Daily prayers in Advent with Leonard Cohen and USPG: (9) 11 December 2023

‘I have not lingered in European monasteries’ (Leonard Cohen) … the cloisters in Jerónimos Monastery in Belém in Lisbon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are in the countdown to Christmas in the Church since the beginning of Advent, and yesterday was the Second Sunday of Advent (10 December 2023).

Throughout Advent this year, my reflections each day include a poem or song by Leonard Cohen. These Advent reflections are following this pattern:

1, A reflection on a poem or song by Leonard Cohen;

2, the Gospel reading of the day in the Church of England lectionary;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary.

‘I have not lingered in European monasteries’ (Leonard Cohen) … in Arkadi Monastery in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The Songs and Poems of Leonard Cohen: 9, I Have Not Lingered in European Monasteries:

Leonard Cohen’s second book, The Spice-Box of Earth, was published in 1961, when he was 27, and became the most popular and commercially successful of his early books, established his poetic reputation in Canada, and brought him a measure of early literary acclaim.

My copy of this book, to paraphrase words in another Leonard Cohen song, ‘has grown old and weary,’ or, rather, it is battered, stained and dog-eared. As I read through it, I recall the poems I selected for poetry readings in Wexford in the early and mid-1970s, including ‘I have not lingered in European monasteries’ and ‘The Genius.’

Soon after The Spice-Box of Earth was published, Leonard Cohen retreated for several years to the island of Hydra in Greece, where worked on the sharper, darker poems published in Flowers for Hitler published in 1964.

Thirty years later, Leonard Cohen retreated yet again, when he interrupted his career in 1994 and entered Mount Baldy Zen Centre near Los Angeles for what became five years of solitude and study.

But his immersion in Zen Buddhism did not mean Cohen had abandoned his Jewish faith. Rather, he remained an observant Jew. He pointed out that there were neither petitionary prayer nor a god figure in Zen practice and said the two were not incompatible.

After leaving the monastery, Cohen returned to writing poetry, sending new material to be posted on a fan website. By 2001 he was back in the studio recording Ten New Songs, which became an international hit.

In this poem, the narrator the many things he has not done: he has not lingered in European monasteries, a metaphor for not heeding centuries-old religious traditions; he has not engaged in practices of meditation that would allow his mind to wander and wait; he has not ‘held my breath so that I might hear the breathing of God’; and he has not engaged in traditional religious practices that he dismisses as the worship of ‘wounds and relics. Instead, he claims, he is content and sees himself as being self-contained:

During the day I laugh and during the night I sleep.
My favourite cooks prepare my meals,
my body cleans and repairs itself,
and all my work goes well.

These final four lines are, on first reading, supposedly positive in their outlook, contrasting sharply with the negative dismissals earlier in the poem. The narrator claims a self-generating mastery over his own reading of the world. But the reader is left with a sense of emptiness and loneliness.

The speaker unintentionally exposes his own self-conscious obsession with the past traditions that he claims to reject. In this rejection itself there is another kind of ‘lingering’, despite the poem’s opening claims. Perhaps the narrator really needs to hold his breath so that he may hear the breathing of God.

The narrator is speaking ironically when he concludes that he has not been unhappy for 10,000 years. The poem laments both the loss of a right and proper way and a life lived superficially. None of his accomplishments amount to anything, really. What is gained by merely meeting my bodily needs and doing my work well?

Indeed, the tone of the closing stanza is so ironic that the poem comes to mean the opposite of what it seems to say on first reading, and exposes the deficiency and failings of the narrator’s claims to being the master of himself.

Many years after returning to terra firma following his five years as a recluse on Mount Baldy, Leonard Cohen gave an interview in 2007, in which he said he had ‘always resisted the claim for the unique truth of one particular model, and, growing up in Montreal, one had powerful versions of Catholicism, Protestantism and Judaism. It didn’t involve a real stretch to be affected by those traditions. It was natural.’

When he was a secretary to his teacher, Roshi, there was ‘a kind of rapprochement between Zen and the Roman Catholic church,’ through people like Thomas Merton and the Trappists in Massachusetts. Cohen would accompany him to these monasteries, setting-up the meetings and dialogue while Roshi was leading meditations.

His interviewer asked, ‘So you lingered in North American monasteries but not in European ones?’

Cohen replied: ‘That’s right. I did linger in a number of them and I would talk to the monks and get a feel for things apart from what I was reading, like Simone Weil. I remember an older monk with whom I became friendly. I said to him one day, “How’s it going?” and he said, “I’ve been here 12 years and every morning when I wake up I have to decide whether or not to stay.” It’s a rough life.’

He spent many years with Roshi and explained: ‘People have very romantic ideas but a monastery is a kind of hospital where people end up because they can’t make it in any other circumstances.’

Leonard Cohen, I Have Not Lingered in European Monasteries:

I have not lingered in European monasteries
and discovered among the tall grasses tombs of knights
who fell as beautifully as their ballads tell;
I have not parted the grasses
or purposefully left them thatched.

I have not released my mind to wander and wait
in those great distances
between the snowy mountains and the fishermen,
like a moon,
or a shell beneath the moving water.

I have not held my breath
so that I might hear the breathing of God,
or tamed my heartbeat with an exercise,
or starved for visions.
Although I have watched him often
I have not become the heron,
leaving my body on the shore,
and I have not become the luminous trout,
leaving my body in the air.

I have not worshipped wounds and relics,
or combs of iron,
or bodies wrapped and burnt in scrolls.
I have not been unhappy for ten thousand years.
During the day I laugh and during the night I sleep.
My favourite cooks prepare my meals,
my body cleans and repairs itself,
and all my work goes well.

‘I have not lingered in European monasteries’ (Leonard Cohen) … the courtyard in Stavropoleos Monastery in Bucharest, known throughout the Orthodox world for its Byzantine library and music (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Luke 5: 17-26 (NRSVA):

17 One day, while he was teaching, Pharisees and teachers of the law were sitting nearby (they had come from every village of Galilee and Judea and from Jerusalem); and the power of the Lord was with him to heal. 18 Just then some men came, carrying a paralysed man on a bed. They were trying to bring him in and lay him before Jesus; 19 but finding no way to bring him in because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and let him down with his bed through the tiles into the middle of the crowd in front of Jesus. 20 When he saw their faith, he said, ‘Friend, your sins are forgiven you.’ 21 Then the scribes and the Pharisees began to question, ‘Who is this who is speaking blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God alone?’ 22 When Jesus perceived their questionings, he answered them, ‘Why do you raise such questions in your hearts? 23 Which is easier, to say, “Your sins are forgiven you”, or to say, “Stand up and walk”? 24 But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins’ – he said to the one who was paralysed – ‘I say to you, stand up and take your bed and go to your home.’ 25 Immediately he stood up before them, took what he had been lying on, and went to his home, glorifying God. 26 Amazement seized all of them, and they glorified God and were filled with awe, saying, ‘We have seen strange things today.’

The healing of the paralytic man (see Luke 5: 17-26) … a fresco in Analipsi Church in Georgioupoli, Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Monday 11 December 2023):

The theme this week in the new edition of ‘Pray With the World Church,’ the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘The Faith of Advent.’ This theme was introduced yesterday.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (11 December 2023) invites us to pray as we reflect on these words:

As yesterday was Human Rights Day, let us celebrate the fundamental rights we share and safeguard the rights of our fellow human beings.

‘I have not lingered in European monasteries and discovered … tombs of knights’ (Leonard Cohen) … among the Littleton tombs in Penkridge (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The Collect:

O Lord, raise up, we pray, your power
and come among us,
and with great might succour us;
that whereas, through our sins and wickedness
we are grievously hindered
in running the race that is set before us,
your bountiful grace and mercy
may speedily help and deliver us;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
to whom with you and the Holy Spirit,
be honour and glory, now and for ever.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

Father in heaven,
who sent your Son to redeem the world
and will send him again to be our judge:
give us grace so to imitate him
in the humility and purity of his first coming
that, when he comes again,
we may be ready to greet him
with joyful love and firm faith;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

Almighty God,
purify our hearts and minds,
that when your Son Jesus Christ comes again
as judge and saviour
we may be ready to receive him,
who is our Lord and our God.

Yesterday’s Reflection

Continued Tomorrow

‘Although I have watched him often / I have not become the heron, / leaving my body on the shore’ (Leonard Cohen) … a heron on the river in Newcastle West, Co Limerick (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

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

A reminder from Crete of the reasons Saint Nicholas is popular in Greece

The Church of Saint Nicholas, near the bus station in Rethymnon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

Today is the Feast of Saint Nicholas of Myra (6 December 2023). He is, of course, the real Santa Claus, and he is so popular in Greece that almost every town and city in Greece has a church dedicated to Saint Nicholas.

Saint Nicholas is also the patron of sailors, and in the mediaeval period, almost every coastal town and city in both England and Ireland also had a church dedicated to Saint Nicholas.

The celebration of Saint Nicholas today is a joyful, child-friendly interruption in the Advent preparations as we wait for Christmas and anticipate all its joys.

Inside the Church of Saint Nicholas, near the bus station in Rethymnon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

I have not been to Crete for over two years now – Covid, a stroke, and retirement last year put an end to many of those imagined plans.

So, I thought this evening, on Saint Nicholas Day, I should look back on one my favourite churches in Rethymnon dedicated to the saint who brings joy to every child at this time of the year.

The Church of Saint Nicholas, close to the bus station in Rethymnon, is in a small square formed at the corner of Priskosoridi street and Emmanouil Kefalogianni avenue. The street runs around the shore of the rocky bay beneath the western slopes of the Venetian Fortezza.

This small chapel or church is surrounded by good fish restaurants and tavernas. This is now a suburban part of western Rethymnon, and is slowly becoming a part of the tourist area. But, only a few decades ago and within living memory, this was an area closely associated with fishers and their fishing boats.

The unusual iconostasis or icon screen in the Church of Saint Nicholas continues into the pillars of the dome (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Saint Nicholas, as well as being the patron saint of children and the inspiration for Santa Claus, is also the patron saint of sailors, fishermen, ships and sailing, which explains the presence of this modern church dedicated to his name in this part of Rethymnon.

Saint Nicholas, whose name means ‘Victory of the People,’ was born in Myra in Lycia, now known as Demre, near Antalya on the south coast of present-day Turkey.

He had a reputation as a secret giver of gifts and the protector of children, so you can see why he has links with our Santa Claus today.

An icon of Saint Nicholas in the church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

There are stories too of Saint Nicholas and the defence of true doctrine. In the year 325, the Emperor Constantine convened the Council of Nicaea, attended by more than 300 bishops, to debate the nature of the Holy Trinity.

It was one of the most intense theological debates in the early Church. Arius from Alexandria was teaching that Christ was the Son of God but was not equal to God the Father, not God incarnate. As Arius argued at length, Nicholas became agitated, crossed the room, and slapped Arius across the face.

The shocked bishops stripped Nicholas of his episcopal robes, chained him and jailed him. In the morning, the bishops found his chains on the floor and Nicholas dressed in his episcopal robes, quietly reading his Bible. Constantine ordered his release, and Nicholas was reinstated as the Bishop of Myra.

As the debate went on, the Council of Nicaea agreed with his views, deciding against Arius and agreeing on the Nicene Creed, which remains the symbol of our faith. Which probably also makes it appropriate that this church is close to the Church of Saint Constantine and Saint Helen.

The Church of Saint Nicholas is in an area once closely associated with fishers and their fishing boats (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Daily prayers in Advent with Leonard Cohen and USPG: (3) 5 December 2023

‘A million candles burning / For the help that never came’ (Leonard Cohen) … Chief Rabbi Gabriel Negrin places candles in the Holocaust memorial in Etz Hayyim Synagogue in Chania (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are in the countdown to Christmas in the Church since Sunday, which was Advent Sunday or the First Sunday of Advent (3 December 2023), the first day in a new Church Year.

Before this day begins, I am taking time early this morning for prayer and reflection.

Throughout Advent this year, my reflections each day include a poem or song by Leonard Cohen. My Advent reflections are following this pattern:

1, A reflection on a poem or song by Leonard Cohen;

2, the Gospel reading of the day in the Church of England lectionary;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary.

Leonard Cohen at the Royal Hospital, Kilmainham in 2012 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The Songs and Poems of Leonard Cohen: 3, ‘You Want It Darker’:

Leonard Cohen’s poetry and songs were marked by the scars of the Holocaust and reflected with intensity the spirituality of Central European Jewish spirituality. The rhythms of his music and his imagery also drew on the time he spent over many years in Greece.

A month before he died, I had bought his last album, You Want It Darker, which is both deeply spiritual and at the same time gives voice to his expectations of imminent death.

In an interview with the New Yorker magazine to coincide with this album, he declared a determination to keep working at his craft until the end. Yet he seemed to be aware that death was coming. ‘I’ve got some work to do,’ he said. ‘Take care of business. I am ready to die. I hope it’s not too uncomfortable. That’s about it for me.’

Shortly before his first muse, Marianne Ihlen, died, he wrote her a farewell letter telling her: ‘I will follow you very soon.’

The title track of You Want It Darker sounds like the bleak, religious confession of a man facing his own mortality. It is filled with allusions to Jewish liturgy, Christian liturgy and Biblical texts. The backing vocals are provided by the cantor and choir of a synagogue in Leonard Cohen’s home city, Montreal:

If You are the dealer, I’m out of the game
If You are the healer, I’m broken and lame
If Thine is the glory, then mine must be the shame
You want it darker – we kill the flame.
Magnified, sanctified is your holy name
Vilified, crucified in the human frame
A million candles burning for the help that never came
You want it darker – Hineni, Hineni, I’m ready, my Lord.

Here Cohen is quoting the Kaddish, the Jewish prayer for the dead (‘magnified, sanctified …’). He addresses God directly as the God who has dealt Cohen out of the game, and who has ignored the ‘million candles’ lit in vain hopes of salvation or redemption.

It is dark, but those who reach into the dark depths that are met on the most intense journeys in spirituality know that this too is accepting the majesty of God and the inevitability of death.

The Hebrew word Hineni which Leonard Cohen repeats in this song literally means: ‘Here I am.’ When it is uttered by Abraham and repeated by other Biblical figures, it is an assertion of moral responsibility: Here I am. I am not running away. Here I stand.

The word Hineni is also the title of the Cantor’s Prayer on Yom Kippur, in which the cantor confesses to being unworthy to represent the congregation and stand before the Almighty. It is almost as if Cohen is making a similar confession. I may be a poet, a hero, and a star, but You know as well as I do that I am unworthy of all that. I am here before You – ready for You to take me.

The song is enriched by extensive Jewish collaboration. The track features background vocals from Gideon Zelermyer, cantor of the Shaar Hashomayim synagogue in Montreal, along with the Shaar Hashomayim choir.

The Shaar Hashomayim cantor and choir also contribute to another song on the album, ‘It Seemed the Better Way.’

This was an 82-year-old poet at the end of a long and deeply spiritual life. It is not surprising, therefore, that this song echoes the language and rhythm of the Kaddish, the prayer for mourners that reaffirms faith in God.

Glorified and sanctified be God’s great name throughout the world
which He has created according to His will.
May He establish His kingdom in your lifetime and during your days,
and within the life of the entire House of Israel, speedily and soon;
and say, Amen.

May His great name be blessed forever and to all eternity.
Blessed and praised, glorified and exalted, extolled and honoured,
adored and lauded be the name of the Holy One, blessed be He,
beyond all the blessings and hymns, praises and consolations that
are ever spoken in the world; and say, Amen.

May there be abundant peace from heaven, and life, for us
and for all Israel; and say, Amen.

He who creates peace in His celestial heights,
may He create peace for us and for all Israel;
and say, Amen.

Leonard Cohen, You Want It Darker:

If you are the dealer, I’m out of the game
If you are the healer, it means I’m broken and lame
If thine is the glory, then mine must be the shame
You want it darker
We kill the flame

Magnified, sanctified
Be the holy name
Vilified, crucified
In the human frame
A million candles burning
For the help that never came
You want it darker

Hineni, hineni
I’m ready, my Lord

There’s a lover in the story
But the story’s still the same
There’s a lullaby for suffering
And a paradox to blame
But it’s written in the scriptures
And it’s not some idol claim
You want it darker
We kill the flame

They’re lining up to prisoners
And the guards are taking aim
I struggle with some demons
They were middle class and tame
I didn’t know I had permission
To murder and to maim
You want it darker

Hineni, hineni
I’m ready, my Lord

Magnified, sanctified
Be the holy name
Vilified, crucified
In the human frame
A million candles burning
For the love that never came
You want it darker
We kill the flame

If you are the dealer, let me out of the game
If you are the healer, I’m broken and lame
If thine is the glory, mine must be the shame
You want it darker

Hineni, hineni
Hineni, hineni
I’m ready, my Lord.

‘They’re lining up to prisoners / And the guards are taking aim’ (Leonard Cohen) … Jewish people being moved from the Warsaw Ghetto by German soldiers on 19 April 1943

Luke 10: 21-24 (NRSVA):

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

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

‘Blessed are the eyes that see what you see!’ (Luke 10: 23) (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Tuesday 5 December 2023):

The theme this week in the new edition of ‘Pray With the World Church,’ the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘The Hope of Advent.’ This theme was introduced on Sunday.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (5 December 2023) invites us to pray in these words:

We offer up in prayer all the situations we have experienced or witnessed throughout the year to you Lord. Shine your light of hope into our lives.

The Collect:

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

The Post-Communion Prayer:

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

Additional Collect:

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

Yesterday’s Reflection

Continued Tomorrow



‘You want it Darker’ … Leonard Cohen

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 prayers in Advent with Leonard Cohen and USPG: (2) 4 December 2023

‘If it be your will / If there is a choice / Let the rivers fill / Let the hills rejoice’ (Leonard Cohen) … the River Nidd at Knaresborough in Yorkshire (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Patrick Comerford

The countdown to Christmas began officially in the Church yesterday with Advent Sunday or the First Sunday of Advent (3 December 2023), the first day in a new Church Year.

Today, the Calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship remembers Saint John of Damascus (ca 749), Monk, Teacher of the Faith, and Nicholas Ferrar (1637), Deacon, Founder of the Little Gidding Community.

Before this day begins, I am taking time early this morning for prayer and reflection.

Throughout Advent this year, my reflections each day include a poem or song by Leonard Cohen. My Advent reflections are following this pattern:

1, A reflection on a poem or song by Leonard Cohen;

2, the Gospel reading of the day in the Church of England lectionary;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary.

Leonard Cohen on stage in Dublin at the Royal Hospital, Kilmainham (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The Songs and Poems of Leonard Cohen: 2, ‘If it be your will’:

I have said with humour and full sincerity that when my coffin is being taken into the church at my funeral (later than sooner, I hope), that I want to hear Leonard Cohen’s ‘If it be your will’ … and when my coffin is being carried out I want to hear his ‘Dance me to the end of love.’

So often I want to be in control. I want to control the agenda, I want to control conversations, I want to control discussions. And I particularly want to control the words I use, the words others are going to hear me say.

And so, I am humbled at times when I listen to Leonard Cohen’s song, ‘If it be your will.’

I was at most of Leonard Cohen’s concerts in Ireland. He ended many of those concerts singing this poem, which for me is about submission to God’s will, accepting God’s will, leaving God in control of my spirit:

Leonard Cohen sings of his nearly complete subjection to the divine will.

If he is told to be silent, he will be silent; if he is told to sing, he will sing.

If he is allowed to express his true voice (‘if a voice be true’), he will sing in praise of God from ‘this broken hill’ … from Calvary?

The mercy of God, the compassion of God, the love of God, redeems the burning hearts in hell … if it is God’s will.

Leonard Cohen’s great hope in this will leads to prayer, to the one who can ‘make us well’ if we devote ourselves to God, pray to God, sing to God.

But he still prays to God to act on behalf of the suffering.

Cajoling God in song and poetry, Cohen says God has the power to ‘end this night’ of the darkness of the human condition, in which people are dressed in only dirty ‘rags of light’ that are fragmented, that are not fully whole and illuminated.

In this song, I imagine Christ on the cross as he speaks to God the Father as his agony comes to its close:

If it be your will
That I speak no more
And my voice be still
As it was before.

The broken hill is Golgotha where he has been crucified, the rugged and rocky Mount of Calvary.

‘Let the rivers fill’ may refer to the water of his thirst, the water of his sweat, the water that streams from his side, the waters of baptism, the Living Water that will never leave us to thirst.

If it be your will
To make us well
Let your mercy spill
On all these burning hearts in hell.

Advent is a time of waiting. The Dominican theologian Timothy Radcliffe says: ‘We must wait for the resurrection to break the silence of the tomb.’ We must speak up when it is necessary, and to have the courage to speak is ‘ultimately founded upon the courage to listen.’

But at the grave, at times of desolation, at times when there is no answer, we may also be called to be silent.

Leonard Cohen, If it be your will:

If it be your will
That I speak no more
And my voice be still
As it was before
I will speak no more
I shall abide until
I am spoken for
If it be your will

If it be your will
That a voice be true
From this broken hill
I will sing to you
From this broken hill
All your praises they shall ring
If it be your will
To let me sing
From this broken hill
All your praises they shall ring
If it be your will
To let me sing

If it be your will
If there is a choice
Let the rivers fill
Let the hills rejoice
Let your mercy spill
On all these burning hearts in hell
If it be your will
To make us well

And draw us near
And bind us tight
All your children here
In their rags of light
In our rags of light
All dressed to kill
And end this night
If it be your will

If it be your will.

‘Many will come from east and west and will eat with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven’ (Matthew 13: 11) … a new interpretation by Kelly Latimore of Andrei Rublev’s icon ‘The Visitation of Abraham’

Matthew 8: 5-11 (NRSVA):

5 When he entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him, appealing to him 6 and saying, ‘Lord, my servant is lying at home paralysed, in terrible distress.’ 7 And he said to him, ‘I will come and cure him.’ 8 The centurion answered, ‘Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof; but only speak the word, and my servant will be healed. 9 For I also am a man under authority, with soldiers under me; and I say to one, “Go”, and he goes, and to another, “Come”, and he comes, and to my slave, “Do this”, and the slave does it.’ 10 When Jesus heard him, he was amazed and said to those who followed him, ‘Truly I tell you, in no one in Israel have I found such faith. 11 I tell you, many will come from east and west and will eat with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven.’

‘From this broken hill / All your praises they shall ring / If it be your will’ (Leonard Cohen) … in the mountains above Preveli on the south coast of Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Monday 4 December 2023):

The theme this week in the new edition of ‘Pray With the World Church,’ the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘The Hope of Advent.’ This theme was introduced yesterday.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (4 December 2023) invites us to pray in these words:

Lord, we invite the Holy Spirit into the Advent season. Renew our sense of holy anticipation.

The Collect:

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

The Post-Communion Prayer:

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

Additional Collect:

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

Yesterday’s Reflection

Continued Tomorrow


‘If It Be Your Will’ … Leonard Cohen and The Webb Sisters, Live in London

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 poem by Odysseas Elytis that Mikis Theodorakis made an anthem for all Greeks

‘Do not, please, I beg you, / do not forget my home’ … flowers among the stones in a side street in Iraklion (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

The Greek Festival in Milton Keynes has become an annual festival and is taking place this afternoon (2 July 2023) in the Swinfen Harris Church Hall of the Greek Orthodox Church in Stony Stratford. The festival includes live music, dancing, BBQ food, cakes, Greek products, a book stall and family fun. Today’s festival, a Greek meal at Emmy’s Pitta in Coventry last week, and Greek dancing on the streets of Stony Stratford during Stony Live last month, have stirred my longings to return to Greece.

My thoughts of returning to Greece later this year, and especially to Crete, are reinforced emotionally as I listen again to some of my favourite Greek songs or turn again to some of my favourite Greek poems.

In recent weeks, I have found myself listening to a number of versions of the song Της Δικαιοσύνης Ήλιε Νοητέ, a poem by the Nobel laureate Odysseas Elytis (1911-1996) in 1949 and was set to music by the composer Mikis Theodorakis.

This morning’s song, Της Δικαιοσύνης Ήλιε Νοητέ (‘The Sun of Justice’) was adapted from Canto 3 in the Axion Esti, a literary masterpiece by Elytis. It is a difficult poem to translate, and efforts to render it in English are puzzling if not almost unintelligible to many people outside Greek.

Yet, the words of Elytis and the music of Theodorakis make this one of the most emotional and rousing anthems in the modern Greek repertoire. Every Greek is moved to patriotic tears when they hear to and join in to its haunting repeated refrain:

Μη παρακαλώ σας μη
λησμονάτε τη χώρα μου!

Do not, please, I beg you,
do not forget my home

It was set to music by Theodorakis almost 60 years ago in 1964, and within a few years it had become a popular anthem in the resistance to the colonels until their junta a decade later in 1974.

Odysseas Elytis is one of the greatest poets of the second half of the 20th century, and his Axion Esti is regarded as a monument of contemporary poetry. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1979. Several of his poems have been set to music and his collections have been translated into dozens of languages.

Odysseus Elytis (Οδυσσέας Ελύτης) was his pen name, but he was born Odysseus Alepoudellis (Οδυσσέας Αλεπουδέλλης) in Iraklion, the capital of Crete, on 2 November 1911, into the Alepoudellis family, an old industrial family originally from Lesbos.

When he was three, the family moved to Athens, where he went to school and later studied law at the University of Athens.

He published his first poem in 1935 in the journal New Letters (Νέα Γράμματα) at the prompting of friends such as George Seferis. His entry with a distinctively earthy and original form assisted to inaugurate a new era in Greek poetry and its subsequent reform after World War II.

He was an army lieutenant during World War II, and fought on the Albanian frontline, resisting the Italian invasion.

After World War II, he was twice Programme Director of ERT, the Greek National Radio Foundation (1945-1946, 1953-1954). In between, he moved to Paris in 1948, where he studied philosophy at the Sorbonne. He moved in literary and artistic circles that included Matisse, Picasso, Chagall and Sartre, but was private and solitary in pursuing poetic truth. He worked for the BBC in London in 1950-1951.

His great epic poem, Το Άξιον Εστί (To Axion Esti, It is Worthy) was published in 1959, after a period of more than 10 years of poetic silence. It became one of the most widely read volumes of poetry published in Greece since World War II, and it remains a classic to this day.

The Axion Esti won the National Book Award for Poetry in 1960. Widely regarded as his chef d’oeuvre, it is a poetic cycle of alternating prose and verse patterned after the ancient Byzantine liturgy.

As in his other writings, Elytis depicts Greek reality through an intensely personal tone. It is a hymn to creation inspired by the Greek Orthodox liturgy and the 17th century epic poetry of Crete, including the Erotokritos (Ἐρωτόκριτος) by Vikentios Kornaros. It is a composition of song and praise that is all the more powerful for exploring the darkest of shadows at times. The speaker explores the essence of his being as well as the identity of his country and people.

At the invitation of the US State Department, he travelled throughout the US in 1961, and similar invitations brought him to the Soviet Union (1963) and Bulgaria (1965). He was awarded the First State Poetry Prize in Greece in 1960, and was decorated with the Order of the Phoenix in 1965.

Meanwhile, the composer Mikis Theodorakis set the Axion Esti to music in 1964, and it became immensely popular throughout Greece. This setting by Theodorakis later contributed to Elytis receiving the Nobel Prize.

During the colonels’ regime in Greece, Elytis lived in exile in Paris from 1969 to 1972. By then, The Axion Esti and its setting by Theodorakis had been taken to heart by lovers and revolutionaries alike, particularly during the resistance to the colonels’ regime.

Elytis returned to Greece, and in 1975 was awarded an honorary PhD by Thessaloniki University and received the honorary citizenship of Mytilene, his ancestral island of Lesbos.

He received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1979. He died of a heart attack in Athens on 18 March 1996, at the age of 84, and was buried at the First National Cemetery in Athens.

‘Its high mountains eagle-shaped, / Its volcanoes all vines in rows, / And its houses the whiter, / for neighbouring near the blue!’ … street art in Iraklion (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The setting of Το Άξιον Εστί (To Axion Esti) to music by Theodorakis as an oratorio, with its sheer beauty and musicality, provided anthems that were sung throughout Greece by in the resistance to injustice.

It is surprising, then, that it was not included by Constantine Trypanis in The Penguin Book of Greek Verse in 1971.

Edmund Keeley, who translated the epic into English, suggested the Axion Esti can ‘be taken best as a kind of spiritual autobiography that attempts to dramatise the national and philosophical extensions of the poet’s personal sensibility. Elytis’s strategy in this work … is to present an image of the contemporary Greek consciousness through the developing of a persona that is at once the poet himself and the voice of his country.’

The song I have been listening to in these recent weeks, Της Δικαιοσύνης Ήλιε Νοητέ, became a symbol of Greece seeking to recover and heal its wounds. It is one of the most dramatic songs heard in Greece, but at the same time one of the most inspirational and optimistic songs one can hear.

Grigoris Bithikotsis made the song his own in 1964 with his voice – as he did with so many pieces composed by Theodorakis, and he first made the song a symbol of an era:



After the restoration of democracy in Greece in 1974, this particular song from the Axion Esti became a popular hymn throughout Greece.

The song gave voice to the suffering of Greeks in previous generations and their struggle against the colonels’ junta, their desire for freedom, stability and progress.

Modern versions that are popular throughout Greece include this one sung by Yannis Kotsiras:



However, my favourite version is that recorded by one of Greece’s most loved singers, Maria Farantouri:



Elytis’ poems are written in rich language, filled with images from history and myths. His lines are long and musical, inspired by the Greek light, the sea, and the air.

Both Elytis and Theodorakis were born in Crete and were major figures in Greek culture throughout the second half of the 20th century. The only other Greek poet to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature was George Seferis in 1967. Nikos Kazantzakis (1883-1957), who was also born in Crete, received Nobel nominations on nine separate occasions, but never received the honour.

Theodorakis was especially drawn to the work of Elytis, whose writings were seen as a mirror to the revolutionary music of Theodorakis. The autobiographical elements are constantly coloured by allusions to the history of Greece, and his poems express a contemporary consciousness fully resonant with those echoes of the past that have shaped the modern Greek experience.

‘Its high mountains eagle-shaped, / Its volcanoes all vines in rows, / And its houses the whiter, / for neighbouring near the blue!’ … the White Mountains in Crete seen from Platanias in Rethymnon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Translating poetry and the lyrics of songs never does justice to the original, nor can it ever capture the passion of those who sing the song. So here are the original words, as adapted by Mikis Theodorakis, and a handful of recent efforts to translate the song:

Της Δικαιοσύνης Ήλιε Νοητέ Μίκης Θεοδωράκης:

Της δικαιοσύνης ήλιε νοητέ
και μυρσίνη συ δοξαστική
μη παρακαλώ σας μη
λησμονάτε τη χώρα μου!

Αετόμορφα έχει τα ψηλά βουνά
στα ηφαίστεια κλήματα σειρά
και τα σπίτια πιο λευκά
στου γλαυκού το γειτόνεμα!

Της Ασίας αν αγγίζει από τη μια
της Ευρώπης λίγο αν ακουμπά
στον αιθέρα στέκει να
και στη θάλασσα μόνη της!

Τα πικρά μου χέρια με τον Κεραυνό
τα γυρίζω πίσω άπ' τον Καιρό
τους παλιούς μου φίλους καλώ
με φοβέρες και μ' αίματα!

Μα' χουν όλα τα αίματα ξαντιμεθεί
κι οι φοβέρες αχ λατομηθεί
και στον έναν ο άλλος
μπαίνουν εναντίον οι άνεμοι!



Intelligible Sun of Justice
And you, Glorifying Myrtle
Do not, I implore you
Do not forget my country!

Its high mountains eagle-shaped,
Its volcanoes all vines in rows,
And its houses the whiter,
for neighbouring near the blue!

My bitter hands circle with the thunderbolt,
the other side of time.
I summon my old friends
with threats and running blood!

Intelligible Sun of Justice
And you, Glorifying Myrtle
Do not, I implore you
Do not forget my country!

Another translation goes like this:

Notional sun of justice
and you glorifying myrtle
don’t please don’t
forget my homeland!

It has eagle-shaped high mountains
terraced vineyards on the volcanoes
and the whiter houses
in the neighbourhood of the blue!

It almost meets Asia on one side
and almost touches Europe a little
it stands in the air
and in the sea by itself!

My bitter hands with the Thunder
I turn them before Time
I’m calling my old friends
with threats and blood!

But all the blood has been remunerated
and the threats all quarried
and one against the other
the winds are invading!

Odysseus Elytis was born in Iraklion in 1911 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Daily prayers in Ordinary Time with USPG: (23) 20 June 2023

Aghia Triada in the suburban village of Platanias, on the eastern fringes of Rethymnon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

This week began with the Second Sunday after Trinity (18 June 2023) and Father’s Day. The calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship today remembers Sundar Singh of India, Sadhu (holy man), Evangelist, Teacher of the Faith (1929).

Before the day begins, I am taking some time for prayer, reading and reflection.

Over these weeks after Trinity Sunday, I am reflecting each morning in these ways:

1, Looking at relevant images or stained glass window in a church, chapel or cathedral I know;

2, the Gospel reading of the day in the Church of England lectionary;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary.

The iconostasis or icon screen in Aghia Triada Church in Platanias (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Church of the Holy Trinity (Aghia Triada), Platanias,Rethymnon:

This week I am reflecting on Orthodox churches named after the Holy Trinity. These Trinity reflections continue this morning (20 June 2023) with photographs from the Church of the Holy Trinity or Aghia Triada in the suburban village of Platanias, on the eastern fringes of Rethymnon.

I have been visiting Rethymnon almost annually since the mid-1980s, and I have stayed in the suburban areas of Platanias and Tsesmes, east of Rethymnon, since 2015. This area is a mix of suburban, commercial, and slowly developing tourism.

The shops and supermarkets cater primarily for the local residents, but there is a number of small hotels and apartment blocks where I have stayed, including La Stella, Varvara’s Diamond, and Julia Apartments, and restaurants that I have become comfortable with and where I receive a warm welcome each time I return.

These two villages have merged almost seamlessly, and although they have two churches, they form one parish, served by one priest, Father Dimitrios Tsakpinis.

These churches are recently-built parish churches: the church in Platanias dates from 1959 and the church in Tsesmes from 1979. They are small, and in many ways, unremarkable churches, compared to the older, more historic churches in the old town of Rethymnon.

But when I am staying in Platanias and Tsesmes, I have seen them as my parish churches, and I have always been welcomed warmly.

The church in Platantias, just 100 metres south of long sandy beach that stretches for kilometres east of Rethymnon, is dedicated to the Holy Trinity (Αγία Τριάδα).

The Divine Liturgy in Aghia Triada Church in Platanias (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Matthew 5: 43-48 (NRSVA):

[Jesus said:] 43 ‘You have heard that it was said, “You shall love your neighbour and hate your enemy.” 44 But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous. 46 For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax-collectors do the same? 47 And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? 48 Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.’

A Sunday morning in Aghia Triada Church in Platanias (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayer:

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 snowdrop that never bloomed.’ This theme was introduced on Sunday.

The Prayer in the USPG Prayer Diary today (20 June 2023, World Refugee Day) invites us to pray:

We pray for refugees, displaced and stateless people. May we greet them with open arms and welcoming hearts, showing God’s love through our words and actions.

Collect:

Lord, you have taught us
that all our doings without love are nothing worth:
send your Holy Spirit
and pour into our hearts that most excellent gift of love,
the true bond of peace and of all virtues,
without which whoever lives is counted dead before you.
Grant this for your only Son Jesus Christ’s sake,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Post Communion:

Loving Father,
we thank you for feeding us at the supper of your Son:
sustain us with your Spirit,
that we may serve you here on earth
until our joy is complete in heaven,
and we share in the eternal banquet
with Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s reflection

Continued tomorrow

The bells of Aghia Triada Church in Platanias, which dates from 1959 (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

Sunset at Pavlos Beach behind Aghia Triada Church, with the Fortezza and Rethymnon to the west (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Daily prayers in Ordinary Time with USPG: (22) 19 June 2023

The Monastery of Chryssoskalitíssa, or the golden step, is perched above the Libyan Sea on the south-west tip of Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

This week began with the Second Sunday after Trinity (18 June 2023) and Father’s Day. The calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship today remembers Sundar Singh of India, Sadhu (holy man), Evangelist, Teacher of the Faith (1929).

Before the day begins, I am taking some time for prayer, reading and reflection.

Over these weeks after Trinity Sunday, I am reflecting each morning in these ways:

1, Looking at relevant images or stained glass window in a church, chapel or cathedral I know;

2, the Gospel reading of the day in the Church of England lectionary;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary.

Elafonísi and the crystal clear waters of the lagoon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford; click on image for full-screen viewing)

The Monastery of Chryssoskalítíssa, Elafonisi, Crete:

This week I am reflecting on Orthodox churches named after the Holy Trinity. These Trinity reflections continue this morning (18 June 2023) with photographs and images from the Monastery of Chryssoskalítíssa (Μονή Χρυσοσκαλιτίσσας), at the south-west tip of the island of Crete.

The Monastery of Chryssoskalitíssa is perched on rocks above the lagoon of Elafonisi and is 35 metres high, overlooking the Libyan Sea. This monastery once had a community of 200. But like many monasteries in Crete, numbers have dwindled and today there is only one nun and one monk.

The monastery, which dates from the 13th century, is dedicated to the Holy Trinity (Agia Triada) and the Dormition of the Virgin Mary (Koimisis Theotokou). But the popular name comes from a local tradition that one step in a set of 98 leading up to the monastery appears as a golden step (chryssí skála) to those who are pure of heart.

The Monastery, which celebrates its feast on 15 August (Δεκαπενταυγουστος, Dekapendavgoustos), was built during the Venetian era on the site of Saint Nicholas monastery. Before the first monastery was built, there was another church on the site dedicated to the Dormition of the Virgin Mary.

It is said the staircase and the golden step were sold to the Turks to pay off taxes demanded by the Sultan. The legend also says that at Easter 1824, after the massacre of Christians by the Ottomans of Ibrahim Pasha on Elafonísi, Turkish soldiers went to the monastery with a plan to plunder the place. At the entrance to the monastery, however, they were attacked by a swarm of bees that saved the monastery from looting.

The church seen today was built in 19th century. The monastery was dissolved in 1894, along with other monasteries on the island, but was re-established in 1940.

During the Nazi occupation of Crete, several resistance fighters were given refuge there. German soldiers expelled the monks and occupied the monastery in 1943. When the Nazi forces left, the monks returned to the monastery.

Elafonísi (Ελαφονήσι, ‘deer island’), also known as the ‘Pearl of the West,’ is a popular destination for day trippers. No buildings are allowed on the lagoon and the island, which helps to keep the feeling that this is a wilderness away from everything.

The beautiful sandy beaches of Elafonísi and the lagoon are fringed with pink coral sand and the sea and the lagoon have crystal clear waters so that there is a unique feeling of being on a desert island or in a South Seas lagoon while still being in the Mediterranean.

The lagoon is rimmed with sun beds and there is a small number of beach bars supplying drinks and snacks. From the beaches that fringe the lagoon, one can wade knee-deep across to the island, which is a protected nature reserve and where there are no sun beds or beach bars. The further one walks, the quieter this tiny island becomes. At the western end there is a promontory with a small lighthouse, and chapel. Out in the distance is the Libyan Sea.

The church in the Monastery of Chryssoskalítíssa (Photograph: Chania Vacation)

Matthew 5: 38-42 (NRSVA):

[Jesus said:] 38 ‘You have heard that it was said, “An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.” 39 But I say to you, Do not resist an evildoer. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also; 40 and if anyone wants to sue you and take your coat, give your cloak as well; 41 and if anyone forces you to go one mile, go also the second mile. 42 Give to everyone who begs from you, and do not refuse anyone who wants to borrow from you.’

The Monastery of Chryssoskalítíssa dates from the 13th century and is dedicated to the Holy Trinity and the Dormition of the Virgin Mary (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayer:

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 snowdrop that never bloomed.’ This theme was introduced yesterday.

The Prayer in the USPG Prayer Diary today (19 June 2023, International Day for the Elimination of Sexual Violence in Conflict) invites us to pray:

We pray for everyone affected by sexual violence, particularly survivors of conflict. May we continue to raise our voices against this abhorrent weapon of war.

Collect:

Lord, you have taught us
that all our doings without love are nothing worth:
send your Holy Spirit
and pour into our hearts that most excellent gift of love,
the true bond of peace and of all virtues,
without which whoever lives is counted dead before you.
Grant this for your only Son Jesus Christ’s sake,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Post Communion:

Loving Father,
we thank you for feeding us at the supper of your Son:
sustain us with your Spirit,
that we may serve you here on earth
until our joy is complete in heaven,
and we share in the eternal banquet
with Jesus Christ our Lord.

Reflections of Elafonísi in the crystal-clear waters of the lagoon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Yesterday’s reflection

Continued tomorrow

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 prayers in Ordinary Time with USPG: (21) 18 June 2023

The Church of Aghia Triada behind the narrow streets of Kalamitsi Alexandrou in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

Today is the Second Sunday after Trinity (18 June 2023) and Father’s Day. Later this morning, I hope to be present at the Parish Eucharist in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford. But, before the day begins, I am taking some time for prayer, reading and reflection.

Over these weeks after Trinity Sunday, I am reflecting each morning in these ways:

1, Looking at relevant images or stained glass window in a church, chapel or cathedral I know;

2, the Gospel reading of the day in the Church of England lectionary;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary.

Inside the Church of Aghia Triada in Kalamitsi Alexandrou (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Aghia Triada Church, Kalamitsi, Crete:

This week I am reflecting on Orthodox churches named after the Holy Trinity. These Trinity reflections this week begin this morning (18 June 2023) with photographs and images from Aghia Triada Church in Kalamitsi, on the island of Crete.

In reality, there are two villages with this name: Kalamitsi-Amigdali and Kalamitsi-Alexandrou – and they are sometimes referred to as the ‘divided village.’ About 140 people live round the year in Kalamitsis Alexandrou, and about 210 in Kalamitsi Amygdali, or 350 permanent residents between the two.

Where one village stops, the next village begins. On some maps they are simply called Alexandrou and Amigdali, without the name Kalamitsi, while other maps do not make a difference and simply call the both Kalamitsi.

The two villages are also split between two administrations: Kalamitsi Alexandrou is in the municipality of Vamos Kalamitsi, while Kalamitsi Amygdali is in the municipality of Giorgioupolis.

These villages lie in the beautiful green Apokoronas area between Souda Bay and Rethymnon, about 8 km from Vamos and five minutes away from Vrysses, with a drive of less than 15 minutes to Georgioupoli on the coast.

Both Kalamitsi villages are peaceful, traditional, and offer beautiful views of the Lefka Ori or White Mountains. Between them there are two tavernas, a kafenion and a mini-market. Kalamitsi Alexandrou also has an impressive underground reservoir, Softas, constructed during the Turkish occupation of Crete.

The large, modern, cross-shaped Church of Aghia Triada or the Holy Trinity is behind the narrow streets in Kalamitsi Alexandrou.

Although it is not in the centre of the village, the church is impossible not to find at the end of the narrow streets. With its large narthex, and tall dome and belltowers, it can be seen for long distances across the surrounding countryside.

But the church has many other usual features too. Unlike many churches in Greece of this shape, the dome remains undecorated, without any Pantocrator and the usual supporting frescoes.

Indeed, the walls and pillars of the church are largely undecorated too, without frescoes, and the old icons preserved in the church, many predating its building in the last century, are in wooden frames that are seldom seen in Greek churches.

These framed icons include, naturally, an icon of the Holy Trinity, and an icon of the Virgin Mary said to have been found in the foundations of an earlier church when the present church was being built.

The top of the iconostasis or icon screen is crowned with a verse from Saint John’s Gospel that begins: ‘I am the light of the world …’

The central door of the iconostasis has an interesting image portraying Christ present in the Eucharist, with a symbol of the Holy Trinity above.

After visiting the church, I returned to the square in Kalamitsis Alexandrou and enjoyed Greek coffees at the Kafenion Kolymbos before returning to Georgioupoli where I was spending a week during that year’s holiday in Crete.

The dome of the church remains undecorated (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Matthew 9: 35 to 10: 8 (NRSVA):

35 Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and curing every disease and every sickness. 36 When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. 37 Then he said to his disciples, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few; 38 therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into his harvest.’

1 Then Jesus summoned his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to cure every disease and every sickness. 2 These are the names of the twelve apostles: first, Simon, also known as Peter, and his brother Andrew; James son of Zebedee, and his brother John; 3 Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax-collector; James son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; 4 Simon the Cananaean, and Judas Iscariot, the one who betrayed him.

5 These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions: ‘Go nowhere among the Gentiles, and enter no town of the Samaritans, 6 but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. 7 As you go, proclaim the good news, “The kingdom of heaven has come near.” 8 Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons. You received without payment; give without payment.’

A framed icon of the Virgin Mary said to have been found in the foundations of the earlier church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayer:

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 snowdrop that never bloomed.’ This theme is introduced these morning:

Almost a year on from the conflict starting in Ukraine, USPG and the Diocese in Europe were able to visit some of the projects funded by the money raised from our joint appeal – including “Ukrainian Space” a Day Centre and Educational Facility in Budapest. The space offers children aged 8 to 16 schooling and a safe space for their parents to chat, support one another and learn new skills.

Ukrainian Space also offers activities for children and parents to do together such as art classes. One child drew her story in the days before she and her mother fled Ukraine.

“One of our students, together with her Mum, would pass a snowdrop on their walk to school every morning. It was in mid-February and this snowdrop was just about to bloom. It was still a bud. Every day the Mum would say to her daughter “You have to wait, maybe tomorrow, maybe tomorrow”.

When they saw that the flower would bloom for sure on the following day, it was on the following day that everything happened. The war began, and the missiles hit their native city in South Ukraine. They had to flee. The girl never saw the snowdrop bloom. It began to appear to her in her dreams, a symbol of the war and the fact that it had prevented her from seeing her favourite flower bloom. Snowdrops are also the first sign of spring. For this girl, spring never happened and winter continued”.

The Prayer in the USPG Prayer Diary today (18 June 2023, the Second Sunday after Trinity, Father’s Day) invites us to pray:

Eternal God,
bless us with the spirit of unity.
May we embrace difference,
and work with each other,
to put our faith into action.

Collect:

Lord, you have taught us
that all our doings without love are nothing worth:
send your Holy Spirit
and pour into our hearts that most excellent gift of love,
the true bond of peace and of all virtues,
without which whoever lives is counted dead before you.
Grant this for your only Son Jesus Christ’s sake,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Post Communion:

Loving Father,
we thank you for feeding us at the supper of your Son:
sustain us with your Spirit,
that we may serve you here on earth
until our joy is complete in heaven,
and we share in the eternal banquet
with Jesus Christ our Lord.

The top of the icon screen is crowned with a verse from Saint John’s Gospel that begins: ‘I am the light of the world …’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Yesterday’s reflection

Continued tomorrow

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

The central door of the iconostasis has an icon portraying Christ present in the Eucharist (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)