An Advent Calendar with Patrick Comerford: 24, 23 December 2025

‘Snow had fallen, snow on snow … in the bleak midwinter’ … snow in Cloister Court, Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, some years ago (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are in the last days of Advent, and tomorrow is Christmas Eve. At noon each day this Advent, I am offering an image or two as part of my own ‘Advent Calendar’ for 2025, and an Advent or Christmas carol, hymn or song.

I have been involved all morning with Santa's visit to the Christmas Market in Stony Stratford. It is great fun, and I am thankful it is not snowing. But in this cold winter weather and this costume, it feels like the bleak mid-winter despite all the warm responses of children and adults alike. So, my images for my Advent Calendar at noon today are of snow some years ago in Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, on a bleak mid-winter morning during a weekend when I had been invited to preach in the college chapel.

My choice of a carol or hymn today is ‘In the Bleak Mid-Winter,’ by Christina Rossetti (1830-1894). For many it is closely associated with the Service of Nine Lessons with Carols, broadcast each Christmas Eve from the Chapel of King’s College, Cambridge.

Christina Rossetti’s poem, ‘In the Bleak Mid-Winter,’ became popular among choirs after it was included it in the BBC broadcasts of the Service of Nine Lessons with Carols by the Choir of King’s College, Cambridge, using the 1911 setting by Harold Edwin Darke (1888-1976). He had once been the conductor of the choir, and his setting of the poem as a carol included his beautiful and delicate organ accompaniment.

But the tune most often associated with ‘In the Bleak Midwinter’ is Cranham, composed in 1906 by Gustav Holst (1874-1934).

The poem had been published for the first time seven years earlier in Christina Rossetti’s Poetic Works, 10 years after her death. It was republished in 1906 The English Hymnal, edited by Percy Dearmer and Ralph Vaughan Williams, with Holst’s setting, and it quickly became a popular Christmas carol. Today ‘In the Bleak Midwinter’ is one of the most popular and best-loved carols.

Christina Rossetti was part of the Victorian arts-and-crafts movement and the pre-Raphaelite movement. She was a leading advocate of women’s rights, a campaigner against slavery and war, and a prominent member of the Anglo-Catholic movement. She wrote ‘In the Bleak Midwinter’ in 1872 in answer to a request from a magazine. But, like a lot of writers, she must have been frustrated that she never saw its publication.

So it took over 30 years, more than a generation, before this poem was first sung as a Christmas carol. Ever since then, though, it has been a firm Christmas favourite, and has been recorded by the King’s Singers, Julie Andrews, the Moody Blues, the Pet Shop Boys, James Taylor, Alison Crowe, Moya Brennan, Celtic Woman, Sarah McLachlan, Sarah Brightman and Loreena McKennitt.

But I still find this popularity surprising, because this is no popular, cosy, comfortable Christmas carol. Instead its images are harsh and bleak, and in the uncomfortable political climate in the world today tey are challenging and demanding once again.

‘In the bleak midwinter … snow had fallen, snow on snow’ … snow on Sidney Street, Cambridge, in front of the chapel of Sidney Sussex College (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

In the bleak midwinter
frosty wind made moan,
earth stood hard as iron,
water like a stone:
snow had fallen, snow on snow,
snow on snow,
in the bleak midwinter,
long ago.

Our God, heav’n cannot hold him,
nor earth sustain;
heav’n and earth shall flee away
when he comes to reign:
in the bleak midwinter
a stable place sufficed
the Lord God almighty,
Jesus Christ.

Enough for him, whom cherubim
worship night and day,
a breast full of milk
and a manger-ful of hay;
enough for him, whom angels
fall down before,
the ox and ass and camel
which adore.

Angels and archangels
May have gathered there,
cherubim and seraphim
thronged the air;
but his mother only,
in her maiden bliss,
worshipped the beloved
with a kiss.

What can I give him,
poor as I am?
If I were a shepherd,
I would bring a lamb;
if I were a wise man
I would do my part;
yet what I can I give him —
give my heart.

Praying at Christmas through poems and with USPG: 30 December 2022

Cloister Court in Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, in the snow … Clement Paman was a student here in the 1620s and 1630s (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

Christmas is not a season of 12 days, despite the popular Christmas song. Christmas is a 40-day season that lasts from Christmas Day (25 December) to Candlemas or the Feast of the Presentation (2 February).

Throughout the 40 days of this Christmas Season, I am reflecting in these ways:

1, Reflecting on a seasonal or appropriate poem;

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

This second last day of the year, 30 December, has no other name, number or commemoration in the calendar, apart from being the ‘sixth day of Christmas’ when my true love sent to me ‘six geese a-laying.’

But even by today, most people fail to get that far in this Christmas song, if they ever remembered that many lines.

And so, for my Christmas poem this morning I have chosen ‘On Christmas Day to My Heart,’ a poem written around 1660 or 1661 by Clement Paman (ca 1612-1664) and was first published in Dublin in 1663. Paman and his poetry are largely forgotten today – forgotten more than today’s ‘six geese a-laying’ may be. But I have chosen him because of his links with the Caroline Divines, with the Church of Ireland and with Sidney Sussex, College, Cambridge, where I have stayed regularly over the years.

This poem is difficult, almost turgid, to read today, with a now-awkward reference to stretching tight by turning a screw, especially to increase the tension or pitch of a musical instrument by winding up the screws or keys:

Today,
Then, screw thee high,
My heart, up to
The angels’ cry;
Sing ‘glory’, do

The reference is so awkward that it needed a footnotes in the programme for the Service of Nine Lessons and Carols at King’s College, Cambridge, in 1999. Yet this poem also contains these memorably beautiful lines:

Today,
A shed that’s thatched
(Yet straws can sing)
Holds God.

As a poet, Paman is sometimes associated with the ‘Cavalier Poets,’ who include Ben Jonson, Robert Herrick and Thomas Carew, and he has been described as ‘perhaps the most talented poet of the 17th century never to have had a poem published over his name.’

The Pamans appear to have been well-off, untitled Suffolk gentry, and Clement Paman was born in Chevington, Suffolk, in 1610 or 1611. His name is sometimes spelled Payman in Church of Ireland records. The Paman family is listed in the parish registers of Chevington, and his father, Robert Paman, probably lived at Dunstall Green in Dalham. He may have been related to the physicist, Henry Paman of Saint John’s College, who was at Cambridge at the same time.

Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, in the snow ... here Clement Paman was a student of Samuel Ward (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Clement Paman was educated at Lavenham School and Bury School. At the age of 16, he was admitted on 16 February 1628 to Sidney Sussex College, which at first had been a Puritan foundation. Earlier students at Sidney Sussex included Oliver Cromwell, who left in 1617 without taking a degree, and Edward Montagu, 2nd Earl of Manchester, who graduated in 1622 and who was a key commander of the Parliamentary forces in the English Civil War.

But Paman was not unusual among Sidney Sussex students for his political and religious views: John Bramhall, who had been there ahead of Cromwell, became the Archbishop of Armagh at the Caroline Restoration.

At Sidney Sussex, Paman was a student of Samuel Ward (1572-1643), Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity at Cambridge. Ward began life as a moderate Calvinist, but as a loyal Anglican he suffered persecution during the Civil War. When Ward died after being imprisoned in Saint John’s College, he was buried in the chapel in Sidney Sussex.

Paman obtained his BA in 1632, his MA in 1635 and later became a Doctor of Divinity at Cambridge University, and received the degree DD ad eundem at Trinity College Dublin in 1661. One of his earliest works is a tribute written after the death of a young Irish poet who was his contemporary in Cambridge: ‘Poem on the Death of Edward King.’ King, who was also the subject of John Milton’s ‘Lycidas,’ was born in Ireland in 1612, and was admitted to Christ’s College, Cambridge, in 1626. Four years later, he was elected a fellow in 1632, and he intended to proceed to ordination. But his career was cut short by the tragedy that inspired Paman’s and Milton’s poems. In 1637, he set out for Ireland to visit his family, but on 10 August the ship struck a rock off the Welsh coast, and King was drowned.

Some sources say Paman first came to Ireland along with John Bramhall as the chaplain to the Lord Deputy, Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford. But this detail is confusing as Strafford was Lord Deputy from 1632 to 1639, while Paman was still in Cambridge.

But Paman seems to have arrived in Ireland by 1640 at the latest, for David Crookes, in his Clergy of Kilmore, Elphin and Ardagh identiifes Clement Paman with Cleremont Panham, who was Rector of Saint John’s, Sligo, in 1640. However, this rectory was lost in a subsequent dispute, and he returned to England.

John Cleveland’s epitaph on the death of the Earl of Strafford, ‘Here lies Wise and Valiant Dust’ (1647), has recently been ascribed to Paman:

Here lies wise and valiant dust
Huddled up ’twixt fit and just,
Strafford, who was hurried hence
’Twixt treason and convenience.
He spent his time here in a mist,
A Papist, yet a Calvinist;
His Prince’s nearest joy and grief,
He had, yet wanted all relief;
The prop and ruin of the state;
The people’s violent love and hate;
One in extremes loved and abhorred.
Riddles lie here, or in a word –
Here lies blood; and let it lie
Speechless still and never cry.

From 1648 to 1653, Paman was Vicar of Thatcham in Berkshire, in the Diocese of Oxford. During that time, he wrote of how he was inspired by Edward Benlowes’s poetic masterpiece Theophila, or Love’s Sacrifice, a Divine Poem (1652): ‘All my pleasure is, yt I have obeyed you, & somewhat rays’d my owne heart wth these imaginations.’

In 1653, Paman’s right to his Berkshire vicarage was disputed. He lost the living, and remained without a church appointment until the end of the Cromwellian era and his return to Ireland in 1661.

Following the end of the Civil War and the Caroline Restoration, Paman was appointed Prebendary of Monmohenock in Saint Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin, in 1661, and he was Dean of Saint Mary’s Cathedral, Elphin, in Co Roscommon, and Vicar of Saint John’s, Sligo, from 1661, and Vicar of Castledermot, Co Kildare, in the Diocese of Glendalough, from 1662 until his death in 1664.

During his time as Dean of Elphin, the cathedral – which had been destroyed during the rebellion of 1641 – was rebuilt by Bishop John Parker (1661-1667), and in the following century the poet Oliver Goldsmith (1728-1774) attended the school attached to the cathedral.

After his death, a memorial to him was erected in the chapel of Sidney Sussex College, although I have failed to find it over the years.

The chapel and Chapel Court in Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, in the snow (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Peter Davidson, in his introduction to Poetry and Revolution, describes Paman as a ‘moderate Protestant.’ However, in Christian Humanism and the Puritan Social Order, Margo Todd calls him an ‘ultra-royalist cleric.’ She says his writings on Christian charity are liberal for their time, and cites his idea that alms should be given ‘even to the loose and impious.’

While he was Dean of Elphin, Paman published Poems by Several Hands in Dublin in 1663. However, only three of his poems were published in the 17th century and the majority of his poems remained in manuscript collections in the Bodleian Library in Oxford.

His poems are mainly of a devotional nature. Perhaps the best-known is ‘On Christmas Day to My Heart,’ a poem written ca 1660. His other poems include ‘Good Friday,’ ‘On Christmas Day 1661,’ and ‘On his death.’ He also wrote a lengthy tribute to the dramatist and poet Ben Jonson (1572-1637). Peter Davidson notes that Paman’s style is complex, ‘abounding in extended metaphors’ and more ‘overly Baroque’ than some of his contemporaries, being a development of the ‘epigrammatic style of Jonson.’

King’s College, Cambridge ... ‘On Christmas Day to My Heart’ was included in the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols on Christmas Eve 1999 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

This morning’s poem, ‘On Christmas Day to My Heart,’ was included in the Oxford Book of Christian Verse (1940) and in Norman Ault’s collection, A Treasury of Unfamiliar Lyrics (1938). But until the 1990s, Paman remained unknown except among scholars interested in the manuscript collections of 17th century poetry.

There was a renewed interest in his work with the publication of the anthology, Poetry and Revolution: An Anthology of British and Irish Verse (1998). A year later, ‘On Christmas Day to My Heart’ was set to music by Richard Rodney Bennett for the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols in the Chapel of King’s College, Cambridge in 1999.

On Christmas Day to My Heart by Clement Paman

Today,/ A shed that’s thatched/ (Yet straws can sing)/ Holds God … the altarpiece by the Venetian painter Giovanni Pittoni in the chapel of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today,
Hark! Heaven sings;
Stretch, tune, my heart!
(For hearts have strings
May bear their part)
And though thy lute were bruised i’ the fall,
Bruised hearts may reach an humble pastoral.

Today,
Shepherds rejoice,
And angels do
No more: thy voice
Can reach that too:
Bring them at least thy pipe along,
And mingle consort with the angels’ song.

Today,
A shed that’s thatched
(Yet straws can sing)
Holds God; God matched
With beasts; beasts bring
Their song their way: for shame then raise
Thy notes! lambs bleat, and oxen bellow praise.

Today,
God honoured man
Not angels: yet
They sing; and can
Raised man forget?
Praise is our debt to-day, now shall
Angels (man’s not so poor) discharge it all?

Today,
Then, screw thee high,
My heart, up to
The angels’ cry;
Sing ‘glory’, do:
What if thy strings all crack and fly?
On such a ground, music ’twill be to die.

Looking into the ruins of Elphin Cathedral ruins from the ruins of the tower (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

USPG Prayer Diary:

The theme in the USPG Prayer Diary this week is the USPG Christmas Appeal: Journey to Freedom. The Journey to Freedom campaign supports the anti-human trafficking programme of the Diocese of Durgapur in North India.

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

Let us pray for those involved in rescue missions to find the missing. May they be sustained by courage and resolve to restore freedom to those captured and detained.

Yesterday’s reflection

Continued tomorrow

Bicycles in the snow at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Praying with the Psalms in Lent: 31 March 2022 (Psalms 51)

‘Wash me and I shall be whiter than snow’ (Psalm 51: 7) … snow at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

I am still in the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford this morning after yesterday’s angiogram and other tests following my recent stroke. Later today (31 March 2022), I am retiring after five years as the Priest-in-Charge of the Rathkeale and Kilnaughtin Group of Parishes in the Diocese of Limerick, and as Canon Precentor of Saint Mary’s Cathedral, Limerick, Saint Flannan’s Cathedral, Killaloe, Co Clare, and Saint Brendan’s Cathedral, Clonfert, Co Galway.

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

During Lent this year, in this Prayer Diary on my blog each morning, I am reflecting in these ways:

1, Short reflections on a psalm or psalms;

2, reading the psalm or psalms;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary.

Psalm 51:

Psalm 51 is one of the penitential psalms. In Latin and in its many musical settings it is known as Miserere, and in Greek as Ἐλεήμων, from its opening words in Greek, ἐλέησόν με ὁ θεός, which is reflected in part of the Jesus Prayer.

In the slightly different numbering system in the Greek Septuagint and Latin Vulgate translations, this is Psalm 50.

The introduction to the text says this psalm it was composed by King David as a confession to God after he sinned with Bathsheba. Psalm 51 is based on an incident recalled in II Samuel 11-12. David’s confession is regarded as a model for repentance in both Judaism and Christianity.

The Midrash Tehillim says that one who acknowledges that he has sinned and is fearful and prays to God about it, as David did, will be forgiven. But one who tries to ignore his sin will be punished by God. The Talmud (Yoma 86b) cites verse 5 in the Hebrew version (verse 3 in English versions), ‘My sin is always before me,’ as a reminder to the penitent to maintain continual vigilance in the area in which he transgressed, even after he has confessed and been absolved.

In Patristic time, Saint Athanasius recommend some of his disciples to recite this psalm each night by some of his disciples. It is said both Thomas More and Lady Jane Grey recited this psalm at their executions. Charles Spurgeon calls Psalm 51 ‘The Sinner’s Guide’, as it shows the sinner how to return to God’s grace.

Verse 17 says: ‘The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.’ This verse (Verse 19 in the Hebrew) suggests that God desires a ‘broken and contrite heart’ more than he does sacrificial offerings.

The idea of using broken-heartedness as a way to reconnect to God was emphasised in many teachings by Rebbe Nachman of Breslov. In Sichot HaRan 41, he taught: ‘It would be very good to be broken-hearted all day. But for the average person, this can easily degenerate into depression. You should therefore set aside some time each day for heartbreak. You should isolate yourself with a broken heart before God for a given time. But the rest of the day you should be joyful.’

Several verses from Psalm 51 are regular parts of Jewish liturgy. Verses 3, 4, 9, 13, 19, 20 and 21 in the Hebrew numbering are said in Selichot. Verses 9, 12 and 19 are said during Tefillat Zakkah before the Kol Nidrei service on Yom Kippur eve. Verse 17 (verse 15 in English), ‘O Lord, open my lips,’ is recited as a preface to the Amidah in all prayer services. Verse 20 is said by Ashkenazi Jews before the removal of the Sefer Torah from the ark on Shabbat and on Yom Tov morning. It is also said in the Atah Horaisa (‘You have been shown’) prayer recited before opening the ark on Simchat Torah. In the Sephardi liturgy, Psalm 51 is one of the additional psalms recited on Yom Kippur night.

The entire psalm is part of Tikkun Chatzot. It is also recited as a prayer for forgiveness.

Verses 12-13 have been set to music as a popular Jewish inspirational song, Lev Tahor (‘A pure heart’), commonly sung at Seudah Shlishit, the third Shabbat meal.

This is the most frequently used psalm in the Orthodox Church, in which it is known in as ‘Ἥ Ἐλεήμων He Eleḯmon,’ and begins in Greek Ἐλέησόν με, ὁ Θεός (Eléïsón me, o Theós). This psalm is also used liturgically in Western Christianity, and the Miserere was a frequent text in Catholic liturgical music before the Second Vatican Council.

In Anglican liturgy, themes in this psalm are incorporated into the Versicles and Responses in Morning Prayer and Evening Prayer:

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

O God, make clean our hearts within us
and renew us by your Holy Spirit.

The mediaeval application of the concept of mercy in cathedral liturgy is also reflected the original mediaeval misericords or mercy seats in Saint Mary’s Cathedral, Limerick, where I retire as canon precentor today. These stalls were called misericords or mercy seats because each of the 23 seats had a ledge or lip that allowed the priest using it to tip up the seat and still rest on it, appearing to stand throughout lengthy choral services while still remaining seated.

These misericords are the only surviving examples in Ireland of this type of late mediaeval ecclesiastical furnishing. They were carved from oak from Cratloe in Co Clare, the same woods provided the oak beams for the roofs of both Westminster Hall and Saint Mary’s Cathedral.

In English Common Law, the Miserere was used for centuries as a judicial test of reading ability. This practice began as a way for a defendant to claim to be a clergyman, and so subject only to ecclesiastical courts and not to the power of civil courts. This was called pleading the benefit of clergy.

Psalm 51: 1 was traditionally used for the literacy test. An illiterate person who memorised this psalm could also claim the benefit of clergy, and Psalm 51 became known as the ‘neck-verse.’ Knowing it could save one’s neck by transferring a case from a secular court, where hanging was a likely sentence, to an ecclesiastical court, where trials and sentences were more lenient, with a sentence of penance instead of a death penalty.

At first, to claim the benefit of clergy, one had to appear before the court tonsured and wearing ecclesiastical dress. Over time, this proof was replaced by a literacy test: defendants showed their clerical status by reading from the Latin Bible. This opened the door to literate lay defendants also claiming the benefit of clergy.

Unofficially, the loophole was even larger, because the Biblical passage traditionally used for the literacy test was Psalm 51: 1, Miserere mei, Deus, secundum misericordiam tuam (‘Have mercy on me, O God, according to your abundant mercy).

During the reign of Edward III, this loophole was formalised in statute in 1351, and the benefit of clergy was extended to all who could read. The English dramatist Ben Jonson avoided hanging by pleading benefit of clergy in 1598 when charged with manslaughter.

Most settings of Psalm 51, often used at Tenebrae, are in a simple falsobordone style. Many composers wrote settings during the Renaissance. The earliest known polyphonic setting, probably dating from the 1480s, is by Johannes Martini, working in the Este court in Ferrara. The extended polyphonic setting by Josquin des Prez, written in Ferrara ca 1503-1504, may been inspired by the prison meditation Infelix ego by Girolamo Savonarola, who was burned at the stake five years earlier.

Later in the 16th century, Orlande de Lassus wrote an elaborate setting as part of his Penitential Psalms, and Palestrina, Andrea Gabrieli, Giovanni Gabrieli, and Carlo Gesualdo also wrote settings. Antonio Vivaldi may have written a setting or settings, but they have been lost.

One of the best-known settings of the Miserere is the 17th century version by Gregorio Allegri. It is said that at the age of 14 Mozart heard Allegri’s Misere performed once, on 11 April 1770, and after going back to his lodging for the night was able to write out the entire score from memory. He went back a day or two later with his draft to correct some errors. The final chorus has a ten-part harmony, showing how the young Mozart was a musical genius and prodigy.

Other settings have been written by Johann Sebastian Bach, Giovanni Battista Pergolesi and Arvo Pärt.

Allegri’s ‘Miserere’ advertised as an Easter Choral Concert at the Guards Chapel at Wellington Barracks, London (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Psalm 51 (NRSVA):

To the leader. A Psalm of David, when the prophet Nathan came to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba.

1 Have mercy on me, O God,
according to your steadfast love;
according to your abundant mercy
blot out my transgressions.
2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
and cleanse me from my sin.

3 For I know my transgressions,
and my sin is ever before me.
4 Against you, you alone, have I sinned,
and done what is evil in your sight,
so that you are justified in your sentence
and blameless when you pass judgement.
5 Indeed, I was born guilty,
a sinner when my mother conceived me.

6 You desire truth in the inward being;
therefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart.
7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;
wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
8 Let me hear joy and gladness;
let the bones that you have crushed rejoice.
9 Hide your face from my sins,
and blot out all my iniquities.

10 Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and put a new and right spirit within me.
11 Do not cast me away from your presence,
and do not take your holy spirit from me.
12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation,
and sustain in me a willing spirit.

13 Then I will teach transgressors your ways,
and sinners will return to you.
14 Deliver me from bloodshed, O God,
O God of my salvation,
and my tongue will sing aloud of your deliverance.

15 O Lord, open my lips,
and my mouth will declare your praise.
16 For you have no delight in sacrifice;
if I were to give a burnt-offering, you would not be pleased.
17 The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit;
a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.

18 Do good to Zion in your good pleasure;
rebuild the walls of Jerusalem,
19 then you will delight in right sacrifices,
in burnt-offerings and whole burnt-offerings;
then bulls will be offered on your altar.

Today’s Prayer:

The USPG Prayer Diary this week, under the heading ‘Let my people go,’ focuses on the approximately 230 million Dalits living in India. Considered outcasts, these communities suffer systematic exclusion and discrimination under the caste system, a system of social stratification. The USPG Prayer Diary this morning (31 March 2022) invites us to pray:

We pray for the Church of North India’s ‘Let My People Go’ programme. May the programme participants be liberated from discrimination and oppression.

Yesterday’s reflection

Continued tomorrow

The carved wyvern biting his tail under the seat in the precentor’s stall in Saint Mary’s Cathedral, Limerick … one of mediaeval ‘misericords’ or ‘mercy seats’ (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

‘What can I give him,poor as I am?’ Preparing the way of the Lord

‘Snow had fallen, snow on snow’ … snow in the Rectory garden in Askeaton the year before last (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

Sunday 13 December 2020

The Third Sunday of Advent, Gaudete Sunday

9.30: The Parish Eucharist, Castletown Church, Co Limerick

11.30: Morning Prayer, Holy Trinity Church, Rathkeale, Co Limerick

Readings: Isaiah 61: 1-4, 8-11; Psalm 126; John 1: 6-8, 19-28

There is a direct link to the readings HERE.

‘He has sent me … to proclaim liberty to the captives and release to the prisoners’ (Isaiah 61: 1) … an empty prison cell in the former concentration camp at Sachsenhausen (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

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

This morning, we light the third, pink candle on the Advent Wreath, and our prayers and readings focus on Saint John the Baptist.

Today is also known as Gaudete Sunday, taking its name from the Latin word Gaudete, meaning ‘Rejoice.’

Rejoice in the Lord always;
again I say, rejoice.

Too often, we think of Advent as a time of penitence, as a time like Lent. But it is not. It is a time to rejoice, to prepare for the coming of Christ, a time of anticipation, waiting, preparation, and of rejoicing.

In many churches, that feeling of joyful anticipations is displayed in the rose-coloured vestments worn on Gaudete Sunday instead of the violet of Advent. In some Anglican traditions, ‘Sarum Blue’ is used instead as a colour that represents hopefulness.

Our first reading (Isaiah 61: 1-4, 8-11) provides verses (1b to 2) that are quoted by Christ when he begins his ministry in the synagogue in Nazareth (see Luke 4: 18-19).

‘The year of the Lord’s favour’ refers to the jubilee year, a year dedicated to God, when all shall be free to return home to their families, and a year of rest when the land produces without being sown or worked.

Isaiah tells us that strangers or foreigners from all nations are to contribute to the restoration of righteousness on earth. They will be double blessed and have eternal joy, and God’s prmises will last for ever.

He looks forward to the time when all will rejoice because God has provided salvation and has healed their rift with God, and the people will praise God as an example for ‘all the nations.’

Advent should be a time of joyful preparation. As the Psalm this morning recalls: ‘Then was our mouth filled with laughter and our tongue with songs of joy’ (Psalm 126: 2). And, I know, we all need joy and laughter at the end of what has been a very dismal year for many.

In our Gospel reading (John 1: 6-8, 19-28), Saint John the Baptist calls on us to prepare ‘the way of the Lord’ (verse 23).

Saint John the Baptist is self-effacing about himself. He sees his role as one of waiting and preparing.

In this time of Advent, how are we preparing to welcome the coming Christ?

Decorating the house, sending cards, setting up the tree, enjoying the lights and the shopfronts … these all help build up our joyful anticipation and hope for the light of God coming into the darkness of the world … wrapping presents … making a list, checking it twice …

Is Christ on your list?

If Christ is on your list, what present would you bring him?

This question is asked by Christina Rossetti in her poem and hymn, ‘In the Bleak Midwinter.’ It was written almost a century and a half ago, in 1872, but still is one of the most popular and best-loved carols. Some years ago, in a BBC poll of some of the world’s leading choirmasters and choral experts, it was chosen as the best-ever Christmas carol.

This is no popular, cosy, comfortable Christmas carol. Instead, its images are harsh and bleak, and in today’s uncomfortable pandemic climate they are words that are challenging and demanding once again.

In the bleak midwinter (Irish Church Hymnal, No 162), by Christina Rossetti:

In the bleak midwinter
frosty wind made moan,
earth stood hard as iron,
water like a stone:
snow had fallen, snow on snow,
snow on snow,
in the bleak midwinter,
long ago.

Our God, heav’n cannot hold him,
nor earth sustain;
heav’n and earth shall flee away
when he comes to reign:
in the bleak midwinter
a stable place sufficed
the Lord God almighty,
Jesus Christ.

Enough for him, whom cherubim
worship night and day,
a breast full of milk
and a manger-ful of hay;
enough for him, whom angels
fall down before,
the ox and ass and camel
which adore.

Angels and archangels
May have gathered there,
cherubim and seraphim
thronged the air;
but his mother only,
in her maiden bliss,
worshipped the beloved
with a kiss.

What can I give him,
poor as I am?
If I were a shepherd,
I would bring a lamb;
if I were a wise man
I would do my part;
yet what I can I give him —
give my heart.

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

(Listen to the Choir of Lichfield Cathedral singing In the bleak midwinter here)

Saint John the Baptist and the Baptism of Christ in a stained-glass window in Saint Bartholomew’s Church, Dromcollogher, Co Limerick (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

John 1: 6-8, 19-28 (NRSVA):

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.

19 This is the testimony given by John when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, ‘Who are you?’ 20 He confessed and did not deny it, but confessed, ‘I am not the Messiah.’ 21 And they asked him, ‘What then? Are you Elijah?’ He said, ‘I am not.’ ‘Are you the prophet?’ He answered, ‘No.’ 22 Then they said to him, ‘Who are you? Let us have an answer for those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?’ 23 He said,

‘I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness,
“Make straight the way of the Lord”,’
as the prophet Isaiah said.

24 Now they had been sent from the Pharisees. 25 They asked him, ‘Why then are you baptizing if you are neither the Messiah, nor Elijah, nor the prophet?’ 26 John answered them, ‘I baptize with water. Among you stands one whom you do not know, 27 the one who is coming after me; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandal.’ 28 This took place in Bethany across the Jordan where John was baptizing.

The Baptism of Christ at the entrance to the Baptistery in Florence (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Liturgical Colour: Violet (Purple) or Pink or Rose (Gaudete Sunday).

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 of the Day:

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:

This 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:

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:

Saint John the Baptist with Patriarchs and Apostles in a stained glass window in Truro Cathedral … from left: Noah with the Ark; Moses with the Ten Commandments; Saint John the Baptist; Saint Peter with the keys; and Saint Philip the Deacon with a pilgrim's shell also used for baptism (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

Hymns:

134: Make way, make way, for Christ the king (CD 8)
135: O come, O come, Emmanuel (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.

Are you looking forward to a white Christmas this year?

Snow at Askeaton Friary on the banks of the River Deel (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)

Patrick Comerford

Are you dreaming of a White Christmas?

With only a week to go to Christmas, I have been busy preparing services and sermons, season liturgical and preaching resources for priest and readers in the Diocese of Limerick and Killaloe, carol services, crib blessings, Christmas dinners, mulled wine and mince pies with parishioners in the Rectory … as well as a funeral, visiting Saint Mary’s Cathedral in Limerick, committee meetings in Limerick and Rathkeale and school visits in Rathkeale and Askeaton.

I was in the Rathkeale No 2 National School twice this week, speaking at the school assembly about the meaning of Christmas, and at the reception this afternoon after the children’s play and carol service.

I was also in Colaiste Mhuire twice in the past week. This is the community secondary school in Askeaton, and I am a member of the Board of Management.

I was asked to present a mounted and framed copy of one of my photographs of Askeaton in the snow to two exchange students who are returning to Spain after spending a term in Ireland.

The photograph shows the Franciscan Friary in Askeaton in the snow. It was taken last year when I was snow-bound in Askeaton and was forced by the bitter weather to cancel a planned visit to Warsaw.

The wording on the back of the photographs reads:

‘The Franciscan Friary of Askeaton lies by the River Deel to the north of the village of Askeaton, Co Limerick. The Friary was founded either in 1389 by Gerald FitzGerald (1335-1398), 3rd Earl of Desmond and Lord Justice of Ireland, or in 1420 by James FitzGerald FitzGerald (c.1380-1462), 7th Earl of Desmond.

‘The extensive remains of the Friary and its surroundings represent an imposing mediaeval architectural landscape that was probably planned intentionally in the early fifteenth century. The Friary’s cloister is intact and an image of St Francis is carved into the cloister arcade to remind the Franciscan friars of their patron saint as they went to and from Divine Office.

‘Askeaton Friary, Winter 2018, Photographed by the Revd Canon Professor Patrick Comerford, Priest-in-Charge of the Rathkeale Group of Parishes and Precentor of Saint Mary’s Cathedral, Limerick; member of the Board of Management, Colaiste Mhuire, Askeaton.’

Perhaps these photographs will remind these two teenagers of life in Ireland and what winter weather is like here. Perhaps they will make some of the staff members who were at these presentations wistful for a white Christmas.

Reminders of a white Christmas … with staff and students in Colaiste Mhuire, Askeaton, this week (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

Snow covers many parts of Greece in white blankets

The Acropolis covered in snow this week (Source: My Artist/Facebook)

Patrick Comerford

While many parts of Ireland have been enjoying unseasonably mild weather this week, many parts of Greece have seen snow, including Athens, Crete, Thessaloniki and Mount Athos.

Irish people traditionally associate Greece with a guarantee of summer sunshine when there is no guarantee of appropriate summer weather in Ireland. But one of my last front-page reports in The Irish Times before I left was a blanket of snow covering Athens while Ireland was enjoying an unseasonably mild winter.

Snow is an unusual sight in Athens, but when it falls the sight the Greek capital covered in a blanket of snow can be breath-taking.

Snow blankets the Acropolis and much of Athens this week (Source: Marina Vernico)

Successive cold weather systems have swept into Greece, bringing freezing temperatures and snowfall to most parts of the country. And over the past week, a number of social media platforms have published photographs of snow throughout Greece.

Many Greek photographers, including Marina Vernico, have captured some stunning images of the Acropolis and Athens from above this week.

However, snowfall in Athens is not as rare as many would think. Between 1900 and 2012 , Athens has had a total of 500 days of snowfall, or an average of 4.5 days a year. Between 1900 and 1983, there were only four years without a single day of snow. In the 1984-2011 period, or over 28 years, there were five years without a single snowflake. Indeed, there were two years when Athens had snow in April, and in the same 110-year period there were six snowfalls during the Christmas season.

Snow on the mountains behind Rethymnon this week (Pepi Hotel / Facebook)

During my annual visits to Rethymon, I have stayed occasionally at the Pepi Hotel on Tsouderon Street. Earlier this week, Pepi Hotel published a number of photographs on its facebook page of snow on the mountains, providing a dramatic backdrop to the seafront in Rethymnon.

Other hotels have posted photographs on their Facebook pages of snow on the beach in Rethymnon and light dustings of snow on the squares and streets of the town.



I have experienced Easter in Thessaloniki, but never been been there during Christmas or New Year. A new drone video, made on Tuesday morning by Artnoise Action, shows Thessaloniki, Greece’s second largest city, covered in snow.

The White Tower, the landmark symbol of the northern capital, is surrounded appropriately by a pristine white blanket, turning the city into a winter wonderland.



I have also been on Mount Athos for Easter, but have never been there for Christmas. Unlike the rest of Greece, the monasteries of Mount Athos follow the Julian Calendar rather than the Western or Gregorian. So the monks of Mount Athos celebrated Christmas Day on Monday [7 January] in what was truly a White Christmas.

The consecutive snowstorms of the last few weeks created a Christmas atmosphere all across the peninsula of Mount Athos, with some of monasteries shrouded in snow exceeding one metre in depth.

With these significant snowfalls on Mount Athos, Karyes, the Athonite capital at an altitude of 350 metres, received over 60 cm of snow, while higher areas were covered with more than 90 cm of snow.

One report described the snow as bringing an atmosphere that was truly Byzantine to Mount Athos. An all-night Christmas vigil was on Sunday night and Monday morning in monasteries and monks and visitors alike were bathed in the golden glow of candles and chandeliers as snow fell outside.

I have stayed in the past in Vatopedi, which is one of the oldest and most famous monasteries on the Holy Mountain. In passages of purple prose, one report said visitors and guests who had the privilege on being there this week ‘experienced true Byzantine mysticism and grandeur by participating in the overnight vigil’ in the early hours of Monday morning.

Snow brought a white Christmas to the Monastery of Vatopedi on Mount Athos this week (Photograph: Proto Thema / Greek Reporter)

A ‘Storm in a Teacup’ in the snow or a promise of summer sunshine?

Tunisian earthenware and a promise of Mediterranean sunshine (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)

Patrick Comerford

Since moving from Dublin a year ago, I have come to realise that West Limerick has its own microclimate. The rain is much heavier and more persistent, on one hand, but on the other I have escaped the worst of both ‘Hurricane Ophelia’ and the combined onslaught of the ‘Beast from the East’ and ‘Storm Emma.’

Although the snow-filled slippery slopes of north Kerry forced the cancellation of Morning Prayer in Tarbert on Sunday, the last vestiges of snow have all but melted away in both Askeaton and Rathkeale.

So, I was taken aback by reports of snowdrift in Co Wexford, which is supposed to be the ‘sunny south-east’ and was surprised yesterday on my way to Dublin by the amount of snow on fields and roads, which seemed to increase in depth and density the nearer I got to Dublin.

The snow had forced two of us to give up on plans for a flight from Shannon to Warsaw on Sunday afternoon, for a short, three-day city break in the Polish capital. But I have a hospital appointment in Dublin tomorrow morning (Thursday), and I still needed to get to Dublin at some stage this this week.

Two of us set out from Askeaton early yesterday afternoon, and we stopped for a late lunch at the Avoca café in Rathcoole. The place was quiet, perhaps snow is still deterring people in the greater Dublin area from moving out. But it was captivating to see the mountains still covered in snow, and the terrace closed off because tables were still covered in the remains of snow drifts.

A storm in a teacup? … in the Avoca Café in Rathkeale (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)

The ceiling decorations in Avoca in Rathkeale show teacups in ever-decreasing circles. But it was obvious that the weekend snowstorms were no ‘storm in a teacup.’

Downstairs, the displays of Tunisian earthenware evoked hopes for a warmer clime and sunnier, summer weather.

The sad state of Lidl in Fortunestown (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)

Later, as we travelled through west Dublin, we saw the sad remains of Saturday night’s events at the Lidl supermarket in Fortunestown.

There is no such thing as victim-less crime: some workers may lose their jobs, others may be forced to move to keep their jobs; investors may be deterred; and the greater Tallaght area suffers from being labelled with the consequences of this vandalism.

The vertical pole in my photograph shows the extent of damage to this supermarket.

People have laid flowers in the snow outside the hoardings that have been erected to protect the site. They are like flowers scattered on a grave. There is much to mourn here, and people in west Dublin have found a way in the snow to mourn what happened last weekend and to show in the snow their grief.

Hopefully, there are happier scenes to see today.

Snow drifts on the terraces at the Avoca Café in Rathcoole (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)

A walk in the snow in Askeaton and wondering about weekend plans

Snow at Saint Mary’s Church, Askeaton, covers the churchyard this afternoon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)

Patrick Comerford

It’s like a winter wonderland in Askeaton today.

I was supposed to be in Dublin today, co-chairing an interfaith seminar in the Church of Ireland Theological Institute and present as a representative of the Diocese of Limerick and Killaloe. But that was cancelled on Wednesday morning, due to the ‘red alert’ warnings that predicted a nation-wide shut-down by today.

I might never have got there, anyway, as most public transport has been cancelled since mid-day yesterday.

Even still, I thought the worst of the ‘Beast from the East’ and ‘Storm Emma’ had by-passed this part of West Limerick. But panic set into this area by Thursday morning, and people were buying in bulk before the shops closed in the early afternoon.

Nobody expects the ‘bleak mid-winter’ after the daffodils have begun to bloom. The alerts were for other parts of Ireland, especially Leinster and south Munster. The snow was falling heavily as darkness began to close in last night.

Snow covers the rectory garden and the fields beyond (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)

I awoke to see the rectory grounds covered in blanket-upon-blanket of snow this morning. The birds are hopping around all day, as it continues to snow, searching for any morsels of food in the snow.

I worked in the house all morning, preparing work for the week after next, and looking after a few administrative tasks. But by this afternoon I needed to get out, even if only for a few logs for the fire later this evening.

Once out, I had to go for a walk.

Some snow is melting in East Square, Askeaton (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)

Almost every shop in Askeaton is closed, including the SuperValu supermarket, the hardware shop, the pharmacists, the coffee shop and the swimming pool and leisure centre. Even shops that had posted notices in their windows saying they would open by noon today were still closed at 3 p.m.

Only one or two pubs were open. But it’s Lent, and it was too early in the day to call in to see how many people had decided to go out this afternoon. The only real life on the streets was a few children playing snowballs, and another man enjoying taking photographs from the bridge of the castle covered in snow.

I called on a parishioner, checked on the church and the churchyard, and walked as on across the bridge and along the banks of the River Deel far as the Leisure Centre on the bank opposite the ruins of the Franciscan Friary.

Snow at Askeaton Friary on the banks of the River Deel (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)

Back in the Rectory, it seemed wise to consult parishioners in Tarbert about the wisdom of continuing with or cancelling Morning Prayer next Sunday in Saint Brendan’s Church, Kilnaughtin. It is on a steep hill outside the town, looking down on the Shannon Estuary, and parishioners who live further away are unlikely to brave the snow piles and icy roads on Sunday morning.

After a few phone calls it seemed best to call off this one service, but to continue with plans for the Parish Eucharist at 930 on Sunday morning in Saint Mary’s Church, Askeaton.

I have plans to fly out from Shannon Airport on Sunday afternoon for a short city break in Warsaw. I was hoping to see the site of the Warsaw Ghetto and other sites in the Polish capital, and Shannon Airport is due to open for flights again tomorrow.

The poet Michael Harding had an epic return journey to Leitrim from Warsaw this week that brought him through Liverpool and Shannon with Ryanair. But getting from Shannon to Warsaw is becoming increasingly unlikely as we move into the weekend, and there is a growing possibility that those plans are going to be cancelled too.

Snow falls on on the ruins of Askeaton Castle (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)