Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2026: 32, Monday 8 June 2026

The Berliner Dom in Berlin, popularly known as Berlin Cathedral … the images inside the dome illustrate the Beatitudes (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar, and yesterday was the First Sunday after Trinity (Trinity I, 7 June 2026). The calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship today recalls Thomas Ken (1637-1711), Bishop of Bath and Wells, Nonjuror, Hymn Writer.

Before today begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, to reflect, to pray and to read in these ways:

1, reading today’s Gospel reading;

2, a short reflection;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

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

‘Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted’ (Matthew 5: 4) … a child’s painting in Ukrainian Space in Budapest (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Matthew 5: 1-12 (NRSVA):

1 When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. 2 Then he began to speak, and taught them, saying:

3 ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

4 ‘Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

5 ‘Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.

6 ‘Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

7 ‘Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.

8 ‘Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

9 ‘Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.

10 ‘Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

11 ‘Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. 12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

12 ‘Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.’

‘Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted’ (Matthew 5: 4) … ‘Divine Teardrop’ by Peter Cassidy in an exhibition in Wexford in 2016 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflection:

The Gospel reading at the Eucharist today (Matthew 5: 1-12) begins a series of weekday readings from the Sermon on the Mount, beginning with the Beatitudes. The scene opens with Christ leaving the crowds and climbing up the mountain, like Moses in the Book Exodus leaving the crowd behind him, and climbing Mount Sinai. In the Sermon on the Mount in Chapters 5 to 7, Saint Matthew presents us with a covenant renewal document.

The Beatitudes are a declaration of the happy or fortunate state of the children of God who possesses particular qualities, and who, because of them, will inherit divine blessings.

It is interesting to compare the delivery of the Beatitudes to the delivery of the Ten Commandments. Here we have the renewal of the covenant, and a restatement, a re-presentation, of who the Children of God are.

Just as we sometimes find the Ten Commandments grouped into two sets, so we might see the Beatitudes set out in two groups of four, the first four being inward looking, the second four being outward looking.

We might see the first four Beatitudes as addressing attitudes, while the second four deal with resulting actions.

Are they ethical requirements for the present?

Or are they eschatological blessings for the future?

Or are they are statements of present fact, identifying the qualities of a child of God and the consequent blessings that follow?

Few of us, I imagine, are ever going to commit murder.

But we all get ‘angry with a brother’ sooner or later.

The Sermon on the Mount exposes our own present reality in a very stark and real way, and the Beatitudes are a core text for Dietrich Bonhoeffer in The Cost of Discipleship and in the writings of towering Christian figures such as Dorothy Day, Martin Luther King, Thomas Merton and Oscar Romero.

Father Brian D’Arcy once recalled during a radio interview how Dorothy Day once spoke of how her fellow Roman Catholics went to confession regularly and confessed to ‘breaking’ one of the Ten Commandments, but she wondered how often they confessed to ‘breaking’ one of the Eight Beatitudes.

Μακάριοι (Makárioi): Does this mean ‘blessed’? Archbishop Makarios was the President of Cyprus in 1974 when he was deposed in a coup that was followed by the Turkish invasion of the island. ‘His Beatitude’ is a term of respect for archbishops and metropolitans in the Orthodox Church.

The word ‘blessed’ is not the best translation for μακάριος (makários). ‘Fortunate,’ ‘well off,’ or ‘happy’ might fit better.

Christ is telling those who hear him that they are fortunate to be this way. They are fortunate to possess these qualities of life. Why? Because it means they inherit the blessings or fortunes of God’s promised kingdom.

The Beatitudes are culturally embedded in our society, in our literature, in our arts. They are so familiar that we all understand the irreverent humour found in a scene in Monty Python’s The Life of Brian.

‘Blessed are the Meek’ – which means the humble, patient, submissive and gentle – is misheard in The Life of Brian as: ‘Blessed is the Greek – apparently he’s going to inherit the earth.’ When they finally get what Jesus actually says, a woman says, ‘Oh it’s the Meek … blessed are the Meek! That’s nice, I’m glad they’re getting something, ’cause they have a hell of a time.’

The political activist and agitator Reg then says: ‘What Jesus blatantly fails to appreciate is that it’s the meek who are the problem.’ This sums up the growing annoyance of the violent with the peaceful attitude of Christ. But it also highlights that the Beatitudes are about ordinary, everyday people.

Too often we see the saints celebrated by the Church as martyrs and apostles, missionaries and hermits, bishops and theologians. How often do we see them as ordinary, meek, everyday people, the people who too often are dismissed as problems, who are living with problems, who often go without attention from politicians and activists alike?

The mother and child separated at birth in the ‘mother and baby’ home and blocked at every stage as they tried to find each other.

The middle-aged mother who hopes that life is going to get better as the years move on, but then finds instead every waking hour is devoted to an adult child with special needs, or to an elderly parent who now needs to be looked after like a child.

The couple filled with faith but afraid to come to church, marginalised because of their colour, class, language, marital status or sexuality.

The lone protester who stands outside a government office or embassy, ignored by those inside and berated outside by passing, hooting motorists, but who knows right is on her side … ‘Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.’

If the Church is a sign of the Kingdom of God, a foretaste of that heavenly liturgy, how does our life as the Church, in the parish and in the diocese, offer solace, comfort, a foretaste, hope for the meek, the downtrodden, the lonely, the oppressed, who are praised in the Beatitudes and who are invited as part of the great multitude, the countless number from every nation, tribe, people and language, to gather before the Lamb on the throne?

‘Blessed are the poor in spirit … those who mourn … the meek … those who hunger and thirst …’

May theirs be the kingdom of heaven, may they be comforted, may they inherit the earth, may they be filled.

‘Blessed are the merciful … the pure in heart … the peacemakers … those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake …’

May we be generous in showing mercy, may we see God, be called children of God, find ourselves in the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are we even when others revile us for standing up for these values … when we stand up for those values, may we rejoice and be glad.

Writing on the Financial pages of The Guardian many years ago (17 January 2011), Terry Macalister wrote: ‘From Tolstoy to Dostoevsky to Chekov, if anyone can tell a good story it’s the Russians.’ Well, in Chapter 2 of Boris Pasternak’s great Russian novel Doctor Zhivago, we meet Larissa Feodorovna Guishar, who ‘was not religious’ and ‘did not believe in ritual,’ but was startled by the Beatitudes, for she thought they were about herself.

How do we apply the Beatitudes to ourselves, to our own lives?

The reredos in the Unitarian Church, Dublin, is inscribed with the Beatitudes, one on each panel (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Monday 8 June 2026):

In Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), the theme this week, from 7 to 13 June 2026 (pp 8-9), is ‘Safe Churches in Zambia’. This theme was introduced yesterday with a programme update from Fran Mate, Senior Regional Manager for Africa, USPG.

The USPG prayer diary today (Monday 8 June 2026) invites us to pray:

Lord of love, thank you for the challenge that ‘documents alone will not keep people safe.’ Stir clergy and congregants alike with courage to act, wisdom to protect, and compassion to care.

The Collect:

O God, from whom all blessings flow,
by whose providence we are kept
and by whose grace we are directed:
help us, through the example of your servant Thomas Ken,
faithfully to keep your word,
humbly to accept adversity
and steadfastly to worship you;
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 Thomas Ken 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 Reflections

Continued Tomorrow

‘Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God’ (Matthew 5: 8) … a window in Saint Mary’s Collegiate Church, Youghal, Co Cork (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 the Kingdom Season: 27, Thursday 27 November 2025

‘There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars, and distress … among nations confused by the roaring of the sea and the waves’ (Luke 21: 25) … sunset on the sea at Rethymnon in Crete (Photographs: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Patrick Comerford

We are in the Kingdom Season, the time between All Saints’ Day and Advent, and this week began with the Sunday next before Advent and the Feast of Christ the King (23 November 2025).

Later today I hope to be involved with rehearsals with a play-reading group in Stony Stratford. But, before the day begins, I am taking some quiet time early this morning to give thanks, to reflect, to pray and to read 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 will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars’ (Luke 21: 25) … a broken piece of pottery in the Vandeleur Gardens in Kilrush, Co Clare (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Luke 21: 20-28 (NRSVA):

[Jesus said:] 20 ‘When you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation has come near. 21 Then those in Judea must flee to the mountains, and those inside the city must leave it, and those out in the country must not enter it; 22 for these are days of vengeance, as a fulfilment of all that is written. 23 Woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing infants in those days! For there will be great distress on the earth and wrath against this people; 24 they will fall by the edge of the sword and be taken away as captives among all nations; and Jerusalem will be trampled on by the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.

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

A refugee child clambers to the rocks seeking safety

Today’s reflection:

The scene for the Gospel reading at the Eucharist this morning (Luke 21: 20-28) has been set in the verses that immediately precede today’s reading. Christ is sitting in the Temple precincts, where he speaks about the Temple, the Nation, and the looming future.

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

These are not the sort of comforting words that we might want to hear as we prepare for Advent Sunday and to begin the countdown to Christmas.

My generation is a generation that grew up with muffled sounds of apocalyptic fear, developed through listening to the whispered anxieties of parents and teachers. I was still only 10 when the Cuban Missile Crisis reached its height in October 1962, and I still remember asking, ‘Is this going to be the end of the world?’

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

The threat seemed to have abated for some time after the end of the Cold War. But it has come to the fore again this year with Donald Trump’s erratic decision -making and foreign policy Trump. Meanwhile, despite the end of the Cold War, the stockpiles of nuclear weapons continue to grow and accumulate, both the US and Russia are walking away from key arms limitation agreements, and war is continuing in Ukraine and Russia, the violence has not ended in Israel, Gaza, the West Bank and Syria, and all respect for the international legal conventions and rules on the conduct of war seem to have been discarded in Trump’s latest proposals for the war between Russia and Ukraine and the failure to make Netanyahu answerable for what has happened to Gaza.

A new generation also wonders whether the world is facing apocalyptic catastrophe because of climate change and the destruction of the planet, a crisis that was not properly tackled at the Cop30 convention in Brazil. And all of us must fret for the future when we hear that the inquiry into the Covid-19 crisis warns that we are not adequately prepared for future and inevitable pandemics , while we have let down our guards and think vaccinations have made our lives safer.

These fears accumulate and multiply and they become:

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

• medium-term fears: what uncertainty and destruction can Trump unleash while he remains in office?

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

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

And yet, I realise how so self-obsessed I can be as I realise the immediate terror that continues to face people – families, fathers, mothers and children – who get caught in the precarious Channel crossing between France and England. How they must continue to be ‘confused by the roaring of the sea and the waves.’

All their hopes of a better life for themselves and their children, as they fled wars and persecutions in Iran, Syria, Afghanistan and North Africa, yet risk being drowned in one horrific, apocalyptic moment on the seas.

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

Have the recent riots and ugly street marches organised by the far right in both Britain and Ireland faded and gone away? Or is there worse yet to come?

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

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

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

‘They will fall by the edge of the sword and be taken away as captives …’ (Luke 21: 24) … the Ceremonial Sword of the former Mayors of Youghal in Saint Mary’s Collegiate Church, Youghal, Co Cork (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Thursday 27 November 2025):

The theme this week (23 to 29 November) in Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘Gender Justice’ (pp 58-59). This theme was introduced on Sunday with Reflections by Rachael Anderson, former Senior Communications and Engagement Manager, USPG.

The USPG Prayer Diary today invites us to pray:

Lord, we pray that women might receive greater acknowledgement for their role in sustaining our churches and our communities.

The Collect:

Eternal Father,
whose Son Jesus Christ ascended to the throne of heaven
that he might rule over all things as Lord and King:
keep the Church in the unity of the Spirit
and in the bond of peace,
and bring the whole created order to worship at his feet;
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Post Communion Prayer:

Stir up, O Lord,
the wills of your faithful people;
that they, plenteously bringing forth the fruit of good works,
may by you be plenteously rewarded;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

God the Father,
help us to hear the call of Christ the King
and to follow in his service,
whose kingdom has no end;
for he reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, one glory.

Yesterday’s Reflection

Continued Tomorrow

‘There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars’ (Luke 21: 25) … a winter sunset at Cross in Hand Lane in Lichfield (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 Ordinary Time 2025: 31, Monday 9 June 2025

The Berliner Dom in Berlin, popularly known as Berlin Cathedral … the images inside the dome illustrate the Beatitudes (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

The 50-day season of Easter, which began on Easter Day (20 April 2025), came to an end yesterday with the Day of Pentecost or Whit Sunday (8 June 2025), and we return in the Church Calendar today to Ordinary Time. The calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship today recalls Saint Columba (597), Abbot of Iona, Missionary, and Saint Ephrem of Syria 373), Deacon, Hymn Writer, and Teacher of the Faith.

Later this morning, I have an appointment in London. But before today begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, to reflect, to pray and to read in these ways:

1, reading today’s Gospel reading;

2, a short reflection;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

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

‘Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted’ (Matthew 5: 4) … a child’s painting in Ukrainian Space in Budapest (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Matthew 5: 1-11 (NRSVA):

1 When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. 2 Then he began to speak, and taught them, saying:

3 ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

4 ‘Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

5 ‘Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.

6 ‘Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

7 ‘Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.

8 ‘Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

9 ‘Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.

10 ‘Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

11 ‘Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. 12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.’

‘Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted’ (Matthew 5: 4) … ‘Divine Teardrop’ by Peter Cassidy in an exhibition in Wexford in 2016 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflection:

The Gospel reading at the Eucharist today (Matthew 5: 1-11) begins a series of weekday readings from the Sermon on the Mount, beginning with the Beatitudes. The scene opens with Christ leaving the crowds and climbing up the mountain, like Moses in the Book Exodus leaving the crowd behind him, and climbing Mount Sinai. In the Sermon on the Mount in Chapters 5 to 7, Saint Matthew presents us with a covenant renewal document.

The Beatitudes are a declaration of the happy or fortunate state of the children of God who possesses particular qualities, and who, because of them, will inherit divine blessings.

It is interesting to compare the delivery of the Beatitudes to the delivery of the Ten Commandments. Here we have the renewal of the covenant, and a restatement, a re-presentation, of who the Children of God are.

Just as we sometimes find the Ten Commandments grouped into two sets, so we might see the Beatitudes set out in two groups of four, the first four being inward looking, the second four being outward looking.

We might see the first four Beatitudes as addressing attitudes, while the second four deal with resulting actions.

Are they ethical requirements for the present?

Or are they eschatological blessings for the future?

Or are they are statements of present fact, identifying the qualities of a child of God and the consequent blessings that follow?

Few among us, I imagine, are ever going to commit murder.

But we all get ‘angry with a brother’ sooner or later.

The Sermon on the Mount exposes our own present reality in a very stark and real way, and the Beatitudes are a core text for Dietrich Bonhoeffer in The Cost of Discipleship and in the writings of towering Christian figures such as Dorothy Day, Martin Luther King, Thomas Merton and Oscar Romero.

Father Brian D’Arcy once recalled during a radio interview how Dorothy Day once spoke of how her fellow Roman Catholics went to confession regularly and confessed to ‘breaking’ one of the Ten Commandments, but she wondered how often they confessed to ‘breaking’ one of the Eight Beatitudes.

Μακάριοι (Makárioi): Does this mean ‘blessed’? Archbishop Makarios was the President of Cyprus in 1974 when he was deposed in a coup that was followed by the Turkish invasion of the island. ‘His Beatitude’ is a term of respect for archbishops and metropolitans in the Orthodox Church.

The word ‘blessed’ is not the best translation for μακάριος (makários). ‘Fortunate,’ ‘well off,’ or ‘happy’ might fit better.

Christ is telling those who hear him that they are fortunate to be this way. They are fortunate to possess these qualities of life. Why? Because it means they inherit the blessings or fortunes of God’s promised kingdom.

The Beatitudes are culturally embedded in our society, in our literature, in our arts. They are so familiar that we all understand the irreverent humour found in a scene in Monty Python’s The Life of Brian.

‘Blessed are the Meek’ – which means the humble, patient, submissive and gentle – is misheard in The Life of Brian as: ‘Blessed is the Greek – apparently he’s going to inherit the earth.’ When they finally get what Jesus actually says, a woman says, ‘Oh it’s the Meek … blessed are the Meek! That’s nice, I’m glad they’re getting something, ’cause they have a hell of a time.’

The political activist and agitator Reg then says: ‘What Jesus blatantly fails to appreciate is that it’s the meek who are the problem.’ This sums up the growing annoyance of the violent with the peaceful attitude of Christ. But it also highlights that the Beatitudes are about ordinary, everyday people.

Too often we see the saints celebrated by the Church as martyrs and apostles, missionaries and hermits, bishops and theologians. How often do we see them as ordinary, meek, everyday people, the people who too often are dismissed as problems, who are living with problems, who often go without attention from politicians and activists alike?

The mother and child separated at birth in the ‘mother and baby’ home and blocked at every stage as they tried to find each other.

The middle-aged mother who hopes that life is going to get better as the years move on, but then finds instead every waking hour is devoted to an adult child with special needs, or to an elderly parent who now needs to be looked after like a child.

The couple filled with faith but afraid to come to church, marginalised because of their colour, class, language, marital status or sexuality.

The lone protester who stands outside a government office or embassy, ignored by those inside and berated outside by passing, hooting motorists, but who knows right is on her side … ‘Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.’

If the Church is a sign of the Kingdom of God, a foretaste of that heavenly liturgy, how does our life as the Church, in the parish and in the diocese, offer solace, comfort, a foretaste, hope for the meek, the downtrodden, the lonely, the oppressed, who are praised in the Beatitudes and who are invited as part of the great multitude, the countless number from every nation, tribe, people and language, to gather before the Lamb on the throne?

‘Blessed are the poor in spirit … those who mourn … the meek … those who hunger and thirst …’

May theirs be the kingdom of heaven, may they be comforted, may they inherit the earth, may they be filled.

‘Blessed are the merciful … the pure in heart … the peacemakers … those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake …’

May we be generous in showing mercy, may we see God, be called children of God, find ourselves in the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are we even when others revile us for standing up for these values … when we stand up for those values, may we rejoice and be glad.

Writing on the Financial pages of The Guardian many years ago (17 January 2011), Terry Macalister wrote: ‘From Tolstoy to Dostoevsky to Chekov, if anyone can tell a good story it’s the Russians.’ Well, in Chapter 2 of Boris Pasternak’s great Russian novel Doctor Zhivago, we meet Larissa Feodorovna Guishar, who ‘was not religious’ and ‘did not believe in ritual,’ but was startled by the Beatitudes, for she thought they were about herself.

How do we apply the Beatitudes to ourselves, to our own lives?

The reredos in the Unitarian Church, Dublin, is inscribed with the Beatitudes, one on each panel (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Monday 9 June 2025):

‘Pentecost’ is the theme this week (8-14 June) in Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel). This theme was introduced yesterday with reflections by Dr Paulo Ueti - Theological Advisor and Regional Manager for the Americas and the Caribbean, USPG.

The USPG prayer diary today (Monday 9 June 2025) invites us to pray:

Heavenly Father, we praise you for sending your Holy Spirit, connecting our hearts to you and igniting them with courage, hope, and love for a world in need.

The Collect:

Almighty God,
who filled the heart of Columba
with the joy of the Holy Spirit
and with deep love for those in his care:
may your pilgrim people follow him,
strong in faith, sustained by hope,
and one in the love that binds us to you;
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 Columba and all your saints
in the eternal banquet of Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s Reflections

Continued Tomorrow

‘Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God’ (Matthew 5: 8) … a window in Saint Mary’s Collegiate Church, Youghal, Co Cork (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 Ordinary Time 2024: 135, Sunday 22 September 2024, Trinity XVII

‘Then he took a little child and put it among them’ (Mark 9: 36)’ … a stained-glass window in the north transept in Saint Mary’s Church, Youghal, Co Cork (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar and today is the Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity XVII, 22 September 2024). Later this morning, I hope to be present at the Parish Eucharist in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford.

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.

‘Then he took a little child and put it among them’ (Mark 9: 36) … a detail in the window in the Comberford Chapel in Saint Editha’s Church, Tamworth (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Mark 9: 30-37 (NRSVA):

30 They went on from there and passed through Galilee. He did not want anyone to know it; 31 for he was teaching his disciples, saying to them, ‘The Son of Man is to be betrayed into human hands, and they will kill him, and three days after being killed, he will rise again.’ 32 But they did not understand what he was saying and were afraid to ask him.

33 Then they came to Capernaum; and when he was in the house he asked them, ‘What were you arguing about on the way?’ 34 But they were silent, for on the way they had argued with one another about who was the greatest. 35 He sat down, called the twelve, and said to them, ‘Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.’ 36 Then he took a little child and put it among them; and taking it in his arms, he said to them, 37 ‘Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me.’

‘Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me’ (Mark 9: 37) … Children of the Kindertransport seen in Frank Meisler’s bronze sculpture at Liverpool Street Station in London (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflection:

Sophie’s Choice is a disturbing American film (1982) based on a best-selling novel by William Styron (1979). Meryl Streep plays the title role of Sophie Zawistowski, a Polish immigrant who shares a boarding house in Brooklyn with Nathan Landau (Kevin Kline) and a young writer, Stingo (Peter MacNicol).

One evening, Stingo learns from Sophie that she was married, but her husband and her father were killed in a Nazi work camp, and that she was sent as a prisoner to Auschwitz with her two children.

When Sophie arrives at Auschwitz, a camp doctor forces her to choose which one of her two children would be gassed and which one he would send to the labour camp. To avoid having both children killed, she chooses to have her son Jan sent to the children’s camp, and her daughter Eva sent to her death. It is a heart-wrenching decision that leaves her in mourning and filled with a guilt that she never overcomes.

The name Sophie means wisdom, but the choice Sophie faces is not between what is wise and what is foolish, between good and evil, nor even between the lesser of two evils, but between evil and evil.

This morning’s lectionary readings introduce a number of similar themes, including comparisons between the Wisdom of God and a wise wife and mother, the choices we face between good and evil, and the innocence of children in the face of competition for power and status.

Ashort set of readings from the Book of Proverbs ends this morning where the book ends, with a poem that gives a detailed description of the roles and qualities of ‘a capable wife.’

Before this reading begins, we are told that the words in this closing section are ‘the words of King Lemuel. An oracle that his mother taught him’ (Proverbs 31: 1).

But who is the good wife?

A good wife is mentioned earlier in this book, and several of her qualities are those of Wisdom, Sophia (Σοφία). So, is the good wife Wisdom herself?

Then the psalm (Psalm 1) compares the ways of the wicked and the ways of the godly.

In the Epistle reading (James 3: 13 to 4: 3, 7-8a), Saint James reminds his readers of the qualities of wisdom. Godly wisdom is pure, peace-loving, merciful and bears good fruits, and seeks to make peace.

In the Gospel reading (Mark 9: 30-37), Christ tells the disciples he is going to be betrayed and killed, and that he will rise again.

They do not understand what he is saying – how could they, they cannot yet expect the Crucifixion and the Resurrection? Both these future events are beyond their understanding and they are afraid to ask Jesus what he is talking about, either because they do not want to show their ignorance or because they are afraid that they too may become innocent victims and suffer the consequences of being followers of Christ.

By the time they arrive in Capernaum, the disciples have been arguing over who among them is the greatest (verse 34). The disciples are shamed into silence when they realise Jesus overhears what they say. He chides them, telling them being a disciple is not about rank or power, position or prestige, but is about service. He tells them: ‘Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all’ (verse 35).

To illustrate his point, he takes a little child and places him or her among them. The Greek word used here (παιδίον, paidíon) means a little child, but it could mean a young servant or even a child slave (verse 36).

He takes the child in his arms and says to them, ‘Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me’ (verse 37).

We are not told whether this child is a boy or girl, free or slave, Jew or Samaritan, Greek or Roman, a street urchin or the child of one the Disciples.

Perhaps the Disciples never even noticed, because at that time a child was of no economic value and a burden on families until the child could earn his or her own way, or until the child had the potential of being the equivalent of a pension scheme for parents.

But when someone welcomed a child slave or servant sent on an errand or with a message, they welcomed or received the master. Jesus reminds the disciples that whoever receives the servant receives the master, whoever receives a child receives Christ, whoever receives Christ receives God the Father, who sent him.

How can we relate the first part of our Gospel reading (verses 30-32), when Jesus talks about his own impending betrayal, crucifixion and resurrection, with the second part of the Gospel reading (verses 33-37), when Jesus takes an innocent, small child and makes him or her an example of how we should behave with Kingdom values?

Sometimes, I fear, we make it too difficult to talk about the Crucifixion, and so we make it too difficult to talk about the Resurrection, unless we are talking about them in the context of Holy Week, Good Friday and Easter.

But sometimes too, I fear, we make it too easy to talk about children because we romanticise childhood in our comfortable settings. Quite often, even in stained-glass windows in our churches, we romanticise this little child, thinking of a well-dressed, well-fed, well-loved child from our own family or own parish.

Yet, it is a paradox that we also find it too difficult to talk about children because so often we have to turn away, mentally and emotionally, when we see the suffering of children in the world today.

All of us have been disturbed for some years now about the terrors that are rained down on children in the world today. I say ‘children’ and not ‘innocent children,’ because there is no such being as a guilty child – there are only innocent children.

And the suffering and plight of children is all the more distressing when it is caused by the calculations of adults who dismiss this suffering as merely collateral damage brought about by political decisions or by war.

For Christians, this distress must always be acute, must always demand our compassion, must always call for our response.

In Saint Matthew’s version of this story (Matthew 18: 1-14), Christ tells us: ‘Take care that you do not despise one of these little ones; for, I tell you, in heaven their angels continually see the face of my Father in heaven … it is not the will of your Father in heaven that one of these little ones should be lost’ (verses 10-14).

It cannot matter to us what label is placed on these children:

● whether a suffering child in the Gaza Strip or a child taken hostage in an attack on a musical festival in Israel is a Jew, Christian or Muslim;

● whether the frightened refugee child crossing the Channel or the Mediterranean cramped into a tiny boat in the Mediterranean, is a Christian or a Muslim;

● whether the children targeted by Saudi fighter bombers in Yemen are Shia or Sunni, going to a school or a wedding;

● whether the sobbing and distressed child separated forcibly from his parents on the border between Texas and Mexico speaks Spanish or English;

● whether the homeless children who sleep in cramped hotel rooms with their mothers tonight, not knowing where they are going to sleep tomorrow night or still traumatised by a recent attack by far-right rioters, are the children of local people or immigrants.

It seems these are last in the world’s priorities today. Yet Christ says, ‘Whoever wants to be first must be last … Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me’ (Mark 9: 35, 37).

‘Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me’ (Mark 9: 37) … ‘Spectral Child’ on Thomas Street, Limerick, by Dermot McConaghy (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Sunday 22 September 2024, Trinity XVII):

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 is introduced today 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:

In early 2021, my family and I moved from the Diocese of Port Elizabeth in South Africa to serve in St Kitts and Nevis as part of the USPG Exchanging Places Programme. The programme is a joint venture between USPG, the Diocese of North East Caribbean and Aruba (NECA) and the Diocese of Port Elizabeth, South Africa. I am grateful my time here has been extended for another three years so I continue my mission on the island.

I wanted to share a glimpse of what I have learnt during my journey.

Our God is able.

I have seen God working wonders in our lives and we are grateful for the great things he has done. We have seen him as a God who provides, heals and comforts. We do not know our future, but we know he will direct us to the right pathways. Therefore, the journey with God is a practical experience.

As we participate in his mission, God provides the people and resources for us to use in our earthly pilgrimage.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Sunday 22 September 2024, Trinity XVII) invites us to pray:

Use these hands to carry the burden.
Use this voice to carry your word.
Use these feet to walk in your footsteps.
Use this heart to transform the world.

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

‘Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me’ (Mark 9: 37) … a window in the chapel of Saint John’s Hospital, 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

Retracing my steps in my childhood haunts on Leinster Road and in literary Rathmines

Rathmines Town Hall seen from Leinster Road … Leinster Road was laid out in 1835-1840, connecting Rathmines and Harold’s Cross (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Patrick Comerford

During my walk around Rathmines, Harold’s Cross and Ranelagh during my all-too-short and far-too-brief pre-Christmas visit to Dublin last week, I walked the length of Leinster Road – from Rathmines to Harold’s Cross, and back again.

I knew Leinster Road intimately in my later childhood and teens, and my memory deceives me into believing that in the 1960s I knew every house on the road. Our family GP lived in a large house at the Rathmines end of the road, beside the library. Dr Tierney had returned to Ireland from America in the late 1940s or early 1950s, drove a large American car, and brashly named his house ‘The White House.’

Rathmines Library was my local library, two of my sisters and one brother went to school on this road for a time, I had childhood friends all along Leinster Road, and I remember how for some weeks in the early 1960s I was sent to a nun in Saint Louis’s Convent on Leinster Road for art classes on Saturday mornings.

In his last few years, my grandfather lived in Rathmines, my father lived in Rathmines until his early teens, and his brother Robert, our Uncle Bob, died in a car crash on Leinster Road 70 years ago in 1953 at the age of 43.

Victorian houses on Leinster Road … Rathmines became one of the most attractive areas in Dublin in the 19th century (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Rathmines had been a rural hinterland until the mid-19th century. Samuel Lewis, writing in 1837, noted that 12 years earlier ‘Rathmines was known only as an obscure village.’ Rathmines developed rapidly in the early 19th century as many middle class and wealthy families began to move out of the overcrowded city centre. The Rathmines Township was formed by an Act of Parliament in 1847, and as the area expanded it became the Rathmines and Rathgar Township.

In time, Rathmines become one of the most attractive areas in Dublin. When my grandparents were living there in the early 20th century, Rathmines was a strongly Unionist area. But it was also the home of many republicans, pacifists, suffragists and socialists.

The residents of Rathmines over the years have included the painter Walter Osborne; Hollywood director Rex Ingram; revolutionary Constance Markiewicz; politician and doctor Kathleen Lynn; the writers James Joyce and John Millington Synge; and the theatre director Lord Longford.

The landmarks of Rathmines include the Town Hall designed by Sir Thomas Drew, with its distinctive clock tower; the imposing Carnegie Library on the site of the former Leinster Lodge on the corner of Leinster Road, with its Pre-Raphaelite window by William Morris and teak double staircase; and the Catholic parish church with a copper dome built in Glasgow and supposedly destined for an Orthodox church in Russia before the Revolution in 1917 made it redundant.

Leinster Road was laid out around 1835-1840 to connect Rathmines and Harold’s Cross, over the former lands of Mowld’s Farm. Leinster Road was originally gated at the Rathmines or east end. The Harold’s Cross or western section followed the line of the Swan River, which was culverted at this time.

Dorset House (right) and Surrey House form a pair of houses at 49A and 49B Leinster Road (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Dorset House and Surrey House form a pair of houses at 49A and 49B Leinster Road, built around 1878. When they were advertised for sale in The Irish Times on 25 October and 1 and 4 November 1878, it was said they were ‘built by a well-known architect under his personal supervision’ – although the architect was not named.

This pair of semi-detached polychrome brick houses stand at the corner of the road leading into Grosvenor Square. They are tall, gabled, narrow villas, built of red brick, each with a strip of garden leading onto Leinster Road.

Countess Constance Markievicz and her husband Casimir moved into Surrey House on Leinster Road in October 1911. There she gathered around her a small but elite clique of republicans, labour activists, journalists and artists, and the house became a venue for regular revolutionary meetings. Some of this ‘Surrey Clique’ included Harry Walpole, Jack Shallow, Louis Marie, Ed ‘Eamon’ Murray, Andy Dunne and Patsy O’Connor.

On one occasion in 1914, when a rifle from the Howth gun-running was tested in the back garden, the incident attracted the attention of the well-to-do neighbours. Markievicz acquired a small hand-held printing press and posters and handbills were printed in the house.

It was also said Markievicz provided hospitality for young girls who had lost their jobs in the Jacobs factory during the Dublin Lockout in 1913. James Connolly stayed in Surrey House and recuperated after his imprisonment and hunger strike that year. Connolly and his family stayed at Surrey House for the next three years, and Connolly and Markievicz used Surrey House as a base and office for printing and editing The Workers’ Republic and The Spark.

Other visitors included John Devoy, Jim Larkin, Helena Moloney, Eamon Martin, Con Colbert, Jack White, Bulmer Hobson, Margaret Skinnider and Hanna Sheehy-Skeffington. Often the gas supply was cut off due to unpaid bills, and Markievicz struggled to feed her many visitors.

One account says the tricolour that flew over the GPO in 1916 was made in Surrey House by Theo Fitzgerald, although other accounts it stored there for the week before to the Rising. In the days immediately after the Easter Rising, the house was totally ransacked by the military, and the garden was dug up in the search for weapons.

Some accounts say Countess Markievicz never had a proper home again after the raids in 1916. However a witness statement claims Michael Collins warned her of an impending raid on Surrey House during the ‘Black and Tan War’. She probably continued to live at the house on Leinster Road during the War of Independence, although she was imprisoned for much of that time.

Surrey House (left) and Dorset House on Leinster Road (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

On the opposite side of the street, the suffragist Anna Maria and the social reformer Thomas Haslam had lived from 1858 at 125 Leinster Road, on the corner with Grosvenor Place.

She was born Anna Maria Fisher (1829-1922) into a Quaker family in Youghal, Co Cork, and in 1854 she married Thomas Haslam (1826-1917) from Mountmellick. They were founding members of the Dublin Women’s Suffrage Association, which began as an educational society in 1876. They hosted public lectures, published pamphlets and petitioned MPs to introduce legislation to allow women great political power.

Anna was a member of the committee of Rathmines night school, and active in the St John’s Ambulance, the Rathmines Literary Society, the Friends’ Education Society, the Sanitary Society, the Fresh Air Society, the Irish Housewives’ Association, and the Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. They are commemorated by a seldom-noticed limestone bench in Saint Stephen’s Green.

On the facing corner of Grosvenor Place and Leinster Road, Grosvenor Park was the Dublin home of the Pakenham family and the Earls of Longford. This large house at 123 Leinster Road stood in its own grounds with an apple orchard. It was surrounded by tall mature trees and lengthy stone walls, and looked far more like a country house.

General Thomas Pakenham (1864-1915), 5th Earl of Longford, was born in Dublin and died at the Battle for Scimitar Hill, the last British offensive in Suvla in the Gallipoli campaign. Grosvenor Park and the family titles were inherited by his eldest son, Edward Arthur Henry Pakenham (1902-1961), 6th Earl of Longford, who had moved into the house on Leinster Road by 1927. He was an Anglo-Catholic, a member of the Irish Senate, friend of Eamon de Valera and a key literary figure in the mid-20th century. He gave his name to Longford Productions, the company that ran the Gate Theatre.

Lord and Lady Longford were well-known to their neighbours on Leinster Road, and were often seen shopping locally in Harold’s Cross. He was only 58 when he suffered a massive stroke and died in Portobello Nursing Home on 5 February 1961. He was buried in Mount Jerome.

The family title was inherited by his brother Frank Pakenham (1905-2001), 7th Earl of Longford, a Labour government minister and campaigner for prisoner rights, social reform, decriminalising homosexuality and the abolition of the death penalty.

Another member of the Pakenham family was the journalist Valentine Lamb, a journalist with the Irish Field and a colleague in The Irish Times, who died in 1985.

Grosvenor Park was demolished in 1979, and several houses were built in the former grounds in 1980s (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

By the 1960s, many of the grand townhouses in Rathmines were being divided into flats for students and young office workers and became ‘Flatland’. The widowed Countess of Longford, the writer Christine Longford, continued to live in Grosvenor Park until the late 1970s. She died at the age of 79 on 14 May 1980.

By then, the house at Grosvenor Park had fallen into decay, and I remember walking around the house as it was declining and falling into ruins. It was finally demolished at the end of 1979, and several houses were built within the former grounds from 1980 on.

Rathmines has long since shed its image as ‘Flatland’ and today it is a vibrant and cosmopolitan area and Rathmines was voted ‘Ireland’s best suburb to live in’ by The Irish Times in 2012.

The entrance to a former coachhouse at the Rathmines end of Leinster Road, a reminder of Victorian-era elegance (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

From Geoffrey Chaucer to Graham Greene, finding the literary and cultural legacy of Berkhamsted

From Geoffrey Chaucer to Graham Greene, Berkhamsted has a rich literary and cultural heritage (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Patrick Comerford

There was so much to see in Berkhamsted during my visit earlier this month that I returned again this week. Apart from the castle and Saint Peter’s Church, which I described in a blog posting earlier this week, I was interested to learn more about the town’s many literary and cultural associations, from Geoffrey Chaucer and the ‘Physician’s Tale’ to Maria Edgeworth, William Cowper and Peter Pan, and to Graham Greene, Claud Cockburn and the early days of the BBC.

Geoffrey Chaucer, the author of the Canterbury Tales, is said to have visited Berkhamsted in 1389 to oversee renovations at the castle after he was appointed the clerk of the king’s works. During his time in office, Chaucer organised most of the king's building projects, including repairs to Westminster Palace and Saint George’s Chapel, Windsor, and work on the wharf at the Tower of London.

It is not known whether Chaucer spent much time working at Berkhamsted Castle. It is claimed by some sourves that while Chaucer was at Berkhamsted he got to know – or least know of – John of Gaddesden, who lived nearby in Little Gaddesden and who became the model for the Doctor of Phisick in the Canterbury Tales, written between 1387 and 1400.

Berkhamsted Castle … did Geoffrey Chaucer ever spend any time working there? (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

However, Chaucer could never have met John of Gaddesden (1280-1361), who died almost a generation before Chaucer is said to have visited Berkhamsted. Indeed, the ‘Physician’s Tale’ is usually seen as an early work by Chaucer, probably written before much of the rest of the Canterbury Tales. The long digression possibly alludes to an historical event that may date it to 1386, three years before Chaucer is said to have visited Berkhamsted.

John of Gaddesden was a writer in his own right too. He was born near Berkhamsted, but spent most of his academic life in Oxford. He was the author of Rosa Medicinae (‘The Rose of Medicine’), or Rosa Anglica (‘The English Rose’). It was written between 1304 and 1317, and regarded as the first English textbook of medicine.

John of Gaddesden was a theologian, a fellow at Merton College, Oxford, a physician to kings and princes, and the most celebrated medical authorities of his day. It is said his medical works, alongside those of Gilbertus Anglicus, formed part of the core curriculum that underpinned the practice of medicine for the next 400 years.

The hymn writer William Cowper (1731-1800) was born in Berkhamsted Rectory, where his father, the Revd John Cowper, was the Rector, and was baptised in Saint Peter’s Church.

Although William Cowper moved from Berkhamsted when was still a boy, there are frequent references to the town in his poems and letters, and two windows in Saint Peter’s Church commemorate his life and writing. His popular hymns include ‘Oh! for a closer walk with God,’ and he give the English language the phrase ‘God moves in a mysterious way.’

Cowper was an active abolitionist in the anti-slavery movement. In the Victorian era, Cowper became a cult figure and Berkhamsted was a place of pilgrimage. He was quoted by the Revd Martin Luther King in his protest speeches in the 1960s.

Dean Thomas Charles Fry was the headmaster of Berkhamsted School for almost quarter of a century (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Maria Edgeworth (1768-1849), a prolific writer of adults’ and children’s literature, was a significant figure in the evolution of the novel in Europe. She lived in Berkhamsted as a child in the 18th century. She spent her early years with her mother’s family, living at The Limes, now known as Edgeworth House, in Northchurch, Berkhamsted.

Her mother died in 1773 when Maria was five. Later that year, her father, Richard Lovell Edgeworth (1744-1817) from Lichfield, married his second wife Honora Sneyd, and Maria went with them to live on his Irish estate af Edgeworthstown, Co Longford.

Between 1904 and 1907, the five Llewelyn Davies boys were the inspiration for the author and playwright JM Barrie’s Peter Pan. Their grandfather, the Revd John Llewelyn Davies, was outspoken on social issues like poverty and inequality, and active in Christian socialist groups.

Their parents, Sylvia (1866-1910) and Arthur Llewelyn Davies (1863-1907), moved out of London and went to live in Egerton House, an Elizabethan mansion in Berkhamsted, in 1904, the year when Barrie’s play had its debut. The brothers were first cousins of the writer Daphne du Maurier.

The Revd Dr Thomas Charles Fry (1846-1930), was the headmaster of Berkhamsted School in 1887-1910. He was one of the pioneers in the work of the Christian Social Union, and was the author of Old Testament History for Schools, Social Policy for the Church and Sermons on Social Subjects. Later, as the Dean of Lincoln (1910-1930), Fry worked devotedly to raise funds for the restoration of the cathedral.

Saint John’s House, Berkhamsted … the birthplace of Graham Greene (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

While Fry was headmaster of Berkhamsted, his wife’s cousin, Charles Henry Greene (1865-1942), was second master and the housemaster at Saint John’s House. When Fry became Dean of Lincoln in 1910, Greene succeeded him as headmaster of Berkhamsted.

Greene’s brother, Edward Greene, once a highly successful coffee merchant in Brazil, also moved to Berkhamsted, and lived in some splendour at the Hall or Berkhamsted Hall, near the Rectory. Edward Greene bought the house in 1917 and was the last private resident there. The Hall was used by Berkhamsted School as a prep school from 1928, while the former gardens were sold off for housing development. By then, however, the house was suffering from dry rot, and finally it was demolished in 1937.

Both Charles Greene and Edward Grene each had six children and this influential generation of cousins were key figures in literary and cultural life in 20th century.

Graham Greene (1904-1991), one of the ‘School House’ Greenes, is the best known of these cousins. He was a bestselling novelist by the age of 28 and he was often tipped for the Nobel Prize for Literature. He was also known as a politically contrarian, anti-American, a Catholic convert, a sometime publisher, a spy and a friend of Kim Philby.

In The Human Factor (1978), Graham Greene describes a scene in Saint Peter’s Church, Berkhamsted, when a sonic boom suddenly ‘shook the old glass of the west window and rattled the crusader’s helmet which hung on a pillar.’ The helmet is that of Sir Adolphus Carey – who lived 300 years after the crusades.

Sir Hugh Carleton Greene (1910-1987), Graham Greene’s youngest brother, first made his name as a journalist in pre-war Nazi Germany. During World War II, he was in charge of BBC broadcasting to Germany. He later became the director general of the BBC from 1960 to 1969, modernising the BBC at a time of great social change.

After retiring from the BBC, Greene published several books, including a collaboration with his brother Graham Greene, and made television programmes both for the BBC and ITV.

Their oldest brother, Herbert Greene, is often seen as the ‘black sheep’ in the family, and he became the model for several of Graham Greene’s antiheroes, such as Anthony Farrant in England Made Me.

Another brother, Dr Raymond Greene (1901-1982), was a doctor and mountaineer who took part in two Everest expeditions. He chaired Heinemann Medical Books from 1960 to 1980, and his autobiography, Moments of Being, was published in 1974.

The ‘Hall’ Greene cousins included the journalist Felix Greene (1909-1985), a creative figure in the early history of the BBC who set up its American offices in the 1930s. He first visited China for the BBC in 1957, and he was one of the first Western reporters to visit North Vietnam when he travelled there for the San Francisco Chronicle in the 1960s. He published books on China, Vietnam in 1960s and 1970s.

His brother Ben Greene (1901-1978) was a fellow pacifist, a Quaker and a key figure in the pre-war Labour Party. But he moved to the far-right politically, and during World War II he was imprisoned without trial along with the fascist Oswald Mosley.

The literary contemporaries of the Greene cousins at Berkhamsted School included Claud Cockburn (1904-1981), who lived later at Myrtle Grove in Youghal, Co Cork, from 1947, and in Ardmore, Co Waterford, in 1980. For many years, Claud Cockburn was a columnist with The Irish Times while I worked there, and some of his sons, including Patrick Cockburn, also contributed to The Irish Times.

Other writers and literary figures in school with the Greenes at Berkhamsted include Sir Peter Quennell (1905-1993); the diplomat Humphrey Trevelyan (1905-1985), who wrote a number of books about his career, including The India We Left and The Middle East in Revolution; and the diplomat and writer Sir Cecil Parrott (1909-1984), known for his translation of Jaroslav Hašek’s The Good Soldier Švejk and The Red Commissar, his biography of Hašek, The Bad Bohemian, and his autobiographical books, The Tightrope and The Serpent and the Nightingale.

The children’s authors HE Todd, author of the Bobby Brewster books, and Hilda van Stockum have also lived in Berkhamsted.

Greene's Court … place names are reminders of the literary legacy of Berkhamsted (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Praying with the Psalms in Easter: 30 April 2022 (Psalm 66)

‘Sing the glory of his name; give to him glorious praise’ or Sing forth the honour of his name, Make his praise glorious’ (Psalm 66: 2) … a stained glass window in Saint Brendan’s Church, Bantry, Co Cork (1917) by James Watson & Co, Youghal (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

During this season of Easter, I am reflecting each morning on the Psalms, and in this Prayer Diary on my blog each morning I am reflecting in these ways:

1, Short reflections on a psalm or psalms;

2, reading the psalm or psalms;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary.

Psalm 66:

Psalm 66 is a psalm of thanksgiving, probably intended for use at the Passover. In the variation in numbering in the Greek Septuagint and Latin Vulgate, this is known as Psalm 65.

Psalm 66 is divided into two parts:

1, verses 1-12: the community praises God and invites the whole world to join in praise;

2, verses 13-20: an individual from the rescued community fulfils a vow to offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving.

This psalm tells us that all the earth, and not just Israel, is invited to praise God, who is ‘awesome in his deeds’ (verse 2) and who is ‘wonderful’ in ‘his dealings’ with humanity. The psalmist recalls the Exodus, and how the people crossed the Red Sea and the River Jordan on foot. God keeps watch over ‘the nations,’ so they should not rebel against him.

God preserves us in life and protects us. In the past, he has tested us and purified as silver is purified. Israel has been subjugated by other people, which may be a reference to exile not only in Egypt but also in Babylon. Yet, after being tested by fire and water, God has brought them to freedom and liberty again.

[Come and see] ‘what God hath wrought’ was the first message sent by telegraph in 1844. The verse was suggested by Annie Ellsworth and inspired by Psalm 66: 5 and Psalm 66: 16.

Standing in the chamber of the US Supreme Court, Samuel B Morse sent a 19-letter message to his assistant Albert Vail in Baltimore, who transmitted the message back. Psalm 66: 5 was sent as ‘what God hath wrought’ (‘Come and see what God has done’), while Psalm 66:16 was the reply: ‘Come and see what God has done for me’ (‘Come and hear, all you who fear God, and I will tell what he has done for me’).

‘Be joyful in God, all the earth; sing the glory of his name; sing the glory of his praise’ (Psalm 66: 1) … at the mouth of the river in Messonghi, Corfu (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Psalm 66 (NRSVA):

To the leader. A Song. A Psalm.

1 Make a joyful noise to God, all the earth;
2 sing the glory of his name;
give to him glorious praise.
3 Say to God, ‘How awesome are your deeds!
Because of your great power, your enemies cringe before you.
4 All the earth worships you;
they sing praises to you,
sing praises to your name.’
Selah

5 Come and see what God has done:
he is awesome in his deeds among mortals.
6 He turned the sea into dry land;
they passed through the river on foot.
There we rejoiced in him,
7 who rules by his might for ever,
whose eyes keep watch on the nations—
let the rebellious not exalt themselves.
Selah

8 Bless our God, O peoples,
let the sound of his praise be heard,
9 who has kept us among the living,
and has not let our feet slip.
10 For you, O God, have tested us;
you have tried us as silver is tried.
11 You brought us into the net;
you laid burdens on our backs;
12 you let people ride over our heads;
we went through fire and through water;
yet you have brought us out to a spacious place.

13 I will come into your house with burnt-offerings;
I will pay you my vows,
14 those that my lips uttered
and my mouth promised when I was in trouble.
15 I will offer to you burnt-offerings of fatlings,
with the smoke of the sacrifice of rams;
I will make an offering of bulls and goats.
Selah

16 Come and hear, all you who fear God,
and I will tell what he has done for me.
17 I cried aloud to him,
and he was extolled with my tongue.
18 If I had cherished iniquity in my heart,
the Lord would not have listened.
19 But truly God has listened;
he has given heed to the words of my prayer.

20 Blessed be God,
because he has not rejected my prayer
or removed his steadfast love from me.

Today’s Prayer:

The theme in this week’s prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel) is ‘Logging in the Solomon Islands,’ and was introduced on Sunday morning by Brother Christopher John SSF, Minister General of the Society of Saint Francis.

The USPG Prayer Diary this morning (30 April 2022) invites us to pray:

We give thanks for the work of the United Nations and pray for more urgent action on climate change and other important issue from the international community.

Yesterday’s reflection

Continued tomorrow

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