Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2024: 141, Sunday 29 September 2024

‘Archangel Michael The Protector’ by Emily Young at Saint Pancras Church, London … today is the Feast of Saint Michael and All Angels (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar and today is the Eighteenth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity XVIII) and the Feast of Saint Michael and All Angels (29 September).

Later this morning, I hope to be present at the Parish Eucharist in the Church of Saint Mary and Saint Giles in Stony Stratford, which is also the Harvest Eucharist. But this morning, before today begins, I am taking some quiet time to give thanks, and for reflection, prayer and reading in these ways:

1, today’s Gospel reading;

2, a reflection on the Gospel reading;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

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

Sir Jacob Epstein’s Saint Michael and the Devil on the façade of Coventry Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

John 4: 47-51 (NRSVA):

47 When Jesus saw Nathanael coming towards him, he said of him, ‘Here is truly an Israelite in whom there is no deceit!’ 48 Nathanael asked him, ‘Where did you come to know me?’ Jesus answered, ‘I saw you under the fig tree before Philip called you.’ 49 Nathanael replied, ‘Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!’ 50 Jesus answered, ‘Do you believe because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than these.’ 51 And he said to him, ‘Very truly, I tell you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.’

A statue of Saint Michael on the wall of Saint Michael’s Church, Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflection:

There are few references to Saint Michael in the Bible (Daniel 10: 13, 21, 12: 1; Jude 9; Revelation 12: 7-9; see also Revelation 20: 1-3). Yet he has inspired great works in our culture, from Milton’s Paradise Lost to Jacob Epstein’s powerful sculpture at Coventry Cathedral.

But culturally, this has been an important day for the Church: the beginning of terms, the end of the harvest season, the settling of accounts. It is the beginning of autumn, and we were told as children not to pick blackberries after this day.

In all our imagery, in all our poetry, Saint Michael is depicted and seen as crushing or slaying Satan, often Satan as a dragon.

Our ideas of dragons are also culturally conditioned. For the Chinese, dragons symbolise gift and blessing, and represent the majesty of the imperial household.

In most European languages, the word for a dragon is derived from the same Greek word used for a serpent. In European folklore and mythology, legendary dragons have symbolised danger and evil. We are warned in the Greek classics against sowing dragon’s teeth.

Most of us in life meet our own dragons and know how they are going to ensnare us if we do not face them and slay them.

Because of the Blitz during World War II, the poet Philip Larkin (1922-1985) spent some of his late teen and early adult years living with his father’s family, close to Saint Michael’s Church on Greenhill in Lichfield, where generations of the Larkin family are buried. On the north wall of the church, in a large, looming sculpted image, Saint Michael is crushing the dragon under his feet.

Memories of this image and this churchyard may have inspired the imagery in at least two poems written by Larkin some years later. In his poem ‘At the chiming of light upon sleep’, first drafted on this day 78 years ago [29 September 1946], Larkin links Michaelmas and a lost paradise with chances and opportunities he failed to take in his youth.

In his poem ‘To Failure,’ written a year before he moved to Belfast, Larkin realises that failure does not come ‘dramatically, with dragons / that rear up with my life between their paws.’ Failure comes with more subtlety in those wasted opportunities and lost chances.

Throughout life, we have your own dragons to slay. We must not mistake them for old friends. We have opportunities and chances to do that, and as the days pass quicker than we can count, we can find you have wasted those opportunities and lost those chances.

We must get to know our dragons. But we must also pay heed to the opportunities that pass far too quickly. And take the opportunities we are presented with, like Nathanael waiting beneath the fig tree, to prepare for the next stage in life and ministry.

Even when there appear to be few dramatic conflicts with our inner dragons, in the years to come we may regret not paying attention to the little opportunities, the minor details of life. We may not notice the changes, the days passing more quickly, and the years pass by.

Philip Larkin writes:

It is these sunless afternoons, I find,
Install you at my elbow like a bore.
The chestnut trees are caked with silence. I’m
Aware the days pass quicker than before,
Smell staler too. And once they fall behind
They look like ruin. (You have been here some time.)

Sitting under his tree, Nathanael was aware of the opportunities and did not allow them to pass him by. And when we seize these opportunities we may find ourselves ready to ‘see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man’ (John 1: 51).

Dragons on Chinese silk ties … our ideas of dragons are also culturally conditioned (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Sunday 29 September 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 ‘One God: many languages.’ This theme is introduced today in reflections by Rachel Weller, Communications Officer, USPG:

Whenever we share the Eucharist together in the USPG office, staff are invited to say the Lord’s Prayer in a language of their choice. Together we pray to the God of all nations unlimited by language: ‘Our Father in heaven … laat u Naam geheilig word … venha o teu reino …’ I’m reminded at such times of God’s power to unite believers across the world, something USPG mirrors in its aim to make connections between the churches of the Anglican Communion.

Although the origins of Anglicanism are resoundingly British, being Anglican does not equate to being English. The Bible is God’s Word to us and is something that everyone should be able to understand for themselves. There is power in encountering Jesus through scripture in your own language. After all, how do the crowd react to the fluency of the apostles at Pentecost? In amazement and astonishment.

This prayer diary is now available in two languages, and we hope to continue to grow this portfolio. Find out more: uspg.org.uk/pray

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Sunday 29 September 2024) invites us to pray in these words:

Everlasting God, you have ordained and constituted the ministries of angels and mortals in a wonderful order. Grant that as your holy angels always serve you in heaven, so, at your command, they may help and defend us on earth. Through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, Amen.

The Collect:

Everlasting God,
you have ordained and constituted
the ministries of angels and mortals in a wonderful order:
grant that as your holy angels always serve you in heaven,
so, at your command,
they may help and defend us on earth;
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:

Lord of heaven,
in this eucharist you have brought us near
to an innumerable company of angels
and to the spirits of the saints made perfect:
as in this food of our earthly pilgrimage
we have shared their fellowship,
so may we come to share their joy in heaven;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s reflection

Continued tomorrow

Saint Michael depicted in the mosaic floor of Minton’s tesserae and tiles in the chancel of Saint Michael’s Church, Cornhill, London (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

Saint Michael (centre) with Saint Gabriel and Saint Raphael, in the west window in Saint Michael’s Church, St Albans (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2024: 140, Saturday 28 September 2024

A mask for the Carnival in Venice … do we hide our personae behind masks before other people … before God? (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar and tomorrow is the Eighteenth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity XVIII) and the Feast of Saint Michael and All Angels. Today is one of the Ember Days in September.

I am back in Stony Stratford this morning, having caught a late-night flight from Dublin to Birmingham after yesterday’s reunion lunch for my school year, the Sixth Year in Gormanston College, Co Meath, in 1969.

Before today 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 reflection on the Gospel reading;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

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

Souvenir masks from a stall in Venice … do we hide our personae behind masks before other people … before God? (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Luke 9: 43b-45 (NRSVA):

43b While everyone was amazed at all that he was doing, he said to his disciples, 44 ‘Let these words sink into your ears: The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into human hands.’ 45 But they did not understand this saying; its meaning was concealed from them, so that they could not perceive it. And they were afraid to ask him about this saying.

Masks made of olive wood in a shop in Rethymnon … do we hide our personae behind masks before other people … before God? (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflection:

In today’s Gospel reading Luke 9: 43b-45), after Saint Peter’s profound confession of faith following the Transfiguration, and the stern order and command to the disciples not to tell anyone what has been seen and said, we hear how the disciples hear Jesus but do understand what he is saying, nor can they perceive what he means, and they are afraid to ask him to explain what he is saying.

When the disciples find that the meaning of what Jesus says is concealed from them, the word that is used, παρακαλύπτω (parakalýptō) is a rare word in the Bible. It does not refer to some sacred or religious mystery but to something that is hidden, covered alongside or front of someone, something that has a veil pulled over it, to cover it up, to cover over, to hide or conceal it, perhaps even to disguise it. In its use in classical Greek literature it can mean to cover by hanging, to disguise, to set aside, to ignore, or it can be used when talking about covering one’s face.

A similar word παρακάλυμμα (parakálymma) is used for anything that is hung up beside or hung up before something to cover it, a covering or curtain.

The Carnival of Venice (Carnevale di Venezia), which takes place in the days before Lent, is known everywhere for its elaborate masks. It grew in prestige and developed in its revelry in the 17th and 18th centuries, to the point that it became a symbol of licence and pleasure.

Mask-makers (mascherari) had a special position in Venetian society, with their own laws and their own guild. But the masks allowed many people to spend a large part of the year in disguise, hiding their secret lifestyles. When the Emperor Francis II occupied Venice, he outlawed the festival in 1797 and masks were strictly forbidden.

It was not until 1979 that the Carnival was revived in Venice. With it came the revival of the tradition of making carnival masks, and one of the most important events at the Carnival is the contest for la maschera più bella (‘the most beautiful mask’).

So often, we all have our own masks. We are afraid that others might see us or get to know us as we really are. We hide behind a persona, which is the Latin word for a theatrical mask. We are worried, ‘What if someone saw me for who I truly am?’ ‘What if they came face-to-face with what I am really like?’

But the Transfiguration invites us to a mutual face-to-face encounter with the living God. The inner circle of disciples, Peter, James and John, have ascended the mountain with Christ, and in the clouds they saw who he truly is: he is the God of Moses and Elijah, and the vision is so dazzling that they are dazzled and overshadowed by the cloud.

When they come back down the mountain, like Moses, there is a great crowd waiting for the healing that restores them to their place in the covenant with God.

The original Greek word for Transfiguration in the Gospels is μεταμόρφωσις (metamorphosis), which means ‘to progress from one state of being to another.’ Consider the metamorphosis of the chrysalis into the butterfly. Saint Paul uses this same word (μεταμόρφωσις) when he describes how the Christian is to be transfigured, transformed, into the image of Christ (II Corinthians 3: 18), he uses the word ‘icon’ of Christ.

The Transfiguration reveals not just who Christ should truly be in our eyes, but who we should be truly in God’s eyes. It is a reminder of our ultimate destiny, the ultimate destiny of all people and all creation – to be transformed and glorified by the majestic splendour of God himself. The Transfiguration points to the fulfilment of the Kingdom of God, when all of creation shall be transfigured and filled with light.

The Transfiguration is not just an Epiphany or Theophany moment for Christ, with Peter, James and John as onlookers. The Transfiguration is a story too of a miracle that reminds us of how God sees us in God’s own image and likeness, and how God sees us for who we are and who we are going to be, no matter how others see us, no matter how others dismiss us, not matter how others fail to understand us.

Throughout life, there is a temptation to accept our human nature as it appears now. But the Transfiguration of Christ offers the opportunity to look at ourselves not only as we are now, but take stock of what happened in the past that made us so, and to grasp the promise of what we can be in the future.

In the present and in the future, can we take ownership of who we have been as a child. Do we remember always that we are made in the image and likeness of God? As Saint Paul reminds us, we are icons of Christ.

We need no masks, no personae, in God’s presence. God sees us as we are: made in his own image and likeness, sees us for who we were, who we are and who we are going to be, no matter how others see us, no matter how others dismiss us.

No matter what others say about you, how others judge you, how others gossip or talk about you, how others treat you, God sees your potential, God sees in you God’s own image and likeness. God sees through all our masks and sees an icon of Christ. God knows you are beautiful inside and loves you, loves you for ever, as though you are God’s only child.

We are his beloved children in whom he is well pleased.

The Transfiguration depicted in the Church of the Transfiguration in Piskopianó, in the hills above Hersonissos in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024; click on image for full-screen viewing)

Today’s Prayers (Saturday 28 September 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 ‘Our God is Able.’ This theme was introduced last Sunday in reflections by the Revd Thanduxolo Noketshe, priest in charge at Saint Mary and Christ Church, Diocese of North East Caribbean and Aruba, Province of the West Indies.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Saturday 28 September 2024) invites us to reflect on these words:

So Ananias went and entered the house. He laid his hands on Saul and said, ‘Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on your way here, has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit’ (Acts 9: 17).

The Collect:

Almighty God,
you have made us for yourself,
and our hearts are restless till they find their rest in you:
pour your love into our hearts and draw us to yourself,
and so bring us at last to your heavenly city
where we shall see you face to face;
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:

Lord, we pray that your grace
may always precede and follow us,
and make us continually to be given to all good works;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

Gracious God,
you call us to fullness of life:
deliver us from unbelief
and banish our anxieties
with the liberating love of Jesus Christ our Lord.

Collect on the Eve of Trinity XVIII:

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.

Collect on the Eve of Saint Michael and All Angels:

Everlasting God,
you have ordained and constituted
the ministries of angels and mortals in a wonderful order:
grant that as your holy angels always serve you in heaven,
so, at your command,
they may help and defend us on earth;
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.

Yesterday’s reflection

Continued tomorrow

Masks in a shop window in Venice … do we hide our personae behind masks before other people … before God? (Photograph: Patrick Comerford 2018)

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: 139, Friday 27 September 2024

When is it appropriate to be silent? (see Luke 9: 21) … an icon of Christ the Blessed Silence

Patrick Comerford

We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar and this week began with the Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity XVII). Today is one of the Ember Days in September. The calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship today (27 September) remembers Vincent de Paul (1660), Founder of the Congregation of the Mission (Lazarists).

I am on the way to Birmingham, to catch a flight to Dublin for lunch today that is planned as a reunion 55 years later of my school year. We were the Sixth Year in Gormanston College, Co Meath, in 1969. Before today 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 reflection on the Gospel reading;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

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

When is it appropriate to be silent? (see Luke 9: 21) … an icon of Christ the Blessed Silence

Luke 9: 18-22 (NRSVA):

18 Once when Jesus was praying alone, with only the disciples near him, he asked them, ‘Who do the crowds say that I am?’ 19 They answered, ‘John the Baptist; but others, Elijah; and still others, that one of the ancient prophets has arisen.’ 20 He said to them, ‘But who do you say that I am?’ Peter answered, ‘The Messiah of God.’

21 He sternly ordered and commanded them not to tell anyone, 22 saying, ‘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.’

When is it appropriate to be silent? (see Luke 9: 21) … an icon of Christ the Blessed Silence

Today’s Reflection:

In today’s Gospel reading, after his profound confession of faith, Saint Peter is ‘sternly ordered and commanded them not to tell anyone.’ This is in sharp contrast to the response to this confession of faith in Saint Matthew’s Gospel, when Christ tells Saint Peter: ‘I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church …’ (Matthew 16: 18, NRSVA).

When is it appropriate to be silent and not speak out?

In Saint Mark’s Gospel, when Bartimaeus the blind beggar realises he is in the presence of Christ outside the gates of Jericho, ‘many sternly ordered him to be quiet, but he cried out even more loudly’ (Mark 10: 48).

But are there times when words are not enough, when words are simply not appropriate?

As I look forward to today’s Gormanston reunion, I am reminded of a saying attributed to Saint Francis of Assisi: ‘Preach the Gospel at all times, and when necessary use words.’

There are moments when actions speak louder than words, and when our lifestyle and discipleship offer far better sermons than anything we may say in a sermon.

There are moments to cry out loudly in the presence of God, and there are moments when silence is so appropriate.

So, in my prayers and silent reflections this morning, my thoughts turned to the icon of Christ the Blessed Silence, an icon found in some traditions in the Greek and Russian Orthodox Churches, but that is not so well known outside Orthodoxy.

In this icon, Christ is portrayed as a youthful figure looking like a winged angel, his hands crossed against his chest, sometimes wearing a bishop’s mitre and dressed in a sakkos (σάκκος), the vestment worn by Orthodox bishops. In most of these icons, Christ is shown with an eight-pointed, shining nimbus.

The icon of Christ the Blessed Silence represents his sacrifice, through his young face and crossed hands, and his ecclesiastic mission in his attire. His angel-like face and the wings point to his ministry. In some of these icons, Christ is bareheaded, in others he wears the crown of a bishop, to show that he is both the Great High Priest and the King of Kings. In some icons of Christ the Blessed Silence, Christ holds the cross, spear and sponge of the Crucifixion.

The tradition of icons of Christ the Blessed Silence developed in the 14th and 15th centuries on Mount Athos, in Greece and in the Balkans. In Greece it was associated in Greece with the tradition of Hesychia. This Blessed Silence of Christ associates this icon with the hesychasts in the Eastern Orthodox tradition – the Greek ἡσυχία (hesychia) is a word for silence or quiet.

This icon is known in Russian as Spas Blagoe Molchanie or the Saviour of the Blessed Silence, and even as the Angel of Great Counsel. The earliest icon in this tradition in mediaeval Rus dates from the late 15th century. Christ is portrayed on the iconostasis or icon screen in the Cathedral of the Dormition in the Kremlin in Moscow, above the entrance to the sanctuary and dates from ca 1482 or perhaps later (1514-1515).

This image was widespread in the 17th century, and it is found special reverence in the 18th and 19th centuries among the Old Believers in Russia. Many of these icons were confiscated from the Old Believers and kept in archives in St Petersburg.

The icon of Christ the Blessed Silence Saviour is one of the few types in which Christ is represented in the form of an angel. In these icons, Christ is young and without a beard, looking like an angel or messenger, the angel of the blessed silence.

The sacred silence of Christ in this icon is also associated with the Christ who was born in time to be the Suffering Servant who died in Silence. In the traditional interpretations of Isaiah, the Suffering Servant passages are associated with the crucifixion of Jesus:

He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,
yet he did not open his mouth;
like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,
and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent,
so he did not open his mouth. (Isaiah 53: 7)

So, the suffering Christ was silent, and Christ the Angel of Great Counsel is the Son of God begotten in the Silence of Eternity.

Isaiah also says:

He will not cry or lift up his voice,
or make it heard in the street (Isaiah 42: 2).

These icons often also bear inscriptions from another passage in Isaiah:

The spirit of the Lord shall rest on him,
the spirit of wisdom and understanding,
the spirit of counsel and might,
the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. (Isaiah 11: 2)

Sometimes Christ holds in his hand a scroll that reads: ‘You are the God of Peace, Father of Mercies, the Angel of Great Counsel.’ These words are in Irmos 5 in the Liturgy of the Nativity:

O God of peace and Father of mercies
Thou has sent to us the Angel of Great Counsel who grants us peace.
So we are guided to the light of the knowledge of God.
Waking early from the night we praise Thee, O Lover of men.

Traditionally, the words of Isaiah 9: 6 are associated with the birth of Christ and the Nativity narratives. They are best known in the English-speaking world because of their use in the libretto by Charles Jennens for Handel’s oratorio Messiah:

For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given:
and the government shall be upon his shoulder:
and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor,
The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.

Jennens was drawing on the text of the Authorised Version or King James Version of the Bible, which reflects the Hebrew text of the Bible as it was known in the 17th century. However, early Christians knew the Biblical texts not in Hebrew, but in the Greek of the Septuagint. In Greek, Isaiah 9: 6 reads somewhat differently:

The ‘Messenger of Great Counsel’ (Ο Μεγάλης Βουλής Άγγελος) in the Septuagint may also be understood as the ‘Angel of Great Counsel.’ Greek versions of the icon of the Angel of Great Counsel sometimes include the inscription:

ἐγὼ γὰρ ἐκ τοῦ θεοῦ ἐξῆλθον καὶ ἥκω:
οὐδὲ γὰρ ἀπ’ ἐμαυτοῦ ἐλήλυθα, ἀλλ’ ἐκεῖνός με ἀπέστειλεν.

For I came from God and now I am here.
I did not come on my own, but he sent me (John 8: 42).

As I think of the icon of Christ the Blessed Silence, I think too of the Logos begotten from God in Eternity and of the birth of the Christ Child in time. He is the one who was, who is and who is to come, the one to cry out loud to and the one in whose presence we should be silent too.

I have said with humour and full sincerity that when my coffin is being taken into the church at my funeral (later than sooner, I hope), that I want to hear Leonard Cohen’s ‘If it be your will’ … and when my coffin is being carried out I want to hear his ‘Dance me to the end of love.’

So often I want to be in control. I want to control the agenda, I want to control conversations, I want to control discussions. And I particularly want to control the words I use, the words others are going to hear me say.

And so, I am humbled at times when I listen to Leonard Cohen’s song, ‘If it be your will.’

Leonard Cohen ended many of those concerts singing this poem, which for me is about submission to God’s will, accepting God’s will, leaving God in control of my spirit:

Leonard Cohen sings of his nearly complete subjection to the divine will.

If he is told to be silent, he will be silent; if he is told to sing, he will sing.

If he is allowed to express his true voice (‘if a voice be true’), he will sing in praise of God from ‘this broken hill’ … from Calvary?

The mercy of God, the compassion of God, the love of God, redeems the burning hearts in hell … if it is God’s will.

Leonard Cohen’s great hope in this will leads to prayer, to the one who can ‘make us well’ if we devote ourselves to God, pray to God, sing to God. But he still prays to God to act on behalf of the suffering.

Cajoling God in song and poetry, Cohen says God has the power to ‘end this night’ of the darkness of the human condition, in which people are dressed in only dirty ‘rags of light’ that are fragmented, that are not fully whole and illuminated.

In this song, I imagine Christ on the cross as he speaks to God the Father as his agony comes to its close:

If it be your will
That I speak no more
And my voice be still
As it was before.

The broken hill is Golgotha where he has been crucified, the rugged and rocky Mount of Calvary.

‘Let the rivers fill’ may refer to the water of his thirst, the water of his sweat, the water that streams from his side, the waters of baptism, the Living Water that will never leave us to thirst.

If it be your will
To make us well
Let your mercy spill
On all these burning hearts in hell.

The Dominican theologian Timothy Radcliffe says: ‘We must wait for the resurrection to break the silence of the tomb.’ We must speak up when it is necessary, and to have the courage to speak is ‘ultimately founded upon the courage to listen.’

Leonard Cohen, If it be your will:

If it be your will
That I speak no more
And my voice be still
As it was before
I will speak no more
I shall abide until
I am spoken for
If it be your will

If it be your will
That a voice be true
From this broken hill
I will sing to you
From this broken hill
All your praises they shall ring
If it be your will
To let me sing
From this broken hill
All your praises they shall ring
If it be your will
To let me sing

If it be your will
If there is a choice
Let the rivers fill
Let the hills rejoice
Let your mercy spill
On all these burning hearts in hell
If it be your will
To make us well

And draw us near
And bind us tight
All your children here
In their rags of light
In our rags of light
All dressed to kill
And end this night
If it be your will

If it be your will.

When is it appropriate to be silent? (see Luke 9: 21) … an icon of Christ the Blessed Silence

Today’s Prayers (Friday 27 September 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 ‘Our God is Able.’ This theme was introduced on Sunday in reflections by the Revd Thanduxolo Noketshe, priest in charge at Saint Mary and Christ Church, Diocese of North East Caribbean and Aruba, Province of the West Indies.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Friday 27 September 2024) invites us to pray:

Let us pray for the work and mission of the Diocese of Port Elizabeth in South Africa.

The Collect:

Almighty God,
you have made us for yourself,
and our hearts are restless till they find their rest in you:
pour your love into our hearts and draw us to yourself,
and so bring us at last to your heavenly city
where we shall see you face to face;
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:

Lord, we pray that your grace
may always precede and follow us,
and make us continually to be given to all good works;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Collect, for the ministry of all Christian people:

Almighty and everlasting God,
by whose Spirit the whole body of the Church
is governed and sanctified:
hear our prayer which we offer for all your faithful people,
that in their vocation and ministry
they may serve you in holiness and truth
to the glory of your name;
through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Yesterday’s reflection

Continued tomorrow

The school chapel in Gormanston was said to have been inspired by Coventry Cathedral … the year of 1969 meets for lunch in Dublin today (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


‘If It Be Your Will’ … Leonard Cohen and The Webb Sisters, Live in London

Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2024: 139, Thursday 26 September 2024

‘It was said by some that John had been raised from the dead, by some that Elijah had appeared’ (Luke 9: 7-8) … the Prophet Elijah by Phyllis Burke in the Carmelite Church in Clarendon Street, Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar and this week began with the Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity XVII). The calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship today (26 September) remembers Wilson Carlile (1942), founder of the Church Army.

Before today 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 reflection on the Gospel reading;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

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

A hilltop chapel dedicated to the Prophet Elijah in a small graveyard east of Georgioupoli (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Luke 9: 7-9 (NRSVA):

7 Now Herod the ruler heard about all that had taken place, and he was perplexed, because it was said by some that John had been raised from the dead, 8 by some that Elijah had appeared, and by others that one of the ancient prophets had arisen. 9 Herod said, ‘John I beheaded; but who is this about whom I hear such things?’ And he tried to see him.

‘It was said by some that John had been raised from the dead, by some that Elijah had appeared’ (Luke 9: 7-8) … Elijah in the Chariot of Fire, depicted in a window in the Church of Saint Mary the Virgin, Newport, Essex (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflection:

The Prophet Elias (Hλίας) or Elijah is a popular dedication for mountain-top and hill-top churches and chapels throughout Greece, because of his association with hilltops and mountains, including, in the New Testament, the mountain of the Transfiguration.

Elijah, one of the most studied prophets in the Old Testament, is perhaps too the loftiest and the most worthy of all the prophets.

Of all the Biblical prophets, the New Testament mentions Elijah more than any other: he is mentioned by name 29 times in New Testament and he is alluded to a few other times.

Some English translations of the New Testament use Elias, a Latin form of the name, and in the King James Version the name Elias appears in texts translated from the Greek.

In the New Testament, both Christ and Saint John the Baptist are compared with Elijah and on some occasions they are thought by some to be manifestations of Elijah.

In the Annunciation narrative in Saint Luke’s Gospel, an angel appears to Zechariah, the father of Saint John the Baptist, and tells him that John ‘will turn many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God,’ and that ‘the spirit and power of Elijah will go before him’ (Luke 1: 16-17).

In Saint John’s Gospel, Saint John the Baptist is asked by a delegation of priests and Levities from Jerusalem if he is the Messiah or Elijah. He replies: ‘No’ (John 1: 19-21).

Saint John the Baptist preaches a message of repentance and baptism. He predicts the day of judgment, using imagery similar to that of Malachi, and he preaches that the Messiah is coming. For those who hear him, he does all this in a style that immediately recalls the image of Elijah. He wears a coat of animal hair secured with a leather belt (see Matthew 3: 1-4; Mark 1: 6), and he preaches frequently in wilderness areas near the River Jordan (see Luke 3: 4).

Christ says that for those who believe Saint John the Baptist is like Elijah, who would come before the ‘great and terrible day’ as predicted by the Prophet Malachi (see Malachi 3: 1; Malachi 4: 5-6). In Saint Matthew’s Gospel, Christ compares Saint John the Baptist with Elijah, fulfilling his office but not being recognised for this, yet greater than Elijah (see Matthew 11: 7-14, 17: 10-13).

In Saint Luke’s Gospel, Herod Antipas is perplexed when he hears some of the stories about Christ. Some people tell Herod that Saint John the Baptist, whom he had executed, has come back to life, others tell him that Christ is Elijah, and still others think that one of the ancient prophets has risen from the dead (see Luke 9: 7-9).

Later, Christ asks his disciples who do people say he is, and their answers include Elijah, other prophets and Saint John the Baptist (see Matthew 16: 13-14; Mark 8: 27-30; Luke 9: 18-20).

Christ is associated with miracle stories similar to those of Elijah, such as the raising of the dead (Mark 5: 21-23; Luke 7: 11-15, 8: 49-56; John 11) and miraculous feeding (Matthew 14: 13-21, Mark 6: 34-45; Luke 9: 10-17; John 6: 5-16; see II Kings 4: 42 ff). Yet Christ implicitly separates himself from Elijah when he rebukes James and John for desiring to call down fire on an unwelcoming Samaritan village in a similar manner to Elijah calling down fire on the Samaritan troops (Luke 9: 51-56; cf II Kings 1: 10).

Similarly, Christ rebukes a potential follower who wants first to return home to say farewell to his family, whereas Elijah permitted his successor Elisha to do this (Luke 9: 61-62; cf I Kings 19: 16-21).

We might also ask whether the cup Christ blesses at the Last Supper is the Cup of Elijah.

During the Crucifixion, some of the onlookers mistakenly think Christ is calling out to Elijah and wonder whether Elijah will come to rescue him, for in the folklore of the time Elijah was seen as a rescuer of Jews in distress (Matthew 27: 46-49; Mark 15: 34-36).

In all three Gospel accounts of the Transfiguration, the Prophet Elijah appears with Moses at the Transfiguration (see Matthew 17: 1-9; Mark 9: 2-8; Luke 9: 28-36).

Elijah’s appearance in glory at the Transfiguration does not seem to startle the disciples, and it appears they are overcome by fear only when they hear the voice from the cloud.

At the summit of the Mount of the Transfiguration, Christ’s face begins to shine. The disciples who are with him hear the voice of God announce that Christ is ‘My beloved Son.’ The disciples also see Moses and Elijah appear and talking with Christ.

Saint Peter is so struck by the experience that he asks Christ if they should build three booths or tabernacles – one for Elijah, one for Christ and one for Moses.

Saint John Chrysostom explains the presence of Elijah and Moses at the Transfiguration in three ways:

• They represent the Law and the Prophets – Moses receives the Law from God, and Elijah is a great prophet.
• They both experience visions of God – Moses on Mount Sinai and Elijah on Mount Carmel.
• They represent the living and the dead – Elijah, the living, because he is taken up into heaven in a chariot of fire, and Moses, the dead, because he does experience death.

Moses and Elijah show that the Law and the Prophets point to the coming of Christ, and their recognition of and conversation with Christ symbolise how he fulfils ‘the law and the prophets’ (Matthew 5: 17-19). Moses and Elijah also stand for the living and dead, for Moses dies and his burial place is known, while Elijah is taken alive into heaven in order to appear again to announce the time of God’s salvation.

It was commonly believed that Elijah would reappear before the coming of the Messiah (see Malachi 4), and the three interpret Christ’s response as a reference to John the Baptist (Matthew 17: 13).

Elijah is mentioned on three other occasions in the New Testament: in Saint Luke’s Gospel, in Saint Paul’s Letter to the Romans, and in the Epistle of James:

1, After he reads from the scroll in the synagogue in Nazareth and is criticised for his teaching, Christ cites Elijah as an example of the rejected prophets when he says: ‘No prophet is accepted in the prophet’s home town’:

24 And he said, ‘Truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in the prophet’s home town. 25 But the truth is, there were many widows in Israel in the time of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up for three years and six months, and there was a severe famine over all the land; 26 yet Elijah was sent to none of them except to a widow at Zarephath in Sidon. 27 There were also many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian.’ (Luke 4: 24–27).

2, Saint Paul cites Elijah as an example that God never forsakes his people:

1 I ask, then, has God rejected his people? By no means! I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin. 2 God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew. Do you not know what the scripture says of Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel? 3 ‘Lord, they have killed your prophets, they have demolished your altars; I alone am left, and they are seeking my life.’4 But what is the divine reply to him? ‘I have kept for myself seven thousand who have not bowed the knee to Baal.’ 5 So too at the present time there is a remnant, chosen by grace. 6 But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works, otherwise grace would no longer be grace. (Romans 11: 1-6)

3, Saint James says: ‘The prayer of the righteous is powerful and effective.’ He then cites as examples Elijah’s prayers which start and end the famine in Israel (see James 5: 16-18).

Inside a hilltop chapel dedicated the Prophet Elias in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Elijah is honoured as a saint in the calendars of both the Orthodox and Roman Catholic Church on 20 July. In Greece, chapels and monasteries dedicated to the Prophet Elias (Προφήτης Ηλίας) are often found on mountaintops, which themselves are often named after him.

Elijah is revered as the spiritual Father and traditional founder of the Order of Carmelites. In addition to taking their name from Mount Carmel where the first hermits of the order established themselves, the Carmelite traditions about Elijah focus on his withdrawal from public life.

It could be said that to read Saint Luke’s Gospel with insight we also need to read the story of Elijah and Elisha. To read their story, keeping in mind the miracles, the actions, and the teachings of these two prophets, is to add a richness to our reading of Saint Luke, but also brings with it a vital understanding of the continuity and discontinuity of God’s ways in the Old Testament and New Testament.

Where do you find Elijah and Elisha in Saint Luke’s Gospel?

What are similarities and contrasts between Jesus and them?

Why is it easier to face a dilemma with the questions ‘What Would Jesus Do?’ rather than the questions ‘What Would Elijah Do?’

What richness does it add to your understanding of the kingdom?

‘It was said by some that John had been raised from the dead, by some that Elijah had appeared’ (Luke 9: 7-8) … an icon of the Prophet Elijah in a hilltop chapel near Georgioupoli in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Thursday 26 September 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 ‘Our God is Able.’ This theme was introduced on Sunday in reflections by the Revd Thanduxolo Noketshe, priest in charge at Saint Mary and Christ Church, Diocese of North East Caribbean and Aruba, Province of the West Indies.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Thursday 26 September 2024) invites us to pray:

Bless our journey with you Lord. May we walk the path that you have laid before us, singing your praises.

The Collect:

Almighty God,
you have made us for yourself,
and our hearts are restless till they find their rest in you:
pour your love into our hearts and draw us to yourself,
and so bring us at last to your heavenly city
where we shall see you face to face;
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:

Lord, we pray that your grace
may always precede and follow us,
and make us continually to be given to all good works;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

Gracious God,
you call us to fullness of life:
deliver us from unbelief
and banish our anxieties
with the liberating love of Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s reflection

Continued tomorrow

The Monastery of Profitis Elias near Pyrgos on the Greek island of Santorini

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

The Skete of Prophet Elias near the Monastery of the Pantokrator Monastery on Mount Athos

Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2024: 138, Wednesday 25 September 2024

‘Then Jesus called the twelve together and … sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God’ (Luke 9: 1-2) … the Twelve Apostles, an icon in the church in Panormos, east of Rethymnon in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar and this week began with the Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity XVII). Wednesday, Friday and Saturday in this week in the Church Calendar are also known as Ember Days.

The Calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship today remembers Lancelot Andrewes (1555-1626), Bishop of Winchester, spiritual writer, and Sergei of Radonezh (1392), Russian monastic reformer and teacher of the faith.

Before today 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 reflection on the Gospel reading;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

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

Mosaic figures of the Twelve Apostles by Antonio Salviati on the tympanum of Saint Andrew’s Cathedral in Amalfi (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Luke 9: 1-6 (NRSVA):

1 Then Jesus called the twelve together and gave them power and authority over all demons and to cure diseases, 2 and he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal. 3 He said to them, ‘Take nothing for your journey, no staff, nor bag, nor bread, nor money – not even an extra tunic. 4 Whatever house you enter, stay there, and leave from there. 5 Wherever they do not welcome you, as you are leaving that town shake the dust off your feet as a testimony against them.’ 6 They departed and went through the villages, bringing the good news and curing diseases everywhere.

The 12 disciples in an icon of the True Vine in the church in Piskopianó in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflection:

The story of the Twelve being called and sent out in mission and ministry, ‘to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal,’ is an appropriate Gospel on the first of the Ember Days in September.

Ember Days have often been associated with prayer and fasting and Common Worship describes them ‘as days of prayer for those to be made deacon or priest.’ Traditionally they have been observed on the Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays within the weeks before the Third Sunday of Advent, the Second Sunday of Lent and the Sundays nearest to 29 June and 29 September.

Common Worship suggests: ‘Ember Days may also be kept even when there is no ordination in the diocese as more general days of prayer for those who serve the Church in its various ministries, both ordained and lay, and for vocations.’

This traditional association explains why the invitations sent out to ordinations are known as Ember Cards.

In sending the Twelve out in today’s Gospel reading, Jesus ‘gave them power and authority’. What is the nature of that ‘power and authority’, and where do we find that in ministry and discipleship?

As I ask these questions, I turn this morning to a prayer by Lancelot Andrewes, who is commemorated in the Church Calendar on this day. This prayer is framed beside his tomb in Southwark Cathedral:

Thou, O Lord, art the Helper of the helpless,
the Hope of the Hopeless,
the Saviour of them who are tossed with tempests,
the Haven of them who sail, be thou all to all.
The glorious majesty of the Lord our God be upon us;
prosper thou the work of our hands upon us;
oh! prosper thou our handiwork.
Lord, be thou within us, to strengthen me,
without us to keep us, above us to protect me,
beneath us to uphold me, before us to direct us,
behind us to keep us from straying,
round about us to defend us.
Blessed be Thou, O Lord our Father, forever and ever.

The tomb of Lancelot Andrewes in Southwark Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Wednesday 25 September 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 ‘Our God is Able.’ This theme was introduced on Sunday in reflections by the Revd Thanduxolo Noketshe, priest in charge at Saint Mary and Christ Church, Diocese of North East Caribbean and Aruba, Province of the West Indies.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Wednesday 25 September 2024) invites us to pray:

Father God, we pray for all who are fearful for their futures today. Cover them with your grace and peace.

The Collect:

Lord God,
who gave to Lancelot Andrewes many gifts of your Holy Spirit,
making him a man of prayer and a pastor of your people:
perfect in us that which is lacking in your gifts,
of faith, to increase it,
of hope, to establish it,
of love, to kindle it,
that we may live in the light of your grace and glory;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post Communion Prayer:

God, shepherd of your people,
whose servant Lancelot Andrewes revealed the loving service of Christ
in his ministry as a pastor of your people:
by this eucharist in which we share
awaken within us the love of Christ
and keep us faithful to our Christian calling;
through him who laid down his life for us,
but is alive and reigns with you, now and for ever.

Yesterday’s reflection

Continued tomorrow

A portrait of Lancelot Andrewes in Southwark Cathedral (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 2024: 137, Tuesday 24 September 2024

‘My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it’ (Luke 8: 21) … Who is my brother? … the Seven Brothers Taverna in Rethymnon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar and this week began with the Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity XVII).

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

1, today’s Gospel reading;

2, a reflection on the Gospel reading;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

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

‘My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it’ (Luke 8: 21) … an interesting reminder in a café in Greystones, Co Wicklow (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Luke 8: 19-21 (NRSVA):

19 Then his mother and his brothers came to him, but they could not reach him because of the crowd. 20 And he was told, ‘Your mother and your brothers are standing outside, wanting to see you.’ 21 But he said to them, ‘My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it.’

Leo Tolstoy offers a challenging understanding of happy and unhappy families in ‘Anna Karenina’

Today’s Reflection:

Leo Tolstoy’s opening sentence in Anna Karenina is often quoted in analyses of family life: ‘All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.’

His observation is most quoted when family relationships are being discussed. Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910) was a Russian mystic and novelist, and he took another 900 pages or so to describe three generations of unhappy family members who torment and torture each other and themselves. Although he never used the term, Tolstoy demonstrates what therapists today call the ‘intergenerational transmission of trauma.’

Tolstoy means that for a family to be happy, several key aspects must be in place, such as good health of all family members, acceptable financial security, and mutual affection. If there is a deficiency in any one or more of these key aspects, the family will be unhappy. The ‘Anna Karenina principle’ is used as a concept to explain success in many other fields, including, for example, in science.

The opening sentence of Anna Karenina seems to have a ring of truth to it. But do you think it is true at all? Are all happy families alike? And is it so that each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way?

Is the family of Jesus a happy family or an unhappy family?

What helps you to discuss this: the behaviour of his family members? Or his response to them?

Defining families, let alone defining happy families or unhappy families, is not as easy a task as appears when we first accept the challenge.

Deciding who is in, and who is out, through our behaviour, may be the first indication of whether a family is happy or not.

We all know families where one brother or one sister is the last hear family notices, the last to hear about births, marriages or deaths, to hear about family parties and celebrations, to be counted in on family news and gossip. Indeed, there are some families where I imagine each individual sibling thinks he or she is the brother or sister who is always the last to be counted in.

In other families, the definition of family can be surprisingly narrow or surprisingly broad. Do you count second cousins as family members? Do I see everyone who shares my family name as, in some way, a member of some extended family?

Despite the fictional idyllic family life of the Waltons in Little House on the Prairie, there is no ideal family or ideal family life, and no one single agreed definition of family.

What we do know is that we cannot chose our families, even if we think we would like to. We may ignore, marginalise or isolate other family members, but they remain members of the same family.

Why is it acceptable only in families to speak to one another in ways that are unacceptable in the workplace and that would lead to sanctions and discipline?

None of us had any choice when it comes to our family members – parents, siblings, still less remote ancestors. And if we could, we would probably make no better – and no worse – a choice than the one we live with. Indeed, researching a family tree often produces surprises when it comes to finding new family members.

Nor can we chose on God’s behalf who is in and who is out, who is part of God’s family, who is truly my brother and sister. For, in reality, we are all God’s children, and in a very real way our shared baptism makes us, truly, brothers and sisters.

I often feel that the Church is truly like a family, but not because we treat each other like we are the children of God; rather, the way we speak to each other about divisive issues such as sexuality, gender, marriage and divorce shows the Church is an unhappy family as understood by the ‘Anna Karenina principle’.

Which makes it even more difficult to pose my question, Is the family of Jesus a happy family or an unhappy family?

To paraphrase the conclusion of today’s Gospel reading, ‘My parents and my brothers and sisters are those who hear the word of God and do it.’

Drafting a family tree for a family spread across nine generations and five or six countries … researching family trees often produces surprises when it comes to finding new family members (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Tuesday 24 September 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 ‘Our God is Able.’ This theme was introduced on Sunday in reflections by the Revd Thanduxolo Noketshe, priest in charge at Saint Mary and Christ Church, Diocese of North East Caribbean and Aruba, Province of the West Indies.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Tuesday 24 September 2024) invites us to pray:

We give thanks, Lord, for all the times you have provided, healed, and comforted us. May we always remember your goodness.

The Collect:

Almighty God,
you have made us for yourself,
and our hearts are restless till they find their rest in you:
pour your love into our hearts and draw us to yourself,
and so bring us at last to your heavenly city
where we shall see you face to face;
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:

Lord, we pray that your grace
may always precede and follow us,
and make us continually to be given to all good works;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

Gracious God,
you call us to fullness of life:
deliver us from unbelief
and banish our anxieties
with the liberating love of Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s reflection

Continued tomorrow

‘His mother and his brothers … could not reach him because of the crowd’ (Luke 8: 19) … a sculpture in central Milton Keynes (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

‘My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it’ (Luke 8: 21) … Who is my brother? … the Seven Brothers Taverna in Rethymnon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2024: 136, Monday 23 September 2024

‘No one after lighting a lamp hides it under a jar, or puts it under a bed’ (Luke 8: 16) … lamplight at night in the Market Square, Stony Stratford (Photographs: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Patrick Comerford

We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar and this week began with the Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity XVII).

I am planning to meet people in Hampstead later today to discuss a book launch in London early next month. But, before today begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, for reflection, prayer and reading in these ways:

1, today’s Gospel reading;

2, a reflection on the Gospel reading;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

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

‘No one after lighting a lamp hides it under a jar, or puts it under a bed’ (Luke 8: 16) … a lighting lamp in the Boot and Flogger in Southwark (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Luke 8: 16-18 (NRSVA):

[Jesus said:] 16 ‘No one after lighting a lamp hides it under a jar, or puts it under a bed, but puts it on a lampstand, so that those who enter may see the light. 17 For nothing is hidden that will not be disclosed, nor is anything secret that will not become known and come to light. 18 Then pay attention to how you listen; for to those who have, more will be given; and from those who do not have, even what they seem to have will be taken away.’

Lichnos in Piskopianó stood out as a light on a hill in Crete, visible for miles below and out to sea (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Today’s Reflection:

When I was back in Piskopianó in Crete a few months ago, I was disappointed to see that one of my favourite tavernas, Lichnos, has been closed for some time now.

The name Lichnos comes from the Greek word λύχνος (lychnos), meaning a lamp or a light. The restaurant stood on a precipice on the north side of the village, close to Mika Villas, where I stayed regularly in the 1990s. Lichnos was perched on the edge of the hill, and from its balcony and roof garden there were panoramic views across Hersonissos below and out to the Mediterranean. At night, Lichnos stood out as a light on a hill, visible for miles below and out to sea.

The parable of the lamp under a bushel is told all three Synoptic Gospels: Matthew 5: 14-15, Mark 4: 21-25 and Luke 8: 16-18. In Saint Matthew’s Gospel, this parable continues the discourse on salt and light in the Sermon on the Mount. But Saint Mark and Saint Luke connect it with Jesus’s explanation of the Parable of the Sower.

The word λύχνος (lychnos) means a light, lamp or candle. But it is also used figuratively for a distinguished teacher, as when Jesus describes Saint John the Baptist as ‘a burning and shining lamp, and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light’ (John 5: 35).

This parable is also the source of the aphorism about hiding one’s light under a bushel.

The original Greek in Matthew (5: 15) and Mark (4: 21) is μόδιος (modios), usually translated as ‘basket.’ A modius was a Roman measure for dry things such as grain and equivalent to about a peck 8.75 litres.

However, Saint Luke uses the word σκεῦος (skeuos), meaning a vessel or utensil for containing anything. Saint Paul uses the same word when he refers to σκεύη ὀργῆς and σκεύη ἐλέους, vessels of wrath or vessels of mercy, when referring to individuals visited by punishment or visited by divine favour (see Romans 9: 22-23). This word is also used to describe the vessel or frame of the human individual (I Thessalonians 4: 4; I Peter 3: 7). Saint Luke also uses the word κλίνη (klinē) for a couch or bed.

The word bushel , meaning a bowl, was used in William Tyndale’s translation: ‘Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick, and it lighteth all them which are in the house.’

The key idea in this morning’s parable is that light or truth is not to be hidden or concealed. This light has been understood as Jesus, as his message, and as the believer's response to him and to his message.

In their writings, Hilary, Ambrose, and Bede understood that the light of the Gospel was not to be confined to Judaea, but to illuminate all nations.

But to hide one’s light under a bushel has come to mean saying little about one’s own skills and abilities, one’s own core values and beliefs, instead of being confident and telling others about them.

When do we hide our lights under bushels, or under a bowl?

When are we reluctant to be a beacon in the darkness, shining out for true values when light is needed?

Do I speak up often enough about injustice, oppression and violence and racism, war and prejudice? Or do I keep my views to myself at those crucial moments, hiding my light under a bushel?

The view from Lichnos in Piskopianó across Hersonissos and out to the north coast of Crete and the Mediterranean (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Monday 23 September 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 ‘Our God is Able.’ This theme was introduced yesterday in reflections by the Revd Thanduxolo Noketshe, priest in charge at Saint Mary and Christ Church, Diocese of North East Caribbean and Aruba, Province of the West Indies.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Monday 23 September 2024) invites us to pray:

We pray for the people and church in the Diocese of North East Caribbean and Aruba. Bless church leaders such as the Revd Thanduxolo Noketshe as they carry out their ministry.

The Collect:

Almighty God,
you have made us for yourself,
and our hearts are restless till they find their rest in you:
pour your love into our hearts and draw us to yourself,
and so bring us at last to your heavenly city
where we shall see you face to face;
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:

Lord, we pray that your grace
may always precede and follow us,
and make us continually to be given to all good works;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

Gracious God,
you call us to fullness of life:
deliver us from unbelief
and banish our anxieties
with the liberating love of Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s reflection

Continued tomorrow

‘No one after lighting a lamp hides it under a jar, or puts it under a bed’ (Luke 8: 16) … lit candles in the Church of the Four Martyrs in Rethymnon, Crete (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

‘No one after lighting a lamp hides it under a jar, or puts it under a bed’ (Luke 8: 16) … evening in a restaurant in York (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)