Some memories from Harold’s Cross ten years after my mother’s death

No 201 Harold’s Cross Road, the birthplace of the Quaker abolitionist and philanthropist Richard Allen (1803–1886), has been restored (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

Like many journalists, I was always aware of ‘campaign journalism’. It was a complimentary label when it was applied to journalists with the Sunday Times ‘Insight’ Team, journalists like Paul Foot, John Pilger or Bob Fisk, or many campaign journalists with newspapers such as the Guardian, the Observer and The Irish Times.

There are differences between reporting, analysis, comment, opinion-writing, consciousness raising and campaigning journalism. But when does it spill over into or descend into propaganda and political manipulation?

I suppose I have engaged in a form of campaign journalism and blogging in my support for the return of the Parthenon Marbles from the British Museum to their proper home in Athens.

In another way, I have been campaigning, I suppose, in writing about the deterioration of the former home of the Quaker abolitionist and philanthropist Richard Allen (1803-1886) in Harold’s Cross, Dublin.

I had been familiar with this house in my childhood – my mother even sent me ‘for messages’ as a child in the 1960s to Healy’s, the grocery shop that was once attached to the house that later became Westbank Orphanage or the Protestant Girls’ Orphanage.

I had written since 2013 about the sad neglect and decay of this constituent part of the architectural heritage of Harold’s Cross and Dublin 6. So, ten years later, when I visited Harold’s Cross briefly before Christmas, it was a personal pleasure to see the house had been restored carefully.

To my surprise, the heritage contractors PMac, the Harold’s Cross-based masonry, cleaning and maintenance business involved in the restoration work on behalf of Aspect Design, asked my permission to use some of my photographs on their website, illustrating the ‘before’ and ‘after’ state of this Georgian house.

I rarely agree to commercial or business pages using my photographs online. I figure than a business should pay a photographer to do their work, and I should not deprive professional photographers of potential commissions. However, in this case I was so impressed of the work that I immediately said yes. Ten years of ‘campaign blogging’ had borne its fruit.

I suggested that, in return, PMac should make a donation to an appropriate local charity. They willingly agreed, and quickly told me they are organising a coffee morning in the coming months in aid of the Hospice in Harold’s Cross.

There was an added emotional poignancy to this, because it is ten years ago today since my mother, died in the Hospice in Harold’s Cross, on 20 May 2014.

Ellen Comerford (née Murphy) was born in Millstreet, Co Cork, on 10 February 1919 and went to boarding school in Mountrath, Co Laois

Ellen Comerford (née Murphy) was 95 when she died in the Hospice in Harold’s Cross on 20 May 2014. She was born in Millstreet, Co Cork, on 10 February 1919 and went to boarding school in Mountrath, Co Laois, 20 minutes from Roscrea, Co Tipperary, where her Crowley uncles, Cornelius D Crowley (1879-1972) of Roscrea Castle and Jeremiah D Crowley (1883-1968) of Wallstown Castle, Castltownroche, had extensive business interests.

After a short time in Paris immediately before World War II, she became a civil servant in the Department of Education in Dublin. She married my father, Stephen Edward Comerford (1918-2004) in Blackrock, Co Dublin, on 8 September 1945, in the weeks immediately after World II. By then she was living in Booterstown, and her father was living in Australia.

At first, my parents lived in Bray, Co Wicklow, but they later lived in Dublin in Harold’s Cross and then, in later years, in Rathfarnham. I was the fourth of six children, born on Rathfarnham Road.

I understand how life was difficult for her. My eldest brother died on 18 December 1970 when he was only 24, and she was only 51. No mother recovers from the death of a child, no matter what age either of them is at the time.

My father died in Rathfarnham almost 20 years ago, on 27 December 2004, less than two weeks after his 86th birthday. My widowed mother survived him for almost ten years. I had not known her very well in my childhood or for much of my adult life. But I tried to get to know her better in those last 10 years, as she moved into sheltered housing first on Leeson Park and then in Rathgar.

We visited her first marriage home in Bray, her uncle’s former home at Finnstown House, Lucan, which she knew intimately when the Crowley family lived there, we occasionally had lunch together in Rathgar, Bray or Lucan, and at some stage I returned with her to Paris with a brother and a sister.

I don’t think we every properly resolved the difficulties remaining since my childhood, and I had left her home again in my teens. But, I think, today she might be pleased to know about this piece of restoration work in a part of Harold’s Cross she knew well from the 1950s to the 1970s, and to know how this has boosted the work of the Hospice in Harold’s Cross.

Ellen Comerford (née Murphy) died in the Hospice in Harold’s Cross on 20 May 2014

Praying in Ordinary Time with USPG: 19 February 2023

The Transfiguration (see Matthew 17: 1-9) … a window in a parish church in Lucan, Co Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

Today [19 February 2023] is the Sunday Next Before Lent. In the some parishes, this Sunday is known as Transfiguration Sunday. In the past, this Sunday was known as Quinquagesima, one of those odd-sounding Latin names once used in the Book of Common Prayer for the Sundays in Ordinary Time between Candlemas and Lent: Septuagesima, Sexagesima and Quinquagesima.

These weeks, between the end of Epiphany and Ash Wednesday, are known as Ordinary Time. We are in a time of preparation for Lent, which in turn is a preparation for Holy Week and Easter.

Later today, I hope to be in Tamworth for a lunch celebrating the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Tamworth and District Civic Society. But, before catching the train to Tamworth later this morning, I am taking some time this morning for prayer and reflection.

In these days of Ordinary Time before Ash Wednesday later this week (22 February), I am reflecting in these ways each morning:

1, reflecting on a saint or interesting person in the life of the Church;

2, one of the lectionary readings of the day;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary, ‘Pray with the World Church.’

For my reflection this morning, I am reading John Keble’s poem, ‘Quinquagesima Sunday,’ recalling the traditional name once used for the Sunday before Lent.

John Keble (1792-1866) … his poems in ‘The Christian Year’ include ‘Quinquagesima Sunday’

John Keble (1792-1866) was an Anglican priest and poet, Professor of Poetry at Oxford, and one of the leaders of the Oxford Movement. He was born on Saint Mark’s Day, 25 April 1792, in Fairford, Gloucestershire, where his father, the Revd John Keble, a former Fellow of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, was Vicar of Coln St Aldwyn’s.

John Keble studied at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, and in 1810, at the age of 18, he graduated with a double first in classics and mathematics. In 1811, He became a Fellow of Oriel College, Oxford, in 1811 and was ordained deacon by the Bishop of Oxford on Trinity Sunday 1815, and priest in 1816.

He published The Christian Year in 1827. He wrote the poems to restore a deep feeling for the Church Year among Anglicans, and it received such great acclaim that its became the most popular volume of verse in the 19th century. One of the most popular poems in The Christian Year is the well-known hymn, ‘New every morning.’

The Christian Year went into 95 editions in his lifetime, and by the time the copyright expired in 1873, over 375,000 copies had been sold in Britain and 158 editions had been published.

The success of The Christian Year led to Keble being appointed Professor of Poetry in Oxford University (1831-1841).

His ‘Assize Sermon’ in Saint Mary’s University Church in 1833 was the spark that ignited the Oxford Movement. In 1835 he was appointed Vicar of Hursley, Hampshire, where he settled down to family life and remained for the rest of his life as a parish priest at All Saints’ Church.

He edited an edition of Richard Hooker’s works in 1836. The most important of his prose writings, however, was his treatise on Eucharistic Adoration.

John Keble died on 29 March 1866 at the age of 74. Within three years of his death, Keble College was established at Oxford ‘to give an education in strict fidelity to the Church of England.’

‘What but the gentle rainbow’s gleam, / Soothing the wearied sight, / That cannot bear the solar beam, / With soft undazzling light?’ (John Keble) … a rainbow in Callan, Co Kilkenny (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Quinquagesima Sunday by John Keble:

Sweet Dove! the softest, steadiest plume,
In all the sunbright sky,
Brightening in ever-changeful bloom
As breezes change on high; –

Sweet Leaf! the pledge of peace and mirth,
“Long sought, and lately won,”
Blessed increase of reviving Earth,
When first it felt the Sun; –

Sweet Rainbow! pride of summer days,
High set at Heaven’s command,
Though into drear and dusky haze
Thou melt on either hand; –

Dear tokens of a pardoning God,
We hail ye, one and all,
As when our fathers walked abroad,
Freed from their twelvemonth’s thrall.
How joyful from the imprisoning ark
On the green earth they spring!
Not blither, after showers, the lark
Mounts up with glistening wing.

So home-bound sailors spring to shore,
Two oceans safely past;
So happy souls, when life is o’er,
Plunge in this empyreal vast.

What wins their first and fondest gaze
In all the blissful field,
And keeps it through a thousand days?
Love face to face revealed:

Love imaged in that cordial look
Our Lord in Eden bends
On souls that sin and earth forsook
In time to die His friends.

And what most welcome and serene
Dawns on the Patriarch’s eye,
In all the emerging hills so green,
In all the brightening sky?

What but the gentle rainbow’s gleam,
Soothing the wearied sight,
That cannot bear the solar beam,
With soft undazzling light?

Lord, if our fathers turned to Thee
With such adoring gaze,
Wondering frail man Thy light should see
Without Thy scorching blaze;

Where is our love, and where our hearts,
We who have seen Thy Son,
Have tried Thy Spirit’s winning arts,
And yet we are not won?

The Son of God in radiance beamed
Too bright for us to scan,
But we may face the rays that streamed
From the mild Son of Man.

There, parted into rainbow hues,
In sweet harmonious strife
We see celestial love diffuse
Its light o’er Jesus’ life.

God, by His bow, vouchsafes to write
This truth in Heaven above:
As every lovely hue is Light,
So every grace is Love.

The Transfiguration (see Matthew 17: 1-9) … a window in Saint Nicholas Church, Galway (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Matthew 17: 1-9 (NRSVA):

1 Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and his brother John and led them up a high mountain, by themselves. 2 And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became dazzling white. 3 Suddenly there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him. 4 Then Peter said to Jesus, ‘Lord, it is good for us to be here; if you wish, I will make three dwellings here, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.’ 5 While he was still speaking, suddenly a bright cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud a voice said, ‘This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!’ 6 When the disciples heard this, they fell to the ground and were overcome by fear. 7 But Jesus came and touched them, saying, ‘Get up and do not be afraid.’ 8 And when they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus himself alone.

9 As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus ordered them, ‘Tell no one about the vision until after the Son of Man has been raised from the dead.’

‘The Son of God in radiance beamed / Too bright for us to scan, / But we may face the rays that streamed / From the mild Son of Man’ (John Keble) … an icon of the Transfiguration in the church in Piskopiano in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

USPG Prayer Diary:

The theme in the USPG Prayer Diary this week is ‘Social Justice in Sierra Leone.’

The Anglican Diocese of Freetown and the North in Sierra Leone joins with its neighbours around the world to mark World Day of Social Justice. Around the globe, millions of people are prohibited from living a fair life. In Sierra Leone, a country that has seen civil war, many of its people are without homes, jobs, healthcare, nutrition and more. It must be the responsibility of the privileged to ensure that a just world is created where social justice is a norm for all. As God’s word teaches us, social justice is mandatory. We are called to love our neighbour as ourselves. (Matthew 22: 39) This means eliminating poverty and illiteracy, and any form of discrimination that violates human rights and prevents human flourishing.

The Church in Sierra Leone prays that its government and people will follow the teachings of the Bible and ‘give justice to the weak and the fatherless’ and ‘maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute’. (Psalm 82: 3) Its Livelihoods Recovery, Youth and Governance programme for young people in agriculture, aquaculture and food processing, sponsored by USPG, is underpinned by its determination to pursue justice for all. The Church prays that, being made in the image and likeness of God, Sierra Leoneans will learn to treat each other with love, that they will have equal access to justice and all will be able to share in the country’s resources.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Sunday 19 February, the Sunday next before Lent) invites us to pray in these words:

God of Justice,
let justice roll down like water
and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream,
in the name of Jesus,
our guide and our peace.

Collect:

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.

Post Communion:

Holy God,
we see your glory in the face of Jesus Christ:
may we who are partakers at his table
reflect his life in word and deed,
that all the world may know his power to change and save.
This we ask through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s Reflection

Continued Tomorrow

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

Praying with USPG and the hymns of Vaughan Williams: Saturday 6 August 2022

The Transfiguration in an icon in the parish church in the hill-side village of Piskopiano in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

This year marks the 150th anniversary of the composer Ralph Vaughan Williams, whose music is celebrated throughout this year’s Proms season.

In my prayer diary for these weeks I am reflecting in these ways:

1, One of the readings for the morning;

2, Reflecting on a hymn or another piece of music by Vaughan Williams, often drawing, admittedly, on previous postings on the composer;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary, ‘Pray with the World Church.’

The Transfiguration in a poster from the Institute for Orthodox Christian Studies, Cambridge

Today marks the 77th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima on 6 August 1945. As President of the Irish Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND), I have recorded a message for Irish CND’s Hiroshima Day commemoration in Merrion Square Day. Later in the evening, I hope to attend the Hiroshima Commemorations at the Japanese Peace Pagoda by Willen Lake in Milton Keynes.

In the Church calendar, today (6 August) traditionally marks the Feast of the Transfiguration.

The Gospel reading for the Feast of the Transfiguration today is:

Luke 9: 28-36 (NRSVA):

28 Now about eight days after these sayings Jesus took with him Peter and John and James, and went up on the mountain to pray. 29 And while he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became dazzling white. 30 Suddenly they saw two men, Moses and Elijah, talking to him. 31 They appeared in glory and were speaking of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. 32 Now Peter and his companions were weighed down with sleep; but since they had stayed awake, they saw his glory and the two men who stood with him. 33 Just as they were leaving him, Peter said to Jesus, ‘Master, it is good for us to be here; let us make three dwellings, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah’—not knowing what he said. 34 While he was saying this, a cloud came and overshadowed them; and they were terrified as they entered the cloud. 35 Then from the cloud came a voice that said, ‘This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him!’ 36 When the voice had spoken, Jesus was found alone. And they kept silent and in those days told no one any of the things they had seen.

The Monastery of the Transfiguration or Great Meteoron in Meteora, northern Greece (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s reflection: ‘Jerusalem, thou City blest’

Ralph Vaughan Williams was the composer of symphonies, chamber music, opera, choral music, and film scores, a collector of English folk music and song. With Percy Dearmer, he co-edited the English Hymnal, in which he included many folk song arrangements as hymn tunes, and several of his own original compositions.

This morning [6 August 2022], I have chosen the hymn ‘Jerusalem, thou City blest,’ which is set to the tune ‘Newbury’ in the New English Hymnal (No 228).

Yesterday, I was reflecting on the hymn, ‘There is no moment of my life,’ by the late Father William Brian Foley (1919-2000), which is set to this tune by Vaughan Williams in the Irish Church Hymnal (No 19). But he first harmonised ‘Newbury’ for the English Hymnal in 1906, and set it to ‘The Maker of the sun and moon’ by Laurence Housman (1865-1959).

This tune is one of the many folk melodies arranged by Vaughan Williams. He found it in a collection published by Miss MG Arkwright in the Journal of the Folk-Song Society. There it was used for a Christmas carol, ‘There’s six good days set in a week,’ also known as the ‘Hampshire Mummers’ Carol.’

‘Jerusalem, thou City blest’ is similar to a hymn with the same name written by the Revd Edward Caswall (1814-1878), but this hymn is attributed to the Editors of the New English Hymnal, where it first appears.

The New English Hymnal, published in 1986 by the Canterbury Press, is the successor to the 1906 English Hymnal. Its general editor was the then chairman of the English Hymnal Company, George Timms, and the musical editor was Anthony Caesar, assisted by Arthur Hutchings, Christopher Dearnley and Michael Fleming.

The English Hymnal (1906) was edited by Percy Dearmer and Vaughan Williams, and was seen as the musical companion to Dearmer’s practical guide to liturgy, The Parson’s Handbook.

‘The music is intended to be essentially congregational in character …’ Vaughan Williams said in the opening words of his preface. The high quality of the music is due largely to his work as musical editor. The standard of the arrangements and original compositions made it one of the most influential hymnals of the last century. The hymnal included the first printing of several arrangements and hymn settings by Vaughan Williams.

Today’s hymn is particularly recommended for holy days, and is suitable for the Feast of the Transfiguration, apart from verse 6, which is suitable for a saint’s day.

Jerusalem, thou City blest,
Fair home of God’s elect!
No sun, in all his radiance bright,
Thy glory could reflect.

In thee no sickness may be seen,
No hurt, no ache, no sore;
In thee there us no dreads of death,
But life for evermore.

The blessed saints, who’ve run the race,
With glory there are crowned;
No tongue can tell, nor heart conceive
What joys in thee they’ve found.

God is their sun, and Christ their light,
They see him face to face;
The Spirit’s perfect bond of love
Doth every heart embrace.

O happy ones, in heaven who dwell,
Pour forth for us your prayer,
That God our Father through his Son,
May bring us with you there.

And praise and honour be to him
Whom earth and heaven obey,
For that blest saint whose festival
Doth glorify this day.

The Transfiguration depicted in a fresco in the Analipsi Church (Resurrection) in Georgioupoli, Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayer:

The Collect:

Father in heaven,
whose Son Jesus Christ was wonderfully transfigured
before chosen witnesses upon the holy mountain,
and spoke of the exodus he would accomplish at Jerusalem:
give us strength so to hear his voice and bear our cross
that in the world to come we may see him as he is;
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

At the annual conference of the USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel) in High Leigh last week, we were updated on the work of USPG’s partners in Ukraine, Russia and with USPG’s partners with Ukrainian refugees. The theme in the USPG prayer diary this week has been ‘Refugee Support in Poland,’ and was introduced by the Revd David Brown, Chaplain of the Anglican Church in Poland.

Saturday 6 August 2022 (The Transfiguration of Our Lord):

The USPG Prayer Diary invites us to pray today in these words:

Today we celebrate the completely human, completely divine nature of Jesus. We give thanks that He came down to be with us, perfection in our midst.

Yesterday’s reflection

Continued tomorrow

The Transfiguration depicted in a stained-glass window in a church in Lucan, Co Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

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

How does God see us? And how do we see God?

The Transfiguration depicted in a stained-glass window in the Collegiate Church of Saint Nicholas, Galway (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

Sunday 14 February 2021,

The Sunday before Lent, Transfiguration Sunday

10 a.m.: The Parish Eucharist

The Readings: II Kings 2: 1-12; Psalm 50: 1-6; Mark 9: 2-9.

The Transfiguration depicted in a stained-glass window in a church in Lucan, Co Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

May I speak to you in the name of God, + Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen

The two Sundays before Lent have special themes outside the cycle of readings in Ordinary Time. Last Sunday, the Second Sunday before Lent focusses on Creation, while the Sunday before Lent is Transfiguration Sunday.

The Transfiguration is described in the three Synoptic Gospels (see Matthew 17: 1-9; Mark 9: 2-8; Luke 9: 28-36), and all three accounts are very similar in wording.

Christ is the focus of the Transfiguration, but who are the other principle characters in this story?

This is an encounter with God as the Trinity; it is a reminder with the presence of Moses and Elijah that Christ is the fulfilment of the Law and the Prophets; it is a meeting of past, present and future; and it is a reminder of how frail is our humanity in the responses of the three Disciples present, Peter, James and John.

The Transfiguration is a reminder that God has created us in God’s image and likeness, that in Christ’s Incarnation, God took on our image and likeness, and that now we are called once again to take on the image and likeness of God.

In a lecture in Cambridge ten years ago [2011], I heard Metropolitan Kallistos [Ware], the pre-eminent Orthodox theologian in England, speak of the Transfiguration as a disclosure not only of what God is but of what we are. It reminds us of our beginning, but also reminds us of the possibilities and the potentials of what it is to become like God once again.

But is the response of the disciples to the Transfiguration one that we should imitate or emulate?

As they hear the voice of God, they fall down in terror, they are overcome by fear, they are made speechless.

They are immobilised and when they think of acting, look at what they want to do: they want to put up three booths, or tents, or dwelling places, in which they can keep Jesus and Moses and Elijah. It is as if, frightened of the new, they want to fall back on the old certainties.

It is as if they want to contain God, to capture God, to keep God in a place where they can be assured of the old certainties, to turn God into a god that they can contain, capture and control. They want to put God in a box, to keep God in a box.

And, so often, instead of wanting to be in the image and likeness of God, people want God to be in our image and likeness, doing our bidding rather than listening to what God wants of us.

Seeking to capture God, to make God a captive and to control God, are strong religious instincts throughout history. In the 20th century, Hitler used the German Churches to control the people of Germany. In more recent years, the simple faith of many American people has been hijacked to support extreme politics in a land that once prided itself on the separation of state and religion.

This is what Professor Rachel S Mikva of Chicago Theological Seminary describes as ‘dangerous religious ideas’ (Dangerous Religious Ideas: The Deep Roots of Self-Critical Faith in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, Penguin, 2020).

In a recent ‘Opinion’ column for USA Today, she argues that ‘Religion is a dangerous business.’ In the wake of the Capitol insurrection in Washington last month, she tries to go beyond the revulsion all of us must feel when white Christian nationalism turns violent, and she draws attention to the ‘substantial number of Christians who plan to take the country for Jesus another way.’

The Christian right is ‘distorting the very meaning of religious freedom,’ she writes. There is the obvious danger we have all seen on news channels in the past month or two, with extremists who call themselves Christians ‘ready to bring on the apocalypse.’

But she warns of ‘a more resilient threat’ posed by people who claim the mantle of being Christians and who are ‘embedded throughout the governing institutions in the US – courts, military, legislatures, agencies and the police.’ In her words, they pose a real threat ‘to religious pluralism in the United States.’

She argues cogently for the need for ‘consciousness of the vital self-critical dimensions of faith,’ and says: ‘Whatever one’s spiritual life stance, we are choosing in every moment whether its power will be wielded for harm or for blessing.’

Power for harm; or power for blessing.

Do we want to keep God in a box as a power for harm; or do we really want to see God being God, and empowering us to be a power for blessing in the world?

I see this as the first great challenge posed by the Transfiguration.

And the second is like it: to see humanity as Christ in the Transfiguration would see us and would have us see each other.

Do I, so often, put people in a box in a way that denies they are made in the image and likeness of God? That they are called to become, once again, like God in Christ … what the Orthodox call ‘deification’ …?

Every time I dismiss someone because of their social background, where they were born, their gender, sexuality, ethnicity or parentage, I am making these differences more important than the way God sees them: made in God’s image and likeness, and holding, embodying the light of God in Christ.

Because those characteristics, those traits, are not self-chosen; they come at birth, we do not ask for them, you might say they are God-given. For indeed, God sees us in God’s own image and likeness, God sees in each one of us the potential to reflect the light of Christ in the Transfiguration.

Let’s not box God in: Let God be God, and let’s stop trying to control him by using him to our political and social advantage.

Let’s stop categorising people so we marginalise them instead of seeing them in God’s image and likeness.

For, when we love God and love others, we see the light of God in them and, hopefully, they see the light of God in us.

When she was the guest chaplain in the House of Representatives in 1995, Rabbi Rachel Mikva included these thoughts in her prayers:

However passionately we may cling to our vision of truth,
we must never fail to recognise your image, God,
reflected in the face of the other …

Ultimately, we stand before you,
naked of power or possessions,
seeking only to understand your will
and do it with a whole heart …

God, we pray that our words and our deeds
may be for Your sake,
bringing healing to our world
and wholeness to all those whose lives we touch.

Amen. אָמֵן׃

And so, may all we think, say and do be to the praise, honour and glory of God, + Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen.

The Transfiguration in an icon in the parish church in the hill-side village of Piskopiano in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Mark 9: 2-9 (NRSVA):

2 Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, and led them up a high mountain apart, by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, 3 and his clothes became dazzling white, such as no one on earth could bleach them. 4 And there appeared to them Elijah with Moses, who were talking with Jesus. 5 Then Peter said to Jesus, ‘Rabbi, it is good for us to be here; let us make three dwellings, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.’ 6 He did not know what to say, for they were terrified. 7 Then a cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud there came a voice, ‘This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him!’ 8 Suddenly when they looked around, they saw no one with them any more, but only Jesus.

9 As they were coming down the mountain, he ordered them to tell no one about what they had seen, until after the Son of Man had risen from the dead.

The Transfiguration depicted in a fresco in the Analipsi Church (Resurrection) in Georgioupoli, Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Liturgical Colour: White (Transfiguration Sunday)

Penitential Kyries:

Your unfailing kindness, O Lord, is in the heavens,
and your faithfulness reaches to the clouds.
Lord, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.

Your righteousness is like the strong mountains,
and your justice as the great deep.
Christ, have mercy.
Christ, have mercy.

For with you is the well of life:
and in your light shall we see light.
Lord, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.

The Collect of the Day:

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 and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

A Collect appropriate for Saint Valentine’s Day:

Lord, you have taught us
that all our doings without love are nothing worth:
Send your Holy Spirit
and pour into our hearts that most excellent gift of love,
the true bond of peace and of all virtues,
without which whoever lives is counted dead before you.
Grant this for your only Son Jesus Christ’s sake.
(Book of Common Prayer, p 141).

Introduction to the Peace:

Christ will transfigure our human body
and give it a form like that of his own glorious body.
We are the Body of Christ. We share his peace.
(cf Philippians 3: 21, 1 Corinthians 11: 27, Romans 5: 1)

Preface:

Through Jesus Christ our Lord,
whose divine glory shone forth upon the holy mountain
before chosen witnesses of his majesty;
when your own voice from heaven
proclaimed him your beloved Son:

Post Communion Prayer:

Holy God
we see your glory in the face of Jesus Christ.
May we who are partakers at his table
reflect his life in word and deed,
that all the world may know
his power to change and save.
This we ask through Jesus Christ our Lord.

A Concluding Prayer on Saint Valentine’s Day:

Help us to share in Christ’s ministry
of love and service to one another;
through the same Jesus Christ our Lord,
who in the unity of the Holy Spirit
is one with you for ever. Amen.
(Book of Common Prayer, p 141).

Blessing:

The God of all grace,
who called you to his eternal glory in Christ Jesus,
establish, strengthen and settle you in the faith:

The Transfiguration in a poster from the Institute for Orthodox Christian Studies, Cambridge

Hymns:

325, Be still, for the presence of the Lord, the Holy One, is here (CD 20)
643, Be thou my vision, O Lord of my heart

The Monastery of the Transfiguration or Great Meteoron in Meteora, northern Greece (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

Material from the Book of Common Prayer is copyright © 2004, Representative Body of the Church of Ireland.

A Comerford family that moved from Portarlington to Kilmainham

Saint Michael’s Church, Portarlington, built in 1839-1842 … nine Comerford children were baptised in Portarlington between 1857 and 1874 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

Patrick Comerford

I am currently continuing research into a branch of the Comerford family that originated in Portarlington, Co Laois, and that later lived in the Kilmainham and Inchicore areas of Dublin. I plan eventually to migrate this research over to my Comerford family genealogical site after I have found out more about this branch of the family.

Edward Comerford, metal caster and iron moulder, of Portarlington, married Mary Byrne. They were the parents of at least nine children:

1, Mary, baptised Portarlington, April 1857.
2, Edward Comerford (1858-1938), baptised Portarlington 1858, of whom next.
3, Thomas Comerford, baptised Portarlington, September 1860.
4, Christopher Comerford, baptised Portarlington December 1862.
5, Patrick Comerford, born March 1865, baptised Portarlington, April 1865.
6, Catherine, born 21 August 1867, baptised Portarlington, September 1867.
7, Joseph Comerford (1869- ), born 23 October 1869, baptised Portarlington, of whom after his brother Edward.
8, Francis Comerford, baptised April 1872.
9, Anne, baptised Portarlington May 1874.

Mary Conway married Edward Comerford in Saint James’s Church, Dublin, in 1880

The first-named son:

Edward Comerford (1858-1938), iron moulder, Great Southern and Western Railways, Inchicore, Dublin. Born Portarlington, November 1858. Living at 35 Kilmainham (1880), Richmond Road, Kilmainham (1884), 2 Saint Mary’s Terrace, Inchicore (1886-1888), 4 Woodfield Cottages, Inchicore (1890), 31 Phoenix Street, Kilmainham (1892), 25 Phoenix Street (1894-1898), 19 Abercorn Terrace, Dublin (1900-1911). He married Mary Conway, daughter of John Conway, smith, and his wife Mary of 34 Kilmainham, on 17 September 1880, in Saint James’s Church, Dublin (witnesses, James McDonald, Margaret Conway).

Edward Comerford died on 26 May 1938 at Our Lady’s Hospice, Dublin; his widow Mary died on 11 March 1942 at 3 Wharton Terrace, Harold’s Cross; they are buried in Glasnevin Cemetery.

They were the parents of at least 13 children:

1, Margaret (1883-1883), born at 3 Saint James’s Place, Inchicore, 3 January 1883, died 5 January 1883.
2, Ellen Christina (1884-1957), born Richmond Road, Kilmainham, 17 January 1884; ‘tailoress.’ She married on 12 January 1910 Richard Cullen (1875-1947), bookbinder, of 10 Turvey Avenue, Kilmainham, in Goldenbridge Church, Dublin (witnesses Daniel Joseph O’Neill, Catherine Comerford). They lived at 3 Tyrconnell Street. Richard died 10 November 1947; Ellen died 14 March 1957. They are buried in Old Lucan Cemetery.
3, Catherine (‘Kitty’), born at 2 Saint Mary’s Terrace, Inchicore, 11 April 1886; she married twice.
4, Elizabeth (‘Lily’), born at 2 Saint Mary’s Terrace, Inchicore, 1 June 1888, married on 23 November 1910 Henry Baldwin, fitter, of 19 Abercorn Terrace, son of John Baldwin, fish merchant, in Saint James’s Church (witnesses John Comerford, Kathleen Gallagher). The family lived in Santry. They were the parents of nine children, including two who died young: Ned, aged 3, and Margaret (‘Moggy’), as well as: Cissie (Mary), unmarried; Charlotte (‘Lottie’), married Jimmy Devlin; Kitty (lived in Oldham), married Joe Thornton; Lily (lived in Leyland), married Mick Kane; and Doreen, married Patrick O’Malley.
5, John (‘Johnny’) Joseph Comerford, born 4 Woodfield Cottages, Inchicore, 16 April 1890; he later lived in Drumcondra.
6, Edward (‘Eddie’) Comerford, born 31 Phoenix Street, Kilmainham, 5 April 1892. He married Maggie Clarke, and lived at 19 Abercorn Terrace. He died in the 1970s. They had no children.
7, Anne (1894-1895), born 25 Phoenix Street, 10 May 1894, died 26 August 1895, buried Kilmainham.
8, Patrick (‘Paddy’) James Comerford (1896-1966). He was born 14 March 1896, 25 Phoenix Street, Kilmainham; he married Josephine Reilly (born 1896) and they lived in Mount Brown, Kilmainham, Dublin. He died on Christmas Eve, 24 December 1966, and is buried in Bluebell Cemetery. Their children include two daughters: Rosaleen, who died in 1997; and Anne.
9, Jeanette Frances (1898-1900), born 27 February 1898, 25 Phoenix Street; died 27 June 1900, 19 Abercorn Terrace; buried in Glasnevin.
10, Margaret Anne (1900-1909), born 18 March 1900, died 25 April 1909, 19 Abercorn Terrace; buried in Glasnevin.
11, Michael (‘Mick’) Thomas Comerford, born 8 March 1902, 19 Abercorn Terrace.
12, William (‘Bill’) Laurence Comerford, born 2 February 1904, 19 Abercorn Terrace.
13, Alfred (‘Alfie’) Bernard Comerford (1906-1941), ‘machinist’, born 25 April 1906, 19 Abercorn Terrace, died 10 September 1941, buried Bluebell Cemetery.

Ellen Christina Comerford and Richard Cullen were married in 1910

One of Edward Comerford's younger brothers was:

Joseph Comerford (1869- ). He was born on 23 October 1869, and baptised in Portarlington. He moved to Dublin and married Margaret Murray, daughter of John Murray, a labourer, on 22 June 1896 in Saint Audeon’s Church, Dublin. They lived at 12 Thomas Davis Street, Dublin. Their children included:

Joseph Patrick Comerford (1901- ), who was born at 12 Thomas Davis Street on 7 December 1901. He took part in the Easter Rising in 1916. He married Mary Morrissey, machinist, daughter of Patrick Morrissey of 39 South Earl Street, were married in Saint Catherine’s Church, Dublin, on 2 June 1926 (witnesses: Daniel Morrissey and Margaret Comerford). Their children included:

1, Joe Comerford (deceased), a taxi driver.
2, Madge, a seamstress who married Tony Clabby. She died at the age of 46 and was the mother of five children, including the singer Imelda Mary Higham (born Imelda Mary Clabby 10 July 1974), professionally known as Imelda May

Joseph Comerford and Mary (née Morrissey) … grandparents of the singer Imelda May

Last updated: 26 October 2020

Transfiguration can and does occur ‘just around the corner,’ in the midst of … imperfection

The Transfiguration ... a stained-glass window in the Collegiate Church of Saint Nicholas, Galway (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

Sunday 23 February 2020, The Sunday before Lent

11.30 a.m.: Holy Trinity Church, Rathkeale, Co Limerick, The Parish Eucharist (Holy Communion 2)

The Readings: Exodus 24: 12-18; Psalm 2 or 99; II Peter 1: 16-21; Matthew 17: 1-9.

The Transfiguration … a window in a parish church in Lucan, Co Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

May I speak to you in the name of God, + Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen.

This morning’s Gospel reading challenges us to hear God’s word, to see God as God would us to see God, and to see ourselves as God sees us.

Jesus takes Peter, James and John up a high mountain, by themselves. What were they expecting?

They have been with Christ for some time, but have they had an encounter yet with the Living God?

What did they think God was like?

Whatever they thought of God before this, it certainly was not an encounter or an experience they were expecting.

They have an encounter with the Living God, who within God’s own single existence is also community: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

God the Father is heard speaking, ‘This is my Son, the beloved.’

God the Holy Spirit is experienced as the cloud hovers the whole scene.

God the Son is revealed to be the living Christ in a way that they had never seen him before.

What do you think God looks like?

God is not some, monolithic, totem-like idol, who needs sacrifices and seeks vengeance, who makes crushing demands on people.

Instead, God is community.

This is also the God of Creation.

Think of how we heard last week as we looked at the Creation story, how the Spirit of God swept across the creation like the wind.

This is the God of promises and covenants.

Think of how the Ten Commandments are given to Moses on the top of Mount Sinai, how Elijah has an encounter with the God of promises in the cleft in the mountainside.

This is the God who fulfils all the promises of the covenant: here is Moses on one side.

This is the God who fulfils all the promises of the prophets: here is Elijah on the other side.

This is a God who calls us to action.

Peter, James and John fall to the ground, full of fear, immobilised.

But Christ calls them back to reality: ‘Get up and do not be afraid.’

The reality is, of course, that if Jesus is seen by Peter, James and John as they should really see them, then God sees them as they really are too.

How often do see ourselves as we really are?

When you look in the mirror, do you see yourself as you really are?

None of us knows – not even the most self-aware among us truly knows – how others see us.

I’m too fat … I’m too thin … I’m too short … I’m too lanky … they all think I’m too young, too immature, too old, beyond it.

And sometimes we just allow people to project onto us, and we start living according to how we think they think of me.

What do you see in the mirror?

Do you really see yourself?

Or do you see the image others project onto you?

Yet, one of the great psychological insights in last week’s Creation story is that we are, each one of us is, made in God’s image and likeness.

Not just a replica … or a photocopy … a true image and likeness.

When you look in the mirror in the morning, do you see God’s image and likeness.

What we think others think we are like causes so many problems: we eat too little or eat too much in response; we stop exercising or take too much exercise so that we have no time for the people who matter; we end up with eating disorders and anxiety problems and even depressed.

It’s not because we are self-obsessed. Quite often, it’s simply we just want to be like everyone else. We want to be accepted, we want to be loved, we want to be normal … whatever normal might mean.

We want others to see us as ‘normal.’

But when God looks at you, God is looking in the mirror. God is seeing God’s own image and likeness.

When these three disciples see the threefold God, they are frightened. When they hear God’s voice, are covered in the cloud and see the Transfigured Jesus, they are immobilised, frightened into being unable to move.

But if God the Father can say, ‘This is my Son, the beloved; with him I am well pleased,’ then, because of the Creation, because of Christ, can also look at you and me and say, ‘This is my Son, the beloved; with him I am well pleased … This is my daughter, the beloved; with her I am well pleased.’

At a lecture in Cambridge some years ago [2011], I heard Metropolitan Kallistos [Ware], the pre-eminent Orthodox theologian in England, speak of the Transfiguration as a disclosure not only of what God is but of what we are. The Transfiguration looks back to the beginning, but also looks forward to the end, to the final glory of Christ’s second coming, because through the incarnation Christ raises our human nature to a new level, opens new possibilities.

The Incarnation is a new beginning for us as the human race, and in the Transfiguration we see not only our human nature at the beginning, but as it can be in and through Christ at the end, he told us.

But with the Transfiguration comes the invitation to bear the cross with Christ. Peter, James and John are with Christ on Mount Tabor, and they are with him in Gethsemane. We must understand the Passion of Christ and the Transfiguration in the light of each other, not as two separate mysteries, but aspects of the one single mystery. Mount Tabor and Mount Calvary go together; and glory and suffering go together.

If we are to become part of the Transfiguration, we cannot leave our cross behind. If we are to bring the secular, fallen world into the glory of Christ, that has to be through self-emptying (κένωσις, kenosis), cross-bearing and suffering. There is no answer to secularism that does not take account of the Cross, as well as taking account of the Transfiguration and the Resurrection.

Metropolitan Kalistos reminded us of the story from Leo Tolstoy, Three Questions. The central figure is set a task of answering three questions:

What is the most important time?

The most important time is now, the past is gone, and the future does not exist yet.

Who is the most important person?

The person who is with you at this very instant.

What is the most important task?

‘This task is, to do him good, because for that purpose alone was man sent into this life!’

The light that shone from Christ on the mountaintop is not a physical and created light, but an eternal and uncreated light, a divine light, the light of the Godhead, the light of the Holy Trinity.

The experience on Mount Tabor confirms Saint Peter’s confession of faith which reveals Christ as the Son of the Living God. Yet Christ remains fully human as ever he was, as fully human as you or me, and his humanity is not abolished. But the Godhead shines through his body and from it.

In Christ dwells all the fullness of the Godhead. But at other points in his life, the glory is hidden beneath the veil of his flesh. What we see in Christ on Mount Tabor is human nature, our human nature, taken up into God and filled with the light of God. ‘So, this should be our attitude to the secular world,’ Metropolitan Kallistos said.

Or, as the Revd Dr Kenneth Leech (1939-2015), the Anglican ‘slum priest’ in the East End of London, once said: ‘Transfiguration can and does occur “just around the corner,” occurs in the midst of perplexity, imperfection, and disastrous misunderstanding.’

Metropolitan Kallistos spoke that day of the Transfiguration as a disclosure not only of what God is but of what we are. The Transfiguration looks back to the beginning, but also looks forward to the end, opening new possibilities.

The Transfiguration shows us what we can be in and through Christ, he told us.

In secular life, there is a temptation to accept our human nature as it is now. But the Transfiguration of Christ offers the opportunity to look at ourselves not only as we are now, but to take stock of what happened in the past that made us so, and to grasp the promise of what we can be in the future.

The Transfiguration reminds us of how God sees us in God’s own image and likeness, sees us for who we were, who we are and who we are going to be, no matter how others see us, no matter how others dismiss us.

The Transfiguration is a challenge to remember always that we are made in the image and likeness of God. And, no matter what others say about you, how others judge you, how others gossip or talk about you, how others treat you, God sees your potential, God sees in you God’s own image and likeness, God knows you are beautiful inside and loves you, loves you for ever, as though you are God’s only child. You are his beloved child in whom he is well pleased.

And so, may all we think, say and do be to the praise, honour and glory of God, + Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

The Transfiguration … an icon in the parish church in Piskopiano in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Matthew 17: 1-9:

1 Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and his brother John and led them up a high mountain, by themselves. 2 And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became dazzling white. 3 Suddenly there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him. 4 Then Peter said to Jesus, ‘Lord, it is good for us to be here; if you wish, I will make three dwellings here, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.’ 5 While he was still speaking, suddenly a bright cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud a voice said, ‘This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!’ 6 When the disciples heard this, they fell to the ground and were overcome by fear. 7 But Jesus came and touched them, saying, ‘Get up and do not be afraid.’ 8 And when they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus himself alone.

9 As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus ordered them, ‘Tell no one about the vision until after the Son of Man has been raised from the dead.’

The Transfiguration … an icon by Adrienne Lord in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Liturgical Colour: White.

Penitential Kyries:

Your unfailing kindness, O Lord, is in the heavens,
and your faithfulness reaches to the clouds.
Lord, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.

Your righteousness is like the strong mountains,
and your justice as the great deep.
Christ, have mercy.
Christ, have mercy.

For with you is the well of life:
and in your light shall we see light.
Lord, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.

The Collect of the Day:

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 and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Introduction to the Peace:

Christ will transfigure our human body
and give it a form like that of his own glorious body.
We are the Body of Christ. We share his peace.

(cf Philippians 3: 21, 1 Corinthians 11: 27, Romans 5: 1)

Preface:

Through Jesus Christ our Lord,
whose divine glory shone forth upon the holy mountain
before chosen witnesses of his majesty;
when your own voice from heaven
proclaimed him your beloved Son:

The Post Communion Prayer:

Holy God
we see your glory in the face of Jesus Christ.
May we who are partakers at his table
reflect his life in word and deed,
that all the world may know
his power to change and save.
This we ask through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Blessing:

The God of all grace,
who called you to his eternal glory in Christ Jesus,
establish, strengthen and settle you in the faith:

Hymns:

52, Christ whose glory fills the skies (CD 4)
325, Be still, for the presence of the Lord (CD 20)
634, Love divine, all loves excelling (CD 36)

The Transfiguration … a fresco in the Church of the Four Martyrs in Rethymnon, Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)

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

Material from the Book of Common Prayer is copyright © 2004, Representative Body of the Church of Ireland.

The Transfiguration reminds us that God sees us in God’s own image and likeness

The Transfiguration … a window in a parish church in Lucan, Co Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

Sunday 23 February 2020, The Sunday before Lent

9.30 a.m.: Castletown Church, Co Limerick, Morning Prayer 2

The Readings: Exodus 24: 12-18; Psalm 2 or 99; II Peter 1: 16-21; Matthew 17: 1-9.

The Transfiguration … a stained-glass window in the Collegiate Church of Saint Nicholas, Galway (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

May I speak to you in the name of God, + Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen.

This morning’s Gospel reading challenges us to hear God’s word, to see God as God would us to see God, and to see ourselves as God sees us.

Jesus takes Peter, James and John up a high mountain, by themselves. What were they expecting?

They have been with Christ for some time, but have they had an encounter yet with the Living God?

What did they think God was like?

Whatever they thought of God before this, it certainly was not an encounter or an experience they were expecting.

They have an encounter with the Living God, who within God’s own single existence is also community: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

God the Father is heard speaking, ‘This is my Son, the beloved.’

God the Holy Spirit is experienced as the cloud hovers the whole scene.

God the Son is revealed to be the living Christ in a way that they had never seen him before.

What do you think God looks like?

God is not some, monolithic, totem-like idol, who needs sacrifices and seeks vengeance, who makes crushing demands on people.

Instead, God is community.

This is also the God of Creation.

Think of how we heard last week as we looked at the Creation story, how the Spirit of God swept across the creation like the wind.

This is the God of promises and covenants.

Think of how the Ten Commandments are given to Moses on the top of Mount Sinai, how Elijah has an encounter with the God of promises in the cleft in the mountainside.

This is the God who fulfils all the promises of the covenant: here is Moses on one side.

This is the God who fulfils all the promises of the prophets: here is Elijah on the other side.

This is a God who calls us to action.

Peter, James and John fall to the ground, full of fear, immobilised.

But Christ calls them back to reality: ‘Get up and do not be afraid.’

The reality is, of course, that if Jesus is seen by Peter, James and John as they should really see them, then God sees them as they really are too.

How often do see ourselves as we really are?

When you look in the mirror, do you see yourself as you really are?

None of us knows – not even the most self-aware among us truly knows – how others see us.

I’m too fat … I’m too thin … I’m too short … I’m too lanky … they all think I’m too young, too immature, too old, beyond it.

And sometimes we just allow people to project onto us, and we start living according to how we think they think of me.

What do you see in the mirror?

Do you really see yourself?

Or do you see the image others project onto you?

Yet, one of the great psychological insights in last week’s Creation story is that we are, each one of us is, made in God’s image and likeness.

Not just a replica … or a photocopy … a true image and likeness.

When you look in the mirror in the morning, do you see God’s image and likeness.

What we think others think we are like causes so many problems: we eat too little or eat too much in response; we stop exercising or take too much exercise so that we have no time for the people who matter; we end up with eating disorders and anxiety problems and even depressed.

It’s not because we are self-obsessed. Quite often, it’s simply we just want to be like everyone else. We want to be accepted, we want to be loved, we want to be normal … whatever normal might mean.

We want others to see us as ‘normal.’

But when God looks at you, God is looking in the mirror. God is seeing God’s own image and likeness.

When these three disciples see the threefold God, they are frightened. When they hear God’s voice, are covered in the cloud and see the Transfigured Jesus, they are immobilised, frightened into being unable to move.

But if God the Father can say, ‘This is my Son, the beloved; with him I am well pleased,’ then, because of the Creation, because of Christ, can also look at you and me and say, ‘This is my Son, the beloved; with him I am well pleased … This is my daughter, the beloved; with her I am well pleased.’

At a lecture in Cambridge some years ago [2011], I heard Metropolitan Kallistos [Ware], the pre-eminent Orthodox theologian in England, speak of the Transfiguration as a disclosure not only of what God is but of what we are. The Transfiguration looks back to the beginning, but also looks forward to the end, to the final glory of Christ’s second coming, because through the incarnation Christ raises our human nature to a new level, opens new possibilities.

The Incarnation is a new beginning for us as the human race, and in the Transfiguration we see not only our human nature at the beginning, but as it can be in and through Christ at the end, he told us.

But with the Transfiguration comes the invitation to bear the cross with Christ. Peter, James and John are with Christ on Mount Tabor, and they are with him in Gethsemane. We must understand the Passion of Christ and the Transfiguration in the light of each other, not as two separate mysteries, but aspects of the one single mystery. Mount Tabor and Mount Calvary go together; and glory and suffering go together.

If we are to become part of the Transfiguration, we cannot leave our cross behind. If we are to bring the secular, fallen world into the glory of Christ, that has to be through self-emptying (κένωσις, kenosis), cross-bearing and suffering. There is no answer to secularism that does not take account of the Cross, as well as taking account of the Transfiguration and the Resurrection.

Metropolitan Kalistos reminded us of the story from Leo Tolstoy, Three Questions. The central figure is set a task of answering three questions:

What is the most important time?

The most important time is now, the past is gone, and the future does not exist yet.

Who is the most important person?

The person who is with you at this very instant.

What is the most important task?

‘This task is, to do him good, because for that purpose alone was man sent into this life!’

The light that shone from Christ on the mountaintop is not a physical and created light, but an eternal and uncreated light, a divine light, the light of the Godhead, the light of the Holy Trinity.

The experience on Mount Tabor confirms Saint Peter’s confession of faith which reveals Christ as the Son of the Living God. Yet Christ remains fully human as ever he was, as fully human as you or me, and his humanity is not abolished. But the Godhead shines through his body and from it.

In Christ dwells all the fullness of the Godhead. But at other points in his life, the glory is hidden beneath the veil of his flesh. What we see in Christ on Mount Tabor is human nature, our human nature, taken up into God and filled with the light of God. ‘So, this should be our attitude to the secular world,’ Metropolitan Kallistos said.

Or, as the Revd Dr Kenneth Leech (1939-2015), the Anglican ‘slum priest’ in the East End of London, once said: ‘Transfiguration can and does occur “just around the corner,” occurs in the midst of perplexity, imperfection, and disastrous misunderstanding.’

Metropolitan Kallistos spoke that day of the Transfiguration as a disclosure not only of what God is but of what we are. The Transfiguration looks back to the beginning, but also looks forward to the end, opening new possibilities.

The Transfiguration shows us what we can be in and through Christ, he told us.

In secular life, there is a temptation to accept our human nature as it is now. But the Transfiguration of Christ offers the opportunity to look at ourselves not only as we are now, but to take stock of what happened in the past that made us so, and to grasp the promise of what we can be in the future.

The Transfiguration reminds us of how God sees us in God’s own image and likeness, sees us for who we were, who we are and who we are going to be, no matter how others see us, no matter how others dismiss us.

The Transfiguration is a challenge to remember always that we are made in the image and likeness of God. And, no matter what others say about you, how others judge you, how others gossip or talk about you, how others treat you, God sees your potential, God sees in you God’s own image and likeness, God knows you are beautiful inside and loves you, loves you for ever, as though you are God’s only child. You are his beloved child in whom he is well pleased.

And so, may all we think, say and do be to the praise, honour and glory of God, + Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

The Transfiguration … an icon in the parish church in Piskopiano in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Matthew 17: 1-9:

1 Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and his brother John and led them up a high mountain, by themselves. 2 And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became dazzling white. 3 Suddenly there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him. 4 Then Peter said to Jesus, ‘Lord, it is good for us to be here; if you wish, I will make three dwellings here, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.’ 5 While he was still speaking, suddenly a bright cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud a voice said, ‘This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!’ 6 When the disciples heard this, they fell to the ground and were overcome by fear. 7 But Jesus came and touched them, saying, ‘Get up and do not be afraid.’ 8 And when they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus himself alone.

9 As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus ordered them, ‘Tell no one about the vision until after the Son of Man has been raised from the dead.’

The Transfiguration … an icon by Adrienne Lord in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Liturgical Colour: White.

Penitential Kyries:

Your unfailing kindness, O Lord, is in the heavens,
and your faithfulness reaches to the clouds.
Lord, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.

Your righteousness is like the strong mountains,
and your justice as the great deep.
Christ, have mercy.
Christ, have mercy.

For with you is the well of life:
and in your light shall we see light.
Lord, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.

The Collect of the Day:

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 and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Collect of the Word:

O God,
in the transfiguration of your Son,
you confirmed the mysteries of the faith
by the witness of Moses and Elijah,
and in the voice from the cloud
you foreshadowed our adoption as your children:
make us, with Christ, heirs of your glory,
and bring us to enjoy its fullness,
through the same Jesus Christ our Lord who lives and reigns with you
in the unity of the Holy Spirit.

Introduction to the Peace:

Christ will transfigure our human body
and give it a form like that of his own glorious body.
We are the Body of Christ. We share his peace.

(cf Philippians 3: 21, 1 Corinthians 11: 27, Romans 5: 1)

Blessing:

The God of all grace,
who called you to his eternal glory in Christ Jesus,
establish, strengthen and settle you in the faith:

Hymns:

52, Christ whose glory fills the skies (CD 4)
325, Be still, for the presence of the Lord (CD 20)
634, Love divine, all loves excelling (CD 36)

The Transfiguration … a fresco in the Church of the Four Martyrs in Rethymnon, Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)

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

Material from the Book of Common Prayer is copyright © 2004, Representative Body of the Church of Ireland.

A return visit to Millstreet in search of family stories

Drishane Castle, near Millstreet, Co Cork, dates from the 15th century, and was a convent for most of the 20th century (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2017; click on image for full-screen view)

Patrick Comerford

I had plans at the weekend to attend the open day at Glin Castle on Sunday afternoon. However, a telephone conversation with my cousin Dick Barrett brought a surprise invitation to visit Millstreet, Co Cork.

Although my mother was from Millstreet and my grandmother and many of my ancestors on that side of the family are buried in Millstreet and in the cemetery at Drishane Castle, I have seldom visited Millstreet.

Any time I visited Millstreet, I was welcomed by uncles, aunts and cousins, and although I have dim childhood memories of staying with the extended family, it is a part of my background with which I have little familiarity. A holiday weekend visit to Millstreet offered an opportunity to redress the past.

The first place two of us stopped to visit was Drishane Castle and the cemetery there with the grave of my grandmother, Maria (Crowley) Murphy, who died 60 years ago on 8 July 1957 at the age of 72. Her husband, my grandfather, Thomas Michael ‘Corduroy’ Murphy, died in Australia on 10 September 1949, at the age of 67, and is buried in Mackay, Queensland.

As I child, I had been told that this grandmother had expected this grandfather to buy Drishane Castle when it was being sold by the Wallis family, and so I also visited Drishane Castle on Sunday afternoon.

The first castle at Drishane was by the MacCarthy family in the mid-15th century (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2017)

Drishane Castle is north-east of Millstreet, near where the Finnow river flows into the Blackwater. The original castle is a tower house 22 metres tall. It is built of stone with four storeys, with narrow arrow-slits, crenellations on the roof, and a small circular tower next to the castle.

The original Drishane Castle is a tower-house built by the MacCarthy (Mac Cárthaigh) clan ca between 1436 and 1450. It was probably built in the mid-15th century by Dermot Mór McCarthy, the second son of Tadhg MacCarthy, Lord of Muskerry (1390-1428), and a direct descendant of Diarmuid, King of Cork.

Dermot Mór McCarthy is also said to have built the castles at Kilmeedy and Carrigaphooca, while his brother, Cormac Láidir MacCarthy, built Blarney Castle and Kilcrea Castle. Dermot Mór died in 1448, and Drishane was probably completed by his son, another Dermot MacCarthy.

The genealogy of the MacCarthy family is confusing. The Christian names are often repeated, and different accounts of the Drishane branch of the family vary considerably. For example, it is often said that there were two centenarians in the family, both named Donogh. However, the evidence suggests there may have been only one centenarian: the second Donogh MacCarthy, who is buried in the grounds of Drishane Castle, lived from 1597 to 1719, and died at the age of 122.

Teige MacCarthy, the son of Owen MacCarthy, owned Drishane Castle in 1592, when he surrendered it to Queen Elizabeth I and received it back in a re-grant. Teige MacCarthy died around 1624.

His son, Owen Mac Teige MacCarthy, held Drishane Castle when he died in 1637, and the castle was inherited by his son, Donogh MacOwen MacCarthy, the centenarian. He was over 40 at the time, and had married Kathleen Fitzgerald, who also died in 1637. He probably married a second time.

Owen MacCarthy had at least four brothers, Callaghan, Donogh, Phelim and Dermot; this Dermot MacCarthy was killed leading a squadron of horse at the battle of Knockbrack in 1652, fighting the Cromwellian Parliamentarian forces. A year earlier, in 1651, Drishane Castle was garrisoned by the supporters of the beheaded King Charles I. All the MacCarthy lands were forfeited by the Cromwelliams after the Irish Confederate Wars (1641-1653).

When Charles II was restored in 1660, the MacCarthy lands were recovered by Donough MacCarty, 1st Earl of Clancarty. He was the head of the MacCarthy family, and in 1677 he granted a lease of Drishane Castle to Donogh MacCarthy, with a proviso that Donogh settled what was due to Dominic Coppinger for the mortgages previously raised on the estate.

After the Jacobite and Williamite Wars (1688-1691), the MacCarthys lost their lands at Drishane once again. Drishane was acquired by the Hollow Sword Blade Company, which had helped to finance the campaign of William of Orange in Ireland. In 1709, Drishane was sold to Henry Wallis of Ballyduff, Co Waterford, a younger son of Thomas Wallis of Curraglass, Mogeely, Co Cork.

The Drishane estate was acquired by the Wallis family in the early 18th century (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2017)

The Wallis family was living at Curraglass, since 1596, and there are suggestions that the family connection with Drishane may date from the mid-17th century. Renovations were carried out at the castle in 1643, according to the date on a fireplace, and this bears the inscription ‘W’, perhaps suggesting the name ‘Wallis’.

It is also suggested that Wallis family had a friendship with Donogh MacCarthy, who allowed the Wallises to live in peace at Drishane during his lifetime. Another account says Donogh MacCarthy demised part of the land to Henry Wallis.

Donogh MacCarthy died in 1719, and in 1722 and 1724 his widow leased her part of the remaining lands to Thomas Wallis. In 1703, Thomas Wallis of Curraglass bought part of the estate in the Barony of Muskerry, Co Cork, that once belonged to the Earls of Clancarty, and the Wallis family took full ownership of Drishane Castle and the lands in 1728.

Henry Wallis’s daughter, Elizabeth Wallis of Drishane, Co Cork, married her cousin, George Wallis of Curraglass, in 1721, and their eldest son, also Henry Wallis, inherited Drishane.

Under provisions for ‘discovery’ in the Penal Laws, the Wallis family bought what remained of Drishane for £450 in 1728, although it was valued at £8,000. This led to a local tradition that Donogh MacCarthy’s widow died on the doorstep of the castle from exposure. In reality, the transaction may have been to clarify the entire matter because of claims to the property by the widow’s relatives, the MacCarthy-O’Leary family.

When Dr Smith wrote his History of Cork in 1750, he noted that there was a handsome new house near the castle built by the late William Wallis who had considerably improved his lands. The new Drishane Castle built by the Wallis family is a large three-storey 18th century house, which was extended, improved and remodelled in the following decades.

In 1827, Henry Wallis’s grandson, another Henry Wallis, married Ellen Grice Smyth of Ballynatray, Co Waterford. This Henry Wallis died in 1862, and the castle and Drishane Castle and estate were inherited by his only son, Major John Richard Smyth Wallis (1828-1868).

During the Fenian Rising 150 years ago, Drishane Castle was garrisoned in 1867, but the Wallises appear to have been popular in the area around Millstreet.

When Major Wallis died in 1868, a year after the Fenian Rising, his only surviving son and heir, Henry Aubrey Beaumont Wallis (1861-1926) was then a seven-year-old. The boy’s widowed mother, Octavia (Willoughby) became Lady Beaumont in 1872 when she married Sir George Howland Beaumont (1828-1882), and she continued to take an interest in the Drishane Estate on behalf of her son while he was a minor.

In the 1870s, the Drishane estate totalled 5,000 acres, and in 1876 Lady Beaumont was involved in architectural improvements and extensions to the house. Her son, Henry Aubrey Wallis, inherited Drishane in his own name when he reached the age of 21. The estate was placed in Chancery on an application of insurance companies, but the family remained at Drishane Castle. Slater noted in 1894 that Drishane Castle was still the seat of the Wallis family, although he misspells the surname as Wallace.

However, Major Henry Aubrey Beaumont Wallis was the last member of the Wallis family to live at Drishane Castle. His personal life became a matter of public gossip and salacious newspaper reports when he and his estranged wife, Elizabeth (Bingham) were divorced in 1906. This divorce was legislated for by an Act of Parliament and seems to have been one of only two divorces that were allowed in Ireland until divorce was legalised in 1996.

The couple were married in Calcutta in 1883, and had lived in New Zealand, Ghana (Gold Coast) and London before returning to Drishane Castle, where Mrs Wallis alleged she had been attacked in 1903 by her husband who was having an affair with a woman in London.

Within four months of the divorce, Elizabeth Wallis had married again and Henry remarried a year later in 1907. But Henry’s fortunes seem to have been in decline for some time. By 1911, he was living in Roskrow-Penryn, Cornwall, when he gave his occupation as Justice of the Peace for Co Cork. In 1916, he changed his surname from Wallis to Wallis-Wright, and in 1923 he changed his name back again from Wallis-Wright to Wallis. He died on 23 April 1926 in Cornwall.

Drishane Castle and the convent buildings (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2017)

Meanwhile, an auction was arranged for the Drishane estate in July 1901. The auction was cancelled, as Mrs Wallis made a number of unsuccessful efforts to raise funds to buy the estate for herself. Eventually, the tenants of the houses and premises in Millstreet bought out their holdings, and on 4 June 1902 Drishane Castle was sold in the Court of Chancery before Judge Rose to Patrick Stack of Fermoy.

The evidence in the Wallis divorce case in the House of Lords indicates that the Wallis family continued to live at Drishane Castle as tenants until at least 1904. Through the intervention of Cornelius Duggan, the castle and estate were acquired on 9 December 1908 for the Dames of Saint Maud, a French order of teaching nuns also known as the Sisters of the Infant Jesus, who had arrived in Millstreet in 1907. The order was established in France in 1662 by Rev Nicholas Barre, a Spiritual Director of Saint John Baptist de la Salle. The first members of the community arrived at Drishane in March 1909, the first Mass was celebrated there on 25 May, and the official opening took place on 8 September 1909.

The nuns lived at Drishane Castle for most of the 20th century, built a new convent chapel and from 1911 ran a boarding secondary school for girls.

In December 1974, there was excitement in Millstreet when part of the movie In This House of Brede was filmed at Drishane Castle. It stars Diana Rigg as a widowed business executive who turns her back on commerce and capitalism to enter a strict order of Benedictine nuns at Brede Abbey.

The school closed in 1992, and Drishane Castle and estate were bought by the Duggan family. The castle has hosted a number of music concerts and fundraising events, and the initial plans were to turn the former convent into an hotel. But the house is a centre for asylum seekers, and refugees from Kosovar stayed there for a year. Today, refugees and asylum seekers from many nations live at Drishane Castle.

The 18th century house known as Drishane Castle is a substantial country house, built ca 1730. Although the house has had many phases of building and rebuilding, it retains the fabric of an 18th century house at its core. The house has many interesting features including lancet, bipartite and tripartite windows. The castle revival form of the house dates from the mid to late 19th century when this style was in vogue.

The porte-cochére was added in 1876 by Lady Beaumont in 1876 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2017)

The porte-cochére was added in 1876 by Lady Beaumont and is a fine example of theatrical architecture. It emphasises the importance of the main entrance and provides a strong decorative focus to the façade. The coat-of-arms of the Wallis family above is finely carved heraldic motif and is an example of the skill of 19th century craftsmen. Lady Beaumont also restored the adjacent mediaeval tower house.

The main building is a nine-bay, three-storey main block with a one-bay breakfront having a porte-cochere to the front. Other features include cut sandstone turrets, crenellations, double and triple lancet windows, Tudor-style arched openings and doorways.

Drishane demesne is relatively intact, with many of the related demesne structures, such as the gate lodges, reflecting the style of the main house. The farmyard complex, dating from 1828, includes courtyards and a walled garden.

A gate lodge added to the estate in 1870s (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2017)

The picturesque main gate lodge and piers were built ca 1870 in the castle style that became popular in the mid-19th century, with frivolous crenellations and a crenellated turret. A second detached gate lodge, built at the same time, has an octagonal-shaped three-stage tower with crenellations, and pointed arch window openings and doors.

The convent was built as a separate building for the Sisters of the Infant Jesus, and in 1931 they built a separate nine-bay, two-storey chapel and hall, and the new chapel was solemnly blessed in 1934.

Although I did not get into the chapel on Sunday afternoon, this seems to be is a fine example of early 20th century ecclesiastical architecture. The chapel block was designed by the Cork-born architect Dominick O’Carroll. It is an unusual example of a two-storey chapel building with a hall below, a form that is not usually associated with Roman Catholic churches.

A marble plaque in the chapel was donated by the Crowley family to the convent when it opened in the 1930s, and two or three members of the Crowley family were members of the community. One was Sister Anne, a second was Sister Cornelius, who died in 2001 and who probably took her name after my grandmother’s brother, Cornelius Crowley, who lived at Coole House, near Drishane, and Finnstown House, near Lucan, Co Dublin. One of these nuns was known in the family as ‘Mary Nun.’ But, without access to convent chapel, I could find out nothing more about the Crowley nuns.

Meanwhile, was there any truth behind the story I had been told about Thomas Murphy attempting to buy Drishane Castle on behalf of his wife in 1912?

Thomas Murphy, son of Michael Murphy, merchant, of Millstreet, married Maria Crowley, daughter of the late Denis Crowley, in Millstreet on 3 March 1915. The witnesses at their wedding were Jeremiah O’Shea and Hannah Crowley.

So, they were married six years after Drishane Castle had been acquired by the Sisters of the Infant Jesus, and 14 years after Drishane Castle was first put up for sale. The story now seems to me to be apocryphal.

I needed to find out more about the last Wallis of Drishane Castle, more about the houses where the Murphy and Crowley families lived in Millstreet, and I needed to find the mill that gave Millstreet its name. We headed back into Millstreet to meet my cousin.

● Drishane Castle is open to the public in summer (May to September) from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. During the rest of the year, visits may be arranged by appointment.

The Murphy family grave in Drishane Cemetery (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2017)