Daily prayer in Christmas 2025-2026: 35, Wednesday 28 January 2026

‘And these are the ones sown on the good soil’ (Mark 4: 20) … a glimpse of a garden in the cloisters in Arkadi Monastery in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

This is the last week in the 40-day season of Christmas, which continues until Candlemas or the Feast of the Presentation next Monday (2 February 2026). This week began with the Third Sunday of Epiphany (Epiphany III, 25 January 2026), and today the Church Calendar remembers Thomas Aquinas (1274), priest, philosopher and teacher of the faith.

Later this evening, I hope to be part of the choir rehearsals for Candlemas in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford. But, before today begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, to reflect, to pray and to read in these ways:

1, today’s Gospel reading;

2, a short reflection;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

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

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

Mark 4: 1-20 (NRSVA):

1 Again he began to teach beside the lake. Such a very large crowd gathered around him that he got into a boat on the lake and sat there, while the whole crowd was beside the lake on the land. 2 He began to teach them many things in parables, and in his teaching he said to them: 3 ‘Listen! A sower went out to sow. 4 And as he sowed, some seed fell on the path, and the birds came and ate it up. 5 Other seed fell on rocky ground, where it did not have much soil, and it sprang up quickly, since it had no depth of soil. 6 And when the sun rose, it was scorched; and since it had no root, it withered away. 7 Other seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no grain. 8 Other seed fell into good soil and brought forth grain, growing up and increasing and yielding thirty and sixty and a hundredfold.’ 9 And he said, ‘Let anyone with ears to hear listen!’

10 When he was alone, those who were around him along with the twelve asked him about the parables. 11 And he said to them, ‘To you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God, but for those outside, everything comes in parables; 12 in order that

“they may indeed look, but not perceive,
and may indeed listen, but not understand;
so that they may not turn again and be forgiven”.’

13 And he said to them, ‘Do you not understand this parable? Then how will you understand all the parables? 14 The sower sows the word. 15 These are the ones on the path where the word is sown: when they hear, Satan immediately comes and takes away the word that is sown in them. 16 And these are the ones sown on rocky ground: when they hear the word, they immediately receive it with joy. 17 But they have no root, and endure only for a while; then, when trouble or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately they fall away. 18 And others are those sown among the thorns: these are the ones who hear the word, 19 but the cares of the world, and the lure of wealth, and the desire for other things come in and choke the word, and it yields nothing. 20 And these are the ones sown on the good soil: they hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirty and sixty and a hundredfold.’

‘These are the ones on the path where the word is sown’ (Mark 4: 14) … spring growth on the pathway to the beach at Platanias in suburban Rethymnon, Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Today’s Reflections:

Chapter 4 in Saint Mark’s Gospel is the ‘parables chapter,’ recalling parables that make this chapter the central teaching section of his Gospel. Christ is in a boat beside the sea teaching a very large crowd who are listening on the shore (see Mark 4: 1-2), and in this morning’s reading (Mark 4: 1-20), he describe the ‘kingdom of God’ using images of a sower scattering seed on the ground in the hope and expectation of growth and the harvest.

I am not good at sowing, not good at growing plants or trees, and certainly not good at growing them from seed.

I like to explain this away by excuses such as heavy hay fever since childhood or claiming I do not have green fingers. But to tell the truth it may be because of a combination of faults: because I expect quick results and because I expect perfection.

I enjoy sitting in the garden, reading, eating in the open, listening to the fountain, but not wedding the flower beds, tending the plants or mowing the lawn. In short, I don’t do gardening, I don’t do garden centres.

But some years ago visiting both the National Botanic Gardens in Dublin and the Lavender Field at Avoca in Kilmacanogue, Co Wicklow, on the same weekend I found myself unexpectedly appreciating gardens and growing and growth. In both cases, these are places where people with vision did not expect immediate results.

The Botanic Gardens were founded in Glasnevin in 1795 by people with vision such as the Speaker of the Irish House of Commons, John Foster. But it was another 40 years or more before the basic shape of the gardens was established by 1838.

David Moore, who was appointed curator that year, had the vision to develop the glasshouse accommodation, and he commissioned Richard Turner, the great Dublin ironmaster, to provide an iron house to replace the previous wooden house.

Work on the main curvilinear glasshouse started in 1843. It was a vision for the future and a gift to the future. Those who planned it and devoted their energy to building those glasshouses in Glasnevin had no idea of the pleasure they were bequeathing to future generations, and today the glasshouses in the Botanic Gardens stand as a great achievement of Victorian engineering, planning and vision.

In many ways, the buildings they planned and the seeds sown in them have brought forth not just thirtyfold, but sixtyfold, a hundredfold, and perhaps even more. Today, the living collections at the National Botanic Gardens include over 300 endangered species from around the world, and six species already extinct in the wild. These are a vital resource, and the staff there speak of them like a ‘Noah’s Ark’ for the future.

In those glasshouses, Victorian architecture, engineering, art and science come together. Without careful, measured, timing and proper planning we would not see the results today.

The Lavender Field in Kilmacanogue, outside Bray, is a more recent example of planning carefully and reaping the benefits in measured ways over the years.

The Lavender Farm owes its origins to Brian Cox and Donald Pratt, who had the idea in 1983 of starting an Irish perfume company, and moved to Kilmacangoue in 1987. Some of their fragrances are sourced from lavender from their own field, across the road from their offices in Kilmacanogue.

Forty years or so later, this ‘field of dreams,’ nestling between the two Sugarloaf mountains, is producing top quality lavender oil and provides the inspiration for many of the company’s ideas. The lavender is harvested every summer and the Lavender Harvest Party celebrates nature’s amazing gift of the golden oil from the lavender.

Some of the lavender is actually growing along the roadside, even on the rocky waste left on the margins of the motorway. But without the seed that had fallen by the roadside and the rocky places, I might never have noticed the lavender that is growing on the deep, rich soil, and producing this abundant harvest.

Nonetheless, this lavender field has taken a generation to reach the maturity that is its glory today.

Too often we expect immediate results. And too often we judge whether a project is a success or a failure by asking whether it is producing immediate, measurable, visible apparent results. If not, we dismiss that project as an immediate failure.

Just because something works now does not mean it is right for the future. Just because something does not work now does not mean it is wrong for the future. Like the Victorian engineers who had vision in Glasnevin almost two centuries ago, we may not see the growth that follows our work today. Like a sower scattering seed, I sometimes think of God sowing seeds in the minds of many people that eventually grow into full bloom.

In one of his less well-known poems, ‘The Last Laugh’ (1974), John Betjeman wrote:

I made hay while the sun shone.
My work sold.
Now, if the harvest is over
And the world cold,
Give me the bonus of laughter
As I lose hold.

The Victorian glasshouses in the National Botanic Gardens, Glasnevin, are a visible lesson in planting seeds with hope for the future (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Wednesday 28 January 2026):

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

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Wednesday 28 January 2026) invites us to pray:

Father, we thank you for the space ACYN provides for young Anglicans to feel seen, supported, and inspired to grow in faith.

The Collect:

Eternal God,
who enriched your Church with the learning and holiness
of your servant Thomas Aquinas:
give to all who seek you
a humble mind and a pure heart
that they may know your Son Jesus Christ
as the way, the truth and the life;
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

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

Yesterday’s Reflections

Continued Tomorrow

Spring growth and spring colours on Tsouderon Street in Rethymnon (Patrick Comerford, 2025)

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

The Lavender Field, Kilmacanogue, Co Wicklow … an example of planning carefully and reaping the benefits over the years (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Saint Clement’s Church was the first church built in Oxford on a new site since the Middle Ages

Saint Clement’s Church, built in the 1820s, was the first church in Oxford on a new site since the Middle Ages (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Patrick Comerford

In recent weeks, I have been walking around the St Clement’s area, just east of central Oxford, and I have written about two of the pubs, the Port Mahon and Oranges and Lemons, as well as Saint Ignatius Chapel, the first post-Reformation Roman Catholic place of worship in Oxford, which I was discussing yesterday (18 October 2025).

Saint Ignatius is also associated with John Henry Newman (1801-1890). But for two years Newman was a curate in Saint Clement’s parish, and he was one of the key figures for raising a new Saint Clement’s Church, built in the 1820s and the first church in Oxford built on a new site since the Middle Ages.

Despite these links with Newman, who became a leading figure in the Tractarian or Oxford Movement and was later one of the most prominent Roman Catholics thinker in England, Saint Clement’s Church is now, ironically, one of the prominent evangelical churches in Oxford.

Saint Clement’s Church church dates from the 1820s, but replaced a much older building demolished in 1829 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

The present church dates from the 1820s, but replaced a much older building that was demolished in 1829. Saint Clement’s Church originally stood at what is now the Plain roundabout, where the roads from London and Henley cross the River Cherwell at Magdalen Bridge. It served both the small community of Bruggeset (‘Bridge Settlement’) that surrounded it as well as the largely rural area that eventually became East Oxford.

The first written record mentioning the church was in 1122 when it was one of the royal chapels given to Saint Frideswide’s Priory by Henry I. One source thinks the church may have been built in connection with a Danish garrison sometime between 1016 and the 1050s. This would explain its location close to a bridge and its dedication to Saint Clement which was unusual at inland sites at this time.

Saint Clement’s was one of the royal chapels given to Saint Frideswide’s Priory by Henry I in 1122. The Abbot of Oseney afterwards claimed that Saint Clement’s belonged to his church of Sain George in Oxford Castle, but renounced those claims. The Abbot of Eynsham also claimed Saint Clement’s Church at one time.

Almost nothing is known of the appearance of the earliest church, but recent studies suggests a stone head now in the Ashmolean Museum may have originally been a brightly painted stone corbel from the 13th century church, suggesting a church that was rich in colour and carved stonework.

Funds were granted in 1323 to rebuild ‘the Church of Saint Clement beyond Petty Pont’ (Magdalen Bridge). From 1122 to ca 1534, clergy were presented to Saint Clement’s by Saint Frideswide’s Priory, and from the late 15th century the rectors were usually graduates.

Following the Tudor Reformation in the 1530s, the patronage passed briefly to Cardinal College, now Christ Church, Oxford. The patronage of Saint Clements’s has then held by the crown until the mid-19th century. In 1540 it was reported that the benefice had long been vacant and the parishioners without divine offices. Most of those instituted by the Crown were fellows of Oxford colleges.

John Henry Newman was appointed curate in 1824 to help raise money for a new Saint Clement’s Church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

During the Siege of Oxford (1644-1646) in the English Civil War, the church and parish were on the front line between the Parliamentarian forces on Headington Hill and the Royalists in the city. It was reported that ‘no parish suffered more severely’, with whole streets being demolished to facilitate the building of fortifications. Yet, the 17th century Black Horse Inn and the church were among the few buildings to survive.

Later rectors included Humphrey Prideaux (1679-1682), later Dean of Lincoln; Robert Harsnett (1682-1696), a nonjuror dismissed for not swearing allegiance to William and Mary; and John Conybeare (1724-1734 ), later Dean of Christ Church, Oxford, and Bishop of Bristol.

John Peshall, writing in 1773, describes a church composed of one aisle 13 yards long (exclusive of a chancel) and six yards and 20 inches broad. There were galleries in the north-east and west side and small capped tiled tower with three bells. The churchyard was extended in 1781, and the capped tower was replaced by a square tower in 1816.

With slum clearances in Oxford in the early 1800s, St Clement’s expanded rapidly, with over 300 new houses were built between 1821 and 1824. The old church, with seating for 250, became too small, and plans was drawn up to build a new church on a new site.

, The rector at the time, the Revd John Gutch (1746-1831), the editor of Anthony Wood's History of Oxford University was by then approaching his 80s; he was also chaplain of All Souls College and still holding on as the Registrar of Oxford University. A curate was needed to help him to raise money for a new church.

John Henry Newman, later Cardinal Newman and then Saint John Henry Newman, was the curate in 1824-1826. Although Newman was only at Saint Clement’s for two years, he had an enormous impact on the parish. He visited every home in the parish, started a Sunday school and preached regularly to a packed church. Some suspected him of being a Methodist, but others were happy that at last they had ‘a proper minister’.

Newman added a gallery to accommodate a new Sunday school in 1825, and his friend and later a fellow Tractarian Edward Pusey (1800-1882) provided a stove for the children.

The liturgical east end of Saint Clement’s Church, Oxford, built in 1825-1828 on land donated by Sir Joseph Lock (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Thanks to Newman’s fundraising, a new church was built by John Hudson of Oxford in 1825-1828 on land in Hacklingcroft Meadow, given by Sir Joseph Lock (1760-1844), a local banker and goldsmith. The subscribers to the new building included Keble, Pusey, Heber and Peel.

Initially, a design along the lines of Salisbury Cathedral or a Grecian temple was suggested. But the parish settled on an Anglo-Norman design for reasons of cost.

The architect was Daniel Robertson, who also designed the Clarendon Press buildings on Walton Street. Saint Clement’s is an early example of the Anglo-Norman or Romanesque Revival style. It has been described ‘as an interesting example of an abortive Romanesque revival’. It did not appeal to contemporary taste, and one critic called it ‘the boiled rabbit’. The architectural historian Sir Niklaus Pevsner has described it as ‘patently Georgian Norman’.

Robertson planned the new church could seat up to 1,024 people, and the site was chosen in the hope that new housing would expand along Marston Lane, now Marston Road. The original plans placed the church on Marston Lane, but it was moved to its current location as part of a revised plan, subsequently abandoned, to build streets and houses in the form of a square.

The south porch of Saint Clement’s Church … Niklaus Pevsner describes the church as ‘patently Georgian Norman’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Saint Clement’s was the first church in Oxford built on a new site since the Middle Ages. The foundation stone was laid in 1825 by the vice-chancellor of Oxford University, Richard Jenkyns (1782-1854), later Dean of Wells, and the church was consecrated on 14 June 1828.

An unforeseen consequence, however, was that Saint Clement’s did not automatically become the parish church when it was consecrated. This was not realised at the time, and a special Act of Parliament had to be passed in 1836 to ensure the legality of all the marriages in the new church.

Although I was unable to see the inside of Saint Clement’s, I understand the east window (geographical north) shows 10 scenes from the life of Christ. It was commissioned in 1846 and is the work of Isaac Hugh Russell, who lived and worked in St Clement’s. The four north windows (geographical west) depict scenes on the theme of faith. They were made in memory of James Morrell (1810-1863) by A and WH O’Connor for Saint Martin’s Church, Carfax in 1865, and were moved to Saint Clement’s in 1896, when Saint Martin’s was demolished.

The ‘Seven Churches’ window (1908) in the north-west corner was given by Morrell family and is based on the letters to the Seven Churches of Asia (see Revelation 1: 12 to 3: 22). It was designed by Powell & Sons of Whitefriars Glassworks, London, who were closely associated with William Morris and the Arts and Crafts movement.

The interior had a major refurbishment in the 1870s. The original Georgian box-pews and benches were replaced in 1871 by ‘Neo-Norman’ pews, arranged in four blocks divided by a newly tiled nave and two newly positioned side aisles. The West Gallery was taken down in 1876.

The refurbishment was carried out by Edward George Bruton (1826-1899), an Oxford-based architect who specialised in church commissions in Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire and were largely funded by the Morrell brewing family of Headington Hill Hall.

The liturgical west door of Saint Clement’s … the church has been described ‘as an interesting example of an abortive Romanesque revival’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Saint Clement’s first organ was bought in 1846 and installed in the west gallery. It was moved to the south-east corner of the church next to the chancel in 1876 when the gallery was demolished.

A new organ was built by Martin and Coate in 1897-1899, and the old organ was sold to Saint Paul’s Church, Walton Street, later Freud’s nightclub. The new organ was first used at the service for Queen Victoria’s diamond jubilee in 1897, and was rebuilt by Nicholson’s of Worcester in 1952.

The patronage passed to a series of trustees belonging to the evangelical tradition. With a radical change in liturgical style, the organ fell into disuse in the late 20th century and was removed in early 2020. Many of the pipes were installed at the Basilica of Saint Dominic in Valletta, Malta, earlier this year (2025).

Saint Clement’s has three bells, all brought from the old church in the 1820s. One was cast in the 13th century and is the oldest bell in Oxford.

At first, the churchyard at the new church was small, but the Morrell family added 556 sq m of land in 1879, and a further 0.4 ha in 1920, partly to provide a setting for a war memorial erected in 1921.

The old churchyard at the Plain was still in use until the 1870s and it was taken over by the City Council in 1939. The last traces of the old churchyard were destroyed in 1950, when a roundabout was made on the Plain.

The planting scheme of limes along the drive continues into Headington Hill Park where they lined the carriageway up to Headington Hill Hall.

Saint Clement’s Mission Hall at 57A St Clement’s was designed by HW Moore and built in 1887-1891 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Saint Clement’s was reordered several times in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, with the addition of a crèche and kitchen, a dais in the chancel area and disabled access. The organ and several pews were removed in 2020-2022 to create a different layout.

Saint Clement’s Church is linked to two charities, both chaired by the rector. The Dawson Trust or Dawson’s Charity, established in 1521, owns property in St Clement’s used to relieve poverty and to maintain the church. The Parochial Charities of Saint Clement Oxford was formed in 1958 and recently merged with Dawson’s Charity. It was formed through the consolidation of three earlier charities, including John Pyke’s Charity and William James’s Charity.

Saint Clement’s Mission Hall at 57A St Clement’s was designed by HW Moore and built in 1887-1891. St Clement’s Community Property, formerly St Clement’s Parish Property (1903-2021), owns and maintains a small number of properties including Saint Clement’s Centre, Cross Street, and the Old Mission Hall and former Victoria Café at the corner of St Clement’s Street and Boulter Street.

The parish bought a former Baptist chapel in George Street (now Cave Street) in 1839 and converted it into schools that later moved to Bath Street.

The last traces of the old Saint Clement’s churchyard were destroyed in 1950 when a roundabout was made on the Plain (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

• Sunday services at Saint Clements’s are at10:30, with ‘All-Age Worship’ on the first Sunday, Holy Communion on the second and fourth Sundays and Morning Worship on the third and fifth Sundays, and an informal service at 18:30, with Communion on the first and third Sundays. The staff includes the Revd Mark Hay, who has been the Rector since April 2024, and the Assistant Curates, the Revd Dr Joanna Tarassenko and the Revd Dr Oliver Wright.

The planting scheme of limes along the drive of Saint Clement’s Church continues into Headington Hill Park (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2025: 91, Friday 8 August 2025

‘Whosever will come after me, let him take up their cross and follow me’ (Matthew 16: 24) … Station V in the Stations of the Cross by Irene Ogden in Saint Julian’s Church, Norwich (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Patrick Comerford

We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar and the week began with the Seventh Sunday after Trinity (Trinity VII, 3 August 2025). Today, the calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship recalls Saint Dominic (1221), Priest, Founder of the Order of Preachers (Dominicans). 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.

‘Let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me’ (Matthew 16: 24) … Simon of Cyrene takes up the Cross, Station 5 in the Stations of the Cross in the chapel of Saint John’s Hospital, Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Matthew 16: 24-28 (NRSVA):

24 Then Jesus told his disciples, ‘If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 25 For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it. 26 For what will it profit them if they gain the whole world but forfeit their life? Or what will they give in return for their life?

27 ‘For the Son of Man is to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay everyone for what has been done. 28 Truly I tell you, there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.’

‘For what will it profit them if they gain the whole world but forfeit their life?’ (Matthew 16: 26) … torn and ragged banknotes in a tin box outside an antiques shop in Rethymnon in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

This morning’s reflection:

In this Gospel reading at the Eucharist today (Matthew 16: 24-28), Christ and the disciples are near the villages of Caesarea Philippi, in today’s Golan Heights. Christ has both commended Peter for his faith and warned him of the danger of being a stumbling block.

To their dismay, Christ now speaks openly about his imminent death and resurrection. He then describes true discipleship: first, a disciple must follow him and renounce self-centeredness (verse 23). Those who are prepared to give even their lives for his sake and for the sake of spreading the good news will find true life verse 24). But those who opt for material well-being deny their true selves and lose out (verse 26).

There is a cost to discipleship, but the challenge to take up the Cross and to follow Christ is open to all.

God in Christ has come to enfold humanity. The cross will not stop the proclamation of the Good News, nor will it keep salvation history from breaking into the cosmos.

So often, in the face of criticism, the Christian response is either to shut down or to retreat to a different understanding of God and Jesus. But Christ tells the people that if they want to follow him on the journey, there is a cost to discipleship.

We are challenged to take up our cross and follow Christ on that journey.

Christianity cannot be reduced to an individual mental or philosophical decision. It is a journey with Christ and with not only the disciples but with the crowd, the many, who are also invited to join that journey.

If Saint Peter knew what was ahead of him, perhaps he might have been even more vocal in rebuking Christ in yesterday’s Gospel reading. But the triumph comes not in getting what we want, not in engineering things so that God gives us what we desire and wish for, so that we get a Jesus who does the things we want him to do. The triumph comes in the Resurrection.

True discipleship and true prayer mean making God’s priorities my priorities: the poor, the sick, the imprisoned, the isolated, the marginalised, the victims, the unloved. If that is difficult, nobody said that being a Christian was going to be easy, that being a Christian would not cost anything.

As the German martyr and theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer might have put it, being a disciple means having to pay the cost of discipleship. There is no cheap Christianity and there is no cheap grace.

The late Pope Francis once put it another way. Referring to discipleship and the traditional Lenten fast, he asked, ‘Do you want to fast this Lent?’ And then, he answered:

Fast from hurting words and say kind words.

Fast from sadness and be filled with gratitude.

Fast from anger and be filled with patience.

Fast from pessimism and be filled with hope.

Fast from worries and have trust in God.

Fast from complaints; contemplate simplicity.

Fast from pressures and be prayerful.

Fast from bitterness; fill your hearts with joy.

Fast from selfishness and be compassionate.

Fast from grudges and be reconciled.

Fast from words; be silent and listen.

‘Let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me’ (Matthew 16: 24) … the Stations of the Cross in Saint Gregory’s Armenian Church, Singapore (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Today’s Prayers (Friday 8 August 2025):

The theme this week (3 to 9 August) in Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘Indigenous Wisdom’ (pp 24-25). This theme was introduced last Sunday with reflections from Dr Paulo Ueti, Theological Advisor and Regional Manager for the Americas and the Caribbean, USPG.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Friday 8 August 2025) invites us to pray:

Lord, we pray that our prayers rise like incense, not just in words, but in action, as we walk the path of faith and justice.

The Collect:

Almighty God,
whose servant Dominic grew in the knowledge of your truth
and formed an order of preachers to proclaim the faith of Christ:
by your grace give to all your people a love for your word
and a longing to share the gospel,
so that the whole world may come to know you
and your Son Jesus Christ our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Post-Communion Prayer:

Merciful God,
who gave such grace to your servant Dominic
that he served you with singleness of heart
and loved you above all things:
help us, whose communion with you
has been renewed in this sacrament,
to forsake all that holds us back from following Christ
and to grow into his likeness from glory to glory;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

A Cross outside the Church of the Holy Cross in Iraklion, Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

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 prayer in Ordinary Time 2024: 91, Thursday 8 August 2024

How do you see Christ? Who is Christ for you? (see Matthew 16: 13) … a damaged Byzantine fresco in the Museum of Christian Art in Iraklion, Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar and the week began with the Tenth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity X). The Church Calendar today (8 August 2024) remembers Saint Dominic (1221), Priest, Founder of the Order of Preachers (Dominicans).

Before today begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, for reflection, prayer and reading in these ways:

1, today’s Gospel reading;

2, a reflection on the Gospel reading;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

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

The keys of Saint Peter seen at Saint Peter Mancroft Church in Norwich (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Matthew 16: 13-23 (NRSVA):

13 Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, ‘Who do people say that the Son of Man is?’ 14 And they said, ‘Some say John the Baptist, but others Elijah, and still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.’ 15 He said to them, ‘But who do you say that I am?’ 16 Simon Peter answered, ‘You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.’ 17 And Jesus answered him, ‘Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven. 18 And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. 19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.’ 20 Then he sternly ordered the disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah.

21 From that time on, Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and undergo great suffering at the hands of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. 22 And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, ‘God forbid it, Lord! This must never happen to you.’ 23 But he turned and said to Peter, ‘Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling-block to me; for you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.’

The Acropolis at night, standing on a large rocky outcrop above Athens (Photograph: Patrick Comerford; click on image for full-screen view)

This morning’s reflection:

This Gospel reading includes Christ’s words to the Apostle Peter: ‘I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church …’ (Matthew 16: 18, NRSVA). The debates about the interpretation of this one phrase and the following words have not only divided Christians in the past but have stopped us from discussing the full implications of a very rich passage, full of many meanings.

The reading is set in the district of Caesarea Philippi, then a new Hellenistic city west of Mount Hermon, on the slopes of what are known today as the Golan Heights. The city was built on the site of Paneas, which was known for its shrine to the god Pan.

Herod the Great built a temple of white marble there in honour of Caesar in 20 BCE. Herod’s son Philip inherited the site 18 years later and named it Caesarea Philippi, to honour Caesar as a living god and himself.

The cave at Caesarea Philippi was seen as a gate to the underworld, where fertility gods lived during the winter. The rock was filled with niches for these idols, and the water of the cave was seen as a symbol of the underworld through which the gods travelled from the world of death to the world of life.

Christ is alone with the disciples at Caesarea Philippi when he asks them who do people say that he is.

Herod thinks that Jesus is ‘John the Baptist’ (verse 14), although John had already been beheaded. Elijah was expected to return at the end of time. Jeremiah foretold rejection and suffering. Perhaps Herod is being portrayed as truly believing in the context of the cave and rock at Caesarea Philippi that the god-like figures can travel from the world of death to the world of life.

But Christ does not ask who does Herod say he is, or who do other people say he is. These are less important questions than who do the disciples say he is. Is he a prophet, a spokesman for God, a harbinger of suffering and rejection? Or, is he something more than all these?

Simon Peter offers an insight and answer of his own: ‘You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God’ (verse 16).

The Theatre of Dionysus on the southern slopes of the Acropolis … the ekklesía or assembly of the citizens Athens met twice a year (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Understanding the vocabulary

Christ acknowledges this vital insight, saying Peter is blessed (μακάριος, makários), as people in the Beatitudes are singled out as being blessed (see Matthew 5: 3-11). This is an insight that comes not from human knowledge but through revelation from God the Father (verse 17).

Then, in a word play, Christ tells Simon Peter he is Πητρος (Petros), his nickname Peter, and on this petra, rock, are the foundations of the Church (ἐκκλησία, ekklesía), the assembly in which all are equal.

The distinction between the word used for Peter, Πητρος (petros), the Greek for a small pebble, and a different Greek word, πητρα (petra), meaning a giant rock, existed in Attic Greek in the classical days, but not in Koine Greek, the Greek spoken at the time of Christ or at the time Saint Matthew’s Gospel was being writen. Πητρος (Petros) was the male name derived from a rock, while πητρα (petra) was a rock, a massive rock like Petra in Jordan.

Other words related to these concepts include λιθος (lithos), used for a small rock, a stone, or even a pebble – it is the Greek word that gives us words like lithograph and megalithic, meaning Great Stone Age – and πάγος (pagos), which in Ancient Greek means ‘big piece of rock.’

In classical Athens, the ekklesía (ἐκκλησία) was the assembly of the citizens in the democratic city state in classical Athens. The citizens of Athens met as equals twice a year at the Theatre of Dionysus, on the southern slopes of the Acropolis. The Acropolis is the highest point in Athens. It stands on an extremely rocky outcrop and on it the ancient Greeks built several significant buildings. The most famous of these is the Parthenon. This flat-topped rock rises 150 metres (490 ft) above sea level and has a surface area of about 3 hectares (7.4 acres).

The Septuagint uses this word ekklesíafor the Hebrew qahal or congregation (see Deuteronomy 4: 10, 9: 10, 18: 16, 31: 30; II Samuel 7; I Chronicles 17). The Hebrew word is still used by Jews to described the synagogue as the people or community rather than the synagogue as a building. Matthew is the only one of the four gospels to use this term.

There are only two places in the four Gospels where Christ uses the word for the Church that is found in this Gospel reading, the word εκκλησία (ekklesia): the first use of this word is in this reading (Matthew 16: 18), when Christ relates the Church to a confession of faith by the Apostle Peter, the rock-solid foundational faith of Saint Peter.

His second use of this word is not once but twice in one verse in Matthew 18: 17. It is a peculiar word for Christ to use, and yet he only speaks of the Church in these terms on these two occasions.

In total, the word εκκλησία (ekklesia) appears 114 times in the New Testament: four verses in the Acts of the Apostles, 58 times in the Pauline epistles, twice in the Letter to the Hebrews, once in the Epistle of James, three times in III John, and in 19 verses in the Book of Revelation. But Christ only uses the word twice, in these incidents in Saint Matthew’s Gospel.

Hades (ᾍδης or Ἅιδης) was the Greek god of the dead and his name had become synonymous with the underworld or the place of the dead. Death shall not destroy the Church, whether we see this as the death of Christ, the death of Peter and the other disciples, or our own, individual death.

Christ gives Peter the keys, the ability to unlock the mysteries of the Kingdom, or the symbol of authority in the Church. To ‘bind’ and ‘loose’ are rabbinical terms for forbidding and permitting in a juridical sense. They were used earlier in the story of the Canaanite or Syrophoenician woman in the district of Tyre and Sidon (Matthew 15: 21-28), which we read yesterday.

Christ sternly orders the disciples not to tell anyone that he is the Messiah (verse 20).

The Hill of the Areopagos and the Agora of Athens seen from the Acropolis (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Building on the rock:

Immediately north-west of the Acropolis, the Areopagus is another prominent, but relatively smaller, rocky outcrop. In classical Athens, it functioned as the court for trying deliberate homicide. It was said Ares (Mars) was put on trial here for deicide, the murder of the son of the god Poseidon. In the play The Eumenides (458 BCE) by Aeschylus, the Areopagus is the site of the trial of Orestes for killing his mother.

Later, murderers sought shelter there in the hope of a fair hearing. There too the Athenians had an altar to the unknown god, and it was there the Apostle Paul delivered his most famous speech and sermon, in which he identified the ‘unknown god’ with ‘the God who made the world and everything in it, he who is Lord of heaven and earth’ (Acts 17: 24), for ‘in him we live and move and have our being’ (verse 28).

This is the most dramatic and fullest reported sermon or speech by Saint Paul. He quotes the Greek philosopher Epimenides, and he must have known that the location of his speech had important cultural contexts, including associations with justice, deicide and the hidden God.

The origin of the name of the Areopagus is found in the ancient Greek, πάγος (pagos), meaning a ‘big piece of rock’, in contrast to λιθος (lithos), a small rock, a stone, or even a pebble.

Breathtaking sights such as the Acropolis and the Areopagus reveal how culturally relevant it was for Christ to talk about the wise man building his house on a rock rather than on sand (Matthew 7: 24-26). Ordinary domestic buildings might have been built to last a generation or two, at most. But building on rock, building into rock, building into massive rock formations like the Acropolis, was laying the foundations for major works of cultural, political and religious significance that would last long after those who had built them had been forgotten.

And so, when Christ says to Peter in this reading that the Church is going to be built on a rock, he is talking about the foundations for a movement, an institution, a place of refuge and sanctuary, an organisation, a community that is going to have a lasting, everlasting significance.

In the past, Christians have got tied up in knots in silly arguments about this Gospel story. Some of us shy away from dealing with this story, knowing that in the past it was used to bolster not so much the claims of the Papacy, but all the packages that goes with those claims. In other words, it was argued by some in the past that the meaning of this passage was explicit: if you accepted this narrow meaning, you accepted the Papacy; if you accepted the Papacy, then you also accepted Papal infallibility, Papal claims to universal jurisdiction, and Papal teachings on celibacy, birth control, the immaculate conception and the assumption of the Virgin Mary.

And that is more than just a leap and a jump from what is being taught in this Gospel reading. But to counter those great leaps of logic, Protestant theologians in the past put forward contorted arguments about the meaning of the rock and the rock of faith in this passage. Some have tried to argue that the word used for Peter, Πητρος (Petros), is the word for a small pebble, but that faith is described with a different word, πητρα (petra), meaning a giant rock, the sort of rock on which the Greeks built the Acropolis or carved out the Areopagus.

But they were silly arguments. The distinction between these words existed in Attic Greek in the classical days, but not in the Greek spoken at the time of Christ or at the time Saint Matthew was writing his Gospel. Πητρος (Petros) was the male name derived from a rock, πητρα (petra) was a rock, a massive rock like Petra in Jordan or the rocks of the Acropolis or the Areopagus, and the word lithos (λιθος) was used for a small rock, a stone, or even a pebble.

Saint Peter is a rock, his faith is a rock, a rock that is solid enough to provide the foundations for Christ’s great work that is the Church.

The Apostle Peter and the Apostle Paul holding the church in unity … an early 18th century icon in the Museum of Christian Art in Iraklion, Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Rock-solid faith

How could Saint Peter or his faith be so great? This is the same Peter who wanted Christ to send away the desperate Canaanite woman because ‘she keeps shouting at us’ (Matthew 15: 21-28).

This is the same Peter who earlier was among the disciples who wanted to send away the crowd and let them buy food for themselves (Matthew 14: 15).

This is the same Peter who seems to get it wrong constantly. Later in this Gospel, he denies Christ three times at the Crucifixion (Matthew 26: 75). After the Resurrection, Christ has to put his question three times to Peter before Peter confesses that Christ knows everything, and Christ then calls him with the words: ‘Follow me’ (John 21: 15-19).

Saint Peter is so like me. He trips and stumbles constantly. He often gets it wrong, even later on in life. He gives the wrong answers, he comes up with silly ideas, he easily stumbles on the pebbles and stones that are strewn across the pathway of life.

But eventually, it is not his own judgment, his own failing judgment that marks him out as someone special. No. It is his faith, his rock solid faith.

Despite all his human failings, despite his often-tactless behaviour, despite all his weaknesses, he is able to say who Christ is for him. He has a simple but rock-solid faith, summarised in that simple, direct statement: ‘You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God’ (verse 16).

Peter’s faith is a faith that proves to be so rock-solid that you could say it is blessed, it is foundational. Not gritty, pebbly, pain-on-the-foot sort of faith. But the foundational faith on which you could build a house, carve out a temple or monastery, or a place to seek justice and sanctuary, rock-solid faith that provides the foundation for the Church.

There are other people in the Bible and in Jewish tradition who are commended for their rock-solid faith, including Abraham and Sarah (see Isaiah 51: 1f). It is the sort of faith that will bring people into the Church, and even the most cunning, ambitious, evil schemes, even death itself, will not be able to destroy this sort of faith (verse 18).

Throughout the Bible, as people set out on great journeys of faith, their new beginning in faith is marked by God giving them a new name: Abram becomes Abraham, Jacob becomes Israel, Saul becomes Paul, and Simon son of Jonah is blessed with a new name too as he becomes Cephas or Peter, the rock-solid, reliable guy, whose faith becomes a role model for the new community of faith, for each and every one of us.

Why would Christ pick me or you? Well, why would he pick a simple fisherman from a small provincial town?

It is not how others see us that matters. It is our faith and commitment to Christ that matters. God always sees us as he made us, in God’s own image and likeness, and loves us like that.

The faith that the Church must look to as its foundation, the faith that we must depend on, that we must live by, is not some self-determined, whimsical decision, but the faith that the Apostles had in the Christ who calls them, that rock-solid, spirit-filled faith in Christ, of which Saint Peter’s confession this morning is the most direct yet sublime and solid example.

Apostolic faith like Saint Peter’s is the foundation stone on which the Church is built, the foundation stone of the new Jerusalem, with Christ as the cornerstone (Ephesians 2: 20; Revelation 21: 14).

It does not matter that Saint Peter was capable of some dreadful gaffes and misjudgements. I am like that too … constantly.

Saint Peter and Saint Paul depicted in a fresco in the Church of the Four Martyrs in Rethymnon in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Thursday 8 August 2024):

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 was introduced on Sunday with a programme update from the Right Revd Eduardo Coelho Grillo, Anglican Bishop of Rio de Janeiro.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Thursday 8 August 2024) invites us to pray:

Remind us Lord, that none of us were discovered since none of us were lost, but that we are all gathered within the sacred circle of your community. Guide us through your wisdom to restore the truth of our heritage.

The Collect:

Almighty God,
whose servant Dominic grew in the knowledge of your truth
and formed an order of preachers to proclaim the faith of Christ:
by your grace give to all your people a love for your word
and a longing to share the gospel,
so that the whole world may come to know you
and your Son Jesus Christ our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post Communion Prayer:

Merciful God,
who gave such grace to your servant Dominic
that he served you with singleness of heart
and loved you above all things:
help us, whose communion with you
has been renewed in this sacrament,
to forsake all that holds us back from following Christ
and to grow into his likeness from glory to glory;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Saint Dominic (1170-1221) is commemorated in the Church Calendar on 8 August … a statue outside the Basilica of Our Lady of Fair Havens and Saint Dominic in Valletta (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 the Kingdom Season with USPG: (10) 14 November 2023

The Basilica of San Domenico, seen from the cloisters, is one of the major churches in Bologna (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

In this time between All Saints’ Day and Advent Sunday, we are in the Kingdom Season in the Calendar of the Church of England. This week began with the Third Sunday before Advent and Remembrance Sunday (12 November 2023).

The Calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship today (14 November) remembers the life and work of Samuel Seabury (1796), the first Anglican Bishop in North America.

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

Throughout the rest of this week, I am resuming my theme of Italian cathedrals and churches, and my reflections this morning are following this pattern:

1, A reflection on a church in Bologna;

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

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary.

The shrine of Saint Dominic in Saint Dominic’s chapel (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The Basilica of San Domenico, Bologna:

Bologna has a rich collection of churches and basilicas, and one of the major churches in the city is the Basilica of San Domenico, which dates back to the arrival of Saint Dominic over 800 years ago in the year 1218.

The basilica is visited regularly by pilgrims and tourists who come to visit the church because Saint Dominic is buried inside in the exquisite shrine of the Arca di San Domenico..

The shrine is the work of Nicola Pisano and his workshop and of Arnolfo di Cambio, and there are later additions by Niccolò dell’Arca and the young Michelangelo.

When Saint Dominic, Dominic Guzman, first arrived in Bologna in January 1218, he was impressed by the vitality of the city and recognised the importance of the university city.

The first house for Dominicans was established at the Mascarella church by Reginald of Orleans. But this house soon became too small for the growing number of friars, and in 1219 the brothers of Dominic’s Order of Preachers moved to the small church of San Nicolò of the Vineyards on the outskirts of Bologna.

Saint Dominic also moved to this church and the first two General Chapters of the Order of Preachers or Dominicans were held there in 1220 and 1221. Saint Dominic died in that church on 6 August 1221, and was buried behind the altar of San Nicolò.

Between 1219 and 1243, the Dominicans bought all the plots of land surrounding the church. After the death of Saint Dominic, the church of San Nicolò was expanded and a new monastic complex was built between 1228 and 1240.

The church was then extended and grew into the Basilica of Saint Dominic, which in time become the prototype of many other Dominican churches throughout the world.

The basilica was divided in two parts divided by a ramp: the front part, or ‘internal church,’ was the church of the brothers, and the church for the faithful, or the ‘external church.’ The church was consecrated by Pope Innocent IV in 1251.

The remains of Saint Dominic were moved in 1233 from a place behind the altar to a simple marble sarcophagus. But most of the pilgrims could not see the new shrine, which was hidden by many people standing in front of it.

The need for a new shrine was identified, and in 1267 the remains of Saint Dominic were moved from the simple sarcophagus into a new shrine, decorated with episodes from the life of the saint by Nicola Pisano.

Saint Dominic’s chapel is the main chapel of the church. It has a square plan and a semi-circular apse, where the remains of the saint rest in the splendid Arca di San Domenico under the cupola which contains three sculptures by Michelangelo: Angel, Saint Proclus and Saint Petronius.

The chapel was built by the Bolognese architect Floriano Ambrosini, replacing the old gothic chapel from 1413, to match the splendour of the other existing chapels. It was decorated between 1614 and 1616 by important painters of the Bolognese school.

In the course of the next centuries, the church was enlarged, modified and rebuilt. New side chapels were built, a bell tower was added, the dividing wall between the two churches was demolished, and the choir was moved behind the altar. Then, in 1728-1732, the interior of the church was completely rebuilt in the Baroque style by the architect Carlo Francesco Dotti (1678-1759) under the patronage of Pope Benedict XIII, who was a Dominican.

The imposing Crucifixion in the Chapel of Saint Michael the Archangel is the masterpiece by Giunta Pisano, ca 1250) It was strongly influenced by the Byzantine style and represents one of the best examples of 13th-century Italian painting.

Mozart played on the organ in the Rosary Chapel in 1769, while he was studying with Giovanni Battista Martini in Bologna.

The square in front of the church, now paved with pebbles, was also the original cemetery. In the middle of the square, a bronze statue of Saint Dominic (1627) stands on the top of a brickwork column.

Close-by are two unique Byzantine-Venetian-style tombs of the celebrated jurists of Rolandino de’ Passeggeri and Egidio Foscarari.

The relics of Saint Dominic in the richly-decorated shrine (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Luke 17: 7-10 (NRSVA):

[Jesus said:] 7 ‘Who among you would say to your slave who has just come in from ploughing or tending sheep in the field, “Come here at once and take your place at the table”? 8 Would you not rather say to him, “Prepare supper for me, put on your apron and serve me while I eat and drink; later you may eat and drink”? 9 Do you thank the slave for doing what was commanded? 10 So you also, when you have done all that you were ordered to do, say, “We are worthless slaves; we have done only what we ought to have done!”’

Inside the Basilica of Saint Dominic (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Tuesday 14 November 2023):

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), draws on ‘A Prayer for Remembrance Sunday and International Day of Tolerance’. This theme was introduced on Sunday.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (14 November 2023) invites us to pray in these words:

Lord, we pray for tolerance of differences of every kind and an awareness of the good in all.

‘Gloria di San Domenico’, a fresco on the cupola of Saint Dominic’s Chapel, was painted by Guido Reni in 1613-1615 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The Collect:

Almighty Father,
whose will is to restore all things
in your beloved Son, the King of all:
govern the hearts and minds of those in authority,
and bring the families of the nations,
divided and torn apart by the ravages of sin,
to be subject to his just and gentle rule;
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 peace,
whose Son Jesus Christ proclaimed the kingdom
and restored the broken to wholeness of life:
look with compassion on the anguish of the world,
and by your healing power
make whole both people and nations;
through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

Additional Collect:

God, our refuge and strength,
bring near the day when wars shall cease
and poverty and pain shall end,
that earth may know the peace of heaven
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s Reflection

Continued Tomorrow

‘The Crucifixion’ by Giunta Pisano, ca 1250, in the Chapel of Saint Michael the Archangel (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

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

The cloisters at the Basilica di San Domenico in Bologna (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Blackfriars Priory is part of the 800-year story of the Dominican presence in Oxford

A glimpse of the chapel in Blackfriars, Oxford, through intricately carved stone screen at the liturgical west end (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Patrick Comerford

Earlier this week, I visited the Dominican house at Blackfriars Priory (or the Priory of the Holy Spirit) on Saint Giles in Oxford. The house includes both Blackfriars Hall, a constituent permanent private hall of the University of Oxford, and Blackfriars Studium, the Dominican centre of theological studies in England.

The prior of Blackfriars is the Very Revd Nicholas Crowe, and the regent of both the hall and the studium is the Very Revd Dr John O’Connor, who grew up in Co Galway. The name Blackfriars is commonly used for a house of Dominican friars, a reference to their black cappa, which forms part of their habit.

Blackfriars is located between the Ioannou Centre for Classical and Byzantine Studies and St Cross College, and close to Pusey House.

The site of Blackfriars near Pusey House was donated to the Dominicans in 1921 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

The Dominicans first arrived in Oxford on 15 August 1221, at the instruction of a General Chapter meeting headed by Saint Dominic. As such, Blackfriars is heir to the oldest tradition of teaching in Oxford, a tradition that precedes both the aularian halls and the collegiate houses.

The Dominicans established a new priory in the Saint Ebbes district in 1236. The early Dominican theologians in Oxford included Robert Bacon and Richard Fishacre.

Like all the monastic houses in Oxford, Blackfriars was repeatedly in conflict with the university authorities. At the Reformation, Blackfriars and the other monastic houses in Oxford were suppressed in 1538.

The Dominicans did not return to Oxford for some 400 years, until Blackfriars was refounded in 1921 by Father Bede Jarrett (1881-1934), a friend of Graham Greene and the first Dominican since the Reformation to study at Oxford.

The entrance to Blackfriars on St Giles in Oxford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

The site of the priory was acquired by a wealthy American widow, Charlotte Jefferson Tytus, and she donated it to the Dominicans.

The foundation stone was laid by Cardinal Bourne on 15 August 1921, the 700th anniversary of the founding of the first Oxford priory and the anniversary of the death of her husband, Edward Jefferson Tytus, who died on 15 August 1913. The building was completed in 1929. On 17 May the full community moved into the buildings on 17 May and the church was consecrated three days later by Archbishop Alban Goodier, former Archbishop Bombay.

The original priory building was designed by the architect Edward Doran Webb (1864-1931), who also designed the Birmingham Oratory. The building was completed in 1929.

The Dominican studium at Blackfriars had a close relationship with the university, leading to the establishment of Blackfriars as a permanent private hall in 1994.

Blackfriars Hall is a centre for the study of theology and philosophy. It admits men and women of any faith for Oxford undergraduate degrees in theology schools, PPE and for a wide range of postgraduate degrees. Blackfriars also offers candidates for the Catholic priesthood the Baccalaureate in Sacred Theology (STB) from the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas, Angelicum, in Rome.

Blackfriars Hall is a constituent permanent private hall of the University of Oxford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Blackfriars Hall is a permanent private hall. It is owned and governed by the English Province of the Order of Preachers or Dominicans and not by its fellows.

Blackfriars Hall is the home of a number of other institutes including the Las Casas Institute on ethics, governance and social justice. The Aquinas Institute was established in 2004.

Webb’s friary incorporates part of a 17th century building in the front range, with staircase tower and a short ancillary range to the rear designed ca 1951 by Rayson and Partners. It is built of Cotswold stone and laid out on a quadrangular plan, with a library, administration and teaching accommodation, friars’ accommodation, a dining hall and a large chapel in late Gothic style.

The inscription panel over the street entrance was carved by Eric Gill (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

The entrance to Blackfriars on St Giles is through a gated round arch flanked by pilasters. There is a statue in a shell niche above and a plaque commemorating the return of the Dominicans to Oxford in 1921. The inscription panel over the street entrance was carved by Eric Gill and reads:

Hunc Conventum Alterum
Novum Eadem Die Qua Priscus
Fundatus Est AD MCCXXI
Fratres Praedicatores
Longum Post Exilium Reduces
Posuerunt XVIII Kal Sept MCMXXI

Edward Doran Webb’s large chapel is in a late Gothic style is listed Grade II as a fine example of 1920s conventual architecture (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Webb’s large chapel is in a late Gothic style is listed Grade II as a fine example of 1920s conventual architecture. The chapel is aligned west-east rather following the liturgical convention of east-west. It is large and flooded with light from the clear-glazed windows, including the seven-light liturgical East window (geographical west).

There is a timber arched ceiling, the High Altar stands on five steps, and the chancel and sanctuary have black and white tiling. The chancel stalls were inserted 1963 by Colin Fleetwood-Walker.

The three side chapels in the (liturgical) south aisle each have an altar to the east and a canopied piscina to the south. One of the side chapels has a sculpture of Saint Dominic carved in the manner of Eric Gill. The white marble Stations of the Cross are also in the style of Eric Gill.

One of the most decorative furnishings of the chapel is the screen of intricately carved stone screen at the liturgical west end (geographical east). An expressive modern statue of Our Lady with the Christ Child in the pose of a Pietà is in the entrance lobby.

The High Altar stands on five steps, and the chancel and sanctuary have black and white tiling (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Notable former students include Cardinal Joseph William Tobin, Archbishop of Newark; Archbishop Anthony Fisher of Sydney; Archbishop Malcolm McMahon of Liverpool; and the theologians and writers James Alison, Herbert McCabe and Aidan Nichols.

Fellows and academics at Blackfriars have included Brian Davies, philosopher; Andrew Linzey, theologian and a leading figure in the Christian vegetarian movement; Timothy Radcliffe, Master of the Dominicans (1992-2001); Fergus Kerr; and the philosopher Roger Scruton.

Today Blackfriars is thriving, yet it is a haven of peace and spirituality and a centre of learning and training of new members of the priesthood.

The white marble Stations of the Cross may be the work of Eric Gill (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

The Sunday services in the Priory Church, at which members of the public are welcome, are: 8 am, Conventual Mass; 9 am Lauds; 9:30, Family Mass; 1.05 pm, Office of Readings and Midday Prayer; 5:30 pm Vespers; 6 pm Mass.

Monday to Friday: 7:05 am, Lauds; 7:30, Conventual Mass; 1:05 pm, Office of Readings and Midday Prayer; 6 pm, Mass; 6:45 pm, Vespers. Saturday: 8:05 am, Lauds; 8:30 am, Conventual Mass; 6 pm Vigil Mass of Sunday; 6:45 pm, First Vespers of Sunday.

The Roman Catholic parish church is the Oratory Church of Saint Aloysius Gonzaga on Woodstock Road, 400 metres north of leaving Blackfriars. The University Catholic Chaplaincy is on Rose Place, off Saint Aldate’s, opposite the Christ Church memorial gardens.

The modern statue of Our Lady with the Christ Child in the narthex of the church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)