Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2026: 10, Thursday 12 February 2026

But she answered, ‘Sir, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs’ (Mark 7: 28) (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar. This week began with the Second Sunday before Lent (8 February 2026), and Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent are less than a week away (18 February 2026). Later this evening, we may go to the fun evening in Stony Stratford from 5 to 7 pm organised by the School of the Greek Orthodox Community. This Thursday before Lent is known as Tsiknopempti or Smoky or Smelly Thursday, and this is an evening for a BBQ and a carnival party and fun at the Swinfen Harris Hall, beside the Greek Orthodox Church.

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

1, today’s Gospel reading;

2, a short reflection;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

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

But she answered, ‘Sir, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs’ (Mark 7: 28) … seen on the streets in Ballybunion, Co Kerry (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Mark 7: 24-30 (NRSVA):

24 From there he set out and went away to the region of Tyre. He entered a house and did not want anyone to know he was there. Yet he could not escape notice, 25 but a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit immediately heard about him, and she came and bowed down at his feet. 26 Now the woman was a Gentile, of Syrophoenician origin. She begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter. 27 He said to her, ‘Let the children be fed first, for it is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.’ 28 But she answered him, ‘Sir, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.’ 29 Then he said to her, ‘For saying that, you may go – the demon has left your daughter.’ 30 So she went home, found the child lying on the bed, and the demon gone.

In the small miniature below Jean Colombe’s painting of the story of the Syro-Phoenician woman, the Disciples, gathered like a Greek chorus, can see her but cannot see the body language and facial reaction of Christ

Today’s Reflection:

The story of the Syrophoenician woman in Tyre and her daughter is one of my favourite stories in the Gospels, alongside those of the Wedding at Cana (John 2: 1-11), the Samaritan woman at the well (John 4: 5-42) and the Resurrection appearance to Mary Magdalene (Mark 16: 9; John 20).

I have reflected often on the Syrophoenician woman and her daughter (Matthew 15: 21-28; Mark 7: 24-37), and I have compared their story with the women in one of the great Greek tragedies, The Phoenician Women by Euripides.

I am an avid fan of soap operas like EastEnders. All human life is there. When my sons were younger, EastEnders gave opportunities to talk with them about major life issues without having to point fingers at anyone they or I knew. We could talk about drugs, gambling, business ethics, sexuality, relationships, domestic violence, poverty, racism, justice and injustice … all within context, but without naming or shaming anyone we know.

But context is everything. If you watch it regularly, then the profile of each character is built up night-by-night, week-by-week. However, if you miss an episode, or miss a week, then you cannot come to a full and fair judgment or evaluation of someone’s actions and their intentions, or come to any conclusion about causes and consequences.

Sometimes, it can be a bit like that too when it comes to reading one episode on its own from the Gospel stories. Context involves what happened before and what happens after. And we might realise the same with our readings these weeks from Saint Mark’s Gospel, including this morning’s reading about the Syro-Phoenician woman.

Context is all important: why does Jesus seemingly refuse at first to offer hope and comfort to this woman and her daughter?

Why do the disciples encourage him to show no compassion?

Why does Jesus use such shocking, crude language when he speaks to this woman?

This story is set in the area around today’s northern Israel and south Lebanon. Even to this day, dogs are not seen as the sort of animals that should be in the same room as we eat.

Is Jesus telling this woman she is dirty in her domestic habits?

Earlier this week, in our Gospel readings, we read how the very same accusation was made against Jesus and his disciples – accused of not washing their hands before eating.

Is Jesus using language that is so direct and so shocking that it amounts to implying her daughter is a ‘little bitch’?

My friend and colleague Dr Clare Amos is a Biblical scholar has worked in that area – in Jerusalem and Lebanon – for many years. She has been Director for Theological Studies at the Anglican Communion and Director of Lay Discipleship in the Diocese in Europe, and she prepares a weekly blog that is related to the weekly lectionary readings.

In one of her postings, she pointed out that this Gospel reading comes between two great stories in Saint Mark’s Gospel of feeding large crowds with bread: his account of the feeding of the 5,000 with bread (Mark 6: 30-44) and the feeding of the 4,000 with bread (Mark 8: 1-10).

In between these two very similar stories, we hear about the Syrophoenician woman and her encounter with Jesus. And bread, once again, is a prominent theme in their exchange that could be a script for an episode of EastEnders.

Jesus says to her, ‘Let the children be fed first, for it is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.’

But she answers him, ‘Sir, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs’ (Mark 7: 27-28).

If Christ’s retort is meant to be witty, then the woman is also witty in her reply, appearing to ask whether her thinks her daughter is a ‘little bitch’: κυνάριον (kinárion) in verse 28 in our reading is translated as ‘dog’, but it is diminutive and could be more accurately rendered as ‘little dog’ … even, in the feminine, ‘little bitch’!

This exchange is both witty and compassionate. Like so many classical dramas, it is a mixture of comedy and tragedy, and it alludes to a well-known Greek play, the Phoenician Women (Φοίνισσαι, Phoinissai), a tragedy by Euripides.

In this reading, she is described as ‘a Gentile, of Syrophoenician origin’ (verse 26). But the original Greek text describes her as ‘a Greek woman, a Syrophoenician by birth’ (ἦν Ἑλληνίς, Συροφοινίκισσα τῷ γένει). The Clementine Homilies name her as Justa and her daughter as Bernice. But, like so many women in the Gospels, they are unnamed.

At first, it appears, Jesus is not willing to heal this woman’s daughter.

Is this because he is afraid, once again, of being accused, along with his disciples, of being ritually unclean?

Or, as I have asked before in previous encounters with this woman in the Gospel readings, is his unwillingness, his reluctance, a dramatic pose that challenges the disciples to think again about the limits of their compassion?

Many years ago, when I bumped into the journalist, broadcaster and lay theologian the late Seán Mac Réamoinn in Saint Anne’s Church, Dublin, I asked him how he was.

He told me he felt like a filled-out census form.

I must have looked puzzled, so he explained: ‘I’m broken down by age, sex and religion.’

Have the disciples been caught out by the banter and exchanges between Jesus and this woman?

Have they been shown that they have a compassion that is severely limited by age, sex and religion, by language, class and ethnicity?

Is my compassion truly compassionate if it is limited by boundaries I construct like this – when I hedge it with my own prejudices and limitations?

After this witty exchange between the woman and Jesus, their puns and insider jokes about the ‘crumbs,’ Jesus is shown not to be hesitant at all. He tests this woman, and she meets the test, and – unlike the daughters of the Phoenician women in the play by Euripides – this woman’s daughter is healed and restored to a place in society that even the disciples are unwilling to extend to her.

As Clare Amos points out, the context of today’s Gospel story is found in the way it comes between Saint Mark’s two accounts of the feeding of multitudes: the feeding of the 5,000 and the feeding of the 4,000. She recalls a very ancient tradition that the people who are fed at the first miracle are Jewish, and the people fed at the second miracle are Gentiles.

In other words, between these two stories, Christ’s ministry moves from engaging with his fellow Jews, to reflecting God’s abundant provision for all people, Gentiles as well as Jews.

She suggests that in this encounter between Jesus and the Syrophoenician woman, a vital ‘boundary’ is crossed and broken, taking Christ out into the Gentile world.

The story of this mother and her daughter finds its context in – is sandwiched between – the two stories about feeding the crowds. All three stories involve feeding with bread. Christ’s invitation to the Eucharist needs to be opened out, from being a rite of the Church to being a banquet for the world.

Only when we break down our limitations or prejudices can Christ’s healing message be brought to a world that cries out for God’s healing, God’s mercy, God’s justice … that cries out to be called into God’s Kingdom.

Les Très Riches Heures du duc de Berry, Folio 164r – The Canaanite Woman (The Musée Condé, Chantilly)

Today’s Prayers (Thursday 12 February 2026):

The theme this week in ‘Pray With the World Church,’ the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is: ‘Safe Routes’ (pp 26-27). This theme was introduced on Sunday with a Programme Update by Bradon Muilenburg, Anglican Refugee Support Lead.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Thursday 12 February 2026) invites us to pray:

Bring healing to families of loved ones lost in Calais, Grande-Synthe, and Dunkerque and in the UK. Restore hope to those navigating grief and trauma.

The Collect of the Day:

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

The Post-Communion Prayer:

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

Additional Collect:

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

Yesterday’s Reflections

Continued Tomorrow

The Syro-Phoenician Woman … a modern icon by Brother Robert Lentz, OFM

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

Another East End synagogue has closed in London and is due to be sold at auction next week

The East London Central Synagogue, a 100-year-old synagogue in the East End, is for sale at an online auction next Thursday (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

The East London Central Synagogue, a 100-year-old synagogue in the East End, is for sale at an online auction next Thursday (12 February) with a guide price of more than £2 million. The synagogue, also known as Nelson Street Synagogue, was founded in 1923, and is being sold on behalf of the Federation of Synagogues.

This is the only surviving purpose-built synagogue in the East End and one of just three remaining synagogues in the East End. It was closed in 2020 after a leak in the roof caused part of the ceiling to collapse and also because of the impact of Covid-19 on attendance numbers.

Ever since, the synagogue in Whitechapel has been largely disused. It remains a locally listed heritage asset, however, and any development by new owners would involve taking consideration of this listing.

The East London Central Synagogue, also known as Nelson Street Synagogue, was founded as the Nelson Street Sfardish Synagogue in 1923 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

By the early 1890s, there were shuls (synagogues), chevrot (benevolent societies) and steiblech (informal places of worship) all over the Spitalfields, Whitechapel and the Saint George’s area. The East End had become a centre of Jewish life by the early 20th century, with a Jewish population of about 250,000 people and about 150 synagogues.

Most of these people were Yiddish-speaking first-generation immigrants from East Europe, unlike other, longer-established Ashkenazi and Sephardi communities in the country, which had come in earlier generations from the Low Countries.

Nelson Street is in the Borough of Tower Hamlets, and previously in Stepney, and extends for 1,000 ft east from New Road, off Commercial Road. It runs parallel with Varden Street, immediately to the north, and crosses over Turner Street and Philpot Street. The East London Central Synagogue, also known as Nelson Street Synagogue, was an Ashkenazi Orthodox synagogue affiliated to the Federation of Synagogues.

It was founded as the Nelson Street Sfardish Synagogue (Hebrew name: Ohr HaChaim D’bnai Berdichev) in 1923, at a time when the East End was a crowded Jewish neighbourhood, largely made up of immigrants. Initially the style of service (nosach) was Sfardish or Sphardish, also known as Askenazi Sfard, which is not to be confused with Sephardi. The name Sfardish refers to a style of service that differs slightly from mainstream Ashkenazi and is similar to Hassidic usage. The order of service and certain extra words in some of the prayers are similar to the Sephardic tradition, but the Hebrew pronunciation and tunes are Ashkenazi, as were most of the Nelson Street congregation.

There were other Sfardish shuls in the area, such as Philpot Street Sfardish synagogue, which eventually amalgamated with Nelson Street.

Other lost synagogues in the East End include the Spital Square Poltava Synagogue on Heneage Street, the former Artillery Lane Synagogue and the former Gun Street Synagogue.

Nelson Street Synagogue was the East End’s last surviving purpose-built synagogue and one of just three remaining synagogues in the East End (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The foundation stone of Nelson Street Synagogue was laid by the synagogue president, B Bernstein, on 19 August 1923. The synagogue was designed by Lewis Solomon (1848-1928), an architect who designed several synagogues, and served as both the honorary architect of the Federation of Synagogues and architect and surveyor of the United Synagogue.

Lewis Solomon was born in 1848 to a Jewish family and was an apprentice and later clerk of works in the office of Matthew Digby Wyatt. He commenced practice on his own in London in 1872. Lewis Solomon and Son also redesigned the premises of the neighbouring Congregation of Jacob synagogue on Commercial Road, which also survives, in 1921. His other works include Golders Green Synagogue and the Fulham and West Kensington Synagogue.

His practice was being run by 1923 by his son Digby Lewis Solomon (1884-1962). Lewis Solomon died in 1928, and the practice later became Lewis Solomon, Kaye & Partners.

Inside the East London Centre Synagogue on Nelson Street (Photograph: Acuitus auction particulars)

Nelson Street Synagogue has been described as having ‘an unassuming exterior and a stunningly beautiful interior.’ The architectural historian Sir Nikolaus Pevsner described it in 1951: ‘Discreet brick exterior with two tiers of windows beneath round-headed arches with stone keystones. Fine classical interior. Galleries with iron railings between Ionic columns; coved steps, framed by a Venetian arch on Doric columns. Above the Ark, scrolled pediment with tablets of the law and Lions of Judah. Panelled pews and Bimah.’

Nelson Street Synagogue had a tradition of assisting local poor people, setting up of soup kitchens and other charities. It also provided a welcoming haven for refugees fleeing Eastern Europe.

The area around Whitechapel and Mile End was known at one time as London’s ‘Jewish Quarter’ and the poet Avram Stencl, himself a refugee from Nazi Germany arriving here in 1944, understood this at a much deeper level describing it as ‘the last shtetl’, with all the exile, struggle and longing that implies.

The East End of Nelson Street Synagogue, until recently one of the few surviving working synagogues in the East End (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The East End was heavily bombed during World War II, and the Jewish population moved on to new Jewish centres in north and north-west London, such as Stamford Hill, Golders Green and Hendon.

The consequent fall in membership numbers caused many East End synagogues to close and the congregations of the East End synagogues consolidated. Over the years, about 20 neighbouring synagogues were amalgamated with Nelson Street, but some of them lived on as names on commemorative plaques.

They include:

Belz Synagogue (by 1952), Berditchever Synagogue (by 1952), Buross Street, Cannon Street Road Synagogue (early 1970s), Chevra Shass, Commercial Road Great Synagogue (after 1968), Grove Street Synagogue (about 1949), Jubilee Street Zionist Synagogue (about 1967), Mile End Synagogue, New Road Synagogue (1974), Philpot Street Great Synagogue (after 1956), Philpot Street Sphardish Synagogue (after 1956), Rumanian Sidney Street Synagogue (by 1952), and the Sons of Britchan (B’nai Brichtan) Synagogue (1952).

The synagogue was renamed East London Central Synagogue in 1975. In recent years, it was left as the East End’s only surviving purpose-built synagogue and one of just three remaining in the East End, along with Sandy’s Row Synagogue, and the Congregation of Jacob synagogue on Commercial Road.

Because of these amalgamations, the shul on Nelson Street had a large collection of Torah scrolls, some dating back to the 18th century, although many are now of unknown origin.

Inside Nelson Street shul, once the most vibrant in the East End (Photograph: Acuitus auction particulars)

Nelson Street shul was once the most vibrant in the East End. Many people on social media recalled how it used to be full, especially during the high holydays and Yomim Tovim. The comments included ones that recalled Josif Weisz, a chazan from Romania with a beautiful tenor voice, and Rabbi Spetzman, an elderly rabbi with a flowing long beard who gave his sermons in Yiddish. Even in the 1980s ‘it was full of some amazing old characters … proper EastEnders.’

By the beginning of the 21st century, ‘the congregation consisted of about half a dozen stalwarts and a rabbi who walked each Saturday from Stoke Newington.’

The Jewish East End Celebration Society organised a number of Jewish East End activities 20 years ago (2003). These included an interview with Anna Tzelniker, a renowned Yiddish actor who worked with her father Meier and others in both mainstream and Yiddish theatre.

She was born in Romania and came to England as a teenager with her family in the early 1930s. She started her career in her father’s travelling Yiddish theatre company in Romania. Her many roles included five years in the West End stage production of Fiddler on the Roof.

Most of the Jewish communities in the East End have been dispersed in recent decades, and the East End now has a considerable Muslim population. , and the shul actively engaged in interfaith relations through the Tower Hamlets Inter Faith Forum, which includes the large East London Mosque on Whitechapel Road. The synagogue was also regularly visited by historical societies and walking tours, and took part in Open House London.

Leon Silver, a former president of the Nelson Street synagogue, grew up in the neighbourhood, and in his blog postings in recent years has discussed the tensions with local people and efforts to foster dialogue among faith communities A march to the synagogue from Aldgate eight years ago (January 2018) commemorated the East End’s Jewish heritage, and was followed by a multi-faith service of remembrance.

The synagogue was due to celebrate its centenary in 2023, and the architect Maxwell Hutchinson drafted plans to add museum and library space, so that the shul could build on its attraction as a tourist destination and become an historic Jewish centre in the East End.

But, after many years of attempts at renovation, it has fallen into a parlous state of disrepair, despite its rich and history, emblematic of both the history of the East End and of the Jewish community that was once a major part of it.

Today the East London Central Synagogue is daubed with disturbing graffiti, and the area to the immediate east is strewn with litter and its view marred by bins and rubbish from neighbouring premises. Inside, under all the white paint, I imagine there still may be plaques that recall the original donors with donations of 2s 6d, 5 shillings,10s 6d, and even £1 or a guinea (21 shillings).

When news of the pending sale was posted on social media in recent weeks, there were many suggestions that the synagogue should be converted into the Jewish Museum, presenting the history of Jews in the East End.

Yet, no matter whatever happens to the shul after next week’s auction, the Jewish presence in the East End is not coming to an end: the Congregation of Jacob shul is a six-minute walk away to the east, and Sandy’s Row and Bevis Marks Synagogues are a mile to the west.

Shabbat Shalom, שבת שלום‎

Nelson Street Synagogue once had plans to become a tourist destination and an historic Jewish centre in the East End (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

• Update (9 February 2026): The estate agents website says the former synagogue has been sold prior to auction, and a video on social media says that it was bought by a Muslim organisation, the Ashaadibi Education and Cultural Centre, which put down a £250,000 deposit ‘to secure the contract’ and has nine months to raise £3.5 million to secure the purchase.

Daily prayer in Christmas 2025-2026: 37, Friday 30 January 2026

‘The earth produces of itself’ (Mark 4: 28) … fields at Shutlanger Road in Stoke Bruerne, Northamptonshire (Photographs: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

This is the last week in the 40-day season of Christmas, which continues until Candlemas or the Feast of the Presentation on Sunday (2 February 2025). This week began with the Third Sunday of Epiphany (Epiphany III, 26 January 2025).

The calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship today remembers Charles, King and Martyr (1649). But, before today begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, to reflect, to pray and to read in these ways:

1, today’s Gospel reading;

2, a short reflection;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

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

‘The seed would sprout and grow’ (Mark 4: 27) … a mulberry tree in Stoke Bruerne, Northamptonshire (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Mark 4: 26-34 (NRSVA):

26 He also said, ‘The kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground, 27 and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how. 28 The earth produces of itself, first the stalk, then the head, then the full grain in the head. 29 But when the grain is ripe, at once he goes in with his sickle, because the harvest has come.’
30 He also said, ‘With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable will we use for it? 31 It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth; 32 yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes the greatest of all shrubs, and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.’

Mulberry Street in Whitechapel … welcomed 400 refugees who had been trafficked by boat in 1764 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflections:

Chapter 4 in Saint Mark’s Gospel is the ‘parables chapter,’ recalling parables that make this chapter the central teaching section of this Gospel. Christ is in a boat beside the sea teaching a very large crowd who are listening on the shore (see Mark 4: 1-2). In this morning’s Gospel reading (Mark 4: 26-34) at the Eucharist, Christ describe the ‘kingdom of God’ by explaining the parable of sower scattering seed on the ground, which we read earlier this week, in the hope and expectation of the harvest (verses 26-29) and of the mustard seed that grows into a great tree (verses 30-32).

We may ask why Christ decides to talk about a mustard seed, or in Saint Luke’s Gospel about a mustard seed and a mulberry tree (Luke 17: 5-6), rather than, say, an olive tree. After all, as he was talking in the incident in today’s Gospel reading, he must have been surrounded by grove after grove of olive trees.

But, I can imagine, he is also watching to see if those who are listening have switched off their humour mode, if they have withdrawn their sense of humour. He is talking here with a great sense of humour, using hyperbole to underline his point.

We all know a tiny grain of mustard is incapable of growing to a big tree. So, what is Christ talking about here? Because, he not only caught the disciples off-guard with his hyperbole and sense of humour … he even wrong-footed some of the Reformers and many Bible translators who make mistakes about what sort of trees he is talking about in the Gospels.

The story of how mulberries were reintroduced to England over 400 years is a tale of how investors were wrongfooted, yet also leads to another story of how the churches helped to care refugees in London in the 1760s.

Mulberries were first introduced to England by the Romans and were commonly used for making mediaeval ‘murrey’ (sweet pottage) as well as for medicinal purposes. They were reintroduced in the early 17th century when James tried to establish native silk production in 1607-1609 when around 10,000 saplings were imported and distributed by William Stallenge and François Verton through local officials at six shillings for a hundred plants, less for packets of seeds.

The commercial project failed, black mulberries (morus nigra) being acquired rather than the white (morus alba) that silkworms tend to favour. But one of these mulberry plantations gave its name to Mulberry Street, a short quiet back street in Whitechapel, with the tall bell-tower of Saint Boniface, the German Roman Catholic Church, at one end.

There was a second mulberry garden close by, across Whitechapel Road in Mile End New Town, north of what is now Old Montague Street and east of Greatorex (formerly Great Garden) Street. Land to the east of that south of Old Montague Street appears also to have been similarly planted. Spitalfields was already at the beginning of the 17th century a centre of silk throwing and weaving.

The mulberry garden in Whitechapel became a market garden and then a pleasure ground, and was used of for a few weeks in 1764 as a temporary asylum for refugees. A tented camp was set up for around 400 deceived and destitute refugees from the Palatinate and Bohemia who had been abandoned on what they had thought was a journey to Nova Scotia. With local fundraising and charitable efforts, initiated primarily by local churches and clergy, the refugees eventually left and found homes in South Carolina.

Housing development in the area began in the 1780s and 1790s. The Mulberry Tree public house once stood on the north side of Little Holloway Street, while Union Row later became Mulberry Street.

Why did Christ refer to a mustard seed and a mulberry or sycamine tree, and not, say, an olive tree or an oak tree?

Christ first uses the example of a tiny, miniscule kernel or seed (κόκκος, kokkos), from which the small mustard plant (σίναπι, sinapi) grows. But mustard is an herb, not a tree. Not much of a miracle, you might say: tiny seed, tiny plant.

In Saint Luke’s Gospel, he then mixes his metaphors and refers to another plant. Martin Luther, in his translation of the Bible, turned the tree into a mulberry tree. The mulberry tree – both the black mulberry and the white mulberry – is from the same family as the fig tree.

As children, some of us sang or played to the nursery rhyme or song, Here we go round the mulberry bush. Another version is Here we go gathering nuts in May. The same tune is used for the American rhyme Pop goes the weasel and for the Epiphany carol, I saw three ships.

Of course, mulberries do not grow on bushes, and they do not grow nuts that are gathered in May. Nor is the mulberry a very tall tree – it grows from tiny seeds but only reaches the height of an adult person.

It is not a very big tree at all. It is more like a bush than a tree – and it is easy to uproot too.

However, the tree Christ names in Saint Luke’s Gospel (Greek συκάμινος, sikámeenos) is the sycamine tree, which has the shape and leaves of a mulberry tree but fruit that tastes like the fig, or the sycamore fig (συκόμορος, Ficus Sycomorus).

Others think the tree being referred to there is the sycamore fig (συκόμορος, Ficus Sycomorus), the big tree that little Zacchaeus climbs in Jericho to see Jesus (Luke 19: 1-10).

The sycamine tree is not naturally pollinated. The pollination process is initiated only when a wasp sticks its stinger right into the heart of the fruit. In other words, the tree and its fruit have to be stung in order to reproduce. There is a direct connection between suffering and growth, but also a lesson that everything in creation, including the wasp, has its place in the intricate balance of nature.

Whether it is a small seed like the mustard seed, a small, seemingly useless and annoying creature like the wasp, or a small and despised figure of fun like Zacchaeus, each has value in God’s eyes, and each has a role in the great harvest of gathering in for God’s Kingdom.

Put more simply, it is quality and not quantity that matters when it comes faith and love.

Mulberry Hall at 17-19 Stonegate, York, dates from 1434 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Friday 30 January 2026):

The theme this week (25-31 January 2026) in Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘Connections That Last’ (pp 22-23). This theme was introduced on Sunday with Reflections from Paula de Mello Alves, a Brazilian lawyer and theologian, Executive Secretary of the Southern Diocese, and former co-leader of the Anglican Communion Youth Network (ACYN).

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Friday 30 January 2026) invites us to pray:

Lord, we celebrate the connections built in ACYN. May these relationships carry encouragement and strength to all corners of the Anglican Communion, near and far.

The Collect:

King of kings and Lord of lords,
whose faithful servant Charles
prayed for those who persecuted him
and died in the living hope of your eternal kingdom:
grant us by your grace so to follow his example
that we may love and bless our enemies,
through the intercession of your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

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

Yesterday’s Reflections

Continued Tomorrow

Willow trees by the Monastery Lakes in Shutlanger, Northamptonshire (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 Christmas 2025-2026: 31, Saturday 24 January 2026

‘And the crowd came together again, so that they could not even eat’ (Mark 3: 20) … the crowd at the Battle of Cable Street 90 years ago in a mural in the East End (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

The 40-day season of Christmas continues until Candlemas or the Feast of the Presentation (2 February). Tomorrow is the Third Sunday of Epiphany (Epiphany III, 25 January 2026), and is also the Festival of the Conversion of Saint Paul, although this may be transferred to Monday (26 January).

The calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship today remembers Saint Francis de Sales (1567-1622), Bishop of Geneva and Teacher of the Faith. Today too is the seventh day of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, from 18 to 25 January. This year’s theme is ‘One Body, One Spirit’ – from Ephesians 4: 1-13 – which was prepared by the Armenian Apostolic Church, along with the Armenian Catholic and Evangelical Churches.

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

1, today’s Gospel reading;

2, a short reflection;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

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

Saint Thomas Becket in the Saint Thomas Window in All Saints’ Church, York … TS Eliot’s ‘Murder in the Cathedral’ is based on the murder of Thomas Becket (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Mark 3: 20-21 (NRSVA):

[Then Jesus went home;] 20 and the crowd came together again, so that they could not even eat. 21 When his family heard it, they went out to restrain him, for people were saying, ‘He has gone out of his mind.’

‘Time present and time past / Are both perhaps present in time future / And time future contained in time past’ … a sundial in Church Street, Stony Stratford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Today’s Reflections:
TS Eliot’s play Murder in the Cathedral is based on the events leading up to the murder of Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, on 29 December 1170 at the behest of King Henry II. The play focuses on Becket’s internal struggles. As he reflects on the martyrdom he faces, his tempters arrive, like Job’s comforters, and they question the archbishop about his plight, echoing in many ways Christ’s temptations in the wilderness.

The first tempter offers Becket the prospect of physical safety. The second offers him power, riches and fame in serving the king so that he can disarm the powerful and help the poor. The third suggests the archbishop should form an alliance with the barons and seize a chance to resist the king. Finally, the fourth tempter urges Thomas to look to the glory of martyrdom.

Becket responds to all four tempters and specifically addresses the immoral suggestions of the fourth tempter at the end of the first act:

Now is my way clear, now is the meaning plain:
Temptation shall not come in this kind again.
The last temptation is the greatest treason:
To do the right deed for the wrong reason.

Saint Mark’s Gospel is sparse in its account of the story of Christ’s temptations in the wilderness – just two verses (see Mark 1: 12-13). In the much fuller accounts (see Matthew 4: 1-11, Luke 4: 1-13), Christ is tempted to do the right things for the wrong reasons.

What would be wrong with Christ turning stones into bread (see Matthew 4: 3; Luke 4: 3-4) to feed the hungry?

What would be wrong with Christ showing miraculous powers (see Matthew 4: 3; Luke 4: 9) to point to the majesty of God (see Matthew 4: 4; Luke 4: 10-11)?

What would be wrong with Christ taking command of the kingdoms of this world (see Matthew 4: 9; Luke 4: 5-7) to usher in justice, mercy and peace?

Let me not deceive myself, these are real temptations. For all who are morally driven there is always a real temptation to do the right thing but to do it for the wrong reason.

In today’s reading in Saint Mark’s Gospel, we are at the point where Christ is about to be challenged in two fundamental ways: about whether his work is the work of God or the work of the Devil (Mark 3: 22), and to think about what his family thinks about what he is doing (Mark 3: 32). In today’s short reading of two verses, immediately before these challenges the family of Jesus came to one of his gatherings and try to distract him and prevent him from teaching, perhaps hoping to preserve their own reputation.

Christ brings hope and the boundless goodness of God into people’s lives. For that to happen, a certain degree of openness is needed on the part of the onlookers. Without that sincerity, growth in body, mind and spirit is unlikely to occur. But those who know Jesus well seem to be surprised by how he lives and acts. I pray for the freedom that I need not to be hemmed in by my habits or by the expectations of others.

To live freely is to challenge those who accept constraints and it needs courage to be led by the spirit of God.

The family members ask whether Jesus ‘has gone out of his mind.’ The melée around Jesus embarrasses them, they feel he is making a show of them, and they want to take control of him.

Can you think of those times in your life when you are drawing aware of your family’s embarrassment, disapproval or concern?

His family does not like what is happening to Jesus and seem to be embarrassed. He is breaking conventions, both religious and cultural. Perhaps they feel they are in danger or under suspicion because of him. People like Jesus who dare to be different cause suspicion, embarrassment and general unease for those who are close to them.

It is true to say that wounds from a friend can be trusted but it is true too that insults from close family members can bite bitterly.

How often do parents compare siblings with one another in a way that becomes belittling rather than encouraging?

How many children hear that their goodness, instead of being in-born, innate and God-given, is defined by their parents’ assent and approval?

How often has a child who says s/he is doing her/his best hears the critical response of a parental figure: ‘But your best is simply not good enough!’

It is heart-breakingly sad but so often true, as I have come to know, that too many adults who had a sibling die realise that one or both parents have thought it would have been preferable that a surviving child had died instead.

Sweet words bring gentle healing but insults from those closest sting hardest.

Some things in life are irretrievable, such as the opportunity to do another good being let go because it is inconvenient or because of fear that a close family member would express bewilderment or question your motivations.

Growing up without appropriate affirmation and independent decision-making can leave some people, when they are offered the opportunity to do the right thing or to make a difference in this society in this world, asking instead: ‘What’s in this for me?’ or: ‘What would my parents think of me?’

When I am asked to speak up for those who are marginalised or oppressed, this should be good enough reason in itself. But then I wonder how others are going to react – react not to the marginalised or the oppressed, but to me.

How often do I see what is the right thing to do, but find an excuse that I pretend is not of my own making?

How often do I think of doing the right thing only if it is going to please my family members – perhaps even a dead parent – or to please the neighbours?

How often do I use the Bible to justify not caring about the pain of others or ignoring or devaluing justice for others?

How often do I use obscure Bible texts to prop up my own prejudices, forgetting that any text in the Bible, however clear or obscure it may be, depends, in Christ’s own words, on the two greatest commandments, to love God and to love one another.

We can convince ourselves that we are doing the right thing when we are doing it for the wrong reason. A wrong decision taken once, thinking it is doing the right thing, but for the wrong reason, is not just an action in the present moment – it forms habits and it shapes who we are, within time and eternity.

Sophia Scholl (1921-1943), a German student who was active in the White Rose nonviolent resistance to the Nazis, was first arrested by the Gestapo when she was 16, and was beheaded in prison in Munich on 22 February 1943 at 21. She once wrote:

The real damage is done by those millions who want to ‘survive.’ The honest men who just want to be left in peace. Those who don’t want their little lives disturbed by anything bigger than themselves. Those with no sides and no causes. Those who won’t take measure of their own strength, for fear of antagonising their own weakness. Those who don’t like to make waves – or enemies. Those for whom freedom, honour, truth and principles are only literature. Those who live small, mate small, die small. It’s the reductionist approach to life: if you keep it small, you’ll keep it under control. If you don’t make any noise, the bogeyman won’t find you. But it’s all an illusion, because they die too, those people who roll up their spirits into tiny little balls so as to be safe. Safe?! From what? Life is always on the edge of death; narrow streets lead to the same place as wide avenues, and a little candle burns itself out just like a flaming torch does. I choose my own way to burn.’

How many protesters on the streets of Minneapolis and other cities across the US are thinking bravely in similar ways today?

What we do today or refuse to do today, even if we think it is the right thing to do but we do it for the wrong reasons, reflects how we have formed ourselves habitually in the past, is an image of our inner being in the present, and has consequences for the future we wish to shape.

As TS Eliot writes in ‘Burnt Norton’:

Time present and time past
Are both perhaps present in time future
And time future contained in time past

How is the Church to recover its voice and speak up for the oppressed and the marginalised, not because it is fashionable or politically correct today, but because it is the right thing to do today and for the future?

Surely all our actions ought to depend on those two great commandments – to love God and to love one another.

As the Post-Communion Prayer today asks, ‘help us to lay aside all foolishness and to live and walk in the way of insight, that we may come … to the eternal feast of heaven.’

The real damage is done by those millions who want to ‘survive’ (Sophie Scholl, 1921-1943)

Today’s Prayers (Saturday 24 January 2026):

The theme this week (18-24 January 2026) in Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), has been ‘Freedom Theologies’ (pp 20-21). This theme was introduced last Sunday with Reflections from Dr Thandi Gamedze, poet, theologian, and senior researcher at the Desmond Tutu Centre for Religion and Social Justice.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Saturday 24 January 2026) invites us to pray:

Gracious God, we thank you for the power of education. We pray especially for those who face barriers to education – open doors, remove obstacles, and give every child and young person the chance to grow, flourish, and contribute to a more just world.

The Collect:

Holy God,
who called your bishop Francis de Sales
to bring many to Christ through his devout life
and to renew your Church with patience and understanding:
grant that we may, by word and example,
reflect your gentleness and love to all we meet;
through Jesus Christ our Saviour,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post Communion Prayer:

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

The Collect on the Eve of the Conversion of Saint Paul:

Almighty God,
who caused the light of the gospel
to shine throughout the world
through the preaching of your servant Saint Paul:
grant that we who celebrate his wonderful conversion may follow him in bearing witness your truth;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Collect on the Eve of Epiphany III:

Almighty God,
whose Son revealed in signs and miracles
the wonder of your saving presence:
renew your people with your heavenly grace,
and in all our weakness
sustain us by your mighty power;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Yesterday’s Reflections

Continued Tomorrow

‘The Temptation of the Lord’ … an icon in the Lady Chapel in Lichfield Cathedral (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

The almshouse chapel and a controversial statue have survived in the Museumof the Home in Hoxton

The painted and varnished boards in the chancel area of the former almshouse chapel in the Museum of the Home in Hoxton (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Patrick Comerford

A group of three of us spent much of Thursday afternoon at the Museum of the Home in Hoxton, in the London Borough of Hackney, close to Hoxton station and Shoreditch. The museum is housed in former almshouses built over 300 years ago in 1714, and despite many changes over the past century or more, the almshouse chapel survives with many of its original details, including a memorial to and a copy of a statue of the original benefactor, Sir Robert Geffrye (1613-1704), who made his fortune in the 17th century as a slave trader.

As the estates of titled and landed families began to be broken up at the end of the 17th century, many of the large houses in the Hoxton area came to be used as schools, hospitals or asylums, and almshouses were built on the land given by benefactors, most of whom were City liverymen.

These almshouses included Aske’s Almshouses or Haberdashers’ Almshouses, built on Pitfield Street in 1689 thanks Robert Aske’s endowment for 20 poor haberdashers. The almshouses endowed by Sir Robert Geffrye were established by the Ironmongers’ Company on Kingsland Road in 1714.

The former chapel retains much of its original furniture, including the wooden pulpit, prayer desk and pews (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

The 14 almshouses were built in 1714 for around 50 residents in need associated with the Ironmongers’ Company. They were financed by Geffrye, a merchant and slave trader who had once been Lord Mayor of London and Master of the Ironmongers’ Company, one of the livery companies of the City of London.

The original 14 almshouses had four rooms each – one room for each resident. The central Great Room was used as a meeting place and to socialise for the first two years of the almshouses, but it was then turned into a chapel at the heart of the buildings and it was used primarily for Sunday services.

In addition, the almshouses had a matron, groundskeeper and chapel clerk, all employed from among the pensioners. The almshouses also had a chaplain, who was not a pensioner and who held a position of authority.

Inside the double doors, with chapel bell, in the former chapel (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

The chapel remains a beautiful, high-ceiling space complete with wooden pulpit, prayer desk and pews. Behind the rails, where the altar once stood, three varnished boards survive, inscribed in gold lettering with the Apostles’ Creed, the Ten Commandments and the Lord’s Prayer. The residents of the almshouses were obliged to attend the Sunday services in the chapel each week.

A monument to Sir Robert Geffrye and his wife Priscilla was moved to the former chapel from their local church, and the additional context of the origins of their wealth is explained in simple terms.

The survival of the chapel is a reminder that the museum is set within a real space that was once been part of daily life for the residents of the almshouses. The 300-year old space can be hired for ceremonies and events on Mondays, and after 5 pm from Tuesday to Sunday. The Reading Room off the chapel provides additional space that can be booked for receptions or private dining.

In the Undercroft, the space beneath the former chapel (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Most of the basement space has been cleaned up to make it suitable for museum displays. The space beneath the chapel or the Undercroft has been left with its brick arches exposed and it has been modernised to create a beautiful, intimate space for small groups.

The vaulted ceilings and soft lighting give the room a warm, yet dramatic character. The Undercroft has its own door onto the Gardens Through Time, allowing receptions to spill out into the evening air.

By the late 19th century, Hoxton had become one of the most impoverished parts of the East End. the remaining pensioners in the almshouses were moved to Kent and Hampshire, and the Ironmongers’ Company closed the almshouses in 1911.

London County Council was keen to save the gardens in a densely populated part of the East Ebd, and saw the potential of giving the almshouses a new purpose as a museum. The Geffrye Museum, with collections of furniture and wood crafts, opened in 1914 and remained open throughout World War II. It became a charitable trust in 1991, and after a two-year £18 million development and refurbishment project reopened in 2018 as the Museum of the Home.

The Museum of the Home, housed in the 18th century Grade I listed former almshouses, invites visitors to take a journey through homes over the last four centuries, exploring how people once lived and lived now.

The statue of Sir Robert Geffrye is in a niche above a pair of doors leading into the former chapel (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

The museum has been the focus of controversy recently, with calls to remove the replica statue of Sir Robert Geffrye from the front of the building, above the doors leading directly into the chapel, and revelations of interference by the Conservative government in the consultations and decision-making process.

The statue is set in a niche above what looks like the main entrance to the museum, but is in fact a pair of long since blocked off doors into the chapel.

Geffrye was became an East India merchant and had two terms as Master Ironmonger. He was knighted in 1673, was Sheriff of London in 1674, and was the Lord Mayor of London in 1685-1686, and President of Bridewell and Bethlehem Hospitals in 1692-1693. Geffrye was a significant trader in tobacco, invested in the Atlantic slave trade and was part owner of a slave ship, the China Merchant.

The museum held consultations in 2020-2021 on removing the statue. With little subtlety, Oliver Dowden, the then Tory culture secretary, threatened the museum’s funding if the statute was moved: ‘It is imperative that you continue to act impartially, in line with your publicly funded status, and not in a way that brings this into question.’

The memorial to Sir Robert Geffrye inside the former chapel of the almshouses (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Despite strong, vocal local objections, the museum board decided to leave the statue over the former chapel doors and to place interpretive explanations outside, below the statue, inside the chapel, beneath the Geffrye memorial..

Ironically, this is not the original statue of Geffrye but a copy of the original made by John Nost in 1723-1724. The original statue was removed when the almshouses closed and set up in the new almshouses at Mottingham in 1910.

Since then, the almshouses have moved yet again to Hook, Hampshire, taking the statue with them. The present statue is a copy of the original and was made by James Maude & Co of Mansfield.

The statue of Sir Robert Geffrye above the chapel doors is a copy of the original and was made by James Maude & Co of Mansfield (Photograph: Andy Scott 2022 / Wikpedia, CC BY-SA 4.0)

A reminder that even in darkness resilience and hope can shine and bring light into the darkest places

The Chanukiah from the Jewish Museum at the Museum of the Home in London yesterday (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Patrick Comerford

We had intended to go to the Chanukah lighting ceremony in Bletchley Park last Sunday. But circumstances changed last weekend, events caught up with us, and we never got there along with a friend who was visiting us. Then, as Sunday afternoon unfolded, any intentions, any plans, or any notions of being in Bletchley were forgotten as news broke of the attack at Bondi Beach in Sydney, which has become a tragedy for Jewish communities around the world.

Chanukah continues until next Sunday evening. But this year it has become an especially personally poignant and deeply painful Chanukah for many people in England, with the Bondi Beach attack coming so soon after the attack on the Heaton Park Synagogue in Manchester. It is a stark reminder too that antisemitism is a global threat and of how widespread and dangerous hatred has become.

It was an act of violence that highlights the urgent need for all to unite against hatred and to continue collectively all efforts to pursue safety, tolerance, and understanding. But Chanukah symbolises hope, perseverance and endurance, a reminder that even in darkness, resilience and hope can shine the brightest, and for many it is a challenge to bring light into even the darkest times and places.

Having missed the lighting of the Chanukiah in Bletchley Park last Sunday evening, we found ourselves unexpectedly with an opportunity to join a celebration of Chanukah in London yesterday in a collaboration between the Jewish Museum and the Museum of the Home.

After lighting five of the the candles and reciting the blessings we sang the first verse of Ma’oz Tzur (מָעוֹז צוּר‎) a liturgical poem or piyyut in Hebrew sung at Hanukkah after lighting the festival lights:

My Refuge, my Rock of Salvation!
’Tis pleasant to sing your praises.
Let our house of prayer be restored.
And there we will offer you our thanks.
When you will have slaughtered the barking foe.
Then we will celebrate with song and psalm
the altar’s dedication.

It is a hymn that tells Jewish history in a poetic form and celebrates deliverance from four ancient enemies, Pharaoh, Nebuchadnezzar, Haman and Antiochus. It is named for its Hebrew incipit, which means ‘Strong Rock (of my Salvation)’, a name or epithet for God. It may have been written in the 13th century, although recent research suggests the 12th century. It was sung only at home originally, but has been sung in the synagogue since at least the 19th century.

The Museum of the Home in Hoxton is in 18th-century former almshouses founded in 1714 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Three of us were visiting the Museum of the Home, formerly the Geffrye Museum, which is housed in the 18th-century Grade I-listed former almshouses on Kingsland Road in Hoxton. The almshouses was first built in 1714 with a bequest ln a legacy from Sir Robert Geffrye (1613-1704).

A special all-day event in the Museum of the Home yesterday (18 December 2025) was ‘Object Handling with the Jewish Museum’ from 11 am to 4 pm. This was a free, drop-in day, with an invitation to get up close and personal with handling objects from the Jewish Museum’s collection at the recreation in the Museum of the Home of the 1913 tenement flat, where the Delinsky family will be preparing for a Hanukkah feast.

The day included doughnuts from Rinkoff’s Bakery for sale in their shop and dreidels to play outside their 1913 room, and ended with lighting a special Chanukiah in the atrium at 4 pm.

Sir Robert Geffrye had been a merchant, slave trader, Lord Mayor of London and Master of the Ironmongers’ Company. The almshouses were built to house the widows of ironmongers, and had 14 four-room houses, housing up to 56 pensioners, with a large garden. The Ironmongers' Company decided by 1911 the area had become too dangerous for pensioners and moved to new premises.

The Geffrye Almshouse and its gardens were bought by the London County Council in 1911. The gardens represented 14% of the open space in Shoreditch, a densely populated area, and the Geffrye Museum opened in 1914. The museum was run in the late 20th century by the Inner London Education Authority (ILEA), before becoming a charitable trust in 1991.

The museum closed in 2018 for 2½ years for an £18 million development project and reopened as the Museum of the Home in 2021. The museum explores home and home life from 1600 to the present day with galleries that ask questions about ‘home’, present diverse lived experiences, and examine the psychological and emotional relationships people have with the idea of ‘home’ alongside a series of period room displays.

The museum hosts exhibitions that exploring the meaning of home to diverse communities. The main museum building is Grade I listed, and several buildings connected with the museum are listed Grade II* and Grade II.

The Tenement Flat recreates a Friday night in 1913 when the Delinsky family prepares to welcome in Shabbos (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

The Tenement Flat in 1913 is a permanent exhibition in the museum that recreates a Friday night when the Delinsky family prepares to welcome in Shabbos. Their flat is in the Rothschild Buildings, among dozens of tenement blocks built in the late 1800s in an effort to clear inner London of notorious slums and raise the standard of living for working-class Londoners.

By the 1980s, these blocks had come symbols of east London’s poverty, and the Rothschild Buildings were among many that were demolished.

In the museum exhibition, the Delinsky family welcomes in Shabbos on Friday nights. Ray’s famous lokshen soup is simmering on the stove as she prepares the chicken to be roasted in the oven. Ray’s daughter Bessie has spent most of the day tirelessly cleaning the flat and has just sent her brother Nathan to Brick Lane for some last-minute needs. Their father Israel has finished a long week of work and has gone to the local synagogue to pray, before returning home to begin dinner with a blessing.

The room was curated with the help of members of Jewish community groups and was funded by the Shoresh Trust. The objects in the room include religious silverware from ca 1900-1910, and The Economical Jewish Cook by May Henry and Edith B Cohen (1897).

Shabbat Mikets or the Shabbat in Chanukah begins this evening (19 December 2025) at 3:38 pm and the time for lighting the Chanukah candles at home is some time between 3:03 pm and 3:38 pm.

Shabbat Shalom, שבת שלום‎

Chag Sameach Chanukah, חג חנוכה שמח‎

Lighting the Chanukiah with the Jewish Museum at the Museum of the Home in London last night (Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Daily prayer in Advent 2025: 3, Tuesday 2 December 2025

‘Blessed are the eyes that see what you see!’ (Luke 10: 23) … street art in Camden Street, Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

The Season of Advent – and the real countdown to Christmas – began on Sunday with the First Sunday of Advent (30 November 2025).

I have stayed in Dublin overnight after last night’s launch of Childhood and the Irish, a new book edited my friend and colleague, Professor Salvador Ryan of Maynooth, in the Royal Irish Academy. I am catching a flight back to Birmingham later this afternoon. But, before the day begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, to reflect, to pray and to read in these ways:

1, today’s Gospel reading;

2, a short reflection;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

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

‘Blessed are the eyes that see what you see!’ (Luke 10: 23) … what do we see in our own eyes?

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) … street art in Plaza de Judería in Malaga (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s reflection:

In the Gospel reading provided in the lectionary at the Eucharist today (Luke 10: 21-24), Jesus tells his disciples: ‘Blessed are the eyes that see what you see! 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’ (verse 23-24).

At 73, my sight and my hearing may not quite be what they once were. But my distant ‘cousin’, the late Kevin Martin, who died two years ago (14 June 2023), would greet me on my birthdays with the traditional Jewish greeting of ‘ad meah v’esrim’, ‘may you live until 120!’ (עד מאה ועשרים שנה‎).

Deuteronomy recalls that Moses lived to be 120, at which age ‘his eye had not dimmed, and his vigour had not diminished’ (Deuteronomy 34: 7). Great rabbis of the Talmud, including Hillel, Rabbi Yohanan Ben Zakkai, Rabbi Akiva and Rabbi Yehuda Hanasi, all lived to 120 as well.

The traditional Jewish birthday blessing carries the implication that the receiver should retain full mental and physical faculties to the end of life, still able to see with ears and to hear with ears.

This short overnight visit to Dublin has brought back many places where I have lived, worked or studied over the years. But Advent is a time of looking forward rather than back.

With those implications, of my eyes not being dimmed, and my vigour not being diminished, living for many more years does not sound so dim or distant a prospect at all. Indeed, despite a stroke, sarcoidosis and B12 deficiency, it might even be a real blessing, not only with what I have seen and heard in life but with the love, care and attention I receive too.

‘Blessed are the eyes that see what you see!’ (Luke 10: 23) … street art in Brick Lane in the East End, London (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Tuesday 2 December 2025):

The theme this week (30 to 6 December 2025) in Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘The Kingdom is for All’ (pp 6-7). This theme was introduced on Sunday with a programme update from the Revd Magela, Vicar of Cristo Redentor Parish in Tocantins, Brazil and coordinator of Casa A+, a place of hope and healing for people living with HIV.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Tuesday 2 December 2025) invites us to pray:

Let us pray for justice in public health, so that HIV/AIDS care and treatment reach all people in vulnerable situations, and so that vital medicines are accessible and free of charge to those who need them.

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 Reflections

Continued Tomorrow

‘Blessed are the eyes that see what you see!’ (Luke 10: 23) … street art in Camden Place, between Camden Street and Harcourt Street, 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