Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2026: 9, Wednesday 11 February 2026

‘It is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come’ (Mark 7: 21) … hearts at Winchester Walk near Southwark Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar. This week began with the Second Sunday before Lent (8 February 2026), and Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent are just a week away (18 March 2025).

Later today, I hope to take part in both a lunchtime meeting of clergy in the Milton Keynes area at the Servant King Church in Furzton and in the evening in choir rehearsals in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford. Before today begins, however, 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.

‘There are also many other traditions that they observe, the washing of cups, pots, and bronze kettles’ (Mark 7: 4) … pots and pans in the kitchen in Bryce House on Garinish Island, Co Cork (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Mark 7: 14-23 (NRSVA):

14 Then he called the crowd again and said to them, ‘Listen to me, all of you, and understand: 15 there is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile, but the things that come out are what defile.’

17 When he had left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him about the parable. 18 He said to them, ‘Then do you also fail to understand? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile, 19 since it enters, not the heart but the stomach, and goes out into the sewer?’ (Thus he declared all foods clean.) 20 And he said, ‘It is what comes out of a person that defiles. 21 For it is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come: fornication, theft, murder, 22 adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, folly. 23 All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.’

‘Why do your disciples … eat with defiled hands?’ (Mark 7: 5) … preparing to eat lunch at a restaurant in Piskopianó in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflection:

During my hospital visits, I find it interesting to see how many people still wear face masks and sanitise their hands in those places. It is so easy to forget how we were all wearing facemasks in public places not so long ago, sanitising our hands, and how we got used to having our temperatures taken in many buildings.

The arguments about sanitising our hands and wearing facemasks are a very different order of argument to the arguments in today’s Gospel reading (Mark 7: 14-23) about washing my hands before I prepare food, and about presenting that food with clean cups and plates and knives and forks.

It is so easy for me to look at the people I do not like and then to find passages in the Bible that shore up, that support and that justify that prejudice, and that make me feel good because I now feel a little more smug, a little more superior.

And that is precisely the moment when the Jesus of today’s Gospel reading steps in and upbraids me, and calls me a hypocrite.

As we saw with the Gospel reading yesterday (Mark 7: 1-13), in Greek, the word hypocrite (ὑποκριτής, hypokrités) was used for an actor who masked or hid his face. It came to mean someone who plays a part on stage. Because these people did not speak their own words, this label came to mean a pretender, what we call today a hypocrite.

When I speak words that are taken at random, or taken out of context in the Bible, I need to be careful I am not using them out of context, or condemning people for a fault that is not necessarily theirs, something I project onto them.

Some years ago, I came across this piece of doggerel inside a church porch in Ardmore, Co Waterford:

I was shocked, confused bewildered
as I entered heaven’s door,
not by the beauty of it all,
nor the lights or its décor.

But it was the folks in Heaven
who made me sputter and gasp –
the thieves, the liars, the sinners,
the alcoholics and the trash.

There stood the kid from sixth class
who swiped my lunch box twice.
Next to him was my old neighbour
who never said something nice.

Bob, who I always thought
would rot away in hell,
was sitting pretty on cloud nine,
looking oh so well.

I nudged Jesus, ‘What’s the deal?
I would love to hear your take.
How come these sinners get up here?
God must have made a mistake.

‘And why is everyone so quiet,
so sombre – give me a clue?’
‘Hush child,’ he said ‘they’re all in shock.
They weren’t expecting you.’

If I saw myself the way others see me, I would be less reluctant to open my mouth so often.

But the Church is full of people who continue to judge others – even other members of the Church – and justify their judgmentalism with passages of Scripture they quote out of context, sometimes even claiming passages of Scripture that simply do not exist – for example the way an altered version of Ezekiel 25: 17 is recited in Pulp Fiction by Jules Winnfield (Samuel L Jackson). It is a cinematic invention heavily influenced by a similar speech in The Bodyguard (1976), but is now quoted as Scripture, chapter and verse, by violent ultra-right activists.

Literalist hypocrisy it is not just about washing hands and pots and pans. If it was only that, it might be funny.

There are people who condemn people for their sexuality, they look down on people because of who they fall in love with or marry, they even claim to uphold Biblical standards of marriage. But David, for example, offered no Biblical standards of marriage; and Solomon, who had 700 wives and 300 concubines, hardly offered a Biblical standard of marriage either.

I find it quite shocking, yet it seems inevitable, that many people in the Church use arguments about sexuality, bolstered with phrases such as ‘Biblical standards of marriage,’ to express prejudices about sexuality. Some even remain opposed to women being ordained priests and bishops.

This is using another voice, another set of words, Biblical quotations, to express what is not in the Bible; the very origins of the word ‘hypocrite’ in the classical Greek and in this reading readily come to mind.

In the Church, there can be no discrimination against people in ministry based on gender, age, sexuality, marital status, ethnicity, class or cultural background, or language, for God knows no such discrimination.

I too easily become a hypocrite when I use the words or behaviour of others to condemn them, without having the courage to say exactly where I stand.

Father Tikhon (Murtazov) was a much-loved Russian spiritual guide who died in 2018. A nun, Sister Olga (Schemanun of Snetogorsk Monastery), recalled how he welcomed everyone who came to visit him and who asked for his guidance and prayers.

Amazed at his kindness, she asked him one day: ‘Why don’t you refuse anyone? You bless whatever they ask of you.’

‘We’re in difficult times now,’ he said. ‘It’s better to sin by love than by strictness.’

‘It’s better to sin by love than by strictness.’

We should worry as much about making careless wounding remarks as much as we would worry about preparing food unhygienically.

As I asked yesterday, can you imagine how much more positively people at large would view the churches if every parish and church put as much care into seeing that our children are not abused or infected with racism or discrimination or hate as much as we put into seeing we have sanitised our hands, were wearing colourful facemasks a few years ago, seeing that the cups are clean for the tea and coffee after church on Sunday morning – or even as much as we attend to the cleanliness of the sacred vessels used for the Eucharist or Holy Communion?

Classical masks from the theatre in Athens in the Acropolis Museum … the word ‘hypocrite’ comes from the Greek word for an actor who masked or hid his face (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Wednesday 11 February 2026):

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: ‘Safe Routes’ (pp 26-27). This theme was introduced on Sunday with a Programme Update by Bradon Muilenburg, Anglican Refugee Support Lead.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Wednesday 11 February 2026) invites us to pray:

Lord, we pray that the Church in the UK may be a steadfast and courageous voice for refugees. Inspire us to speak against racism and injustice, to welcome and protect those seeking safety, and to act with compassion and integrity toward every displaced person in need.

The Collect of the Day:

Almighty God,
you have created the heavens and the earth
and made us in your own image:
teach us to discern your hand in all your works
and your likeness in all your children;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who with you and the Holy Spirit reigns supreme over all things,
now and for ever.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

God our creator,
by your gift
the tree of life was set at the heart of the earthly paradise,
and the bread of life at the heart of your Church:
may we who have been nourished at your table on earth
be transformed by the glory of the Saviour’s cross
and enjoy the delights of eternity;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

Almighty God,
give us reverence for all creation
and respect for every person,
that we may mirror your likeness
in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s Reflections

Continued Tomorrow

‘It is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come’ (Mark 7: 21) … street art in Porto (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

Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2025: 155, Tuesday 14 October 2025

Washing hands or giving alms? … a classical-style statue of Hygeia (Ὑγίεια) outside Vergina restaurant in Platanias, near Rethymnon in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar, and this week began with the Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity XVII, 12 October 2025).

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

1, today’s Gospel reading;

2, a reflection on the Gospel reading;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

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

He ‘was amazed to see that he did not first wash before dinner’ (Luke 11: 38) (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Luke 11: 37-41 (NRSVA):

37 While he was speaking, a Pharisee invited him to dine with him; so he went in and took his place at the table. 38 The Pharisee was amazed to see that he did not first wash before dinner. 39 Then the Lord said to him, ‘Now you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness. 40 You fools! Did not the one who made the outside make the inside also? 41 So give for alms those things that are within; and see, everything will be clean for you.’

A Hamsa hand is part of Jewish tradition … a restaurant in Kazimierz, the Jewish Quarter in Kraków (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflections:

Between yesterday’s and today’s Gospel reading, we have skipped over a short passage about various aspects of light. In short, we are to be full of light, not like the kind of people Christ describes in today’s reading.

Jesus has been invited to dinner by a Pharisee. He seems to go straight to the dinner table, and sits down – or, more correctly, reclines – at the table that has been prepared to eat. The unnamed Pharisee is quite shocked when Jesus does not first wash his hands before eating.

Of course, I wash my hands regularly – you might say almost religiously – before I sit down to eat. But here we are not dealing with a question of hygiene, but of ritual washing. Jesus had omitted to perform a religious ritual that was expected of pious and religious Jews, although not actually part of the Mosaic Law. Originally the rule probably had a hygienic purpose. By giving it religious sanction, one made sure that it was carried out.

In ordinary day-to-day life, I imagine Jesus had no problem about this ritual, but it is likely that here he is deliberately making a point. It allows him to draw attention to what he sees as false religion. A person’s virtue is not to be judged by his performance or non-performance of an external rite.

As Jesus tells this man in a graphic way, some Pharisees appear to concentrate on making sure that the outside of the cup is clean while inside it is full of all kinds of depravity and corruption – like the judgmental thoughts in this man’s mind and the sinister plotting that some Pharisees were directing against Jesus. God is as much, if not much more, concerned about the inside as the outside.

Instead, Jesus says, ‘give for alms those things that are within; and see, everything will be clean for you.’

When the inside is clean, there is no need to worry about the outside. Giving alms is a positive act of kindness to another, an act of love and compassion. It neutralises the greed and rapacity of which he accuses them. It is not, like washing my hands, a purely empty ritual which says little and is almost totally self-directed.

It is so easy to judge people by their observance or failure to observe certain Christian customs, which are inherently and logically of moral nature. In other places in the Gospels, Jesus tells us not to judge because it is very difficult to know what is going on in another person’s mind. What he really emphasises here is the inner spirit and motivation. Once I get that is right, everything else seems to fall into place.

I once came across q piece of doggerel inside a church porch in Ardmore, Co Waterford:

I was shocked, confused bewildered
as I entered heaven’s door,
not by the beauty of it all,
nor the lights or its décor.

But it was the folks in Heaven
who made me sputter and gasp –
the thieves, the liars, the sinners,
the alcoholics and the trash.

There stood the kid from sixth class
who swiped my lunch box twice.
Next to him was my old neighbour
who never said something nice.

Bob, who I always thought
would rot away in hell,
was sitting pretty on cloud nine,
looking oh so well.

I nudged Jesus, ‘What’s the deal?
I would love to hear your take.
How come these sinners get up here?
God must have made a mistake.

‘And why is everyone so quiet,
so sombre – give me a clue?’
‘Hush child,’ he said ‘they’re all in shock.
They weren’t expecting you.’

If I saw myself the way others see me, I would be less reluctant to open my mouth so often.

But the Church is full of people who continue to judge others – even other members of the Church – and justify their judgmentalism with passages of Scripture they quote out of context, sometimes even claiming passages of Scripture that simply do not exist.

And it’s not just about washing hands and pots and pans. If it was only that, it might be funny.

There are people who condemn people for their sexuality, they look down on people because of who they fall in love with or marry, they even claim to uphold Biblical standards of marriage.

But David offered no Biblical standards of marriage, while Solomon had 700 wives and 300 concubines – hardly a Biblical standard of marriage.

I find it quite shocking, yet it seems inevitable, that many people in the Church use arguments about sexuality, bolstered with phrases such as ‘Biblical standards of marriage,’ to express prejudices about sexuality. Some even remain opposed to women being ordained priests and bishops. These distortions inform and underpin many of the negative responses, particularly among people and groups that call themselves ‘conservative evangelicals’, to the appointment of Bishop Sarah Mullally as the Archbishop of Canterbury.

In the Church, there can be no discrimination against people in ministry based on gender, age, sexuality, ethnicity or language, for God knows no such discrimination.

I too easily become a hypocrite when I use the words or behaviour of others to condemn them, without having the courage to say exactly where I stand.

Father Tikhon (Murtazov), who died some years ago [9 June 2018], was a much-loved Russian spiritual guide. A nun, Sister Olga (Schemanun) of Snetogorsk Monastery, recalled how he welcomed everyone who came to visit him and who asked for his guidance and prayers.

Amazed at his kindness, she asked him one day: ‘Why don’t you refuse anyone? You bless whatever they ask of you.’

‘We’re in difficult times now,’ he said. ‘It’s better to sin by love than by strictness.’

We should worry as much about making careless wounding remarks as much as we would worry about preparing food unhygienically.

Can you imagine how much more positively people at large would view the churches if every parish and church put as much care into seeing that our children are not abused or infected with racism or discrimination or hate as much as we put into seeing we have sanitised our hands, are wearing colourful facemasks, seeing that the cups are clean for the tea and coffee after church on Sunday morning – or even as much as we attend to the cleanliness of the sacred vessels used for the Eucharist or Holy Communion?

‘So he went in and took his place at the table’ (Luke 11: 37) … an unexpected guest at a table in the old town in Rethymnon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Today’s Prayers (Tuesday 14 October 2025):

The theme this week (12 to 18 October) in Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘A Life Dedicated to Care’ (pp 46-47). This theme was introduced on Sunday with a programme update on Sister Gillian Rose of the Bollobhpur Mission Hospital, Church of Bangladesh.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Tuesday 14 October 2025) invites us to pray:

We pray for all those suffering from illness, that they may find healing and comfort in your love.

The Collect:

Almighty God,
you have made us for yourself,
and our hearts are restless till they find their rest in you:
pour your love into our hearts and draw us to yourself,
and so bring us at last to your heavenly city
where we shall see you face to face;
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:

Lord, we pray that your grace
may always precede and follow us,
and make us continually to be given to all good works;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

Gracious God,
you call us to fullness of life:
deliver us from unbelief
and banish our anxieties
with the liberating love of Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s Reflections

Continued Tomorrow

You ‘clean the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness’ (Luke 11: 39) … cups and dishes stacked inside a rectory dishwasher (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

Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2025: 10, Wednesday 12 February 2025

‘It is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come’ (Mark 7: 21) … hearts at Winchester Walk near Southwark Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar. This week began with the Fourth Sunday before Lent (9 February 2025), and Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent are just three weeks away (5 March 2025).

Later today, I hope to take part in both a lunchtime meeting in Wolverton of clergy in the Milton Keynes area and in the evening choir rehearsals in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford, where we are beginning to look at Handel’s Messiah. Before today begins, however, 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.

‘There are also many other traditions that they observe, the washing of cups, pots, and bronze kettles’ (Mark 7: 4) … pots and pans in the kitchen in Bryce House on Garinish Island, Co Cork (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Mark 7: 14-23 (NRSVA):

14 Then he called the crowd again and said to them, ‘Listen to me, all of you, and understand: 15 there is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile, but the things that come out are what defile.’

17 When he had left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him about the parable. 18 He said to them, ‘Then do you also fail to understand? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile, 19 since it enters, not the heart but the stomach, and goes out into the sewer?’ (Thus he declared all foods clean.) 20 And he said, ‘It is what comes out of a person that defiles. 21 For it is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come: fornication, theft, murder, 22 adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, folly. 23 All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.’

‘Why do your disciples … eat with defiled hands?’ (Mark 7: 5) … preparing to eat lunch at a restaurant in Piskopianó in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflection:

I have been in two hospitals within the past week, with two consultations in Milton Keynes University Hospital and an unexpected visit to A&E in University College London Hospital. Distracted from my own concerns, I found it interesting to see how many people are still wearing face masks and sanitising their hands in these places.

It is so easy to forget how we were all wearing facemasks in public places not so long ago, sanitising our hands, and used to having our temperatures taken in many buildings.

The arguments about sanitising our hands and wearing facemasks are a very different order of argument to the arguments in today’s Gospel reading (Mark 7: 14-23) about washing my hands before I prepare food, and about presenting that food with clean cups and plates and knives and forks.

It is so easy for me to look at the people I do not like and then to find passages in the Bible that shore up, that support, that justify that prejudice, and make me feel good because I now feel a little more smug, a little more superior.

And that is precisely the moment when the Jesus of today’s Gospel reading steps in and upbraids me, and calls me a hypocrite.

As we saw with the Gospel reading yesterday (Mark 7: 1-13), in Greek, the word hypocrite (ὑποκριτής, hypokrités) was used for an actor who masked or hid his face. It came to mean someone who plays a part on stage. Because these people did not speak their own words, this label came to mean a pretender, what we call today a hypocrite.

When I speak words taken at random, or taken out of context in the Bible, I need to be careful I am not using them out of context, or condemning people for a fault that is not necessarily theirs, something I project onto them.

Some years ago, I came across this piece of doggerel inside a church porch in Ardmore, Co Waterford:

I was shocked, confused bewildered
as I entered heaven’s door,
not by the beauty of it all,
nor the lights or its décor.

But it was the folks in Heaven
who made me sputter and gasp –
the thieves, the liars, the sinners,
the alcoholics and the trash.

There stood the kid from sixth class
who swiped my lunch box twice.
Next to him was my old neighbour
who never said something nice.

Bob, who I always thought
would rot away in hell,
was sitting pretty on cloud nine,
looking oh so well.

I nudged Jesus, ‘What’s the deal?
I would love to hear your take.
How come these sinners get up here?
God must have made a mistake.

‘And why is everyone so quiet,
so sombre – give me a clue?’
‘Hush child,’ he said ‘they’re all in shock.
They weren’t expecting you.’

If I saw myself the way others see me, I would be less reluctant to open my mouth so often.

But the Church is full of people who continue to judge others – even other members of the Church – and justify their judgmentalism with passages of Scripture they quote out of context, sometimes even claiming passages of Scripture that simply do not exist.

And it is not just about washing hands and pots and pans. If it was only that, it might be funny.

There are people who condemn people for their sexuality, they look down on people because of who they fall in love with or marry, they even claim to uphold Biblical standards of marriage. But David, for example, offered no Biblical standards of marriage; and Solomon, who had 700 wives and 300 concubines, hardly offered a Biblical standard of marriage either.

I find it quite shocking, yet it seems inevitable, that many people in the Church use arguments about sexuality, bolstered with phrases such as ‘Biblical standards of marriage,’ to express prejudices about sexuality. Some even remain opposed to women being ordained priests and bishops.

This is using another voice, another set of words, Biblical quotations, to express what is not in the Bible; the very origins of the word ‘hypocrite’ in the classical Greek and in this reading readily come to mind.

In the Church, there can be no discrimination against people in ministry based on gender, age, sexuality, ethnicity or language, for God knows no such discrimination.

I too easily become a hypocrite when I use the words or behaviour of others to condemn them, without having the courage to say exactly where I stand.

Father Tikhon (Murtazov) was a much-loved Russian spiritual guide who died in 2018. A nun, Sister Olga (Schemanun of Snetogorsk Monastery), recalled how he welcomed everyone who came to visit him and who asked for his guidance and prayers.

Amazed at his kindness, she asked him one day: ‘Why don’t you refuse anyone? You bless whatever they ask of you.’

‘We’re in difficult times now,’ he said. ‘It’s better to sin by love than by strictness.’

We should worry as much about making careless wounding remarks as much as we would worry about preparing food unhygienically.

Can you imagine how much more positively people at large would view the churches if every parish and church put as much care into seeing that our children are not abused or infected with racism or discrimination or hate as much as we put into seeing we have sanitised our hands, were wearing colourful facemasks a few years ago, seeing that the cups are clean for the tea and coffee after church on Sunday morning – or even as much as we attend to the cleanliness of the sacred vessels used for the Eucharist or Holy Communion?

Classical masks from the theatre in Athens in the Acropolis Museum … the word ‘hypocrite’ comes from the Greek word for an actor who masked or hid his face (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Wednesday 12 February 2025):

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 ‘Founders’ Day.’ USPG and SPCK are celebrating ‘Founders’ Day’ in Saint James’s Church, Picadilly, next week (Monday 17 February 2025). This theme was introduced on Sunday with a Reflection by Dr Jo Sadgrove, Research and Learning Advisor, USPG.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Wednesday 12 February 2025) invites us to pray:

Father, teach us to honour truth, and lead us in writing new stories of justice, humility, and reconciliation.

The Collect:

O God,
you know us to be set
in the midst of so many and great dangers,
that by reason of the frailty of our nature
we cannot always stand upright:
grant to us such strength and protection
as may support us in all dangers
and carry us through all temptations;
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:

Go before us, Lord, in all we do
with your most gracious favour,
and guide us with your continual help,
that in all our works
begun, continued and ended in you,
we may glorify your holy name,
and finally by your mercy receive everlasting life;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:
Lord of the hosts of heaven,
our salvation and our strength,
without you we are lost:
guard us from all that harms or hurts
and raise us when we fall;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s Reflection

Continued Tomorrow

‘It is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come’ (Mark 7: 21) … street art in Porto (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

Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2024: 114, Sunday 1 September 2024 Trinity XIV, Creationtide

‘Why do your disciples … eat with defiled hands?’ (Mark 7: 5) … preparing to dine at the Sunset Taverna in Rethymnon in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Patrick Comerford

We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar and today is the Fourteenth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity XIV, 1 September 2024). Today also marks the beginning of Autumn. In the calendar of the Orthodox Church, today is the beginning of a new church year, also known as the beginning of the Indiction.

John Keats in his poem ‘To Autumn’ described this time of year as the ‘season of mists and mellow fruitfulness’. Creationtide also begins today (1 September) and continues until 4 October. This is the period in the church calendar dedicated to God as Creator and Sustainer of all life.

Later this morning, I hope to lead the intercession at the Parish Eucharist in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford … 1 September is also Saint Giles Day. The parish fete takes place at All Saints’ Church, Calverton, this afternoon (2 to 4 pm).

But, before today 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 reflection on the Gospel reading;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

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

‘Why do your disciples not live according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?’ (Mark 7: 5) … a statue with a bowl in her hand at Vergina restaurant in Platanias near Rethymnon in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Mark 7: 1-8, 14-15, 21-23 (NRSVA):

1 Now when the Pharisees and some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around him, 2 they noticed that some of his disciples were eating with defiled hands, that is, without washing them. 3 (For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, do not eat unless they thoroughly wash their hands, thus observing the tradition of the elders; 4 and they do not eat anything from the market unless they wash it; and there are also many other traditions that they observe, the washing of cups, pots, and bronze kettles.) 5 So the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, ‘Why do your disciples not live according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?’ 6 He said to them, ‘Isaiah prophesied rightly about you hypocrites, as it is written,

“This people honours me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me;
7 in vain do they worship me,
teaching human precepts as doctrines.”
8 You abandon the commandment of God and hold to human tradition.’

14 Then he called the crowd again and said to them, ‘Listen to me, all of you, and understand:

15 there is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile, but the things that come out are what defile.

21 ‘For it is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come: fornication, theft, murder, 22 adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, folly. 23 All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.’

‘There are also many other traditions that they observe, the washing of cups, pots, and bronze kettles’ (Mark 7: 4) … pots and pans in the kitchen in Bryce House on Garinish Island, Glengarriff, Co Cork (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflection:

Do you remember how not too long ago we were all sanitising our hands every time we went into a shop, a church, an enclosed public space? The Covid-19 pandemic meant we all got used to wearing masks not only in those places but also outdoors and on the street.

We all got used to it very quickly, and most of us have forgotten about it all, all too quickly it seems.

The arguments about sanitising our hands and wearing facemasks just a few years ago are a very different order of argument to the arguments in today’s Gospel reading about washing my hands before I prepare food, and about presenting that food with clean cups and plates and knives and forks.

It is so easy for me to look at the people I do not like and then to find passages in the Bible that shore up, that support, that justify that prejudice, and make me feel good because I now feel a little more smug, a little more superior.

And that is precisely the moment when the Jesus of this morning’s Gospel reading steps in and upbraids me, and calls me a hypocrite.

In Greek, the word hypocrite (ὑποκριτής, hypokrités) was used for an actor who masked or hid his face. It came to mean someone who plays a part on stage. Because these people did not speak their own words, this label came to mean a pretender, what we call today a hypocrite.

When I speak words taken at random, or taken out of context in the Bible, I need to be careful I am not using them out of context, or to condemn people for a fault that is not necessarily theirs, something I project onto them.

Some time ago, I came across this piece of doggerel inside a church porch in Ardmore, Co Waterford:

I was shocked, confused bewildered
as I entered heaven’s door,
not by the beauty of it all,
nor the lights or its décor.

But it was the folks in Heaven
who made me sputter and gasp –
the thieves, the liars, the sinners,
the alcoholics and the trash.

There stood the kid from sixth class
who swiped my lunch box twice.
Next to him was my old neighbour
who never said something nice.

Bob, who I always thought
would rot away in hell,
was sitting pretty on cloud nine,
looking oh so well.

I nudged Jesus, ‘What’s the deal?
I would love to hear your take.
How come these sinners get up here?
God must have made a mistake.

‘And why is everyone so quiet,
so sombre – give me a clue?’
‘Hush child,’ he said ‘they’re all in shock.
They weren’t expecting you.’

If I saw myself the way others see me, I would be less reluctant to open my mouth so often.

But the Church is full of people who continue to judge others – even other members of the Church – and justify their judgmentalism with passages of Scripture they quote out of context, sometimes even claiming passages of Scripture that simply do not exist.

And it’s not just about washing hands and pots and pans. If it was only that, it might be funny.

There are people who condemn people for their sexuality, they look down on people because of who they fall in love with or marry, they even claim to uphold Biblical standards of marriage.

Yet David offered no Biblical standards of marriage, and Solomon, who provides the first reading this morning (Song of Solomon 2: 8-13), had 700 wives and 300 concubines – once again, hardly a Biblical standard of marriage.

I find it quite shocking, yet it seems inevitable, that many people in the Church use arguments about sexuality, bolstered with phrases such as ‘Biblical standards of marriage,’ to express prejudices about sexuality. Some even remain opposed to women being ordained priests and bishops.

This is using another voice, another set of words, Biblical quotations to express what is not in the Bible; the very origins of the word ‘hypocrite’ in the classical Greek and in this reading readily come to mind.

The Song of Songs, which we are reading from this morning, is not afraid to affirm healthy sexuality, and in a creative and poetic way it compares the pleasure two lovers find in each other with the love of God for God’s people.

Here the voice of God is poetically represented by the voice of the shepherd; and the voice of the people is expressed by the woman. This woman is the voice of the people who love God and she also speaks back to the people on behalf of God: ‘My beloved speaks and says to me …’

In the Church, there can be no discrimination against people in ministry based on gender, age, sexuality, ethnicity or language, for God knows no such discrimination.

I too easily become a hypocrite when I use the words or behaviour of others to condemn them, without having the courage to say exactly where I stand.

Father Tikhon (Murtazov), who died in 2018, was a much-loved Russian spiritual guide. A nun, Sister Olga (Schemanun of Snetogorsk Monastery), recalled how he welcomed everyone who came to visit him and who asked for his guidance and prayers.

Amazed at his kindness, she asked him one day: ‘Why don’t you refuse anyone? You bless whatever they ask of you.’

‘We’re in difficult times now,’ he said. ‘It’s better to sin by love than by strictness.’

We should worry as much about making careless wounding remarks as much as we would worry about preparing food unhygienically.

Can you imagine how much more positively people at large would view the churches if every parish and church put as much care into seeing that our children are not abused or infected with racism or discrimination or hate as much as we put into seeing we have sanitised our hands, are wearing colourful facemasks, seeing that the cups are clean for the tea and coffee after church on Sunday morning – or even as much as we attend to the cleanliness of the sacred vessels used for the Eucharist or Holy Communion?

‘There are also many other traditions that they observe, the washing of cups, pots, and bronze kettles’ (Mark 7: 4) … a cup of coffee at Taverna Garden in Platanias (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Today’s Prayers (Sunday 1 September 2024, Trinity XIV):

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 ‘To Hope and Act with Creation.’ This theme is introduced today with a reflection on Creationtide:

Creationtide is the period in the annual church calendar, from 1 September to 4 October, dedicated to God as Creator and Sustainer of all life. Many churches choose to use this time of year to hold special services and events to give thanks for God’s gift of creation, and to renew their commitment to caring for our one-planet-home.

The theme for 2024 is: to hope and act with creation and the symbol ‘The first fruits of hope’, inspired by Romans 8: 19-25, is the guiding inspiration.

In the letter of Paul the apostle to the Romans, the biblical image pictures the earth as a mother, groaning as in childbirth (Romans 8: 22). Francis of Assisi understood this when he referred to the earth as our sister and our mother in his Canticle of Creatures. The times we live in show that we are not relating to the earth as a gift from our Creator, but rather as a resource to be used.

And yet, there is hope and the expectation for a better future. To hope in a biblical context does not mean to stand still and quiet, but rather groaning, crying, and actively striving for new life amidst the struggles. Just as in childbirth, we go through a period of intense pain, but new life springs forth.

Find out more at seasonofcreation.org.

‘The first fruits of hope’, inspired by Romans 8: 19-25, is the guiding inspiration for Creationtide this year … apples in a garden in the small village of Shutlanger near Stoke Bruerne in Northamptonshire (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Sunday 1 September 2024, Trinity XIV, Creation Day) invites us to pray:

You made the goodness of the land,
the riches of the sea
and the rhythm of the seasons;
as we thank you for your gracious provision
may we cherish and respect
this planet and its people.

The Collect:

Almighty God,
whose only Son has opened for us
a new and living way into your presence:
give us pure hearts and steadfast wills
to worship you in spirit and in truth;
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:

Lord God, the source of truth and love,
keep us faithful to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship,
united in prayer and the breaking of bread,
and one in joy and simplicity of heart,
in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

Merciful God,
your Son came to save us
and bore our sins on the cross:
may we trust in your mercy
and know your love,
rejoicing in the righteousness
that is ours through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s reflection

Continued tomorrow

‘It’s better to sin by love than by strictness’ … Father Tikhon Murtazov

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

A charming Tudor-style house on Beacon Street, Lichfield, is for sale again

Ardmore Cottage (left) and Nether Beacon House (right) on Beacon Street … Ardmore Cottage is on the market again (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

During my visits to Lichfield, I regularly enjoy the stroll along Beacon Street between the Hedgehog and Lichfield Cathedral and the heart of the city. In the light of early morning and in the late evening, with the birdsong in the trees and the lights of the winter sun, there is a semi-rural feeling in the air, enhanced by the rustic look of many of the houses along Beacon Street.

Beacon Street is a truly charming area, with some timber-framed houses and cottages dating back to the 18th century or earlier. Later houses, influenced by the Arts and Crafts Movement, and Tudor-style pubs like the Feathers and the Fountain, add to the character of the area and give it an ambience that is a mixture of both rural setting and late Victorian suburb.

Some years ago, during December snows, when a Facebook friend posted photographs from this area, I told him if I was to live in any street in Lichfield, I would probably want to live on Beacon Street.

One of these charming, timber-framed, Tudor-style houses, Ardmore Cottage, a four-bedroom house, is back on the market through Newton Fallowell of Bore Street, Lichfield, who are selling the house through online bidding, inviting a starting bid of £380,000.

When it was on the market two years ago through Knight Frank of Birmingham, they were inviting offers in excess of £495,000.

Ardmore Cottage, Nether Beacon House and Ardmore House once formed one house, but they were later divided into three separate houses, and they have Grade II listing.

Ardmore Cottage in the sale brochure

Ardmore Cottage is a pretty, black and white cottage dating from the late 17th century or early 18th century, with a late 18th century addition and later alterations. It is timber-framed with brick infill and brick, tile roofs and brick stacks, and has an abundance of character and charm.

Ardmore Cottage and Nether Beacon House are a pair, built on a double-depth plan with a later range to the rear. Outside, from the Beacon Street frontage, there are two storeys, a symmetrical three-window range, and a 19th century single-storey wing at the end of each house.

There is a hipped roof with three gables, and the timber-frame was applied in the late 19th century to the partly plastered stone plinth.

The entrances to the two houses at the centre have porches recessed behind Tudor arches and Art Nouveau iron gates. The half-glazed doors have leaded glazing and side lights. Inside, the houses retain their beams, fireplaces and original features.

The three-light projecting windows have cornices, but the two central first-floor windows are narrow windows, and the windows on wings date from the 20th century. The left return has and an exposed square framing, three flat-roofed dormers and a tall stack.

Behind, this pair of houses has a three-storey, four-window range, with coped gables, end stacks, and a modillioned brick cornice. The windows have sills, and there are rubbed brick flat arches over the 12-pane sashes, with nine-pane sashes on the second floor.

The right return at Nether Beacon has 20th additions and entrance on the ground floor. The left return has a small, two-storey rear wing with an end stack and return, a 4:12:4-pane, tripartite sash window and is taller than the adjoining front range due to slope of ground.

Ardmore Cottage is entered through a timber-framed storm porch, and the hallway leads to the principal reception rooms, with a staircase rising to the first-floor landing.

The drawing room has a feature fireplace and a large bay window, and an intriguing trap door that leads down to the cellar. The dining room has quarry tiled floor and wooden beams and the kitchen also has feature brick and beams on the walls. There is an ornamental, courtyard-style terrace garden a parking area.

The principal bedroom is en suite, and there are two further double bedrooms and a family bathroom on the first floor. The fourth bedroom is at the top of the house on the second floor.

Did the stairs in Ardmore Cottage originally come from Fisherwick Hall? (Photograph: sale brochure)

In the past, I have wondered how Ardmore House and Ardmore Cottage in Lichfield came to have such distinctively Irish names. Some years ago, in her blog Lichfield Lore, the Lichfield historian Kate Gomez recalled the story that a staircase from Fisherwick Hall, the former home of the Marquesses of Donegall, was taken to a house on Beacon Street known as Ardmore.

I wonder whether these are the stairs in Ardmore Cottage, or whether they are stairs in Ardmore House on Nether Beacon, on the market some years ago through Downes and Daughters of Lichfield, with an asking price of £675,000.

The paired Nether Beacon House was once a house for boarders from the Friary School in the 1920s, and it has a curious sign at the front door: ‘Beware of the Cats.’ Each time I see it, it reminds me of how Samuel Johnson (1709-1784), the Lichfield-born lexicographer, and his cat, Hodge, who is remembered in a whimsical passage in James Boswell’s Life of Samuel Johnson (1799).

Boswell recalls that when he observed that Hodge was a fine cat, Johnson said, ‘Why yes, Sir, but I have had cats whom I liked better than this.’ And then, as if perceiving Hodge to be out of countenance, added, ‘but he is a very fine cat, a very fine cat indeed.’

Johnson, who was the focus of my morning reflections during much of this season of Lent, was known to go out of his way to buy oysters to feed Hodge, even to the point of annoying his servants by pampering his pets. After Hodge’s death, the poet Percival Stockdale wrote ‘An Elegy on the Death of Dr Johnson’s Favourite Cat’:

Who, by his master when caressed
Warmly his gratitude expressed;
And never failed his thanks to purr
Whene’er he stroked his sable fur.

A bronze statue to Hodge by the sculptor Jon Bickley stands facing Dr Johnson’s house in Gough Square, off Fleet Street, London. It was unveiled in 1997 and shows Hodge sitting on top of Johnson’s Dictionary, alongside some empty oyster shells. The monument is inscribed with the words ‘a very fine cat indeed.’

Ardmore Cottage is on sale through Newton Fallowell of Bore Street, Lichfield.

Ardmore Cottage (left) and Nether Beacon House (right) on Beacon Street … how did Ardmore Cottage get its Irish-sounding name? (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Keeping my hands and face clean, but still behaving like a hypocrite

Classical masks on sale near the Acropolis in Athens … the word ‘hypocrite’ comes from the Greek word for an actor who masked or hid his face (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

Sunday 29 August 2021,

Thirteenth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity XIII)

11 a.m.: Parish Group Eucharist, Holy Trinity Church, Rathkeale, Co Limerick

The Readings: Song of Solomon 2: 8-13; Psalm 45: 1-2, 6-9; Mark 7: 1-8, 14-15, 21-23.

There is a link to the readings HERE

‘Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away; for now the winter is past, the rain is over and gone’ (Song of Solomon 2: 10-11) (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

May I speak to you in the name of God, + Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen

Are you still sanitising your hands every time you go into a shop, a church, an enclosed public space?

Are you still wearing a mask in those places?

Indeed, are you still wearing masks outdoors and on the street?

The arguments about sanitising our hands and wearing facemasks are a very different order of argument to the arguments in this morning’s Gospel reading about washing my hands before I prepare food, and about presenting that food with clean cups and plates and knives and forks.

It is so easy for me to look at the people I don’t like and then to find passages in the Bible that shore up, that support, that justify that prejudice, and make me feel good because I now feel a little more smug, a little more superior.

And that is precisely the moment when the Jesus of this morning’s Gospel reading steps in and upbraids me, and calls me a hypocrite.

In Greek, the word hypocrite (ὑποκριτής, hypokrités) was used for an actor who masked or hid his face. It came to mean someone who plays a part on stage. Because these people did not speak their own words, this label came to mean a pretender, what we call today a hypocrite.

When I speak words taken at random, or taken out of context in the Bible, I need to be careful I am not using them out of context, or to condemn people for a fault that is not necessarily theirs, something I project onto them.

Some time ago, I came across this piece of doggerel inside a church porch in Ardmore, Co Waterford:

I was shocked, confused bewildered
as I entered heaven’s door,
not by the beauty of it all,
nor the lights or its décor.

But it was the folks in Heaven
who made me sputter and gasp –
the thieves, the liars, the sinners,
the alcoholics and the trash.

There stood the kid from sixth class
who swiped my lunch box twice.
Next to him was my old neighbour
who never said something nice.

Bob, who I always thought
would rot away in hell,
was sitting pretty on cloud nine,
looking oh so well.

I nudged Jesus, ‘What’s the deal?
I would love to hear your take.
How come these sinners get up here?
God must have made a mistake.

‘And why is everyone so quiet,
so sombre – give me a clue?’
‘Hush child,’ he said ‘they’re all in shock.
They weren’t expecting you.’

If I saw myself the way others see me, I would be less reluctant to open my mouth so often.

But the Church is full of people who continue to judge others – even other members of the Church – and justify their judgmentalism with passages of Scripture they quote out of context, sometimes even claiming passages of Scripture that simply do not exist.

And it’s not just about washing hands and pots and pans. If it was only that, it might be funny.

There are people who condemn people for their sexuality, they look down on people because of who they fall in love with or marry, they even claim to uphold Biblical standards of marriage.

But David, who we have been reading about at length in recent weeks, offered no Biblical standards of marriage. Solomon, who provides our first reading this morning, had 700 wives and 300 concubines – once again, hardly a Biblical standard of marriage.

I find it quite shocking, yet it seems inevitable, that many people in the Church of Ireland – not in these dioceses, as far as I know – use arguments about sexuality, bolstered with phrases such as ‘Biblical standards of marriage,’ to express prejudices about sexuality. Some even remain opposed to women being ordained priests and bishops.

This is using another voice, another set of words, Biblical quotations to express what is not in the Bible; the very origins of the word ‘hypocrite’ in the classical Greek and in this reading readily come to mind.

The Song of Songs, which we have been reading from this morning, is not afraid to affirm healthy sexuality, and in a creative and poetic way it compares the pleasure two lovers find in each other with the love of God for God’s people.

Here the voice of God is poetically represented by the voice of the shepherd; and the voice of the people is expressed by the woman. This woman is the voice of the people who love God and she also speaks back to the people on behalf of God: ‘My beloved speaks and says to me …’

In the Church, there can be no discrimination against people in ministry based on gender, age, sexuality, ethnicity or language, for God knows no such discrimination.

I too easily become a hypocrite when I use the words or behaviour of others to condemn them, without having the courage to say exactly where I stand.

Father Tikhon (Murtazov), who died some years ago [9 June 2018], was a much-loved Russian spiritual guide. A nun, Sister Olga (Schemanun of Snetogorsk Monastery), recalled how he welcomed everyone who came to visit him and who asked for his guidance and prayers.

Amazed at his kindness, she asked him one day: ‘Why don’t you refuse anyone? You bless whatever they ask of you.’

‘We’re in difficult times now,’ he said. ‘It’s better to sin by love than by strictness.’

We should worry as much about making careless wounding remarks as much as we would worry about preparing food unhygienically.

Can you imagine how much more positively people at large would view the churches if every parish and church put as much care into seeing that our children are not abused or infected with racism or discrimination or hate as much as we put into seeing we have sanitised our hands, are wearing colourful facemasks, seeing that the cups are clean for the tea and coffee after church on Sunday morning – or even as much as we attend to the cleanliness of the sacred vessels used for the Eucharist or Holy Communion?

And so, may all we think, say and do be to the praise, honour and glory of God, + Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen.

Classical masks from the theatre in Athens on display in the Acropolis Museum … the word ‘hypocrite’ comes from the Greek word for an actor who masked or hid his face (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Mark 7: 1-8, 14-15, 21-23 (NRSVA):

1 Now when the Pharisees and some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around him, 2 they noticed that some of his disciples were eating with defiled hands, that is, without washing them. 3 (For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, do not eat unless they thoroughly wash their hands, thus observing the tradition of the elders; 4 and they do not eat anything from the market unless they wash it; and there are also many other traditions that they observe, the washing of cups, pots, and bronze kettles.) 5 So the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, ‘Why do your disciples not live according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?’ 6 He said to them, ‘Isaiah prophesied rightly about you hypocrites, as it is written,

“This people honours me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me;
7 in vain do they worship me,
teaching human precepts as doctrines.”

8 You abandon the commandment of God and hold to human tradition.’

14 Then he called the crowd again and said to them, ‘Listen to me, all of you, and understand: 15 there is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile, but the things that come out are what defile.’

21 For it is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come: fornication, theft, murder, 22 adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, folly. 23 All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.’

‘There are also many other traditions that they observe, the washing of cups, pots, and bronze kettles’ (Mark 7: 4) … pots and pans in the kitchen in Bryce House on Garinish Island, Glengarriff, Co Cork (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Liturgical Colour: Green (Ordinary Time, Year B).

The Collect:

Almighty God, who called your Church to bear witness
that you were in Christ reconciling the world to yourself:
Help us to proclaim the good news of your love,
that all who hear it may be drawn to you;
through him who was lifted up on the cross,
and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Collect of the Word:

Cleanse our consciences, O Lord,
and enlighten our hearts
through the daily presence of your Son Jesus Christ,
that when he comes in glory to be our judge
we may be found undefiled and acceptable in his sight;
who lives and reigns with you
and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Post-Communion Prayer:

God our creator,
you feed your children with the true manna,
the living bread from heaven.
Let this holy food sustain us through our earthly pilgrimage
until we come to that place
where hunger and thirst are no more;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

‘Why do your disciples not live according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?’ (Mark 7: 5) (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Hymns:

597, Take my life, and let it be (CD 34)
630, Blessed are the pure in heart (CD 36)

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

Material from the Book of Common Prayer is copyright © 2004, Representative Body of the Church of Ireland.

Myrtle Grove in Youghal has links to Walter Raleigh and Claud Cockburn

Myrtle Grove, Youghal, Co Cork … associated with many of the legends about Sir Walter Raleigh (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Patrick Comerford

When I was visiting Saint Mary’s Collegiate Church in Youghal, Co Cork, as part of last week’s summer ‘road trip,’ I was disappointed not to be able to have a proper look at Myrtle Grove.

This Tudor house beside the gates of the churchyard is said to have been the home of Sir Walter Raleigh, and was also the home of the writer and journalist Claud Cockburn, who wrote regularly for The Irish Times, as did many of his sons.

Myrtle Grove is said to stand on the site of the house of the Wardens of Youghal. With its tall chimneys, oriel windows and many gables, the house is a rare Irish example of an unfortified, late mediaeval Tudor style stone house. It is said to have been built by Sir Walter Raleigh, and there are many legends associated with his time in the house.

It is said that a panicked servant at Myrtle Grove dowsed Raleigh in water while he was smoking the first tobacco in Ireland.

Raleigh reputedly brought the first potatoes from Virginia to Ireland in 1585, and planted them at his home at Myrtle Grove. For the following two years he was mayor of Youghal, where Queen Elizabeth I granted him 42,000 acres (170 sq km) of land.

At Myrtle Grove, he entertained the poet Edmund Spenser, who is said to have been inspired to write the last verse of the ‘Faerie Queene’ while looking out the window of Myrtle Grove.

Four yew trees in the gardens are said to have been planted by Raleigh, and he made his final trip from Cork to the West Indies in 1617.

However, many of the legends in Youghal about Walter Raleigh date to the romanticising of his links with Youghal by Samuel Hayman in his New Handbook for Youghal (1858). The Hayman family acquired Myrtle Grove in the 18th century, and renovated the house in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Myrtle Grove, Youghal, seen from Saint Mary’s Churchyard … the house was the home of the Blake, Arbuthnot and Cockburn families in the 20th century (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

In the early 20th century, it was the home of Sir Henry Arthur Blake (1840-1918), who had been Governor of the Bahamas (1884-1887), Newfoundland (1887-1888), Jamaica (1888-1898), Hong Kong (1898-1903) and Ceylon (1903-1907). He was born in Limerick, and died at Myrtle Grove in 1918.

Two years earlier, in 1916, Blake’s daughter, Olive, and her husband, Major John Bernard Arbuthnot, moved into Myrtle Grove with their family. Their youngest child was the writer and artist Patricia Evangeline Anne Cockburn (1914-1989). When the Arbuthnots moved to London in 1918, Patricia was left at Myrtle Grove with her widowed grandmother.

In 1940, after a divorce, Patricia married the journalist Claud Cockburn (1904-1981), and they returned to Youghal to live at Myrtle Grove in 1947.

For many years, Claud Cockburn was a columnist with The Irish Times while I worked there, and some of his sons, including Patrick Cockburn, also contributed to The Irish Times. Patrick’s godmother was Lady Clodagh Anson, who once lived at the Towers in Ballysaggartmore, in Lismore, Co Waterford.

Patricia and Claud Cockburn moved to Ardmore, Co Waterford, in 1980. Claud died on 15 December 1980, Patricia died on 6 October 1989; they are both buried in the churchyard of Saint Mary’s Collegiate Church, Youghal, under a tree planted by her mother in memory of her brother and close to the gates of Myrtle Grove.

The grave of Patricia and Claud Cockburn in the churchyard of Saint Mary’s Collegiate Church, Youghal (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Myrtle Grove remains in private ownership and is closed to the public, but is being renovated and restored. The house is a rare example of an unfortified 16th century Irish house to have survived with much of its original form intact. It retains its original character and some interior features that may date back to the 1580s.

The Tudor features include the steep gables, oriel windows and tall chimneys. This is a detached triple-gabled six-bay three-storey house, built ca 1550, with a porch-oriel at the front, dormer windows at the rear, and an oriel window on the south elevation.

The oriel over the porch has a rendered pediment. The square-headed window openings have sash windows in the gables and on the second floor, and bipartite sash windows on the first and ground floors. The round-headed window opening in the oriel over the porch is flanked by four-over-four pane timber sliding sash windows.

The oriel window on the south side has six-over-six pane timber sliding sash windows. The round-headed window at the rear has a spoked fanlight, and there is a round-headed door opening in the porch.

The house has rendered chimneystacks, a pitched slate roof, and a weathervane. The rubble sandstone masonry walls are covered with roughcast render. Leading into the house, a pair of square-profile rendered piers have double-leaf timber gates and a pedestrian entrance.

The Church gate lodge beside Myrtle Lodge at the entrance to Saint Mary’s Collegiate Church is also an attractive and eye-catching building, with a gable-fronted porch with an heraldic plaque, pointed arch windows and square-headed windows, a pointed arch opening at the porch, and timber battened door.

The Church gate lodge beside Myrtle Lodge at the entrance to Saint Mary’s Collegiate Church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

The Towers near Lismore, architectural follies and reminders of the Famine

The Towers and lodges at Ballysaggartmore are imposing gothic-style ‘follies’ near Lismore, Co Waterford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Patrick Comerford

I remember how as a child in Cappoquin I was brought to see the Towers and lodges at Ballysaggartmore, imposing gothic-style ‘follies’ near Lismore, Co Waterford, that perhaps influenced my later architectural tastes.

They stand in a pleasant woodland setting, with forest walks and picnic areas, and are also associated with Claud Anson, a brother of the 3rd Earl of Lichfield, and his wife, Lady Clodagh Anson, part of the literary circle in West Waterford in the mid-20th century.

But, despite a childhood delight in their fairy-tale setting, the true, the behind-the-scenes stories of the Towers are set in sad period in history. I returned to see them last week as part of my ‘road trip’ visit to Cappoquin and Lismore on the return journey from Youghal, Co Cork, to Askeaton, Co Limerick.

The Ballysaggartmore demesne is about 2.5 km outside Lismore. The Towers are two sets of ornate entrance lodges, with one set also serving as a bridge. They were built around 1834, in the decade before the Famine, by a wealthy, local landlord, Arthur Keily, later Arthur Keily-Ussher.

At the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries, John Keily bought 8,500 acres at Ballysaggartmore from George Holmes Jackson of Glenmore, and built a new house.

When Keily died in 1808, the best part of his estate, including Strancally, was inherited by his elder son, John Keily, who was Tory MP for Clonmel in 1819-1820. John Keily commissioned the Limerick-based architects, brothers George and James Pain, to build Strancally Castle, between Lismore and Youghal, on the west bank of the River Blackwater.

John Keily’s younger brother, Arthur Kiely, inherited Ballysaggartmore and when he returned to Co Waterford from the Napoleonic Wars in 1817, he built a new house at Ballysaggartmore. However, he decided in the 1830s decided that this house was not grand enough for his needs or social aspirations.

It is said his plans were driven largely by his wife Elizabeth, who demanded a residence as grand as her brother-in-law’s home at Strancally Castle. Elizabeth (née Martin) was from Ross House, Co Galway, and a great-aunt of the author Violet Martin.

Local lore suggests that the Towers and lodges were built as a prelude to the extravagant mansion Keily-Ussher planned. A report in 1834 indicates they were designed by the head gardener, John Smyth, and that the main entrance gates were forged locally for £150.

But Arthur Keily-Ussher was a harsh landlord, evicting tenants unable to pay their rents during the Great Famine (1845-1849). Once the towers, lodge and bridge were complete, Arthur and Elizabeth turned to ‘improving’ their estate. This largely involved clearing the land of the sitting tenants and many of their cottages.

Their social ambitions were unbridled, and in 1843 Arthur changed his surname to Keily-Ussher – the Usshers were a long-established family in the area and the Keily brothers were related to them through their mother.

But their ambitious plans started to unravel on Arthur and Elizabeth. They quickly ran out of money, and their dream of living in the grandest house in Co Waterford turned into a nightmare. Their impressive carriageway and gatehouses would never lead to the mansion they planned.

The Towers and lodges stand like an abandoned Disneyland fantasy (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

During the Famine, the population of Co Waterford fell by more than 50 percent. The few remaining tenants on the estate were starving and unable to pay their rents. Unlike many neighbouring landlords, Arthur Keily-Ussher refused to suspend or reduce the rents. Instead, he used non-payment to justify evicting tenants and levelling their homes. Several hundred families were evicted in 1847, making it one of the largest clearances during the Famine.

A report in the Cork Examiner on the Ballysaggartmore estate in 1847 describes ‘famished women and crying children’ cowering in the ruins of their burned cottages. In contrast, Arthur’s brother John was a benevolent landlord at Strancally Castle, killing his own cows and spending £1,000 in just nine months to feed starving people.

Arthur Keily-Ussher remained deeply unpopular after the Famine. An attempt was made to shoot him as he entered the estate through the gates. The gun misfired and the would-be assassin, John Keeffe, fled on foot. Seven men were tried, convicted and deported to Tasmania.

The trial made Keily-Ussher even more unpopular. Then, without tenants to pay rents that provided an income, his fortunes ran out. When the Encumbered Estates Court put Ballysaggartmore up for sale in 1854, it failed to sell.

It was back on the market in 1861, and the main house, gardens and some of the lands were bought by William Morton Woodroofe. Other lands were bought by the Duke of Devonshire and the Lismore Castle estate. Arthur Keily-Ussher a year later in 1862.

Ballysaggartmore was bought in the early 20th century by Claud Anson and Lady Clodagh Anson (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

The Woodroofes remained at Ballysaggartmore until the early 20th century, when the place was bought by the Hon Claud Anson (1864-1947), a younger son of Thomas Anson (1825-1892), 2nd Earl of Lichfield.

The Anson family of Lichfield had connections with this part of Ireland for at least three generations: Henry Cavendish (1793-1856), 3rd Lord Waterpark, a descendant of the Cavendish family of Lismore Castle, was Whig MP for Lichfield (1854-1856), and married Claud Anson’s great-aunt, Elizabeth Jane Anson (1816-1894). Her nephews included Bishop Adelbert John Robert Anson (1840-1909), a later Master of Saint John’s Hospital, Lichfield (1893-1898), and Claud Anson’s father.

Before coming to Lismore, Claud Anson had been a rancher in Texas. He married Lady Clodagh de la Poer Beresford (1879-1957), daughter of the 5th Marquess of Waterford, in 1901, and they returned to live in her native county. However, they did not enjoy the place for long, and their funds ran out. According to Patrick Cockburn, a godson of their daughter Clodagh Anson (1902-1992), who lived in Youghal, they lost their fortune through Claud’s investment in Russian bonds prior to the Revolution.

During the Irish Civil War, Ballysaggartmore House was attacked by the anti-treaty IRA and destroyed by fire in 1922. The Ansons moved to Ardmore, and Lady Clodagh Anson became part of a literary circle in West Waterford. Her books include Book (1931), Discreet Memoirs (1932), Another Book (1937) and Victorian Days (1957). She was also known for her voluntary work with homeless people on the streets of pre-war London.

Claud died in 1947, Clodagh died in 1957; her epitaph in Ardmore says, ‘she never failed to help those in need.’ Their nephew, Thomas Anson (1883-1960), 4th Earl of Lichfield, was grandfather of the photographer Patrick Lichfield.

After the house was destroyed by arson, it stood empty and derelict for some decades before being pulled down. For a time, one of the lodges continued to be used as a private residence.

The entrance gates were forged locally in Lismore for £150 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

The Towers form a picturesque composition, combining a bridge and two lodges in an integrated design. Although, at first sight, the lodges look identical, each has individual, distinguishing features.

Many of their fittings were lost when the towers were dismantled in the 1930s. The rock-faced sandstone produces an attractive textured visual effect and shows the high quality of the stone masonry.

The towers have segmental-headed carriageways, turrets, flanking bays, two-storey square towers, single-bay, two-stage circular towers, stepped buttresses, battlemented parapets, corner pinnacles, pointed-arch and square-headed window openings, square-headed door openings, ogee-headed slit-style window openings, and polygonal corner piers.

Between the towers, a three-arch, rock-faced, sandstone ashlar Gothic-style bridge crosses a ravine with grassy banks.

The Gateway is disused and derelict but is an impressive structure in a fantastical Gothic style, combining a gateway and flanking gate lodges in an integrated composition. Most of the external and internal fittings, including the walls and floors, were removed when the gateway was dismantled around 1935. But it retains most of its original form, with high quality stone masonry and craftsmanship.

The Gateway has an ogee-headed opening with decorative cast-iron double gates, limestone ashlar polygonal flanking piers, and a pair of attached, two-bay, single-storey and two-storey flanking gate lodges, each with three-stage, circular corner turrets.

After the Ansons left, the Towers and lodges fell into ruin and were un-roofed. Today they stand in forested land, with a walking trail through the woodland, and with picnic and parking areas. They stand like an abandoned Disneyland fantasy, reminders of a cruel landlord who was the architect of his own downfall in the Famine era.

Today the Towers stand in forested land with a walking trail through the woodland (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)