Setting out on the journey on Ash Wednesday with Samuel Johnson’s prayer at the beginning of Lent

Ready for takeoff … a wall painting in a coffee shop at Heathrow Airport (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are at Heathrow Airport at the beginning of a lengthy odyssey that begins this evening, arriving in Muscat early tomorrow, and continuing on through Kuala Lumpur, expecting to arrive in Kuching shortly after midnight tomorrow or in the very early hours of Friday morning.

Lent, which began today (Ash Wednesday, 18 February 2026), is a spiritual journey that leads us to the pains of the Crucifixion on Good Friday and the hope and joy of the Resurrection on Easter morning.

In previous years, my morning Lenten reflections have journeyed with the saints, looked at Lent in Art, reflected in the music of Vaughan Williams or the writings of Samuel Johnson, and similar themes.

I was writing yesterday about Samuel Johnson (1709-1784), and how my photograph of his bust recently restored in Bird Street, Lichfield, by the local historian and tour guide Jonathan Oates, has been used by Jono in his design of a new lapel badge or pin as a fundraiser for the Johnson Birthplace Museum.

The Lichfield lexicographer and writer compiled the first authoritative English-language dictionary. Perhaps I am sympathetic to Johnson because of his origins in Lichfield. Perhaps I am drawn to him because he recalled that when he lived in in London he went ‘every day to a coffee-house.’ But he was also a pious Anglican, a regular communicant, and he wrote regularly and carefully about his observance of Lent and Easter.

At an early age, his mother encouraged Johnson to learn the Book of Common Prayer by heart, including its many rich collects in Lent. The Book of Common Prayer invites us ‘to the observance of a holy Lent, by self-examination and Repentance; by prayer, fasting, and self-denial; and by reading and meditating on God’s holy Word.’

Johnson once declared, through his amanuensis James Boswell, that unless we set aside certain days for particular remembrances, we will probably fail to remember.

Johnson was generally negative about religious verse and his own devotional poems, marked by earnestness and humility, were composed mainly in his later years. There are several meditations and seven Latin prayers, the majority of them based on the Collects in The Book of Common Prayer.

David Nichol Smith, in Samuel Johnson’s Poems, says these verses ‘are preserved for us in sufficient numbers to rank [Johnson] as a religious poet, though a minor one.’

John Myatt’s mural on a wall in Bird Street, Lichfield, commemorating Samuel Johnson (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

The Collect of Ash Wednesday in its traditional version in The Book of Common Prayer prays:

‘Almighty and everlasting God, who hatest nothing that thou hast made, and dost forgive the sins of all them that are penitent; Create and make in us new hearts, that we, worthily lamenting our sins and acknowledging our wretchedness, may obtain of thee, the God of all mercy, perfect remission and forgiveness; through Jesus Christ our Lord.’

Johnson translates this into Latin as:

Summe Deus, qui semper amas quodcunque creasti,
Judice quo scelerum est poenituisse salus,
Da veteres noxas animo sic flere novato,
Per Christum ut veniam sit reperire mihi.

His translation, written 245 years ago, is dated 13 April 1781 and was first published in Works in 1787 (see Poems, pp 229-230).

Translated back into English, this reads:

Almighty God, who dost always love what thou hast made,
before whom as judge to have repented of one’s sins is salvation,
grant that with my soul made new I may so lament my former sins
as to be able to obtain forgiveness through Christ.

Johnson condensed the original without losing very much and made it a personal prayer. But his emphasis is a positive one, so that he begins with an affirmation of God’s love rather than asserting that God does not hate.

It is a twist in emphasis that reveals much about Johnson’s piety and his confidence in the love of God. And it is an emphasis worth reflecting on as we begin Lent and as we set off on this lengthy, marathon journey.

Samuel Johnson’s statue in the Market Place in Lichfield, facing the Samuel Johnson Birthplace Museum (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Daily prayer in Lent 2026: 1, Wednesday 18 February 2026, Ash Wednesday

Lent offers a time for renewed reflection … February reflections at night at Minster Pool in Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Patrick Comerford

Lent begins today with Ash Wednesday (5 March 2025), which is being marked in this parish today with the imposition of ashes and the Eucharist or Holy Communion in All Saints’ Church, Calverton, this morning (10:30) in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford, this evening (6 pm).

I m going to miss both as later today two of us set off on an epic journey to Kuching, with a flight from Heathrow that leaves this evening and arrives in Muscat early tomorrow morning local time (07:15), but still the middle of the night back in England (03:15). We have barely breathing time to connect with the next flight from Muscat (09:20) to Kuala Lumpur, and a similar short gap there tomorrow tonight, before our connecting flight, hopefully getting to Kuching after midnight and in the very early hours of Friday (20 February).

But before my day begins, before packing and making sure I have all my papers, 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.

Lenten array in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford, this week (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Matthew 6: 1-6, 16-21 (NRSVA):

[Jesus said:] 1 ‘Beware of practising your piety before others in order to be seen by them; for then you have no reward from your Father in heaven.

2 ‘So whenever you give alms, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be praised by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. 3 But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4 so that your alms may be done in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

5 ‘And whenever you pray, do not be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, so that they may be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. 6 But whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

16 ‘And whenever you fast, do not look dismal, like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces so as to show others that they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. 17 But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, 18 so that your fasting may be seen not by others but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

19 ‘Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; 20 but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.’

‘Dancing to the Heartbeat of God, Stories of Discipleship’ (SPCK) is the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Lent Book for 2026, with a foreword by Archbishop Sarah Mullally


Today’s Reflections:

It is striking how often in the Bible encounters with God take place on a mountain top: Mount Sinai, Mount Zion, the Mount of Olives, Calvary and the Ascension from the Mount called Olivet.

In the Gospel reading on Sunday (Matthew 17: 1-9, 15 February 2026), we heard the story of the Transfiguration, where Christ is presented on a high mountain as the Father’s beloved Son, and placed on either side of him are Moses and Elijah – for Christ is truly the fulfilment of the Law and the Prophets, of all of God’s promises.

In the Gospel reading for Ash Wednesday, we meet Christ as we listen to his Sermon on the Mount.

And there is a link between this mountain-side sermon and the Transfiguration.

The Transfiguration presents an opportunity not only for us to Christ as he truly is – the incarnate, living God; but also an opportunity for us to be reminded of how God sees us – made in his image and likeness.

The first reading the previous Sunday (Genesis 1: 1 to 2: 3), which I read at the Parish Eucharist in Stony Stratford on the Sunday before Lent (8 February 2025), is a reminder that when God made us, God made us from the earth, but also that God made us in God’s own image and likeness. What a compliment.

Then, at Christmas, God takes on our image and likeness. God in Christ does not just look like us, Christ is truly one of us, both God and flesh. Again, what a compliment.

On Calvary, Christ shows he is truly flesh. It is not that he appears to die. He dies. He truly is like us, is one of us. Again, what a compliment.

In the Resurrection, we are called to be what we are truly made to be – to be restored so that once again we are in God’s image and likeness. And once again, what a compliment.

So Lent is an opportunity to look back on who we are, and to look forward to who we are truly called to be: made in God’s image and likeness, and restored to God’s image and likeness.

One way of reminding us of this is to read this Gospel reading reminding us to pray, fast, to do good, to give alms, to seek our rewards in pursuing the values of the Kingdom of God.

This Gospel reading can be understood when it is read within the context of the full Sermon on the Mount, including the Beatitudes.

To be like Christ is to what he asks us to do.

A second way of reminding us of how we are made in God’s image and likeness, and how we are to be restored to God’s image and likeness, is the tradition of using ashes on Ash Wednesday.

It is a Biblical paradox that we are both made from the earth and yet are made in God’s image and likeness. We are made from the soil, yet in Saint John’s understanding of the cosmos all creation also dwells within God’s womb.

Our ashes on Ash Wednesday call us back to our beginnings, so that we can look forward to our glory in the Risen Christ at Easter. We are made of the earth, yet we are made in God’s image and likeness.

Quite often, we mark Lent with traditional customs such as giving up things, donating to charity, deliberate attitudes of kindness, or taking part in parish Bible studies. These customs are like New Year’s resolutions: they make us feel good for as long as we keep them, but they make us feel guilty when we fall behind.

But Lent is not about either: about feeling guilty or about feeling better … even if it is a good idea that I should become less self-centred and it is a good for me if, after a few weeks, I feel fitter and healthier.

In Old English, the word ‘Lent’ has the same meaning as ‘Spring.’ It means the days are lengthening – hence ‘Lent’ – and that signs of life are beginning to emerge after the coldness of winter.

As Spring prepares us to look forward to days that are longer and are warmer, so, Lent as a season prepares us to look forward to Easter: to the conquest of death and to new life through the Resurrection of Christ.

In the early Church, Easter was the time to receive new members of the Church in Baptism, the gift of new life in Christ. Baptism was, and is, a second birth, a way of being made one with Christ and one in the great company of believers who are his body, the Church on earth and in heaven.

Before Baptism, the early Church had a careful period of preparation for all new members. This was a period of instruction in Christian faith and practice, leading to Baptism on Easter Eve.

New Christians were taught to turn their back on old ways, superstitions and idolatries, and to replace them in Lent with acts such as generosity to the poor, the sick and those in prison. As their Baptism and Easter approached, they practised fasting, almsgiving and prayer, supported and encouraged by members of the Church. It was a communal exercise and experience.

And so began the customs and traditions we associate with the season of Lent. They were seen as an imitation of Christ during his 40 days of fasting and temptation in the wilderness after his baptism by Saint John the Baptist.

The traditional Ash Wednesday invitation or exhortation begins:

‘Brothers and sisters in Christ: since early days Christians have observed with great devotion the time of our Lord's passion and resurrection. It became the custom of the Church to prepare for this by a season of penitence and fasting.

‘At first this season of Lent was observed by those who were preparing for baptism at Easter and by those who were to be restored to the Church’s fellowship from which they had been separated through sin. In course of time the Church came to recognize that, by a careful keeping of these days, all Christians might take to heart the call to repentance and the assurance of forgiveness proclaimed in the gospel, and so grow in faith and in devotion to our Lord.

‘I invite you, therefore, in the name of the Lord to observe a holy Lent, by self-examination and repentance; by prayer, fasting, and self-denial; and by reading and meditating on God’s holy word.’

There are some ways I could suggest for observing Lent this year:

1, Come and See, Discovering Jesus through the Eucharist, is a free online invitation in the Diocese of Oxford to explore spirituality and find out more about the Christian faith. People are invited receive daily emails through Lent, with reflections, readings and encouragements. Each Sunday, there is a video from Bishop Steven Croft unpacking another aspect of the Eucharist. More information here.

2, My reading for Lent this year is Dancing to the Heartbeat of God, Stories of Discipleship, the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Lent Book for 2026, with a foreword by Archbishop Sarah Mullally and an introduction by Archbishop Stephen Cottrell of York. This book brings together around 30 contributors from across the globe, who reflect the breadth, diversity and vitality of the Anglican Communion, and who offer a confident and hopeful vision of faith lived out in everyday life through personal stories, testimonies and reflections on what it means to follow Christ faithfully.

3, USPG’s Lent Appeal this year seeks to bring hope for the future to Myanmar. Through the Church of the Province of Myanmar’s Integrated Education Programme, vulnerable children are finding sanctuary in classrooms, sustenance in daily meals, and strength in community. USPG is supporting this partnership of faith and action throughout Lent 2026. Find out more and support the appeal here.

4, Pope Leo XIV, in his invitation for Lent this year, says: ‘I would like to invite you to a very practical and frequently unappreciated form of abstinence: that of refraining from words that offend and hurt our neighbour. Let us begin by disarming our language, avoiding harsh words and rash judgement, refraining from slander and speaking ill of those who are not present and cannot defend themselves.’ This is a wonderful way to start Lent, and a wonderful way roo to show we are listening to what Christ asks of us.

There is a necessary rigour to Lent. It is meant to offer a time for change to take place.

Fasting also allows us to learn the extraordinary richness of God’s creation: we can appreciate it more if we seek to tame our appetites for a while. Put this alongside prayer and almsgiving and we cannot but help to turn away from self a little more and so have space for God and the claims of God and neighbour on our lives. Over the past four years, I have been in and out of hospitals and clinics in Milton Keynes, Oxford, Sheffield and London, for tests related to a battery of conditions and injuries falling a fall. I did not need to read today’s Gospel to be reminded ‘whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret.’

Spring follows winter and holds the promise of summer; Lent holds the hope of Easter and the Resurrection. And the next six weeks of Lent offer a fresh opportunity to do those things, and to pray in those ways, that make us less self-centred, that make us feel fitter and healthier – spiritually as well as physically – and that renew and refresh our faith, our hope, our love.

A window ledge in the chapel in Dr Miley’s Hospital, Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Wednesday 18 February 2026, Ash Wednesday):

The theme this week (15-21 February 2026) in ‘Pray With the World Church,’ the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is: ‘Look to the Amazon!’ (pp 28-29). This theme was introduced on Sunday with a Programme Update by the Most Revd Marinez Bassotto, Bishop of Amazonia and Archbishop of the Igreja Episcopal Anglicana do Brasil.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Wednesday 18 February 2026, Ash Wednesday) invites us to pray:

Merciful God, as we begin this season of Lent, remind us to seek your presence with humble hearts. Teach us to give, to pray, and to fast however we can out of love of you. May we walk each day in the light of your grace.

The Collect:

Almighty and everlasting God,
you hate nothing that you have made
and forgive the sins of all those who are penitent:
create and make in us new and contrite hearts
that we, worthily lamenting our sins
and acknowledging our wretchedness,
may receive from you, the God of all mercy,
perfect remission and forgiveness;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

Almighty God,
you have given your only Son to be for us
both a sacrifice for sin
and also an example of godly life:
give us grace
that we may always most thankfully receive
these his inestimable gifts,
and also daily endeavour
to follow the blessed steps of his most holy life;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

Holy God,
our lives are laid open before you:
rescue us from the chaos of sin
and through the death of your Son
bring us healing and make us whole
in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s Reflections

Continued Tomorrow

Lent offers a time for renewed reflection … night-time reflections in the February rain in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Churchyard, Stony Stratford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

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 2026: 15, Tuesday 17 February 2026

The staff of life … 12 loaves of bread depicted in a fresco in the 17th century Kupa Synagogue in the old Jewish quarter of Kazimierz in Kraków (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

This period of Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar has been very short this year, lasting for little more than two weeks, today is Shrove Tuesday, or in most of our childhood memories, Pancake Tueday, with pncake races in Lichield, Olney and many other places. Lent begins tomorrow with Ash Wednesday (18 February 2026).

The calendar of the Church of England today remembers the life and witness of Janani Luwum (1977), Archbishop of Uganda and Martyr. Before this day begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, to reflect, to pray and to read in these ways:

1, today’s Gospel reading;

2, a short reflection;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

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

‘When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you collect?’ They said to him, ‘Twelve’ (Mark 8: 19) … 12 loaves of bread in the Bretzel Bakery in Portobello, Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Mark 8: 14-21 (NRSVA):

14 Now the disciples had forgotten to bring any bread; and they had only one loaf with them in the boat. 15 And he cautioned them, saying, ‘Watch out – beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and the yeast of Herod.’ 16 They said to one another, ‘It is because we have no bread.’ 17 And becoming aware of it, Jesus said to them, ‘Why are you talking about having no bread? Do you still not perceive or understand? Are your hearts hardened? 18 Do you have eyes, and fail to see? Do you have ears, and fail to hear? And do you not remember? 19 When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you collect?’ They said to him, ‘Twelve.’ 20 ‘And the seven for the four thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you collect?’ And they said to him, ‘Seven.’ 21 Then he said to them, ‘Do you not yet understand?’

‘Bread is still the staff of life’ … the façade of Frank O’Connor’s former bakery on North Main Street, Wexford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflections:

I can truly identify with the forgetfulness of the disciples in this morning’s Gospel reading (Mark 8: 14-21). I have forgotten to pack enough clothes for a weekend away and for holidays. I have left clothes behind in hotels, keys on a shop counter, lost a phone on a train between Tamworth and Lichfield and another in a taxi from Luton. I got a train in the wrong direction when I was to speak at a book launch in London. I have even left my passport behind in Stony Stratford, so that I missed a flight and the launch in Dublin of a book to which I had contributed two chapters.

I know it happens to others too. I hope this forgetfulness does not mark the way we set out on a long journey tomorrow. But with those memories and that in the background, I understandably feel sympathetic with any of the disciples in today’s reading who might be dismissed by readers as being ‘a sandwich short of a picnic.’

I have memories from my more youthful days in Wexford, when I worked with the Wexford People and Frank O’Connor’s bakery was on North Main Street. The bakery dated back to 1860, and closed in 1979. But I remember the initials FOC on the façade, and the slogan: ‘Bread is still the staff of life.’

The constant and witty response from one friend as he passed that shop in North Main Street was: ‘Man does not live by bread alone.’

One is a popular proverb that many assume is a Biblical quotation; the other is a Biblical quotation, that appears once in Deuteronomy and twice in the Gospels.

The Gospel reading for the Eucharist today reflects the importance of breads in daily life in the time of Jesus and the Disciples – it was truly the staff of life.

The Kupa Synagogue in the Old Jewish in Kraków has a wall painting or fresco of 12 loaves of bread that are described as ‘sacramental.’

To what degree is this morning’s Gospel reading for the Eucharist a sacramental reading?

When the disciples are rebuked for forgetting to bring any bread with them, it is not just a matter of everyone in the group going hungry for a little while. The Greek verb used here for ‘to forget’ (ἐπιλανθάνομαι, epilanthanomai) conveys the sense of negligence or disregarding rather than memory loss. I am inclined to read it as describing a wilful decision not to remember to bring bread rather than some forgetful lapse of memory.

And the Greek word used here to describe to bring or to take (λαμβάνω, lambanō) describes not the process of buying bread, or putting it in your shopping basket or a picnic hamper. It describes laying hands on it.

Taking, blessing, breaking and giving … essential acts of giving and receiving, Eucharistic acts.

Bread is still the staff of life, and encountering Christ in the breaking of the bread, in sacramental living, still brings and gives life.

The church is the boat, and not merely forgetting but neglecting the opportunity to share the staff of life in the Church, for me, is one of the weaknesses I find in a church that professes to be a church of word and sacrament.

A sandwich bar in Zurich Airport … were some of the disciples close to being ‘a sandwich short of a picnic’? (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Tuesday 17 February 2026):

The theme this week (15-21 February 2026) in ‘Pray With the World Church,’ the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is: ‘Look to the Amazon!’ (pp 28-29). This theme was introduced on Sunday with a Programme Update by the Most Revd Marinez Bassotto, Bishop of Amazonia and Archbishop of the Igreja Episcopal Anglicana do Brasil.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Tuesday 17 February 2026) invites us to pray:

Lord, bless the Igreja Episcopal Anglicana do Brasil as it stands alongside Indigenous communities in the Amazon to protect forests and defend the rights of land and culture.

The Collect:

God of truth,
whose servant Janani Luwum walked in the light,
and in his death defied the powers of darkness:
free us from fear of those who kill the body,
that we too may walk as children of light,
through him who overcame darkness by the power of the cross,
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:

Eternal God,
who gave us this holy meal
in which we have celebrated the glory of the cross
and the victory of your martyr Janani Luwum:
by our communion with Christ
in his saving death and resurrection,
give us with all your saints the courage to conquer evil
and so to share the fruit of the tree of life;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s Reflections

Continued Tomorrow

A town sign in Olney depicts the town’s traditional pancake race on Shrove Tuesday (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 Lent 2025: 1, Wednesday 5 March 2025, Ash Wednesday

Fasting for Lent … some recommendations from Pope Francis

Patrick Comerford

Lent begins today with Ash Wednesday (5 March 2025), which is being marked in this parish with Mass and the imposition of ashes in All Saints’ Church, Calverton, at 11 am and in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford, at 6 pm.

Later in the evening I hope to join the choir rehearsals in Stony Stratford. Before this day begins, though, 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.

Lenten array in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Matthew 6: 1-6, 16-21 (NRSVA):

[Jesus said:] 1 ‘Beware of practising your piety before others in order to be seen by them; for then you have no reward from your Father in heaven.

2 ‘So whenever you give alms, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be praised by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. 3 But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4 so that your alms may be done in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

5 ‘And whenever you pray, do not be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, so that they may be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. 6 But whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

16 ‘And whenever you fast, do not look dismal, like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces so as to show others that they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. 17 But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, 18 so that your fasting may be seen not by others but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

19 ‘Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; 20 but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.’

‘Go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret’ (Matthew 6: 6) … Lent is a time to re-examine our priorities (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflection:

Quite often, we mark Lent with traditional customs such as giving up things, donating to charity, deliberate attitudes of kindness, or taking part in parish Bible studies. These customs are like New Year’s resolutions: they make us feel good for as long as we keep them, but they make us feel guilty when we fall behind.

But Lent is not about either: about feeling guilty or about feeling better … even if it is a good idea that I should become less self-centred and it is a good for me if, after a few weeks, I feel fitter and healthier.

In Old English, the word ‘Lent’ has the same meaning as ‘Spring.’ It means the days are lengthening – hence ‘Lent’ – and that signs of life are beginning to emerge after the coldness of winter.

As Spring prepares us to look forward to days that are longer and are warmer, so, Lent as a season prepares us to look forward to Easter: to the conquest of death and to new life through the Resurrection of Christ.

In the early Church, Easter was the time to receive new members of the Church in Baptism, the gift of new life in Christ. Baptism was, and is, a second birth, a way of being made one with Christ and one in the great company of believers who are his body, the Church on earth and in heaven.

Before Baptism, the early Church had a careful period of preparation for all new members. This was a period of instruction in Christian faith and practice, leading to Baptism on Easter Eve.

New Christians were taught to turn their back on old ways, superstitions and idolatries, and to replace them in Lent with acts such as generosity to the poor, the sick and those in prison. As their Baptism and Easter approached, they practised fasting, almsgiving and prayer, supported and encouraged by members of the Church. It was a communal exercise and experience.

And so began the customs and traditions we associate with the season of Lent. They were seen as an imitation of Christ during his 40 days of fasting and temptation in the wilderness after his baptism by Saint John the Baptist.

The traditional Ash Wednesday invitation or exhortation begins:

‘Brothers and sisters in Christ: since early days Christians have observed with great devotion the time of our Lord's passion and resurrection. It became the custom of the Church to prepare for this by a season of penitence and fasting.

‘At first this season of Lent was observed by those who were preparing for baptism at Easter and by those who were to be restored to the Church’s fellowship from which they had been separated through sin. In course of time the Church came to recognize that, by a careful keeping of these days, all Christians might take to heart the call to repentance and the assurance of forgiveness proclaimed in the gospel, and so grow in faith and in devotion to our Lord.

‘I invite you, therefore, in the name of the Lord to observe a holy Lent, by self-examination and repentance; by prayer, fasting, and self-denial; and by reading and meditating on God’s holy word.’

There is a necessary rigour to Lent. It is meant to offer a time for change to take place.

But fasting also allows us to learn the extraordinary richness of God’s creation: we can appreciate it more if we seek to tame our appetites for a while. Put this alongside prayer and almsgiving and we cannot but help to turn away from self a little more and so have space for God and the claims of God and neighbour on our lives.

Over the past 12 months, I have been in and out of hospital in Milton Keynes, Oxford and London, for tests related to a battery of conditions and injuries falling a fall. I did not need to read today’s Gospel to be reminded ‘whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret.’

But Spring follows winter and holds the promise of summer; Lent holds the hope of Easter and the Resurrection. And the next six weeks of Lent offer a fresh opportunity to do those things, and to pray in those ways, that make us less self-centred, that make us feel fitter and healthier – spiritually as well as physically – and that renew and refresh our faith, our hope, our love.

Burning Palm Crosses from Palm Sunday to prepare ashes for Ash Wednesday

Today’s Prayers (Wednesday 5 March 2025, Ash Wednesday):

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 ‘The World’s Greatest Leader: Jesus Christ.’ This theme was introduced on Sunday with a Programme Update by the Right Revd Filomena Tete Estevão, Bishop of Angola.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Wednesday 5 March 2025, Ash Wednesday) invites us to pray:

Lord forgive the sins of all who are repentant. Create and make in us new and contrite hearts, that we worthily lamenting our sins, and acknowledging our sin, may obtain forgiveness; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

The Collect:

Almighty and everlasting God,
you hate nothing that you have made
and forgive the sins of all those who are penitent:
create and make in us new and contrite hearts
that we, worthily lamenting our sins
and acknowledging our wretchedness,
may receive from you, the God of all mercy,
perfect remission and forgiveness;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

Almighty God,
you have given your only Son to be for us
both a sacrifice for sin
and also an example of godly life:
give us grace
that we may always most thankfully receive
these his inestimable gifts,
and also daily endeavour
to follow the blessed steps of his most holy life;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

Holy God,
our lives are laid open before you:
rescue us from the chaos of sin
and through the death of your Son
bring us healing and make us whole
in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s Reflection

Continued Tomorrow

Lent offers a time for renewed reflection (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: 30, Tuesday 4 March 2025, Shrove Tuesday (Pancake Tuesday)

The first and the last (see Mark 10: 31) … ‘I am the Alpha and the Omega’ (Revelation 1: 8) … the AΩ symbol in the centre of the altar designed by James Franklin Fuller in Saint Mary’s Church, Julianstown, Co Meath (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are coming to the end of this period of Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar and the beginning of Lent. Today is Shrove Tuesday, Pancake Tuesday or Mardi Gras (‘Fat Tuesday’), and Lent begins tomorrow with Ash Wednesday (5 March 2025).

The word shrove is a form of the English word shrive, which means to give absolution for someone’s sins by way of Confession and doing penance. Thus Shrove Tuesday was named after the custom of Christians to be ‘shriven’ before the start of Lent. Before this day begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, to reflect, to pray and to read in these ways:

1, today’s Gospel reading;

2, a short reflection;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

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

‘The first and the last (see Mark 10: 31) … ‘I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last’ (Revelation 22: 13) … a detail in the East Window in Holy Trinity Church, Rathkeale, Co Limerick’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Mark 10: 28-31 (NRSVA):

28 Peter began to say to him, ‘Look, we have left everything and followed you.’ 29 Jesus said, ‘Truly I tell you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields, for my sake and for the sake of the good news, 30 who will not receive a hundredfold now in this age – houses, brothers and sisters, mothers and children, and fields, with persecutions – and in the age to come eternal life. 31 But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.’

‘The first and the last (see Mark 10: 31) … Alpha and Omega in lettering in the reredos in Saint Mary’s Church, Askeaton, Co Limerick (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflection:

Today’s Gospel reading (Mark 10: 28-31) follows immediately after the story we read yesterday of the man who runs up to Jesus, kneels before him, and asks, ‘Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?’ The man is told to go, sell what he owns, gives it to the poor, and only then follow Jesus. He ‘was shocked and went away grieving’ (see Mark 10: 17-27).

Jesus responds to this by telling the disciples: ‘Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God’ (verses 24-25).

Peter now tells Jesus that the disciples have left everything to follow Jesus. His implied question points out again how easy it is to think that being a disciple or follower of Christ should be linked with the hope of rewards in the here and now.

What do I cling onto most now that I can shed – not in terms of property and possessions, but prejudices and values – that get between me and Jesus, and between the way I live now and eternal life?

Then will I be happy to get down on my knees, like a camel, and squeeze into the City of God through the smallest and most narrow of the city gates, and find in the most humbling of ways how to squeeze into the Kingdom of God?

But, as Jesus says, ‘many who are first will be last, and the last will be first’ (verse 31).

I was never good at sports and athletics as a schoolboy. Nevertheless, I persisted. In the track and field events one year, I bravely entered a race in which all the runners were offered a handicap. I started first, and the most athletic boy of my year started last; in all there were six entrants. I started first, and finished last; the most athletic boy who started last, needless to say, came first.

At first, as boys on days like that, I felt humiliated and embarrassed. No platitudes or clichés such as ‘God loves a trier’ or ‘playing not winning is what matters’ could console me.

It took me a long time to realise not that I had come last, but that I had come sixth. Apart from we six, where were the other boys in my year? They were on the sidelines watching; most of them had not even kitted out that day.

In my own gauche way, I continued to enter school sports, and as an adult still tried to play rugby and cricket occasionally. When I was selected, I was the player sent in to bat first, so that I could be dismissed immediately and everyone else could get on with the game.

But does it matter, being first or last?

In the Book of Revelation, almost at the beginning, we read, ‘I am the Alpha and the Omega’, says the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty (Revelation 1: 8). He is the Alpha (A) and the Omega (Ω) – the A to Z, as we might say today – the beginning and end of all things, the first and the last, the Lord God Almighty who is, who was, and who is to come. And he says again, ‘Do not be afraid; I am the first and the last’ (Revelation 1: 17).

At the end of the Book of Revelation, Jesus says once again, ‘I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end’ (Revelation 22: 13).

At the end of this period of Ordinary Time and as Lent is about to begin, it is good to be reminded that it matters little whether I come first or last in the race. I ran. He is our ‘Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end’. He will soon return, bringing our reward:

‘Surely I am coming soon.’
Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!
The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all the saints. Amen. (Revelation 22: 20-21)

‘I am the Alpha and Omega, the first and last, the beginning and the end’ (Revelation 22: 13) … stencilled lettering in the Daniel O'Connell Memorial Church in Cahersiveen, Co Kerry (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Tuesday 4 March 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 ‘The World’s Greatest Leader: Jesus Christ.’ This theme was introduced on Sunday with a Programme Update by the Right Revd Filomena Tete Estevão, Bishop of Angola.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Tuesday 4 March 2025) invites us to pray:

Lord, equip us all to live lives rooted in prayer. Help us to seek you daily, finding strength and direction in your presence, and cultivating hearts that are open to your guidance.

The Collect:

Almighty Father,
whose Son was revealed in majesty
before he suffered death upon the cross:
give us grace to perceive his glory,
that we may be strengthened to suffer with him
and be changed into his likeness, from glory to glory;
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

Holy God,
we see your glory in the face of Jesus Christ:
may we who are partakers at his table
reflect his life in word and deed,
that all the world may know his power to change and save.
This we ask through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

Holy God,
you know the disorder of our sinful lives:
set straight our crooked hearts,
and bend our wills to love your goodness and your glory
in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s Reflection

Continued Tomorrow

An amusing take on being first in and first out … an old cartoon seen in Ryder and Amies on King’s Parade, Cambridge (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 Lent with early English saints: 4, 17 February 2024, Saint Mellitus of London

Saint Mellitus, the first Bishop of London, depicted in a stained glass window in Canterbury Cathedral

Patrick Comerford

The Season of Lent begins this week with Ash Wednesday (14 February 2024), and tomorrow is the First Sunday in Lent. Today (17 February 2024), the Calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship remembers the life and witness of Janani Luwum (1977), Archbishop of Uganda, Martyr.

In previous years, my Lenten reflections have journeyed with the saints, looked at Lent in Art, read poems in Lent, reflected on the music of Vaughan Williams, selected sayings from Samuel Johnson (1709-1784), the Lichfield lexicographer, and similar themes.

This year, I am taking time each morning in Lent to reflect on the lives of early, pre-Reformation English saints commemorated by the Church of England in the Calendar of Common Worship. I began this series on Wednesday with a reflection on Saint Alban, England’s first martyr and saint.

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

1, A reflection on an early, pre-Reformation English saint;

2, today’s Gospel reading;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary.

Saint Paul’s Cathedral, London … rebuilt by Sir Christopher Wren after the Great Fire (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Early English pre-Reformation saints: 4, Saint Mellitus (624), first Bishop of London

Saint Mellitus (624), the first Bishop of London, is commemorated in Common Worship on 24 April.

Saint Mellitus was an abbot in Rome when he was sent to England by Pope Gregory the Great to undergird the work of Saint Augustine, who consecrated him Bishop of the East Saxons with his see at London and his first church that of Saint Paul.

After some local setbacks that forced him to live in northern France, Saint Mellitus and his fellow bishops were recalled to England, but he was unable to return to London.

He was made Archbishop of Canterbury in the year 619 and died on 24 April 624. He was buried close to Saint Augustine in the Church of Saints Peter and Paul in Canterbury.

The site of Saint Paul’s Cross … once a preaching cross and open-air pulpit in the grounds of Old Saint Paul’s Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Luke 5: 27-32 (NRSVA):

27 After this he went out and saw a tax-collector named Levi, sitting at the tax booth; and he said to him, ‘Follow me.’ 28 And he got up, left everything, and followed him.

29 Then Levi gave a great banquet for him in his house; and there was a large crowd of tax-collectors and others sitting at the table with them. 30 The Pharisees and their scribes were complaining to his disciples, saying, ‘Why do you eat and drink with tax-collectors and sinners?’ 31 Jesus answered, ‘Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick; 32 I have come to call not the righteous but sinners to repentance.’

Saint Mellitus Church in Tollington Park, Islington, is a grand Victorian neo-classical building (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Saturday 17 February 2024):

The theme this week in ‘Pray With the World Church,’ the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), has been ‘Ash Wednesday Reflection.’ This theme was introduced last Sunday by the Revd Jessie Anand, Chaplain, USPG.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (17 February 2024) invites us to pray in these words:

Let us give thanks for the vision that inspired USPG. May we, like Thomas Bray, seek to deepen our understanding of the Gospel, be attentive to the world and promote the common good.

The Collect:

God of truth,
whose servant Janani Luwum walked in the light,
and in his death defied the powers of darkness:
free us from fear of those who kill the body,
that we too may walk as children of light,
through him who overcame darkness by the power of the cross,
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 Lenten Collect:

Almighty and everlasting God,
you hate nothing that you have made
and forgive the sins of all those who are penitent:
create and make in us new and contrite hearts
that we, worthily lamenting our sins
and acknowledging our wretchedness,
may receive from you, the God of all mercy,
perfect remission and forgiveness;
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:

God our redeemer,
whose Church was strengthened by the blood of your martyr Janani Luwum:
so bind us, in life and death, to Christ’s sacrifice
that our lives, broken and offered with his,
may carry his death and proclaim his resurrection in the world;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Collect on the eve of Lent I:

Almighty God,
whose Son Jesus Christ fasted forty days in the wilderness,
and was tempted as we are, yet without sin:
give us grace to discipline ourselves in obedience to your Spirit;
and, as you know our weakness,
so may we know your power to save;
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.

Yesterday’s Reflection: Saint Augustine (605), first Archbishop of Canterbury

Tomorrow: Saint Oswald (642), King of Northumbria, Martyr

Inside Saint Mellitus Church, Islington, built as the New Court Congregational Church (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 Lent with early English saints: 3, 16 February 2024, Saint Augustine of Canterbury

Saint Augustine, Apostle to the English and first Archbishop of Canterbury, depicted in stained glass (Photograph: Lawrence, OP)

Patrick Comerford

The Season of Lent begins this week with Ash Wednesday (14 February 2024).

In previous years, my Lenten reflections have journeyed with the saints, looked at Lent in Art, read poems in Lent, reflected on the music of Vaughan Williams, selected sayings from Samuel Johnson (1709-1784), the Lichfield lexicographer, and similar themes.

This year, I am taking time each morning in Lent to reflect on the lives of early, pre-Reformation English saints commemorated by the Church of England in the Calendar of Common Worship. I began this series on Wednesday with a reflection on Saint Alban, England’s first martyr and saint.

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

1, A reflection on an early, pre-Reformation English saint;

2, today’s Gospel reading;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary.

Pope Gregory sending Saint Augustine to England, depicted in an 11th century manuscript (© British Library Board)

Early English pre-Reformation saints: 3, Saint Augustine (605), first Archbishop of Canterbury

Saint Augustine, the first Archbishop of Canterbury, is commemorated in Common Worship on 26 May. He was the Prior of the monastery of Saint Andrew in Rome in 596 when Pope Gregory the Great sent him as the leader of a group of 40 monks to re-evangelise the English Church.

Saint Augustine appears not to have been a particularly confident person and, in Gaul, he wanted to turn back. But Pope Gregory’s firm resolution held the group to their mission. The monks finally landed in Kent in the summer of 597 where they were well received by King Ethelbert whose wife, Bertha, was a Christian.

Once established, Saint Augustine returned temporarily to Gaul to receive ordination as a bishop. Pope Gregory would have preferred London to have become the primatial see, but in the event Canterbury was chosen and so Augustine became the first Archbishop of Canterbury. He died in either 604 or 605.

Saint Augustine of Canterbury … a modern icon

Matthew 9: 14-15 (NRSVA):

14 Then the disciples of John came to him, saying, ‘Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but your disciples do not fast?’ 15 And Jesus said to them, ‘The wedding-guests cannot mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them, can they? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast.’

‘Saint Augustine at Ebbsfleet’, Frank Brangwyn (1867-1956) ca 1920, tempera on canvas (Christ’s Hospital Foundation, Horsham)

Today’s Prayers (Friday 16 February 2024):

The theme this week in ‘Pray With the World Church,’ the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘Ash Wednesday Reflection.’ This theme was introduced on Sunday by the Revd Jessie Anand, Chaplain, USPG.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (16 February 2024) invites us to pray in these words:

We pray for the work of USPG on the day that we remember its founder, Thomas Bray. May we look back with open minds to discover new insights to inform the path we tread.

The Collect:

Almighty and everlasting God,
you hate nothing that you have made
and forgive the sins of all those who are penitent:
create and make in us new and contrite hearts
that we, worthily lamenting our sins
and acknowledging our wretchedness,
may receive from you, the God of all mercy,
perfect remission and forgiveness;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

Almighty God,
you have given your only Son to be for us
both a sacrifice for sin
and also an example of godly life:
give us grace
that we may always most thankfully receive
these his inestimable gifts,
and also daily endeavour
to follow the blessed steps of his most holy life;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

Holy God,
our lives are laid open before you:
rescue us from the chaos of sin
and through the death of your Son
bring us healing and make us whole
in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s Reflection: Saint Petroc, Abbot of Padstow (6th century)

Tomorrow: Saint Mellitus (624), first Bishop of London

‘A Converted British Family Sheltering a Christian Missionary from the Persecution of the Druids’ by William Holman Hunt in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org

Daily prayer in Lent with early English saints: 2, 15 February 2024,Saint Petroc of Cornwall

A Cornish Cross in a churchyard in Cornwall … Saint Petroc is often known as ‘the captain of Cornish saints’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

The Season of Lent begins yesterday with Ash Wednesday (14 February 2024), and I sang with the Parish Choir at the Ash Wednesday liturgy in the Church of Saint Mary and Saint Giles in Stony Stratford last night.

Today, the Calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship remembers Saint Sigfrid (1045), Bishop, Apostle of Sweden, and Thomas Bray (1730), priest, and founder of both SPCK and SPG (now USPG). USPG is marking Founder’s Day today (15 February 2024) in Saint Alban the Martyr Church, London, at 11 am.

In previous years, my Lenten reflections have journeyed with the saints, looked at Lent in Art, discussed poems in Lent, reflected on the music of Vaughan Williams, selected sayings from Samuel Johnson (1709-1784), the Lichfield lexicographer, and similar themes.

This year, I am taking time each morning in Lent to reflect on the lives of early, pre-Reformation English saints commemorated by the Church of England in the Calendar of Common Worship. I began this series yesterday with a reflection on Saint Alban, England’s first martyr and saint.

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

1, A reflection on an early, pre-Reformation English saint;

2, today’s Gospel reading;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary.

A Celtic Cross in a churchyard in Cornwall … Saint Petroc is often known as ‘the captain of Cornish saints’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Early English pre-Reformation saints: 2, Saint Petroc, Abbot of Padstow (6th century)

Saint Petroc, the sixth century Abbot of Padstow, is often known as ‘the captain of Cornish saints.’ Saint Petroc seems to have been the son of a Welsh chieftain. When he arrived in Cornwall, he founded a monastery at Lanwethinoc, now called Padstow (‘Petroc’s Stow’). He later founded another monastery at Bodmin.

It seems that for most of his life Saint Petroc lived as a hermit, although he travelled regularly to visit monasteries.

He died at Treravel and was buried at Padstow. Many churches in Devon and Cornwall are dedicated to his memory. He is commemorated in Common Worship on 4 June.

Padstow is a fishing port on the north coast of Cornwall, on the west bank of the River Camel estuary, 16 km north-west of Bodmin and 16 km north-east of Newquay. It has a population of about 3,000.

‘… let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me’ (Luke 8: 23) … a ‘Miner’s Loaf’ with a Cornish Cross on a market stall in Cornwall (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Luke 8: 22-25 (NRSVA):

22 [Jesus said], ‘The Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.’

23 Then he said to them all, ‘If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. 24 For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will save it. 25 What does it profit them if they gain the whole world, but lose or forfeit themselves?

‘… let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me’ (Luke 8: 23) … the rood beam in a church in Cornwall (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Thursday 15 February 2024):

The theme this week in ‘Pray With the World Church,’ the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘Ash Wednesday Reflection.’ This theme was introduced on Sunday by the Revd Jessie Anand, Chaplain, USPG.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (15 February 2024) invites us to pray in these words:

We pray for all who seek to educate and inform. May our places of learning be open to all, offering new pathways and new vision.

The Collect:

Almighty and everlasting God,
you hate nothing that you have made
and forgive the sins of all those who are penitent:
create and make in us new and contrite hearts
that we, worthily lamenting our sins
and acknowledging our wretchedness,
may receive from you, the God of all mercy,
perfect remission and forgiveness;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

Almighty God,
you have given your only Son to be for us
both a sacrifice for sin
and also an example of godly life:
give us grace
that we may always most thankfully receive
these his inestimable gifts,
and also daily endeavour
to follow the blessed steps of his most holy life;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

Holy God,
our lives are laid open before you:
rescue us from the chaos of sin
and through the death of your Son
bring us healing and make us whole
in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday: Saint Alban (ca 250)

Tomorrow: Saint Augustine (605), first Archbishop of Canterbury

Saints in the reredos in Truro Cathedral, the cathedral of Cornwall (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 Lent with early English saints: 1, 14 February 2024,Ash Wednesday, Saint Alban

Saint Alban, England’s first martyr and saint … an icon in St Albans Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Patrick Comerford

The Season of Lent begins today with Ash Wednesday (14 February 2024). I have a local clergy meeting in Wolverton at lunchtimes, and later today I hope to be present with the Parish Choir at the Ash Wednesday liturgy in the Church of Saint Mary and Saint Giles in Stony Stratford at 6 pm.

In previous years, my Lenten reflections have journeyed with the saints, looked at Lent in Art, read poems in Lent, reflected on the music of Vaughan Williams, selected sayings from Samuel Johnson (1709-1784), the Lichfield lexicographer, and similar themes.

In the days before Lent, I have been looking back on some interesting French saints and writers from a variety of backgrounds. This year, I am planning to take time each morning throughout Lent reflecting on the lives of early, pre-Reformation English saints commemorated by the Church of England in the Calendar of Common Worship.

As Lent begins, but before the day begins, I am taking some quiet time early this morning for reflection, prayer and reading in these ways:

1, A reflection on an early, pre-Reformation English saint;

2, today’s Gospel reading;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary.

The shrine of Saint Alban dates from the mid-4th century and was restored in 1992-1993 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Early English pre-Reformation saints: 1, Saint Alban (ca 250)

For many people, today is more likely to be marked as Saint Valentine’s Day rather than as Ash Wednesday. Saint Valentine is not named in the Calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship. But that calendar has an extensive list of saints and saintly individuals. They are the ‘celebrities’ of the Church, and they include angels, members of Christ’s immediate family, apostles, evangelists, martyrs, figures throughout Church history, writers, poets, Church reformers and social reformers, with a wide and ecumenical embrace.

At least 40 to 50 if not more of those saints and figures of holiness have immediate associations and connections with England.

The Saints and Martyrs of England are commemorated on 8 November. The date when Christianity first came to these islands is not known, but there were British bishops at the Council of Arles in the year 314, indicating a Church with order and worship.

Since those days, Christians from these lands have shared the message of the good news at home and around the world. As the worldwide fellowship of the Anglican Communion has developed, incorporating peoples of many nations and cultures, individual Christian men and women have shone as beacons, heroically bearing witness to their Lord, some through a simple life of holiness, others by giving their lives for the sake of Christ.

The English saints and martyrs of the Reformation are commemorated on 4 May, a day set aside to remember all who witnessed to their Christian faith during the conflicts in church and state that lasted from the 13th to the 17th centuries but that were at their most intense in the 16th century. Although the reform movement was aimed chiefly at the papacy, many Christian men and women of holiness suffered for their allegiance to what they believed to be the truth of the gospel.

As the movement grew in strength, it suffered its own internecine struggles, with one group determined that they were the keepers of truth and that all others were therefore at best in a state of ignorance and at worst heretical. In the 20th century, ecumenical links drew the churches closer to each other in faith and worship and all now recognise both the good and evil that evolved from the Reformation Era.

The first saint I have chosen to remember during this season of Lent is Saint Alban, regarded as the first Christian martyr in England.

Saint Alban was a citizen of the Roman city of Verulamium – now St Albans in Hertfordshire – who gave shelter to Saint Amphibalus, a priest fleeing persecution, hiding him in his house for several days. Greatly influenced by his devotion to prayer, Alban received instruction from the priest and was converted.

When the priest’s hiding-place was discovered, Alban dressed himself in the priest’s cloak and was arrested in his place. Tortured by the Roman authorities, Alban refused to renounce his faith. He was beheaded, probably in the year 250, and so is acknowledged as the first martyr on these islands. The remains of his shrine stand today as a place of pilgrimage in St Albans Cathedral.

Saint Alban shelters the priest Saint Amphibalus … an icon by Peter Murphy in St Albans Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Matthew 6: 1-6, 16-21 (NRSVA):

1 ‘Beware of practising your piety before others in order to be seen by them; for then you have no reward from your Father in heaven.

2 ‘So whenever you give alms, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be praised by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. 3 But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4 so that your alms may be done in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

5 ‘And whenever you pray, do not be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, so that they may be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. 6 But whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

16 ‘And whenever you fast, do not look dismal, like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces so as to show others that they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. 17 But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, 18 so that your fasting may be seen not by others but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

19 ‘Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; 20 but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

St Albans Cathedral … a cathedral since 1877, and the oldest place of continuous Christian worship and pilgrimage in Britain (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Today’s Prayers (Wednesday 14 February 2024, Ash Wednesday):

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 ‘Ash Wednesday Reflection.’ This theme was introduced on Sunday by the Revd Jessie Anand, Chaplain, USPG.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (14 February 2024) invites us to pray in these words:

Let us pray for our broken world and sinful selves. May our hearts be turned and Your passion for justice be released.

The Collect:

Almighty and everlasting God,
you hate nothing that you have made
and forgive the sins of all those who are penitent:
create and make in us new and contrite hearts
that we, worthily lamenting our sins
and acknowledging our wretchedness,
may receive from you, the God of all mercy,
perfect remission and forgiveness;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

Almighty God,
you have given your only Son to be for us
both a sacrifice for sin
and also an example of godly life:
give us grace
that we may always most thankfully receive
these his inestimable gifts,
and also daily endeavour
to follow the blessed steps of his most holy life;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

Holy God,
our lives are laid open before you:
rescue us from the chaos of sin
and through the death of your Son
bring us healing and make us whole
in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s Reflection: Vladimir Lossky (1903-1958)

Tomorrow: Petroc, Abbot of Padstow

Saints depicted on the High Altar Screen and reredos in St Albans Cathedral, dating from 1484 (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