Daily prayer in Easter 2026: 25, Wednesday 29 April 2026

‘I have come as light into the world, so that everyone who believes in me should not remain in the darkness’ (John 12: 46) … looking out into the village of Piskopiano in Crete from the Church of the Transfiguration (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

Easter is a 50-day season, beginning on Easter Day (5 April 2026) and continuing until the Day of Pentecost (24 May 2026), or Whit Sunday. This week began with the Fourth Sunday of Easter (Easter IV, 26 April 2026), sometimes known as ‘Good Shepherd Sunday’.

The calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship today remembers Saint Catherine of Siena (1347-1380), Teacher of the Faith. Today also marks the 75th anniversary of the death of the philsopher Ludwig Wittgenstein, and I hope to say more about that anniversary in a blog posting later today. Later this evening, I hope to take part choir rehearsals 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, reading today’s Gospel reading;

2, a short reflection;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

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

‘Whoever sees me sees him who sent me’ (John 12: 45) … the Ancient of Days depicted in a fresco in the Church of the Transfiguration in Piskopiano in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

John 12: 44-50 (NRSVA):

44 Then Jesus cried aloud: ‘Whoever believes in me believes not in me but in him who sent me. 45 And whoever sees me sees him who sent me. 46 I have come as light into the world, so that everyone who believes in me should not remain in the darkness. 47 I do not judge anyone who hears my words and does not keep them, for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world. 48 The one who rejects me and does not receive my word has a judge; on the last day the word that I have spoken will serve as judge, 49 for I have not spoken on my own, but the Father who sent me has himself given me a commandment about what to say and what to speak. 50 And I know that his commandment is eternal life. What I speak, therefore, I speak just as the Father has told me.’

‘The Light of the World’ by William Holman Hunt (1827-1910) in a side chapel in Keble College, Oxford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflections:

In the Gospel reading at the Eucharist today (John 12: 44-50), we come to the end of what is known as the ‘Book of Signs’ in Saint John’s Gospel (chapters 1 to 12). Through these seven signs, Christ clearly indicates who he is and what his mission is.

Today’s reading recapitulates all that Christ has said in the ‘Book of Signs’. We hear how Jesus ‘cried aloud’ and spoke. This gives extra emphasis to what he is proclaiming. It is once again a call to believe in Jesus where ‘believing in’ means much more than mere acceptance of the truth of his words. It implies too a personal commitment to Christ and to his mission.

To believe in Christ is also to believe in, to surrender oneself entirely to, the One who sent him, the Father. All through this Gospel, Jesus emphasises the inseparability of the Father and the Son.

The Father sends Christ as light into the world so that ‘whoever sees me sees him who sent me. I have come as light into the world, so that everyone who believes in me should not remain in the darkness’ (John 12: 45-46).

One of the first images of Christ that I remember being show as a child by my grandmother in her house in Cappoquin, Co Waterford, is Holman Hunt’s ‘The Light of the World’. It remains my favourite image of Christ and my favourite Pre-Raphaelite painting.

Saint Catherine of Siena, the Dominican doctor of the church remembered today, says, ‘It is only through shadows that one comes to know the light.’ Addressing Chrit in The Dialogue of Saint Catherine, where she touches topics on prayer, divine providence, and obedience, she writes, ‘You are the Fire that takes away the cold, illuminates the mind with its light, and causes me to know the truth’.

The ‘word’ of Christ is a challenge. It offers a way of living and of inter-relating with God, with others and with ourselves. Christ tells us that his Father’s commands – which he also observes – mean eternal life. Everything that Jesus did was the carrying out of his Father’s will. We are called to follow the same path, which is the way to total freedom.

But how do we follow that path, how do we walk that path?

During the week, I found myself re-reading the hymn ‘Attend and Keep this Happy Fast’ by the English Roman Catholic theologian and one-time Dominican priest, Roger Ruston. He has been strongly influential in Christian CND and similar movements. He is best known for both his careful critique of the ‘deterrence’ theory and the reliance on nuclear weapons and for his work on human rights, including his book Human Rights and the Image of God (SCM-Canterbury Press, 2004), and the conference with that name organised that year by the Dominican Justice and Peace Commission at Blackfriars, Oxford.

Roger Ruston’s insights have a pressing relevance in today’s dismal global political realities. He has also written a number of hymns that are informed by his theological priorities. His hymn ‘Attend and Keep this Happy Fast’ is based on Isaiah 58: 5-9 and expresses the idea that love is better than fasting, and looks to ‘the dawn your light will break’ and that time when ‘the glory of the Lord will shine’:

Attend and keep this happy fast
I preach to you this day.
Is this the fast that pleases me,
that takes your joy away?
Do I delight in sorrow’s dress,
says God, who reigns above,
the hanging head, the dismal look,
will they attract my love?

But is this not the fast I choose,
that shares the heavy load;
that seeks to bring the poor man in
who’s weary of the road;
that gives the hungry bread to eat,
to strangers gives a home;
that does not let you hide your face
from your own flesh and bone?

Then like the dawn your light will break,
to life you will be raised.
And all will praise the Lord for you;
be happy in your days.
The glory of the Lord will shine,
and in your steps his grace.
And when you call he’ll answer you;
He will not hide his face.

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

Rembering Mika Chrysaki who gave her name to Mika Villas in Piskopiano in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Wednesday 29 April 2026):

I have been recalling my own grandmother in my reflections this morning. In my prayers, I am also remebering a family of dear friends in Crete who are burying a dear mother, mother-in-law and grandmother, in Iraklion this afternoon. Mika was a warm, welcoming member of the family, and her son proudly gave her name to the family hotel in Piskopiano in the hills above Hersonissos. I have stayed in or visited there countless times since the mid-1990s.

‘Prayer and Action in Pakistan’ provides the theme this week (26 April to 2 May 2026) in ‘Pray With the World Church’, the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), pp 50-51. This theme was introduced on Sunday with Reflections from the Revd Davidson Solanki, Senior Regional Manager for Asia and the Middle East.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Wednesday 29 April 2026) invites us to pray:

Lord, bless the Church of Pakistan as they seek to serve all neighbours. Particularly after the devastation of the floods, may their acts of care demonstrate Christ’s love in action even across faiths.

The Collect:

God of compassion,
who gave your servant Catherine of Siena
a wondrous love of the passion of Christ:
grant that your people may be united to him in his majesty
and rejoice for ever in the revelation of his glory;
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 Catherine to the eternal feast of heaven;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s Reflections

Continued Tomorrow

‘It is only through shadows that one comes to know the light’ … Saint Catherine of Siena seen in a window in Saint Giles Church, Cambridge (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

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

Daily prayer in Easter 2024:30, 29 April 2024

‘I ask … that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one’ (see John 17: 20- 23) … the iconostasis or icon screen in Saint Nektarios Church, Rethymnon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Patrick Comerford

Easter is a 50-day season that continues until the Day of Pentecost (19 May 2024). The week began with the Fifth Sunday of Easter (Easter V), although this is still the Season of Great Lent in Greece, and Holy Week in the calendar of the Greek Orthodox Church began yesterday with Palm Sunday.

Throughout this Season of Easter, my morning reflections each day include the daily Gospel reading, the prayer in the USPG prayer diary, and the prayers in the Collects and Post-Communion Prayer of the day.

/> The Calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship today remembers Saint Catherine of Siena (1380) as a Teacher of the Faith. Before this day 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 prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

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

John 17: 12-26 (NRSVA):

[Jesus said:] 12 ‘While I was with them, I protected them in your name that you have given me. I guarded them, and not one of them was lost except the one destined to be lost, so that the scripture might be fulfilled. 13 But now I am coming to you, and I speak these things in the world so that they may have my joy made complete in themselves. 14 I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. 15 I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but I ask you to protect them from the evil one. 16 They do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. 17 Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. 18 As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. 19 And for their sakes I sanctify myself, so that they also may be sanctified in truth.

20 ‘I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, 21 that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one, 23 I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. 24 Father, I desire that those also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory, which you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.

25 ‘Righteous Father, the world does not know you, but I know you; and these know that you have sent me. 26 I made your name known to them, and I will make it known, so that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.’

The Transfiguration depicted in the ceiling of the Church of the Transfiguration in Piskopianó in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Today’s Prayers (Monday 29 April 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 ‘The Sacred Circle.’ This theme was introduced yesterday with a programme update adapted from the Autumn edition of Revive magazine.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (29 April 2024) invites us to pray:

We pray for the important and peaceful work of the Sacred Circle and for all who are taking part.

The Collect:

Almighty God,
who through your only-begotten Son Jesus Christ
have overcome death and opened to us the gate of everlasting life:
grant that, as by your grace going before us
you put into our minds good desires,
so by your continual help
we may bring them to good effect;
through Jesus Christ our risen Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Post Communion Prayer:

Eternal God,
whose Son Jesus Christ is the way, the truth, and the life:
grant us to walk in his way,
to rejoice in his truth,
and to share his risen life;
who is alive and reigns, now and for ever.

Additional Collect:

Risen Christ,
your wounds declare your love for the world
and the wonder of your risen life:
give us compassion and courage
to risk ourselves for those we serve,
to the glory of God the Father.

Yesterday’s reflection

Continued Tomorrow

The Basilica of San Domenico in Siena is also known as the Basilica Cateriniana … Saint Catherine of Siena is commemorated in ‘Common Worship’ on 29 April (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

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

Daily prayers in the Kingdom Season with USPG: (4) 8 November 2023

The Duomo di San Gimignano, formally the Collegiata di Santa Maria Assunta, is part of the Unesco World Heritage Site of the ‘Historic Centre of San Gimignano’ (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, and the week began with the Fourth Sunday before Advent (5 November 2023).

But we are also in a time we might call ‘All Saints Tide’, and the Calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship today (8 November) remembers the Saints and Martyrs of England.

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

In recent prayer diaries on this blog, my reflections have already looked at a number of Italian cathedrals, including the cathedrals in Amalfi, Florence, Lucca, Noto, Pisa, Ravenna, Saint Peter’s Basilica and Saint John Lateran, Rome, Siena, Sorrento, Syracuse, Taormina, Torcello and Venice.

So, this week, my reflections look at some more Italian cathedrals, basilicas and churches in Bologna, San Marino, Pistoia, San Gimignano, Mestre, Sorrento and Ravello.

Throughout this week, my reflections each morning are following this pattern:

1, A reflection on an Italian cathedral or basilica;

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

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary.

The campanile may be that of the earlier church, or it may have been one of the city’s many tower houses (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Collegiata di Santa Maria Assunta (Doumo), San Gimignano:

San Gimignano is a small walled mediaeval hill-top town in Tuscany, 40 km north-west of Siena and 60 km south-west of Florence. It is a Unesco World Heritage Site, known as the Town of Fine Towers, and celebrated for its mediaeval architecture, including more than a dozen tower houses that mark out the skyline.

The town changed its name from Silvia to San Gimignano in 450 AD after Bishop Geminianus, the Saint of Modena, intervened to spare the castle from destruction by Attila the Hun and his followers.

The city became so powerful that it asserted its autonomy from the Bishops of Volterra at the end of the 12th century. However, the peace of the town was disturbed for the next two centuries by conflict between the Guelphs and the Ghibellines, and family rivalries within San Gimignano.

Dante Alighieri came to San Gimignano in 1300 as the Ambassador of the Guelph League in Tuscany.

The city continued to flourish until it was struck by the Black Death in 1348, when about half the towns inhabitants died. The town later submitted to the rule of Florence.

The Duomo di San Gimignano, formally known as Collegiata di Santa Maria Assunta, is a collegiate church and minor basilica in San Gimignano. It stands on the west side of Piazza del Duomo. But, despite the name of the square and the unofficial name of the church, the church has never been a cathedral or the seat of a bishop.

The duomo is part of the Unesco World Heritage Site of the ‘Historic Centre of San Gimignano.’ The church is oriented liturgically on a west-east liturgical axis, rather than the traditional east-west alignment. It has an east-facing façade and the chancel is at the west end, as with Saint Peter’s Basilica in Rome. Unesco says the frescoes in the church are ‘works of outstanding beauty.’

The first church on the site was begun in the 10th century. San Gimignano was on the pilgrimage route to Rome, the Via Francigena, and so the importance of the town and the church grew steadily in the early 12th century.

The present church on this site was consecrated on 21 November 1148 and dedicated to Saint Geminianus (San Gimignano) in the presence of Pope Eugenius III and 14 bishops. The church holds the relics of Saint Geminianus, the patron saint of the city (feast 31 January).

The church was enriched in the 13th, 14th and 15th centuries with the addition of frescoes and sculpture. The west end of the building (liturgical east) was altered and extended by Giuliano da Maiano in 1466-1468, with the addition of vestries, the Chapel of the Conception and the Chapel of Saint Fina.

The church was given collegiate status in 1471. Girolamo Savonarola preached there in 1497.

The architecture of the church is 12th and 13th century Romanesque, with the exception of the two chapels in the Renaissance style. It has important cycles of Renaissance frescoes by Domenico Ghirlandaio, Benozzo Gozzoli, Taddeo di Bartolo, Lippo Memmi, Bartolo di Fredi and others.

The façade has little ornament and there is no entral portal. Instead, the church is approached from the square by a wide staircase, with a door leading into each of the side aisles. The doorways are surmounted by stone lintels with recessed arches above them, unusual in incorporating the stone Gabbro.

There is a central ocular window at the end of the nave and a smaller one giving light to each aisle. The stone façade was raised higher in brick in 1340, when the ribbed vaulting was constructed, and the two smaller ocular windows set in.

Matteo di Brunisend is generally credited as the main architect of the mediaeval period, with working ca 1239. However, his contribution may have been little more than the design of the central ocular window. Beneath this window is a slot that marks the place of a window that lit the chancel of the earlier church. It may indicate the church was reoriented during the 12th century rebuilding.

Inside, the church is in the shape of a Latin Cross, with a central nave and an aisle on either side, divided by arcades of seven semi-circular Romanesque arches resting on columns with simplified Corinthian-style capitals. The chancel is a simple rectangle with a single arched window at the end.

The church is famous for its largely intact scheme of fresco decorations, the greater part of which dates from the 14th century, and represents the work of painters of the Sienese school, influenced by the Byzantine traditions of Duccio and the Early Renaissance style of Giotto. The frescoes comprise a Poor Man’s Bible of an Old Testament cycle, a New Testament cycle, and the Last Judgement, as well as an Annunciation, Saint Sebastian, and the stories of a local saint, Saint Fina, with several other smaller works.

The fresco of the Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian, painted by Benozzo Gozzoli (1465), is on the rear wall of the nave, beneath the Last Judgement. It was commissioned by the people of San Gimignano after the saint’s intervention was believed to have brought relief from an outbreak of plague in 1464.

The crucifix in the chancel (1754) is by the Florentine sculptor, Giovanni Antonio Noferi, who also designed the marble pavement in the chancel.

This Chapel of Saint Fina has been described as ‘one of the jewels of Renaissance architecture, painting and sculpture.’ The Chapel of the Conception was built in 1477 and modified in the 17th century.

In the Baptistry Loggia to the south of the church are several small frescoes of saints, and a major work, The Annunciation (1482), previously attributed to Ghirlandaio but now believed to be the work of Sebastiano Mainardi.

To the north side of the church, in the corner of the transept and chancel, stands a plain campanile with a square plan and a single arched opening in each face. The campanile may be that of the earlier church, or it may have been one of the city’s many tower houses, adapted for use by the church.

The Loggia of the Baptistry on the south side of the church is a 14th-century arcaded cloister with stout octagonal columns and a groin vault.

The church was damaged during World War II, but was restored in 1951, when parts of the earlier church were discovered lying beneath the nave.

The church has no central portal, instead the wide staircase leads to two doors, one into each of the side aisles (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

John 17: 18-23 (NRSVA):

[Jesus said:] 18 As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. 19 And for their sakes I sanctify myself, so that they also may be sanctified in truth.

20 ‘I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, 21 that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one, 23 I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.’

The Palazzo Podesta with its huge arched loggia on Piazza del Duomo and the Torre Chigi and the Torre Rognosa (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)(Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Wednesday 8 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), is ‘Community Health Programmes’. This theme was introduced on Sunday.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (8 November 2023) invites us to pray in these words:

We pray for the work of St Andrew’s Theological College, the Church of Bangladesh’s theological training centre. May they continue to nurture and educate prospective clergy.

Dante Alighieri came to San Gimignano in 1300 as the Ambassador of the Guelph League in Tuscany (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The Collect:

God, whom the glorious company of the redeemed adore,
assembled from all times and places of your dominion:
we praise you for the saints of our own land
and for the many lamps their holiness has lit;
and we pray that we also may be numbered at last
with those who have done your will
and declared your righteousness;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

God, the source of all holiness
and giver of all good things:
may we who have shared at this table
as strangers and pilgrims here on earth
be welcomed with all your saints
to the heavenly feast on the day of your kingdom;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s Reflection

Continued Tomorrow

The Piazza della Cisterna is the main square of the town … the well which was the main source of water for the town dates from 1346 (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 vineyards and fields of Tuscany on the slopes beneath San Gimignano (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Morning prayers in Easter with USPG: (21) 29 April 2023

Saint Clement’s Cathedral is the cathedral of the Ruthenian Byzantine Catholic Church, near the Charles Bridge in Prague (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Patrick Comerford

We are still in the season of Easter, and this has been the Third Week of Easter. Today, the Church Calendar commemorates Saint Catherine of Siena, Teacher of the Faith (1380).

Before this day gets busy, I am taking some time this morning for prayer and reflection. Following our visit to Prague earlier this month, I have been reflecting each morning this week in these ways:

1, Short reflections on a church in Prague;

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

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary.

Inside, Saint Clement’s is one of the most beautifully decorated Baroque churches in Prague (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

The Greek Catholic Cathedral of Saint Clement, Prague:

When we were in Prague two weeks ago, I attended the Maundy Thursday liturgy in the Greek Catholic Cathedral Church of Saint Clement, where many people in the congregation were Ukrainian refugees. This church celebrates a Byzantine-rite liturgy that is similar to Orthodox Churches and follows the Orthodox calendar in the dating of Easter. But it is part of a church that is in full communion with the Pope and with the Roman Catholic Church.

Saint Clement’s is the cathedral of the Ruthenian Byzantine Catholic Church in Prague, serving the Ruthenian Catholic Apostolic Exarchate of Czech Republic. Many of the people who are part of the church are of Ukrainian origin, alongside people with family roots in Hungary, Slovakia and Poland.

Saint Clement’s Church was made a cathedral by Pope John Paul II in 1996 in the Bull Quo aptius which established the Ruthenian Catholic Exarchate of the Czech Republic.

Saint Clement’s is one of three churches at the Clementinum, including Saint Salvator. This single-nave Baroque church was built for the Jesuits in the Clementinum area in 1711-1715 on the site of an older Gothic church, where the Dominicans founded a monastery in 1227.

The earlier chapel was destroyed during the Hussite wars in 1420. The Italian Chapel, or the Chapel of the Virgin, was built above the church of Saint Clement in 1590-1600 to serve the Italian resident community in Prague.

The present Baroque church was commissioned by the Jesuits and was built in 1711-1715 by Anselmo Lurago to plans by the architect Franciscus Maxmilian Kaňka. The simple exterior makes the interior even more outstanding. This is one of the most beautifully decorated Baroque churches in Prague, with work by major Baroque artists.

The interior of this single nave church is richly decorated, with stone statues by Matthias Bernard Braun of the Church Fathers and the Four Evangelists in niches in the walls. The trompe-l’œil High Altar is dominated by a painting of Saint Clement by Josef Kramolín and a painting of Saint Ignatius of Loyola.

There are six side altars. At the side altar dedicated to Saint Lawrence and Saint Leonard, a painting by Peter Brandl depicts Saint Leonard healing the sick. Ignaz Raab also contributed to painting the interior, with paintings of Jesuit saints and Bohemian patrons in the alcoves and on the pilasters.

The pulpit is the work of Braun, as are the confessionals under the choir loft and other wood carvings. The decorative stucco work was created by S Götzler in 1715. Johann Hiebl’s original frescoes depicting scenes from the life of Saint Clement have been preserved in individual sections of the vaulting.

The richly decorated pews and colourful are also worth noting, and the church has outstanding acoustics.

The church was given to the Greek Catholic Church in 1931. It belonged to the Orthodox Church in 1950-1969, but since 1969 it has again served the Greek Catholic Church. The original iconostasis was replaced by a new one in 1984.

The liturgy is celebrated in Ukrainian and Church Slavonic.

Maundy Thursday in the Greek Catholic Cathedral Church of Saint Clement in Prague (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

John 6: 60-69 (NRSVA):

60 When many of his disciples heard it, they said, ‘This teaching is difficult; who can accept it?’ 61 But Jesus, being aware that his disciples were complaining about it, said to them, ‘Does this offend you? 62 Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? 63 It is the spirit that gives life; the flesh is useless. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. 64 But among you there are some who do not believe.’ For Jesus knew from the first who were the ones that did not believe, and who was the one that would betray him. 65 And he said, ‘For this reason I have told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted by the Father.’

66 Because of this many of his disciples turned back and no longer went about with him. 67 So Jesus asked the twelve, ‘Do you also wish to go away?’ 68 Simon Peter answered him, ‘Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life. 69 We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.’

The simple exterior of Saint Clement’s makes the interior even more outstanding (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Today’s Prayer:

The theme this week in the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel) has been ‘Praying for Peace.’ This theme was introduced on Sunday by the Anglican Chaplain in Warsaw, Poland, the Revd David Brown, who reflected on peace in the light of the International Day of Multilateralism and Diplomacy for Peace earlier this week.

The USPG Prayer invites us to pray this morning (Saturday 29 April 2023):

Let us give thanks for the spirit of community. May we seek to build bonds of trust and friendship within our communities and support one another in good times and bad.

Collect:

God of compassion,
who gave your servant Catherine of Siena
a wondrous love of the passion of Christ:
grant that your people may be united to him in his majesty
and rejoice for ever in the revelation of his glory;
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Post Communion:

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

Reflections in the windows of Saint Clement’s Cathedral in the Old Town in Prague (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

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

Saint Clement’s has again served the Greek Catholic Church in Prague since 1969 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Praying with USPG and the music of Vaughan Williams: Sunday 4 September 2022

The Old Vicarage, Down Ampney, where the composer Ralph Vaughan Williams was born in 1872 (Photograph: Colin West 2011 / Panoramio)

Patrick Comerford

Today is the Twelfth Sunday after Trinity, and is also marked as Creation Sunday. Later this morning, I plan to attend the Parish Eucharist in the Church of Saint Mary and Saint Giles, Stony Stratford, and in the afternoon I hope go to the Parish Fete at All Saints’ Church, Calverton.

But, before today begins, I am taking some time this morning for reading, prayer and reflection.

This year marks the 150th anniversary of the composer Ralph Vaughan Williams, whose music is celebrated throughout this year’s Proms season. In my prayer diary for these weeks I am reflecting in these ways:

1, One of the readings for the morning;

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

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

‘Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple’ (Luke 14: 27) … ‘Simon,’ Station 5 in the Chapel at Saint John’s Hospital, Lichfield, Simon of Cyrene helps Jesus carry the Cross (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Luke 14: 25-33 (NRSVA):

25 Now large crowds were travelling with him; and he turned and said to them, 26 ‘Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple. 27 Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. 28 For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not first sit down and estimate the cost, to see whether he has enough to complete it? 29 Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it will begin to ridicule him, 30 saying, “This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.” 31 Or what king, going out to wage war against another king, will not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to oppose the one who comes against him with twenty thousand? 32 If he cannot, then, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for the terms of peace. 33 So therefore, none of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions.’


’Come down, O Love divine’ (‘Down Ampney’) by King’s College Choir, Cambridge/Thomas Williamson/Stephen Cleobury

Today’s reflection: ‘Come down, O love divine’

For my reflections and devotions each day these few weeks, I am reflecting on and invite you to listen to a piece of music or a hymn set to a tune by the great English composer, Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958).

This morning [4 September 2022], I invite you to join me in listening to the hymn ‘Come down, O love divine’ for which Vaughan Williams wrote the tune ‘Down Ampey.’ Thanks in particular to this setting by Vaughan Williams, this hymn is loved around the world.

He named the tune after the pretty Cotswold village of Down Ampney in Gloucestnershire, where he was born in the Vicarage on 12 October 1872. Down Ampney is off the A417 which runs between Cirencester and Faringdon in Oxfordshire on the A420, and about 5 km north of Cricklade, which is on the A419 running from Cirencester to Swindon, Wiltshire.

The parish church, All Saints’ Church, was founded by the Knights Templar in 1265, although much of its current shape is the result of a Victorian rebuilding. The spire dates from the 14th century, when the south porch was added.

The nave is supported on pointed arches decorated with a profusion of red flowers. One theory says the flowers are a reminder of the bubonic plague or Black Death, when red rash marked the victims’ skin. The Black Death is also said to explain why the church stands at a distance from the centre of the village.

When the order of Templars was suppressed by the crown in 1315, the living of Down Ampney passed to the Abbey of Cirencester. At the Dissolution of the Monasteries it passed to Christ Church, Oxford.

The church has excellent stained glass, much of it Victorian or modern, including a series of nautical parables given by Admiral Charles Talbot after his ship survived a storm off Sebastopol in 1854. Another window depicting the Resurrection Stone is dedicated to Vaughan Williams’s father. The interior is a symphony of woodwork, with intricately carved south transept screen and pulpit, and the Victorian north transept screen incorporates Jacobean panelling. The south transept has a pair of effigies, Sir Nicholas de Valers (or de Valery), a Templar knight associated with the founding of the church, and perhaps his wife, Margaret Bassett, who is shown in a pious pose.

The north transept or Hungerford Chapel is enclosed within a fine oak screen, part of which is made from the Musicians’ Gallery at Cirencester Abbey. The fragments were found in a yard in Down Ampney parish and moved into the church. The chapel is a grandiose memorial to Sir James Hungerford and his son Anthony, successive lords of the manor of Down Ampney. Their ornate, gilded monument dates to 1637 and shows father and son facing each other across a prayer desk.

The composer’s father, the Revd Arthur Charles Vaughan Williams (1834-1875), served in Bemerton, the same parish where the poet George Herbert had been Vicar around 300 years earlier — and at Halsall in Lancashire, before becoming the Vicar of Down Ampney in 1868. He died there on 9 February 1875, only three years after the birth of his son Ralph Vaughan-Williams. Soon after, Vaughan Williams was taken by his mother, Margaret Susan (née Wedgwood) (1842-1937), a daughter of Josiah Wedgwood III and the great-granddaughter of the potter Josiah Wedgwood, to live with her family at Leith Hill Place, a home in the North Downs in Surrey bought by the Wedgwood family in 1847.

The tune he composed for the mediaeval hymn ‘Come Down, O Love Divine’ (Discendi, Amor santo), written by Bianco da Siena (ca1350-1434), is named ‘Down Ampney’ with affection for and in honour of his birthplace.

‘Come down, O love divine,’ (New English Hymnal, No 137; Irish Church Hymnal, No 294) was originally written in Italian in the 14th or 15th century by Bianco da Siena. It was first translated into English in 1867 by the Revd Dr Richard Frederick Littledale (1833-1890), a Dublin-born Anglican priest who had been forced to give up his full-time parochial ministry due to ill-health.

The hymn was first published in 1906, when it was published in the English Hymnal, edited by Percy Dearmer and Vaughan Williams, set to this strong, eminently singable, tune specially composed for it by Vaughan Williams, with a unique metre. Indeed, many regard this as the most beautiful of all his hymn tunes.

Come down, O love divine,
Seek Thou this soul of mine,
And visit it with thine own ardour glowing;
O Comforter, draw near,
Within my heart appear,
And kindle it, thy holy flame bestowing.

O let it freely burn,
Till earthly passions turn
To dust and ashes in its heat consuming;
And let thy glorious light
Shine ever on my sight,
And clothe me round, the while my path illuming.

Let holy charity
Mine outward vesture be,
And lowliness become mine inner clothing;
True lowliness of heart,
Which takes the humbler part,
And o’er its own shortcomings weeps with loathing.

And so the yearning strong,
With which the soul will long,
Shall far outpass the power of human telling;
For none can guess its grace,
Till he become the place
Wherein the Holy Spirit makes his dwelling.

The Duomo in Siena … ‘Come down, O love divine’ was originally written in Italian in the 14th or 15th century by Bianco da Siena. (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayer, Sunday 4 September 2022 (Trinity XII, Creation Sunday):

The Collect:

Almighty and everlasting God,
you are always more ready to hear than we to pray
and to give more than either we desire or deserve:
pour down upon us the abundance of your mercy,
forgiving us those things of which our conscience is afraid
and giving us those good things
which we are not worthy to ask
but through the merits and mediation
of Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post Communion Prayer:

God of all mercy,
in this eucharist you have set aside our sins
and given us your healing:
grant that we who are made whole in Christ
may bring that healing to this broken world,
in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord.

The theme in the USPG prayer diary this week is ‘Season of Creation,’ is introduced this morning by the Season of Creation Advisory Committee:

‘The Psalmist declares, “The heavens are telling the glory of God; and the firmament proclaims God’s handiwork. Day to day pours forth speech, and night to night declares knowledge their voice is not heard; yet their voice goes out through all the Earth, and their words to the end of the world.” (Psalm 19: 1-4) Creation never ceases to proclaim, but do we listen?

‘During the Season of Creation, our common prayer and action can help us listen for the voices of those who are silenced. In prayer we lament the individuals, communities, species, and ecosystems who are lost, and those whose livelihoods are threatened by habitat loss and climate change. In prayer we centre the cry of the Earth and the cry of the poor.

‘Listening to the voice of creation offers members of the Christian family a rich entry point for interfaith and interdisciplinary dialogue and practice. By listening to the voice of all creation, humans from all cultures and sectors of life can be joined in our vocation to care for our common home.

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

‘O Lord, You have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and I rise up’. May we listen to God and follow the path he leads us along, for He has a plan for us.

Street art in Rethymnon in Crete … Sunday 4 September marks the beginning of Creation Season (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

Praying with USPG and the hymns of Vaughan Williams: Sunday 31 July 2022

The Old Vicarage, Down Ampney, where the composer Ralph Vaughan Williams was born in 1872 (Photograph: Colin West 2011 / Panoramio)

Patrick Comerford

Today in calendar of the Church is the Seventh Sunday after Trinity, and later this morning (31 July 2022) I hope to attend the Parish Eucharist in the Parish Church of Saint Mary and Saint Giles in Stony Stratford.

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

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

1, Reading one of the readings for the morning;

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

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

Luke 12: 13-21 (NRSVA):

13 Someone in the crowd said to him, ‘Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me.’ 14 But he said to him, ‘Friend, who set me to be a judge or arbitrator over you?’ 15 And he said to them, ‘Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.’ 16 Then he told them a parable: ‘The land of a rich man produced abundantly. 17 And he thought to himself, “What should I do, for I have no place to store my crops?” 18 Then he said, “I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. 19 And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.” 20 But God said to him, “You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?” 21 So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich towards God.’

The Duomo in Siena … RF Littledale’s hymn ‘Come down, O love divine’ is a translation of an Italian hymn by Bianco da Siena (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s reflection: ‘Come down, O love divine’

Ralph Vaughan Williams was the composer of symphonies, chamber music, opera, choral music, and film scores, a collector of English folk music and song. With Percy Dearmer, he co-edited the English Hymnal, in which he included many folk song arrangements as hymn tunes, and several of his own original compositions. He wrote the tune ‘Down Ampey’ for the hymn ‘Come down, O love divine,’ and thanks in particular to his setting this hymn is loved around the world.

Vaughan Williams named the tune after the pretty Cotswold village of Down Ampney in Gloucestershire, where he was born in the Vicarage 150 years ago on 12 October 1872. Down Ampney is off the A417, which runs between Cirencester and Faringdon in Oxfordshire on the A420, and about 5 km north of Cricklade, which is on the A419 running from Cirencester to Swindon, Wiltshire.

The parish church, All Saints’ Church, was founded by the Knights Templar in 1265, although much of its current shape is the result of a Victorian rebuilding. The spire dates from the 14th century, when the south porch was added.

The church has excellent stained glass, much of it Victorian or modern, including a series of nautical parables given by Admiral Charles Talbot after his ship survived a storm off Sebastopol in 1854. Another window depicting the Resurrection Stone is dedicated to Vaughan Williams’s father.

The composer’s father, the Revd Arthur Charles Vaughan Williams (1834-1875), served in Bemerton – the same parish where the poet George Herbert had been Vicar around 300 years earlier — and at Halsall in Lancashire, before becoming the Vicar of Down Ampney in 1868. He died there on 9 February 1875, only three years after the birth of his son Ralph Vaughan-Williams.

Soon after, Vaughan Williams was taken by his mother, Margaret Susan (née Wedgwood) (1842-1937), a daughter of Josiah Wedgwood III and the great-granddaughter of the potter Josiah Wedgwood, to live with her family at Leith Hill Place, a home in the North Downs in Surrey bought by the Wedgwood family in 1847.

The tune he composed for the mediaeval hymn ‘Come Down, O Love Divine’ (Discendi, Amor santo), written by Bianco da Siena (ca1350-1434), is named ‘Down Ampney’ with affection for and in honour of his birthplace.

‘Come down, O love divine,’ (New English Hymnal, No 137; Irish Church Hymnal, No 294) was originally written in Italian in the 14th or 15th century by Bianco da Siena.

Bianco di Santi (ca 1350-1399), also known as Bianco da Siena and Bianco da Lanciolina, was an Italian mystic poet and an imitator of Jacopone da Todi. He wrote several religious poems that were popular in the Middle Ages. At first he was a wool carder who worked in Siena. He eventually became a member of the Jesuates, founded by Giovanni Colombini. He died in Venice in 1399.

The hymn was first translated into English in 1867 by the Revd Dr Richard Frederick Littledale (1833-1890), a Dublin-born Anglican priest who had been forced to give up his full-time parochial ministry due to ill-health.

Littledale was curate in Saint Matthew in Thorpe Hamlet, Norfolk (1856-1857) and curate of Saint Mary the Virgin, Crown Street, Soho, London (1857-1861), where he took an interest in the work of the House of Charity.

For the rest of his life, Littledale suffered from chronic ill-health. He took little part in any parochial duties and devoted himself mainly to writing. Until his death, he continued to act as a father confessor, and next to Edward Pusey is said to have heard more confessions than any other priest in the Church of England. Through William Bell Scott he came to know and influence the poet Christina Rossetti.

Littledale was a contributor to many newspapers and publications, including Kottabos (a college miscellany in TCD), Notes and Queries, the Daily Telegraph, the Church Quarterly Review, and The Academy. He wrote many books and pamphlets in support of Anglicanism in opposition to Roman Catholicism.

In conjunction with the Revd James Edward Vaux, Littledale wrote The Priest’s Prayer Book (1864), The People’s Hymnal (1867), The Christian Passover (1873) and The Altar Manual, of which 46,000 copies were published.

The People’s Hymnal (1867) included the hymn Come Down, O Love Divine, translating the Italian of Bianco da Siena. The original poem was included in the Laudi Spirituali del Bianco da Siena of Telesforo Bini in 1851.

He died at 9 Red Lion Square, London, on 11 January 1890. A reredos to his memory was erected in the chapel at Saint Katharine’s, 32 Queen Square, London, in March 1891.

In 1906, Littledale’s version of Come Down, O Love Divine was included in the English Hymnal, edited by Percy Dearmer and Vaughan Williams. It was set to this strong, eminently singable, tune specially composed for it by Vaughan Williams, with a unique metre. Indeed, many regard this as the most beautiful of all his hymn tunes.


’Come down, O Love divine’ (‘Down Ampney’) by King’s College Choir, Cambridge/Thomas Williamson/Stephen Cleobury

Come down, O love divine,
Seek Thou this soul of mine,
And visit it with thine own ardour glowing;
O Comforter, draw near,
Within my heart appear,
And kindle it, thy holy flame bestowing.

O let it freely burn,
Till earthly passions turn
To dust and ashes in its heat consuming;
And let thy glorious light
Shine ever on my sight,
And clothe me round, the while my path illuming.

Let holy charity
Mine outward vesture be,
And lowliness become mine inner clothing;
True lowliness of heart,
Which takes the humbler part,
And o’er its own shortcomings weeps with loathing.

And so the yearning strong,
With which the soul will long,
Shall far outpass the power of human telling;
For none can guess its grace,
Till he become the place
Wherein the Holy Spirit makes his dwelling.

The Piazza del Campo in Siena … RF Littledale’s hymn ‘Come down, O love divine’ is a translation of an Italian hymn by Bianco da Siena (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayer:

At the annual conference of the USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel) in High Leigh last week, we were updated on the work of USPG’s partners in Ukraine, Russia and with USPG’s partners with Ukrainian refugees.

The theme in the USPG prayer diary this week is ‘Refugee Support in Poland.’ The Revd David Brown, Chaplain of the Anglican Church in Poland, spoke to USPG earlier in the year about the conflict in Ukraine and how it has affected churches in Poland. The situation may have changed since he wrote:

‘There are many refugees from Ukraine who have travelled to Poland. These people come from all sections of society and some of them have existing links to family and friends in Poland. Many thousands of refugees don’t have such links and are simply trying to find a safe place to stay. Major train stations are used as transit points for refugees with volunteers from many different organisations offering basic supplies there.

‘Our chaplaincy is small in number, so it is difficult for us to take collective action. Instead, individuals from our congregation are volunteering at help centres and providing shelter for refugees, who are often shocked and traumatised by their experiences. It can also be a struggle for both refugees and their hosts to acclimatise to each other. The chaplaincy continues to hold daily services and offer pastoral care and support to all affected by the current situation and those in Poland who are facing problems unrelated to the conflict in Ukraine.

‘We recognise that the fallout from the situation in Ukraine will pose long-term challenges in the coming weeks, months and years. Our chaplaincy will be here to offer support wherever possible.’

Sunday 31 July 2022:

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

Welcoming God,
you taught us to befriend the stranger.
May we offer hospitality and support
to all in need.

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

With the Saints through Christmas (5): 30 December 2021, Josephine Butler

Josephine Butler … ‘God and one woman make a majority’

Patrick Comerford

Christmas is a season that continues for 40 days until the Feast of the Presentation or Candlemas (2 February).

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

I am continuing my Prayer Diary on my blog each morning, reflecting in these ways:

1, Reflections on a saint remembered in the calendars of the Church during Christmas;

2, the day’s Gospel reading;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary.

Josephine Butler (1828-1906) was active campaigner against the way Victorian society and legislation treated prostitutes, most of whom were forced into their lifestyle activity through desperate poverty.

Josephine Butler was born on 13 April 1828 at Milfield House, Milfield, Northumberland, and was baptised on 30 May in Northumberland. She was the seventh child of John Grey (1785–1868) and Hannah Eliza Annett 1792-1860). Her father, John Grey, was an eminent agricultural expert, and the cousin of the reformist Prime Minister, Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey. John Grey campaigned for the abolition of slavery and played a significant role in Catholic emancipation. He lost most of his savings in 1857 with the failure of the Newcastle Bank.

In 1852, Josephine married the Revd George Butler (1819-1890), who encouraged her in her public work. From her 20s on, Josephine was active in feminist movements, and the Butlers had strong radical sympathies, including support for the Union in the American Civil War.

Josephine and George Butler had four children. In 1863, while they were living in Cheltenham, where George was the vice-principal of Cheltenham College, their only daughter, Evangeline, died at the age of six.

In 1866, the family moved to Liverpool when George was appointed headmaster of Liverpool College. There Josephine decided to seek solace by ministering to people with greater pain than her own. She became involved in the campaign for higher education for women, and with Anne Jemima Clough, later principal of Newnham College, Cambridge, she helped to establish the North of England Council for Promoting the Higher Education of Women.

Against the advice of her friends and family, she began visiting Brownlow Hill workhouse in Liverpool, which led to her first involvement with prostitutes. She saw the women as being exploited victims of male oppression, and attacked the double standard of sexual morality.

Her campaign took on an international dimension when she travelled through Europe in 1874-1875 addressing meetings. Her campaign succeeded with the repeal of the Contagious Diseases Act in 1883. In 1885, she became involved in a successful campaign against child prostitution.

She was a devout Anglican and a woman of prayer, and once said: ‘God and one woman make a majority.’ She modelled her spirituality on that of Saint Catherine of Siena, and wrote a biography of the Dominican saint.

When George Butler retired from Liverpool College, he became a Canon of Winchester Cathedral. He died on 14 March 1890. Josephine continued her campaigns until the early 1900s. She died on 30 December 1906.

Josephine Butler is celebrated in the Calendar of Common Worship in the Church of England on 30 May, the anniversary of her baptism, and on 30 December, the anniversary of her death.

She is depicted in windows in the Anglican Cathedral, Liverpool, and Saint Olave’s Church, London.

Many of her papers are in the Women’s Library in London Metropolitan University and in the Josephine Butler Museum, Southend-On-Sea. Durham University honoured her in 2005 by giving her name Josephine Butler College. A building in the Faculty of Business and Law in Liverpool John Moores University is named Josephine Butler House. Her former home in Cheltenham was demolished in the 1970s.

Luke 2: 36-40 (NRSVA):

36 There was also a prophet, Anna the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was of a great age, having lived with her husband for seven years after her marriage, 37 then as a widow to the age of eighty-four. She never left the temple but worshipped there with fasting and prayer night and day. 38 At that moment she came, and began to praise God and to speak about the child to all who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem.

39 When they had finished everything required by the law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth. 40 The child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom; and the favour of God was upon him.

The Prayer in the USPG Prayer Diary today (30 December 2021) invites us to pray:

Lord, we pray for clergy around the world. We recognise the difficulties they have faced since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic and the love they have shown to their parishioners throughout this challenging time.

Yesterday: Saint Thomas Becket

Tomorrow: William Bedell

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

Praying in Advent 2021: 4, Saint Anansus of Siena

Saint Anansus of Siena depicted in the in the ‘Maestà’ of Duccio

Patrick Comerford

This is the Season of Advent. Before a busy day begins, I am taking some time early this morning (1 December 2021) for prayer, reflection and reading.

Each morning in the Advent, I am reflecting in these ways:

1, Reflections on a saint remembered in the calendars of the Church during Advent;

2, the day’s Gospel reading;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary.

Saint Ansanus (Sant’Ansano), who is recalled today (1 December), is the patron saint of Siena. He is called ‘The Baptiser’ or ‘The Apostle of Siena,’ and died in the year 304.

Legend says he was born into the noble Ancian family of Rome in the third century. When he was still a child, Ansanus was secretly baptised by his nurse Maxima (Saint Maxima of Rome) and was secretly brought up as a Christian.

Ansanus openly declared his Christian faith during the persecutions of Diocletian, when he was 19. Tradition says he preached the Gospel in Bagnoregio (Bagnorea) and that the Church of Santa Maria delle Carceri outside the Alban Gate was been built above the prison where he was held.

Tradition says his own father denounced Ansanus to the authorities. Ansanus and Maxima were scourged; Maxima died, but Ansanus survived. He was then thrown into a pot of boiling oil, survived once more, and was then taken to Siena as a prisoner. There he preached Christianity and make many converts to Christianity. He was decapitated on the orders of the Emperor Diocletian.

Saint Ansanus is venerated as one of the patron saints of Siena. He is depicted in the Maestà of Duccio, an altarpiece composed of many individual paintings commissioned by the city of Siena in 1308 from the artist Duccio di Buoninsegna and his most famous work, completed in 1308-1311.

The front panels make up a large enthroned Madonna and Child with saints and angels, including Saint Ansanus, and a predella of the Childhood of Christ with prophets. The reverse has the rest of a combined cycle of the Life of the Virgin and the Life of Christ in a total of 43 small scenes.

The base of the panel has an inscription that reads, ‘Holy Mother of God, be thou the cause of peace for Siena and life to Duccio because he painted thee thus.’ Duccio’s Maestà set Italian painting on a course leading away from the styles of Byzantine art to more direct presentations of reality. However, several panels are now dispersed or lost.

Matthew 15: 29-37 (NRSVA)

29 After Jesus had left that place, he passed along the Sea of Galilee, and he went up the mountain, where he sat down. 30 Great crowds came to him, bringing with them the lame, the maimed, the blind, the mute, and many others. They put them at his feet, and he cured them, 31 so that the crowd was amazed when they saw the mute speaking, the maimed whole, the lame walking, and the blind seeing. And they praised the God of Israel.

32 Then Jesus called his disciples to him and said, ‘I have compassion for the crowd, because they have been with me now for three days and have nothing to eat; and I do not want to send them away hungry, for they might faint on the way.’ 33 The disciples said to him, ‘Where are we to get enough bread in the desert to feed so great a crowd?’ 34 Jesus asked them, ‘How many loaves have you?’ They said, ‘Seven, and a few small fish.’ 35 Then ordering the crowd to sit down on the ground, 36 he took the seven loaves and the fish; and after giving thanks he broke them and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. 37 And all of them ate and were filled; and they took up the broken pieces left over, seven baskets full.

The Prayer in the USPG Prayer Diary today (1 December 2021, World AIDS Day) invites us to pray:

We pray for the medical professionals and researchers combating diseases and guarding our health tirelessly.

Yesterday: Saint Andrew the Apostle

Tomorrow: Saint Mungo

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 Maestà, or Maestà of Duccio … Saint Anansus of Siena is in the bottom row, second from the left

Praying in Ordinary Time 2021: 20, the Duomo, Siena

The Duomo in Siena … work stopped with the Black Death in 1348 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

During this time in the Church Calendar known as Ordinary Time, I am taking some time each morning to reflect in these ways:

1, photographs of a church or place of worship;

2, the day’s Gospel reading;

3, a prayer from the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel).

This week my photographs are of seven cathedrals in Italy. This morning (18 June 2021), my photographs are from the Duomo in Siena.

The bell tower of the Duomo in Siena has six bells (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Siena Cathedral (Duomo di Siena) is dedicated to the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, and is the episcopal seat of the Diocese of Siena, now the Archdiocese of Siena-Colle di Val d’Elsa-Montalcino.

Siena’s cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta was begun in the 12th century and is one of the great examples of Italian Romanesque-Gothic architecture. Its main façade was completed in 1380.

The duomo is unusual for a cathedral in that its axis runs north-south. The original plan was to build the largest cathedral in the world, with a north-south transept and an east-west nave. But the black death, architectural and design problems, and shortage of money put an end to grand plans when only the transept and the east wall were completed. The outer walls and abandoned remains of the Duomo Nuovo can be seen beside of the cathedral on the Piazza Jacopo della Quercia.

Today, the planned transepts serve as the cathedral, and the magnificent faced at the north or liturgical ‘west end’ is in white, green and red polychrome marble, designed by Giovanni Pisano.

Outside and inside, the cathedral is built of white and greenish-black marble in alternating stripes, with the addition of red marble on the façade. Black and white are the symbolic colours of Siena, linked to black and white horses of the city’s legendary founders, Senius and Aschius. The finest Italian artists completed works in the cathedral, including Nicola and Giovanni Pisano, Donatello, Pinturicchio, Lorenzo Ghiberti, and Bernini.

There was a church on the site in the ninth century with a bishop’s palace. A synod in this church in December 1058 elected of Pope Nicholas II and deposed the antipope Benedict X.

The cathedral masons’ guild, the Opera di Santa Maria, was commissioned in 1196 to build a new cathedral. Work began on the north and south transepts, and it was planned to add the main, larger body of the cathedral later, although this enlargement never took place.

The cathedral was designed and completed in 1215-1263 on the site of an earlier church. It is in the shape of a Latin cross with a slightly projecting transept, a dome and a bell tower. The dome was completed in 1264, and the lantern was added by Gian Lorenzo Bernini. The bell tower has six bells, the oldest cast in 1149.

A second major addition to the cathedral was planned in 1339. This would have more than doubled its size, with of an entirely new nave and two new aisles.

Building work began under the direction of Giovanni di Agostino, but came to a halt with the Black Death in 1348 and never resumed. The outer walls, remains of this extension, can now be seen to the south of the Duomo. The floor of the incomplete nave is now a parking lot and a museum. One unfinished wall can be climbed by a narrow stairs for a high view of the city.

The façade is one of the most fascinating in Italy. Each of the cardinal points – west, east, north, and south – has its own distinct work. The most impressive is the west façade, a beautiful example of Sienese workmanship, which serves as the main entrance to the Duomo.

This west façade was built in two stages and combines elements of French Gothic, Tuscan Romanesque and Classical architecture. Work on lower part of the west façade began ca 1284. It was built in polychrome marble, and the work was overseen by Giovanni Pisano.

The lower portion of the façade follows Pisano’s original plans. Built in Tuscan Romanesque style, it emphasises a horizontal unity of the area around the portals at the expense of the vertical bay divisions. The three portals, surmounted by lunettes, are based on Pisano’s original designs, as are much of the sculpture and orientation surrounding the entrances. The areas around and above the doors and the columns between the portals are richly decorated with acanthus scrolls, allegorical figures and biblical scenes.

Pisano left Siena abruptly in 1296, and his work on the lower façade was continued by Camaino di Crescentino, who made a number of changes to the original plan. These included the instillation of a larger rose window based on designs by Duccio di Buoninsegna. But work on the west façade came to an abrupt end in 1317 when all efforts were redirected to the east façade.

The upper part of the west façade may have been completed in 1360-1370, using Pisano’s plans with some adaptations by Giovanni di Cecco, who was heavily influenced by French Gothic architecture. The upper portion also features heavy Gothic decoration in marked contrast to the simple geometric designs common to Tuscan Romanesque architecture.

Three large mosaics on the gables of the façade were made in Venice in 1878. The large central mosaic, the Coronation of the Virgin, is the work of Luigi Mussini. The smaller mosaics on each side, the Nativity of Christ and the Presentation of Mary in the Temple, are the work of Alessandro Franchi. The bronze central door, known as the Porta della Riconoscenza, dates from 1946.

On the left corner pier of the façade, a 14th-century inscription marks the grave of Giovanni Pisano. A column next to the façade has a statue of the Contrade Lupa, a wolf breast-feeding Romulus and Remus. According to local legend, Senius and Aschius, sons of Remus and founders of Siena, left Rome with the statue which they had stolen from the Temple of Apollo.

The Basilica of San Domenico in Siena, also known as the Basilica Cateriniana, is one of the most important churches in the city. This Dominican church was begun in 1226-1265, and was enlarged in the 14th century, giving the church the Gothic appearance it has today.

The church has several relics of Saint Catherine of Siena, whose family house is nearby. The Cappella delle Volte is the former chapel of Dominican nuns and is associated with several events in life of Saint Catherine of Siena. An altar on the right side of the nave has a reliquary with the relics of Saint Catherine. Saint Catherine’s Chapel holds the saint’s head and thumb.

The Duomo of Siena seen from the Basilica Cateriniana (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Matthew 6: 19-23 (NRSVA):

[Jesus said:] 19 ‘Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; 20 but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

22 ‘The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light; 23 but if your eye is unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!’

The cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta is one of the great examples of Italian Romanesque-Gothic architecture (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Prayer in the USPG Prayer Diary:

The Prayer in the USPG Prayer Diary today (18 June 2021, Bernard Mizeki) invites us to pray:

Let us give thanks for the life of Bernard Mizeki, African missionary and martyr. We pray for the institutions who continue to work in his name, such as Bernard Mizeki College in Zimbabwe and the St Bernard Mizeki Men’s Guild, which promotes Christian leadership across Southern Africa.

Yesterday’s reflection

Continued tomorrow

The Basilica of San Domenico in Siena is also known as the Basilica Cateriniana (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