine, and is one of the carols being rehearsed by for Advent and Christmas by the choir in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford.

‘Bethlehem Down’ is set to a poem by the journalist and poet Bruce Blunt (1899-1957). Warlock and Blunt wrote the carol over Christmas in 1927. They submitted the carol to the Daily Telegraph’s annual Christmas carol contest and won. ‘Bethlehem Down’ has been described as the finest of all of Warlock’s choral works and his ‘unquestioned carol masterpiece’.

When He is King we will give him the King’s gifts,
Myrrh for its sweetness, and gold for a crown,
“Beautiful robes”, said the young girl to Joseph
Fair with her first-born on Bethlehem Down.

Bethlehem Down is full of the starlight
Winds for the spices, and stars for the gold,
Mary for sleep, and for lullaby music
Songs of a shepherd by Bethlehem fold.

When He is King they will clothe Him in grave-sheets,
Myrrh for embalming, and wood for a crown,
He that lies now in the white arms of Mary
Sleeping so lightly on Bethlehem Down.

Here He has peace and a short while for dreaming,
Close-huddled oxen to keep Him from cold,
Mary for love, and for lullaby music
Songs of a shepherd by Bethlehem fold.



Advent Calendar 1: 30 November 2025

Daily prayer in Adent 2025: 2, Monday 1 December 2025, Saint Andrew the Apostle

Saint Andrew the Apostle … a sculpture on the west front of Lichfield Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

The Season of Advent began yesterday, the First Sunday of Advent (30 November 2025), and the celebration of Saint Andrew the Apostle, normally on 30 November, has been transferred to today.

I am at Luton Airport to catch an early morning flight, which means I am going to miss the USPG carol service this evening (1 December) in at Saint John’s Church, Waterloo, with an evening of gospel harmonies, candlelight and festive joy, led by the Soul Sanctuary Gospel Choir. The evening is also raising funds for the work of the Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission of HIV programme in Tanzania. I am taking some quiet time in a quiet space in the airport early this morning to give thanks, to reflect, to pray and to read in these ways:

1, today’s Gospel reading;

2, a short reflection;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

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

Saint Andrew the First-Called … an icon in the chapel in Saint Columba’s House, Woking (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Matthew 4: 18-22 (NRSVA):

18 As he walked by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the lake – for they were fishermen. 19 And he said to them, ‘Follow me, and I will make you fish for people.’ 20 Immediately they left their nets and followed him. 21 As he went from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John, in the boat with their father Zebedee, mending their nets, and he called them. 22 Immediately they left the boat and their father, and followed him.

Saint Andrew-by-the-Wardrobe in London is the last of Christopher Wren’s city churches (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s reflection:

Because yesterday was the First Sunday of Advent, the feast day of Saint Andrew the Apostle has been transferred from its normal celebration on 30 November to today (1 December).

Saint Andrew the Apostle is often known as the first-called of the disciples. But, before he was called, he was a fisherman, an every-day ordinary-day commercial occupation, working on the Lake of Galilee in partnership with his brother Simon Peter. It is said that when Saint John the Baptist began to preach, Saint Andrew became one of his closest disciples.

When he heard Christ’s call by the sea to follow him, Saint Andrew hesitated for a moment, not because he had any doubts about that call, but because he wanted to bring his brother with him. He left his nets behind and went to Peter and, as Saint John’s Gospel recalls, he told him: ‘We have found the Messiah … [and] he brought Simon to Jesus’ (John 1: 41, 42).

The call in today’s Gospel reading (Matthew 4: 18-2) – to Peter and Andrew, to James and John, the sons of Zebedee – comes to us as individuals and in groups. It is not a story of an either/or choice between proclaiming the Gospel to individuals or groups, but a both/and choice.

And this is a two-way call, as Saint Paul reminds us in the Epistle reading today (Romans 10: 12-18): God calls us, and we call to God. Saint Paul’s inclusive language – ‘Lord of all’ … ‘generous to all’ … ‘Everyone who calls’ … ‘all the earth’ – is unambiguous in ruling out all discrimination: ‘For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek.’

But that particular form of discrimination is already, inherently, rejected in the Gospel reading. There are two brothers, one with a very Jewish name, Simon from the Hebrew שִׁמְעוֹן, meaning ‘listen’ and ‘best’; and one with a very Greek name, Andrew, Ἀνδρέας, meaning ‘manly,’ even ‘brave’ … ‘strong’ … ‘courageous.’

From the very beginning, the call of Christ rejects the most obvious discrimination between Jew and Greek. Standing against discrimination is inherently built into the mission of the Church.

Some years ago, on my way to or from a meeting of USPG trustees, I visited one of the surviving London churches by Sir Christopher Wren in London, Saint Andrew-by-the-Wardrobe on Queen Victoria Street. It is two blocks south of Saint Paul’s Cathedral and close to Blackfriars station, and it is the last of Wren’s city churches.

The church was destroyed by German bombs during the Blitz in World War II, but was rebuilt and rededicated in 1961.

As the bitter weather of winter takes hold, I am reminded of a prayer, appropriate for Advent and this winter weather, I found at Saint Andrew’s and which the church offers for people who have no shelter on the streets:

God of compassion,
your love for humanity was revealed in Jesus,
whose earthly life began in the poverty of a stable
and ended in the pain and isolation of the cross:
we hold before you those who are homeless and cold
especially in this bitter weather.
Draw near and comfort them in spirit
and bless those who work to provide them
with shelter, food and friendship.
We ask this in Jesus’ name.
Amen.

Saint Andrew’s Cross (centre) on a hassock in Lichfield Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Monday 1 December 2025, Saint Andrew the Apostle, transferred):

The theme this week (30 to 6 December 2025) in Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘The Kingdom is for All’ (pp 6-7). This theme was introduced yesterday with a programme update from the Revd Magela, Vicar of Cristo Redentor Parish in Tocantins, Brazil and coordinator of Casa A+, a place of hope and healing for people living with HIV.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Monday 1 December 2025, Saint Andrew the Apostle and World AIDS Day) invites us to pray:

Let us pray for all those living with HIV/AIDS. May they receive compassionate care, access to treatment, and protection from stigma.

The Collect:

Almighty God,
who gave such grace to your apostle Saint Andrew
that he readily obeyed the call of your Son Jesus Christ
and brought his brother with him:
call us by your holy word,
and give us grace to follow you without delay
and to tell the good news of your kingdom;
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.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

Almighty God,
who on the day of Pentecost
sent your Holy Spirit to the apostles
with the wind from heaven and in tongues of flame,
filling them with joy and boldness to preach the gospel:
by the power of the same Spirit
strengthen us to witness to your truth
and to draw everyone to the fire of your love;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s Reflection

Continued Tomorrow

Saint Andrew’s Cathedral, Singapore, at night … a church has stood on the site for almost 200 years (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

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