Holy Rood Church, Oxford, a pioneering building in the Liturgical Movement built before Vatican II

Holy Rood Church, near Folly Bridge, Oxford, was designed by Gilbert Flavel and has been described as ‘a landmark in English Catholic ecclesiology’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Patrick Comerford

We spent a day in Oxford earlier this week, and as temperatures rose during the day and the heatwave began to take a grip on the land, I went for a walk by the river and in search of some churches and ecclesiastical sites I had not visited before.

Holy Rood Church is near Folly Bridge on the Abingdon Road, and a short walk south from the centre of Oxford, between the late 18th century Grandpont House, now owned by Opus Dei, and the playing fields of Brasenose College.

The church has been described as ‘a landmark in English Catholic ecclesiology’ and is advanced in its liturgical planning. It was designed by the architect Gilbert Flavel, who was inspired by Saint Paul’s Church, Bow Common, designed by Robert Maguire and Michael Murray. It has a large number of works of high artistic merit, including works associated with Eric Gill.

Inside Holy Rood Church, Oxford, built in 1961, a year before Vatican II opened (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Holy Rood Church serves North Hinksey parish, the most northern parish in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portsmouth, whose boundaries mainly follow the old county boundaries. The Hinksey areas were transferred from Berkshire to Oxfordshire in two phases: New Hinksey in 1889; and North Hinksey, South Hinksey and Hinksey Hill in 1974.

Building the church was made possible through an endowment in 1956 by a soldier, diplomat and explorer, Colonel Reginald Schomberg (1880-1958). Schomberg, who was ordained priest late in life, entrusted Father John Crozier (1917-1993), the priest in the North Hinksey parish from 1954 to 1968, with finding a site for a new church for Oxford Catholics living south of the river and in neighbouring villages.

The site was originally the orchard of Grandpont House, the former home of the Salter family, and Crozier bought it from Brasenose College in 1959.

The free-standing altar in Holy Rood Church, Oxford, and the giant circular corona by Michael Murray, symbolising the 12 gates of Jerusalem and the 12 apostles (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

The Liturgical Movement radically reassessed how churches reflect celebrating the Word of God. It focussed on the Eucharist, and the relationship of the congregation to each other and to God. This movement was accepted by the Roman Catholic Church through the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965), although its importance was evident as early as 1947 with Pope Pius XII’s 1947 Mediator Dei et Hominum and the 1955 encyclical De musica sacra.

By the mid-1950s, many church architects were exploring e centralised and circular church plans, moving away from traditional longitudinal plans. The Catholic Herald in 1962 published a list of more than a dozen British churches along this plan form that were recently built or were being built.

In light of the liturgical movement and its architectural effects, the Oxford-based architect Gilbert Flavel was chosen in 1959. Flavel, an Anglican, was chosen because of his sympathetic attitude towards the new liturgical thinking, and Crozier had admired his restoration of Saint Michael at the North Gate, Oxford, and his work at the London College of Divinity in Norwood.

The corner stone by the entrance recalls the deidication of the church in 1961 by Bishop Thomas Holland (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

In the years immediately before Vatican II, Crozier travelled widely throughout Europe, studying church design in relation to the liturgical revival. In 1958, he was impressed with James Gardner’s British Pavilion at the World’s Fair in Brussels, ‘which I thought would make an admirable church on a riverside site. Like Coventry Cathedral, however, it was oblong, whereas the new liturgy seemed to demand a building in the round or square. Each of the three towered segments of the pavilion was a square. An enlarged replica of a segment could form the basis of a church, in a style bringing out the symbolism of God’s tent among men.’

Flavel designed the church in an advanced liturgical style, before the reforms introduced at the time the Second Vatican Council. His design conceived of a church ‘in the round’ and tent-like. This enabled Mass to celebrated in the then traditional ad orientem, facing east, as well as versus populum, facing the people, as became normal.

The dedication is to the Holy Rood, (‘Holy Cross’), and the whole building is designed on a plan of a ‘Jerusalem Cross’ with equal arms, and a Jerusalem cross also surmounts the central lantern. The church is octagonal with a square lantern of four glazed gables cutting into the pyramid roof, and the walls are of yellow-brown brick. The tent shape reflects the tent of the Tabernacle in the Old Testament, the dwelling place of the presence of God.

The church was built for £35,000 by Bartlett Brothers of Witney. It was dedicated by Bishop Thomas Holland, coadjutor bishop of Portsmouth as titular Bishop of Etenna, on 16 December 1961, in the year before Vatican II opened. The church was consecrated by Bishop Derek Worlock on 5 February 1962.

To the left of the entrance, the corner stone has the inscription ‘19+61’ and ‘Huius Ecclesiae Lapidem Angularem Iecit + RR DD Thomas Holland Episcopus Etennae’. To the right of the entrance is a spiral staircase to a choir gallery fitted with more pews for the choir and an organ.

The baptismal font is incised with the lettering Fons Vitae Aeternae (Fount of Eternal Life) by Kevin Cribb (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

The plan of the church consists of an octagon set within a Greek Cross for the main worship space, with ancillary spaces at the corners making up an overall rectangular plan. The Blessed Sacrament chapel is to one side, outside the rectangle. There is a glazed central entrance, its cruciform glazing subdivisions evoking the dedication. On either side are single-storey, flat-roofed spaces with ancillary functions.

The main double-height worship space rises up behind, with central raised top lighting with a pitched broach roof clad in copper sheeting. The walls are clad in pale brick, overlaying a steel frame construction.

The entrance doors lead into a narthex and baptistry, with ancillary rooms giving off to left and right. At the centre of this narthex and baptistry is a large granite font, the polished inside sufficiently large to allow for total immersion. It is incised with the lettering Fons Vitae Aeternae (Fount of Eternal Life), by Kevin Cribb (1928-2013), a son of Laurie Cribb, an assistant to Eric Gill.

The tent shape reflects the tent of the Tabernacle in the Old Testament, the dwelling place of the presence of God (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Crozier wrote that ‘the calm and simple dignity of Gill’s art harmonises with the new architecture, so the artists were as far as possible drawn from his school’. Cribb also carved the cornerstone on the left hand side of the entrance into the main body of the church.

The sanctuary is placed at the liturgical east end, and not – as at Saint Paul’s, Bow Common – at the centre of the building. However, the altar is and always was well forward of the east wall. The freestanding benches were originally raked at the sides to face towards the sanctuary.

The Blessed Sacrament Chapel to the right of the main seating area, is a low single-storey space and the only area in the church with stained glass windows. The floor of the narthex, nave and chapel is of black and white linoleum squares, producing a chequerboard effect. At the liturgical west end of the main worship space is a gallery with a large organ.

The abstract stained glass windows by Charles Ware are based on designs from Chartres Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

The church is also notable for the quality of its furnishings. The altar, like the font, is of granite and inscribed with lettering by Kevin Cribb: Dux Vitae Mortuus Regnat Vivus (‘Life’s champion slain, lives and reigns for ever’). Hanging over this is a giant circular corona by Michael Murray, symbolising the 12 gates of Jerusalem, with the lights symbolising the 12 apostles.

This and the other metalwork are all by Michael Murray (1923-2005). They include a bronze Pantocrator on east wall behind the altar, the bronze Theotokos, based on a Romanesque relief in York Minster, on the wall near the Blessed Sacrament chapel, the tabernacle in the Blessed Sacrament chapel, the ciborium, chalice, sanctuary lamps, altar cross and candlesticks.

The Blessed Sacrament chapel has two abstract stained glass windows by Charles Ware based on designs from Chartres Cathedral.

The small stone carving by Eric Gill of Christ on the Tree of Life, above the tabernacle in the Blessed Sacrament chapel (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

The contents of Eric Gill’s chapel at Piggotts, near High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, were given by Gill’s daughter to Crozier in 1963. A small stone carving by Gill of Christ on the Tree of Life was installed above the tabernacle in the Blessed Sacrament chapel, while other furnishings went to Saint Thomas More, Boar’s Hill, also part of the main parish of North Hinksey.

The chapel wall also has tablets by Cribb commemorating Schomberg and Crozier. The bronze Stations of the Cross on the walls of the nave are lit by conical lights. The plaque honouring Our Lady of Poland beside the gallery stairs is a reminder of the contribution of the Polish community to the church.

Tablets by Kevin Cribb commemorate Canon John Crozier and Father Reginald Schomberg (Photographs: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

The church was listed Grade II in 2020 for its architectural interest as a largely intact example of a 1960s church designed to meet the changing worship practices of the period; for its interior and it with high quality, designed fixtures and fittings; and because it is illustrative of post-war churches designed to the principles of the Liturgical Movement.

Inside Holy Rood Church, facing the west end and the organ gallery (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

• The parish priest is Father Daniel Lloyd, a former Anglican. Saturday Vigil Masses are at 5 pm (Divine Worship of the Personal Ordinariate of Walsingham) and 7:30 pm (Portugese); Sunday Masses are at 11:15 am and 5 pm (Latin, 1962). Weekday Masses are at 9 am. The church is open on weekdays from 8:30 to 5:15.

The spiral staircase leading to the organ gallery (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Saint Etheldreda’s Church, a hidden church close to Hatton Garden, was once the chapel of the Bishops of Ely

Saint Etheldreda’s Church on Ely Place, once the chapel of the Bishops of Ely, is one of the oldest churches in England in use by the Catholic Church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Patrick Comerford

On previous visits to the Holborn area in London, I have visited Hatton Garden and Ye Olde Mitre, which is one of the oldest, most hidden and discrete pubs in London. I found it down a narrow alleyway off Hatton Garden that is easy to walk by without noticing, yet it has a fascinating history.

Ye Olde Mitre was originally built in 1546 for the servants of nearby Ely Palace, although it was rebuilt in 1773. It is known for a cherry tree that Elizabeth I and Sir Christopher Hatton – who gave his name to Hatton Garden – are said to have danced around. A stone bishop’s mitre on one wall may be from either the old palace or the gatehouse.

But each time I visited Hatton Garden and Ye Olde Mitre in the past, I had neglected to continue on down the narrow alley to Ely Place. When I did so on my most recent visit to Holborn, I was rewarded not only with finding myself on Ely Place but also with a visit to Saint Etheldreda’s Church, once the chapel of the Bishops of Ely, who had their London residence at Ely Palace or Ely House. Today, it is one of the oldest churches in England in use by the Catholic Church.

Ye Olde Mitre in a hidden alley between Hatton Garden and Ely Place, is a reminder of the presence of the Bishops of Ely (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Ely Place is a gated cul-de-sac of terraced houses near Holborn Circus in the London Borough of Camden. The street is just a minute’s walk from the bustle of Holborn and the busy diamond and jewellery shops of Hatton Garden. The street is a quiet enclave and is privately managed by its own body of commissioners and beadles.

Ely Place sits on the site of Ely Palace or Ely House, the London residence of the Bishops of Ely from 1290 and 1772. The bishop’s palace and surrounding land was later sold and redeveloped into Ely Place, and only the bishop’s mediaeval chapel was preserved, which today is Saint Etheldreda’s Church.

John de Kirkby bought the land in this part of Holborn in 1280. He became Bishop of Ely in 1286 and he left the estate to the Diocese of Ely when he died in 1290. The mediaeval Bishops of Ely often held high offices of state requiring them to live in London and Ely Palace was their official residence.

The cloister steps leading to the upper chapel in Saint Etheldreda’s Church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Shakespeare refers to Ely Palace or its grounds in two plays, Richard II and Richard III. John of Gaunt moved to the palace in 1381 after the Savoy Palace was destroyed during the Peasants’ Revolt. In King Richard II, this where he delivers the speech in which he refers to England as ‘this royal throne of Kings, this sceptre’d isle’.

Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon attended a feast given in 1531 by the Bishop of Ely, Nicholas West, which is said to have lasted for five days. The sumptuous feast is rumoured to have been one of the first public signs of trouble in their marriage as Henry VIII and Queen Catherine dined in separate rooms.

James Butler (1496-1546), 9th Earl of Ormond, was visiting London with his household on 17 October 1546, when they were invited to dine at Ely Palace as guests of the Bishop of Ely. Butler, who had served in the household of Cardinal Wolsey in his youth, had crossed Sir Anthony St Leger, the Lord Deputy of Ireland, and was poisoned along with his steward, James Whyte, and 16 of his household, probably on St Leger’s instructions.

John Lesley, Bishop of Ross, was acting on behalf of Mary Queen of Scots when he was held at Ely House under house arrest from 14 May until 17 August 1571.

The crypt or lower chapel in Saint Etheldreda’s Church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

The estate was granted to Sir Christopher Hatton in 1577 and a new lease gave Hatton control of the freehold. He gave his name to Hatton Garden which now occupies part of the site.

The estate was sold to the Crown in 1772, and the cul-de-sac that is now Ely Place was built by Robert Taylor. Edmund Keene, Bishop of Ely, commissioned a new Ely House, built by Taylor on Dover Street, Mayfair.

Ely Place retained its anomalous status into 1920s, supposedly remaining under the jurisdiction of Ely in Cambridgeshire and not part of London. Beadles guarded the entrance and closed the gates to all strangers. Even the police had to ask permission to enter, and beadles’ voices could be heard calling out throughout the night.

Saint Etheldreda’s Church is dedicated to Æthelthryth or Etheldreda, the Anglo-Saxon saint who founded the monastery at Ely in 673 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Saint Etheldreda’s Church was the chapel of Ely Palace or Ely House, the London residence of the Bishops of Ely. It is dedicated to Æthelthryth or Etheldreda, the Anglo-Saxon saint who founded the monastery at Ely in 673. The building dates from between 1250 and 1290 and is one of only two surviving in London from the reign of Edward I.

After the Tudor Reformations, the Bishops of Ely continued to oversee the chapel. Richard Cox, Bishop of Ely, leased part of the house and lands surrounding the chapel to Sir Christopher Hatton, a favourite of Elizabeth I, in 1576. Hatton borrowed extensively from the crown to pay for the refurbishment and upkeep of the property, and while he was the tenant the crypt was used as a tavern.

In the early 17th century, the chapel briefly became a haven for English Catholics when the upper church was granted to the Spanish ambassador, Diego Sarmiento de Acuña (1567-1626), Count of Gondomar, in 1620 to use as his private chapel. It was regarded as Spanish soil and so Catholics were allowed to use the church. But in the midst a diplomatic dispute between England and Spain, Gondomar was recalled to Spain two years later and his successor was not given use of the chapel.

Inside Saint Etheldreda’s Church, restored by Sir George Gilbert Scott (1811-1878) to its 13th century designs (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

In an incident known as the ‘Fatal Vespers’, 95 people were killed on 26 October 1623 when the upper floor of Hunsdon House, the residence of the French ambassador in Blackfriars, collapsed when 300 people were gathered to hear a clandestine Catholic sermon; 19 of the victims were buried in the crypt of Saint Etheldreda’s.

Matthew Wren (1585-1667), Bishop of Ely (1638-1646, 1660-1667) and uncle of the architect Sir Christopher Wren, worshipped at Saint Etheldreda’s before he was imprisoned in 1641. The palace and the church were requisitioned by Parliament in 1642 for use as a prison and hospital during the English Civil War. During the Cromwellian era (1649-1660), most of the palace was demolished and the gardens were destroyed.

Legislation in 1772 allowed the Bishops of Ely to sell the property to the Crown. The site, including the chapel, was sold on to Charles Cole, a surveyor and architect. He demolished all the buildings on the site apart from the chapel and built Ely Place. The chapel was extensively refurbished in the Georgian style and was reopened in 1786. It was taken over in 1836 by the National Society for the Education of the Poor, which hoped to convert the Irish Catholic immigrants then moving into the area, but the church closed again a short time later.

The East Window by JE ‘Eddie’ Nuttgens is generally regarded as his finest work (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

The Revd Alexander D’Arblay of Camden Town Chapel, a son of the novelist and diarist Fanny Burney, reopened Ely Chapel as a place of Anglican worship in 1836, but died within a year on 19 January 1837. The church was leased in 1843 to Welsh Anglicans, who held services there in the Welsh language.

When the chapel was put up for sale by auction in 1874, it was bought by Father William Lockhart, a former Anglican and a priest in the Rosminian order. The Institute of Charity or Rosminians had worked in Nottingham and Leicester and later in North London, and Cardinal Henry Manning wanted them to work in the slum areas of Holborn.

Lockhart, who was the Rector of the North London Mission, was chosen for the task. He had been a friend in Oxford of Cardinal John Henry Newman, and it is said that Lockhart’s decision had finally convinced Newman that he too should become a Roman Catholic.

Lockhart learned in December 1873 that Saint Etheldreda’s was about to be sold at auction. He faced competition from the Welsh Episcopalians, who had the backing of a Welsh steel magnate. But at the sale, the Welsh made a mistake: they thought Lockhart’s agent was theirs, they stopped bidding, and Saint Etheldreda’s was sold to the Rosminians for £5,400.

John Francis Bentley, the architect of Westminster Cathedral, designed the choir screen (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Under Lockhart’s direction, the crypt and upper church were restored by the prolific Gothic Revival architect Sir George Gilbert Scott (1811-1878) to their original 13th century designs. John Francis Bentley (1839-1902), the architect of Westminster Cathedral, designed a choir screen incorporating a confessional, an organ and a choir gallery; his other works include Holy Rood Church, Watford. The royal coat of arms, added during the reign of Charles I, was moved to the cloister. A relic donated by the Duke of Norfolk was said to be a piece of Saint Etheldreda’s hand, and is kept in a jewel cask to the right of the high altar.

The restoration was completed in 1878, the year Scott died, and a Catholic Mass was celebrated in Saint Ethelreda’s for the first time in over 200 years. The upper church was reopened on the Feast of Saint Etheldreda, 23 June 1879.

Saint Etheldreda’s includes a chapel or upper church, and a crypt or undercroft, and is used for Masses, Baptisms, weddings and funerals. Because Saint Etheldreda was traditionally invoked for help with throat infections, the Blessing of the Throats is held annually in the chapel.

The Royal Commission on Historical Monuments scheduled the chapel as an ancient monument in 1925. But during the Blitz, the church was hit in May 1941 by a bomb that tore a hole in the roof and destroyed the Victorian stained glass windows. It took seven years to repair the structural damage.

The West Window by Charles Blakeman (1964) depicts Catholic martyrs during the Reformation era (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

The interior of Saint Etheldreda’s is said to have the largest expanse of stained glass in London. The east window by JE ‘Eddie’ Nuttgens, generally regarded as his finest work, one of the few in which he ‘let his imagination take command and soar’, was installed in 1952. It depicts the Trinity (centre), the four evangelists Matthew, Mark, Luke and John (top row), as well as the Virgin Mary (left) and Saint Joseph (right), with Saint Etheldreda of Ely (far left) and Saint Bridget of Kildare (far right). At the base, Nuttgens has placed a sturdy version of the Last Supper mostly in bright golds and reds whose clearly articulated composition surely reveals the influence of his friend and neighbour Eric Gill.

Later, his pupil and friend Charles Blakeman created stained glass for the nave, west window and crypt. The West Window by Blakeman was added in 1964, depicting Catholic suffering during the Reformation. Three Carthusian monks and two other priests were put to death for refusing to acknowledge Henry Vlll as head of the Church are shown in the centre of the window, while Christ triumphant hangs on the Cross above the Tyburn Gallows.

The windows in the south wall depict scenes from the Old Testament, and the windows in the north wall show scenes from the New Testament.

Two groups of four statues of English Catholic martyrs from the reign of Henry VIII and Elizabeth I were installed along the north and south walls In the 1960s. They include Saint Edmund Gennings, Saint Swithun Wells, Saint Margaret Ward, Blessed John Forest, Blessed Edward Jones, Blessed John Roche, Saint Anne Line and Saint John Houghton.

For many years, Saint Etheldreda’s was the oldest Catholic church building in England, but since 1971 that place has been taken by the 12th-century church of Saint Leonard and Saint Mary in Malton, North Yorkshire. Saint Etheldreda’s has been fully restored and is an active church today. The crypt, also used as a chapel, is a popular, atmospheric venue for baptisms.

The steps leading down to the crypt in Saint Etheldreda’s Church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Pilgrims visit the church as a stopping point on the London Martyrs’ Way, a pilgrimage route developed by the British Pilgrimage Trust and to venerate the hand relic of Saint Etheldreda.

Saint Etheldreda’s Church is open Monday to Saturday, 8 am to 5 pm, and Sunday 8 am to 12:30 pm. The nearest tube stations are Chancery Lane (Central Line) and Farringdon (Circle, Hammersmith and City and Metropolitan Lines). Ye Old Mitre is only open Monday to Friday.

Sunday Masses in Saint Etheldreda’s Church are at 9 am (English) and 11 am (Sung Latin); Weekday Masses are at 1 pm, Monday to Friday; Masses on holy days are at 1 pm and 6 pm.

Ely Court, a narrow alley running between Ely Place and Hatton Garden (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Daily prayer in Lent 2026: 5, Sunday 22 February 2026, First Sunday in Lent

‘The devil took him to the holy city and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple …’ (Matthew 4: 5) … a gargoyle at Lichfield Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

Lent began this week with Ash Wednesday, and today is the First Sunday in Lent (Lent I, 22 February 2026). After our marathon journey that began in Heathrow on Ash Wednesday (18 February) and that included stopovers and connections in Muscat and Kuala Lumpur, we have settled into our flat in Kuching and I hope attend the Cathedral Eucharist in Saint Thomas’s Cathedral, Kuching, later this morning (8:30). In all, Saint Thomas’s Cathedral, which is a five-minutes walk from our flat, has six regular Sunday services: Holy Communion in English, 6:30 am; Sung Eucharistic in English, 8:30 am; Bahasa Malaysia Service with Holy Communion (McDougall Hall, Level 3, Parish Centre), 10:30 am; Mandarin Service with Holy Communion, 10:30 am; Iban Service with Holy Communion, 2 pm; Evensong with Holy Communion in English, 5:30 pm.

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

1, today’s Gospel reading;

2, a short reflection;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

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

The Temptation of Job in the Purgatory Window by Richard King of the Harry Clarke Studios in the Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, Athlone (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Matthew 4: 1-11 (NRSVA):

1 Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 2 He fasted for forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was famished. 3 The tempter came and said to him, ‘If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.’ 4 But he answered, ‘It is written,

“One does not live by bread alone,
but by every word that comes from the mouth of God”.’

5 Then the devil took him to the holy city and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, 6 saying to him, ‘If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down; for it is written,
“He will command his angels concerning you,”
and “On their hands they will bear you up,
so that you will not dash your foot against a stone”.’

7 Jesus said to him, ‘Again it is written, “Do not put the Lord your God to the test”.’

8 Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendour; 9 and he said to him, ‘All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.’ 10 Jesus said to him, ‘Away with you, Satan! for it is written,
“Worship the Lord your God,
and serve only him”.’

11 Then the devil left him, and suddenly angels came and waited on him.

Giovanni da Modena’s fresco of the Last Judgment in the Basilica of San Petronio in Bologna was inspired by Dante’s descriptions of the Devil and Hell (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflections:

We are going to meet some interesting, unusual characters in the Gospel readings on the Sundays in Lent this year.

They include:

1, The Devil, who appears as the serpent (Genesis 2: 15-17, 3: 1-7) and the Tempter (Matthew 4: 1-11) in this morning’s readings (Lent I: 22 February 2026)

2, Nicodemus, who comes to meet Jesus in the night (John 3: 1-17) next week (Lent II: 1 March 2026)

3, The unnamed Samaritan woman at the well (John 4: 5-42) two weeks from now (Lent III: 8 March 2026)

4, The women at the Cross (John 19: 25b-27) on Mothering Sunday (Lent IV: 15 March 2026)

5, Lazarus who is raised from the dead (John 11: 1-45, Lent V: 26 March 2020)

All these characters, as we meet them along the journey through Lent, prepare us for meeting Christ when he arrives in Jerusalem and we come face-to-face with him at his Passion, Death and Resurrection.

What is your image of the Devil?

For many people today, he is old hat and the stuff of superstition. For other people he is a figure of fun: the gargoyles gushing out rainwater from gutters on cathedrals and churches; the logo for Manchester United; or the impish black-and-red costumes of children at Hallowe’en or some adults at Carnival in Continental European cities in the days before Lent.

Many of our cultural images of the Devil come not from the Bible but from Dante’s Inferno, which influenced John Milton’s Paradise Lost, other poets, including TS Eliot in his The Waste Land, as well as frescoes, paintings and stained-glass windows across the world.

But the Devil appears in many forms throughout the Bible.

The word satan does not occur in today’s reading from Genesis. Instead, the tempter is a talking serpent.

The original Hebrew term sâtan (שָּׂטָן‎) means an ‘accuser’ or ‘adversary,’ and refers to both human adversaries and a supernatural entity. The word is derived from a verb meaning primarily to obstruct or to oppose. When it is used without the definite article (satan), the word can refer to any accuser; when it is used with the definite article (ha-satan), it refers specifically to the heavenly accuser: the Satan.

Ha-Satan with the definite article occurs 13 times in two books of the Hebrew Bible: Job 1 and 2 (10 times) and Zechariah 3: 1-2 (three times); satan without the definite article is used in 10 instances.

These occurrences without a definite article include the Angel of the Lord who confronts Balaam on his donkey (Numbers 22: 22); and the Angel of the Lord who brings a plague against Israel for three days after David takes a census (II Samuel 24).

The satan who appears in the Book of Job is one of the ‘sons of God’ (Job 1: 6-8) who has been roaming around the earth and who tortures Job physically, mentally and spiritually, to see whether Job will abandon his faith. But Job remains faithful and righteous, and satan is shamed in his defeat.

The English word devil, used as a synonym for Satan, can be traced through Middle English, Old English and Latin to the Greek διάβολος (diabolos), ‘slanderer,’ from a verb (diaballein) meaning to slander, but originally meaning ‘to hurl across’ or ‘to back bite.’ In the New Testament, the words Satan and diabolos are used interchangeably.

Another name, Beelzebub, means ‘Lord of Flies,’ and is also a contemptuous name for a Philistine god and a pun on his name meaning ‘Baal the Prince.’ Some Pharisees accuse Jesus of exorcising demons through the power of Beelzebub.

Satan plays a role in some of the parables, including the Parables of the Sower, the Weeds, the Sheep and the Goats, and the Strong Man.

In Saint Luke’s Gospel, Judas betrays Christ because ‘Satan entered into’ him (see Luke 22: 3-6; cf John 12: 13: 2) and Christ implies Satan has authority to test Peter and the other apostles (see Luke 22: 31).

In Saint John’s Gospel, Satan is identified as ‘the Archon of the Cosmos’ (ὁ ἄρχων τοῦ κόσμου) who is to be overthrown through Christ’s death and resurrection (John 12: 31-32).

The Letter to the Hebrews describes the devil as ‘the one who has the power of death’ (Hebrews 2: 14).

In the Book of Revelation, Satan is first the supernatural ruler of the Empire. In that book, we also come across Abaddon, whose name in Greek is Apollyon, meaning ‘the destroyer,’ an angel who rules the Abyss (Revelation 9: 11).

The vision of a Great Red Dragon with seven heads, 10 horns, seven crowns, and a sweeping tail (Revelation 12: 3-4) is an image inspired by the apocalyptic visions in the Book of Daniel. A war then breaks out in heaven, and Michael and his angels defeat the Dragon who is thrown down. This dragon is identified with ‘that ancient serpent, who is called Devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world (Revelation 12: 9) and the accuser.

This identifies him with all the images of satan in the Hebrew Bible, from the serpent in Eden, to Job’s tempters.

Later, the chained and imprisoned Satan breaks loose from his chains in the abyss and wages war against the righteous. But he is defeated and cast into a lake of fire (see Revelation 20: 1-10).

Today’s Gospel reading is one of the three accounts in the synoptic Gospels (see Matthew 4: 1-11, Mark 1: 12-13, Luke 4: 1-13) describing the temptation of Christ by Satan in the wilderness.

Satan first shows Jesus a stone and tells him to turn it into bread. He then takes him to the pinnacle of the Temple in Jerusalem and tells him to throw himself down so that the angels will catch him. Then he takes Jesus to the top of a tall mountain, shows him the kingdoms of the earth and promises to give them all to him if he will bow down and worship him.

In each of these temptations, Christ is tempted to the right thing for the wrong reasons.

What would be wrong with Christ turning stones into bread if that is going to feed the hungry?

What would be wrong with Christ showing his miraculous powers, if this is going to point to the majesty of God?

What would be wrong with Christ taking command of the kingdoms of this world, if this provides the opportunity to bring in justice, mercy and peace?

These are real temptations. Christ is truly human and truly divine, and for those who are morally driven there is always a real temptation to do the right thing … but to do it for the wrong reason.

Each time, Christ rebukes Satan, and after the third temptation he is ministered to by the angels.

Too often we reduce temptation to small things in life. The one real temptation facing Jeff Difford, the slick pastor in the television series Young Sheldon, was greed in the form of wanting a new combined toaster and microwave oven. He resisted that temptation for a day or so, and when he gives in, he asks for forgiveness.

But this is a fatuous and fraudulent presentation of temptation. True temptation can come in small ways, but it can also come in dramatic ways, in the temptation to do the right thing for the wrong reasons, and in the temptation to do nothing.

There is real evil in the world, when we consider the death camps such as Auschwitz and the mass genocide of the Holocaust. Yet the far-right is on the rise not only in Britain but across Europe, with the active support of many insiders in the White House and of Elon Musk, one of the richest people in the world.

Some years ago, during carnival – a time of fun before entering Lent – at a carnival parade in Campo de Criptana, about 120 km south-east of Madrid, participants dressed like Nazis and Jewish concentration camp prisoners while dancing next to a float evoking crematoria. In Aalst in Belgium that same year, some people in the carnival parade dressed like haredim or pious Orthodox Jews but depicting them as ants, others wore fake hooked noses based on Jewish stereotypes, and still others dressed in black uniforms and red armbands imitating Nazi uniforms.

Almost three generations after the Holocaust, there are people who still think real evil in the world is an appropriate theme for carnival floats. How does this prepare us for Lent and the Passion, Death and Resurrection of Christ?

I was reminded of the temptation to be silent in the face of evil when I visited the concentration camp at Sachsenhausen, and the cell of the Revd Martin Niemöller (1892-1984), a prominent German Lutheran pastor and an outspoken opponent of Hitler, was held in isolation.

On the wall of this cell are his words:

First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out –
Because I was not a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out –
Because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out –
Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me – and there was no one left to speak for me.

This Lent, I invite you to join me on the journey, on the pilgrimage that leads to Good Friday, and that leads, of course, to the joys of Easter Day.

Saint Michael and the Devil … a statue by Jacob Epstein at Coventry Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Sunday 22 February 2026, Lent I):

The theme this week (22-28 February 2026) in ‘Pray With the World Church,’ the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is: ‘Behold, I make all things new!’ (pp 30-31). This theme is introduced today with Reflections by the Right Revd Jorge Pina Cabral Jorge, Diocesan Bishop of the Lusitanian Church (Portugal):

‘The prophetic vision of Saint John, “Behold, I make all things new! ” (Revelation 21: 5), will be the motto and challenge of an impulse for renewal and sustainable growth, for a more consequential Anglican and Christian witness on the Iberian Peninsula, with a desired openness and cooperation with other Anglican jurisdictions in Europe.

‘The two Iberian national churches -- the Spanish Reformed Episcopal Church (IERE) and the Lusitanian Church, Portugal (ILCAE) – are involved in a proposal for a new Anglican Province as a result of nearly 150 years of shared history. Together, the IERE and ILCAE serve communities across the main regions and cities, with ministries that support youth and women, provide social action, communication, and theological training, and build ecumenical and interfaith relationships.

‘In Portugal, specialised ministries include the Diaconia Secretariat dedicated to social intervention, particularly with immigrants. Also focused on social work, the Church’s two solidarity institutions (AETP in Gaia and the Sagrada Família Social Centre in Queluz) provide services to children and the elderly and support people in situations of economic vulnerability, providing meals, laundry, home help, etc.

‘Among the most important institutions and ministries in Spain are the Atilano Coco University Residence in Salamanca; the Anglican Pilgrim House in Santiago de Compostela; the religious bookshop that the Church runs in Malaga (Proyecto Logos) and the important Radio Anglicana ministry with over one million registered listeners.

‘The proposed vision is to move forward in unity and complete the process by 2030, the year in which these Iberian churches will celebrate the 150th anniversary of their founding synods.’

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Sunday 22 February 2026, Lent I) invites us to pray as we read and meditate on Matthew 4: 1-11.

‘Then the devil left him …’ (Matthew 4: 11) … a sculpture in the Llotja de la Seda or Silk Exchange in Valencia (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The 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 your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

Lord God,
you have renewed us with the living bread from heaven;
by it you nourish our faith,
increase our hope,
and strengthen our love:
teach us always to hunger for him who is the true and living bread,
and enable us to live by every word
that proceeds from out of your mouth;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

Heavenly Father,
your Son battled with the powers of darkness,
and grew closer to you in the desert:
help us to use these days to grow in wisdom and prayer
that we may witness to your saving love
in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Testerday’s Reflecgtions

Continued Tomorrow

‘ … and suddenly angels came and waited on him’ (Matthew 4: 11) … two angels by Eric Gill support a bishop’s coat-of-arms in Jesus College, Cambridge (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

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

Daily prayer in Christmas 2025-2026: 3, Saturday 27 December 2025, Saint John the Apostle and Evangelist

Saint John depicted in a statue on the Great Gate of Saint John’s College, Cambridge (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

On the third day of Christmas my true love sent to me … ‘three French hens, two turtle doves, and a partridge in a pear tree’.

This is the third day of Christmas and today the church calendar celebrates Saint John the Apostle and Evangelist. 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 John (right) and the Virgin Mary (left) at the Crucifixion … the rood beam in Holy Rood Church, Watford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

John 21: 19b-25 (NRSVA):

19 After this he said to him, ‘Follow me.’

20 Peter turned and saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following them; he was the one who had reclined next to Jesus at the supper and had said, ‘Lord, who is it that is going to betray you?’ 21 When Peter saw him, he said to Jesus, ‘Lord, what about him?’ 22 Jesus said to him, ‘If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? Follow me!’ 23 So the rumour spread in the community that this disciple would not die. Yet Jesus did not say to him that he would not die, but, ‘If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you?’

24 This is the disciple who is testifying to these things and has written them, and we know that his testimony is true. 25 But there are also many other things that Jesus did; if every one of them were written down, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.

The symbol of the serpent and the chalice, a carving by Eric Gill in the capstone at Saint John’s College, Cambridge (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflections:

The Christian interpretation of the song ‘The 12 Days of Christmas’ often sees the three French hens as figurative representations of the three theological virtues – faith, hope and love: ‘And now faith, hope, and love remain, these three, and the greatest of these is love.’ (I Corinthians 13: 13).

Other interpretations say the three French hens represent the three persons of the Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, or the three gifts of the Wise Men, gold, frankincense and myrrh.

There is a custom in some places of blessing wine on this day and drinking a toast to the love of God and to Saint John. The theological virtue of love is intimately associated with the story of Saint John, the disciple Jesus loved.

It seems appropriate in the days immediately after Christmas that we should be jolted out of our comforts, in case we begin to atrophy, and to be reminded of what the great German martyr Dietrich Bonhoeffer called the ‘Cost of Discipleship.’

Following Christ is not all about Christmas shopping, feasts, decorations and falling asleep in front of the television – comforting, enjoyable and pleasant as they are, particularly in family settings.

Yesterday was the feast of Saint Stephen [26 December], often referred to as the first Christian martyr; and 28 December usually recalls the Holy Innocents, the first – albeit unwitting – martyrs according to Saint Matthew’s Gospel.

In The Ariel Poems TS Eliot puts wise words into the mouth of the Wise Man who recalls the cold coming of it experienced in the ‘Journey of the Magi’. There he makes the connection between birth and death:

All this was a long time ago, I remember,
And I would do it again, but set down
This set down
This: were we led all that way for
Birth or Death? There was a Birth, certainly,
We had evidence and no doubt. I had seen birth and death,
But had thought they were different; this Birth was
Hard and bitter agony for us, like Death, our death.
We returned to our places, these Kingdoms,
But no longer at ease here, in the old dispensation,
With an alien people clutching their gods.
I should be glad of another death.

Between those two commemorations of martyrdom, we find ourselves today [27 December] marking the Feast of Saint John the Evangelist.

At first, this too may not seem an appropriate feast day to celebrate in the days immediately after Christmas Day. Even chronologically it creates difficulties, for tradition says Saint John was the last of the disciples to die, making his death the one that is separated most in terms of length of time from the birth of Christ.

In art, Saint John the Evangelist is frequently represented as an Eagle, symbolising the heights to which he rises in the first chapter of his Gospel.

For Saint John, there is no annunciation, no nativity, no crib in Bethlehem, no shepherds or wise men, no little stories to allow us to be sentimental and to be amused. He is sharp, direct and gets to the point: ‘In the beginning …’

But the Prologue to Saint John’s Gospel is one of the traditional readings on Christmas Day, so many of us immediately associate his writings with this time of the year.

Saint John the Evangelist is unnamed in the Fourth Gospel. Yet tradition identifies him with the John who is:

• one of the three at the Transfiguration,
• one of the disciples sent to prepare a place for the Last Supper,
• one of the three present in the Garden of Gethsemane,
• the only disciple present at the Crucifixion,
• the disciple to whom Christ entrusts his mother from the Cross,
• the first disciple to arrive at Christ’s tomb after the Resurrection,
• the disciple who first recognises Christ standing on the lake shore following the Resurrection.

The Beloved Disciple, alone among the Twelve, remains with Christ at the foot of the Cross with the Mother of Christ and the women and he is asked by the dying Christ to take Mary into his care (John 19: 25-27). After Mary Magdalene’s report of the Resurrection, Peter and the ‘other disciple’ are the first to go to the grave, and the ‘other disciple’ is the first to believe that Christ is truly risen (John 20: 2-10).

When the Risen Christ appears at the Lake of Genesareth, ‘that disciple whom Jesus loved’ is the first of the seven disciples present who recognises Christ standing on the shore (John 21: 7).

Saint Paul names John as one of the pillars of the Church in Jerusalem (see Galatians 2: 9). Later, tradition says, he takes over the position of leadership Paul once had in the Church in Ephesus and is said to have lived there and to have been buried there.

According to a tradition mentioned by Saint Jerome, in the second general persecution, in the year 95, Saint John was arrested and sent to Rome, where he was thrown into a vat or cauldron of boiling oil but miraculously was preserved from death.

According to ancient tradition, during the reign of the Emperor Domitian, Saint John was once given a cup of poisoned wine, but he blessed the cup and the poison rose out of the cup in the form of a serpent. Saint John then drank the wine with no ill effect. A chalice with a serpent signifying the powerless poison has become one of his symbols.

Domitian then banished Saint John to the island of Patmos. It was there in the year 96 he had those heavenly visions recorded in the Book of Revelation. After the death of Domitian, it is said, he returned to Ephesus in the year 97, and there tradition says he wrote his gospel about the year 98. He is also identified with the author of the three Johannine letters.

The tradition of the Church says Saint John lived to old age in Ephesus. Jerome, in his commentary on Chapter 6 of the Epistle to the Galatians (Jerome, Comm. in ep. ad. Gal., 6, 10), tells the well-loved story that Saint John continued preaching in Ephesus even when he was in his 90s.

He was so enfeebled with old age that the people carried him into the Church in Ephesus on a stretcher. When he was no longer able to preach or deliver a long discourse, his custom was to lean up on one elbow on each occasion and to say simply: ‘Little children, love one another.’ This continued on, even when the ageing John was on his deathbed.

Then he would lie back down and his friends would carry him back out. Every week in Ephesus, the same thing happened, again and again. And every week it was the same short sermon, exactly the same message: ‘Little children, love one another.’

One day, the story goes, someone asked him about it: ‘John, why is it that every week you say exactly the same thing, ‘little children, love one another’?’ And John replied: ‘Because it is enough.’ If you want to know the basics of living as a Christian, there it is in a nutshell. All you need to know is. ‘Little children, love one another.’

According to Eusebius, Saint John died in peace at Ephesus, in the third year of Trajan, that is, the year 100, when he was about 94 years old. According to Saint Epiphanius, he was buried on a mountain outside the town. The Basilica of Saint John the Theologian gave the later name of Aysoluk to the hill above the town of Selçuk, beside Ephesus.

I am constantly overwhelmed and in awe of the emphasis on love and light throughout the Johannine letters. That emphasis on love, which informs the story of Saint John’s last days, is brought through in the first of the Johannine letters (I John 1: 1-9) which we read this morning.

This emphasis constantly informs all aspects of my ministry.

I was once doing Sunday duty during a vacancy in a parish that has three churches. A student asked me at the time how many sermons I preached. I replied: ‘Three.’

‘You preach three sermons every Sunday?’ she asked with an air of incredulity.

I explained: ‘I preach three sermons all the time. The first is ‘Love God,’ the second is ‘Love one another,’ and the third, in case someone missed the first and second sermons, is ‘Love God and love one another’.’

That is the heart of the Christmas story, that is the heart of the Gospel, that is the heart of the Johannine writings, and that, to put it simply, is why we celebrate Saint John in the days immediately after Christmas. ‘Little children, love one another.’

The site of Saint John’s tomb in Ephesus is marked by a marble plaque and four Byzantine pillars (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Saturday 27 December 2025, Saint John the Apostle and Evangelist):

The theme this week (21 to 27 December 2025) in Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), has been ‘Love Brings Life in Tanzania’ (pp 12-13). This theme was introduced last Sunday with a Programme Update by Imran Englefield, Individual Giving Manager, USPG.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Saturday 27 December 2025, Saint John the Apostle and Evangelist) invites us to pray:

Lord, bless the health projects of the Anglican Church of Tanzania. Grant wisdom, strengthen partnerships, and help the work bring healing and hope to many.

The Collect:

Merciful Lord,
cast your bright beams of light upon the Church:
that, being enlightened by the teaching
of your blessed apostle and evangelist Saint John,
we may so walk in the light of your truth
that we may at last attain to the light of everlasting life;
through Jesus Christ your incarnate 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:

Grant, O Lord, we pray,
that the Word made flesh
proclaimed by your apostle John
may, by the celebration of these holy mysteries,
ever abide and live within us;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Collect on the Eve of Christmas I:

Almighty God,
who wonderfully created us in your own image
and yet more wonderfully restored us
through your Son Jesus Christ:
grant that, as he came to share in our humanity,
so we may share the life of his divinity;
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

A relief sculpture of Saint John … one of a series in Pugin’s font in Saint Chad’s Roman Catholic Cathedral in Birmingham with the symbols of the four evangelists (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

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

Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2025: 75, Wednesday 23 July 2025

The Sower and the Seed … an image in the East Window in Holy Trinity Church, Rathkeale, Co Limerick (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church and this week began with the Fifth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity V, 20 July 2025). Today, the Church Calendar remembers Saint Bridget of Sweden (1373), Abbess of Vadstena.

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.

‘Other seeds fell on good soil and brought forth grain’ (Matthew 13: 8) … fields at Cross in Hand Lane, in rural Staffordshire, near Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Matthew 13: 1-9 (NRSVA):

1 That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the lake. 2 Such great crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat there, while the whole crowd stood on the beach. 3 And he told them many things in parables, saying: ‘Listen! A sower went out to sow. 4 And as he sowed, some seeds fell on the path, and the birds came and ate them up. 5 Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and they sprang up quickly, since they had no depth of soil. 6 But when the sun rose, they were scorched; and since they had no root, they withered away. 7 Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. 8 Other seeds fell on good soil and brought forth grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. 9 Let anyone with ears listen!’

‘Other seeds fell on good soil and brought forth grain’ (Matthew 13: 8) … walking through fields in Comberford, between Lichfield and Tamworth in rural Staffordshire (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

This morning’s reflection:

In a posting about Broadcasting House yesterday (22 July 2025), I quoted the Latin inscription in the main reception area that refers to the Parable of the Sower: ‘This temple of the arts and muses is dedicated to Almighty God by the first Governors in the year of our Lord 1931 John Reith being Director-General, and they pray that good seed sown may bring forth good harvest, that all things foul or hostile to peace may be banished hence, and that people inclining their ear to whatsoever things are lovely and honest, whatsoever things are of good report, may tread the path of virtue and wisdom.’

This theme is repeated in Eric Gill’s sculpture of ‘The Sower’ in the reception area. Both the inscription and the statue emphasise the importance of listening for the BBC’s broadcasting.

The quotation from Jesus in this morning’s Gospel reading begins and ends with the word ‘Listen.’

The opening word of the Rule of Saint Benedict is ‘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 Abbot Christopher Jamison guided five modern 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 natural parts 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 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 a 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.

‘Other seeds fell on good soil and brought forth grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty’ (Matthew 13: 8) … trees and shaded gardens in Platanias in suburban Rethymnon, Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Today’s Prayers (Wednesday 23 July 2025):

The theme this week (20 to 26 July) in Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘Diversity in Sarawak’ (pp 20-21). I introduced this theme on Sunday with reflections from Sarawak and the Diocese of Kuching.

The USPG prayer diary today (Wednesday 23 July 2025) invites us to pray:

We pray for the priests, parishes and mission areas of the Diocese of Kuching, throughout Sarawak and Brunei and in parts of Kalimantan in Indonesia.

The Collect:

Almighty and everlasting God,
by whose Spirit the whole body of the Church
is governed and sanctified:
hear our prayer which we offer for all your faithful people,
that in their vocation and ministry
they may serve you in holiness and truth
to the glory of your name;
through our Lord and Saviour 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:

Grant, O Lord, we beseech you,
that the course of this world may be so peaceably ordered
by your governance,
that your Church may joyfully serve you in all godly quietness;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

Almighty God,
send down upon your Church
the riches of your Spirit,
and kindle in all who minister the gospel
your countless gifts of grace;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s reflection

Continued tomorrow

‘We pray for the priests, parishes and mission areas of the Diocese of Kuching’ (USPG Prayer Diary, 23 July 2025) … looking out from Saint Gregory’s Chapel, Giam, in Sarawak (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

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