20 million olive trees in Crete, 20 million in classical Greece, a $20 million pay-out to Trump, and 20 million blog readers

The Parthenon on the Acropolis … Ancient Greece had 20 million people by 400 BCE (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

Once again, this blog continues to reach more and more readers, reaching yet another overwhelming landmark, with 20 million hits at about 7 am this morning (18 December 2025), and more than 800,000 readers this week alone. There have been almost 1.5 million visitors to this blog so far this month, an average of about 80,000 hits each day so far in December.

Earlier this week, this blog had reached 19.5 million readers by early Sunday afternoon (14 December 2025), having passed the 19 million mark last week (9 December).

I began blogging in 2010, and it took almost two years until July 2012 to reach half a million readers. It more than another year before this figure rose to 1 million by September 2013. This blog reached the 10 million mark earlier this year (12 January), almost 15 years later.

So far this year, the daily figures have been overwhelming on many occasions. Eight of the 12 days of busiest traffic on this blog were this month alone and four were in January:

• 289,076 (11 January 2025)
• 285,366 (12 January 2025)
• 261,422 (13 January 2025)
• 166,155 (15 December 2025)
• 146,944 (14 December 2025)
• 140,417 (16 December 2025)

• 122,398 (17 December 2025)
• 112,221 (13 December 2025)
• 100,291 (10 January 2025)
• 94,824 (12 December 2025)
• 93,575 (11 December 2025)
• 88,333 (10 December 2025)

The latest figure of 20 million is all the more staggering as half of those hits (10 million) have been within this year, since 12 January 2025. The rise in the number of readers has been phenomenal throughout this year, and the daily figures have been overwhelming at times. With this latest landmark figure of 20 million readers, I once again find myself asking questions such as:

• What do 20 million people look like?

• Where do we find 20 million people?

• What does £20 million, €20 million or $20 million mean?

• What would it buy, how far would it stretch, how much of a difference would that much make to people’s lives?

When countries have passed the 20 million mark (vividmaps.com)

The world’s population hovered is now well over surged past 8 billion, and projections say there could be 10.3 billion of us by the 2080s. Alex Egoshin of vividmaps is a GIS specialist and ecologist working as a researcher in a national park. He has created a series of maps based on Wikipedia’s List of Population Milestones by Country database and he concludes that ‘crossing the 20 million mark was like lighting a great bonfire – a signal that a civilisation had grown too large to ignore.’

He suggests only a few ancient societies reached that mark at an early stage: China may have passed 20 million by 1000 BCE, Persia by 480 BCE, classical Greece by 400 BCE, and Rome by 60 BCE. France joined around 1100 CE, ancient Mexico ca 1250, and the Mali Empire by 1400.

In the modern era, Russia crossed the 20 million line in 1765, Germany by 1770, and Japan by 1815 or earlier. Britain reached 20 million during the early Victorian surge in 1837, the US soon followed in 1844, Poland in 1882, Ukraine in 1883, and Spain in 1911. A wave of nations followed after World War II – including Egypt, Thailand, South Korea and the Philippines by the 1950s, followed by countries like Romania in 1968 and Malaysia in 1995.

Today, cities such as Cairo, Mumbai, Beijing and Dhaka all have close to 20 million inhabitants.

The Brandenburg Gate in Berlin … Germany had 20 million people by 1770 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Earlier this year, Donald Trump claimed that Paramount, the new owners of the US TV network CBS, are to provide him with $20 million worth of advertising and programming – just months before filing legal action seeking to squeeze $10 billion out of the BBC.

Winston Churchill’s published work is estimated to come to a total of 20 million words.

20 Million Miles to Earth (also known as The Beast from Space) was a 1957 science-fiction monster film directed by Nathan Juran, with stop-motion animation by Ray Harryhausen and starring William Hopper, Joan Taylor, and Frank Puglia. Set in Italy, the film involves an alien lifeform from Venus that arrives on a crashed rocket, and begins rapidly growing.

The US has a coastline of approximately 20 million metres (20,000 km or 12,400 miles), which is also close to half the circumference of the Earth.

Last month (November) was the olive picking season in Crete, where over 20 million olive trees are cultivated the length and breadth of the island. Olives and olive oil account for one of the main sources of income throughout Crete, so that olive oil is often called ‘Crete’s liquid gold’.

The olive groves on the hillsides between Piskopianó and Koutouloufári above Hersonissos … Crete has more than 20 million olive trees (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

And 20 million minutes is approximately 38 years 4 months. If this blog was getting one hit a minute, it would have taken over 38 years to reach this 20 million mark.

So, yet again, this blog has reached another humbling statistic and a sobering figure, and once more I am left with a feeling of gratitude to all who read and support this blog and my writing.

A continuing and warming figure in the midst of all these statistics continues to be the one that shows my morning prayer diary continues to reach up to 90-100 people each day, with similar figures for my daily Advent Calendar postings at noon. It is almost four years now since I retired from active parish ministry, but I think many of my priest-colleagues would be prayerfully thankful if the congregations in their churches totalled 600 to 700 people twice a week.

Today, I am very grateful to all the 20 million readers of this blog to date, and in particular I am grateful for the small and faithful core group among you who join me in prayer, reading and reflection each morning.

Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris … France had around 20 million inhabitants by the year 1100 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

An Advent Calendar with Patrick Comerford: 19, 18 December 2025

Christmas lights and greetings … from Dublin to Kuching (Photographs: Patrick Comerford, 2024/2025)

Patrick Comerford

There is just a week to go to Christmas Day. At noon each day this Advent, I am offering an image as part of my own ‘Advent Calendar’ for 2025, and an Advent or Christmas carol, hymn or song.

My image for my Advent Calendar today is of Christmas lights and greetings on O’Connell Street in Dublin and at the Grand Margherita Hotel in the heart of Kuching.

The Advent carol O come, O come, Emmanuel is a popular reworking of the seven ‘O Antiphons’. The seven majestic Messianic titles for Christ are based on Biblical prophecies, and they help the Church to recall the variety of the ills of humanity before the coming of the Redeemer as each antiphon in turn pleads with mounting impatience for Christ to save his people.

The first of these days, O Sapientia, or O Wisdom yesterday (17 December), is followed today (18 December) by O Adonai, by O Root of Jesse tomorrow (19 December), and then by O Key of David, O Dayspring, O King of the Nations, and, finally on 23 December, O Emmanuel.

Today, for my Advent music, I have chosen ‘The Advent Prose – Rorate caeli desuper’, also known as Rorate coeli (or Rorate Caeli) or by the opening words of its English translation, ‘Drop down ye heavens from above’ (see Isaiah 45: 8).

In the Roman Catholic tradition, the Advent Prose is used frequently during Advent as a plainsong at the Mass and in the Divine Office.

It expresses the longings of the Patriarchs and the Prophets, and symbolically of the Church, for the coming of the Messiah. Throughout Advent it occurs daily as the versicle and response after the hymn at Vespers.

℣ Rorate caeli desuper et nubes pluant justum
Drop down dew, ye heavens, from above, and let the clouds rain the Just One.

℟ Aperiatur terra et germinet salvatorem
Let the earth be opened and send forth a Saviour.

The text is also used as the Introit for the Fourth Sunday in Advent (next Sunday, 21 December 2025), for Wednesday in Ember Week, for the feast of the Expectation of the Blessed Virgin Mary today (18 December), and for votive Masses of the Blessed Virgin Mary during Advent.

In the Anglican Communion, Rorate Coeli is included in the music for Advent (see English Hymnal (1906), No 735; New English Hymnal, No 501, and Irish Church Hymnal, No 122).

The Advent Prose came into use in the 17th century, and draws on the prophecy of Isaiah, and a Latin text with a French translation was first published in Paris in 1673.

The version in the English Hymnal, the New English Hymnal and the Irish Church Hymnal omits the original but obscure third verse based on Isaiah 16: 1:

Behold, O Lord, the affliction of thy people
and send forth him who is to come:
send forth the Lamb, the ruler of the earth,
from the rock of the desert, to the mount of the daughter of Zion:
that he may take away the yoke of our captivity.

The editors replaced this with another verse drawn from Isaiah 40: 10-11.

The Advent Prose – Rorate caeli desuper

Refrain:

Drop down, ye heavens, from above,
and let the skies pour down righteousness.

Be not wroth very sore, O Lord,
neither remember iniquity for ever:
the holy cities are a wilderness,
Sion is a wilderness,
Jerusalem a desolation:
our holy and our beautiful house,
where our fathers praised thee.

We have sinned, and are as an unclean thing,
and we all do fade as a leaf:
and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away;
thou hast hid thy face from us:
and hast consumed us, because of our iniquities.

Ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord,
and my servant whom I have chosen;
that ye may know me and believe me:
I, even I, am the Lord, and beside me there is no Saviour:
and there is none that can deliver out of my hand.

Comfort ye, comfort ye, my people,
my salvation shall not tarry:
I have blotted out as a thick cloud thy transgressions:
Fear not, for I will save thee:
for I am the Lord thy God,
the Holy One of Israel, thy Redeemer.

Daily prayer in Advent 2025: 19, Thursday 18 December 2025

‘When Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him’ (Matthew 1: 24) … a mosaic in the Cathedral of Christ the King, Mullingar, Co Westmeath (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are in the final days of the Season of Advent, and Christmas Day is just a week away. This week began with the Third Sunday of Advent (Advent III, 14 December 2025), also known as Gaudete Sunday.

We are catching a train to London later this morning for some pre-Christmas family meetings and perhaps lunch together. But, before today 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.

The betrothal of Saint Joseph and the Virgin Mary … a panel in the Saint Joseph Window by the Harry Clarke studios in the Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, Kilmallock, Co Limerick (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Matthew 1: 18-24 (NRSVA):

18 Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. 19 Her husband Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to dismiss her quietly. 20 But just when he had resolved to do this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, ‘Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.’ 22 All this took place to fulfil what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet:

23 ‘Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,
and they shall name him Emmanuel’,

which means, ‘God is with us.’ 24 When Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him; he took her as his wife.

Saint Joseph with the Christ Child … a statue at Saint Joseph’s Cathedral, Kuching (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Today’s Reflections:

In the Gospel reading at the Eucharist today (Matthew 1: 18-24), we continue in a series of readings before Christmas that draw on the two nativity narratives found in Matthew 1: 1-24 and Luke 1: 5-79.

During the week before Christmas, the great canticle Magnificat at Evensong traditionally has a refrain or antiphon attached to it proclaiming the ascriptions or ‘names’ given to God through the Old Testament. Each name develops into a prophecy of the coming of the Messiah.

The Advent carol O come, O come, Emmanuel is a popular reworking of the seven ‘O Antiphons’.

O Sapientia, or O Wisdom, is the first of these days, and was marked yesterday (17 December). It is followed today (18 December) by O Adonai, O Root of Jesse tomorrow (19 December), and then O Key of David, O Dayspring, O King of the Nations, and, finally on 23 December, O Emmanuel.

In the old Sarum rite, these were sung one day earlier, beginning on 16 December, requiring another ascription for 23 December, this being O Virgin of Virgins. Since this was clearly apposite to the Blessed Virgin Mary, and not a ‘title’ of God, it was not adopted much beyond Sarum and, with the revision of the Calendar, Anglicans have adopted the more widely-used formulæ and dating.

The seven majestic Messianic titles for Christ are based on Biblical prophecies, and they help the Church to recall the variety of the ills of humanity before the coming of the Redeemer as each antiphon in turn pleads with mounting impatience for Christ to save his people.

The Gospel reading at the Eucharist today (Matthew 1: 18-24), continues the Nativity narrative in the first Gospel. This is a reading about choices, about obedience to God’s plans, and about the fulfilment of God’s plans for all nations.

So often we talk about the Virgin Mary and her obedience, about Mary’s ‘Yes’ to the birth of Christ But it means Joseph is often pushed to the side of the stage. Joseph says ‘Yes’ too, but he says it silently; he has no scripted lines; he has no dramatic part or role; he is mute; but he is obedient.

And, like the earlier Joseph, his Biblical namesake, he too is dreamer of dreams and a doer of deeds.

Saint Matthew’s nativity story lacks the romantic imagery of Saint Luke’s account, whose heady mixture of heavenly angels with earthy shepherds is missing. Instead, the hope of all the earth takes shape under the sign of arrangements being made for a betrothal that is apparently violated. The gifts of God’s grace and the promise of God’s reign are hidden, are to be searched for and to be found in the midst of what appears be a tawdry story.

The Virgin Mary may have been a mere teenager at the time, just 14 or 15. And, like so many other teenage brides, she turns up for her wedding – pregnant! Joseph knows he could not possibly be the father. He decides to do the right thing and take off, quietly dropping out of the arrangement.

If Joseph goes ahead, then this child is going to be known in his family, among his neighbours, perhaps by everyone who needs to know, as illegitimate for the rest of his life. His critics indelicately remind Jesus of this in Saint John’s Gospel: ‘You are indeed doing what your father does.’ They said to him, ‘We are not illegitimate children; we have one father, God himself’ (John 8: 41). The original Greek is more direct, crude and blunt: they taunt him that they were not conceived through illicit intercourse.

These fears and sneers, those social judgments and wagging fingers, must have been confronting Joseph like a nightmare. Yet the angel of Joseph’s dream makes a startling suggestion. He tells him to marry Mary, and then he is to name the child. To take on naming the child requires becoming his father. And this is suggested not as a nice thing to do, a courteous thing to do, a gallant or gentlemanly sort of thing to do. Joseph is told why: ‘You are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins’ (verse 21).

It is not a promise of immediate reward. Joseph is not promised that if he does this he is going to earn points towards the forgiveness of his own sins; that God will see him as a nice guy; that unexpected prosperity is on the horizon; or even that if he lives long enough, this child may grow up, be apprenticed to him, take over the family business, and act as a future pension plan.

If Joseph is not the father of the Child Jesus, he must have wondered what the angel meant by ‘his people’ and ‘their sins.’ But the forgiveness here is spoken of in apocalyptic terms. It is the declaration of a new future. To be forgiven is to receive a future. Forgiveness breaks the simple link between cause and effect, action and reaction, failure and disaster, rebellion and recrimination.

Advent is a time of repentance, forgiveness and expectation. It is a time of preparation, anticipation and hope. It is a time for dreaming dreams, and putting behind us all our nightmares.

Joseph dreams something wonderful. God would enter the world; God would be born to his new, young wife, Mary. But to believe this, Joseph had to trust not only his dream, but to trust Mary, to trust the future child, to trust God.

Do you love the people you trust and trust the people you love?

To trust the Virgin Mary, Joseph must have truly loved her. But trust in this predicament must have gone beyond trust. Joseph must have truly glimpsed what it is to trust God, to have hope in God, to love God, to have faith in God.

Joseph dreams a dream not of his own salvation, but of the salvation of the world.

Sometimes, like Joseph, we are supposed to trust God and then get out of the way. Do you trust that God is working through the people you love? Do you trust that God is working through people you find it difficult not to love but merely to like … working through God’s people for their salvation?

Too often we forget about poor Joseph. We tend to focus on the story of the Virgin Mary, but the Annunciation occurs not just to Mary, but to Joseph too. And they both say ‘Yes.’

And Joseph says a second ‘Yes’ too later when he agrees to the angel’s prompting to flee with Mary and the Christ Child to Egypt.

Joseph listens, God sends a messenger again, Joseph dreams again, and he remains true to God, he answers God’s call.

Joseph has no speaking part; he just has a walk-on part in this drama. But his actions, his obedience to God’s call, speak louder than words. Yes, God appears over and over again, to men, women, to ‘all sorts and conditions of people.’

Joseph’s ‘Yes’ is not only a ‘Yes’ to the Christ Child but a ‘Yes’ to all children who seem unwanted and who are easily pushed to one side. Joseph’s ‘Yes’ is not only a ‘Yes’ to the Christ Child but a ‘Yes’ to the promises the Coming Christ brings to all who are marginalised and in danger today, for because of his ‘Yes’ God is among us.

Advent is an opportunity to echo that ‘Yes’, time and time again.

Mary’s ‘husband Joseph [was] a righteous man’ (Matthew 1: 8-19) … Joseph and the Christ Child depicted at Saint Joseph’s Cottage in Thame, Oxfordshire (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Today’s Prayers (Thursday 18 December 2025):

The theme this week (14 to 20 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 Floating Church’ (pp 10-11). This theme was introduced on Sunday with a Programme Update by Sister Veronica of the Community of the Sisters of the Church in Melanesia.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Thursday 18 December 2025) invites us to pray:

We pray for the Sisters as they travel across the islands by boat, canoe, and on foot. May their journeys be safe, and may their pastoral care, Scripture teaching, and witness bring encouragement to isolated communities.

The Collect:

O Lord Jesus Christ,
who at your first coming sent your messenger
to prepare your way before you:
grant that the ministers and stewards of your mysteries
may likewise so prepare and make ready your way
by turning the hearts of the disobedient to the wisdom of the just,
that at your second coming to judge the world
we may be found an acceptable people in your sight;
for you are alive and reign with the Father
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

We give you thanks, O Lord, for these heavenly gifts;
kindle in us the fire of your Spirit
that when your Christ comes again
we may shine as lights before his face;
who is alive and reigns now and for ever.

Additional Collect:

God for whom we watch and wait,
you sent John the Baptist to prepare the way of your Son:
give us courage to speak the truth,
to hunger for justice,
and to suffer for the cause of right,
with Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s Reflections

Continued Tomorrow

Saint Joseph depicted in a stained-glass window in Saint Joseph’s Cathedral, Kuching (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

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