Aghia Kyriaki Chapel, with views across the Kourtaliotiko Gorge, between Rethymnon and Preveli

The Chapel of Aghia Kyriaki was built in the Kourtaliotiko Gorge in 1853, between Rethymnon and Preveli (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

This year marks the 85th anniversary of the Battle of Crete, which began on the morning of 20 May 1941, with multiple German airborne landings on Crete, and lasted for 12 days.

During the German occupation of Crete in World War II, 5,000 stranded Greek, Australian, New Zealand and British troops who fought in the Battle of Crete in 1941, found shelter in Preveli until the Abbot, Agathangelos Lagouvardos, aided their escape to Egypt on two submarines on the nights of 31 May and 1 June 1941 and 20 and 21 August 1941.

As I was looking back in recent days on old photographs of churches, chapels and monasteries in Greece that I had not written about, I came across photographs of two chapels I had visited but not yet written about: the small Chapel of Saint Savvas near the beach below Preveli Monastery, and the Chapel of Aghia Kyriaki in the Kourtaliotiko Gorge.

I have visited Preveli Monatery a few times, and on the way there and back, between Preveli and Rethymnon, I usually passed through the Kourtaliotiko Gorge and visited the Chapel of Aghia Kyriaki.

The Chapel of Aghia Kyriaki was built into the side of the gorge, with the natural rock face serving as one of its main walls (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The Kourtaliotiko Gorge (Κουρταλιώτικο Φαράγγι), also known as the Asomatos Gorge (Φαράγγι Ασώματου), is on the south side of the western part of Crete. It is located where the Kourtaliotiko River flows south between the mountains of Kouroupa and Xiron.

The village of Koxare is at the north end of the gorge. A road runs north to south through the gorge connecting Koxare to Asomatos; it then leads west, to the town of Plakias on the south coast of Crete. The cliffs on the side of the gorge provide a roosting site for the Lammergeier vulture.

At one point in the gorge, about 20 metres from the north entrance, some ‘claps’ can be heard, like hands coming together. These ‘claps’ are the kourtala that give the name ο Κουρταλιώτης (o Kourtaliotis, ‘the rattle’ and ‘the noisy’) to the gorge. They are caused by the wind being funnelled through the high caves of the gorge and breaking the sound barrier.

On the road between Asomatos and Koxare in the gorge, the Chapel of Aghia Kyriaki was built in 1853, with the natural rock face serving as one of its main walls. The chapel is about 10 km south of Armeni, just before the short path entry leading down into the gorge.

The chapel is on the side of the road and is easy to climb up to. Inside, its features include a rare stone iconostasis rather than one of the traditional wooden ones found in most Greek churches.

The chapel has a rare stone iconostasis rather than a traditional wooden icon screen … Saint Kyriaki is depicted first on the left (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Saint Kyriaki (Αγία Κυριακή), also known as Saint Kyriaki the Great Martyr (Αγία Κυριακή η Μεγαλομάρτυς), was martyred during the reign of the Roman emperor Diocletian. She was born in Nicomedia to Greek parents Dorotheus and Eusebia, devout Christians. Because she was born on a Sunday, they named her Kyriaki, the Greek name for Sunday.

When Kyriaki rejected a would-be suitor’s proposal of marriage, he denounced both her and her parents as Christians to Emperor Diocletian. Dorotheus and Eusebia were exiled to Melitene in eastern Anatolia and Kyriaki was sent to Nicomedia to be interrogated by the emperor’s co-ruler, Maximian. When Kyriaki refused to renounce her faith, she was whipped and tortured.

She was thrown into a fire and to wild beasts, and then sentenced her to beheading by the sword; she was 21. Her feast day is marked on 7 July in the Greek Orthodox Church. Several places in Greece have the name Aghia Kyriaki (Αγία Κυριακή), including an island in the Dodecanese.

An icon of Saint John the Baptist in Aghia Kyriaki Chapel (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

About 900 meters from the Chapel of Aghia Kyriaki, the trailhead leads down a carved staircase of 258 steps to the lower gorge, where I remember seeing a goatherd taking a large flock of belled goats through the gorge. Down there too is yet another small chapel, the Chapel of Aghios Nikolaos, and from there it is possible to hike through the freezing waters to see the magnificent 40-metre-high waterfall on the Kourtaliotis River waterfall.

The gorge leads eventually to the sandy beach at Preveli, and the natural life includes native palm trees. I am told an experienced hiker could follow the path across the river to reach the beach, and it takes about 2½ hours at an average pace. There is an alternative path, one parallel to the river, which easier and faster to walk through.

Each time I was travelling between Rethymnon and Preveli, I took the even easier option of travelling by coach. But each time I also managed to stop and climb the steps to visit the Chapel of Aghia Kyriaki.


Watching goats being herded through the Kourtaliotiko Gorge, below Aghia Kyriaki Chapel (Image: Patrick Comerford, YouTube)

Saint Savvas Chapel, a small, peaceful chapel on the beach that was part of the Battle of Crete

The small Chapel of Saint Savvas (Agios Savvas) is a 130-year-old monastic chapel below Preveli Monastery (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

This year marks the 85th anniversary of the Battle of Crete, which began on the morning of 20 May 1941, with multiple German airborne landings on Crete, and lasted for 12 days.

During the German occupation of Crete in World War II, 5,000 stranded Greek, Australian, New Zealand and British troops who fought in the Battle of Crete in 1941, found shelter in Preveli until the Abbot, Agathangelos Lagouvardos, aided their escape to Egypt on two submarines on the nights of 31 May and 1 June 1941 and 20 and 21 August 1941.

As I was looking back in recent days on old photographs of churches, chapels and monasteries in Greece that I had not written about, poducing a new guide to church buildings in Crete yesterday (24 May 2026), I came across photographs of two chapels I had visited but not yet written about: the small Chapel of Saint Savvas near the beach below Preveli Monastery, and the Chapel of Aghia Kyriaki in the Kourtaliotiko Gorge.

The Chapel of Saint Savvas is on the east bank of the Preveli Gorge in southern Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The small Chapel of Saint Savvas (Agios Savvas) is a peaceful, picturesque 130-year-old monastic chapel below Preveli Monastery, which I have visited two or three times, near the mouth of the Megapotamos River and a famous palm forest.

The chapel is on the east bank of the Preveli Gorge in southern Crete, at the point where the river meets the Libyan Sea, close to the sandy shores of Preveli Beach and near the Kourtaliotiko Gorge. The chapel is framed by the lush Cretan palm trees that line the riverbank, offering a striking contrast against the dramatic canyon walls.

Tourists usually reach the chapel and the beach on the tour boats that leave from nearby coastal villages such as Plakias, or by taking the hiking trail from the Preveli Beach parking area and crossing the riverbed.

This is the beach where allied forces who were hiding in Preveli Monastery were rescued dramatically in 1941 as the Nazi occupation forces tightened their grip on Crete. At one time there had been a Byzantine church or chapel on the site.

The beach at Preveli is lined with the Cretan palms or Phoenix Theophrasti (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The chapel of Agios Savvas is close to Lake Preveli, south of Rethymno, on the east bank at the mouth of Kourtalioti Gorge.

The chapel owes its origins to Meletios Tziritakis a monk from the village of Kerame. Before coming to the Monastery of Prevelis, he was a monk in the Monastery of Aghios Savvas in Palestine. Because of this association, he gave the name Saint Savvas to the chapel he built in 1884 on the ruins of an earlier Byzantine chapel dedicated to Saint George. Beside the chapel, he built a cell to live in.

Around and to the left of the church there are traces of ancient, mediaeval and Byzanitne buildings. While the monk was digging the foundations for his chapel, he discovered old tombs, confirming the presence of an ancient settlement and a pottery at Lake Preveli. The chapel was completed and dedicated in 1898.

The chapel’s white stone walls and terracotta roof, picked out against the green palms and deep blue sea make it one of the most photographed spots along that part of the southern coast of Crete.

The small chapel is usually guarded by a family of geese, and after a number of incidents involving campers who tried to sleep in the chapel overnight, the chapel is now usually locked and closed to visitors.

The beach is lined with the Cretan palms, Phoenix theophrasti, and its surroundings are protected by nature reserves. This protection means the beach is not spoiled by sunbeds or sun umbrellas at Preveli beach, although there is a small taverna at the mouth of the river, under shady trees, offering drinks and snacks during the tourist season.

A heart-shaped rock near the chapel and just off the beach is often called the ‘Love Rock’ or the ‘stone of lovers’ because of its shape.

A heart-shaped rock near the Chapel of Saint Savvas is often called the ‘Love Rock’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Saint Sabbas (439-532), or Saint Savvas the Sanctified (Σάββας ὁ Ἡγιασμένος), was a Greek monk and priest who was born at Moutalaske near Caesarea in Cappadocia and lived mainly in Palaestina Prima. He was the founder of several convents, most notably Mar Saba in Palestine.

At the age of eight, he entered the monastery of Bishop Flavian of Antioch, and became a monk at 17. For many years he lived alone and in isolation in a cave before founding a monastery in the Kidron Valley, south of Jerusalem, in the year 484.

As an advocate of the Chalcedonian creed and strenuous opponent of the Monophysites and the followers of Origen, he tried to influence the emperors against them and he called personally on Emperor Anastasios I at Constantinople in 511 and on Justinian I in 531.

Saint Sabbas founded several more monasteries and is said to have wrought many miracles. He composed the first monastic rule of church services, the so-called Jerusalem Typikon, for use in all the Byzantine monasteries. He died in the year 532.

Crusaders took is relics in the 12th century and they remained in the Church of Saint Anthony in Venice until Pope Paul VI returned them to the monastery in 1965 as a gesture of good will towards the Orthodox Church. His Great Lavra is now known as the monastery of Mar Saba.

Local people near Preveli in southern Crete celebrate the feast day of the chapel on 5 December, with a number of commemorative events in the area.

Local people near Preveli celebrate the feast day of the Chapel of Saint Savvas on 5 December (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Showing respect for the Cross on Holy Cross Day and taking to heart the meaning of the flag

The icon of the Elevation of the Holy Cross in the Greek Orthodox Church in Stony Stratford on Holy Cross Day this morning (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Patrick Comerford

Today has been a rain-soaked day and has been Holy Cross Day. We marked this day in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church in Stony Stratford at Choral Evensong last night and at the Parish Eucharist this morning (14 September 2025).

I also attended the Divine Liturgy in the Greek Orthodox Church in Stony Stratford this morning, where today’s Feast was marked with Mattins, the Divine Liturgy and the Elevation of the Holy Cross, led by Father Gregory Wellington.

Holy Cross Day is a traditional Orthodox commemoration that I have attended in Greece in previous years in both Preveli and Arkadi monastery in Crete. This day celebrates the discovery of the True Cross by Saint Helen in the year 326, followed by her son, the Emperor Constantine, building the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem in the year 335.

During these special services in the Orthodox tradition, the cross is elevated and venerated. It is traditional to bring sweet basil to church, as it is said to have grown around the cross. The cross is then placed on a bed of basil, and people receive blessed sprigs of basil sprigs after the liturgy.

This reverence of the Cross last night and today is in sharp contrast to the misuse, abuse, and (dare I say) the desecration of the Cross in recent weeks, when the Cross of Saint George has been used as a symbol of exclusion and hate up and down the land, and especially at yesterday’s far-right displays in central London.

Please do not get me wrong. There are appropriate times to fly the flag with the Cross of Saint George and, perhaps, even to be proud of it. It is appropriate to fly a flag with the cross on it from church towers, especially on Easter Day, Saint George’s Day, Sundays – indeed, on an any day.

This flag flies each day at the top of the tower of Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church in Stony Stratford, and it should never be conceded to or hijacked by political extremists, who have no understanding of the Cross as a symbol of love, forgiveness, personal sacrifice, compassion, inclusion and new life.

It is appropriate to fly the flag outside pubs with names like the Old George or the George and Dragon. In other words, the flag can be a sign of welcome and inclusion.

It is appropriate to fly the flag this evening to celebrate England’s win over Scotland in the Women’s World Cup quarter final.

But it is not – and never should be allowed to become – a symbol of exclusion, of racism, of hatred.

The cross is found on the flag of many European nations, including Denmark, the Faroe Islands, Finland, Georgia, Greece, Iceland, Northern Ireland, Norway, Scotland, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and – depending on how you look at them – the flags of Malta and Slovakia. There are even those who would make the Cross of Saint Patrick the flag of Ireland.

It reflects the historical and cultural legacies of those nations and states, but was never intended to exclude others. The flag of the United Kingdom, in all its contortions and complexity, was designed not as symbol of imperialism or triumphalism, but to express hope of harmony between the nations of England, Scotland and Ireland.

The far-right flag flyers seem to be unaware of this symbolism too. But they also seem to be unable to realise that hanging a flag at half-mast is a sign of mourning, and flying a flag upside down is a sign of distress.

Many of them cannot tell the difference between the flag of England and the flags of Denmark and Switzerland, or between the flag of England and the flag of Georgia.

As they painted the cross on roundabouts and road crossings, they were inviting motorists to drive on the cross and pedestrians to walk on the cross. How many of them ever heard of the countless Christians who were martyred for their refusal to walk on the cross and to trample it underfoot.

Father Gregory Wellington elevates the Cross in the Greek Orthodox Church in Stony Stratford on Holy Cross Day this morning (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

The sprig of fresh basil I took home from this morning’s liturgy are filling our kitchen with sweet aromas this evening, and the words of the liturgy are still echoing in my ears.

In the Epistle reading in the Orthodox liturgy today (I Corinthians 1: 18-24), Saint Paul says ‘the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.’

In his notes on today’s readings, prepared for the Ecumenical Patriarchate Archdiocese of Thyateira and Great Britain, Father Gregory writes: ‘We are … called to emulate Christ in self-sacrificial love towards God and towards our neighbour … We need … to act charitably to our neighbour, give of our time and talents, help those around us, and spread Christ’s message.’

And that is showing true respect for the Cross on the flags of England and the United Kingdom.

Father Gregory Wellington processes the basil through the Greek Orthodox Church in Stony Stratford on Holy Cross Day this morning (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Daily prayer in Easter 2025: 17, Tuesday 6 May 2025

‘I am the Bread of Life’ (John 6: 35) … preparing bread for the Eucharist on a Sunday morning (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

Easter is a 50-day season that continues until the Day of Pentecost, and this week began with the Third Sunday of Easter (Easter III, 4 May 2025).

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

1, reading today’s Gospel reading;

2, a short reflection;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

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

‘My Father … gives you the true bread from heaven’ (John 6: 32) … a mosaic in Saint Matthew’s Church, Great Peter Street, Westminster (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

John 6: 30-35 (NRSVA):

30 So they said to him, ‘What sign are you going to give us then, so that we may see it and believe you? What work are you performing? 31 Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, “He gave them bread from heaven to eat.”’ 32 Then Jesus said to them, ‘Very truly, I tell you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. 33 For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.’ 34 They said to him, ‘Sir, give us this bread always.’

35 Jesus said to them, ‘I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.’

‘I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty’ (John : 35) … an icon of the Last Supper or Mystical Supper seen in a shop in Rethymnon in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Today’s Reflection:

We have read in recent days about Jesus feeding of the 5,000 and walking on the water, and we are now introduced to reading the long Bread of Life discourse (verses 22-59), spoken in the synagogue in Capernaum (John 6: 59).

The day following the feeding of the 5,000, the people go in search of Jesus, but when they go to the site of the feeding, they find he is not there either. Eventually they find Jesus and his disciples near Capernaum, Jesus’ principal base in Galilee. They ask him: ‘Rabbi, when did you come here?’ (verse 25).

Some years ago (2010), I took part in the popular television series, Who Do You Think You Are? I did some of the research on Dervla Kirwan, famous for her roles from Ballykissangel to Smother. The show is still popular, and I still get messages from America and England from friends and family who have just seen repeats.

But that question, ‘Who Do You Think You Are?’, goes much deeper than the details that programme unearths about Victorian great-grandparents.

‘Who are you?’

When most of us are asked this question in normal chit-chat, we probably first answer by our name, the name we like to be known by.

Given a second chance, even when we ask ourselves that question, we usually reply in ways that show our most important, our deepest, relationships: Mother/Daughter, Father/Son, Wife/Husband, Sister/Brother, Uncle/Aunt, Niece/Nephew, Grandparent/Grandchild …

Relationships define us, relationships shape us, relationships place us in family and society … and relationships can sometimes even destroy us, yet they still continue to define us.

That is how we see ourselves, usually, when we are asked casually, ‘Who are you?’ But there is also a third way of asking and answering that question.

In my previous roles, in media and academic life, I noticed quite often when people asked one another these questions, and exchanged cards, they spent little time looking at each other’s names on the cards, and more time figuring out their roles.

The questions that are being really asked at these receptions and conferences are not ‘Are you Patrick?’ or ‘Are you a parent/partner?’ The questions being asked, deep down, are ‘What do you do?’ and ‘Are you useful in my network?’ Can you get me more business, more sales, more votes, more media attention?

And then, there is another, perhaps fourth question, when it comes to identity: ‘Where are you from?’

‘Where am I from?’ The answer connects me with so many shared connections, friends, family members, schoolfriends, memories … why, we might even find we are related!

These are the sort of questions the crowd are asking Jesus in our Gospel readings yesterday and today:

Where are you from? (verse 24)

When did you come here? (verse 25)

What do you work at? (verse 30)

What can you do for me? (verse 30)

Why, like scriptwriters for that television series, they even recall their ancestors and what they did in the past (verse 31).

But, like those people exchanging business cards at a reception, there are few questions about relationship or relationships. They try to define him (‘rabbi’, verse 25), so they can box him in.

Instead, Jesus tries to answer them in term of relationships.

Set aside all those wonders and miracles, he tells them (verse 26). Stop playing the status-seeking game (verse 29). What is more important than all these is what is in your heart (verse 29).

He insists on speaking of himself in relationship to God the Father, who has sent him.

And then Jesus uses the first of his seven ‘I AM’ sayings in Saint John’s Gospel, ‘I am the bread of life’ (John 6: 35).

These seven ‘I AM’ sayings are traditionally listed as:

1, I am the Bread of Life (John 6: 35, 48)
2, I am the Light of the World (John 8: 12)
3, I am the gate (or the door) (John 10: 7)
4, I am the Good Shepherd (John 10: 11 and 14)
5, I am the Resurrection and the Life (John 11: 25)
6, I am the way, the truth and the life (John 14: 6)
7, I am the true vine (John 15: 1, 5)

These ‘I AM’ sayings echo the divine name revealed to Moses on Mount Sinai, ‘I AM’ (Exodus 3: 14).

If I am made in the image and likeness of God, how could I possibly say who I am in the ways Jesus says who he is?

Bread: when did I last help to feed the hungry … those who are physically and spiritually hungry?

The Light of the World … when did I last speak out against prejudice, bigotry, hatred and scaremongering, and shine a light into these dark shadows of the world?

The gate or the door … am I welcoming, hospitable, open, an advocate of pluralism, diversity and tolerance in our society?

The Good Shepherd … do I look after people, care for them, especially those people no-one else seems to think is worth bothering about?

I could go down through all seven ‘I AM’ sayings and find they are a very good checklist not just for me as a priest but for any Christian, indeed for any person.

Christ is the bread of life and the light of the world. We must also offer that light and life that Christ offers us to the world.

Would it make any difference if the Church not only preached what it believes, but worked actively to see these beliefs put into practice?

Our response to the love we receive from God – a risky outpouring that is beyond all human understanding of generosity – can only be to love. That call to love is not just to love those who are easy to love. It is a call to love those who are difficult to love too, to love all in the world … and to love beyond words. And that should be a good enough definition of who I am.

Christ is risen!
The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia!

‘Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness’ (John 6: 31) … in the mountain passes above Preveli on the south coast of Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Tuesday 6 May 2025):

‘Inconvenient Migration’ provides the theme this week in ‘Pray With the World Church’, the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel). This theme was introduced on Sunday with Reflections from Carol Miller, Church Engagement Manager, USPG.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Tuesday 6 May 2025) invites us to pray:

God of compassion, we pray for people who support refugees along the way. May you strengthen and provide resource.

The Collect:

Almighty Father,
who in your great mercy gladdened the disciples
with the sight of the risen Lord:
give us such knowledge of his presence with us,
that we may be strengthened and sustained by his risen life
and serve you continually in righteousness and truth;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

Living God,
your Son made himself known to his disciples
in the breaking of bread:
open the eyes of our faith,
that we may see him in all his redeeming work;
who is alive and reigns, now and for ever.

Additional Collect:

Risen Christ,
you filled your disciples with boldness and fresh hope:
strengthen us to proclaim your risen life
and fill us with your peace,
to the glory of God the Father.

Yesterday’s Reflections

Continued Tomorrow

A modern icon of the Communion of the Apostles

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

Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2024: 87, Sunday 4 August 2024

‘I am the Bread of Life’ (John 6: 35) … preparing bread for the Sunday Eucharist (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar and today (4 August 2024) is the Tenth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity X).

Later this morning, I hope to be at the Parish Eucharist in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford. 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.

‘My Father … gives you the true bread from heaven’ (John 6: 32) … a mosaic in Saint Matthew’s Church, Great Peter Street, Westminster (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

John 6: 24-35 (NRSVA):

24 So when the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they themselves got into the boats and went to Capernaum looking for Jesus.

25 When they found him on the other side of the lake, they said to him, ‘Rabbi, when did you come here?’ 26 Jesus answered them, ‘Very truly, I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. 27 Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For it is on him that God the Father has set his seal.’ 28 Then they said to him, ‘What must we do to perform the works of God?’ 29 Jesus answered them, ‘This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.’ 30 So they said to him, ‘What sign are you going to give us then, so that we may see it and believe you? What work are you performing? 31 Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, “He gave them bread from heaven to eat.”’ 32 Then Jesus said to them, ‘Very truly, I tell you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. 33 For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.’ 34 They said to him, ‘Sir, give us this bread always.’

35 Jesus said to them, ‘I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.’

‘Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness’ (John 6: 31) … in the mountain passes above Preveli on the south coast of Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

This morning’s reflection:

Some years ago, I took part in the popular television series, Who Do You Think You Are?

I did some of the research on Dervla Kirwan, famous for her roles from Ballykissangel to Smother. The show is still popular many years later, and occasionally I still get messages from America and England from friends and family who have just seen repeats.

But that question, ‘Who Do You Think You Are?’, goes much deeper than the details that programme unearths about Victorian great-grandparents.

‘Who are you?’

When most of us are asked this question in normal chit-chat, we probably first answer by our name, the name we like to be known by.

Given a second chance, even when we ask ourselves that question, we usually reply in ways that show our most important, our deepest, relationships: Mother/Daughter, Father/Son, Wife/Husband, Sister/Brother, Uncle/Aunt, Niece/Nephew, Grandparent/Grandchild …

Relationships define us, relationships shape us, relationships place us in family, in society and in place … and relationships can sometimes even destroy us, yet they still continue to define us.

But that is how we see ourselves, usually, when we are asked casually, ‘Who are you?’

But there is also a third way of asking and answering that question.

In my previous roles, in media and academic life, I noticed quite often when people asked one another these questions, and exchanged cards, they spent little time looking at each other’s names on the cards, and more time figuring out their roles.

The questions that are being really asked at these receptions and conferences are not ‘Are you Patrick?’ or ‘Are you a parent/partner?’

The questions being asked, deep down, are ‘What do you do?’ and ‘Are you useful in my network?’

Can you get me more business, more sales, more votes, more media attention?

And then, there is another, perhaps fourth question, when it comes to identity: ‘Where are you from?’

I was asking that question in my reflections on Friday morning.

Where am I from?

The answer connects me with so many shared connections, friends, family members, schoolfriends, memories … why, we might even find we are related!

These are the sort of questions the crowd are asking Jesus in our Gospel reading this morning:

Where are you from? (verse 24)

When did you come here? (verse 25)

What do you work at? (verse 30)

What can you do for me? (verse 30)

Why, like scriptwriters for that television series, they even recall their ancestors and what they did in the past (verse 31).

But, like those people exchanging business cards at a reception, there are few questions about relationship or relationships. They try to define him (‘rabbi’, verse 25), so they can box him in.

Instead, Jesus tries to answer them in term of relationships.

Set aside all those wonders and miracles, he tells them (verse 26). Stop playing the status-seeking game (verse 29).

What is more important than all these is what is in your heart (verse 29).

And did you notice how he insists on speaking of himself in relationship to God the Father, who has sent him?

And then Jesus uses the first of his seven ‘I AM’ sayings in Saint John’s Gospel, ‘I am the bread of life’ (John 6: 35).

These seven ‘I AM’ sayings are traditionally listed as:

1, I am the Bread of Life (John 6: 35, 48)
2, I am the Light of the World (John 8: 12)
3, I am the gate (or the door) (John 10: 7)
4, I am the Good Shepherd (John 10: 11 and 14)
5, I am the Resurrection and the Life (John 11: 25)
6, I am the way, the truth and the life (John 14: 6)
7, I am the true vine (John 15: 1, 5)

These ‘I AM’ sayings echo the divine name revealed to Moses on Mount Sinai, ‘I AM’ (Exodus 3: 14).

If I am made in the image and likeness of God, how could I possibly say who I am in the ways Jesus says who he is?

Bread: when did I last help to feed the hungry … those who are physically and spiritually hungry?

The Light of the World … when did I last speak out against prejudice, bigotry, hatred and scaremongering, and shine a light into these dark shadows of the world?

The gate or the door … am I welcoming, hospitable, open, an advocate of pluralism, diversity and tolerance in our society?

The Good Shepherd … do I look after people, care for them, especially those people no-one else seems to think is worth bothering about?

I could go down through all seven ‘I AM’ sayings and find they are a very good checklist not just for me as a priest but for any Christian, indeed for any person.

Christ is the bread of life and the light of the world. We must also offer that light and life that Christ offers us to the world.

Would it make any difference if the Church not only preached what it believes, but worked actively to see these beliefs put into practice?

Our response to the love we receive from God – a risky outpouring that is beyond all human understanding of generosity – can only be to love. In the Epistle reading provided for today (Ephesians 4: 1-16), the Apostle Paul begs us to lead a life worthy of the calling to which we have been called, bearing with one another in love (verse 2).

That call to love is not just to love those who are easy to love. It is a call to love those who are difficult to love too, to love all in the world … and to love beyond words. And that should be a good enough definition of who I am.

‘I am the Bread of Life’ (John 6: 35) … an image from Saint Luke’s Episcopal Cathedral, Orlando (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Sunday 4 August 2024, Trinity X):

The theme this week in ‘Pray With the World Church,’ the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘Understanding each other by walking together’. This theme is introduced today with a programme update from the Right Revd Eduardo Coelho Grillo, Anglican Bishop of Rio de Janeiro:

A strong and brave inter-religious movement has been taking place in Rio de Janeiro now for more than 10 years. Under the motto ‘we understand each other as we walk together’, different religious groups have been walking together through some of the most important streets of the city in an atmosphere of trust and respect.

That is a symbolic act of communion in a country historically stained by the enslavement of Indigenous and African peoples. Over 300 years, so-called western Christian society has ‘demonised’ Indigenous peoples and African religious experiences, generating prejudice, scorn and violence. In many places in Brazil, Umbanda and Candomblé religious places of worship have been targets of violence and destruction.

And yet every September, we see this march through Rio de Janeiro as the fruit of greater tolerance, respect and acceptance, as Christians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, spiritualists, and members of the Baha’i, Wicca, Umbanda, Candomblé and other faiths walk together.

There is an increasing wave of intolerance, fundamentalism and religious violence these days in Brazil that has led to disturbing acts of both emotional and physical violence. But we still believe that love overcomes hatred as we have been making clear at public events of ecumenical and inter-religious dialogue. We are firmly grounded in the words of Galatians 3: 28.

This reflection is taken from USPG’s Bible study – For such a time as this which can be found at uspg.org.uk/resources/study-courses

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Sunday 4 August 2024, Trinity X) invites us to pray with this prayer from the Anglican Church of Canada:

God the Creator, the strength of the people,
we honour you.
Listen to the thoughts of your people.
We respect the truth of your spirit world and care
for your creations to the east, to the south, to the west and to the north.
We honour you by deeds and not words.
We live by the ways you have entrusted to us within the circle of life.

The Collect:

Let your merciful ears, O Lord,
be open to the prayers of your humble servants;
and that they may obtain their petitions
make them to ask such things as shall please 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 our pilgrimage,
you have willed that the gate of mercy
should stand open for those who trust in you:
look upon us with your favour
that we who follow the path of your will
may never wander from the way of life;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

Lord of heaven and earth,
as Jesus taught his disciples to be persistent in prayer,
give us patience and courage never to lose hope,
but always to bring our prayers before you;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

‘They found him on the other side of the lake’ (John 6: 25) … a summer scene on the Lakes of Killarney, Co Kerry (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Yesterday’s reflection

Continued tomorrow

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

Daily prayers in Advent with Leonard Cohen and USPG: (2) 4 December 2023

‘If it be your will / If there is a choice / Let the rivers fill / Let the hills rejoice’ (Leonard Cohen) … the River Nidd at Knaresborough in Yorkshire (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Patrick Comerford

The countdown to Christmas began officially in the Church yesterday with Advent Sunday or the First Sunday of Advent (3 December 2023), the first day in a new Church Year.

Today, the Calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship remembers Saint John of Damascus (ca 749), Monk, Teacher of the Faith, and Nicholas Ferrar (1637), Deacon, Founder of the Little Gidding Community.

Before this day begins, I am taking time early this morning for prayer and reflection.

Throughout Advent this year, my reflections each day include a poem or song by Leonard Cohen. My Advent reflections are following this pattern:

1, A reflection on a poem or song by Leonard Cohen;

2, the Gospel reading of the day in the Church of England lectionary;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary.

Leonard Cohen on stage in Dublin at the Royal Hospital, Kilmainham (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The Songs and Poems of Leonard Cohen: 2, ‘If it be your will’:

I have said with humour and full sincerity that when my coffin is being taken into the church at my funeral (later than sooner, I hope), that I want to hear Leonard Cohen’s ‘If it be your will’ … and when my coffin is being carried out I want to hear his ‘Dance me to the end of love.’

So often I want to be in control. I want to control the agenda, I want to control conversations, I want to control discussions. And I particularly want to control the words I use, the words others are going to hear me say.

And so, I am humbled at times when I listen to Leonard Cohen’s song, ‘If it be your will.’

I was at most of Leonard Cohen’s concerts in Ireland. He ended many of those concerts singing this poem, which for me is about submission to God’s will, accepting God’s will, leaving God in control of my spirit:

Leonard Cohen sings of his nearly complete subjection to the divine will.

If he is told to be silent, he will be silent; if he is told to sing, he will sing.

If he is allowed to express his true voice (‘if a voice be true’), he will sing in praise of God from ‘this broken hill’ … from Calvary?

The mercy of God, the compassion of God, the love of God, redeems the burning hearts in hell … if it is God’s will.

Leonard Cohen’s great hope in this will leads to prayer, to the one who can ‘make us well’ if we devote ourselves to God, pray to God, sing to God.

But he still prays to God to act on behalf of the suffering.

Cajoling God in song and poetry, Cohen says God has the power to ‘end this night’ of the darkness of the human condition, in which people are dressed in only dirty ‘rags of light’ that are fragmented, that are not fully whole and illuminated.

In this song, I imagine Christ on the cross as he speaks to God the Father as his agony comes to its close:

If it be your will
That I speak no more
And my voice be still
As it was before.

The broken hill is Golgotha where he has been crucified, the rugged and rocky Mount of Calvary.

‘Let the rivers fill’ may refer to the water of his thirst, the water of his sweat, the water that streams from his side, the waters of baptism, the Living Water that will never leave us to thirst.

If it be your will
To make us well
Let your mercy spill
On all these burning hearts in hell.

Advent is a time of waiting. The Dominican theologian Timothy Radcliffe says: ‘We must wait for the resurrection to break the silence of the tomb.’ We must speak up when it is necessary, and to have the courage to speak is ‘ultimately founded upon the courage to listen.’

But at the grave, at times of desolation, at times when there is no answer, we may also be called to be silent.

Leonard Cohen, If it be your will:

If it be your will
That I speak no more
And my voice be still
As it was before
I will speak no more
I shall abide until
I am spoken for
If it be your will

If it be your will
That a voice be true
From this broken hill
I will sing to you
From this broken hill
All your praises they shall ring
If it be your will
To let me sing
From this broken hill
All your praises they shall ring
If it be your will
To let me sing

If it be your will
If there is a choice
Let the rivers fill
Let the hills rejoice
Let your mercy spill
On all these burning hearts in hell
If it be your will
To make us well

And draw us near
And bind us tight
All your children here
In their rags of light
In our rags of light
All dressed to kill
And end this night
If it be your will

If it be your will.

‘Many will come from east and west and will eat with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven’ (Matthew 13: 11) … a new interpretation by Kelly Latimore of Andrei Rublev’s icon ‘The Visitation of Abraham’

Matthew 8: 5-11 (NRSVA):

5 When he entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him, appealing to him 6 and saying, ‘Lord, my servant is lying at home paralysed, in terrible distress.’ 7 And he said to him, ‘I will come and cure him.’ 8 The centurion answered, ‘Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof; but only speak the word, and my servant will be healed. 9 For I also am a man under authority, with soldiers under me; and I say to one, “Go”, and he goes, and to another, “Come”, and he comes, and to my slave, “Do this”, and the slave does it.’ 10 When Jesus heard him, he was amazed and said to those who followed him, ‘Truly I tell you, in no one in Israel have I found such faith. 11 I tell you, many will come from east and west and will eat with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven.’

‘From this broken hill / All your praises they shall ring / If it be your will’ (Leonard Cohen) … in the mountains above Preveli on the south coast of Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Monday 4 December 2023):

The theme this week in the new edition of ‘Pray With the World Church,’ the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘The Hope of Advent.’ This theme was introduced yesterday.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (4 December 2023) invites us to pray in these words:

Lord, we invite the Holy Spirit into the Advent season. Renew our sense of holy anticipation.

The Collect:

Almighty God,
give us grace to cast away the works of darkness
and to put on the armour of light,
now in the time of this mortal life,
in which your Son Jesus Christ came to us in great humility;
that on the last day,
when he shall come again in his glorious majesty
to judge the living and the dead,
we may rise to the life immortal;
through him who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

O Lord our God,
make us watchful and keep us faithful
as we await the coming of your Son our Lord;
that, when he shall appear,
he may not find us sleeping in sin
but active in his service
and joyful in his praise;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

Almighty God,
as your kingdom dawns,
turn us from the darkness of sin
to the light of holiness,
that we may be ready to meet you
in our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.

Yesterday’s Reflection

Continued Tomorrow


‘If It Be Your Will’ … Leonard Cohen and The Webb Sisters, Live in London

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 in Ordinary Time with USPG: Tuesday 22 November 2022

The bells in Preveli Monastery … a reminder of a story told by Nikos Kazantzakis in ‘Zorba the Greek’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

This is the final week in Ordinary Time this year in the Calendar of the Church, the week between the Feast of Christ the King and Advent Sunday.

Today, the calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship remembers Saint Cecilia, Martyr at Rome, ca 230.

Saint Cecilia was one of the most revered martyrs of the Roman Church, but the only thing known for certain is that, at some point in the second or third century, a woman called Cecilia allowed the Church to meet in her house in Trastevere in the city of Rome and that, subsequently, the church erected on that site bore her name.

She was remembered as a brave woman who risked giving hospitality to the Christian Church when to do so was to court censure and possibly death. According to tradition, she converted her pagan husband and his brother to Christianity, and both were martyred before her. She is said to have been martyred on this day in about the year 230. She is honoured as the patron saint of musicians.

Before this day gets busy, I am taking some time this morning for reading, prayer and reflection.

During this week, I am reflecting in these ways:

1, One of the readings for the morning;

2, a reflection or thought from the Greek writer Nikos Kazantzakis;

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

‘As for these things that you see, the days will come when not one stone will be left upon another; all will be thrown down’ (Luke 21: 6) … classical remains in the Forum in Rome (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Luke 21: 5-11 (NRSVA):

5 When some were speaking about the temple, how it was adorned with beautiful stones and gifts dedicated to God, he said, 6 ‘As for these things that you see, the days will come when not one stone will be left upon another; all will be thrown down.’

7 They asked him, ‘Teacher, when will this be, and what will be the sign that this is about to take place?’ 8 And he said, ‘Beware that you are not led astray; for many will come in my name and say, “I am he!” and, “The time is near!” Do not go after them.

9 ‘When you hear of wars and insurrections, do not be terrified; for these things must take place first, but the end will not follow immediately.’ 10 Then he said to them, ‘Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; 11 there will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and plagues; and there will be dreadful portents and great signs from heaven.

‘Zorba the Greek’ … the film was released 58 years ago in December 1964

Nikos Kazantzakis, 2:

As I think today about Saint Cecilia, the patron of musicians and composers, I think too of the theme music composed by Mikis Theodorakis for the film Zorba the Greek

In my reflections on Saturday last, I referred to the actor Anthony Quinn, the star of Zorba the Greek, who was married for many years to Katherine Lester DeMille, granddaughter of Amy (Hunt) Lester, who is commemorated in a stained-glass window in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford.

The film Zorba the Greek is based on a well-known novel by the Greek writer and philosopher Nikos Kazantzakis. Last month marked the 65th anniversary of his death in Freiburg, Germany, on 26 October 1957.

Nikos Kazantzakis (1883-1957) is a giant of modern Greek literature, and he was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature on nine separate occasions. His books include Zorba the Greek, Christ Recrucified, Captain Michalis (also published as Freedom or Death), and The Last Temptation of Christ (1955). He also wrote plays, travel books, memoirs and philosophical essays such as The Saviours of God: Spiritual Exercises.

His fame spread in the English-speaking world because of the film adaptations of Zorba the Greek (1964) and The Last Temptation of Christ (1988).

Zorba the Greek was first published in Greek in 1946 as Life and Times of Alexis Zorbas (Βίος και Πολιτεία του Αλέξη Ζορμπά).

Zorba the Greek includes the story of a monastery with a treasured icon whose name changes from Our Lady of Mercy to Our Lady of Revenge, and Zorba also tells a story in which his grandfather takes a piece of wood and claims it is part of the True Cross.

I was reminded of these episodes when I visited the Monastery of Preveli. The monastery is famed for its role in struggles against both the Turks and the Germans in the 19th and 20th centuries, and is celebrated in Greek lore, literature and movies for its part in helping allied soldiers escape Crete during World War II.

In the film, the adventurous Zorba is the antithesis of the bookish Basil. Zorba is a potential symbol of freedom in Basil’s quest to find freedom. In Zorba’s view, only people who want to be free are truly human.

In many ways, the conflicts that unfold in the book provide a way for Kazantzakis to work through his own inner conflicts. At one time he had rejected Christianity and sought fulfilment in Buddhism and other philosophies. But he returned to Christianity and later wrote powerful novels about the sufferings of persecuted Christians in Asia Minor and about the life of Saint Francis of Assisi.

For Zorba, the journey is more important than the destination. He claims to be an atheist, yet realises that Christianity is central to the villagers’ way of life. He tells Basil: ‘the highest point a man can attain is not Knowledge, or Virtue, or Goodness, or Victory, but something even greater, more heroic and more despairing: Sacred Awe!’

In many ways, Zorba gives expression to Kazantzakis’ own spiritual struggles: ‘God changes his appearance every second. Blessed is the man who can recognise him in all his disguises.’

Given the inadequate conclusions to Cop27 in Egypt at the weekend, Kazantzakis now seems to have been ahead of his time too when he expresses his concern for the environment, nature and creation: ‘For I realise today that it is a mortal sin to violate the great laws of nature. We should not hurry, we should not be impatient, but we should confidently obey the eternal rhythm.’

Zorba and Basil dance syrtáki on the beach in ‘Zorba the Greek’ … the music was composed by Mikis Theodorakis

Collect:

Eternal Father,
whose Son Jesus Christ ascended to the throne of heaven
that he might rule over all things as Lord and King:
keep the Church in the unity of the Spirit
and in the bond of peace,
and bring the whole created order to worship at his feet;
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Post Communion:

Stir up, O Lord,
the wills of your faithful people;
that they, plenteously bringing forth the fruit of good works,
may by you be plenteously rewarded;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

God the Father,
help us to hear the call of Christ the King
and to follow in his service,
whose kingdom has no end;
for he reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, one glory.

The theme in the USPG Prayer Diary this week is ‘Prophetic Voice of the Nation.’ This theme was introduced on Sunday by Bishop Matthew Mhagama, from the Diocese of South-West Tanganyika in the Anglican Church of Tanzania.

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

Let us remember the evangelists working in difficult circumstances. May they be resilient, act honestly and be supported in their service.

Yesterday’s reflection

Continued tomorrow

The Monastery of Preveli is celebrated in Greek lore, literature and movies (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

Saint Cecilia, Patron of Musicians and Composers … a stained glass window in Saint John’s Church, Sandymount, Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Praying with the Psalms in Ordinary Time: 17 June 2022 (Psalm 114)

‘When Israel went out from Egypt … The sea looked and fled’ (Psalm 114: 1-3) … an illustration in the ‘Passover Haggadah’ by the Polish-American artists Arthur Szyk

Patrick Comerford

In the Calendar of the Church, this is Ordinary Time. Two of us are staying in Lichfield, and planning to return to the Chapel of Saint John's Hospital and Lichfield Cathedral later today. But, before this day begins, I am taking some time this morning to continue my reflections drawing on the Psalms.

In my blog, I am reflecting each morning in this Prayer Diary in these ways:

1, Short reflections on a psalm or psalms;

2, reading the psalm or psalms;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary.

Psalm 114:

Psalm 114 is the second of the six psalms (Psalms 113-118) comprising the Hallel (הַלֵּל, ‘Praise’). It is sometimes known by its opening phrase in Latin, In exitu Israel. In the slightly different numbering system in the Greek Septuagint and in the Latin Vulgate, this psalm is the first part of Psalm 113.

Psalms 113-118 are among the earliest prayers written to be recited in the Temple on days of national celebration. They were sung as accompaniment to the Pesach or Passover sacrifice. Early rabbinic sources suggest that these psalms were said on the pilgrimage festivals – Pesach, Shavuot and Sukkot.

These psalms are known as the ‘Egyptian Hallel’ because of the references in this psalm to the Exodus from Egypt.

Psalm 114 is a lyrical account of how nature itself trembled and rejoiced at the Exodus, when the Supreme Power intervened and recused the powerless.

This psalm begins with the Hebrew:

בְּצֵאת יִשְׂרָאֵל, מִמִּצְרָיִם; בֵּית יַעֲקֹב, מֵעַם לֹעֵז

In Hebrew this is an acrostic poem. At eight verses, this psalm is comparatively concise. It is composed of four stanzas of two lines, which the word Jacob envelops. The two central stanzas evoke with images full of life the miracle of the Red Sea and the passage of the Jordan. God is evoked only at the end of the Psalm, doubtless to arouse the expectation.

The first stanza recalls by the verb that the Hebrew people are born in the Exodus. The words sanctuary and domain designate the entire inheritance of God, not only in the geographical sense but also in a spiritual sense. The miracles that allow Israel to cross the Red Sea and cross the River Jordan are poetically enhanced by the process of hyperbole and by images evoking a life of natural elements, water and mountains. It is a means of manifesting all creation, with Israel and actively participating in its march towards the Promised Land.

1, Verses 1-3 recall the Exodus and its initial and final events: the people led Egypt, and were able to cross the Red Sea and the Jordan.

2, Verse 4 may be referring to the earth tremors that accompanied God’s appearance on Mount Sinai.

3, Verses 5-6 ask why these miracles too place.

4, Verses 7-8 tell us this was because the Lord of all creation was present. He commanded water to spring from the rock, quenching the thirst of the people during the Exodus.

As the physical earth responded to God’s command then, how do we respond?

Part of the Psalm 114 is quoted at the beginning of Dante’s Purgatorio, and this psalm was associated with burial and funeral rites in the Mediaeval Church. Later, John Milton wrote ‘A Paraphrase on Psalm 114’ among his poems of 1645.

‘The Lord … turns the rock into a pool of water’ (Psalm 114: 7-8) … rocks by the beach at Preveli on the south coast of Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Psalm 114 (NRSVA):

1 When Israel went out from Egypt,
the house of Jacob from a people of strange language,
2 Judah became God’s sanctuary,
Israel his dominion.

3 The sea looked and fled;
Jordan turned back.
4 The mountains skipped like rams,
the hills like lambs.

5 Why is it, O sea, that you flee?
O Jordan, that you turn back?
6 O mountains, that you skip like rams?
O hills, like lambs?

7 Tremble, O earth, at the presence of the Lord,
at the presence of the God of Jacob,
8 who turns the rock into a pool of water,
the flint into a spring of water.

Today’s Prayer:

The theme this week in the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel) is ‘Focus 9/99,’ which was introduced on Sunday by the Revd M Benjamin Inbaraj, Director of the Church of South India’s SEVA department.

Friday 17 June 2022:

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

We give thanks for ecumenism and the ecumenical example shown by the Church of South India. May we remember that we have much in common with different denominations across the world.

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

Dancing with Zorba and Electra on a return visit to Crete

An improvised interpretation of syrtaki in an olive grove in Crete days after the death of Mikis Theodorakis (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Patrick Comerford

After a two-year absence, I returned to Crete at the end of summer, glad that the lifting of pandemic restrictions allowed me to return to the Greek island I have visited almost every year since the mid-1980s.

Young men from Ireland and England first became acquainted with parts of present-day Italy and Greece in the 18th century, when the ‘Grand Tour’ became an essential part of the education of aristocrats and gentlemen.

Their letters home were the equivalent of later postcards, texts and Facebook postings, their journals the equivalent of blog postings, and the plundered antiquities they brought back have given way to today’s souvenirs and tourist trinkets.

They probably behaved no better than Leaving Cert students now behave in Malia and Hersonissos, but they also reached other parts of Crete. Perhaps the first modern tourist to visit Rethymnon was Richard Pococke (1704-1765). He was an 18th century Church of Ireland Bishop of Ossory (1756-1765) and briefly, before his death, he was Bishop of Meath (1765).

Pococke was ahead of his time: he was in Rethymnon almost a century before Robert Pashley visited Crete in 1834. A century after Pococke’s death, the English writer and artist Edward Lear visited Crete in 1864 and painted five watercolours of Rethymnon.

* * *

During my first week back in Crete, the island was immersed in three days of official mourning for the composer Mikis Theodorakis, who died in Athens but was buried in Chania.

Theodorakis is best-known outside Greece for his film scores, particularly for Zorba the Greek (1964) and the political masterpiece Z (1969). Zorba is based on a novel by the great Cretan author Nikos Kazantzakis, and is remembered for the syrtaki or ‘Zorba’s Dance’ performed by Anthony Quinn.

Anthony Quinn later claimed he had improvised or even invented syrtaki. But it was choreographed for the film by Girogos Provias. It is the staple Greek folkdance, and is a mixture of the slow and fast rhythms in Greek folkdance. On our way back to Rethymnon from the monastery and beaches at Preveli, we were treated to an improvised interpretation of syrtaki in an olive grove in the Kourtaliotiko Gorge.

The Monastery of Arkadi is a national symbol of Greece (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Three monasteries
in the mountains

I have been visiting the Monastery of Arkadi, in the mountains above Rethymnon, since I first arrived in Crete in the mid-1980s. Arkadi is a national symbol, and before Greece joined the Eurozone the monastery featured on the 100 Drachma banknote.

The monastery dates back to the 16th century, if not earlier, and is associated with important cultural figures in the history of Crete, including Georgios Chortatzis, author of the great Cretan epic poem Erofili, written in Rethymnon in 1600.

Bishop Pococke, whose travels have been published in three volumes by Dr Rachel Finnegan, visited Arkadi Monastery in 1739, and wrote: ‘It is a charming structure built around an extensive courtyard. They have a very fine refectory and in the centre of the courtyard a very pretty church with a wonderful facade in the Venetian architectural style.’

But the place of pride held by Arkadi in Greece comes from the massacre of 943 people, mostly women and children, during the Cretan resistance to Ottoman rule. The Greek War of Independence began 200 years ago in 1821, but Crete was still part of the Ottoman Empire when the massacre took place 45 years later, on 8 November 1866.

The Monastery of Preveli looks out onto the island of Gavdos, the southern-most point of Europe, and across the Libyan Sea (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

* * *

The Monastery of Preveli, 37 km south of Rethymnon and on the south coast of Crete, stands above the famous ‘Palm Beach’ of Preveli and looks out onto the small island of Gavdos, the southern-most point of Europe, and across the Libyan Sea.

The earliest records for the monastery date back to 1594. In 1821, the Abbot of Preveli, Melchisedek Tsouderos, was a leading figure in the revolutionary events in Crete. Following the catastrophe at Arkadi, Turkish soldiers set fire to the monastery in 1867.

During the German occupation of Crete in World War II, 5,000 stranded Greek, Australian, New Zealand and British troops who fought in the Battle of Crete in 1941, found shelter in Preveli until the Abbot, Agathangelos Lagouvardos, organised their escape to Egypt on two submarines on the nights of 31 May and 1 June 1941 and 20 and 21 August 1941.

The best-known relic in Preveli is the large, richly decorated silver cross brought back from Constantinople by Abbot Ephrem. It is said to contain a relic of the true cross and is kept in a special shrine in the main church. I visited Preveli on the day after the Feast of the Holy Cross. One of the three monks in the monastery put on his stole, took the cross out of its shrine, and blessed me before I went on my way.

West of Preveli, the tiny monastic church dedicated to Saint Paisos of Mount Athos stands on a tall craggy rock above the beaches of Damnoni of Amoudaki. It looks out of place and might be more appropriate among the monasteries of Meteora, perched perilously on high, precipitous rocky peaks in northern Greece.

Saint Paisios (1924-1994), whose feast day is 12 July, is still known for his spiritual guidance and ascetic life and has been described as ‘the saint of the dispirited and of sinners.’ This tiny, almost inaccessible church probably goes unnoticed by tourists, but it was filled with tourists on his feast day this year after popular reports that miraculous myrrh was seen streaming from his icon.

The Church of Saint Paisos might easily sit among the monasteries of Meteora (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Watching the sunset
on the seashore

On the day I visited Preveli Monastery and the Palm Beach below, I also visited the beaches at Plakias, Damnoni and Amoudaki for the first time.

But since 2015, I have been staying in Platanias, a working suburban village on the eastern fringes of Rethymnon that has also grown into a resort in the last decade or so. And one of the joys of staying in Platanias is being a mere a two or three-minute walk from Pavlos Beach.

Pavlos Beach is part of the long, sandy stretch of white beach that stretches for miles and miles east of Rethymnon, as far as the eye can see. When the summer season is at its highest, the beach can be filled with tourists on sunbeds. But, on days when you least expect it, the seas can be turbulent, the sunbeds are abandoned, and it becomes a new pleasure to watch the high waves crashing against the shoreline.

When the tourists leave to get ready for dinner or an evening out, Pavlos Beach comes into its own. It is transformed into a quiet place to watch the sun setting majestically in the east behind Rethymnon and the Venetian Fortezza that dominates the town.

The Venetian harbour and the Ottoman lighthouse of Rethymnon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

* * *

Two friends from Leixlip arrived unexpectedly while we were staying in Rethymnon, and I brought them on a walking tour of the town through the narrow streets, the Venetian churches and palazzi, around the harbour and the lighthouse, into the cafés and tavernas, and up into the Fortezza.

I realised then how I have come to feel at home in the town. But, as they asked questions and expressed their awe and surprise, seeing places with new insights, I wondered whether I had come to take the town for granted over these past three or four decades.

As tour groups elbowed their way past us, I also caught a glimpse of how the residents of Rethymnon must feel about the tourists who crowd out their town for six months of the year.

The real impact of the pandemic lockdown on tourism and its impact on local businesses came a few days later when I brought these friends to Maroulas, an old Venetian village in the hills above Platanias. Only one taverna and one shop were open, the main church and the main Venetian tower were locked, and it was only with great difficulty that we found someone to call a taxi back down to Platanias.

I realised how the economy of Crete, and of Greece in general, depends on the earnings of the tourism sector.

Elektra in Rethymnon … bringing together, Zorba, Euripides and Theodorakis (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

When Zorba dances
with Electra

As we walked around the harbour of Rethymnon in early afternoon sunshine, I noticed a boat named Elektra out of the water and near the old lighthouse.

It brought to mind the score Mikis Theodorakis wrote for the film Electra (1962), two years before Zorba the Greek. The film, starring Irene Papas, is based on the play Electra by Euripides. It was the first in a Greek tragedy trilogy by Michael Cacoyannis, followed by The Trojan Women (1971) and Iphigenia (1977).

His music expressed his political values and fused his idealism and his commitment to freedom. His scores for Zorba and Electra show how Theodorakis caught Greek cultural imaginations, combining Greek traditional music and classical composition, high art and popular culture.

In the week after his death, Theodorakis was described by a leading Greek newspaper, Kathimerini, as ‘Greece’s last enduring myth.’

Pavlos Beach, east of the Rethymnon … the sun sets on another holiday (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

This feature was first published in the November 2021 edition of the ‘Church Review’ (Dublin and Glendalough)