Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2026: 83, Wednesday 29 July 2026

Mary anoints the feet of Jesus in Bethany … a window in the north aisle of Saint Mary’s Church in St Neots, Cambridgeshire (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church and this week began with the Eighth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity VIII, 26 July 2026). The calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship today remembers Mary, Martha and Lazarus with a Lesser Festival. I got back to Stony Stratford late last night after a short, one-day family visit to Dublin.

Later today, Stony Stratford Cricket Club is organising a special charity day at Ostler’s Lane, starting at 11:30, with what promises to be a day of high-quality cricket as a Stony representative side takes on an MCC representative side. This is also a fundraising day for Breast Cancer Now. Ro Whitehead is giving all food for the day in return for a donation to Breast Cancer Now. After the players’ tea break, supporters are invited to enjoy Ro’s teas, with special treats, in return for a donation. The bar is open from midday and all are welcome.

This morning, as this new day begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, to reflect, to pray and to read in these ways:

1, reading 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 Hardman window in Saint Mary’s Church, St Neots, with the Anointing of Jesus’ feet by Mary of Bethany (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

John 12: 1-11 (NRSVA):

1 Six days before the Passover Jesus came to Bethany, the home of Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. 2 There they gave a dinner for him. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those at the table with him. 3 Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard, anointed Jesus’ feet, and wiped them with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. 4 But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (the one who was about to betray him), said, 5 ‘Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor?’ 6 (He said this not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief; he kept the common purse and used to steal what was put into it.) 7 Jesus said, ‘Leave her alone. She bought it so that she might keep it for the day of my burial. 8 You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.’

9 When the great crowd of the Jews learned that he was there, they came not only because of Jesus but also to see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. 10 So the chief priests planned to put Lazarus to death as well, 11 since it was on account of him that many of the Jews were deserting and were believing in Jesus.

‘There they gave a dinner for him. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those at the table with him’ (John 12: 2) … dinner in Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflections:

Today’s Gospel reading at the Eucharist in the lectionary (John 12: 1-11) is for the Lesser Festival in Common Worship for Mary, Martha and Lazarus.

Many years ago, when I was in my early 20s, the then Rector of Killanne and Killegney, Co Wexford, Canon Norman Ruddock, invited me to speak at one of his Lenten reflections in Clonroche, Co Wexford.

I was then living on High Street in Wexford, working as a journalist with the Wexford People, and I was probably invited as a Lenten speaker because I also had a weekly column in the local newspapers in Co Wexford and Co Wicklow.

I remember how Philip Corish kindly drove me to and from Wexford that evening. Later that year, he was elected an Alderman on Wexford Corporation, and he would go on to become a Mayor of Wexford, while Norman Ruddock later became the Rector of Wexford, and he was a constant encouragement to me throughout my 20s, 30s and 40s to go forward for ordination.

I remember that evening as a balmy spring evening, and Norman Ruddock remarked on how my talk was challenging politically and socially. There was only one written follow-up: an anonymous parishioner sent me an unsigned letter, telling me I had abused the Gospel for political purposes. She (or he) chose to remind me of a saying in today’s Gospel reading: ‘You always have the poor with you’ (John 12: 8), or perhaps? ‘The poor will always be among us!’ (Matthew 26: 11).

That was more than half a century ago. I never kept that letter, but I still think about it when I hear far-right activists criticising people like me, accusing us of being ‘Woke’ or showing ‘empathy’.

These verses continue to be misinterpreted and weaponised as a justification of wealth accumulation and ignoring the plight of the poor and the causes of their poverty.

As today’s Gospel reading makes very clear, it is Judas Iscariot who elicits this response from Jesus. The setting in John 12 is a destitute village, Bethany, whose name means ‘house of the poor’, ‘house of affliction’ or ‘house of misery’. In Matthew 26, Bethany is the house of Simon the Leper, one of the poorest of the poor in a village full of poor people.

In the parallel story in Mark 14: 7, Jesus says: ‘For you always have the poor with you, and you can show kindness to them whenever you wish’. If anyone thinks ‘the poor will always be among you’ is a universal statement that somehow allows them to avoid responsibility from seeking to eliminate poverty, Mark 14: 7 turns that interpretation on its head.

In addition, we should remember that when Jesus cites Scripture he expects those who are listening to be familiar with the passage, and that they should be able to finish the quotation as they take it to heart. Jesus here is quoting from Deuteronomy 15, but the full passage (Deuteronomy 15: 1-11) he cites provides the context:

15 Every seventh year you shall grant a remission of debts. 2 And this is the manner of the remission: every creditor shall remit the claim that is held against a neighbour, not exacting it from a neighbour who is a member of the community, because the Lord’s remission has been proclaimed. 3 From a foreigner you may exact it, but you must remit your claim on whatever any member of your community owes you. 4 There will, however, be no one in need among you, because the Lord is sure to bless you in the land that the Lord your God is giving you as a possession to occupy, 5 if only you will obey the Lord your God by diligently observing this entire commandment that I command you today. 6 When the Lord your God has blessed you, as he promised you, you will lend to many nations, but you will not borrow; you will rule over many nations, but they will not rule over you.

7 If there is among you anyone in need, a member of your community in any of your towns within the land that the Lord your God is giving you, do not be hard-hearted or tight-fisted towards your needy neighbour. 8 You should rather open your hand, willingly lending enough to meet the need, whatever it may be. 9 Be careful that you do not entertain a mean thought, thinking, ‘The seventh year, the year of remission, is near’, and therefore view your needy neighbour with hostility and give nothing; your neighbour might cry to the Lord against you, and you would incur guilt. 10 Give liberally and be ungrudging when you do so, for on this account the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in all that you undertake. 11 Since there will never cease to be some in need on the earth, I therefore command you, ‘Open your hand to the poor and needy neighbour in your land.’

I suppose all I was doing that Lenten evening over 50 years ago was sharing my interpretation of Biblical economics – an interpretation that is even more relevant today.

‘Christ the Beggar’, a sculpture by Timothy Schmalz in Rome (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Wednesday 29 July 2026):

In Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), the theme this week, from 26 July to 1 August 2026 (pp 22-23), is ‘Lives in Transit’. This theme was introduced on Sunday with a programme update by Rachel Weller, Communications Officer, USPG.

The USPG prayer diary today (Wednesday 29 July 2026) invites us to pray:

God of justice, we pray for systems that bind workers into vulnerability and fear. Stir the conscience of governments and employers to act with fairness and integrity.

The Collect of the Day:

God our Father,
whose Son enjoyed the love of his friends,
Mary, Martha and Lazarus,
in learning, argument and hospitality:
may we so rejoice in your love
that the world may come to know
the depths of your wisdom, the wonder of your compassion,
and your power to bring life out of death;
through the merits of Jesus Christ,
our friend and brother,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post Communion Prayer:

Father,
from whom every family in heaven and on earth takes its name,
your servants Mary, Martha and Lazarus revealed your goodness
in a life of tranquillity and service:
grant that we who have gathered in faith around this table
may like them know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge
and be filled with all your fullness;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s reflection

Continued tomorrow

The ‘Homeless Christ’ by the Canadian sculptor Timothy Schmalz in the grounds of Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin (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

Are these Biblical standards too much to aspire to and to hope for in today’s world?

Seeking Wisdom and trying to be attentive at Vespers in the Greek Orthodox Church in Stony Stratford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Patrick Comerford

I have been at Vespers this evening in the Greek Orthodox Church on London Road in Stony Stratford.

Before the readings at Vespers, the call goes out: ‘Wisdom. Let us be attentive.’

So, prayerfully seeking wisdom, I sought to be attentive. In the first reading (Deuteronomy 1: 8-11, 17-17), Moses recalls for the people the charge he gave to the judges:

‘Give the members of your community a fair hearing, and judge rightly between one person and another, whether citizen or resident alien. You must not be partial in judging: hear out the small and the great alike; you shall not be intimidated by anyone, for the judgement is God’s’ (Deuteronomy 1: 16-17).

In second reading (Deuteronomy 10: 14-18, 20-21), Moses reminds the people: ‘For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who is not partial and takes no bribe, who executes justice for the orphan and the widow, and who loves the strangers, providing them with food and clothing.’ (Deuteronomy 10: 17-18).

Now, these are the sort of judges I would like to see in courts, and these are the standards by which I would like to judge how the orphan and the widow are treated, how the political, legal and justice systems deal with the strangers in our midst and ‘the resident alien,’ and how we respond to those in need of food and clothing, both here and in Trump’s US.

Are these Biblical standards too much to aspire to or too much to hope for in today’s world?

‘Wisdom. Let us be attentive.’

‘Holy pandemonium’ and exuberant celebrations of the cycle of life and death at Simchat Torah

The Torah scrolls in Milton Keynes and District Reform Synagogue, including scroll No 970 (left) from Pacov in the Czech Republic (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The paired Jewish holidays of Shemini Hag’Atseret and Simchat Torah, which follow immediately after Sukkot being this evening. Shemini Hag’Atseret starts at sunset this evening (Monday 13 October), Simchat Torah starts at sunset tomorrow (Tuesday 14 October), and the celebrations end at nightfall the following evening (Wednesday 15 October).

The seven joyous days of Sukkot in the Jewish calendar are followed by these celebrations that mark the completion of one annual Torah reading cycle and the immediate beginning of the next Torah reading cycle.

Traditionally these are joyous milestones and they are marked with dancing with the Torah scrolls in seven circuits of the synagogue, known as hakafot, when the Torah scrolls are held aloft in procession. The celebrations include lighting candles each night, festive meals at both night and day and avoiding work. Among Reform Jews and in Israel, Simchat Torah is generally celebrated on the same day as Shemini Atzeret.

Sukkot, which finishes with these celebrations, is also known as the Feast of Tabernacles or the Feast of Ingathering, and recalls the 40 years the fleeing slaves wandered in the desert, living in temporary shelters. Sukkot is also regarded as a harvest festival, marking the end of the agricultural year.

The Jewish calendar and the western secular calendar are calculated in different ways. But every Jew celebrating Simchat Torah will remember that the surprise attack launched from Gaza by Hamas two years ago on the morning of 7 October 2023 coincided with Simchat Torah. Simchat Torah two years ago fell between sunset on 6 October and nightfall on 7 October. A day that was meant to be filled with joy, singing and dancing became the darkest day for the Jewish people since the Holocaust.

Simchat Torah means ‘Rejoicing with the Torah’ and is meant to be a joyous holiday that celebrates the Jewish love of Torah and study – a day of exuberant celebration of Torah and its centrality to Jewish life.

But that joy is tempered this year with memories of the horrors of events two years ago and mixed anxieties and hopes now this year about the ceasefire in the Middle East, the release of the last remaining hostages and the bodies of those who did not survive, and anxiety too about finding a just, lasting and sustainable peace in the Middle East and an end to the cycle of violence that has continued not just for decades, but for generations and for centuries.

The rabbis understood that time is both cyclical and linear. Cosmic time has a linear quality in which God acts to redeem people in History. Our life span is also linear, we are born and one day we will die. But, life continues around us, history continues to unfold, even when we are no longer a part of it.

Time, however, also exists cyclically. The seasons and religious festivals come round and are repeated year after year. Regardless of what happens on the historical stage to us or to those we know and love, these cycles will continue. The moon will continue to mark our days, weeks and months, the sun and the rains will nourish our crops, and the Torah will continue to inspire, instruct and comfort generations year after year.

Simchat Torah marks the end of one cycle of Torah readings and the beginning of a new cycle of Torah readings. The concluding section of the fifth book of the Torah, Deuteronomy (D’varim), is read, and immediately following that the opening section of Genesis (B’reishit) is read, representing this eternal cycle of living and our relationship with God.

To look at the Torah’s beginning immediately after its end presents an important perspective. By the end of veZot haBerakha (Deuteronomy 33: 1 to 34: 12), 613 commandments have been given and received, frameworks for every aspect of life have been outlined, and people have found themselves truly immersed in religious, moral and ethical issues.

But many people may find they have not made a connection between those issues and creation and the natural world. Reading about the prohibitions against charging interest and delaying payment to workers does not necessarily mesh in our with the creation of stars and planets. By the end of the cycle of readings, it may be easy to forget the beginning.

The reading on Simchat Torah is an opportunity to see Torah not simply as a book of diverse commandments, but as a unified framework for life that sees the earliest origins of the universe and our complex developments as humans as part of an entire system.

In its own subtle way, the reading of Simchat Torah highlights an important question: Do the scholars and adherents of the God’s law also genuinely see it embedded in God’s world? Indeed, can we properly study the laws and ideas of Torah without paying close attention to nature?

As one cycle of Torah reading ends with reading about the death of Moses, a new cycle begins immediately with reading about the days of Creation. Death and birth, ending and beginning, the cycle continues on for another year, and this is celebrated joyfully.

The highlight of Simchat Torah is the hakafot, held on both the eve and the morning of the festival, in which people process and dance with the Torah scrolls while circling round the synagogue seven times, singing and dancing but making sure that everyone who wants to is able to dance with a scroll. These celebrations are expected to be wholehearted and exuberant, and the effect is one that has been described as ‘holy pandemonium’.

It is a custom in many synagogues to invite specific members of the community who have been noteworthy for their contribution to community life in the past year to read the end of Deuteronomy and the beginning of Genesis. In many communities the remaining aliyot or calls to reading will be offered to as many people as possible, often needing the repetition of sections of the Creation story so that as many people as possible can take part. Simchat Torah is also the only time in the year when children are also called up to the Torah.

Despite the fragility we so often experience in life, Simchat Torah is a traditional celebration of the joy of living, of hope in which life continues. It celebrates our relationship with God, who looks to us to embrace all that life has to offer as we look to God to share it with us.

Torah crowns and mantles on the scrolls in the Aron haKodesh or Ark in Milton Keynes and District Reform Synagogue (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Daily prayer in Lent 2025: 41, Monday 14 April 2025, Monday of Holy Week

Mary anoints the feet of Jesus in Bethany … a window in the north aisle of Saint Mary’s Church in St Neots, Cambridgeshire (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Patrick Comerford

We are in Holy Week, the last week in Lent, as we prepare for Good Friday and Easter, and today is the Monday of Holy Week (14 April 2025). Passover also continues until next Sunday evening (20 April 2025), which is also Easter Day.

A parish retreat on the theme of ‘I will you rest’ takes place this week in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford, with three days of prayers and reflection today, tomorrow and Wednesday, including Readings and Morning Prayer at 8:15, Angelus and Mid-Day Prayer at 12, Confessions at 5 pm, Daily Prayers at 6 pm, a talk at 6:30, Stations of the Cross at 7 pm, and Mass at 7:30 pm.

But, before today begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, to reflect, to pray and to read in these ways:

1, reading 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 Hardman window in Saint Mary’s Church, St Neots, with the Anointing of Jesus’ feet by Mary of Bethany (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

John 12: 1-11 (NRSVA):

1 Six days before the Passover Jesus came to Bethany, the home of Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. 2 There they gave a dinner for him. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those at the table with him. 3 Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard, anointed Jesus’ feet, and wiped them with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. 4 But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (the one who was about to betray him), said, 5 ‘Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor?’ 6 (He said this not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief; he kept the common purse and used to steal what was put into it.) 7 Jesus said, ‘Leave her alone. She bought it so that she might keep it for the day of my burial. 8 You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.’

9 When the great crowd of the Jews learned that he was there, they came not only because of Jesus but also to see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. 10 So the chief priests planned to put Lazarus to death as well, 11 since it was on account of him that many of the Jews were deserting and were believing in Jesus.

‘There they gave a dinner for him. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those at the table with him’ (John 12: 2) … dinner in Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflection:

Today’s Gospel reading at the Eucharist in the lectionary (John 12: 1-11) is an extended version of the Gospel reading eight days ago on the Fifth Sunday in Lent or Passion Sunday (Lent V, John 12: 1-8).

Many years ago, when I was in my early 20s, the then Rector of Killanne and Killegney, Canon Norman Ruddock, invited me to speak at one of his Lenten reflections in Clonroche, Co Wexford.

I was then living on High Street in Wexford, working as a journalist with the Wexford People, and I was probably invited as a Lenten speaker because I also had a weekly column in the local newspapers in Co Wexford and Co Wicklow.

I remember how Philip Corish kindly drove me to and from Wexford that evening. Later that year, he was elected an Alderman on Wexford Corporation, and he would go on to become a Mayor of Wexford, while Norman Ruddock later became the Rector of Wexford, and he was a constant encouragement to me to go forward for ordination.

I remember that evening as a balmy spring evening, and Norman Ruddock remarked on how my talk was challenging politically and socially. There was only one written follow-up: an anonymous parishioner sent me an unsigned letter, telling me I had abused the Gospel for political purposes. She (or he) chose to remind me of a saying in today’s Gospel reading: ‘You always have the poor with you’ (John 12: 8), or perhaps? ‘The poor will always be among us!’ (Matthew 26: 11).

That was more than half a century ago. I never kept that letter, but I still think about it when I hear far-right activists criticising people like me, accusing us of being ‘Woke’ or showing ‘empathy’.

These verses continue to be misinterpreted and weaponised as a justification of wealth accumulation and ignoring the plight of the poor and the causes of their poverty.

As today’s Gospel reading makes very clear, it is Judas Iscariot who elicits this response from Jesus. The setting in John 12 is a destitute village, Bethany, whose name means ‘house of the poor’, ‘house of affliction’ or ‘house of misery’; in Matthew 26, it is the house of Simon the Leper, one of the poorest of the poor in a village full of poor people.

In the parallel story in Mark 14: 7, Jesus says: ‘For you always have the poor with you, and you can show kindness to them whenever you wish’. If anyone thinks ‘the poor will always be among you’ is a universal statement that somehow allows them to avoid responsibility from seeking to eliminate poverty, Mark 14: 7 turns that interpretation on its head.

In addition, we should remember that when Jesus cites Scripture he expects those who are listening to be familiar with the passage, and that they should be able to finish the quotation as they take it to heart. Jesus here is quoting from Deuteronomy 15, but the full passage (Deuteronomy 15: 1-11) he cites provides the context:

15 Every seventh year you shall grant a remission of debts. 2 And this is the manner of the remission: every creditor shall remit the claim that is held against a neighbour, not exacting it from a neighbour who is a member of the community, because the Lord’s remission has been proclaimed. 3 From a foreigner you may exact it, but you must remit your claim on whatever any member of your community owes you. 4 There will, however, be no one in need among you, because the Lord is sure to bless you in the land that the Lord your God is giving you as a possession to occupy, 5 if only you will obey the Lord your God by diligently observing this entire commandment that I command you today. 6 When the Lord your God has blessed you, as he promised you, you will lend to many nations, but you will not borrow; you will rule over many nations, but they will not rule over you.

7 If there is among you anyone in need, a member of your community in any of your towns within the land that the Lord your God is giving you, do not be hard-hearted or tight-fisted towards your needy neighbour. 8 You should rather open your hand, willingly lending enough to meet the need, whatever it may be. 9 Be careful that you do not entertain a mean thought, thinking, ‘The seventh year, the year of remission, is near’, and therefore view your needy neighbour with hostility and give nothing; your neighbour might cry to the Lord against you, and you would incur guilt. 10 Give liberally and be ungrudging when you do so, for on this account the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in all that you undertake. 11 Since there will never cease to be some in need on the earth, I therefore command you, ‘Open your hand to the poor and needy neighbour in your land.’

I suppose all I was doing that Lenten evening over 50 years ago was sharing my interpretation of Biblical economics – an interpretation that is even more relevant today.

‘Christ the Beggar’, a sculpture by Timothy Schmalz in Rome (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Monday 14 April 2025, Monday of Holy Week):

A ‘Holy Week Reflection’ provides 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).’ This theme was introduced yesterday with reflections by Bishop David Walker of Manchester, who is the chair of USPG trustees.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Monday 14 April 2025, Monday of Holy Week) invites us to pray:

Lord, during this Holy Week, we pray that each of us may deeply experience the love that Jesus has for us. May this profound love transform our hearts and guide our actions as we reflect on His sacrifice and grace.

The Collect:

Almighty and everlasting God,
who in your tender love towards the human race
sent your Son our Saviour Jesus Christ
to take upon him our flesh
and to suffer death upon the cross:
grant that we may follow the example of his patience and humility,
and also be made partakers of his resurrection;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post Communion Prayer:

Lord Jesus Christ,
you humbled yourself in taking the form of a servant,
and in obedience died on the cross for our salvation:
give us the mind to follow you
and to proclaim you as Lord and King,
to the glory of God the Father.

Additional Collect:

True and humble king,
hailed by the crowd as Messiah:
grant us the faith to know you and love you,
that we may be found beside you
on the way of the cross,
which is the path of glory.

Yesterday’s Reflection

Continued Tomorrow

The ‘Homeless Christ’ by the Canadian sculptor Timothy Schmalz in the grounds of Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin (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: 24, Friday 28 March 2025

‘Hear O Israel … שְׁמַע יִשְׂרָאֵל‎ …’ (Deuteronomy 4) … the words of the ‘Shema’ once seen on the wall of the Beth El Synagogue near Bunclody, Co Wexford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We have passed the half-way point in Lent, which began three weeks ago on Ash Wednesday (5 March 2025). This week began with the Third Sunday in Lent (Lent III).

Before today begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, to reflect, to pray and to read in these ways:

1, reading 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.

Teaching the Law and the Prophets … ‘Teacher and student’ by Judel Gerberhole (1904), in the Jewish Museum in the Old Synagogue, Kraków (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Mark 12: 28-34 (NRSVA):

28 One of the scribes came near and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, he asked him, ‘Which commandment is the first of all?’ 29 Jesus answered, ‘The first is, “Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; 30 you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.” 31 The second is this, “You shall love your neighbour as yourself.” There is no other commandment greater than these.’ 32 Then the scribe said to him, ‘You are right, Teacher; you have truly said that “he is one, and besides him there is no other”; 33 and “to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the strength”, and “to love one’s neighbour as oneself”, – this is much more important than all whole burnt-offerings and sacrifices.’ 34 When Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, ‘You are not far from the kingdom of God.’ After that no one dared to ask him any question.

The Ten Commandments on two tablets in a synagogue in Thessaloniki (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflection:

‘Listen’ – the word is a call to listen to the groan and cry of creation, to listen to the cry of the dispossessed, and to listen to God’s voice on how we can live more simply so that others might simply live.

In my reflections on Wednesday morning (26 March 2025), I recalled the conversation in today’s Gospel reading (Mark 12: 28-34) between Jesus and the unnamed Scribe about the greatest of the commandments. Jesus begins to reply with the word ‘Listen’, or ‘Hear, O Israel …’

Saint Benedict begins his Rule with the word ‘Listen’, ausculta: ‘Listen carefully, child of God, to the guidance of your teacher. Attend to the message you hear and make sure it pierces your heart, so that you may accept it in willing freedom and fulfil by the way you live the directions that come from your loving Father’ (Rule of Saint Benedict, Prologue 1, translated by Patrick Barry). His advice is as short and as succinct a directive on how to prepare to pray as I can find.

Benedictine prayer became more accessible in popular culture 20 years ago when the BBC screened the television series, The Monastery (2005), in which the then Abbot of Worth Abbey, Abbot Christopher Jamison, guided five men (and three million viewers) into a new approach to life at Worth Abbey in Sussex.

Since then, Dom Christopher’s best-selling books following the popular series, Finding Sanctuary (2007) and Finding Happiness (2008), have offered readers similar opportunities. He points out that no matter how hard we work, being too busy is not inevitable. Silence and contemplation are not just for monks and nuns, they are parts of the natural rhythm of life.

Yet, to keep hold of this truth in the rush of modern living we need the support of other people and sensible advice from wise guides. By learning to listen in new ways, people’s lives can change and Dom Christopher offers some monastic steps that help this transition to a more spiritual life.

Saint Benedict of Nursia wrote the first official western manual for praying the Hours 1,500 years ago, in the year 525. Benedictine spirituality approaches life through an ordering by daily prayer that is biblical and reflective, and Benedictine spirituality is grounded in an approach to spiritual life that values ‘Stability, Obedience, and Conversion of Life.’

The major themes in the Rule are community, prayer, hospitality, study, work, humility, stability, peace and listening. This distinction between liturgical prayer and private prayer, which is familiar to modern spirituality, was unknown to the early monks. Apart from one short reference to prayer outside the office, Chapter 20 of the Rule is concerned with the silent prayer that is a response to the psalm. Listening to the word of God was a necessary prelude to every prayer, and prayer was the natural response to every psalm.

When the scribe asks Jesus which of the 613 traditional commandments in Judaism is the most important (see Matthew 22: 34-40; Mark 12: 28-34; Luke 10: 25-28), Christ offers not one but two commandments or laws, though neither is found in the Ten Commandments (see Exodus 20: 1-17 and Deuteronomy 5: 4-21). Instead, Christ steps outside the Ten Commandments when he quotes from two other sections in the Bible (Deuteronomy 6: 4-5, Leviticus 19: 18).

And the first command Christ quotes is the shema, ‘Hear, O Israel, …’ (שְׁמַע יִשְׂרָאֵל‎) (Mark 12: 29), recited twice daily by pious Jews. The shema, שְׁמַע יִשְׂרָאֵל יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵינוּ יְהוָה אֶחָֽד‎, is composed from two separate passages in the Book Deuteronomy (Deuteronomy 6: 4-9, 11: 13-21), and to this day it is recited twice daily in Jewish practice.

The Hebrew word Shema is translated as ‘listen’ or ‘hear.’ But it means more than to just hear the sound, it means ‘to pay attention to, or to ‘focus on’. In fact, it has an even deeper meaning, requiring the listener or hearer to ‘respond to what you hear’. It calls for a response to what I hear or I am told, to act upon or do something related to the command. In other words, shema often means ‘Listen and Obey.’ They are two sides of the same coin so that comes to my ear is understood and results in action. Not to take proper action, not to respond, not to follow in discipleship is to not listen at all.

For responding in this way, Christ tells this unnamed scribe that he has answered wisely and is near the kingdom of God (verse 34).

And that silenced everyone who was listening, and it put an end to the debates … for the moment.

Silent people, who are pushed to the margins, may have more to say about God, about truth, about love, and about the true meaning of religion if only we would allow them to move in from the margins and listen to what they have to say.

People who ask questions about religious values are not necessarily trying to upset our faith and beliefs. They may actually be calling us back to the core values.

Named or unnamed, male or female, insider or outsider, we each have a place and a part in God’s plans. Being open to love, especially to the love of others, is the key to finding ourselves in that place.

Reading and studying in the Scriptorum in Ealing Abbey … Saint Benedict begins his Rule with the word ‘Listen’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Friday 28 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 ‘Towards Reconciliation and Renewal’. This theme was introduced on Sunday with a programme update by the Revd Canon Dr Carlton J Turner, Anglican Tutor in Contextual Theology and Mission Studies and Deputy Director of Research at the Queen’s Foundation, Birmingham.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Friday 28 March 2025) invites us to pray:

Father, we pray for the success and sustainability of the Codrington Project. Bless the Codrington Trust, USPG and their leaders and staff as well as the people it aims to serve. May it honour you as the God who restores and reconciles.

The Collect:

Almighty God,
whose most dear Son went not up to joy but first he suffered pain,
and entered not into glory before he was crucified:
mercifully grant that we, walking in the way of the cross,
may find it none other than the way of life and peace;
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:

Merciful Lord,
grant your people grace to withstand the temptations
of the world, the flesh and the devil,
and with pure hearts and minds to follow you, the only God;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

Eternal God,
give us insight
to discern your will for us,
to give up what harms us,
and to seek the perfection we are promised
in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s Reflection

Continued Tomorrow

Moses and the Law outside the Palais de Justice in Perpignan (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

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

Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2024: 69, Wednesday 17 July 2024

‘The human hearts has hidden treasures, in secret kept, in silence sealed’ (Charlotte Brontë) … part of ‘The Foundation of Poetry’, a sculpture by Peter Walker in Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church and this week began with the Seventh Sunday after Trinity (Trinity VII).

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

1, today’s Gospel reading;

2, a reflection on the Gospel reading;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

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

The Secret Garden in Wolverton (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Matthew 11: 25-27 (NRSVA):

25 At that time Jesus 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; 26 yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. 27 All things have been handed over to me by my Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.’

‘Grandma’s Secret Recipes’ … an invitation outside Nikos the Fisherman, a restaurant in Koutououfari a mountain village in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

This morning’s reflection:

I love the way this morning’s Gospel reading gives us so many contrasting pairs in the space of just three verses: heaven and earth, hidden and revealed, intelligent and wise, wise and intelligent, Father and Son, all things and no one, no one and anyone.

That something sacred may be both hidden and revealed is repeated throughout Scripture. In Saint Luke’s Gospel, Christ says: ‘For nothing is hidden that will not be disclosed, nor is anything secret that will not become known and come to light’ (Luke 8: 17).

Saint Paul tells the Colossians his mission is ‘to make the word of God fully known, the mystery that has been hidden throughout the ages and generations but has now been revealed to his saints’ (Colossians 1: 25-26).

This contrast of the hidden and the revealed nature of what is sacred is first articulated when Moses summons the wandering people, reminds them how God has feed them from slavery, and has brought them into a covenantal relationship. He tells then: ‘The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the revealed things belong to us and to our children for ever, to observe all the words of this law’ (Deuteronomy 29: 29).

Charlotte Brontë once wrote: ‘The human heart has hidden treasures, In secret kept, in silence sealed; The thoughts, the hopes, the dreams, the pleasures, Whose charms were broken if revealed.’

Despite all my fretting and anxiety about my health and my ministry and myfuture, I cannot know the hidden will of God and I cannot see into the future. These events belong to God’s wisdom alone. Sometimes, it is only with the benefit of hindsight, as I reflect on what has happened and what has been that I think I may be able to discern what God’s will has been or where God has been leading me.

But so often, God’s will or God’s plans seem hidden or concealed.

Where is the hidden God to be revealed to us?

Of course, God is revealed to us in God’s word, and is experienced through living a life that is rooted in the two great commands to ‘love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind’ and to ‘love your neighbour as yourself’ (Matthew 22: 37-39), for on ‘these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets’ (Matthew 22: 40).

Secondly, God is revealed to us as we live out the sacramental life of the Church. The first and most basic ecclesiological principle at Vatican II is that the Church is a mystery, or sacrament. To say that the Church is a mystery, or sacrament, means, in the words of Pope Paul VI, that it is ‘a reality imbued with the hidden presence of God.’

In other words, the Church is not just a religious organisation to which we belong or which we serve. Rather, the Church is the corporate presence of God in Christ, with a unity created and sustained by the Holy Spirit.

There is a presumption or a conviction in much of today’s theological thinking and writing that language and images that depict transcendent rather than empirical reality are mere metaphors. They are ‘symbols’ in the modern, popular sense, which means they are mere ‘signs’ that point beyond themselves to something else.

To early theologians in the Church, on the other hand, words and images are genuinely symbolic: they actually participate in the reality they depict. They have the capacity, under the right conditions, to take part in the very existence of the person, object, event or promise to which they refer. It is this capacity that enables words and images to become vehicles of divine revelation.

This understanding of the symbolic character of words and images is basic to Orthodox Christianity, according to the Orthodox theologian Father John Breck, who was Professor of New Testament and Ethics at Saint Vladimir’s Seminary and Professor of Biblical Interpretation and Ethics at Saint Sergius Theological Institute, Paris.

Because of their symbolic quality, they do more than simply point beyond themselves to some future reality – they actually participate in that reality, share in it and bring it to completion.

The Church as the Body of Christ recapitulates and fulfils the covenant relation God had already established with the people, and in Christ God reveals his presence and purpose within the realm of human history, the realm of our daily life.

To understand this, he says, there are two basic truths: that the ‘ineffable, inconceivable, invisible and incomprehensible’ God actually reveals himself in human history, in the framework of human experience; and that the mode of his self-revelation is essentially that of word and image.

Theological language always points beyond itself and beyond the limits of our understanding and experience. Behind every creedal confession, as behind every Gospel account or apostolic exhortation, there lies ultimate, unfathomable mystery, hiddenness.

As this morning’s Gospel reading reminds us, God reveals himself and makes himself known in the person of Jesus Christ. To a limited extent, words and images can capture that self-revelation and present it to us in language that we can understand. Behind the language, verbal or graphic, however, there lies an incomprehensible realm of being, power and glory that the human mind cannot begin to fathom, much less express.

God reveals himself, yet he remains essentially hidden. God calls us to use our intellects to search the Scriptures and to perceive, to understand, his presence and purpose within history and within our lives. Yet God remains mystery, inaccessible to thought and inexpressible by means of words or images, but experienced when we love God and love one another.

The Turf Garden on Bath Place has Oxford’s ‘only city walled garden’ and claims to be ‘Oxford’s best kept secret’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Today’s Prayers (Wednesday 17 July 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 ‘Advocacy, human, environmental and territorial rights programme in Brazil.’ This theme was introduced on Sunday by the Revd Dr Rodrigo Espiúca dos Anjos Siqueira, Diocesan Officer for human, environmental and territorial rights in the Anglican Diocese of Brasilia.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Wednesday 17 July 2024) invites us to pray:

We pray for activists and human, environmental and territorial rights defenders who are under constant threats to their lives and families.

The Collect:

Lord of all power and might,
the author and giver of all good things:
graft in our hearts the love of your name,
increase in us true religion,
nourish us with all goodness,
and of your great mercy keep us in the same;
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.

Post Communion Prayer:

Lord God, whose Son is the true vine and the source of life,
ever giving himself that the world may live:
may we so receive within ourselves
the power of his death and passion
that, in his saving cup,
we may share his glory and be made perfect in his love;
for he is alive and reigns, now and for ever.

Additional Collect:

Generous God,
you give us gifts and make them grow:
though our faith is small as mustard seed,
make it grow to your glory
and the flourishing of your kingdom;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

The Posada on Lichfield Street in Wolverhampton has a ‘secret courtyard’ (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

When being open and caring ‘is not just something nice to do … it is our obligation.’

Megillat Ester or Scroll of Esther, silver with coloured stones and gilded, dated Vienna 1844, in the Jewish Museum, Vienna … this evening is ‘Shabbat Zachor’, the Sabbath immediately before Purim (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

Friday next is Purim (26 February), and this evening marks the beginning of Shabbat Zachor (שבת זכור), the ‘Sabbath of Remembrance’ immediately before Purim. As part of my Friday evening reflections this evening, I am reading Deuteronomy 25: 17-19, the additional reading this evening, recalling the attack by Amalek.

Purim is the holiday recalling how Haman was foiled by Esther in his plot to destroy the Jewish people. There is a tradition from the Talmud that Haman, the antagonist in the Purim story, was a descendant of Amalek. This reading includes a commandment to remember the attack by Amalek:

‘Remember what Amalek did to you on your journey out of Egypt, how he attacked you on the way, when you were faint and weary, and struck down all who lagged behind you; he did not fear God. Therefore when the Lord your God has given you rest from all your enemies on every hand, in the land that the Lord your God is giving you to possess, you shall blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven; do not forget.’

The wording seems paradoxical: to remember Amalek yet, at the same time, to eradicate his memory from the face of the earth – and ‘do not forget.’

Do you find this with bad memories? I want to forget them, yet, in trying to erase them, they keep coming back into my mind and haunting my memories.

When the freed Hebrew slaves fled Egypt, no other nation dared to engage them in combat. Who would want to go into battled with a people whose God was associated with ten awesome plagues in Egypt, and with the drowning of the might of the Egyptian army in the sea?

Amalek alone was driven by enough hatred to wage battle. Deuteronomy 25 recalls that as the freed slaves were fleeing, Amalek picked off the old, the weak and the disabled who had lagged behind the rest of the people.

This extra portion of the Law, beginning with the phrase, ‘Remember what Amalek did to you,’ is linked to Purim because of the account of the meeting between Saul and Agag, the King of the Amalekites, in the special Zachor haftorah or reading on this Shabbat Zachor or ‘Sabbath of Remembrance.’

Rabbinic tradition says that when King Saul spared Agag, leaving him to Samuel to kill (see I Samuel 15: 2-34), this small gap in time was sufficient for Agag to become a father, resulting in time in the birth of Haman, the antagonist in the Purim story.

There is a story in the Midrash that in the time between being spared by Saul and his execution by Samuel, Agag cried out to God in prison: ‘Woe is me that my progeny will be lost to the world.’ There is something audacious about this Midrash. It attributes the birth of a demonic evil enemy of the Jewish people to the reward of a positive act by another wicked enemy of the Jews. Since Agag ‘prayed to God,’ he was rewarded with descendants.

What could the author of this Midrash possibly have had in mind here?

This Midrash probably sought to emphasise the idea that recognition of God and prayer never go unrewarded, not even when this prayer is by those who are furthest from God. If Agag was answered, then most certainly so are the prayers of those who believe in God and are faithful to God.

This affirmation that people are ultimately redeemable is crucial to the Jewish message. Optimism must reign. This message is particularly acute in the Purim story, where ultimate despair is rescued by optimism. In darkness, there will ultimately be light.

The rabbis puzzled over the apparently paradoxical command in Deuteronomy, which appears to say to remember and to forget.

Rabbi Stanley Halpern of Congregation Beth Shalom in Indianapolis suggests that the command to remember is a command to remember that it was actually the responsibility of everyone to protect all the community.

But they let the Amalekites kill off those who lagged behind, those who could not keep up and so remained outside the protection of the community. Everyone had to bear responsibility for what Amalek did. We must remember this and then blot out the name of Amalek (or Haman) so that they are forgotten.

In his comments, Rabbi Stanley Halpern says, ‘Most recently this set of commands has been applied to those with disabilities. All too many of our institutions are inaccessible to those with special needs … whether it is the lack of physical accessibility, assisted listening devices or Braille texts … all things which can be physically provided.’

And he continues: ‘But there is another type of accessibility which is not physical but, rather, emotional. Our Jewish community needs not just institutions that can be entered physically; they must be emotionally welcoming, too. All too often interfaith families, families with small children, gays and lesbians, those with very limited financial resources, Jews by Choice and Jews with illnesses are not truly welcome.

‘If we are to build a truly vibrant Jewish community, we must be open to all and welcome the varied contributions that a diverse population has to offer.’

In saying his synagogue must be open to all, he says, ‘we need to be a “Light to the Nations,” including to those Jewish institutions that are not as open and caring. We need to remind them that it is not just something nice to do … it is our obligation.’

Shabbat Shalom

Where are refugees and migrants to hear the ‘Prophetic Voice of the Church’ today?

The High Leigh Conference Centre in Hoddesdon this morning after last night’s rain (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

Patrick Comerford

Where is the Prophetic Voice of the Church to be heard today? This question keeps being asked at this year’s three-day conference of the Anglican mission agency, USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel).

The conference is taking place at the High Leigh Conference Centre at Hoddesdon in Hertfordshire, and the conference theme is ‘The Prophetic Voice of the Church.’

Today’s programme has taken the form of a stand-alone event that supporters could take part today in a one-day conference.

The world of mission has shifted from a one-way process to partnership, we were told this morning by the Right Revd Dickson Chilongani, Bishop of Central Tanganyika in Tanzania.

‘The Church in Africa is the Church of the Poor,’ he said, ‘… but the Church in the West has much to learn from us.’ He spoke movingly about suffering and trusting in God. We are not merely human beings but ‘human becomings.’

Bishop Dickson said to be prophetic is to speak on God’s behalf. He reminded us that the majority of prophets in the Old Testament were not priests but lay people, ordinary people, like Amos the farmer who was a shepherd and who was looking after sycamore trees.

These prophets told the truth about power and society, spoke on behalf of the poor and the oppressed, and predicted the consequences of the events of their day, pointing to the choice between impending judgment and redemption.

For the Prophetic Voice of the Church to be heard today, lay participation is crucial.

We also heard three very different perspectives from three priests working on the margins with refugees and migrants.

The Biblical background for our discussion with a ‘migration panel’ was provided by the Revd Dr Evie Vernon O’Brien, who read two relevant Bible passages:

‘A wandering Aramean was my ancestor; he went down into Egypt and lived there as an alien, few in number, and there he became a great nation, mighty and populous. When the Egyptians treated us harshly and afflicted us, by imposing hard labour on us, we cried to the Lord, the God of our ancestors; the Lord heard our voice and saw our affliction, our toil, and our oppression.’ (Deuteronomy 26: 5-7)

… an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, ‘Get up, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you; for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.’ Then Joseph got up, took the child and his mother by night, and went to Egypt ... (Matthew 2: 13-15)

The speakers and guests were drawn from West Africa, North Africa, and Europe:

● the Revd Canon St Obed Arist Kojo Baiden of the Anglican Diocese of The Gambia;

● the Revd Dennis Obidiegwu, chaplain of Saint Andrew’s Church, Tangier, Morocco;

● the Revd Canon Kirilee Reid, chaplain and refugee projects officer in Calais in France.

Many of the people they work with are strong young men and women, most have children. Today, there are about 550 displaced people living in Calais, more up the coast in Dunkirk. When the Jungle disbanded, just means more dispersed, more needs, and difficult to defend their human rights.

Canon St Obed Arist Kojo Baiden asked what is the difference between refugees and migrants. There is a fine difference, he said, but added: ‘All of us are migrants, for all of us are on the move.’

Father Dennis told us, ‘One life that is lost the whole world cannot replace.’

This afternoon we hear snippets and stories from people who have returned from ‘Journey with Us’ programmes in Tanzania, St Vincent and elsewhere. We also heard from the Right Revd Calvert Leopold Friday, Bishop of the Windward Islands in the Church of the Province of the West Indies.

Later in the afternoon, there was a choice from five workshops:

● Mission stories from North India (with Bishop Probal Kanto Dutta of Calcutta);

● Going back, going forward, what is home? (with a Migration Panel);

● Engaging Church and Community in Global Mission (with Davidson Solanki and Fran Mate);

● The Prophetic Voice in the UK and Ireland (with the Revd Duncan Dormor and the Revd Evie Vernon O’Brien).

● Journey with Us (with Habib Nader).

Before the end of the day, there is a meeting of the USPG Council this evening, closing with night prayer.

The final day of the conference tomorrow (26 June 2019) begins again with a Bible study led by the Very Revd Gloria Mapangdol from the Philippines, and morning discussions on Speaking Truth to Power, led by Cathrine Fungai Ngangira from Zimbabwe, a second year ordinand at Cranmer Hall, Durham University, and on the 2020 Lambeth Conference, led by Canon Richard Bartlett.

The celebrant at our closing Eucharist tomorrow is Bishop Calvert Leopold Friday from the Windward Islands, and the preacher is Bishop Ellinah Wamukoya of Swaziland, who has visited the Diocese of Killaloe many times.

In the grounds of the High Leigh Conference Centre in Hoddesdon today (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

Following the Stations of the Cross in Lent 18: Millstreet 1: Jesus is condemned to death

Station 1 at Saint John’s Well, Millstreet, Co Cork … Jesus is condemned to death (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

Each morning in Lent, as part of my meditations and reflections for Lent this year, I am being guided by the Stations of the Cross from three locations.

The idea for this series of morning Lenten meditations came from reading about Peter Walker’s new exhibition, ‘Imagining the Crucifixion,’ inspired by the Stations of the Cross, which opened in Lichfield Cathedral last month and continues throughout Lent.

Throughout Lent, my meditations each morning are inspired by three sets of Stations of the Cross that I have found either inspiring or unusual. They are the stations in Saint Mel’s Cathedral, Longford, at Saint John’s Well on a mountainside near Millstreet, Co Cork, and in the Chapel of Saint John’s Hospital, Lichfield.

In my meditations, I am drawing on portions of the Stabat Mater, the 12th century hymn of the Crucifixion (‘At the cross her station keeping’) attributed to the Franciscan poet Jacopone da Todi. Some prayers are traditional, some are from the Book of Common Prayer, and other meditations and prayers are by Canon Frank Logue and the Revd Victoria Logue of the Episcopal Diocese of Georgia.

For the next two weeks, I am looking at the 14 Stations of the Cross at Saint John’s Well in a forested area on the slopes of Mushera, outside Millstreet in north Co Cork and close to the Cork/Kerry border

Saint John’s Well is 8 or 9 km south-east of Millstreet, on the slopes of Mushera, on the Aubane side of the mountain, opposite the entrance to Millstreet Country Park. The Stations date from 1984 and were designed by Liam Cosgrave and Sons, Sculptors, of Blackpool, Cork.

Millstreet 1: Jesus is condemned to death

The first station by Liam Cosgrave in Millstreet is composed using the framework of two inner arches and two outer arches to create the image of an inner courtyard. The condemned but dignified Christ stands beneath an arch before a youthful-looking Pilate, who sits enthroned as a servant kneels before him holding a bowl in which Pilate has rinsed his fingers.

This detail is recorded in Saint Matthew’s Gospel alone:

So when Pilate saw that he could do nothing, but rather that a riot was beginning, he took some water and washed his hands before the crowd, saying, ‘I am innocent of this man’s blood; see to it yourselves.’ Then the people as a whole answered, ‘His blood be on us and on our children!’ (Matthew 27: 24-25).

Pilate is invoking Hebrew symbolism, not Roman custom, when he washes his hands. In Jewish law, if a murdered person was found and no murderer can be identified, the elders of the town were to make a sacrifice and ritually wash their hands and declare: ‘Our hands did not shed this blood, nor were we witnesses to it. Absolve, O Lord, your people Israel whom you redeemed.’ Do not let the guilt of innocent blood remain in the midst of your people Israel’ (see Deuteronomy 21: 1-8).

Although this one incident in the Passion narrative appears in only one Gospel, the phrase ‘washing my hands’ has passed into the English language as a idiom in which someone refuses to accept responsibility for their actions.

In Shakespeare’s Richard III (Act 1 Scene 4), at the murder of the Duke of Clarence, the Second Murderer declares:

A bloody deed, and desperately dispatch’d!
How fain, like Pilate, would I wash my hands
Of this most grievous guilty murder done!

Incidentally, this Duke of Clarence, George Plantagenet (1449-1478), a brother of Edward IV and Richard III, was born in Dublin Castle on 21 October 1449. Clarence is the first character to die in the play, having been condemned to death unjustly by his own brother.

From Stabat Mater:

Lord Jesus, crucified, have mercy on us!
At the cross her station keeping,
Stood the mournful Mother weeping,
Close to Jesus to the last.

Meditation:

Betrayed. Deserted. Alone. Jesus stands before an unjust judge. Dry palm branches crackle under the feet of the crowd. Soldiers rain down punches and crown him with thorns. Jesus is condemned to die.

Prayers:

Lamb of God, who came to take away the sins of the world, you knew no sin and yet were sentenced to death. Assist me by your mercy to see the beam in my own eye and to remove it before I look to the speck in the eyes of others. This we pray in the name of Jesus, our crucified Lord, the King of Glory, the King of Peace. Amen.

We adore you, O Christ, and we praise you.
Because by your holy cross You have redeemed the world.

Jesus, you stand all alone before Pilate. Nobody speaks up for you. Nobody helps defend you. You devoted your entire life to helping others, listening to the smallest ones, caring for those who were ignored by others. They do not seem to remember that as they prepare to put you to death.

My Jesus, often have I signed the death warrant by my sins; save me by your death from that eternal death which I have so often deserved.

A prayer before walking to the next station:

Holy God,
Holy and mighty Holy immortal one,
Have mercy on us.

Tomorrow: Station 2: Jesus takes the Cross.

Yesterday’s reflection

Colourful shopfronts on the Square in Millstreet, Co Cork (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Celebrating with the strangers who abide with us

“… you shall take some of the first of all the fruit of the ground … and you shall put it in a basket and go to the place that the Lord your God will choose as a dwelling for his name” (Deuteronomy 26: 2)

Patrick Comerford

Sunday week, 17 February 2013, is the First Sunday in Lent.

The readings in the Revised Common Lectionary for the First Sunday in Lent (Year C) are: Deuteronomy 26: 1-11; Psalm 91: 1-2, 9-16; Romans 10: 8b-13; Luke 4: 1-13.

In this series of Bible studies, we have been looking at the Old Testament readings.

Deuteronomy 26: 1-11

1 When you have come into the land that the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance to possess, and you possess it, and settle in it, 2 you shall take some of the first of all the fruit of the ground, which you harvest from the land that the Lord your God is giving you, and you shall put it in a basket and go to the place that the Lord your God will choose as a dwelling for his name. 3 You shall go to the priest who is in office at that time, and say to him, ‘Today I declare to the Lord your God that I have come into the land that the Lord swore to our ancestors to give us.’ 4 When the priest takes the basket from your hand and sets it down before the altar of the Lord your God, 5 you shall make this response before the Lord your God: ‘A wandering Aramean was my ancestor; he went down into Egypt and lived there as an alien, few in number, and there he became a great nation, mighty and populous. 6 When the Egyptians treated us harshly and afflicted us, by imposing hard labour on us, 7 we cried to the Lord, the God of our ancestors; the Lord heard our voice and saw our affliction, our toil, and our oppression. 8 The Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with a terrifying display of power, and with signs and wonders; 9 and he brought us into this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. 10 So now I bring the first of the fruit of the ground that you, O Lord, have given me.’ You shall set it down before the Lord your God and bow down before the Lord your God. 11 Then you, together with the Levites and the aliens who reside among you, shall celebrate with all the bounty that the Lord your God has given to you and to your house.

Looking at the text:

The Book Deuteronomy could be described as a theological account of and interpretation of the final speech by Moses to the freed Hebrew slaves before they cross into the Promised Land. This chapter, then, anticipates the climax and conclusion of that final speech.

We could also see this book as a reinterpretation of the Exodus legal tradition for a later generation, who now live a settled life. Exodus 23: 19 and Exodus 34: 26 say only: “The choicest/best of the first fruits of your ground you shall bring into the house of the Lord your God.”

This passage expands on this teaching. Why?

At different points in their history, the Jews who settled in Palestine made great efforts to remember how it was that they got there, and under certain kings, and certainly on their return from their captivity in Babylon, there were attempts to set all of this history and oral tradition down in writing.

In Deuteronomy, we have an excellent example of what was attempted either in the reforms of King Josiah (8th century BC), or with the return from Babylon (6th century BC).

In this reading we have the stipulations for a “thanksgiving ceremony” followed by a remembrance of the deliverance from Egypt. The verse that begins with “a wandering Aramean…” is an integral part of the Haggadah, the liturgy for the Passover Seder. But the commandment here is highly specific. The first fruits – and not simply the best or choicest – are to be taken in a “basket” (verse 2) to “the priest who is in office” (verse 3) and to a central location.

Earlier, there were several shrines to God but now there is only one – the Temple in Jerusalem. Here the giving is linked to Israelite history: God swore to Abraham (“ancestors,” verse 3) to give the Promised Land to Israel. Jacob, the “wandering Aramean” (verse 5), and his children moved to Egypt in a time of famine. There they multiplied, were oppressed and enslaved. When they prayed to God to help them, he used his power to free them.

Note how in verse 9 they are no longer “wandering” semi-nomads. Now they live in a prosperous “land flowing with milk and honey.”

In thanks for God’s gift of both the land and abundant crops, the Israelites are to give produce to God (verse 10). In recognition of his sovereignty over the land, they are to prostrate themselves (“bow down”) before him. God’s gifts are the cause for celebration by both Israelites and the foreigners (“aliens,” verse 11) who live among them.

The places God leads us may be places of blessing, but they are often places where growth comes with, or perhaps through, pain and struggle.

Some additional notes on the verses:

Verses 1-11:

These verses describe a liturgy for the presentation of the first fruits in the central sanctuary.

Verse 2:

The occasion is the harvest pilgrimage festival, the Festival of Weeks (see Deuteronomy 16: 9-12). During that festival, the worshippers thanked God for the gift of the land and a bounteous harvest.

“you shall take some of the first of all the fruit of the ground”: The Israelites in Canaan, being God’s tenants-at-will, were required to give him tribute in the form of first-fruits and tithes. No Israelite was at liberty to use any productions of his field until he had presented the required offerings.

The tribute began to be offered after the settlement in the Promised Land, and it was repeated each year at one of the great feasts (see Leviticus 2: 14, 23: 10, 23: 15; Numbers 26: 26; Deuteronomy 16: 19). Every head of a family carried it on his shoulders in a little basket of osier, peeled willow, or palm leaves, and brought it to the sanctuary.

Verses 5-10:

These verses amount to a basic confession of faith in the form of a story.

Verse 5:

you shall make this response … ‘A wandering Aramean was my ancestor …”

The ancestor referred to here is to Jacob’s semi-nomadic life.

The ancestors of the Hebrews were nomad shepherds, either Arameans or Syrians by birth as Abraham, or by long residence as Jacob. When they were established as a nation and came into possession of the Promised Land, they were indebted to God’s unmerited goodness for their distinguished privileges, and in token of gratitude they brought this basket of first-fruits.

Verse 6:

us – the plural pronouns show that worshipper identifies with the community of faith in making this recitation.

Verse 11:

you … shall celebrate – Feasting with friends and the Levites, who were invited on such occasions to share in the cheerful festivities that followed oblations (Deuteronomy 12: 7; 16: 10-15).

The other readings:

Psalm 91: 1-2, 9-16

Perhaps a priest or temple prophet speaks the opening verses of the psalm. Worshippers are to trust in God to protect them. He will protect them from attacks by demonic forces day and night (verses 3-6); he will shield them as a mother hen guards her chicks. Many may succumb to evil forces, but not the faithful (verse 7).

Those who trust in God will see evildoers punished (verse 8). God will ensure that no harm comes to those who live a godly life (verse 9). “His angels” (verse11) will be his agents, guarding the faithful in whatever they do. The roads of Palestine were rocky so the metaphor in verse 12 is apt. Not only will the faithful be safe from accidents, but they will also take the offensive in defeating evil (verse 13). God speaks in verses 14-16.

Knowing God’s name includes realising that he helps those in need. When they seek help, God will “answer them”. Perhaps the “long life” (verse 16) is the king’s: political uncertainty ensued when a king died.

It is very easy, therefore to link this Psalm with the Gospel reading.

But if you were to take up the theme of sharing with the alien or foreigner in our midst you might also want to draw on verse 1, “Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High …”

Romans 10: 8b-13

In the previous chapter of this epistle, Saint Paul has written that the Israelites were striving for law-based righteousness (9: 31), a right relationship with God, but they failed to achieve it because they sought it through “works” (9: 32) rather than faith.

Drawing on the Prophet Isaiah (see Isaiah 28: 16 and 8: 14), Saint Paul says that God is the impediment that lay in their way. He desires that they be part of God’s plan of salvation because of their “zeal for God” (10: 2). However, they lack the right relationship with God that now comes from God: that revealed in Christ. They missed the real meaning of what God has done through Christ, thus failing to embrace Christ as the model for living. Moses said that union with God comes through obedience to the Law (verse 5), but this is close to impossible: it is like a Christian being expected to bring about his own resurrection (verse 6) and ascension (verse 7), which is not what we are asked to do.

Rather, Saint Paul tells us (in verse 8) that God’s “word”, his freely-given gift of love and right living, is readily available (“near you”) through faith. We need only acknowledge that “Jesus is Lord” (verse 9) and believe in Christ’s resurrection by the Father. One who believes this and recognises Christ as sovereign is godly (“justified”, verse 10) and will have new life when Christ comes again (“saved”).

In verse 11, Saint Paul again draws from Isaiah: “no one” who believes will be condemned (“put to shame”) at the Last Day.

The theme in the Old Testament reading of sharing with the alien or the foreigner is reflected in verse 12, where we are reminded that there are no ethnic or cultural distinctions in Christ: “For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; the same Lord is Lord of all and is generous to all who call on him.”

There is one Christ – for all people, and everyone who sincerely believes and calls on him shall be saved (verse 13).

Luke 4: 1-13

Earlier in this cycle of readings, we have heard Saint Luke’s account of Christ’s baptism in the Jordan (Luke 3: 15-17, 21-22, the First Sunday after the Epiphany, 13 January 2013). There, Saint Luke recalls “a voice ... from heaven” (Luke 3: 22) saying: “You are my Son ...” On that occasion, “the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form.”

In the Gospel story in this set of readings, Christ moves between the spiritual world and the earthly world as he faces these testing by the devil.

But there are resonances here too with today’s other readings. For example, his time in the wilderness (“forty days,” verse 2) parallels the forty years in the wilderness. Or, he eats nothing … just as Moses eats nothing during the time he was on the mountain to receive the Ten Commandments. And he answers the questions put to him with quotations from the Book Deuteronomy.

Collect:

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 our Lord.

Post Communion Prayer:

Lord God,
you renew us with the living bread from heaven.
Nourish our faith,
increase our hope,
strengthen our love,
and enable us to live by every word
that proceeds from out of your mouth;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Canon Patrick Comerford is Lecturer in Anglicanism and Liturgy, the Church of Ireland Theological Institute, and an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the University of Dublin (Trinity College Dublin). These notes were prepared for a Bible study in a tutorial group with part-time MTh students on Saturday 9 February 2013.