Daily prayer in the Kingdom Season: 15, Saturday 15 November 2025

‘Grant me justice against my opponent’ (Luke 18: 3) … a painting by Una Heaton in a pub in Adare, Co Limerick (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are in the Kingdom Season, the time between All Saints and Advent, and tomorrow is the Second Sunday before Advent.

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

1, today’s Gospel reading;

2, a short reflection;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

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

There is an emphasis on justice in today’s Gospel reading … the scales of justice depicted on the Precentor’s Stall in Lichfield Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Luke 18: 1-8 (NRSVA):

1 Then Jesus told them a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart. 2 He said, ‘In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor had respect for people. 3 In that city there was a widow who kept coming to him and saying, “Grant me justice against my opponent.” 4 For a while he refused; but later he said to himself, “Though I have no fear of God and no respect for anyone, 5 yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will grant her justice, so that she may not wear me out by continually coming”.’ 6 And the Lord said, ‘Listen to what the unjust judge says. 7 And will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long in helping them? 8 I tell you, he will quickly grant justice to them. And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?’

‘Because this widow keeps bothering me, I will grant her justice’ (Luke 18: 5) … the sign at the Wig and Pen near the courthouse in Truro, Cornwall (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s reflection:

The Gospel reading at the Eucharist this morning (Luke 18: 1-8) offers an opportunity to reflect on what we mean by law and justice. We read the well-known parable of the ‘Unjust Judge,’ a judge ‘who neither fears God nor has respect for people,’ and how he is forced to grant justice to a widow who keeps coming to him, saying, ‘Grant me justice against my opponent.’

Does the judge abandon his sense of impartiality when it comes to the administration of justice?

Or is he forced to realise the difference between what is legal and what is just, and the difference between justice and mercy?

We often know this parable as the ‘Parable of the Unjust Judge.’ But we might also call it the ‘Parable of the Persistent Widow,’ for we are told to take this woman and not the judge as our example: an example of how to pray to God, as opposed to an example of how to prey on people.

And yet, let us take some time first to look at the judge.

Are we asked to think that God behaves like an unjust or capricious judge?

Is this a judge who exercises his office without fear or favour?

Is justice about that?

Is justice about seeing that the law is enforced?

Or is it about seeing that justice is done, and is seen to be done?

How many judges implement the law without dispensing justice?

How many judges implement the law without dispensing mercy?

Is this not what happened in Nazi Germany, in apartheid South Africa, or in racist states in the American ‘Deep South’?

How many judges in Nazi Germany and apartheid South Africa merely applied the law?

Could a Jewish widow expect justice from a judge in Nazi Germany?

Could a black widow expect mercy from a judge in apartheid South Africa?

Could a woman whose family has been broken up by ICE and who is refused information about her husband’s whereabouts expect justice, mercy and the impartial application of the law in Trump’s America?

The woman in this parable is not asking for what is her legal right. She is not asking for her neighbour to be punished. But she may be asking for something she is not entitled to: justice.

When we find ourselves saying we cannot accept a judgmental God, is that because our image of a judge is of a distant figure who applies the full rigour of the law, rather than an accessible figure who dispenses justice and mercy?

Who are the chosen ones who cry to God day and night? (see verse 7)

Certainly, a widow would fall into that category at the time of Christ. She would have no man to argue her case for her, and so would go unheard. All other cases – commercial, civil and criminal – would take priority in the courts before her request to be heard.

Who is the widow in this story?

We might consider parallels between a people who have turned their back on God or whose covenantal relationship with God has died, and a woman whose covenantal relationship, her marriage, has come to an end with death.

Without love, there is no covenant. Without love there is no true religion, and without love there is no true marriage.

A true relationship with God is marked by love – God’s love for us, our love for God, and our love for others. If that love is the foundation of our Christianity, then justice becomes more important than law, and mercy more important than rules, and God the Judge becomes a loving rather than a tyrannical image.

The Royal Courts of Justice in London (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Saturday 15 November 2025):

The theme this week (9 to 15 November) in Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), has been ‘Hope for the Future’ (pp 54-55). This theme was introduced last Sunday with Reflections from Laura D’Henin-Ivers, Chief Executive Officer at Hope for the Future, to mark COP30 in Brazil this week.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Saturday 15 November 2025) invites us to pray:

Gracious Lord, when we grow weary in this struggle, renew our hope. Remind us that every small act of care – every tree planted, every voice raised for justice, every effort to reduce waste – contributes to your redemptive work in the world. Strengthen our resolve to walk in faith and action.

The Collect:

Almighty Father,
whose will is to restore all things
in your beloved Son, the King of all:
govern the hearts and minds of those in authority,
and bring the families of the nations,
divided and torn apart by the ravages of sin,
to be subject to his just and gentle rule;
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Post Communion Prayer:

God of peace,
whose Son Jesus Christ proclaimed the kingdom
and restored the broken to wholeness of life:
look with compassion on the anguish of the world,
and by your healing power
make whole both people and nations;
through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

Additional Collect:

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

Collect on the Eve of the Second Sunday before Advent:

Heavenly Father,
whose blessed Son was revealed
to destroy the works of the devil
and to make us the children of God and heirs of eternal life:
grant that we, having this hope,
may purify ourselves even as he is pure;
that when he shall appear in power and great glory
we may be made like him in his eternal and glorious kingdom;
where he is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Yesterday’s Reflections

Continued Tomorrow

The statue of Justice by John Van Nost (1721) in Dublin Castle (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 Ordinary Time 2025: 160, Sunday 19 October 2025, 18th Sunday after Trinity (Trinity XVIII)

‘The arc of the moral universe is long but it bends towards justice’ … a quotation from Martin Luther King in the foyer of Bloomsbury Baptist Church, London (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Patrick Comerford

We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar, and today is the Eighteenth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity XVIII, 19 October 2025).

I spent some time yesterday at the AGM and annual conference of Christian CND (Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament), which took place online. Later today, I hope to sing with the choir at the Parish Eucharist in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford.

But, before the day begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, and for reflection, prayer and reading in these ways:

1, today’s Gospel reading;

2, a short reflection;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

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

‘Grant me justice against my opponent’ (Luke 18: 3) … the old courthouse in Kuching (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Luke 18: 1-8 (NRSVA):

18 Then Jesus told them a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart. 2 He said, ‘In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor had respect for people. 3 In that city there was a widow who kept coming to him and saying, “Grant me justice against my opponent.” 4 For a while he refused; but later he said to himself, “Though I have no fear of God and no respect for anyone, 5 yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will grant her justice, so that she may not wear me out by continually coming”.’ 6 And the Lord said, ‘Listen to what the unjust judge says. 7 And will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long in helping them? 8 I tell you, he will quickly grant justice to them. And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?’

An emphasis on justice is found in this morning’s readings … the scales of justice depicted on the Precentor’s Stall in the choir in Lichfield Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflections:

The lectionary readings this morning (Jeremiah 31: 27-34; Psalm 119: 97-104; II Timothy 3: 14 to 4: 5; Luke 18: 1-8) offer an opportunity to reflect on what we mean by law and justice.

In the first reading, the Prophet Jeremiah speaks on behalf of God, when the people have been restored and know about justice and mercy, and he says: ‘I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts’ (Jeremiah 31: 33).

The portion of Psalm 119 we read talks about love of the Law, and declares:

‘Lord, how I love your law!
All the day long it is my study
Your commandments have made me wiser than my enemies,
for they are ever with me’ (Psalm 119: 97-98).

In the Epistle reading, Saint Paul reminds Saint Timothy that they are ‘in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead’ (II Timothy 4: 1).

The Gospel reading tells us the well-known parable of the ‘Unjust Judge,’ a judge ‘who neither fears God nor has respect for people,’ and how he is forced to grant justice to a widow who keeps coming to him, saying, ‘Grant me justice against my opponent.’

Does the judge abandon his sense of impartiality when it comes to the administration of justice?

Or is he forced to realise the difference between what is legal and what is just, and the difference between justice and mercy?

The parable in the Gospel reading is well-known. We often know it as the ‘Parable of the Unjust Judge.’ But we might also call it the ‘Parable of the Persistent Widow,’ for we are told to take this woman and not the judge as our example: an example of how to pray to God, as opposed to an example of how to prey on people.

And yet, let us take some time first to look at the judge.

Are we asked to think that God behaves like an unjust or capricious judge?

Is this a judge who exercises his office without fear or favour?

Is justice about that?

Is justice about seeing that the law is enforced?

Or is it about seeing that justice is done, and is seen to be done?

How many judges implement the law without dispensing justice?

How many judges implement the law without dispensing mercy?

Is this not what happened in Nazi Germany, in apartheid South Africa, in racist states in the American ‘Deep South’, is happening in many courts in Trump’s US today?

How many judges in Nazi Germany and apartheid South Africa merely applied the law?

Could a Jewish widow expect justice from a judge in Nazi Germany?

Could a black widow expect mercy from a judge in apartheid South Africa?

A Latina woman lifted off the streets of Chicago by ICE, or a protesting woman beaten to the ground in Portland?

The woman in this parable is not asking for what is her legal right. She is not asking for her neighbour to be punished. But she may be asking for something she is not entitled to: justice.

When we find ourselves saying we cannot accept a judgmental God, is that because our image of a judge is of a distant figure who applies the full rigour of the law, rather than an accessible figure who dispenses justice and mercy?

These contrasting images of God are found too in the first reading (Jeremiah 31: 27-34); it concludes:

No longer shall they teach one another, or say to one another,
‘Know the Lord,’
for they shall all know me,
from the least of them to the greatest,
for I will forgive their iniquity,
and remember their sin no more. – (Jeremiah 31: 34)

Who is ‘the least of them’ in the readings this morning?

Certainly, a widow would fall into that category at the time of Christ. She would have no man to argue her case for her, and so would go unheard. All other cases – commercial, civil and criminal – would take priority in the courts before her request came to be heard.

Who is the widow in this story?

The first part of the reading from Jeremiah might suggest parallels between this widow and the chosen people who have turned their back on God: a people whose covenantal relationship with God has died, and a woman whose covenantal relationship, her marriage, has come to an end with death.

Without love, there is no covenant. Without love there is no true religion, and no true marriage.

We are reminded this morning that a true relationship with God is marked by love – God’s love for us, our love for God, and our love for others.

If that love is the foundation of our Christianity, then justice becomes more important than law, and mercy more important than rules, and God the Judge becomes a loving rather than a tyrannical image.

‘Because this widow keeps bothering me, I will grant her justice’ (Luke 18: 5) … the sign at the Wig and Pen near the courthouse in Truro, Cornwall (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Sunday 19 October 2025, Trinity XVIII):

The theme this week (19 to 25 October) in Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘Advancing Theological Education for Young Women in Africa’ (pp 48-49). This theme is introduced today with reflections from Esmeralda (Essie) Pato, Chair of the Communion-Wide Advisory Group for USPG; she is based in Johannesburg, South Africa:

USPG is committed to energising Church by investing in future Anglican leaders through theological education. We’re thrilled to introduce the Young Women’s Theological Education Scholarship, which empowers young women across Africa to become effective leaders and serve their communities.

Back at the start of term, Essie joined the students on the first day at the College of the Transfiguration, a globally recognised Anglican theological college in Makhanda, South Africa. Here she met three scholarship recipients: the Revd Rachel Moshanah, Diocese of Namibia, Miss Sinesipho Zokhwe, Diocese of Mbhashe (Southern Africa) and Mrs Maponoane Ponoane, Diocese of Lesotho. All three were very excited for the start of the new term.

‘I felt honoured to represent USPG as a partner of the college. After an address from the Rector, Dr Percy, returning students welcomed the newcomers by helping them put on their cassocks. This act showed what the message of Jesus is to clergy in the making – that you come to serve and not to be served. The reassurance given to the new students was that they belong and have all the support they need for the year ahead.

In my conversations with students, I was struck by their optimism and eagerness. Many seemed hopeful and ready to learn. It was clear that the seminary isn’t just a place of learning; it’s a space where faith, service, and leadership grow – shaping leaders of tomorrow’s Church.”

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Sunday 19 October 2025, Trinity XVIII) invites us to pray as we read and meditate on Luke 18: 1-8.

The Collect:

Almighty and everlasting God,
increase in us your gift of faith
that, forsaking what lies behind
and reaching out to that which is before,
we may run the way of your commandments
and win the crown of everlasting joy;
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:

We praise and thank you, O Christ, for this sacred feast:
for here we receive you,
here the memory of your passion is renewed,
here our minds are filled with grace,
and here a pledge of future glory is given,
when we shall feast at that table where you reign
with all your saints for ever.

Additional Collect:

God, our judge and saviour,
teach us to be open to your truth
and to trust in your love,
that we may live each day
with confidence in the salvation which is given
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s Reflections

Continued Tomorrow

In those days they shall no longer say: ‘The parents have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge’ (Jeremiah 31: 29) … summer grapes on a vine in Lichfield a few weeks ago (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

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

Daily prayer in the Kingdom Season: 16, Saturday 16 November 2024

‘Grant me justice against my opponent’ (Luke 18: 3) … a painting by Una Heaton in a pub in Adare, Co Limerick (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are in the Kingdom Season, the time between All Saints and Advent, and tomorrow is the Second Sunday before Advent. The calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship today remembers Saint Margaret (1093), Queen of Scotland, Philanthropist, and Reformer of the Church; and Saint Edmund Rich of Abingdon (1240), Archbishop of Canterbury.

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

1, today’s Gospel reading;

2, a short reflection;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

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

There is an emphasis on justice in today’s Gospel reading … the scales of justice depicted on the Precentor’s Stall in Lichfield Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Luke 18: 1-8 (NRSVA):

1 Then Jesus told them a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart. 2 He said, ‘In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor had respect for people. 3 In that city there was a widow who kept coming to him and saying, “Grant me justice against my opponent.” 4 For a while he refused; but later he said to himself, “Though I have no fear of God and no respect for anyone, 5 yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will grant her justice, so that she may not wear me out by continually coming”.’ 6 And the Lord said, ‘Listen to what the unjust judge says. 7 And will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long in helping them? 8 I tell you, he will quickly grant justice to them. And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?’

‘Because this widow keeps bothering me, I will grant her justice’ (Luke 18: 5) … the sign at the Wig and Pen near the courthouse in Truro, Cornwall (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s reflection:

The Gospel reading at the Eucharist this morning offers an opportunity to reflect on what we mean by law and justice. We read the well-known parable of the ‘Unjust Judge,’ a judge ‘who neither fears God nor has respect for people,’ and how he is forced to grant justice to a widow who keeps coming to him, saying, ‘Grant me justice against my opponent.’

Does the judge abandon his sense of impartiality when it comes to the administration of justice?

Or is he forced to realise the difference between what is legal and what is just, and the difference between justice and mercy?

We often know this parable as the ‘Parable of the Unjust Judge.’ But we might also call it the ‘Parable of the Persistent Widow,’ for we are told to take this woman and not the judge as our example: an example of how to pray to God, as opposed to an example of how to prey on people.

And yet, let us take some time first to look at the judge.

Are we asked to think that God behaves like an unjust or capricious judge?

Is this a judge who exercises his office without fear or favour?

Is justice about that?

Is justice about seeing that the law is enforced?

Or is it about seeing that justice is done, and is seen to be done?

How many judges implement the law without dispensing justice?

How many judges implement the law without dispensing mercy?

Is this not what happened in Nazi Germany, in apartheid South Africa, or in racist states in the American ‘Deep South’?

How many judges in Nazi Germany and apartheid South Africa merely applied the law?

Could a Jewish widow expect justice from a judge in Nazi Germany?

Could a black widow expect mercy from a judge in apartheid South Africa?

The woman in this parable is not asking for what is her legal right. She is not asking for her neighbour to be punished. But she may be asking for something she is not entitled to: justice.

When we find ourselves saying we cannot accept a judgmental God, is that because our image of a judge is of a distant figure who applies the full rigour of the law, rather than an accessible figure who dispenses justice and mercy?

Who chosen ones who cry to God day and night?

Certainly, a widow would fall into that category at the time of Christ. She would have no man to argue her case for her, and so would go unheard. All other cases – commercial, civil and criminal – would take priority in the courts before her request to be heard.

Who is the widow in this story?

We might consider parallels between a people who have turned their back on God or whose covenantal relationship with God has died, and a woman whose covenantal relationship, her marriage, has come to an end with death.

Without love, there is no covenant. Without love there is no true religion, and no true marriage.

A true relationship with God is marked by love – God’s love for us, our love for God, and our love for others. If that love is the foundation of our Christianity, then justice becomes more important than law, and mercy more important than rules, and God the Judge becomes a loving rather than a tyrannical image.

Inside Saint Margaret’s Church, the Anglican church in Budapest … Saint Margaret of Scotland is commemorated on 16 November (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Today’s Prayers (Saturday 16 November 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), has been ‘A Look at Education in the Church of the Province of Myanmar’. This theme was introduced on Sunday with a Programme Update by Nadia Sanchez, Regional Programme Coordinator, USPG.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Saturday 16 November 2024) invites us to pray reflecting on these words:

He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption (I Corinthians 1: 30).

The Collect:

God, the ruler of all,
who called your servant Margaret to an earthly throne
and gave her zeal for your Church and love for your people
that she might advance your heavenly kingdom:
mercifully grant that we who commemorate her example
may be fruitful in good works
and attain to the glorious crown of your saints;
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.

Post Communion Prayer:

God our redeemer,
who inspired Margaret to witness to your love
and to work for the coming of your kingdom:
may we, who in this sacrament share the bread of heaven,
be fired by your Spirit to proclaim the gospel in our daily living
and never to rest content until your kingdom come,
on earth as it is in heaven;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Collect on the Eve of the Second Sunday before Advent:

Heavenly Father,
whose blessed Son was revealed
to destroy the works of the devil
and to make us the children of God and heirs of eternal life:
grant that we, having this hope,
may purify ourselves even as he is pure;
that when he shall appear in power and great glory
we may be made like him in his eternal and glorious kingdom;
where he is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Yesterday’s Reflection

Continued Tomorrow

A sculpture by Rodney Munday at St Edmund Hall, Oxford, of Saint Edmund Rich … he is remembered in ‘Common Worship’ on 16 November (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

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

Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2024: 167, Friday 25 October 2024

‘When you see a cloud rising in the west, you immediately say, “It is going to rain”; and so it happens’ (Luke 12: 54) … clouds above the beach in Ballybunion, Co Kerry (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar, and the week began with the Twenty-First Sunday after Trinity (Trinity XXI). The Church Calendar today commemorates Saint Crispin and Saint Crispinian, Martyrs at Rome ca 287.

The Jewish festival of Simchat Torah began at sunset yesterday (24 October 2024), and ends after nightfall this evening (25 October 2024).

The Sarawak International Dragon Boat Regatta is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year and the 10th Sarawak International Dragon Boat Regatta begins on the Waterfront in Kuching today (25 October) and continues until Sunday (27 October).

But, before the day begins, before having breakfast, I am taking some quiet time early this morning to give thanks, and for reflection, prayer and reading in these ways:

1, today’s Gospel reading;

2, a short reflection;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

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

‘End of the beach’ at Platanias in Rethymnon … but do we know how to read the signs of the end of the times? (see Luke 12: 54-56) (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Luke 12: 54-59 (NRSVA):

54 He also said to the crowds, ‘When you see a cloud rising in the west, you immediately say, “It is going to rain”; and so it happens. 55 And when you see the south wind blowing, you say, “There will be scorching heat”; and it happens. 56 You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky, but why do you not know how to interpret the present time?

57 ‘And why do you not judge for yourselves what is right? 58 Thus, when you go with your accuser before a magistrate, on the way make an effort to settle the case, or you may be dragged before the judge, and the judge hand you over to the officer, and the officer throw you in prison. 59 I tell you, you will never get out until you have paid the very last penny.’

‘I tell you, you will never get out until you have paid the very last penny’ (Luke 12: 59) … old pennies on a table in a bar in Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflection:

This morning’s Gospel reading continues on from the difficult images we had yesterday of division and strife, shattering all our expectations of Gospel values that emphasise domestic bliss and harmony.

We heard warnings of fire on earth (verse 49), and of families and households divided and fighting each other to the death (verses 52-53). The verses that follow today include images of people being blown about by the storms and tempests of the day (verses 54-56).

Christ chides those who are listening for not recognising the signs he bears. They know how to forecast the weather, but they cannot forecast, watch for the signs of, the coming Kingdom of God.

There is a fashion in the Church today for ‘fresh expressions of the Church’ that blow where the wind blows. They seek to be fashionable and claim that they are relevant.

Sometimes, you may not know whether you are in a coffee shop or in a church, whether you are in the guiding hands of a barista or of a priest. The old forms of church have been abandoned, and with it we may ask whether they have thrown out the core content too.

I visited one of these churches recently. Yes, there was a rambling sermon of 35 or more minutes. Yes, there was a time of ‘fellowship’ where people turned around their chairs and were chummy with one another, in a clumsy sort of way.

There was one reading, but no Gospel reading. There was no confession and absolution, no Credal statement, no Trinitarian formula in the prayers. The prayers prayed for those present and those like them, but there were no prayers for those outside, no prayers for a world that is divided and suffering, no challenge or judgment for those who have created the plight and sufferings of wars, refugees, racism, homelessness, economic injustice and climate change.

In this smug self-assurance, without any reference to the world outside, there was no challenge to discipleship, to live up to the promises and challenges of Baptism.

And, needless to say, there was no Sacrament, and no hint of there ever being a sacramental ministry.

Content had been abandoned for the sake of form. But the form had become a charade. For the sake of relevance, the church had become irrelevant.

The challenge of our Baptism is a challenge for the Church to be a sign of, a sacrament of, the Kingdom of God.

We can be distracted by the demands and fashions of what pass as ‘fresh expressions of Church’ and never meet the needs of a divided and suffering world.

Or we can be nourished by Word and Sacrament and respond to the demands of our Baptism in a discipleship that seeks to challenge and confront a suffering and divided world with the values and promises of the Kingdom of God.

But it is costly. And in that struggle, like Simeon warns Mary when she brings the Christ Child to the Temple, we may find ‘a sword will pierce your own soul too.’

Fresh expressions or fresh espresso … some experiences of church today seem to be in the guiding hands of a barista rather than a priest … a double espresso in Singapore last week (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Friday 25 October 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 ‘Persistence in Prayer’. This theme was introduced on Sunday with a reflection by Ella Sibley, Regional Manager Europe & Oceania, USPG.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Friday 25 October 2024) invites us to pray:

God of justice, help us to hear those who cry out for justice, particularly those living under oppression in Syria, South Sudan and North Korea. Do not let us refuse them.

The Collect:

Grant, we beseech you, merciful Lord,
to your faithful people pardon and peace,
that they may be cleansed from all their sins
and serve you with a quiet mind;
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:

Father of light,
in whom is no change or shadow of turning,
you give us every good and perfect gift
and have brought us to birth by your word of truth:
may we be a living sign of that kingdom
where your whole creation will be made perfect in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

Almighty God,
in whose service lies perfect freedom:
teach us to obey you
with loving hearts and steadfast wills;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s Reflection

Continued Tomorrow

‘When you go with your accuser before a magistrate, on the way make an effort to settle the case’ (Luke 12: 58) … a pub sign in Truro (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 2024:17, 16 April 2024

‘I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty’ (John 6: 35) … Eucharistic bread being prepared for the Liturgy early on a Sunday morning (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

Easter is a 50-day season that continues until the Day of Pentecost. The week began yesterday with the Third Sunday of Easter (Easter III). 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 (16 April) recalls the life and work of Isabella Gilmore (1842-1923), Deaconess. A sister of William Morris, she was a nurse at Guy’s Hospital in London. In 1886, Bishop Thorold of Rochester asked her to pioneer deaconess work in his diocese, and together they planned an Order of Deaconesses.

A training house on Clapham Common was later called Gilmore House in her memory. Over 19 years of service, she trained head deaconesses for at least seven other dioceses. She retired in 1906 and died on 16 April 1923.

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.

‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat’ (John 6: 31) … a ‘Miner’s Loaf’ with a Cornish Cross on a market stall in Truro (Photograph Patrick Comerford)

John 6: 30-35 (NRSVA):

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

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

‘Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness’ (John 6: 31) (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Tuesday 16 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 effect of Climate Change in the Solomon Islands.’ This theme was introduced on Sunday by the Revd Kate Komepwaisiho, Trustee of the Melanesian Mission.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (16 April 2024) invites us to pray:

Heavenly Father, we thank you for the beauty of your creation and for all the blessings in our lives.

The Collect:

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

Post Communion Prayer:

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

Additional Collect:

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

Yesterday’s reflection

Continued Tomorrow

The Supper at Emmaus (left) and the Apostle Thomas (right) in a window in Christ Church, Leomansley, Lichfield (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 Lent with early English saints: 2, 15 February 2024,Saint Petroc of Cornwall

A Cornish Cross in a churchyard in Cornwall … Saint Petroc is often known as ‘the captain of Cornish saints’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

The Season of Lent begins yesterday with Ash Wednesday (14 February 2024), and I sang with the Parish Choir at the Ash Wednesday liturgy in the Church of Saint Mary and Saint Giles in Stony Stratford last night.

Today, the Calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship remembers Saint Sigfrid (1045), Bishop, Apostle of Sweden, and Thomas Bray (1730), priest, and founder of both SPCK and SPG (now USPG). USPG is marking Founder’s Day today (15 February 2024) in Saint Alban the Martyr Church, London, at 11 am.

In previous years, my Lenten reflections have journeyed with the saints, looked at Lent in Art, discussed poems in Lent, reflected on the music of Vaughan Williams, selected sayings from Samuel Johnson (1709-1784), the Lichfield lexicographer, and similar themes.

This year, I am taking time each morning in Lent to reflect on the lives of early, pre-Reformation English saints commemorated by the Church of England in the Calendar of Common Worship. I began this series yesterday with a reflection on Saint Alban, England’s first martyr and saint.

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

1, A reflection on an early, pre-Reformation English saint;

2, today’s Gospel reading;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary.

A Celtic Cross in a churchyard in Cornwall … Saint Petroc is often known as ‘the captain of Cornish saints’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Early English pre-Reformation saints: 2, Saint Petroc, Abbot of Padstow (6th century)

Saint Petroc, the sixth century Abbot of Padstow, is often known as ‘the captain of Cornish saints.’ Saint Petroc seems to have been the son of a Welsh chieftain. When he arrived in Cornwall, he founded a monastery at Lanwethinoc, now called Padstow (‘Petroc’s Stow’). He later founded another monastery at Bodmin.

It seems that for most of his life Saint Petroc lived as a hermit, although he travelled regularly to visit monasteries.

He died at Treravel and was buried at Padstow. Many churches in Devon and Cornwall are dedicated to his memory. He is commemorated in Common Worship on 4 June.

Padstow is a fishing port on the north coast of Cornwall, on the west bank of the River Camel estuary, 16 km north-west of Bodmin and 16 km north-east of Newquay. It has a population of about 3,000.

‘… let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me’ (Luke 8: 23) … a ‘Miner’s Loaf’ with a Cornish Cross on a market stall in Cornwall (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Luke 8: 22-25 (NRSVA):

22 [Jesus said], ‘The Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.’

23 Then he said to them all, ‘If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. 24 For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will save it. 25 What does it profit them if they gain the whole world, but lose or forfeit themselves?

‘… let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me’ (Luke 8: 23) … the rood beam in a church in Cornwall (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Thursday 15 February 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 ‘Ash Wednesday Reflection.’ This theme was introduced on Sunday by the Revd Jessie Anand, Chaplain, USPG.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (15 February 2024) invites us to pray in these words:

We pray for all who seek to educate and inform. May our places of learning be open to all, offering new pathways and new vision.

The Collect:

Almighty and everlasting God,
you hate nothing that you have made
and forgive the sins of all those who are penitent:
create and make in us new and contrite hearts
that we, worthily lamenting our sins
and acknowledging our wretchedness,
may receive from you, the God of all mercy,
perfect remission and forgiveness;
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:

Almighty God,
you have given your only Son to be for us
both a sacrifice for sin
and also an example of godly life:
give us grace
that we may always most thankfully receive
these his inestimable gifts,
and also daily endeavour
to follow the blessed steps of his most holy life;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

Holy God,
our lives are laid open before you:
rescue us from the chaos of sin
and through the death of your Son
bring us healing and make us whole
in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday: Saint Alban (ca 250)

Tomorrow: Saint Augustine (605), first Archbishop of Canterbury

Saints in the reredos in Truro Cathedral, the cathedral of Cornwall (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

Praying through the Week of Christian Unity and with USPG: 25 January 2023

‘Because this widow keeps bothering me, I will grant her justice’ (Luke 18: 5) … the sign at the Wig and Pen near the courthouse in Truro, Cornwall (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 have been 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.’

However, the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity ends today (25 January 2023, the Feast of the Conversion of Saint Paul), and since it began last Wednesday my morning reflections look at this year’s readings and prayers.

Churches Together in Milton Keynes concludes the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity this evening with a ‘Celebration of Justice’ at 7:30 in the Church of Christ the King, Kent’s Hill.

‘The week will finish with a big celebration. We thank God for the rich diversity of our communities and the challenge we are given to make this World a better place. There is so much that is broken and wrong in God’s creation, but we have a great hope in Christ – so this is the time for a big Alleluia!’

The preacher this evening is Bishop Mike Royal, the General Secretary of Churches Together in England. He is the former co-CEO of the Cinnamon Network, helping churches with their community engagement, and he is a former pioneer at the award-winning education charity Transforming Lives for Good (TLG). Bishop Mike has an academic background in urban planning and black theology. He has been in ordained ministry since 1993 and was consecrated a Pentecostal Bishop in 2016. He is also a Forensic Mental Health Chaplain, living in Birmingham.

‘God has taken his stand in the council of heaven’ (Psalm 82: 1) … Christ enthroned in majesty in a stained glass window in Southwark Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Day 8: ‘The justice that restores communion’

Readings:

Psalm 82: 1-4:

Give justice to the weak and the orphan; maintain the right of the lowly and the destitute.

Luke 18: 1-8:

Will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night?

Reflection:

The Book of Psalms is a compilation of prayer, praise, lamentation, and instruction from God to us. In Psalm 82, God calls for a justice that upholds the basic human rights to which all people are entitled: freedom, safety, dignity, health, equality and love. The Psalm also calls for the overturning of systems of disparity and oppression, and fixing anything that is unfair, corrupt, or exploitative. This is the justice that we, as Christians, are called to promote. In Christian community we join our wills and actions to God’s, as he works his salvation for creation. Division, including that between Christians, always has sin at its root, and redemption always restores communion.

God calls us to embody our Christian faith to act out of the truth that every person is precious, that people are more important than things, and that the measure of every institutional structure in society is whether it threatens or enhances the life and dignity of each person. Every person has a right and responsibility to participate in society, seeking together the common good and wellbeing of all, especially the lowly and the destitute.

In Jesus and the Disinherited, Revd Dr Howard Thurman, who was spiritual adviser to the Revd Dr Martin Luther King Jr, states that: ‘We must proclaim the truth that all life is one and that we are all of us tied together. Therefore, it is mandatory that we work for a society in which the least person can find refuge and refreshment. You must lay your lives on the altar of social change so that wherever you are, there the Kingdom of God is at hand.’

Christian Unity:

Jesus tells the parable of the widow and the unjust judge in order to teach the people ‘about their need to pray always and not to lose heart’ (Luke 18: 1). Jesus has won a decisive victory over injustice, sin and division, and as Christians our task is to receive this victory firstly in our own hearts through prayer and secondly in our lives through action. May we never lose heart, but rather continue to ask in prayer for God’s gift of unity and may we manifest this unity in our lives.

Challenge:

As the people of God, how are our churches called to engage in justice that unites us in our actions to love and serve all of God’s family?

Prayer:

God, Creator and Redeemer of all things,
teach us to look inward to be grounded in your loving Spirit,
so that we may go outward in wisdom and courage
to always choose the path of love and justice.
This we pray in the name of your Son, Jesus Christ, in the unity of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

May we ‘always choose the path of love and justice’ … the Royal Courts of Justice in London (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

USPG Prayer Diary:

The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity comes to an end today (25 January), and the theme in the USPG Prayer Diary last week was the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. The theme this week is the ‘Myanmar Education Programme.’ This theme was introduced on Sunday with a reflection from a report from the Church of the Province of Myanmar.

The USPG Prayer Diary invites us to pray today (the Feast of the Conversion of Saint Paul) in these words:

Let us pray for the Church in Myanmar as it seeks to witness to its faith. May her members support one another and have courage in the face of oppression.

Yesterday’s reflection

Continued Tomorrow

Praying in Ordinary Time with USPG and TS Eliot’s ‘The Waste Land’: Monday 7 November 2022

‘And went on in sunlight, … And drank coffee, and talked for an hour’ … coffee and TS Eliot’s ‘The Waste Land’ in the Rectory garden in Askeaton, Co Limerick (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

Today, the Calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship remembers Saint Willibrord of York, Bishop, Apostle of Frisia, 739, with a lesser festival.

Saint Willibrord was born in Northumbria and educated at Ripon but the main part of his life was dedicated to his missionary work in Frisia and northern Germany. He built many churches, inaugurated bishoprics and consecrated cathedrals: the Cathedral of Utrecht, with a diocesan organisation based on that of Canterbury, is his most well-known foundation.

Together with the younger Boniface, he began a century of English Christian influence on continental Christianity. Alcuin described him as venerable, gracious and full of joy, and his ministry as based on energetic preaching informed by prayer and sacred reading. He died on this day in 739 and was buried at Echternach monastery in Luxembourg, which he founded. He is the patron saint of the Netherlands.

Later this morning, I have an appointment later this morning at the Open University in Milton Keynes for my next Covid-19 vaccination. But, before this day gets busy, I am taking some time this morning for reading, prayer and reflection.

Throughout this week, I am reflecting in these ways:

1, One of the readings for the morning;

2, A reflection based on TS Eliot’s ‘The Waste Land,’ first published 100 years ago, in 1922;

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

‘… breeding / Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing / Memory and desire …’ TS Eliot (‘The Waste Land’) … Lilacs in Spring in a garden in York Road, Stony Stratford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

Luke 17: 1-6 (NRSVA):

1 Jesus said to his disciples, ‘Occasions for stumbling are bound to come, but woe to anyone by whom they come! 2 It would be better for you if a millstone were hung around your neck and you were thrown into the sea than for you to cause one of these little ones to stumble. 3 Be on your guard! If another disciple sins, you must rebuke the offender, and if there is repentance, you must forgive. 4 And if the same person sins against you seven times a day, and turns back to you seven times and says, “I repent”, you must forgive.’

5 The apostles said to the Lord, ‘Increase our faith!’ 6 The Lord replied, ‘If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, “Be uprooted and planted in the sea”, and it would obey you.’

Dante’s meeting with Virgil (Truro Cathedral) … Dante’s ‘Inferno’ strongly influenced TS Eliot’s ‘The Waste Land’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The Waste Land 1: ‘The Burial of the Dead’

In 1922, the same year as James Joyce published Ulysses, Eliot published ‘The Waste Land.’ The poem includes well-known phrases such as ‘April is the cruellest month,’ and ‘I will show you fear in a handful of dust.’ Recent studies see in ‘The Waste Land’ a description of Eliot’s pilgrimage from the Unitarianism of his childhood to his life-lasting Anglo-Catholicism.

‘The Waste Land’, which I am reflecting on throughout this week, was first published 100 years ago at the end in 1922. It is a masterpiece of modern literature and one of the greatest poems in the English language. Its opening lines are often quoted, even by people who have never read all five sections and 434 lines of the poem.

‘The Waste Land’ was published in Eliot’s The Criterion in October 1922 – this was the same year James Joyce’s Ulysses was published in Paris. ‘The Waste Land’ was then published in the US in the November issue of The Dial, and was published in book form in December 1922.

To mark the 100th anniversary of the publication of The Waste Land in 1922, I am dipping in and out of the five sections of The Waste Land in this prayer diary each day this week. ‘The Waste Land’ is divided into five sections:

1, ‘The Burial of the Dead’, introduces the diverse themes of disillusionment and despair.

2, ‘A Game of Chess’, employs alternating narrations, in which vignettes of several characters address those themes experientially.

3, ‘The Fire Sermon’, offers a philosophical meditation in relation to the imagery of death and views of self-denial in juxtaposition, influenced by Augustine of Hippo and Eastern religions.

4, ‘Death by Water’, includes a brief lyrical petition.

5, ‘What the Thunder Said’, the culminating fifth section, concludes with an image of judgment.

The first section, ‘The Burial of the Dead,’ introduces the diverse themes of disillusionment and despair.

‘The Waste Land’ is a masterpiece of modern literature and one of the greatest poems in the English language. The opening lines are often quoted, even by people who have never read all five sections and 434 lines of the poem:

April is the cruellest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain.
Winter kept us warm, covering
Earth in forgetful snow, feeding
A little life with dried tubers.
Summer surprised us, coming over the Starnbergersee
With a shower of rain; we stopped in the colonnade,
And went on in sunlight, into the Hofgarten,
And drank coffee, and talked for an hour

The opening stanzas of ‘The Waste Land’ refer to the blooming of flowers and the coming of spring, but in gloomy tones. Winter is recalled nostalgically, with snow keeping us warm. As I wait for my fourth Covid-19 vaccination this morning, I am also re-reading ‘The Waste Land’ in the light of the pandemic a century ago that sheds new light on lines such as:

Unreal City,
Under the brown fog of a winter dawn,
A crowd flowed over London Bridge, so many,
I had not thought death had undone so many.
Sighs, short and infrequent, were exhaled,
And each man fixed his eyes before his feet.
Flowed up the hill and down King William Street,
To where Saint Mary Woolnoth kept the hours
With a dead sound on the final stroke of nine.
There I saw one I knew, and stopped him, crying “Stetson!
“You who were with me in the ships at Mylae!
“That corpse you planted last year in your garden,
“Has it begun to sprout? Will it bloom this year?
Or has the sudden frost disturbed its bed?
“Oh keep the Dog far hence, that’s friend to men,
“Or with his nails he’ll dig it up again!
“You! hypocrite lecteur!—mon semblable,—mon frère!”

The Church of Saint Mary Woolnoth, which is referred to in these lines, is in the centre of the City of London and is one of the two churches named in ‘The Waste Land.’ It stands on the corner of Lombard Street and King William Street near Bank junction, and Eliot worked nearby at Lloyd’s Bank from 1917 to 1925.

Professor Barry Spurr of the University of Sydney, in his study of Eliot’s Anglo-Catholicism, ‘Anglo-Catholic in Religion’ TS Eliot and Christianity (Cambridge: Lutterworth, 2010), says the dedication of the church to the Blessed Virgin Mary chimes with Eliot’s subsequent Anglo-Catholicism.

In his notes to the poem, Eliot remarks that the ‘dead sound on the final stroke of nine’ was ‘A phenomenon which I have often noticed.’ However, Barry Spurr reads in this mention of the ‘dead sound on the final stroke of nine’ a reference to the traditional time of execution in prisons – and so to the execution of Christ at the ninth hour.

Saint Mary Woolnoth is one of the two London churches named in ‘The Waste Land’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Dante’s ‘Inferno’ strongly influenced TS Eliot’s ‘The Waste Land,’ and Eliot returns to this poem throughout ‘The Waste Land.’ In ‘The Burial of the Dead,’ a latter-day Dante walks the streets of London seeing death all around him:

I was neither
Living nor dead, and I knew nothing,
Looking into the heart of light, the silence.

Eliot said that ‘the poetry of Dante is the one universal school of style for the writing of poetry in any language,’ and that ‘there is no poet in any tongue – not even Latin or Greek – who stands so firmly as a model for all poets.’

‘The Waste Land’ is dedicated ‘For Ezra Pound, il miglior fabbro’, a dedication drawn from Dante’s epic, ‘The Divine Comedy.’ Dante divides his poem into three parts — ‘Inferno’, ‘Purgatorio’, and ‘Paradiso’ — describing Dante’s journey through Hell, Purgatory, and finally Paradise. Eliot’s dedication translates as ‘the better craftsman,’ a reference to Canto 26 of the ‘Purgatorio’ and the poet Arnault Daniel. But Eliot passes the compliment on to Pound, who helped edit ‘The Waste Land.’

In Part 1 of ‘The Waste Land,’ ‘The Burial of the Dead,’ Eliot invokes the Prophet Ezekiel as he describes modern existence:

What are the roots that clutch, what branches grow
Out of this stony rubbish? Son of Man
You cannot say, or guess, for you know only
A heap of broken images, where the sun beats
And the dead trees give no shelter, the cricket no relief,
And the dry stone no sound of water.

He sees us living in a time of hopelessness, of ‘broken images,’ where there is no shelter, no life-giving water. Yet, glimpses of hope are to be found all around us:

… … Only
There is shadow under this red rock,
(Come in under the shadow of this red rock),
And I will show you something that is different from either
Your shadow at morning striding behind you
Or your shadow at evening rising to meet you;
I will show you fear in a handful of dust.

While earlier commentators tended to read ‘The Waste Land’ as a secular commentary on life in London in the inter-war years, more recent studies see in this poem a description of Eliot’s pilgrimage to faith from the Unitarianism of his childhood and youth, through his readings in Hinduism to his preparation for his eventual Baptism in 1927 and his subsequent, life-lasting Anglo-Catholicism.

In his study, A Lee Fjordbotten, (‘Liturgical influences of Anglo-Catholicism on ‘The Waste Land’ and other works by TS Eliot,’ Fordham University, 1999), says ‘The Waste Land’ reveals a spiritually searching and developing Eliot who is anticipating his formal conversion in 1927. He points out that the structure of the poem is similar to the traditional process of conversion, especially as seen in the season of Lent.

In her study, ‘The Prefiguration of TS Eliot’s conversion in ‘The Waste Land’,’ in the Saint Austin Review (January/February 2012, pp 19-20), Paula L Gallagher, says the beginning of Eliot’s conversion is prefigured in this poem and begins with his recognition of the emptiness of modernity.

She argues that the poem – far from being just the apogee of modernist despair – significantly prefigures his conversion to Anglo-Catholicism: ‘Eliot’s personal journey through the Waste Land – from the rejection of modernity, to the search for Christ, to the arrival of rain – contains imagery, allusions and ideas that prefigure that conversion to Anglo-Catholicism.’

The fact that Eliot is writing this poem about the barrenness of modernity and imaging it as a Waste Land shows that he sees through modernity to the reality of its sterility. The image of the Waste Land represents the aridity of modernity, its lack of culture and tradition, and indeed its inability to allow culture and tradition to grow and flourish. Hence, the Waste Land is repeatedly described as a desert with ‘dry stone and no sound of water.’

The Waste Land, where ‘there is not water but only rock,’ lacks the life-giving and life-sustaining water that will enable tradition and culture to thrive. The poet is seeking the rain which will reanimate the Waste Land of modernity; the rain which will touch and enliven the dead roots of tradition and culture. This water, ultimately, is Christianity.

‘What are the roots that clutch, what branches grow / Out of this stony rubbish?... / A heap of broken images, where the sun beats/ And the dead trees give no shelter ...’ TS Eliot, ‘The Waste Land’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

Today’s Prayer (Monday 7 November 2022):

The Collect:

God, the Saviour of all,
you sent your bishop Willibrord from this land
to proclaim the good news to many peoples
and confirm them in their faith:
help us also to witness to your steadfast love
by word and deed
so that your Church may increase
and grow strong in holiness;
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:

Holy Father, who gathered us here around the table of your Son
to share this meal with the whole household of God:
in that new world where you reveal
the fullness of your peace,
gather people of every race and language
to share with Willibrord and all your saints
in the eternal banquet of Jesus Christ our Lord.

The theme in the USPG Prayer Diary this week is ‘A New Commandment.’ This theme was introduced yesterday by Sue Claydon, chair of the Anglican Pacifist Fellowship.

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

We pray for guidance for the leaders of the nations and those who work internationally and make us all subject to Christ’s just and gentle rule.

Yesterday’s reflection

Continued tomorrow

‘A crowd flowed over London Bridge, so many, / I had not thought death had undone so many’ … London Bridge, the Thames and the South Bank seen from the City (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

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

Ezra Pound’s grave in Venice … TS Eliot dedicated ‘The Waste Land’ to Ezra Pound ‘il miglior fabbro’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)