The innocence of children and the ‘divine dignity inherent in every soul’

Christ and the Children … a stained-glass window in Saint Mary’s Roman Catholic Church, Askeaton, Co Limerick (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Patrick Comerford

Saint Mary’s Church, Askeaton, Co Limerick

Monday 27 December 2021

3 p.m.: Holy Baptism, Ella Roseline Hilary Delbarry

The Readings: Jeremiah 31: 15-17; Psalm 124; I Corinthians 1: 26-29; Matthew 2: 13-18.

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

The days immediately after Christmas recall some of the great saints and martyrs of the early Christian faith: Saint Stephen (26 December), Saint John the Evangelist (27 December) and the Holy Innocents (28 December).

Saint Stephen, Saint John, the Holy Innocents and Saint Thomas à Beckett the day after tomorrow (29 December) are reminders that Christmas, far from being surrounded by sanitised images of the crib, angels and wise men, is followed by martyrdom and violence. Close on the joy of Christmas comes the cost of following Christ.

We remember the children who are the Holy Innocents tomorrow, three days after Christmas Day. This seems so out of sequence, long before the Magi or three Wise Men arrive at Herod’s Palace, never mind at the stable in Bethlehem.

This commemoration first appears as a feast of the western church at the end of the fifth century, and the earliest commemorations were connected with the Feast of the Epiphany (6 January), bringing together the murder of the Innocents and the visit of the Magi.

But tomorrow’s Feast of the Holy Innocents, coming so soon after Christmas Day, is an important corrective to some of the prejudices that have become confused with and mixed up with Christianity.

We do not know how many children under the age of two were killed. The numbers vary from 20 (Catholic Encyclopaedia), to 14,000 (Byzantine liturgy), 64,000 (Syrian liturgy), to even 144,000 (Coptic tradition) – the highest figure represents one a minute every day for 10 days; but it also plays on the figure of 144,000 in the Book of Revelation (see Revelation 7: 3-8, 14: 1). In other words, these children figuratively come to represent God’s promise of salvation for the whole of humanity.

Have you considered that these children were never baptised?

Have you ever considered that if these children are innocent, then the Christmas story tells us that, in Christ, every child is innocent?

We baptise children not because they are guilty of anything, not because they need to be made clean in some superstitious way.

In recent weeks, I spent some time reading and reviewing for a journal a new major statement from the Orthodox Church, For the Life of the World.

This may seem like an academic exercise to many. But it makes key insightful statements on children and love.

For example, it says true love can be expressed through children. ‘Already in the womb, each of us is a spiritual creature, a person formed in God’s image and created to rejoice in God’s presence.’ It constantly affirms ‘the full equality and dignity of each human person created in the image and likeness of God’ and ‘the inviolable sanctity of each person’, the ‘divine dignity inherent in every soul.’

It says the ‘Church should extend the sacramental gift of baptism to all children, irrespective of the manner in which they were conceived or adopted,’ and presumes ‘the baptism of infants, and also in their immediate admission to the Eucharist.’

It finds ‘the truest model of life in God’s Kingdom in the innocence of children,’ and it speaks eloquently of ‘the innocence of children’ as ‘a thing of extraordinary holiness, a sign of the life of the Kingdom graciously present in our very midst.’

And so, Ella Roseline Hilary Delbarry, in your innocence you show ‘extraordinary holiness, a sign of the life of the Kingdom graciously present in our very midst.’ You are a blessing to your parents, grandparents, godparents and your whole family; but you are also a blessing to the whole Church and to the whole world, for in you we find ‘the truest model of life in God’s Kingdom.’

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

A detail from the Killing of the Holy Innocents, by Giotto (ca 1304-1306), in the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Matthew 2: 13-18 (NRSVA):

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

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

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

Liturgical colour: White.

The Penitential Kyries (Christmas):

Lord God, mighty God,
you are the creator of the world.

Lord, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.

Lord Jesus, Son of God and Son of Mary,
you are the Prince of Peace.

Christ, have mercy.
Christ, have mercy.

Holy Spirit,
by your power the Word was made flesh
and came to dwell among us.

Lord, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.

The Collect of the Day:

Heavenly Father,
whose children suffered at the hands of Herod:
By your great might frustrate all evil designs,
and establish your reign of justice, love and peace;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Introduction to the Peace:

We are fellow citizens with the saints
and of the household of God,
through Christ our Lord,
who came and preached peace to those who were far off
and those who were near. (Ephesians 2: 19, 17)

Blessing:

God give you grace
to share the inheritance of the Holy Innocents and of his saints in glory:

A detail from The Killing of the Holy Innocents, by Giotto (ca 1304-1306), in the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Possible Hymns:

393, This child from God above (CD 24)
184, Unto us is born a Son (CD 11)
10, All my hope on God is founded (CD 1)



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

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

Inspiring the hopeless and putting Christ at the heart of Christmas

A Christmas Crib in a shop window in Askeaton, Co Limerick (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Patrick Comerford

Saturday 25 December 2021: Christmas Day,

9.30 a.m., Saint Mary’s Church, Askeaton, Co Limerick

11 a.m., Holy Trinity Church, Rathkeale, Co Limerick

The Christmas Eucharist (Holy Communion 2)

Readings: Isaiah 52: 7-10; Psalm 98; Hebrews 1: 1-4; John 1: 1-14, 15-18

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

Instead of preaching a sermon this Christmas morning, I thought – as I have done in previous years – that I should read an adaptation of the editorial published in The Irish Times yesterday, on Christmas Eve. It is a reminder of the message of Christmas, the message of the Incarnation, the message that God has come among us.

It is headed, ‘Inspiring the hopeless,’ and it reads:

In the opening lines of TS Eliot’s poem The Journey of the Magi, one of the three wise men recalls his visit many years earlier to the Christmas Crib and the Christ Child in Bethlehem:

A cold coming we had of it,
Just the worst time of the year
For a journey, and such a long journey:
The ways deep and the weather sharp,
The very dead of winter.

Eliot’s poem recalls that first Christmas as a time of conflict and death, set in a severe climate. The old man recalls “the night-fires going out”, “the lack of shelters”, and “the cities hostile and the towns unfriendly”. It is a poem set in a hostile climate and a violent-ridden atmosphere, written in 1927, in the inter-war years, as a looming financial crisis would soon lead to the Wall Street collapse. It speaks more of death than of birth and is without any hint of the sentimentality found almost a generation later in Eliot’s poem The Cultivation of Christmas Trees (1954), the “accumulated memories of annual emotion … concentrated into a great joy”.

A sanitised story

This year, Christmas is without sentimentality or great joy for an accumulating number of people across the world. It is a Christmas marked by too many crises that are replacing joy with fear and hope with terror: the Christmas crises of Covid, climate change and conflict. Trócaire launched its Christmas appeal this year saying: “The climate crisis, along with Covid-19 and conflict, has resulted in 30 million people currently facing life-threatening food shortages”.

The interconnected nature of this triple-lock crisis was underlined by Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney when he responded to the Russian veto of the Irish motion on climate change at the Security Council, saying, “It is telling that 80 per cent of UN peacekeepers are deployed in countries that are the most exposed to climate change … Where climate change is a factor in exacerbating instability and undermining peace and security, the Security Council should use the tools at its disposal to tackle it”.

Poverty, rather than problems of supply and distribution, explains why so many people in Asia, sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America remain unvaccinated as the Covid-19 virus continues to mutate and spread. Poverty, climate change and conflict explain why so many migrants have been willing to risk their lives and the lives of their children in the English Channel or the borders of Belarus. Yet, governments with the responsibility and the resources to respond, continue to address the presenting problem rather than tackling its underlying causes.

The Christmas story has been sanitised in its telling and retelling over the centuries. It is set in a cold climate, at a time of oppression and discrimination, corruption and conflict, migration and mass murder. The Christ Child is born in Bethlehem because his parents have been forced to leave Nazareth; Herod’s horrid schemes become known to the visiting Magi and force the family to seek refuge in neighbouring Egypt. Even then, children were the innocent victims of the power games of capricious rulers and despots, unaware or unwilling to face the global consequences of their self-centred decision-making.

Comforting the afflicted

It is a story of rejection, discrimination and marginalisation, of violence without restraint, of poverty caused by the priorities of those who also had the power to change. The victims in the first Christmas story include a single mother and a homeless child. But, in that story, those who are awake to the potential the birth of a child has to change the world are simple shepherds and visitors from afar. As the American theologian Nadia Bolz-Weber says: “The birth of Jesus was not elegantly staged. It is how we experience life – messy, surprising, unexpected, imperfect”. With her innate irreverence, she continues to challenge all who would make Christianity too comfortable and too cosy at Christmas-time, saying, “People don’t leave Christianity because they stop believing in the teachings of Jesus. People leave Christianity because they believe in the teachings of Jesus so much, they can’t stomach being part of an institution that claims to be about that and clearly isn’t”.

In a time of crisis, marked by conflict, Covid and climate change, marked by the plight of refugees, migrants and the homeless, the Churches can put Christ back at the heart of Christmas not by worrying about declining churchgoing figures and finances, but by returning to the priorities of feeding the hungry, comforting the afflicted, loving the outcast, forgiving the wrongdoer, inspiring the hopeless, and emphasising time and again Christ’s core message of loving one another. Then, in the words of TS Eliot,

The accumulated memories of annual emotion
May be concentrated into a great joy …
Because the beginning shall remind us of the end
And the first coming of the second coming.

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

The Christmas crib at the Old Abbey in Rathkeale, Co Limerick (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

John 1: 1-14 (NRSVA):

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being 4 in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.

6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. 8 He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. 9 The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.

10 He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. 11 He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. 12 But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.

14 And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.

‘The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it’ (John 1: 5) … a light at night-time on the Grand Canal in Venice (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Liturgical Colour: White, or Gold.

Penitential Kyries:

Lord God, mighty God,
you are the creator of the world.
Lord, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.

Lord Jesus, Son of God and Son of Mary,
you are the Prince of Peace.
Christ, have mercy.
Christ, have mercy.

Holy Spirit,
by your power the Word was made flesh
and came to dwell among us.
Lord, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.

The Collect:

Almighty God
you have given us your only-begotten Son
to take our nature upon him
and as at this time to be born of a pure virgin:
Grant that we, who have been born again
and made your children by adoption and grace,
may daily be renewed by your Holy Spirit;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Introduction to the Peace:

Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given,
and his name shall be called the Prince of Peace. (Isaiah 9: 6)

Preface:

You have given Jesus Christ your only Son
to be born of the Virgin Mary,
and through him you have given us power
to become the children of God:

The Post Communion Prayer:

God our Father,
whose Word has come among us
in the Holy Child of Bethlehem:
May the light of faith illumine our hearts
and shine in our words and deeds;
through him who is Christ the Lord.

Blessing:

Christ, who by his incarnation gathered into one
all things earthly and heavenly,
fill you with his joy and peace:

Hymns:

177, Once in royal David’s city (CD 11)
184, Unto us is born a Son (CD 11)
172, O come, all ye faithful (CD 10)



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

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

‘Do not be afraid; for see – I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people’

‘The Nativity of Christ’ by Francesco Bassano (1549-1592) in the Church of Il Redentore in Venice (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Patrick Comerford

Christmas Night, Friday 24 December:

6 p.m., Saint Brendan’s Church, Kilnaughtin (Tarbert), Co Kerry

8 p.m., Castletown Church, Co Limerick

The Christmas Eucharist (Holy Communion 2)

Readings: Isaiah 9: 2-7; Psalm 96; Titus 2: 11-14; Luke 2: 1-14

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

On the first Christmas night, the angels announce to the frightened shepherds in the fields: ‘Do not be afraid; for see – I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people’ (Luke 2: 10).

In a fearful and fretful world facing so many crises, where are people going to find ‘good news of great joy for all people’ this night?

Instead of preaching a sermon this Christmas night, I thought – as I have done in previous years – that I should read an adaptation of the editorial published in The Irish Times this morning to mark Christmas Eve. It is a reminder of the message of Christmas, the message of the Incarnation, the message that God has come among us.

It is headed, ‘Inspiring the hopeless,’ and it reads:

In the opening lines of TS Eliot’s poem The Journey of the Magi, one of the three wise men recalls his visit many years earlier to the Christmas Crib and the Christ Child in Bethlehem:

A cold coming we had of it,
Just the worst time of the year
For a journey, and such a long journey:
The ways deep and the weather sharp,
The very dead of winter.

Eliot’s poem recalls that first Christmas as a time of conflict and death, set in a severe climate. The old man recalls “the night-fires going out”, “the lack of shelters”, and “the cities hostile and the towns unfriendly”. It is a poem set in a hostile climate and a violent-ridden atmosphere, written in 1927, in the inter-war years, as a looming financial crisis would soon lead to the Wall Street collapse. It speaks more of death than of birth and is without any hint of the sentimentality found almost a generation later in Eliot’s poem The Cultivation of Christmas Trees (1954), the “accumulated memories of annual emotion … concentrated into a great joy”.

A sanitised story

This year, Christmas is without sentimentality or great joy for an accumulating number of people across the world. It is a Christmas marked by too many crises that are replacing joy with fear and hope with terror: the Christmas crises of Covid, climate change and conflict. Trócaire launched its Christmas appeal this year saying: “The climate crisis, along with Covid-19 and conflict, has resulted in 30 million people currently facing life-threatening food shortages”.

The interconnected nature of this triple-lock crisis was underlined by Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney when he responded to the Russian veto of the Irish motion on climate change at the Security Council, saying, “It is telling that 80 per cent of UN peacekeepers are deployed in countries that are the most exposed to climate change … Where climate change is a factor in exacerbating instability and undermining peace and security, the Security Council should use the tools at its disposal to tackle it”.

Poverty, rather than problems of supply and distribution, explains why so many people in Asia, sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America remain unvaccinated as the Covid-19 virus continues to mutate and spread. Poverty, climate change and conflict explain why so many migrants have been willing to risk their lives and the lives of their children in the English Channel or the borders of Belarus. Yet, governments with the responsibility and the resources to respond, continue to address the presenting problem rather than tackling its underlying causes.

The Christmas story has been sanitised in its telling and retelling over the centuries. It is set in a cold climate, at a time of oppression and discrimination, corruption and conflict, migration and mass murder. The Christ Child is born in Bethlehem because his parents have been forced to leave Nazareth; Herod’s horrid schemes become known to the visiting Magi and force the family to seek refuge in neighbouring Egypt. Even then, children were the innocent victims of the power games of capricious rulers and despots, unaware or unwilling to face the global consequences of their self-centred decision-making.

Comforting the afflicted

It is a story of rejection, discrimination and marginalisation, of violence without restraint, of poverty caused by the priorities of those who also had the power to change. The victims in the first Christmas story include a single mother and a homeless child. But, in that story, those who are awake to the potential the birth of a child has to change the world are simple shepherds and visitors from afar. As the American theologian Nadia Bolz-Weber says: “The birth of Jesus was not elegantly staged. It is how we experience life – messy, surprising, unexpected, imperfect”. With her innate irreverence, she continues to challenge all who would make Christianity too comfortable and too cosy at Christmas-time, saying, “People don’t leave Christianity because they stop believing in the teachings of Jesus. People leave Christianity because they believe in the teachings of Jesus so much, they can’t stomach being part of an institution that claims to be about that and clearly isn’t”.

In a time of crisis, marked by conflict, Covid and climate change, marked by the plight of refugees, migrants and the homeless, the Churches can put Christ back at the heart of Christmas not by worrying about declining churchgoing figures and finances, but by returning to the priorities of feeding the hungry, comforting the afflicted, loving the outcast, forgiving the wrongdoer, inspiring the hopeless, and emphasising time and again Christ’s core message of loving one another. Then, in the words of TS Eliot,

The accumulated memories of annual emotion
May be concentrated into a great joy …
Because the beginning shall remind us of the end
And the first coming of the second coming.

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

The Nativity Christmas Card, Gwen Raverat (© The Raverat Archive)

Luke 2: 1-14 (NRSVA):

1 In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all the world should be registered. 2 This was the first registration and was taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. 3 All went to their own towns to be registered. 4 Joseph also went from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem, because he was descended from the house and family of David. 5 He went to be registered with Mary, to whom he was engaged and who was expecting a child. 6 While they were there, the time came for her to deliver her child. 7 And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.

8 In that region there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. 9 Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10 But the angel said to them, ‘Do not be afraid; for see – I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: 11 to you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is the Messiah, the Lord. 12 This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.’ 13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying,

14 ‘Glory to God in the highest heaven,
and on earth peace among those whom he favours!’

The Nativity depicted in the reredos in Saint Mary’s Church, Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Liturgical Colour: White, or Gold.

Penitential Kyries:

Lord God, mighty God,
you are the creator of the world.
Lord, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.

Lord Jesus, Son of God and Son of Mary,
you are the Prince of Peace.
Christ, have mercy.
Christ, have mercy.

Holy Spirit,
by your power the Word was made flesh
and came to dwell among us.
Lord, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.

The Collect:

Eternal God,
who made this most holy night
to shine with the brightness of your one true light:
Bring us, who have known the revelation
of that light on earth,
to see the radiance of your heavenly glory;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Introduction to the Peace:

Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given,
and his name shall be called the Prince of Peace. (Isaiah 9: 6)

Preface:

You have given Jesus Christ your only Son
to be born of the Virgin Mary,
and through him you have given us power
to become the children of God:

The Post Communion Prayer:

God our Father,
in this night you have made known to us again
the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ:
Confirm our faith and fix our eyes on him
until the day dawns
and Christ the Morning Star rises in our hearts.
To him be glory both now and for ever.

Blessing:

Christ, who by his incarnation gathered into one
all things earthly and heavenly,
fill you with his joy and peace:

Hymns:

174, O little town of Bethlehem (CD 11)
160, Hark! the herald angels sing (CD 9)
182, Silent night, holy night (CD 11)



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

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

‘It doesn’t matter what others think of you. It doesn’t matter how other people are going to judge you. I love you’

‘The Visitation’ in a stained-glass window in Great Saint Mary’s Church in Saffron Walden (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

Sunday 19 December 2021

The Fourth Sunday of Advent (Advent IV)

11.30: The Parish Eucharist, Saint Brendan’s Church, Tarbert

Readings: Micah 5: 2-5a; the Canticle Magnificat (Luke 1: 46-55; Hymn 712, CD 40); Hebrews 10: 5-10; Luke 1: 39-45.

There is a link to the readings HERE.

‘The Visitation’ in a stained-glass window in Saint John’s Church, Pallaskenry, Co Limerick (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

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

This Advent has been a time of waiting, a time of preparation, a time of anticipation. For the past three Sundays, in our time of waiting, preparation and anticipation, we have been preparing ourselves in the liturgy and the music, with carol services and quiet days, with the Christmas Market and Santa’s grotto, with the Advent Wreath and the Crib.

The four candles on the Advent wreath have reminded us, week-after-week, of those who prepared us in the past for the Coming of the Christ Child: first the Patriarchs and Matriarchs, our ancestors in faith, including Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Jacob; then the prophets of the Old Testament, including Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Micah, who we heard from this morning; then, last week it was Saint John the Baptist.

This Sunday, the fourth and final candle reminds us of the Virgin Mary. This connects with the Canticle Magnificat, which we heard instead of a Psalm, and our Gospel reading, telling the story of her visit to her cousin Saint Elizabeth.

The Canticle Magnificat (Luke 1: 46-55) is normally heard during Evening Prayer and not on Sunday mornings.

The great German theologian and martyr, Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945), in an Advent sermon in London almost 90 years ago (17 December 1933), said Magnificat ‘is the oldest Advent hymn,’ and he spoke of how she knows better than anyone else what it means to wait for Christ’s coming:

‘In her own body she is experiencing the wonderful ways of God with humankind: that God does not arrange matters to suit our opinions and views, does not follow the path that humans would like to prescribe. God’s path is free and original beyond all our ability to understand or to prove.’

The Gospel reading (Luke 1: 39-55), also tells the story of the Virgin Mary’s visit to her cousin, Saint Elizabeth.

When she visits, they are both pregnant – one with the Christ Child, the other with Saint John the Baptist.

Immediately after the Annunciation, the Virgin Mary leaves Nazareth and travels south to an unnamed ‘Judean town in the hill country,’ perhaps Hebron outside Jerusalem, to visit Elizabeth. When she arrives, although he is still in his mother’s womb, Saint John the Baptist is aware of the presence of Christ, and the unborn child leaps for joy.

Saint Elizabeth too recognises that Christ is present, and declares to Mary with a loud cry: ‘Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me? For as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leaped for joy’ (Luke 1: 42-44).

The Virgin Mary responds to Saint Elizabeth immediately with the words that we now know as the canticle Magnificat.

So we see, side-by-side, two women, one seemingly too old to have a child, but destined to bear the last prophet of the age that is passing away; and the other woman, seemingly too young to have a child, but about to give birth to him who is the beginning of the age that is not going to pass away.

The Virgin Mary of the canticle Magnificat and of the Visitation is a strong and revolutionary woman, unlike the Virgin Mary of the plaster-cast statues and the Rosary.

The Mary I see as a role model for belief and discipleship is the Mary who sets off in a hurry and a flurry to visit her cousin Elizabeth, the Mary with a gob on her who speaks out of turn when she comes out with those wonderful words we hear in this Gospel reading, the Mary who sings the Canticle Magnificat.

What a contrasting pair these two cousins, Mary and Elizabeth, are!

How much they speak to so many of the dilemmas we have in Irish society today!

Elizabeth is the older woman. She has been married for years. Because of social and family pressures, she had started to become embarrassed that after all those years of marriage she has not become pregnant.

In those days, even in many places to this day, this was an embarrassing social stigma. She had no son to inherit her husband’s lands, his family position, the place of Zechariah as a priest in the Temple in Jerusalem.

She reminds us too of Sarah, who is so embarrassed at the thought of becoming pregnant in her old age that she laughs in the face of the three visitors, she laughs in the face of the living Triune God.

Today, a woman who became pregnant at her stage in life might not laugh. She might quake with fear. She might ask for amniocentesis or an amniotic fluid test.

And yet Elizabeth takes control of her situation. She turns a predicament into an opportunity, a crisis of a pregnancy so late in life into a blessing for us all.

She is so filled with joy when Mary arrives that as soon as she hears the knock on the door, as soon as she hears the sound of Mary on her doorstep, her joy is infectious, so infectious that even the child in her womb – the child who would grow up to be Saint John the Baptist – leaps with joy in her womb.

Elizabeth’s action is radical. Life is tough enough for her. Her husband has been struck dumb. A dumb priest was unlikely to be able to continue to earn a liturgical living in the Temple in Jerusalem. How was she now going to provide for her child when he was born?

But Elizabeth’s actions are more radical than that.

How many women of her age, and her respectable background, would have been so quick to rush out and welcome her much younger, single and pregnant cousin?

How many women would have been worried: ‘What if she stays here and has the child here? Would we ever live with the shame?’

How many women might have suggested instead that Mary goes off and finds a home where they can find someone else to take care of her child when he is born?

Instead, Elizabeth welcomes Mary with open arms. Elizabeth’s joyful greeting, ‘Blessed are you among women …,’ echoes the greeting of the Archangel Gabriel (see Luke 1: 28), ‘Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.’

It is almost as if Elizabeth is saying: ‘It doesn’t matter what others think of you. It doesn’t matter how other people are going to judge you. I love you.’

Which is precisely what God is saying in the Incarnation, in the precious gift of the Christmas Child: ‘It doesn’t matter what others think of you. It doesn’t matter how other people are going to judge you. I love you.’

Mary for her part is such a wonderful, feisty person. She is, what might be described in the red-top tabloid newspapers today as ‘a gymslip Mum.’ But, instead of hiding herself away from her family, from her cousins, from the woman in her family who is married to a priest, she rushes off to her immediately, to share her good news with her.

And she challenges so many of our prejudices and our values and our presumptions today. Not just about gymslip mums and unexpected or unplanned pregnancies, but about what the silent and the marginalised have to say about our values in society today.

And Mary declares:

He has shown strength with his arm;
he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.
He has brought down the powerful from their thrones,
and lifted up the lowly;
he has filled the hungry with good things,
and sent the rich away empty.
He has helped his servant Israel,
in remembrance of his mercy,
according to the promise he made to our ancestors,
to Abraham and to his descendants for ever.’

It is almost like this is the programme or the agenda we can expect when the Christ Child is born.

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

The words of the canticle Magnificat carved on the wooden screen at the west end of the monastic church in Mount Melleray Abbey, Cappoquin, Co Waterford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

Luke 1: 39-45 (46-55) (NRSVA):

39 In those days Mary set out and went with haste to a Judean town in the hill country, 40 where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. 41 When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leapt in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit 42 and exclaimed with a loud cry, ‘Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. 43 And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me? 44 For as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leapt for joy. 45 And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfilment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.’

[46 And Mary said,

‘My soul magnifies the Lord,
and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour,
for he has looked with favour on the lowliness of his servant.
Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed;
for the Mighty One has done great things for me,
and holy is his name.
His mercy is for those who fear him
from generation to generation.
He has shown strength with his arm;
he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.
He has brought down the powerful from their thrones,
and lifted up the lowly;
he has filled the hungry with good things,
and sent the rich away empty.
He has helped his servant Israel,
in remembrance of his mercy,
according to the promise he made to our ancestors,
to Abraham and to his descendants for ever.’]

‘The Visitation’, by James B Janknegt

Liturgical colour: Violet (Purple), Advent Year C.

Penitential Kyries:

Turn to us again, O God our Saviour,
and let your anger cease from us.

Lord, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.

Show us your mercy, O Lord,
and grant us your salvation.

Christ, have mercy.
Christ, have mercy.

Your salvation is near for those that fear you,
that glory may dwell in our land.

Lord, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.

The Collect:

God our redeemer,
who prepared the blessed Virgin Mary
to be the mother of your Son:
Grant that, as she looked for his coming as our saviour,
so we may be ready to greet him
when he comes again as our judge;
who is alive and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

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

Introduction to the Peace:

In the tender mercy of our God,
the dayspring from on high shall break upon us,
to give light to those who dwell in darkness
and in the shadow of death,
and to guide our feet into the way of peace. (Luke 1: 78, 79)

Preface:

Salvation is your gift
through the coming of your Son our Saviour Jesus Christ,
and by him you will make all things new
when he returns in glory to judge the world:

The Post-Communion Prayer:

Heavenly Father,
you have given us a pledge of eternal redemption.
Grant that we may always eagerly celebrate
the saving mystery of the incarnation of your Son.
We ask this through him whose coming is certain,
whose day draws near,
your Son Jesus Christ our Lord.

Blessing:

Christ the sun of righteousness shine upon you,
gladden your hearts
and scatter the darkness from before you:

The Advent Wreath:

The Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel) offers this prayer for lighting the Fourth (Purple) candle on the Advent Wreath:

Lord Jesus, your mother Mary
carried you with tender determination
on the dangerous road to Bethlehem.
May the same flame of love
that drove her on, now bring
courage and hope
to all who carry and nurture children today.

Hymns:

158, God rest you merry, gentlemen (CD 9)
Canticle: Magnificat, Luke 1: 46-55 as Hymn 712 (CD 40)
174, O little town of Bethlehem (CD 11)
198, The first Nowell the angel did say (CD 12)



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

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

‘The dawn from high will break upon us, to give light to those who dwell in darkness and in the shadow of death’

‘The Baptism of Christ’ by Paolo Veronese in the Church of Il Redentore in Venice (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Patrick Comerford

Sunday 12 December 2021

The Third Sunday of Advent, Advent III (Gaudete Sunday)

9.30: The Parish Eucharist, Castletown;

11.30: Morning Prayer, Holy Trinity Church, Rathkeale.

Readings: Zephaniah 3: 14-20; Canticle Song of Isaiah; Philippians 4: 4-7; Luke 3: 7-18.

There is a link to the readings HERE

‘God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. Even now the axe is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire’ … (Luke 3: 8-9) (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

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

This morning, on the Third Sunday of Advent, our readings remind us of the promises proclaimed by the prophets, of Saint Paul’s promise that Christ is coming again, and of Saint John the Baptist preparing in the wilderness for the coming of Christ.

Saint Paul’s message is so joyful – ‘Rejoice in the Lord always, again I will say Rejoice! (Philippians 4: 4) – so joyful that this Sunday is often called ‘Gaudete Sunday’ – Gaudete Sunday, the Sunday for rejoicing.

However, I suppose many of us felt a lot less like rejoicing during Storm Barra last week, and more like we were in the wilderness as the electricity kept going off for hours on end.

It was difficult to know which was worse: the darkness that lasted for so long, or the shrieking sounds that woke up the neighbours because the power cuts had short-circuited the alarms in the rectory.

I am thankful for tolerant neighbours, and grateful to Simon White who answered my early morning emergency call … perhaps those neighbours are even more grateful to Simon.

As I sat in the darkness, I was reminded of verses in the Canticle Benedictus which we used last Sunday (5 December 2021, Advent II):

In the tender compassion of our God
the dawn from on high shall break upon us.
To shine on those who dwell in darkness … (Benedictus, vv 9-10).

For many of us, there are different reasons why we find ourselves in darkness and in the wilderness, both spiritually and socially. Yet Advent offers us the sure hope that God is coming among us, as John the Baptist promises this morning, to gather us up into his kingdom (see Luke 3: 16-18). Or, as the Prophet Zephaniah promises: ‘He will rejoice over you with gladness, he will renew you in his love’ (Zephaniah 3: 17).

One of the saints in the Calendar of the Church of England during Advent is Samuel Johnson, the compiler of the first Dictionary, who is commemorated tomorrow (13 December).

Dr Johnson dwelt in both darkness and in the wilderness for much of his life: in darkness because of poor eyesight from an early age, and in the wilderness because of gestures and tics, behaviour and mannerisms, diagnosed posthumously as Tourette syndrome.

A childhood illness left him deaf in one ear, and a botched medical procedure in his childhood left permanent scars across his face and body. As a child, he was so blind and disabled that a family servant carried him on her back to and from school each day.

But Samuel Johnson refused to allow his near-blindness and his visible disabilities to put him on the margins of society, or to blame his parents or himself for the disabilities that made him almost sightless and almost unsightly. Indeed, all this served to strengthen and to grow his faith as he matured.

One of his last acts was to receive Holy Communion before he died on the evening of 13 December 1784. His life story is one of darkness turning to light, of moving from blindness to sight, of rising above the harsh judgments of others who would have put him in a wilderness, to redemption, restoration and a living faith.

On a street corner in Lichfield, a larger-than-life mosaic by John Myatt depicts the recognisable face of Samuel Johnson, including his squinting eyes. It is made of small plywood blocks painted with emulsion and marine varnish in a variety of colours.

John Myatt is a controversial artist and a convicted forger who carried out ‘the biggest art fraud of the 20th century.’

As an art student in Stafford, he discovered an amusing talent for mimicking the styles of great artists. He began teaching art at a school near Tamworth, opened a studio in Lichfield, and painted his mural of Samuel Johnson in 1976. At the same time, he developed a passion that turned into quite a skill – painting undetectable fakes.

His first wife left him in 1985, and he gave up teaching and tried to make a living by painting original works in the style of well-known artists. While struggling to raise two children on an art teacher’s salary, he placed a notice in Private Eye offering ‘genuine 19th and 20th century fakes for £200.’

A regular customer, John Drewe, resold some of these paintings as genuine works, and forged papers for their provenance. When he told John Myatt that Christie’s had accepted one of his paintings as a genuine work for £25,000, he became a willing accomplice to Drewe’s fraud, and began painting in the style of masters like Marc Chagall, Le Corbusier, Matisse and Graham Sutherland.

Drewe sold them to auction houses, including Christie’s, Phillips and Sotheby’s, and to dealers in London, Paris and New York.

Myatt was arrested in 1995. He quickly confessed, admitting he had created the paintings using emulsion paint and K-Y Jelly. He had made around £275,000, and offered to return it all and to help to convict Drewe. Myatt was jailed for a year and Drewe was jailed for six years.

On his release, John Myatt’s arresting officer from Scotland Yard became the first new customer for his ‘Genuine Fakes.’ Since then, he continues to paint portraits and copies, now marked indelibly as fakes. Some sell for up to £45,000.

John restored the mural of Samuel Johnson in Lichfield in 2005. Now he is a well-known Sky Arts presenter, happily remarried, and making a living from these legitimate paintings. He advises the police on art fraud as well as colleges in Oxford and Cambridge, and Sotheby’s, and he is the subject of a new film Genuine Fakes.

Now back living in Lichfield, John Myatt is a committed Christian and plays the organ in his local church every Sunday. His story is not just a story with a happy ending, but a story for Advent about wilderness times, fall and restoration, and the promise of new light and new life.

Both John Myatt and Samuel Johnson found themselves in the darkness and in the wilderness, but they moved from the trials of Advent to the hope of Christmas. Their stories are stories of compassion, and of how the compassion of Christ not only extends to but also embraces all who are pushed to the margins all too easily.

The Advent promise of the Prophet Zephaniah this morning is:

I will make you renowned and praised
among all the peoples of the earth,
when I restore your fortunes
before your eyes, says the Lord (Zephaniah 3: 20)

And the Advent promise that resounds in our ears, time and time again, that we hear all this season, from the Prophet Isaiah to the Gospels, to the Advent words of peace, to Handel’s Messiah, is:

… the dawn from high will break upon us,
to give light to those who dwell in darkness and in the shadow of death,
to guide our feet into the way of peace’ (Luke 1: 78, 79; see Matthew 4: 12; Isaiah 9: 2).

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

John Myatt’s mural of Samuel Johnson in Bird Street, Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Luke 3: 7-18 (NRSVA):

7 John said to the crowds that came out to be baptized by him, ‘You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8 Bear fruits worthy of repentance. Do not begin to say to yourselves, “We have Abraham as our ancestor”; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. 9 Even now the axe is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.’

10 And the crowds asked him, ‘What then should we do?’ 11 In reply he said to them, ‘Whoever has two coats must share with anyone who has none; and whoever has food must do likewise.’ 12 Even tax-collectors came to be baptized, and they asked him, ‘Teacher, what should we do?’ 13 He said to them, ‘Collect no more than the amount prescribed for you.’ 14 Soldiers also asked him, ‘And we, what should we do?’ He said to them, ‘Do not extort money from anyone by threats or false accusation, and be satisfied with your wages.’

15 As the people were filled with expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Messiah, 16 John answered all of them by saying, ‘I baptize you with water; but one who is more powerful than I is coming; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 17 His winnowing-fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing-floor and to gather the wheat into his granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.’

Saint John the Baptist depicted in a fresco in a church in Crete by the icon writer Alexandra Kaouki of Rethymnon

Liturgical colour: Violet (Purple) or Pink (Gaudete Sunday)

Prayer at the third, pink, Advent candle (Saint John the Baptist):

Lord Jesus, your cousin John
prepared the way for your coming.
Bless all who speak out against
injustice and wrong:
so may the light of your truth
burn brightly, and the world become
a fairer and just home for all.
(A prayer from USPG)

Penitential Kyries:

Turn to us again, O God our Saviour,
and let your anger cease from us.

Lord, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.

Show us your mercy, O Lord,
and grant us your salvation.

Christ, have mercy.
Christ, have mercy.

Your salvation is near for those that fear you,
that glory may dwell in our land.

Lord, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.

The Collect:

O Lord Jesus Christ,
who at your first coming sent your messenger
to prepare your way before you:
Grant that the ministers and stewards of your mysteries
may likewise so prepare and make ready your way
by turning the hearts of the disobedient to the wisdom of the just,
that at your second coming to judge the world
we may be found an acceptable people in your sight;
for you are alive and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit,
one God, world without end.

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

Collect of the Word:

O Lord our God,
you are the Mighty One
who prepared the Blessed Virgin Mary
to be the mother of our Lord:
may we like Elizabeth and John the Baptist
recognise the presence among us of him
who sanctifies us through his body offered for us,
your Son, Jesus Christ,
who lives and reigns with you
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.

Introduction to the Peace:

In the tender mercy of our God,
the dayspring from on high shall break upon us,
to give light to those who dwell in darkness
and in the shadow of death,
and to guide our feet into the way of peace. (Luke 1: 78, 79)

Preface:

Salvation is your gift
through the coming of your Son our Saviour Jesus Christ,
and by him you will make all things new
when he returns in glory to judge the world:

The Post-Communion Prayer:

Father,
we give you thanks for these heavenly gifts.
Kindle us with the fire of your Spirit
that when Christ comes again
we may shine as lights before his face;
who is alive and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Blessing:

Christ the sun of righteousness shine upon you,
gladden your hearts
and scatter the darkness from before you:

‘We give you thanks for these heavenly gifts’ (Post-Communion Prayer) … an icon screen in the parish church in Kalamitsi Alexandrou, a mountain village in western Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Hymns:

281, Rejoice, the Lord is King! (CD 17)
Canticle: Song of Isaiah (CD 43, No 6)
135, O come, O come, Emmanuel (CD 8)
136, On Jordan’s bank the Baptist’s cry (CD 8)


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

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

Singing songs of joy as we wait in hope in the days of Advent

‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight’ (Luke 3: 4) … a tree-lined pathway in Rathkeale, Co Limerick (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

Sunday 5 December 2021 (The Second Sunday of Advent, Advent II)

9.30: The Parish Eucharist, Saint Mary’s Church, Askeaton

11.30: Morning Prayer, Saint Brendan’s Church, Tarbert

Readings: Baruch 5: 1-9; the Canticle Benedictus (Luke 1: 68-79); Philippians 1: 3-11; Luke 3: 1-6.

The readings can be found HERE

On the First Day of Christmas … a partridge in a pear tree (The PNC Christmas Price Index 2021)

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

The Book of Baruch is set during the Babylonian exile. In this book, which provides our first reading, Jerusalem speaks as a prophet of events to come. In her poem or song, she sings to God and the people, declaring the time of the city’s mourning for the loss of her children is near its end.

Baruch responds with a song that promises ‘Righteous Peace’ and ‘Godly Glory’ (verse 4), a time when justice and peace prevail and God’s glory is seen (verse 9).

For a people in exile, who find themselves in a culture that is not their own, how do they leave what they have in the present, how do they maintain their hopes from the past, and how do they look forward to the future?

Baruch says it is time to end the mourning and to look forward in hope to the future.

Could this be true for us this Advent?

How do we turn from the gloom and fears of a war-torn world to hope for reconciliation and peace?

What would we see in this vision for a post-pandemic future?

This morning, we heard the Canticle Benedictus, the Song of Zechariah (Luke 1: 68-79), instead of a Psalm.

Zechariah the priest is struck dumb when he hears that in her old age his wife Elizabeth is pregnant with the child who is becomes Saint John the Baptist, the focus of our Gospel reading.

After the child’s birth, Zechariah is filled with the Holy Spirit, and sings or speaks this song of prophecy, telling us of God’s blessing for his people.

God is fulfilling his promises. John the Baptist is to prepare the way for the Lord. Christ is ‘the dawn from on high’ that ‘breaks upon us,’ the one through whom God fulfils his purpose for humanity.

Saint John makes his proclamation to the whole world. The whole of creation will be remade, the world of authority will be turned upside down, the word of salvation will raise up new children of God, and even the stones will shout as the kingdom message becomes a message of embrace and love, with a new order of family and kinship that embraces all people.

In this season of Advent, how do we connect with the real world which is wilderness for so many people?

Already people are singing Christmas hymns, songs and carols. You cannot escape them in shops and shopping centres. But often they were written to convey the truth of the Christmas story in a way that was culturally relevant and even in a light-hearted way.

There is a twelve-verse song that helped people in the past to count out these days, called The Twelve Days of Christmas. When I was a child, it was a favourite song for boring adults. Later, the writer and actor Frank Kelly made a funny version about the gifts from a fictitious Nuala, whose gifts become increasingly irritating as each of the 12 days of Christmas dawns.

I’m not going to sing either version. But the way the original song counts out the numbers is very interesting. It counts out a series of increasingly generous gifts given by the singer’s ‘true love’ on each of the 12 Days of Christmas.

One explanation says the lyrics were written as a catechism song to help young people learn their faith when celebrations of Christmas were prohibited by the Puritans during the Cromwellian era (1649-1660).

The 12 drummers drumming are said to represent of the 12 points of the Apostles’ Creed.

The 11 pipers piping are seen as representatives of the 11 faithful disciples, counting out Judas: Peter, Andrew, James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Simon the Zealot and Jude.

The 10 lords-a-leaping may represent the 10 Commandments.

The nine ladies dancing are the nine fruits of the Holy Spirit (see Galatians 5: 19-23): Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, and Self-control.

The eight maids-a-milking represent the eight Beatitudes in the Sermon on the Mount (see Matthew 5: 2-10): Blessed are the poor in spirit … those who mourn … the meek … those who hunger and thirst for righteousness … the merciful … the pure in heart … the peacemakers … those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake …

The seven swans-a-swimming make us think of the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit: Wisdom, Understanding, Counsel, Fortitude, Knowledge, Piety and Fear of the Lord.

The six geese a-laying represent the six days of Creation (see Genesis 1).

The five golden rings, or pheasants, represent the first five books of the Bible: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy.

Colly birds or ‘calling birds’ represent the Four Evangelists or the Four Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

The three French hens represent the three theological virtues – faith, hope and love (see I Corinthians 13: 13). Others say they represent the Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit; or the three gifts of the Wise Men: gold, frankincense and myrrh.

The two turtle doves represent the two parts of the Bible, or the truth Jesus Christ is both God and human.

And, a partridge in a pear tree represents Christ on the Cross. God, in his infinite love, sent on Christmas Day the gift of Christ the Saviour. A mother partridge feigns injury to decoy predators from her helpless nestlings, recalling Christ’s saying: ‘Jerusalem, Jerusalem … How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings …’ (Luke 13: 34).

Adding it all up, if my true love gives me all these gifts in the 12 Days of Christmas, I end up with 224 birds in all: 12 partridges, 22 turtle doves, 30 French hens, 36 colly (or calling) birds, 40 gold rings or pheasants, 42 geese and 42 swans.

If we add all these gifts together, they add up to 364 gifts, which, along with the true love, comes to 365, the number of days in the year.

Since 1984, the costs of the gifts have been estimated by PNC Bank, in the Christmas Price Index. Of course, the people in the song are not bought, their services are hired.

This year (2021), the total cost of all goods and services according to the Christmas Price Index is $41,205.58, up 5.7% this season relative to pre-pandemic levels and the largest increase since 2013.

The ‘True Cost of Christmas in Song’ in 2021 is $179,454.19, the cumulative cost of all the gifts when you count each repetition in the song, the 364 gifts.

But who can put a price on True Love? The real cost of Christmas is that God gave us his only Son, Jesus Christ, and the true love of Christmas is God’s love for us in Christ.

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

An icon of the Birth of Saint the Baptist from the Monastery of Anopolis in the Museum of Christian Art in Iraklion, Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Luke 3: 1-6 (NRSVA):

1 In the fifteenth year of the reign of Emperor Tiberius, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was ruler of Galilee, and his brother Philip ruler of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias ruler of Abilene, 2 during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness. 3 He went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, 4 as it is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah,

‘The voice of one crying out in the wilderness:
“Prepare the way of the Lord,
make his paths straight.
5 Every valley shall be filled,
and every mountain and hill shall be made low,
and the crooked shall be made straight,
and the rough ways made smooth;
6 and all flesh shall see the salvation of God”.’

‘… the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways made smooth’ (Luke 3: 5) … a rough way made smooth in Comberford, Staffordshire (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Liturgical colour: Purple (Violet), Advent, Year C

Gloria is omitted in Advent and at the end of canticles and psalms.

The Advent Candle, the Second Sunday of Advent (Second Purple Candle):

The Prophets:

Loving God, your prophets spoke out
in the darkness of suffering and loss,
of a light coming into the world.
May we proclaim the light of Christ
as we stand alongside the marginalised
of your world,
that they may find new strength
and hope in you.
(A prayer from USPG)

Penitential Kyries:

Turn to us again, O God our Saviour,
and let your anger cease from us.

Lord, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.

Show us your mercy, O Lord,
and grant us your salvation.

Christ, have mercy.
Christ, have mercy.

Your salvation is near for those that fear you,
that glory may dwell in our land.

Lord, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.

The Collect:

Father in heaven,
who sent your Son to redeem the world
and will send him again to be our judge:
Give us grace so to imitate him
in the humility and purity of his first coming
that when he comes again,
we may be ready to greet him with joyful love and firm faith;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

The Advent Collect is said after the Collect of the Day until Christmas Eve:

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

Introduction to the Peace:

In the tender mercy of our God,
the dayspring from on high shall break upon us,
to give light to those who dwell in darkness
and in the shadow of death,
and to guide our feet into the way of peace. (Luke 1: 78, 79)

Preface:

Salvation is your gift
through the coming of your Son our Saviour Jesus Christ,
and by him you will make all things new
when he returns in glory to judge the world:

Post-Communion Prayer:

Lord,
here you have nourished us with the food of life.
Through our sharing in this holy sacrament
teach us to judge wisely earthly things
and to yearn for things heavenly.
We ask this through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Blessing:

Christ the sun of righteousness shine upon you,
gladden your hearts
and scatter the darkness from before you:

‘Israel may walk safely in the glory of God. The woods and every fragrant tree have shaded Israel at God’s command’ (Baruch 5: 7-8) … the yew tree walk at Gormanston, Co Meath (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Hymns:

119, Come, thou long-expected Jesus (CD 8)
Canticle: Benedictus as Hymn 685 (CD 39)
134, Make way, make way, for Christ the King (CD 8)
204, When Jesus came to Jordan (CD 13)

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

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

‘There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars, and on the earth’

‘There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars, and on the earth distress among nations confused by the roaring of the sea and the waves’ (Luke 21: 25) … a November setting sun at Burano in the Venetian Lagoon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Patrick Comerford

Sunday 28 November 2021, is the First Sunday of Advent.

9.30 a.m.: Morning Prayer, Castletown Church

11.30 a.m.: Parish Eucharist, Holy Trinity Church, Rathkeale

The Readings: Jeremiah 33: 14-16; Psalm 25: 1-10; I Thessalonians 3: 9-13; Luke 21: 25-36.

These readings can be found HERE

A refugee child climbs ashore to seek safety

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

Our Gospel reading this morning opens with frightening, terrifying words from Jesus, who says: ‘There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars, and on the earth distress among nations confused by the roaring of the sea and the waves. People will faint from fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the world, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken’ (Luke 21: 25-26).

These are not the sort of comforting words that we might want to hear on Advent Sunday, as we begin the four-week countdown to Christmas.

My generation is a generation that grew up with muffled sounds of apocalyptic fear, developed through listening to the whispered anxieties of parents and teachers. I was still only ten when the Cuban Missile Crisis reached its height in October 1962, and I still remember asking, ‘Is this going to be the end of the world?’

The Cold War was at its height, and we were still less than two decades from the end of World War II. Of course, many people feared another world war was about to break out, with catastrophic consequences for the world.

The threat seems to have abated in the 60 years since, although the stockpiles of nuclear weapons continue to grow and accumulate.

Instead, a new generation wonders whether the world is facing apocalyptic catastrophe because of climate change and the destruction of the planet. And all of us must fret for the future when we hear about the emergence of a new variant of Covid-19, just as we all thought vaccinations were making our lives safer and we were looking forward to our booster shots.

These fears accumulate and they become:

● short-term fears: are we going to have a normal Christmas this year?

● medium-term fears: is our life ever going to return to normal?

● long-term fears: what faces us all for the future?

In our fears and anxieties, we try to read the ‘signs of the times’ and wonder how to respond to ‘signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars, and on the earth distress among nations confused by the roaring of the sea and the waves.’

And yet, I realised mid-week how so self-obsessed I can be as I realised the terror of those 27 people – families, fathers, mothers and children – who drowned in that precarious Channel crossing between France and England. How they must have been oh so ‘confused by the roaring of the sea and the waves.’

All their hopes of a better life for themselves and their children, as they fled wars and persecutions in Iran, Syria and Afghanistan, drowned in one horrific, apocalyptic moment.

But even then, had they arrived on the shores of the land they hoped to reach, would they have been met with the compassion and care refugees ought to expect, not only in terms of Christian love, but under the terms of international law?

The Christmas Gospel is a reminder that Mary and Joseph and the Child Jesus were refugees too: Mary and Joseph were forced to move from Nazareth to Bethlehem in the cold of winter, yet found no welcome at the inn; and then, when the Child Jesus was born, they were forced to flee Herod, and seek exile in Egypt.

Where do we find hope as we wait in Advent for Christ at Christmas?

In the verses immediately before our Epistle reading this morning, Saint Paul reminds the early church in Thessaloniki that in the face of troubles and persecutions he has sent Saint Timothy to ‘strengthen and encourage you for the sake of your faith, so no one would be shaken by these persecutions’ (I Thessalonians 3: verses 2-3).

Our Gospel reading ends not in doom and disaster, but with the promise that Christ is coming. Our Advent faith is that Christ is coming in glory, and that with him he is bringing the Kingdom of God, with its promises of justice and mercy, peace and love.

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

‘Night and day we pray most earnestly that we may see you face to face and restore whatever is lacking in your faith’ (I Thessalonians 3: 10) … candles in a church in Thessaloniki at night-time (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Luke 21: 25-36 (NRSVA):

[Jesus said:] 25 ‘There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars, and on the earth distress among nations confused by the roaring of the sea and the waves. 26 People will faint from fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the world, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. 27 Then they will see “the Son of Man coming in a cloud” with power and great glory. 28 Now when these things begin to take place, stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.’

29 Then he told them a parable: ‘Look at the fig tree and all the trees; 30 as soon as they sprout leaves you can see for yourselves and know that summer is already near. 31 So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that the kingdom of God is near. 32 Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all things have taken place. 33 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.

34 ‘Be on guard so that your hearts are not weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of this life, and that day does not catch you unexpectedly, 35 like a trap. For it will come upon all who live on the face of the whole earth. 36 Be alert at all times, praying that you may have the strength to escape all these things that will take place, and to stand before the Son of Man.’

Saint John the Baptist with the Patriarchs Noah and Moses (left) and Saint Peter the Apostle and Saint Philip the Deacon (right) in a window in Truro Cathedral … the Patriarchs are recalled at the lighting of the first Advent Candle (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Liturgical Colour: Purple (Violet), Advent, Year C.

The Advent Candle, the First Sunday of Advent (First Purple Candle):

The Patriarchs and Matriarchs

O God of Abraham and Sarah,
we thank you for your faithfulness
throughout all time.
As today we begin our Advent journey,
may the light of your love
surround us and all for whom we pray,
as we watch and wait for your kingdom.
(A prayer from USPG)

Penitential Kyries:

Turn to us again, O God our Saviour,
and let your anger cease from us.

Lord, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.

Show us your mercy, O Lord,
and grant us your salvation.

Christ, have mercy.
Christ, have mercy.

Your salvation is near for those that fear you,
that glory may dwell in our land.

Lord, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.

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

Introduction to the Peace:

In the tender mercy of our God,
the dayspring from on high shall break upon us,
to give light to those who dwell in darkness
and in the shadow of death,
and to guide our feet into the way of peace. (Luke 1: 78, 79)

Preface:

Salvation is your gift
through the coming of your Son our Saviour Jesus Christ,
and by him you will make all things new
when he returns in glory to judge the world:

The Post-Communion Prayer:

God our deliverer,
Awaken our hearts
to prepare the way for the advent of your Son,
that, with minds purified by the grace of his coming,
we may serve you faithfully all our days;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Blessing:

Christ the sun of righteousness shine upon you,
gladden your hearts
and scatter the darkness from before you:

Hymns:

652, Lead us, heavenly Father, lead us (CD 37)
126, Hark! a thrilling voice is sounding (CD 8)
509, Your kingdom come, O God (CD 29)

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

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