Daily prayer in Lent 2026: 23, Thursday 12 March 2026

‘If Satan also is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand?’ (Luke 11: 18) … a gargoyle at Lichfield Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We have reached the half-way point in Lent, which began three weeks ago on Ash Wednesday (18 February 2026). This week began with the Third Sunday in Lent (Lent III, 8 March 2026).

I am staying at the Anglican Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham in Norfolk. I am speaking later today at the Ecumenical Pilgrimage to Walsingham which began on Tuesday (10 March) and continues until tomorrow (13 March).

This ecumenical pilgrimage has been organised with the support of the Fellowship of Saint Alban and Saint Sergius and the Society of Saint John Chrysostom and is in its 100th year. I have been invited to speak today on ‘A Priest along the Way of a Pilgrim’.

Today’s programme begins with an Anglican celebration of the Eucharist in the Shrine Church or Catholic Mass (Ordinariate Use) with the Little Sisters of Jesus, and Scripture Meditations led by the Revd Samuel Harris of the Church of Scotland in the Shrine Church, and the morning includes a talk by Father Michael Lambros of Saint Mary and Saint George Coptic Orthodox Church, East London; and the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts served by Father Stephen Platt of the Fellowship of Saint Alban and Saint Sergius. The afternoon programme includes sprinkling at the Holy Well in the Shrine Church and my talk, ‘A Priest along the Way of a Pilgrim’. In the evening, Monsignor Keith Newton is in Conversation with Father Mark Woodruff.

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, reading today’s Gospel reading;

2, a short reflection;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

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

The 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)

Luke 11: 14-23 (NRSVA):

14 Now he was casting out a demon that was mute; when the demon had gone out, the one who had been mute spoke, and the crowds were amazed. 15 But some of them said, ‘He casts out demons by Beelzebul, the ruler of the demons.’ 16 Others, to test him, kept demanding from him a sign from heaven. 17 But he knew what they were thinking and said to them, ‘Every kingdom divided against itself becomes a desert, and house falls on house. 18 If Satan also is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand? – for you say that I cast out the demons by Beelzebul. 19 Now if I cast out the demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your exorcists cast them out? Therefore they will be your judges. 20 But if it is by the finger of God that I cast out the demons, then the kingdom of God has come to you. 21 When a strong man, fully armed, guards his castle, his property is safe. 22 But when one stronger than he attacks him and overpowers him, he takes away his armour in which he trusted and divides his plunder. 23 Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.’

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 Reflection:

The Gospel reading at the Eucharist this morning (Luke 11: 14-23) is laden with images of demons, Beelzebul, Satan, more demons, exorcists and still more demons. And we read of a kingdom divided against itself that becomes a desert, houses falling on houses, castles being plundered, and strong men abusing their strength.

What is your image of the Devil?

For many people today, he is old hat and the stuff of superstition. For others 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’s The Waste Land, as well as frescoes, paintings, and stained-glass windows throughout the world.

But the Devil appears in many forms throughout the Bible.

The word satan in its original 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 in today’s Gospel reading, 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 critics in today’s reading accuse Jesus of exorcising demons through the power of Beelzebub.

Satan plays a role in some of the Gospel 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).

The three synoptic Gospels describe the temptation of Christ by Satan in the wilderness (see Matthew 4: 1-11, Mark 1: 12-13, and Luke 4: 1-13), and, each time, Christ rebukes Satan.

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, is greed in the form of wanting a new combined toaster and microwave oven. He resists 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, leading to the abuse of privilege, position and power, in the church, in business, in politics.

There is real evil in the world. It is 81 years since the end of the Holocaust and World War II. Yet racism is rampant, open Islamophobia and antisemitism are on the rise, with the US attacks on Iran, the world is close to war yet again, peace seems impossible in the Middle East, and the rule of law is being undermined in the US, moment by the moment.

As I watch the daily rantings of the kleptocracy that has taken grip of the institutions of democracy and justice in the US, I cannot but help find parallels in the parable contained within today’s Gospel reading: ‘When a strong man, fully armed, guards his castle, his property is safe. But when one stronger than he attacks him and overpowers him, he takes away his armour in which he trusted and divides his plunder. Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters’ (verses 21-23).

Yet there is hope too: demons are cast out, those who were once silent finally find the power to speak out, the strong and the mighty are exposed as plunderers and despoilers, kingdoms find they are divided against themselves and become desert, and houses fall on house.

And when these things happen, as they shall happen, we must hope for signs that the kingdom of God is to come among us.

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

Today’s Prayers (Thursday 12 March 2026):

The theme this week (8-14 March 2026) in ‘Pray With the World Church,’ the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘Biblical Sisterhood’ (pp 36-37). This theme was introduced on Sunday with reflections by Dr Sanjana Das, PhD feminist theologian, advocate for the dignity and rights of trafficked and migrant working women.

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

God of courage and compassion, awaken in us the honesty to examine our own actions. Forgive the times we have looked away or acted without thought. Help us to shop, eat and live in ways that honour the labour of others, and uphold dignity and justice for all.

The Collect:

Almighty God,
whose most dear Son went not up to joy but first he suffered pain,
and entered not into glory before he was crucified:
mercifully grant that we, walking in the way of the cross,
may find it none other than the way of life and peace;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post Communion Prayer:

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

Additional Collect:

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

Yesterday’s Reflections

Continued Tomorrow

‘When the demon had gone out, the one who had been mute spoke, and the crowds were amazed …’ (Luke 11: 14) … a sculpture in the Llotja de la Seda or Silk Exchange in Valencia (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: 4, Sunday 28 December 2025, First Sunday of Christmas (Christmas I)

The Presentation in the Temple and the Flight into Egypt … scenes from Christ’s childhood years in windows designed by Father Vincent Chin in Saint Peter’s Church, Kuching (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

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

This is the fourth day of Christmas and today in the church calendar is the First Sunday of Christmas (Christmas I, (28 December 2025), and later this morning I hope to take part in the Parish Eucharist in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford.

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 Flight into Egypt … a stained glass window by the Harry Clarke Studios in Saint Peter and Saint Paul Church, Athlone (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Matthew 2: 13–23 (NRSVA):

13 Now after they had left, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, ‘Get up, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you; for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.’ 14 Then Joseph got up, took the child and his mother by night, and went to Egypt, 15 and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfil what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet, ‘Out of Egypt I have called my son.’

16 When Herod saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, he was infuriated, and he sent and killed all the children in and around Bethlehem who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had learned from the wise men. 17 Then was fulfilled what had been spoken through the prophet Jeremiah:

18 ‘A voice was heard in Ramah,
wailing and loud lamentation,
Rachel weeping for her children;
she refused to be consoled, because they are no more.’

19 When Herod died, an angel of the Lord suddenly appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and said, 20 ‘Get up, take the child and his mother, and go to the land of Israel, for those who were seeking the child’s life are dead.’ 21 Then Joseph got up, took the child and his mother, and went to the land of Israel. 22 But when he heard that Archelaus was ruling over Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. And after being warned in a dream, he went away to the district of Galilee. 23 There he made his home in a town called Nazareth, so that what had been spoken through the prophets might be fulfilled, ‘He will be called a Nazorean.’

‘Rest on the Flight into Egypt’ (1879), by Luc-Olivier Merson

This Sunday can be something of an anti-climax for many people, after all that has happened on Christmas Day and the day after, Saint Stephen’s Day.

The ‘four calling birds’ on the fourth day of Christmas are said to represent the four Gospel writers. But Saint Matthew is alone among the Gospel writers in recounting the flight into Egypt (Matthew 2: 13-23). We hear this morning how Saint Joseph learns after the visit of the Magi that King Herod the Great is plotting to murder the infants in his kingdom.

Herod the Great fears the new-born ‘King of the Jews’ that the Magi speak about is going to be a threat to his throne, and so he sets out to kill all innocent children under the age of two.

The wise men from the East (verse 1) came to Herod the Great asking ‘Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews?’ (verse 2). Now They have visited the child with Mary (verse 11), paid him homage, and offered him gifts. They have now returned to their own country (verse 12).

In yet another dream, an angel warns Saint Joseph of the plot, and so he takes the Virgin Mary and the Christ Child with him, and the family flee to Egypt (verse 13).

Egypt was to the west or south-west of Bethlehem a logical place to seek refuge: it was outside Herod’s kingdom, but both Egypt and Palestine were part of the Roman Empire, linked by a coastal road known as ‘the way of the sea.’ After a time, the Holy Family returns from exile in Egypt and settles in Galilee.

In this account, Matthew 2: 15 cites Hosea (11: 1) as prophetically fulfilled in their return from Egypt: ‘… and out of Egypt I called my son.’

We have yet to read about the Circumcision and Naming of Christ (1 January) and the Epiphany (6 January), so this Gospel reading, with its story of Saint Joseph’s dream and the Flight into Egypt, may seem out of sequence.

This story can be read as a comparison with either Moses leading the people out of exile in Egypt or with the forced exile for many generations in Babylon. In either case, Christ is seen, from the beginning of his life, as leading people out of exile and slavery.

The story is often read as the final episode in the Nativity narrative, and is associated with this season of Epiphany. Perhaps this reading, with its events and its geographical setting, may present many parishes with an interesting opportunity to consider the plight of refugees, particularly in North Africa, the Middle East and the Mediterranean.

Or, perhaps, given the present political climate in the US, Russia and many other countries, the story could provide an interesting opening to discuss the policies and whims of capricious, demanding and despotic rulers.

Herod has all the infants in the area around Bethlehem area killed because he fears that Jesus may succeed to his throne, rather than one of his own sons (verse 16). The Gospel then recalls the Prophet Jeremiah (verse 18) and how Rachel weeps over the exile of her sons, and then (verse 20).

In Joseph’s next dream, the angel’s message recalls God’s words to Moses as he sends him to lead Israel out of bondage. In this way, Christ is presented as the new leader of God’s people.

Herod the Great’s son, Herod Antipas, ruled Galilee benignly, compared to how his brother Herod Archelaus ruled in Judea. Some commentators suggest Joseph may also have chosen to make his home in Nazareth (verse 23) because he could find work at Sepphoris, the city being rebuilt 6 km nearby.

The closing quotation is not found in the Hebrew Scriptures. Perhaps Saint Matthew is misquoting Isaiah, who says ‘a branch [nezer] shall grow’ out of Jesse’s ‘roots’ (see Isaiah 11: 1) – David was Jesse’s son.

The painting ‘Rest on the Flight into Egypt’ (1879) by Luc-Olivier Merson (1846–1920) is in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. It is in Oil on Canvas and measures 71.8 cm x 128.3 cm. It was bought in Paris by George Golding Kennedy (1841-1918) of Boston, who bequeathed it to museum in 1918.

The scene Merson depicts is haunting and full of fatigue. An exhausted Saint Joseph is asleep, perhaps suffering from mental and physical exhaustion in his flight from danger with his wife and her baby, stretched out on the desert sands as he tries to doze off.

The Virgin Mary is resting in the arms of the Sphinx, cradling the Christ Child, both unable to sleep because of their plight, because of what they have witnessed.

The Christ Child seems to light up the whole scene but is beginning his life in exile, in homelessness, a refugee, an immigrant, a stranger in a strange land.

The donkey – that little donkey who becomes a domestic pet in children’s carols – is worn out from the journey from Bethlehem, and scavenges in the dark in the desert soil, seeking what few blades of grass he can find to eat.

By the time the 12 days of Christmas have passed, most of us will be tired of the seven swans a-swimming, the six geese a-laying … and only too happy to get back to work, and to begin looking at summer holiday brochures.

However, this is not what it is like for the Holy Family in the days after their first Christmas. That first Christmas was not one filled with tedium and boredom. Their first Christmas was the very opposite to our comfortable holiday season in Northern Europe.

This painting by Merson reminds us of the stark reality of the hardship and deprivation suffered by a family on the run. Who among us would swap the tedium and boredom of the coming week for that time Mary and Joseph had with the Christ Child?

Harried by Herod’s hunters, they barely escaped a maniacal plot for mass murder, and ended up in exile where their ancestors had once been slaves, seeking succour and refuge with the Jewish diaspora by the Nile and the Pyramids.

The Flight into Egypt was no bargain package holiday. Rather, it was an ordeal that inspired artists throughout the centuries. It has been painted by Fra Angelico, Giotto, Carpaccio, Durer, Claude Lorrain, Tintoretto, Barbieri, Tiepolo … the great Dutch and Italian masters, indeed most of the great Western artists.

Saint Matthew’s unique account of this event in this reading had many resonances for his first readers: it is a powerful restructuring of the story of Joseph forced into exile in Egypt because of the evil plots hatched against him. And the exodus from Egypt in later, safer, days, would point anew towards redemption from slavery and sin and offer the hope of imminent salvation.

Later legends surrounding the Flight into Egypt include the family hiding in a cave and being protected by a spider’s web, the beasts of the desert bowing in homage to the Christ Child, an encounter with two thieves who would be crucified beside Christ on the Cross on Calvary, and palm trees bending in reverence as Mary and Joseph passed by with the Child Jesus.

Legend says that when they found shelter on the banks of Nile, the Holy Family lived in an area known as Babylon in Egypt, where there was a long, continuous Jewish presence. Although those stories of flight and exile are unique to Saint Matthew’s Gospel, they also appear in the Quran, and are part of the way Muslims come to own the story of Jesus within their own religious traditions.

On various visits to Egypt, I was aware that the stories of the flight into Egypt, the refuge, the welcome and the asylum offered to the Holy Family there, are stories shared and definitive for all Egyptians, including Muslims, the large Christian community, and the dwindling but ancient Jewish community.

Many shrines and churches are claimed as places where the family rested or dwelt, none more so than Abu Sergha or the Church of Saint Sergius and Saint Bacchus, one of the oldest Coptic Churches in Egypt, and the place where many Patriarchs of Alexandria or Coptic Popes were elected.

Every Egyptian today – Jew, Christian and Muslim – identifies with both the Holy Family and those who offered them asylum. But who would we here identify with if you and I were hearing this story of mass murder and enforced exile for the first time?

Would I have been among the innkeepers who first refused them a welcome at my inn or hostel in Bethlehem?

Would I have been willing to work with the political apparatus around the Herod of my day, holding onto power and privilege, inspiring fear rather than respect and loyalty, no matter who had to be trampled on, no matter who suffered, no matter how the innocent would be counted among the victims?

Would I have had the courage of the wandering Magi, not only to seek truth, even if it is outside my own area of learning and knowledge, but also willing to take the risks involved in refusing to respect the immoral demands of those holding the reins of power when they are lawful but patently immoral?

When was I last like Joseph, realising that God’s promptings are not idle dreams but that they demand discipleship and action, even if this puts my personal security at risk?

When did I listen to the voice of today’s Rachels, the weeping mothers and widows, whether at a local level it was listening to the grief of someone who has lost a dear family member at Christmas time, or at a global level it was listening to those who are weeping in grief in Ukraine and Russia, in Gaza, Israel and Palestine, in Afghanistan or Sudan, or facing hostility from local communities asked to host asylum seekers and refugees in hotels and shelters?

The story of Herod’s jealous plot and of a family fleeing in search of refuge continues to have radical relevance today.

We cannot be open to the plight of the fleeing Holy Family unless we are open to the plight and needs of the families who have come to live among us today – whatever their political, social or ethnic backgrounds may be.

We cannot understand the plight of families who saw the hope of future generations sacrificed in the interest of political greed unless we too are willing to stand against political and personal greed today.

We cannot praise the disobedience of the Magi unless we are willing to say regularly that morality in politics must overrule the personal interests, gain and profit of those who hold office.

We cannot rejoice in the welcome the Egyptians gave to Mary, Joseph and the Baby Jesus unless we too are willing to rejoice in every initiative, every stage in the process of dialogue that brings Jews, Christians and Muslims together in our own country.

We cannot pity the plight of that family in exile unless we can acknowledge the needs of the new families living among us today.

Christmas is the story of the true insider who becomes a real outsider in order that we who in our reality are outsiders may truly become insiders.

Today’s Gospel story is an unsettling story. Perhaps it’s a story that reminds us how we can make Christmas too easy, too comfortable.

This is not a ‘family-friendly’ story, if you think of what happens to the Holy Family, to Joseph, Mary and Jesus. The Christmas story is not complete without tyrannical rulers, mass murder, refugees and families fleeing injustice.

Perhaps the Christmas story is a reminder to us that everywhere today we find oppressive rulers, the denial of human rights, child abuse, and the creation of mass numbers of refugees there is something very wrong, there is a denial of the Kingdom of God that Christ has come into the world to announce, that the state of our world today is a clear denial of the message of Christmas, of what Christmas is all about.

That’s the dark and bitter side of Christmas.

The Flight into Egypt … a stained glass window in Saint Ailbe’s Church, Emly, Co Tipperary (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Sunday 28 December 2025, Christmas I):

The theme this week (28 December 2025 to 3 January 2026) in Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘Mother and Child’ (pp 14-15). This theme is introduced today with a Programme Update by Imran Englefield, Individual Giving Manager, USPG, who writes:

‘As we celebrate the coming of Christ, I think of the mothers I met in Tanzania and the hope I saw in their eyes. None more so than Alice, a young mother I met at Mvumi Hospital.

‘Alice and her husband both live with HIV. After losing a child and suffering several miscarriages, she feared she would never hold a healthy baby again. Through the Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission programme, she received treatment, counselling, and care throughout her pregnancy.

‘When I met her, she was sitting quietly on her hospital bed, holding her one-year-old son. They had come in for a regular check-up. With deep emotion, she said, “I never thought I would see my child so healthy and strong. This hospital has given us hope and a reason to keep going.”

‘In the waiting rooms, other mothers, including many who were expecting, waited for check-ups, chatting softly and comforting one another. It was lovely to witness. I remember thinking that this is what partnership truly looks like; a church and hospital working hand in hand, creating a community and space for mothers to bring healthy children into the world.

‘It is a powerful reminder that the story of new life we celebrate at Christmas is still unfolding every day at Mvumi Hospital.’

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Sunday 28 December 2025, Christmas I) invites us to pray as we read and meditate on Matthew 2: 13-23.

The Collect:

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.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

Heavenly Father,
whose blessed Son shared at Nazareth the life of an earthly home:
help your Church to live as one family,
united in love and obedience,
and bring us all at last to our home in heaven;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

God in Trinity,
eternal unity of perfect love:
gather the nations to be one family,
and draw us into your holy life
through the birth of Emmanuel,
our Lord Jesus Christ.

Yesterday’s Reflections

Continued Tomorrow

The Flight into Egypt in Harry Clarke’s ‘Presentation Window’ in Saint Flannan’s Church, Killaloe, Co Clare (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 Advent 2025: 18, Wednesday 17 December 2025

The west window in All Saints’ Church, Margaret Street, London, by Alexander Gibbs … inspired by the 14th-century Jesse Tree window in Wells Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are two-thirds of the way through the Season of Advent, and Christmas Eve is just a week away. This week began with the Third Sunday of Advent (Advent III, 14 December 2025), also known as Gaudete Sunday. Today, the Calendar of the Church of England remembers Eglantyne Jebb (1928), Social Reformer and Founder of Save the Children.

Later this evening, I hope to take part in the choir rehearsals in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford, as we continue to prepare for the Advent carol services and for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

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.

‘An account of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah’ (Matthew 1: 1) … the Jesse Tree in a window by Clayton and Bell in the North Transept in Lichfield Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Matthew 1: 1-17 (NRSVA):

1 An account of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham.

2 Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, 3 and Judah the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar, and Perez the father of Hezron, and Hezron the father of Aram, 4 and Aram the father of Aminadab, and Aminadab the father of Nahshon, and Nahshon the father of Salmon, 5 and Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab, and Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse, 6 and Jesse the father of King David.

And David was the father of Solomon by the wife of Uriah, 7 and Solomon the father of Rehoboam, and Rehoboam the father of Abijah, and Abijah the father of Asaph, 8 and Asaph the father of Jehoshaphat, and Jehoshaphat the father of Joram, and Joram the father of Uzziah, 9 and Uzziah the father of Jotham, and Jotham the father of Ahaz, and Ahaz the father of Hezekiah, 10 and Hezekiah the father of Manasseh, and Manasseh the father of Amos, and Amos the father of Josiah, 11 and Josiah the father of Jechoniah and his brothers, at the time of the deportation to Babylon.

12 And after the deportation to Babylon: Jechoniah was the father of Salathiel, and Salathiel the father of Zerubbabel, 13 and Zerubbabel the father of Abiud, and Abiud the father of Eliakim, and Eliakim the father of Azor, 14 and Azor the father of Zadok, and Zadok the father of Achim, and Achim the father of Eliud, 15 and Eliud the father of Eleazar, and Eleazar the father of Matthan, and Matthan the father of Jacob, 16 and Jacob the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called the Messiah.

17 So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations; and from David to the deportation to Babylon, fourteen generations; and from the deportation to Babylon to the Messiah, fourteen generations.

Mary’s ‘husband Joseph [was] a righteous man’ (Matthew 1: 8-19) … the betrothal of Joseph and Mary, depicted in a window by Harry Clarke in Athlone (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflections:

In the Gospel reading at the Eucharist today (Matthew 1: 1-17), we begin a series of readings drawing on the early stages of the two nativity narratives found in Matthew 1: 1-24 and Luke 1: 5-79.

Today (17 December) marks the start of the week before the celebration of Christmas, the birth of Christ. The Gospels offer us two different genealogies for Jesus, in the Gospel according to Saint Matthew (1: 1-17) and the Gospel according to Saint Luke (Luke 3: 23-38). Both genealogies are almost exclusively male listings, but they reflect different priorities distinguished by some interesting variation in Matthew’s genealogical approach.

While Saint Luke traces the line of ancestry back to Adam, emphasising the universalist nature of the incarnation, Saint Matthew traces the line back to Abraham, rooting Jesus in space and time, placing him in the context of Israel’s story.

He is not ashamed to name some of the more colourful men in this family tree, including Jacob, who lied and cheated his old blind father; Judah who slept with his own daughter-in-law, mistaking her for a cult prostitute; David the bandit-shepherd who becomes king; Rehoboam, who encouraged pagan cults and male cult prostitutes; Jehoram (or Joram), who married Ahab’s sister and followed the depraved lifestyle of his brother-in-law and his wife, Jezebel; Uzziah the leper; and Manasseh and Amon (Amos) who burned babies alive.

This is a colourful interpretation of the family history of Jesus as offered by Saint Matthew. But perhaps it is more interesting to note that, unlike Luke, Matthew includes five women among the ancestors of Jesus. The choice of these five women has particular significance in Saint Matthew’s genealogy; a reader knowing that Matthew was anxious to prove the royal ancestry and lineage of Jesus, might expect any women selected for special mention would be queens, or the daughters of important kings, mighty warriors, or great prophets. Instead, the writer selects five women who were on the margins of society. Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, Bathsheba and Mary were not the sort of women one might want to boast about in some imaginary Biblical version of Burke’s Peerage or Burke’s Landed Gentry.

Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, Bathsheba and Mary are the sort of ancestors often overlooked by ancestor-searchers. But they challenged the Jewish restrictions on marriage to Gentiles and challenged the very definition of Jewish-ness which depends on a mother's authentic Jewish identity. By those rabbinical definitions of Jewish-ness, which perhaps were beginning to develop at the time the Gospels were written, we could not regard Perez, Boaz, or Solomon, or for that matter David and the whole line of kings of Israel and Judah as authentic, ethnic Jews.

Christ is coming, and he turns everything upside, removing our prejudices, calling in the outsiders and welcoming those who are on the marginalised and who are the victims of our prejudices.

The Jesse Tree depicted in the West Window in Christ Church, Cathedral, Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Wednesday 17 December 2024):

The theme this week (14 to 20 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 Floating Church’ (pp 10-11). This theme was introduced on Sunday with a Programme Update by Sister Veronica of the Community of the Sisters of the Church in Melanesia.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Wednesday 17 December 2025) invites us to pray:

We pray for the Christian Care Centre in Honiara and the women and children who find refuge there. May they experience safety, healing, and hope, and may the Sisters be strengthened in compassion and wisdom.

The Collect:

O Lord Jesus Christ,
who at your first coming sent your messenger
to prepare your way before you:
grant that the ministers and stewards of your mysteries
may likewise so prepare and make ready your way
by turning the hearts of the disobedient to the wisdom of the just,
that at your second coming to judge the world
we may be found an acceptable people in your sight;
for you are alive and reign with the Father
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

We give you thanks, O Lord, for these heavenly gifts;
kindle in us the fire of your Spirit
that when your Christ comes again
we may shine as lights before his face;
who is alive and reigns now and for ever.

Additional Collect:

God for whom we watch and wait,
you sent John the Baptist to prepare the way of your Son:
give us courage to speak the truth,
to hunger for justice,
and to suffer for the cause of right,
with Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s Reflections

>Continued Tomorrow

‘We give you thanks, O Lord, for these heavenly gifts’ (Post-Communion Prayer) … preparing for the Eucharist in Southwark 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

Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2025: 110, Thursday 28 August 2025

‘You have one teacher, and you are all students’ (Matthew 23: 8) … ‘Teacher and Student’ (1904), J Gerberhole, burnished clay, the Old Synagogue Museum, Kraków (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar and this week began the Tenth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity X) and then the Summer bank holiday on Monday. The calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship today remembers Saint Augustine (430), Bishop of Hippo, Teacher of the Faith, whose mother, Saint Monica (387), was commemorated yesterday (27 August).

Later today, we are planning to visit London. But, before today begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, for reflection, prayer and reading in these ways:

1, today’s Gospel reading;

2, a reflection on the Gospel reading;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

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

’The greatest among you will be your servant’ (Matthew 23: 11) … service at a table for two in Rethymnon in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Matthew 23: 8-12 (NRSVA):

[Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples:] 8 ‘But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all students. 9 And call no one your father on earth, for you have one Father – the one in heaven. 10 Nor are you to be called instructors, for you have one instructor, the Messiah. 11 The greatest among you will be your servant. 12 All who exalt themselves will be humbled, and all who humble themselves will be exalted.’

Do I need a manual, a discourse or a lecture on how to use a fork … or to love? … at a table in Piskopiano in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflection:

This morning’s Gospel reading (Matthew 23: 8-12) is part of the Gospel reading we looked at last Saturday (Matthew 23: 1-12, 23 August 2025). This morning, we hear a more general rebuke of those among the Scribes and the Pharisees who ‘do not practise what they teach’ (verse 4), who ‘do all their deeds to be seen by others’ (verse 5) and who ‘love to have the place of honour at banquets and the best seats in the synagogues, and to be greeted with respect in the market-places, and to have people call them rabbi’ (verses 6-7).

We are warned about the dangers built into loving honorific titles, such as ‘teacher,’ ‘father’ and instructor (see verses 8-10) – perhaps for me that may mean ‘Father’, ‘Canon’ and ‘Professor’ – because, of course, we are all students, we are all brothers and sisters, we are all disciples and children of God.

Yet I too am a father and have been a teacher and a tutor. Is Christ warning against the position; or is he warning against seeking honours that have not been earned?

It is a truism that parents must earn the respect of their children, not seek or demand it. Most parents have, at one time or another, said to their children: ‘Do what I tell you, not what I do.’ Needless to say, children never listen to parents when we say something so silly. All parents know, on the other hand, that actions speak louder than words.

This morning’s reading must not be understood as a general rebuke of all scribes and Pharisees, for Jesus prefaces all he says here by reminding those present that they ‘sit on Moses’ seat; therefore, do whatever they teach you and follow it’ (verses 2-3).

Perhaps this morning’s reading reflects later tensions between the Jewish synagogue and the new Christian community. But, in Christ’s own days, people expected a Pharisee to be a careful observer of the Law. Unlike the Temple priests and village elders, the Pharisees did not have a high social status.

Before the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem in the year 70 CE, the Pharisees were a relatively modest group of people without political power and they tried to live out Jewish tradition and the Torah seriously and conscientiously in their daily lives. The Pharisees saw the Law as applying not only to every aspect of public life, but to every aspect of private, domestic, daily life too.

There is a well-worn saying that advises: ‘It’s not where you start out but where you end up.’ The Pharisees started out with good intentions, but some of them ended by seeking to be great, seeking to be exalted (verses 11-12). They started out being concerned for holiness, but some ended at exclusion. They started out seeking to recognise God in all aspects of life, but some of them ended by seeking recognition at banquets and in the synagogue (verses 6-7).

Christ calls us to live in such a way that we can say to the world: ‘Do as we say and do as we do.’

As I was suggesting in my reflections last Saturday, the problem here may not so much be a conflict between words and actions, but the need to make the connection between words and actions. Words must mean what they point to, and the actions must be capable of being described in words.

Most of us, as children, learned by watching how adults behave, we learn as members of the human community. As a child, when I needed to learn how to use a fork, I did not need a lecture on the hygienic and sanitary contributions that forks have made to the benefit European lifestyles since the introduction of the fork through Byzantium and Venice to mediaeval Europe.

I did not need an engineering lecture on the practicalities and difficulties of balancing the prongs and the handle.

I would have been too young to read a delightful discussion by Judith Herrin of how the fork-using Byzantines were much more sophisticated than their western allies or rivals who ate with their hands (Judith Herrin, Byzantium – the Surprising Life of a Mediaeval Empire, London: Allen Lane, 2007).

The same principle applies to everything else. I recalled on Saturday how Andrew Davison, Regius Professor of Divinity, Oxford, points out in his contribution to Imaginative Apologetics (London: SCM Press, 2011), that the same principle applies to how we learn about everything else in life – cups, books, bicycles and so on.

He might have added love – the love of God and the love of one another.

Thinking requires language, language is a communal experience, and, as Andrew Davison points out, we learn language as members of a human community and through induction into common human practices.

We can talk about prayer, forgiveness, and most of all about love itself, to others. But if it only remains talk and has no application, then the words have no meaning.

We may say we believe in the two great commandments, but we only show we believe in them with credibility when we live them out in our lives. There must be no gap that separates what we teach and how we live out what we teach in our lives.

Saint Augustine depicted in a stained glass window by George W Walsh in Saint Augustine’s Church, Galway (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Thursday 28 August 2025):

The theme this week (24 to 30 August) in Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is been ‘From Strangers to Neighbours’ (pp 32-33) This theme was introduced on Sunday with a programme update from the Right Revd Antonio Ablon, Chaplain of Saint Catherine’s Anglican Church, Stuttgart, Germany.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Thursday 28 August 2025) invites us to pray:

God of the journey, sustain those facing hardships in foreign lands. When they feel unseen or unheard, may they be reminded that you are near. May their faith be their refuge, and may they find kindness in those they meet.

The Collect:

Merciful Lord,
who turned Augustine from his sins
to be a faithful bishop and teacher:
grant that we may follow him in penitence and discipline
till our restless hearts find their rest in you;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post Communion Prayer:

God 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 Augustine to the eternal feast of heaven;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s reflections

Continued tomorrow

Saint Augustine and Saint Monica, in a window by J Clarke and Sons in Holy Cross Church, Charleville, Co Cork … they are commemorated on 27 and 28 August (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

Harry Kernoff, a radical artist, is still remembered in the streets of ‘Little Jerusalem’ in Dublin

Harry Kernoff (1900-1974) lived and worked at 13 Stamer Street, between Lennox Street and the South Circular Road in ‘Little Jerusalem’ in Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford,2025)

Patrick Comerford

During my quick, overnight and all-too-short visit to Dublin this week, I spent a few hours on a sunny, summer afternoon, and again on a sunny August morning, strolling around the narrow streets of ‘Little Jerusalem’, between the South Circular Road and the Grand Canal. I even had coffee in the Bretzel on Lennox Street, until recently the last kosher bakery in Dublin.

Over the space of a number of generations, many cousins of my grandfather and my father lived in the rebrick houses on these narrow street in ‘Little Jerusalem’.

I have written in the past about the many members of the extended Comerford family who lived on Clanbrassil Street, which I remember as the beating heart of the Jewish community in even well into the 1960s, and which is recalled so winsomely by Sonia Harris Pope in The Irish Times last Friday (8 August 2025). [For replies, see here]

Comerford family homes in the streets of ‘Little Jerusalem’ over the past century or more: 43 Warren Street and 1 Kingsland Parade, top; 17 Martin Street and 46 Lennox Street, below (Photographs: Patrick Comerford,2025)

But over the past century or more, there were Comerford family members living in other streets in Little Jerusalem too, including: James and Belinda Comerford who were living at 43 Warren Street at the time of the 1901 census, and Robert Comerford (1856-1925), who lived at 17 Martin Street around the same time. Patrick Comerford (1899-1939) lived at 46 Lennox Street until he died in 1939. His brother Jack Comerford lived across the street at 1 Kingsland Parade until he died in 1949. Stephen Comerford (1924-1982) lived at 39 St Kevin’s Parade. Indeed, there were Comerfords living on Lennox Street up to at least 2011.

Although my father was born in Rathmines and grew up in Terenure, he knew these streets well as a child, where many of his cousins and schoolfriends lived. Many of these side streets had their own small synagogues, including those I have written about in the past on Lennox Street, Walworth Road, Saint Kevin’s Parade and Heytesbury Street, and some that I still remember with fondness.

I have been working on contributions to a new book on the theme of ‘childhood and the Irish’ being put together by my friend and colleague Professor Salvador Ryan of Maynooth. In one paper I have offered for this collection, I look at the fascinating childhood of the Levitas brothers, Maurice, Max and Sol, heroes of the Battle of Cable Street, the Spanish Civil War and radical politics in the East End of London. During their childhood, the Levitas family lived in a series of houses in Little Jerusalem, including 15 Longwood Avenue (1915), 8 Warren Street (1916-1925) and 13 St Kevins Parade (1925-1927).

A portrait of Harry Kernoff in 1931 in the Irish Jewish Museum on Walworth Road in Dublin

Another interesting neighbour in the streets of Portobello was the artist Harry Aaron Kernoff (1900-1974). On that same afternoon stroll around Little Jerusalem this week, I went to see the house at 13 Stamer Street, between Lennox Street and the South Circular Road, where I remember the Kernoff family living until the 1970s.

Harry Aaron Kernoff was born in London in London on 9 January 1900. His parents were an interesting mixture of Jewish traditions and backgrounds: his father Isaac Karnov or Kernoff was a furniture maker from Vitebsk in present-day Belarus; his mother, Katherine Abarbanel or Bardanelle, was descended from a Sephardic family who traced their ancestry to Spain.

The family moved to Dublin when Harry was 14 in May 1914. He spent his early days as an apprentice in his father’s furniture business. An example of Isaac Kernoff's fine work is the Arun haKodesh or holy Ark for the Torah scrolls in Walworth Road synagogue, now part of the Irish jewish Museum.

He was still an apprentice to his father when Harry took night classes at the Dublin Metropolitan School of Art under Sean Keating, Patrick Tuohy and Harry Clarke. He was the first night student and the first Jew to win the Taylor Art Scholarship in 1923, when Jack B Yeats was the judge for the award. The scholarship allowed him to he became a full-time day student.

Throughout his career, Kernoff worked from his studio in the attic of the family home at 13 Stamer Street. He refused to romanticise his work and was one of the few artists in Dublin at the time whose work showed a social conscience and an awareness of the plight of the unemployed, seen in paintings such as ‘Dublin Kitchen’ (1923).

He first exhibited at the Royal Hibernian Academy (RHA) in 1926, he become a full member of the RHA in 1935, and he continued to exhibit there until he died in 1974. He also joined the Dublin Society of Painters in 1927 and had many solo exhibitions at their studio at 7 Saint Stephen’s Green. His work was part of the painting event in the art competition at the 1928 Summer Olympics.

Harry Kernoff’s design for a Jewish New Year card showing a rabbi blowing the shofar

A strong independence of style marked his work, reflected in his one-man exhibitions in Dublin yearly between 1926 and 1958. He developed an interest in the avant-garde and modern movements in the 1920s, but seemed more comfortable with realism and became one of the main artistic chroniclers of social life in urban and rural Ireland. His work chronicled both urban and rural life, with paintings of Dublin landmarks, pubs, shops and houses, as well as paintings of Killarney, Dún Chaoin and the Blasket Islands in Co Kerry, and Foynes, Co Limerick.

Some of his works also have Jewish themes, such as ‘Old Rabbi’, ‘Moses’ and ‘Wise Men of the East’ or ‘Rabbinical Conference’ in the National Gallery of Ireland, or his designs over the year for Jewish New Year cards.

He became ‘one of the main artistic chroniclers of social life’ in urban 20th century Ireland, according to Sarah McAuliffe, curator of post-1900 Irish art at the National Gallery of Ireland. His work is often compared to that of LS Lowry, and she says the two were ‘drawn to representing daily life as it was, without embellishment.’ She suggests Kernoff, as an immigrant, immersed himself in the bustle of Dublin’s city life to ‘feel as though he was an insider.’

‘A Bird Never Flew On One Wing’ by Harry Kernoff celebrates Dublin pub life

A cartoon in the Palace Bar from 1940, ‘Dublin Culture’, shows Kernoff with the elite of Ireland’s art and literary scene in the bar that became an informal gallery for his work.

His work includes theatre sets and costume designs, portraits of literary figures and actors, illustrations, woodcuts and paintings of literary pubs and their characters. In his studio in Stamer Street he painted a range of portraits of leading Dublin figures, including WB Yeats, Flann O’Brien, Sean O’Casey, Hilton Edwards, Frederick Robert Higgins, Brendan Behan, James Joyce and Cyril Cusack, and other promnent figures such as Archbishop William Alexander.

A popular, humorous, and sociable man, he had a fondness for swimming and satiric verse, and he was often seen in the Palace Bar in Fleet Street and Bewley’s café on Grafton Street or scouring other pubs for suitable subjects.

One well-known painting, ‘A Bird Never Flew On One Wing’, depicts two drunken betting men with pints raised and, in the background, the names of Dublin pubs carefully and lovingly written out. There are many versions and prints that show two men cradling pints. One of the men, said to be modelled on a character known as ‘the Toucher Doyle’, has pointed ears and high cheekbones, leading to speculation that he inspired a visiting Hollywood designer to create the character of Spock in Star Trek, according to Kevin O’Connor’s biography Harry Kernoff: The Little Genius.

The plaque commemorating Harry Kernoff was unveiled at 13 Stamer Street in 2013 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Kernoff created the decorative scheme at the Little Theatre in South William Street, and designed the sets for Dublin productions of Sean O’Casey’s ‘The Shadow of a Gunman’ and Lord Dunsany’s ‘The Glittering Gate’.

He was a member of the Radical Club, a group of artists and that met in an era that Kernoff referred to as Dublin’s own ‘jazz age’, and of the Studio Art Club. Like the Levitas brothers, he was also actively involved in left-wing politics, and was involved in anti-fascist campaigns in Dublin.

Years spent as an apprentice to his cabinet-maker father taught him how to skilfully carve woodcuts for block printing. His woodcuts were often used in republican and labour newspapers in the 1930s and 1940s, and he designed the masthead of the communist weekly the Irish Workers’ Voice.

He was a member of the Friends of Soviet Russia, and was part of a delegation to visit Leningrad, Moscow, Baku, Tiflis and Vladikavkaz in 1930. His travelling companions included Hanna Sheehy Skeffington, Charlotte Despard, David Fitzgerald and George Gilmore. During that visit, he was so influenced by revolutionary artists in pre-Stalinist Russia that he lectured about his trip when he returned to Dublin and organised a Soviet Poster exhibition.

He visited Paris in 1931 and exhibited ‘Metro’, ‘Paris’, and ‘Place de Tertre’, and had a sole show that year in Gieve’s Gallery, London, where he displayed ‘Ukraine peasant’. He had three solo shows at the Victor Waddington Galleries in 1935, 1937 and 1940, and. He exhibited at world fairs in Glasgow (1938) and New York (1939).

‘The Only Way’ or ‘Peace Scroll’ … a design for a Jewish New Year card 5734 (1973)

He began painting on a smaller scale on canvases in the 1940s and produced hundreds of miniature oil paintings. The first of his three publications of woodcuts appeared in 1942, followed by A Storyteller’s Childhood in 1946.

He was represented at the contemporary Irish art exhibition at Aberystwyth in Wales in 1953. He spent a year painting at Novia Scotia in 1957, and exhibited small watercolours in Lugano and Toronto in 1964 and 1965. His portraits were part of the WB Yeats centenary exhibition in the National Gallery of Ireland in 1965.

For many years he was a member of the arts advisory committee of the Municipal Gallery of Modern Art, and in 1974, shortly before he died he was made a life member of the United Arts Club, Dublin.

He was predeceased by his parents: Isaac Kernoff died at 13 Stamer Street at 71 on 11 August 1948; Kate Kernoff died there at 89, on 26 November 1969. His brother, Hyman Kernoff, who also lived in the house, died at 59 on 2 December 1960.

Despite being prolific in his work, Kernoff died a poor man. He never married, and he died in the Meath Hospital, Dublin, at the age of 74 on 25 December 1974. He was survived by his sister Lena Kernoff, who also shared the house in Stamer Street. She deposited his papers in the National Library of Ireland in 1975. The Irish Jewish Museum unveiled a plaque in memory of Harry Kernoff at 13 Stamer Street in 2013.

May his memory be a blessing ז״ל

Shabbat Shalom, שבת שלום

The Levitas family homes in the side streets of Little Jerusalem: 8 Warren Street (left), 15 Longwood Avenue (top right) and 13 St Kevin's Parade (lower right) (Photographs: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2025: 27, Saturday 1 March 2025

‘The Preaching of the Kingdom of God' (see Mark 10: 13-16) … an icon in the Lady Chapel in Lichfield Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Patrick Comerford

We are in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar. We have come to the beginning of a new month and the beginning of the meteorological Spring. Tomorrow is the Sunday before Lent (2 March 2025), and Lent begins next week on Ash Wednesday (5 March 2025).

Today, the calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship celebrates Saint David (ca 601), Bishop of Menevia and Patron of Wales. There is a break in the Six Nations championship this weekend, and so there are no international rugby matches this afternoon. But, as this is the first Saturday of the month, I hope to drop in this morning to Το Στεκι Μας (‘Our Place’), the Greek café at the Swinfen Harris Church Hall in Stony Stratford.

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

1, today’s Gospel reading;

2, a short reflection;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

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

‘Suffer the Little Children to come unto Me’ window by Harry Clarke (1926) in Saint Patrick’s Church, Donabate, Co Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Mark 10: 13-16 (NRSVA):

13 People were bringing little children to him in order that he might touch them; and the disciples spoke sternly to them. 14 But when Jesus saw this, he was indignant and said to them, ‘Let the little children come to me; do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs. 15 Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it.’ 16 And he took them up in his arms, laid his hands on them, and blessed them.

Three children in street art in Singapore by Yip Yew Chong, who draws inspiration from his childhood and everyday life experiences (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Today’s Reflection:

In the Orthodox Church, the final Sunday before Lent is known as Cheesefare Sunday and also as Forgiveness Sunday. After the dismissal at Vespers this evening, the priest stands beside the analogion of lectern, or before the ambon, the steps leading up to the icon screen. The people come up one by one and venerate the icon, after which each person makes a prostration before the priest, saying, ‘Forgive me, a sinner.’

The priest also makes a prostration before each, saying, ‘God forgives. Forgive me.’ The person responds, ‘God forgives’, and receives a blessing from the priest. Meanwhile, the choir sings quietly the irmoi of the Paschal Canon, or else the Paschal Stichera. After receiving the priest’s blessing, people also ask forgiveness of one other.

This morning’s Gospel reading at the Eucharist (Mark 10: 13-16) in the lectionary as adapted for use in the Church of England echoes a similar story just a few verses earlier (see Mark 9: 36-37), which we read on Tuesday (25 February 2025).

These stories are easily trivialised. They are not just about being childlike in an almost Victorian way that romanticises childhood. But, in fact, they are about the dignity and worth of children.

I hear few sermons or discussions in churches about the exclusion, demeaning exploitation, abuse, violation, enslavement, or killing of children. The extent of abuse of children, teenagers and young adults throughout the Church is shocking, vile and revolting. The front-page report in the current edition of the Church Times this weekend reveals that ten members of the clergy in the Church of England, including two bishops, could be subject to disciplinary proceedings in connection with the abuse perpetrated by John Smyth.

They include Archbishop George Carey and Bishop Paul Carey, two prominent evangelicals, and figures whose names have been linked with the Scripture Union, the Church Mission Society and Zambezi Ministries, all leading evangelical bodies, and prominewnt evangelical chuches including All Souls’ Church, Langham Place, and Saint Aldate’s, Oxford. The Makin Report must demand more introspection and self-examination among conservative evangeicals, who too often deflect from their own deeply probelmatic issues by being vocal about other debates about sexuality, including divorce and remarriage and same-gender marriagegender-related issues such as the ordination of women.

A Victorian romantic image of childhood needs to be balanced with a challenge to the continuing Victorian experiences of many children, listening to the cries of children in the slums, in the sweat shops and in the brothels, to the cries of children behind the bedroom doors of respectability, and to the children who were abused within the boundaries of Church activities.

And, in the Orthodox tradition of Forgiveness Sunday, there are many priests, bishops and church-based organisations who need to kneel before the people humbly, saying, ‘God forgives. Forgive me.’

Refugee children at the Ukrainian Space daycare programme in Budapest … this week has marked the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Saturday 1 March 2025, Saint David’s Day):

This week has marked the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. 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), was ‘A Grain of Wheat.’ This theme was introduced last Sunday with a Programme Update by the Revd Dr Nevsky Everett, chaplain of the Church of the Resurrection, Bucharest, Romania.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Saturday 1 March 2025, Saint David’s Day and Zero Discrimination Day) invites us to pray:

‘Be joyful, keep your faith and your creed, and do the little things’. Today, as we remember David, patron saint of Wales, let us pray to God who calls people in every generation to be faithful witnesses to his son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

The Collect:

Almighty God,
who called your servant David
to be a faithful and wise steward of your mysteries
for the people of Wales:
in your mercy, grant that,
following his purity of life and zeal for the gospel of Christ,
we may with him receive the crown of everlasting life;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

God, shepherd of your people,
whose servant David revealed the loving service of Christ
in his ministry as a pastor of your people:
by this eucharist in which we share
awaken within us the love of Christ
and keep us faithful to our Christian calling;
through him who laid down his life for us,
but is alive and reigns with you, now and for ever.

Collect on the Eve of the Sunday before Lent:

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

Yesterday’s Reflection

Continued Tomorrow

‘Let the little children come to me; do not stop them’ (Mark 10: 14) … a refugee child’s painting in Ukrainian Space in Budapest (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