21.5 million sq metres in Greece, 21.5 million metres on a bike, 21.5 million words in Arabic, and 21.5 million blog readers

The Corinth Canal, completed in 1893, separates the Peloponnese (21,500 sq km or 21.5 million sq metres) from the rest of mainland Greece (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

Once again, this blog continues to reach more and more readers, and had 21.5 million hits by about 6 am this morning (13 January 2026). This follows soon after reaching a landmark at the end of 2025 with 21 million hits shortly after 1 pm on New Year’s Eve (31 December 2025), and with almost 2.5 million visitors to this blog throughout December (2,423,018). We are less than two weeks into January, and there have been almost half a million (+492,000) hits or visitors for 2026 by early this evening (13 January 2026).

This blog passed the half million mark five times in one month alone last month, hitting the 21 million mark on New Year’s Eve (31 December 2025), 20.5 million on Christmas Day (25 December), 20 million mark a week earlier (18 December 2025), 19.5 million the previous Sunday (14 December 2025), and 19 million less than a week before that (9 December).

I began blogging in 2010, and it took almost two years until July 2012 to reach half a million readers – a number reached in just xxx days this month alone. It then took more than another year before this figure rose to 1 million by September 2013. This blog reached the 10 million mark a year ago (12 January 2025), almost 15 years later. In the 12 months since then, another 11.5 million hits have been counted.

Throughout last year, the daily figures were overwhelming on many occasions. Eight of the 12 days of busiest traffic on this blog were last 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)
• 116,911 (30 December 2025)
• 112,221 (13 December 2025)
• 106,475 (27 December 2025)
• 100,291 (10 January 2025)
• 94,824 (12 December 2025)

The latest figure of 21.5 million is all the more staggering as more than half of those hits (11.5 million) have been within the past year, since 12 January 2025. The rise in the number of readers seems to have been phenomenal throughout last year, and the daily figures have been overwhelming at times. With this latest landmark figure of 21.5 million readers, I once again find myself asking questions such as:

• What do 21.5 million people look like?

• Where do we find 21.5 million people?

• What does £21.5 million, €21.5 million or $21.5 million mean?

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

Bicycles outside Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge … Steph Devery cycled 21,500 km (21.5 million metres) through 40 countries over 2 years and 7 months (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

An average 21.5 million people have been displaced each year since 2008 by weather-related disasters such as floods, storms, wildfires and extreme temperature. Thousands of others flee their homes in the context of slow-onset hazards, such as droughts or coastal erosion linked to sea level rise.

The number of climate refugees continues to rise, and the projections suggest potentially billions displaced by 2050. Scientists believe climate change, combined with other drivers, is going to increase the displacement of people in the future.

There were 21.5 million victims of a massive US government data breach in the OPM Hack in 2015. The Office of Personnel Management data breach exposed the sensitive information, including Social Security Numbers, of about 21.5 million individuals, including government applicants and their families, in one of the largest US cyberattacks.

21.5 million people in the UK, a large proportion of the population, need financial support. Royal London research late last year (2025) indicates 21.5 million people could benefit from ‘targeted support’ for accessible financial guidance, addressing unmet needs in retirement and savings.

The Moscow Metropolitan Area in Russia has around 21.5 million, making it Europe’s most populous metropolitan area. Cairo in Egypt also has 21.5 million people – depending on who’s counting – and it’s a growing, expanding megacity. São Paulo, the megacity of Brazil and the Americas, has 21.5 million people living in its metropolitan area.

The Historical Dictionary of the Arabic Language with 21.5 million words is the largest and most comprehensive historical linguistic project. The 127-volume dictionary, published at the end of 2024, was the culmination of a seven-year project involving 500 researchers and 200 proof-readers, and covering 351,000 historical citations from 11,300 linguistic roots.

Donald Trump’s mansion on St Martin, Le Château des Palmiers, is a luxury beachfront estate on Plum Bay, bought in 2013. Trump’s mansion on the French Caribbean island had a price tag of £21.5 million, but after a tropical storm he reduced the selling price to £13 million. Le Château des Palmiers is still listed today and unsold, and it lingers as a lesson in how luxury, politics, and weather can undo even the most gilded portfolios.

The special counsel Robert Mueller filed additional charges against Trump’s former campaign chairman Paul Manafort and a business associate in 2018. The filing added allegations of tax evasion and increased the amount of money Manafort was accused of laundering through offshore accounts to £21.5 million ($30 million).

21.5 million metres is 21,500 km and 21.5 million sq m is 21,500 sq km.

Steph Devery set off from Gibraltar in June 2021 on a solo cycle tour through Europe, the Middle East and Africa. She became the first Australian woman to cycle through Saudi Arabia, she experienced war in Sudan and took shelter with a family for 10 days before she was evacuated by the French military, arriving in Paris without her bicycle or many of her possessions. But she was determined to continue. Her trip eventually took her to the very tip of Southern Africa at the Cape of Good Hope and a total distance of 21,500 km (21.5 million metres) through 40 countries over 2 years and 7 months.

The Peloponnese at the southern tip of the Greek mainland is 21,500 sq km (21.5 million sq m) in area and is the southernmost part of mainland Greece. The peninsula is connected to the rest of the mainland by the Isthmus of Corinth. Its name, Πελοπόννησος, comes from the legend in which the hero Pelops conquered the region.

The Peloponnesian War was the great struggle between Athens and its maritime empire with Sparta and its allies in the Peloponnese between 431 BCE and 404 BCE. The archaeological sites I have visited in the Peloponnese include Olympia, Mycenae, Sparta, Mystras and Epidavros, and the cities and towns I have visited there or stayed in include Pyrgos, Corinth, Nafplion and Spárti.

The Greek War of Independence began in the Peloponnese when rebels took control of Kalamata on 23 March 1821. The Corinth Canal, finally completed in 1893, makes the Peloponnese an island, technically speaking.

The theatre in Epidavros … the Peloponnese extends to 21,500 sq km or 21.5 million sq metres (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

And 21.5 million minutes is approximately 14,931 days or 40.88 years. In other words, if this blog was getting one hit a minute, it would take almost 41 years to reach this 21.5 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.

Once again, a continuing and warming figure in the midst of all these statistics is the one that shows my morning prayer diary continues to reach up to 700-900 people each day.

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 500 to 600 people or more each week.

Today, I am very grateful to all the 21.5 million readers of this blog to date, and in particular I am grateful for the faithful core group among you who join me in prayer, reading and reflection each morning.

The Menelaion Hotel in Spárti, where I stayed during a working visit to the Peloponnese, visiting Spárta, Mystras and Nafplion

Daily prayer in Christmas 2025-2026: 20, Tuesday 13 January 2026

‘Preach the Gospel at all times, and when necessary use words,’ Saint Francis of Assisi … ‘The Vision of Saint Francis’ (ca 1590-1595) by El Greco in the National Gallery of Ireland (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

The 40-day season of Christmas continues until Candlemas or the Feast of the Presentation (2 February). This week began with the First Sunday of Epiphany (Epiphany I, 11 January 2025), with readings that focus on the Baptism of Christ.

The calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship today remembers Saint Hilary (367), Bishop of Poitiers and Teacher of the Faith; Kentigern or Mungo (603), Missionary Bishop in Strathclyde and Cumbria; and George Fox (1624-1691), founder of the Society of Friends (Quakers).

The commemoration of Saint Hilary today (13 January) explains Hilary Term, the second academic term at the University of Oxford and Trinity College Dublin. The other terms are Michaelmas term and Trinity term. These terms originated in the mediaeval legal system when courts in England, Wales and Ireland divided the legal year into four terms: Hilary, Easter, Trinity and Michaelmas. Lent term is the equivalent of Hilary term in Cambridge.

Later this evening, I have a meeting of a town council committee in Stony Stratford that is involved with public art and sculpture on the streets of Stony Stratford. 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.

‘When the sabbath came, he entered the synagogue and taught’ (Mark 1: 21) … the Old Synagogue in Krakow, built in 1407, is the oldest Jewish house of prayer in Poland (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Mark 1: 21-28 (NRSVA):

21 They went to Capernaum; and when the sabbath came, he entered the synagogue and taught. 22 They were astounded at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes. 23 Just then there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit, 24 and he cried out, ‘What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God.’ 25 But Jesus rebuked him, saying, ‘Be silent, and come out of him!’ 26 And the unclean spirit, throwing him into convulsions and crying with a loud voice, came out of him. 27 They were all amazed, and they kept on asking one another, ‘What is this? A new teaching – with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him.’ 28 At once his fame began to spread throughout the surrounding region of Galilee.

‘When the sabbath came, he entered the synagogue and taught’ (Mark 1: 21) … on Synagogue Street in Singapore (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflections:

This morning’s Gospel reading at the Eucharist (Mark 1: 21-28) is the story of Christ’s visit to Capernaum, where he preaches and teaches in the synagogue. When he speaks, all are astounded at his teaching. But when he actually puts what he says it into practice, they are all amazed.

Christ not only teaches, but he puts it into practice, he teaches not just with knowledge, but with authority; not only can he say, but he can do.

In the Gospel reading at the Eucharist yesterday, we heard how Christ called his first disciples, Andrew and Simon Peter and the sons of Zebedee, James and John. Now, this morning’s Gospel reading tells us how Christ’s authority, in both word and deed, are first recognised.

Christ and his new disciples go to Capernaum, a prosperous town on the Sea of Galilee. It was the practice in the synagogue on Saturdays for the scribes, who specialised in the interpretation and application of Mosaic law to daily life, to quote scripture and tradition.

On this Saturday, however, Christ does not follow this practice. Instead, he speaks directly, confident of his authority and of his very essence. The Greek word here, ἐξουσία (exousía), has the same roots as the word in the Nicene Creed that is translated as ‘being’ or ‘substance’: ‘of one substance with the Father’ (ὁμοούσιον τῷ Πατρί, homoúsion to Patrí).

The ‘man with an unclean spirit’ (verse 23) was, we might say, possessed, or under the influence of evil forces. In the understanding of the time, he was under Satan’s direction, separated from God.

The devil is heard speaking through this man (verse 24), asking what Christ is doing meddling in the domain of evil. He recognises who Christ is and that his coming spells the end of the power of the devil. He understands the significance of the coming Kingdom. Wonder-workers of the day healed using ritual or magic, but Christ exorcises simply through verbal command (verse 25), so clearly he is divine.

The crowd now acknowledges Christ’s ‘authority’ in word and deed (verse 27).

The parallel reading of this story in Saint Luke’s Gospel (Luke 4: 31-37) follows the story of Christ preaching in the synagogue in Nazareth (Luke 4: 16-30), when he proclaims the foundational text for his ministry, almost like a manifesto:

18 ‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to let the oppressed go free,
19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.’

These are high ideals and, if put into practice, threaten social stability and the ordering of society. This threat is realised by those who hear him, and they drive him out of the synagogue in Capernaum.

Driven out of that synagogue, Christ has three options:

1, To allow himself to be silenced.

2, To keep on preaching in other synagogues, but to never put into practice what he says, so that those who are worried have their fears allayed and realise he is no threat;

3, To preach and to put his teachings into practice, to show that he means what he says, that his faith is reflected in his priorities, to point to what the Kingdom of God is truly like.

Christ takes the third option. He brings good news to the poor, he releases this poor captive, he can now see things as they are and as they ought to be, the oppressed may go free, and all are amazed.

There is a saying attributed to Saint Francis of Assisi: ‘Preach the Gospel at all times, and when necessary use words.’

Christ preaches with authority. But in this Gospel reading we are not told what he said. We are only told what he did.

In his actions he demonstrates the love of God and the love of others that are at the heart of the Gospel, that should be at the heart of every sermon I preach. For the love of God and the love of others are the two commandments on which hang all the law and the prophets.

‘At once his fame began to spread throughout the surrounding region’ (Mark 1: 28) … spreading fame and news, newspapers at a kiosk near the marina in Rethymnon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Tuesday 13 January 2026):

The theme this week (11-17 January 2026) in Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘Gaza Crisis Response’ (pp 18-19). This theme was introduced on Sunday with a Programme Update from the Diocese of Jerusalem.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Tuesday 13 January 2026) invites us to pray:

Gracious God, grant the Diocese of Jerusalem courage and resources to bring life-saving support and hope to those most in need through its healthcare facilities.

The Collect:

Everlasting God,
whose servant Hilary
steadfastly confessed your Son Jesus Christ
to be both human and divine:
grant us his gentle courtesy
to bring to all the message of redemption
in the incarnate 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:

God of truth,
whose Wisdom set her table
and invited us to eat the bread and drink the wine
of the kingdom:
help us to lay aside all foolishness
and to live and walk in the way of insight,
that we may come with Hilary to the eternal feast of heaven;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s Reflections

Continued Tomorrow

‘At once his fame began to spread throughout the surrounding region’ (Mark 1: 28) … the good and the famous in a line of sculptures on the campus of the University of Limerick (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