Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2024: 155, Sunday 13 October 2024

‘Sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven’ (Mark 10: 21) … a collection of old banknotes in an antiques shop in Rethymnon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar, and today is the Twentieth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity XX).

I hope to take part in the Parish Eucharist in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church in Stony Stratford this morning before setting out on a long journey later this afternoon. But, before this becomes a busy day begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, and for reflection, prayer and reading in these ways:

1, today’s Gospel reading;

2, a reflection on the Gospel reading;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

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

‘Sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven’ (Mark 10: 21) … an antiques and second-hand shop in Hampstead (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Mark 10: 17-31:

17 As he was setting out on a journey, a man ran up and knelt before him, and asked him, ‘Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?’ 18 Jesus said to him, ‘Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. 19 You know the commandments: “You shall not murder; You shall not commit adultery; You shall not steal; You shall not bear false witness; You shall not defraud; Honour your father and mother.”’ 20 He said to him, ‘Teacher, I have kept all these since my youth.’ 21 Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said, ‘You lack one thing; go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.’ 22 When he heard this, he was shocked and went away grieving, for he had many possessions.

23 Then Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, ‘How hard it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!’ 24 And the disciples were perplexed at these words. But Jesus said to them again, ‘Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! 25 It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.’ 26 They were greatly astounded and said to one another, ‘Then who can be saved?’ 27 Jesus looked at them and said, ‘For mortals it is impossible, but not for God; for God all things are possible.’

28 Peter began to say to him, ‘Look, we have left everything and followed you.’ 29 Jesus said, ‘Truly I tell you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields, for my sake and for the sake of the good news, 30 who will not receive a hundredfold now in this age – houses, brothers and sisters, mothers and children, and fields, with persecutions – and in the age to come eternal life. 31 But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.’

‘Sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven’ … in the market in Goreme in Cappadocia (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s reflection:

In today’s Gospel reading, Christ continues to teach what it means to follow him. This man runs up to Jesus, and falls on his kneels as if in adoration, or like a servant before a master. It is an unusual act of piety, for people stood to pray at the time. But we came across a similar posture a few weeks ago when the Syro-Phoenician woman approached Jesus in Tyre (Mark 7: 24-37, Trinity XV, 8 September 2024).

Christ’s response is cautious. Rabbis were not usually addressed as good, for only God is good.

When Christ puts some of the Ten Commandments to this man, the man insists that since his youth he has observed those commandments dealing with our relationships with others, those that prohibit murder, adultery, theft, lying and fraud, and those calling on us to honour parents, the elderly.

From calling Christ ‘Good Teacher,’ the man has moved quickly to asserting that he himself is good, and a good example.

The decalogue is often divided into the four ‘theological’ commandments, which are not a matter for debate or interpretation among right-thinking Jews at the time, and the six ‘ethical’ commandments (see Exodus 20), which become matters for interpretation.

However, as Ched Myers points out in his commentary on Saint Mark’s Gospel (Say to this Mountain, St Paul’s), a closer look at the list of the second grouping of commandments shows that Jesus replaces the last commandment – ‘You shall not covet your neighbour’s house; you shall not covet your neighbour’s wife, or male or female slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbour’ (Exodus 20: 17) – with the words ‘You shall not defraud.’

This Levitical censure appears in a part of the Torah that is concerned with socio-economic behaviour: ‘You shall not defraud your neighbour; you shall not steal; and you shall not keep for yourself the wages of a labourer until morning’ (Leviticus 19: 13).

With this fresh listing of the commandments, is Jesus (a) challenging the man to see whether he really knows the Ten Commandments; (b) showing he is more interested in understanding how this man has acquired his riches and wealth than in accepting his claims to piety at face value?

Why did the man slink away? Because he had much property (verse 22).

What acts as a ball and chain that holds us back in our lives today, leaving us not fully free to follow Jesus? I may not have much property. But is there something else that I need to shed, in my attitudes, values, habits, behaviour, priorities, use of time, commitment or lack of commitment?

In his compassion, Christ sees this man’s weakness. He has emphasised his relationship with others. But is this founded on his desire for personal salvation, some sort of personal version of the concept of ‘karma’?

What about his relationship with God?

Does he trust in God because God is God, rather than because of what God can do for him?

The man asks how he may inherit eternal life. Is eternal life something to be inherited, like wealth and social status or place in society? In that society, religion was inherited rather than a matter of personal choice – one was born a Jew, but few people ever became Jews. Is eternal life to be inherited, like religious identity and social class?

Are we in danger at times in thinking that we are entitled to our place in the Kingdom of God? And in our behaviour, as well as our prayers, do we let God know, and others know, this?

Christ comes to the quick when he points out that this young man puts his trust in his own piety and wealth, in his achievements, but wealth stands in the way of his relationship with God.

So, Christ tests the man. If he truly loves the poor, he will make a connection between loving God and loving others. The man is shocked and makes quick his departure.

Wealth and prosperity were seen as a blessing and signs of God’s favour, but without them how could this man truly trust in God?

Christ does not say that the rich and the wealthy cannot find salvation. He says that money and riches can hold us back and make it difficult to be true disciples, to enter the kingdom of God. It can be so difficult that, ‘It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God’ (verse 25).

We cannot save ourselves, but God can save us. However, Peter’s implied question (verse 28) points out again how easy it is to think that being a disciple or follower of Christ should be linked with the hope of rewards in the here and now. Indeed, we may suffer now, and find that the first become last and the last become first.

The rich young man who comes to Christ at the beginning of the Gospel reading may lack nothing, has perhaps inherited a vast amount in his youth, but now wants to inherit eternal life.

He wants eternal life, he says, but he fails to realise he has met the living God face-to-face, and he turns away.

The rich young man keeps all the commandments that are about loving my neighbour. When a similar episode occurs involving a scribe or a lawyer, the commandments are summarised in the two great commandments, about loving God and loving our neighbour (see Matthew 22: 34-40; Mark 12: 28-34; Luke 10: 25-28).

However, when this young lawyer tests Christ, we get a very different set of references to the commandments. And when the real challenge is put to him, he may as well have answered: ‘Hang all the law and the prophets.’

This is a story about priorities, and the young man who comes to Christ in this reading has chosen the priory of wealth, position and privilege, is not willing to pay the Cost of Discipleship.

There is nothing wrong with, power, privilege and position if we use them to serve our values. But we get it wrong when we put our values in second place to power, privilege and position. Christ gets to the heart of the matter, knowing immediately that the man does not know the difference.

The man’s claim is not proud. He shows an almost disarming keenness and even an endearing naivety (verse 20). He is shocked by the Cost of Discipleship and he turns away, shocked; he turns away from Christ. There is a choice to be made, and he chooses to turn away, and turning away is the very opposite to conversion (verse 22).

And in his choice to turn away, he misses an opportunity to realise what it is to come face-to-face with the living God.

Christ comes into the world as the King of Kings and as the Great High Priest. But he comes not as the sort of king that we would expect a king to be, nor as a great high priest full of pomp and self-importance, not as a rich young man.

We get it wrong when we judge our successes against the images others project onto us rather than seeking to be shaped in the potential we have because we are made in the image and likeness of God.

This story of the rich man carries three warnings:

1, As Christ points out, we should be aware of the gap between aspirations and reality as we work out our discipleship. In a very penetrating and discerning way, like a sharp, two-edged sword, Christ’s words show the man that he is not really as ‘Gospel hungry’ as his initial words and actions seem to show.

2, It is a warning against the hindrance of riches, which come in a variety of tempting ways, and not just the temptation of money.

3, It is a warning that our discipleship can get side-lined and can be betrayed by other priorities, not just the trappings of wealth, but also of power, promotion, privilege, and even the feeling that I am so good that everyone should want me.

‘You know the commandments’ … ‘Teacher, I have kept all these since my youth’ (Mark 10: 19-20) … the Ten Commandments on the parochet or the curtain of the Ark in the Scuola Greca synagogue in Corfu (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Sunday 13 October 2024, Trinity XX):

The theme this week in ‘Pray With the World Church’, the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is the ‘Mission hospitals in Malawi’. This theme is introduced today with a programme update by Tamara Khisimisi, Project Co-ordinator, Anglican Council in Malawi:

Malaria has been prevalent in many African countries. Out of the 249 million malaria cases recorded in 2022 by the World Health Organisation, 94% were in the African region. Pregnant women and children under five are at greater risk of severe malaria infections. Currently, malaria is still a major health problem in Malawi. In 2022, there were about 4.5 million estimated cases and about 7,500 estimated deaths.

However, mission hospitals such as St Anne’s, St Luke’s, and St Martin’s in Malawi have greatly contributed to improving the wellbeing of people in the communities, especially mothers and children under five who have been affected by malaria. As the mission hospitals are supported by the Anglican church, they can provide the community members with outreach clinics, insecticide treated mosquito nets, medication, treatments and tests.

However, malaria is endemic in Malawi and continued practical and prayerful support is needed to strengthen the capacity of the mission hospitals.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Sunday 13 October 2024, Trinity XX) invites us to pray reflecting on these words:

May Christ bring you wholeness of body, mind and spirit, deliver you from every evil, and give you his peace.

The Collect:

God, the giver of life,
whose Holy Spirit wells up within your Church:
by the Spirit’s gifts equip us to live the gospel of Christ
and make us eager to do your will,
that we may share with the whole creation
the joys of eternal life;
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 our Father,
whose Son, the light unfailing,
has come from heaven to deliver the world
from the darkness of ignorance:
let these holy mysteries open the eyes of our understanding
that we may know the way of life,
and walk in it without stumbling;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

God, our light and our salvation:
illuminate our lives,
that we may see your goodness in the land of the living,
and looking on your beauty
may be changed into the likeness of Jesus Christ our Lord..

Yesterday’s reflection

Continued tomorrow

‘It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God’ (Mark 10: 25) … two kneeling camels waiting for a journey in Goreme in central Turkey (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: 102, Tuesday 20 August 2024

‘Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God’ (Matthew 19: 24) … a camel at the Goreme Open Air Museum in Cappadocia (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar and this week began with the Twelfth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity XII). The calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship today (20 August) remembers Saint Bernard (1153), Abbot of Clairvaux, Teacher of the Faith, and William Booth (1912) and Catherine Booth (1890), founders of the Salvation Army.

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.

Squeezing through the Eye of a Needle? … a narrow, low gate in the streets of Tangier (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Matthew 19: 23-30 (NRSVA):

23 Then Jesus said to his disciples, ‘Truly I tell you, it will be hard for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven. 24 Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.’ 25 When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astounded and said, ‘Then who can be saved?’ 26 But Jesus looked at them and said, ‘For mortals it is impossible, but for God all things are possible.’

27 Then Peter said in reply, ‘Look, we have left everything and followed you. What then will we have?’ 28 Jesus said to them, ‘Truly I tell you, at the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man is seated on the throne of his glory, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. 29 And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields, for my name’s sake, will receive a hundredfold, and will inherit eternal life. 30 But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.’

‘If you wish to be perfect, go, sell your possessions, and give the money to the poor’ (Matthew 19: 21) … torn and ragged banknotes in a tin box outside an antiques shop in Rethymnon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflection:

A rich young man has come to Jesus seeking advice. He has many possessions, but he knows this is not enough. He wants to possess eternal life, and comes to Jesus for advice. When Jesus suggests he should go, sell his possessions, and give the money to the poor and then return and follow him, the young man ‘went away grieving, for he had many possessions.’

Then Jesus tells the disciples ‘it will be hard for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven … it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.’

During her sermon preparation some years ago, a priest colleague asked on Facebook: ‘If a fire broke out in your house, what three possessions would you grab?’

The answers she got were interesting. People included their laptop (with their photographs), their phone, their keys, their wallet or purse with their plastic cards, and their passport.

What would you take with you?

What do we cling to?

I once had a large collection of old banknotes. There was enough there to make me a millionaire or even a multimillionaire … in Weimar Germany, war-time Greece or Ceausescu’s Romania. But in reality they are worth nothing today and would earn no interest apart from the interest they might have for collectors.

They were in circulation at times when inflation became rampant in those countries and at times of crisis in Europe. Had they been spent at the time they were issued they might have bought something of value; had they been given away in their day, they might have helped the poor and the hungry. But circumstances saw to it that those who became attached to their wealth on paper would lose all they had.

Our readings this morning challenge us to think again what we cling to and what are our true values.

Does the faith of the man who falls down before Christ in the Gospel reading depend on his own wealth and money? When our prosperity and wealth disappear, like the fast-fading value of those banknotes, are we in danger of feeling abandoned by God?

How would we grab our faith and take it with us if we rushed to escape a crisis?

In the Gospel reading yesterday, the man runs up to Jesus, and falls on his kneels as if in adoration, or like a servant before a master, and asks what he should do to inherit eternal life.

Christ’s response is cautious. Is he challenging the man to see whether he really knows the Ten Commandments? Or is he testing the man to see how he has acquired his riches and wealth?

The man slinks away because he has much property.

What acts as a ball and chain that holds us back in our lives today, leaving us not fully free to follow Jesus? I may not have much property. But is there something else that I need to shed, in my attitudes, values, habits, behaviour, priorities, use of time, commitment or lack of commitment?

In his compassion, Christ sees this man’s weakness. He has emphasised his relationship with others. But is this founded on his desire for personal salvation, some sort of personal version of the concept of ‘karma’?

What about his relationship with God?

Does he trust in God because God is God, rather than because of what God can do for him?

The man asks how he may inherit eternal life. Is eternal life something to be inherited, like wealth and social status or place in society? In that society, religion was inherited rather than a matter of personal choice – one was born a Jew, but few people ever became Jews. Is eternal life to be inherited, like religious identity and social class?

Are we in danger at times of thinking that we are entitled to our place in the Kingdom of God?

And in our behaviour, as well as our prayers, do we let God know, and others know, this?

Christ comes to the quick when he points out that this young man puts his trust in his own piety and wealth, in his achievements, in his inherited status. But wealth stands in the way of his relationship with God.

So, Christ tests the man. If he truly loves the poor, he will make a connection between loving God and loving others. The man is shocked and makes quick his departure.

This rich young man may lack nothing, but he wants eternal life. Yet he fails to realise he has met the living God face-to-face, and he turns away.

But Christ does not say the rich and the wealthy cannot find salvation. He says money and riches can hold us back and make it difficult to be true disciples, to enter the kingdom of God. It can be so difficult that, ‘it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God’ (verse 24). The Talmud sggests thought it would be even more difficult, perhaps even impossible, where it speaks of ‘an elephant passing through a needle’s eye’ (b. Ber. 55b; b. B. Metz. 38b).

We cannot save ourselves, but God can save us. However, Peter’s implied question (verse 27) points out again how easy it is to think that being a disciple or follower of Christ should be linked with the hope of rewards in the here and now.

I find I have to ask myself again after reading this Gospel passage: What do I cling onto most now that I can shed – not in terms of property and possessions, but prejudices and values – that get between me and Christ, and between the way I live my life and eternal life.

Then will I be happy to get down on my knees, like a camel, and squeeze into the City of God through the smallest and most narrow of the city gates, and find in the most humbling of ways how to squeeze into the Kingdom of God?

The Talmud speaks of the difficulty of ‘an elephant passing through a needle’s eye’ … an elephant in Lichfield Cathedral as part of the March of the Elephants in support of Saint Giles Hospice (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Today’s Prayers (Tuesday 20 August 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 ‘What price is the Gospel?’ This theme was introduced on Sunday with a programme update from Dr Jo Sadgrove, Research and Learning Advisor, USPG.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Tuesday 20 August 2024) invites us to pray:

Lord, we pray for the healing of the deep wounds – spiritual, psychological, economic, environmental and social – inflicted by the SPG and the Anglican Church in the name of the Gospel.

The Collect:

Merciful redeemer,
who, by the life and preaching of your servant Bernard,
rekindled the radiant light of your Church:
grant us, in our generation,
to be inflamed with the same spirit of discipline and love
and ever to walk before you as children of light;
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 of truth,
whose Wisdom set her table
and invited us to eat the bread and drink the wine
of the kingdom:
help us to lay aside all foolishness
and to live and walk in the way of insight,
that we may come with Bernard to the eternal feast of heaven;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

The life of Saint Bernard of Clairvaux (20 August) depicted in stained-glass windows in Mount Melleray Abbey, Cappoquin, Co Waterford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Yesterday’s reflection

Continued tomorrow

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

Tourists on camels near Levissi (Kayaköy) near Fethiye in Turkey (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Praying through the Week of Christian Unity and with USPG: 19 January 2023

Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford … ‘Come and Sing Evensong’ this evening is part of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

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

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

1, Reflecting on a seasonal or appropriate poem;

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

However, the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity began yesterday (18 January 2023), and between now and next Wednesday my morning reflections look at this year’s readings and prayers.

Churches Together in Milton Keynes continues to mark the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity this evening with ‘Come and Sing Evensong’ at 7:30 in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford. I hope to be part of this service this evening as a member of the choir in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church.

Choral Evensong is one of the great English musical traditions, with its rich biblical language and emotive music. Choirs and singers from across Milton Keynes are gathering for a brief rehearsal at 6 pm. The Revd Lisa Kerry, the Baptist Regional Minister, is speaking and the Moderator of the United Reformed Church East Midlands Synod, the Revd Geoffrey Clarke is leading the intercessions.

‘If you close your ear to the cry of the poor, you will cry out and not be heard’ (Proverbs 21: 13) … ‘Christ the Beggar’ … a sculpture by Timothy Schmalz on the steps of Santo Spirito Hospital near the Vatican (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Day 2: When justice is done …

Readings:

Proverbs 21: 13-15:

When justice is done, it is a joy to the righteous, but dismay to evildoers.

Matthew 23: 23-25:

Justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done.

Reflection:

From the beginning, the Book of Proverbs sets out to provide wisdom and instruction in “wise dealing, righteousness, justice, and equity” (1: 2). Throughout its oracles of wisdom, the call to act justly and to pursue righteousness is a constant refrain, relentlessly shared and affirmed as more acceptable to God than sacrifice. In a one-sentence pearl of wisdom, the speaker testifies that the righteous rejoice when justice is done. But justice upsets the workers of iniquity. Christians, across their separations, should be united in joy when justice is done, and prepared to stand together when this justice brings opposition. When we do what the Lord requires and dare to pursue justice, we may find ourselves in a whirlwind of resistance and opposition to any attempt to make things right for the most vulnerable among us.

Those who benefit from the systems and structures buttressed by White supremacy and other oppressive ideologies such as “casteism” and patriarchy will seek to delay and deny justice, often violently. But to seek justice is to strike at the heart of the powers, making space for God’s just ordering and enduring wisdom in a world all too often unmoved by suffering. And yet, there is joy in doing what is right.

There is joy in affirming that “Black Lives Matter” in the pursuit of justice for God’s oppressed, dominated, and exploited beloved. There is joy in seeking reconciliation with other Christians so that we may better serve the proclamation of the kingdom. Let that joy manifest itself through our shared experiences of God’s presence in community in the known and unknown spaces where God journeys with us toward healing, reconciliation and unity in Christ.

Christian Unity:

The religious leaders Jesus addresses in the Gospel passage have grown accustomed and comfortable with the injustices of the world. They are happy to perform religious duties such as tithing mint, dill and cumin, but neglect the weightier and more disruptive demands of justice, mercy and faithfulness. Similarly Christians have grown accustomed and comfortable with the divisions that exist between us. We are faithful in much of our religious observance, but often we neglect the Lord’s challenging desire that all his disciples be one.

Challenge:

How can local congregations support one another to withstand the opposition that may follow from doing justice?

Prayer:

God, you are the source of our wisdom. We pray for wisdom and courage to do justice, to respond to what is wrong in the world by acting to make it right;

We pray for wisdom and courage to grow in the unity of your Son, Jesus Christ, who with you and the Holy Spirit, reigns forever and ever. Amen.

‘You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel!’ (Matthew 23: 24) … a camel near the Goreme Open Air Museum and the rock-cut churches of Cappadocia (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

USPG Prayer Diary:

The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity began yesterday (18 January), and the theme in the USPG Prayer Diary this week is the ‘Week of Prayer For Christian Unity.’ This theme was introduced on Sunday with a reflection from the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity and the Commission on Faith and Order of the World Council of Churches.

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

Let us pray for a healing of divisions. May we know the humility and wisdom of Christ in our search for reconciliation.

Yesterday’s reflection

Continued Tomorrow

30 seconds of bell ringing at Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford … the venue for Choral Evensong this evening (Patrick Comerford)

Praying with USPG and the music of Vaughan Williams: Tuesday 16 August 2022

Trinity Street, Cambridge, on a quiet Sunday afternoon … Vaughan Williams was an undergraduate and AE Housman a Fellow of Trinity College Cambridge (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

I am staying in Sheffield, where I have a consultation later today (16 August) with the Steretactic Radiosurgery Team at Royal Hallamshire Hospital. This follows my stroke five months ago (18 March 2022) and, hopefully, is in advance of a procedure in the weeks ahead.

But, before the day gets busy, I am taking some time this morning for reading, prayer and reflection.

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

1, One of the readings for the morning;

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

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

‘It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God’ (Matthew 19: 24) … camels on a mountain track near Fethiye in Turkey (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The Gospel reading at the Eucharist this morning in the Lectionary as adapted by the Church of Ireland is:

Matthew 19: 23-30 (NRSVA):

23 Then Jesus said to his disciples, ‘Truly I tell you, it will be hard for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven. 24 Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.’ 25 When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astounded and said, ‘Then who can be saved?’ 26 But Jesus looked at them and said, ‘For mortals it is impossible, but for God all things are possible.’

27 Then Peter said in reply, ‘Look, we have left everything and followed you. What then will we have?’ 28 Jesus said to them, ‘Truly I tell you, at the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man is seated on the throne of his glory, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. 29 And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields, for my name’s sake, will receive a hundredfold, and will inherit eternal life. 30 But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.’

Wilderhope Manor, on Wenlock Edge, Shropshire … here I was first introduced to the music of Vaughan Williams (Photograph: Graham Taylor. Licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons)

Today’s reflection: ‘From far, from eve and morning’

Ralph Vaughan Williams was the composer of symphonies, chamber music, opera, choral music, and film scores, a collector of English folk music and song. With Percy Dearmer, he co-edited the English Hymnal, in which he included many folk song arrangements as hymn tunes, and several of his own original compositions.

Throughout this week, I am listening to On Wenlock Edge, a setting by Vaughan Williams of six poems from AE Housman’s Shropshire Lad.

I was recalling yesterday [15 August 2022] that I was first introduced to the music of Vaughan Williams when I was a 19-year-old and I was staying in Wilderhope Manor on Wenlock Edge in Shropshire in what became my first memorable introduction to the great English composers.

I spent some time on Wenlock Edge and in the neighbouring villages before hitch-hiking back to Lichfield – a journey of about 50 miles. Back in Lichfield, I experienced a self-defining moment in the chapel of Saint John’s Hospital, and was invited for the first time to the Folk Masses in the Dominican Retreat Centre at Spode House, near Rugeley, about six miles north of Lichfield.

Ever since, the music of Vaughan Williams, especially his setting in On Welock Edge, have been associated with my understanding of spiritual growth and development.

This morning [16 August 2022], I am listening to ‘From far, from eve and morning,’ the second of the six settings by Vaughan Williams of these poems by AE Housman (1859-1936), published in 1896.

In reacting to the Boer War, in which his brother Herbert was killed, Housman powerfully anticipated the horror and futility of World War I, and his poems would find fresh relevance of with the outbreak of World War I.

His landscape is a mythical, idealised Shropshire, similar to the Wessex of the novels of Thomas Hardy. His dominant themes are love, and a post-industrial pastoral nostalgia, infused with expressions of disillusionment at the sacrifice of the young soldiers going to war, never to return.

Vaughan Williams composed On Wenlock Edge – a cycle of six songs for tenor, piano and string quartet – in 1909, a year after he had spent three months in Paris studying under Maurice Ravel, a composer three years younger than him. The first performance took place in the Aeolian Hall, London, later that year.

In the 1920s, Vaughan Williams made an arrangement of On Wenlock Edge for full orchestra that was first performed on 24 January 1924 by John Booth, with the composer conducting. Vaughan Williams preferred this version to his original.

The second of these songs, ‘From far, from eve and morning,’ is No 32 in Housman’s original sequence. The late Trevor Hold of Leicester University (Parry to Finzi: Twenty English Song-composers, 2002) describes this song as one of Vaughan Williams’s ‘finest achievements.’

Here, after the elaborate accompaniment of the opening song, ‘On Wenlock Edge,’ Vaughan Williams turns to what he describes as ‘utmost simplicity: wide-spreading piano chords underpin a vocal line that never strays far from its home note (B natural) …’



2, From far, from eve and morning

From far, from eve and morning
And yon twelve-winded sky,
The stuff of life to knit me
Blew hither: here am I.

Now – for a breath I tarry
Nor yet disperse apart –
Take my hand quick and tell me,
What you have in your heart.

Speak now, and I will answer;
How shall I help you, say;
Ere to the wind’s twelve quarters
I take my endless way.

‘It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God’ (Matthew 19: 24) … a camel near the Goreme Open Air Museum and the rock-cut churches of Cappadocia (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayer, Tuesday 16 August 2022:

The theme in the USPG prayer diary this week is ‘Human Trafficking in Durgapur.’ This them was introduced on Sunday by Raja Moses, Project Co-ordinator of the Anti-Human Trafficking Project, Diocese of Durgapur, Church of North India.

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

We pray for the work of the Anti-Human Trafficking Project in the Diocese of Durgapur. May we support this initiative to identify human trafficking and support victims of human trafficking.

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

A lockdown ‘virtual tour’ of a dozen more favourite hotels

The Hedgehog Vintage Inn in Lichfield in September sunshine this week … as Lyncroft House, it was the home of the composer Muzio Clementi (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

Patrick Comerford

Now that it looks like ‘bridges’ are about to be introduced, allowing safe travel between some EU member states that have similar responses to the Covid-19 pandemic, I am beginning to think that my planned holiday back in Greece at the end of summer may yet be a possibility.

I was saying this morning that there are some hotels that I would stay in just for own sake, and at the top of my list was the Ferrycarrig Hotel in Wexford.

But there are some hotels outside Ireland that I would return to anytime, just because of the hotels themselves. In particular, these include the Hedgehog in Lichfield, Las Casas de la Judería in Seville, and the Pepi Boutique Hotel in Rethymnon.

So, if you’re still planning or dreaming about a summer holiday – this year, or perhaps next year – these are a dozen of my favourite hotels in Britain and Europe.

1, The Hedgehog, Lichfield:

The plaque commemorating Muzio Clementi at the Hedgehog Vintage Inn in Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

I have stayed in many places in Lichfield over the last five decades or more, from youth hostels to guest houses, pubs, a variety of hotels, and in friends’ homes. But in recent years, I have tended to stay in the Hedgehog Vintage Inn on Stafford Road.

From here, it is just a 15-minutes stroll along Beacon Street into Lichfield Street, and the rural setting of this boutique hotel on the edges of the cathedral city make it conducive for my personal retreats, for time I need for reflection and writing, and for meeting friends. The food and the welcome here are always worth returning for.

Many of the trees at the Hedgehog may date back to Muzio Clementi’s days in Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

This house was built as Lyncroft House in 1797. A few decades later, the house was home to Muzio Clementi (1752-1832), a celebrated composer, piano-maker, conductor and music publisher. Lyncroft House later became the home of the Revd Henry Gylby Lonsdale (1791-1851) when he was Vicar of Saint Mary’s Church, Lichfield, in the 1830s.

The house has been beautifully restored in recent years, and a recent refurbishment was completed in March, just days before the lockdown. I was due to stay here at the end of March, but the lockdown put an end to those plans. The Hedgehog stands in its own grounds, with large gardens and commanding views across Lichfield and the Staffordshire countryside. After a long, three-month lockdown, the Hedgehog is reopening on Saturday 4 July.

2, Las Casas de la Judería, Seville:

Las Casas de la Judería, a Seville hotel that is worth visiting … just for itself (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)

Las Casas de la Judería is in the historical centre of Seville and part of the city’s old Jewish Quarter, on the edge of the Barrio Santa Cruz. Inside, the hotel is paradise of its own making, another world away from the city.

This is a collection of 27 different 15th century traditional houses. They appear to have been assembled randomly, but they have been restored to reflect the atmosphere of the surrounding neighbourhood. There are baroque influences, and rustic charms in this self-contained barrio with a variety of buildings, courtyards, alleyways, overhanging balconies, gardens and terraces.

The 40 patios are typical Andalusian courtyards and ooze with vibrant colour, with hanging baskets, fountains, frescoes and classical features. We moved through the hotel, from one courtyard to the next, one garden to the next, through a lair of labyrinthine tunnels, steps and arched passageways, often to the sound of water dripping from a tap or fountain that was heard but not seen.

There are surprises everywhere in these courtyard and tunnels (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

There are surprises everywhere in these courtyard and tunnels. Fountains, statues and Roman amphoras decorate the winding passageways linking the rooms and shared open spaces. A Roman tunnel connects the rooms with the breakfast room and spas. At times, we criss-crossed the narrow streets and alleyways of Seville itself, yet still found ourselves in the hotel.

The hotel has 178 rooms, individually designed and decorated, each with its own unique touch, filled with history and character, and facing into beautiful cool courtyards filled with plants.

Some of the rooms have names that are reminders of the people said to have lived in these houses down through the centuries: Duke of Bejar, Count of Villamanrique, Casa del Cura … one room is named after Christopher Columbus, who is buried in Seville Cathedral.

Some of the names are a reminder that this was the heart of the Jewish Quarter before the Inquisition … Casa de Mose Bahari … or an intricate Star of David interlaced in the woodwork of a door.

3, Pepi Hotel, Tsouderon Stree, Rethymnon:

The gardens and the pool at Pepi Studios (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

I have returned time and again to Rethymnon, a charming old Venetian town on the north coast of Crete since the mid-1980s, so that after 35 years I feel at home in Greece, and Rethymnon has become my home town in Crete.

I have stayed in a variety of paces in Rethymnon, from private apartments, to rooms over bars, crumbling old hotels like the Acheillion and large hotels. For the past five years, I have stayed out in the eastern suburbs of Rethymnon, in the villages of Platanias and Tesmes, and this is the first in many that I have not been able to get to Crete. Should I ever stay in the heart of Rethymnon again, I would want to stay in the Pepi Boutique Hotel in the heart of the old town.

Pepi is just a few minutes away from the harbour, the restaurants, the Fortezza and the historic sites in Rethymnon and less than ten minutes from the long sandy beach. Behind the gardens around the pool, you can see the library behind Aghia Barbara Church, and the minaret of the former Valide Sulana Mosque juts up above the roofs of the shops and houses to the south.

The entrance to Pepi Studios at No 22 Tsouderon Street (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

This building was once one of Europe’s oldest public primary schools for boys and girls, known as Athena. The building has been in the same family since the 19th century, when the headmistress of Athena, Amalia retired, the school closed, and the silent, empty building and its overgrown gardens were sold to the grandfather of the present owners, Sifis (Iosif), who started a cotton and silk business.

His son George opened Pepi Studios in 1986 and named it in honour of his wife. Sifis, and Manos, the younger generation of the family, decided to the transform Pepi Studios in 2009, and it became the Pepi Boutique Hotel.

4,The Electra Palace Hotel, Aristotelous Square, Thessaloniki:

The Electra Palace Hotel (left) is an integral part of Ernest Hébrard’s design of Aristotelous Square in the heart of Thessaloniki (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Aristotelous Square is the main square in the heart of Thessaloniki, and like the White Tower it is virtually synonymous with the city itself. It is a venue for many cultural and political events, and is lined with hotels, cafés and bars.

The two quarter-circle sides of the square are occupied by two culturally important and imposing buildings: the Electra Palace Hotel, where I stayed once while I was travelling to and from Mount Athos, and the Olympion Theatre cinema, the venue of the annual Thessaloniki International Film Festival.

The statue of Aristotle in Aristotelous Square (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The square was designed over 100 years ago in 1918 by the French architect, archaeologist and urban planner Ernest Hébrard (1875-1933), who proposed a number of large squares in Thessaloniki, including Aristotelous Square, which he planned to name after Alexander the Great.

His vision was for a monumental axis for Thessaloniki, stretching from Aristotelous Square on the seafront to Venizelou Square and the Roman Forum. He wanted to name this axis after Alexander the Great, and to transform this into a city with boulevards and contemporary roadways, squares and parks.

I have been back to Thessaloniki many times since, and although I have stayed in other hotels, I always appreciate the way Hébrard integrated the Electra Palace Hotel into his plans and vision for a new, vibrant, post-earthquake city.

5, The Macan CaveHotel, Göreme:

The Maccan Cave Hotel is a cave hotel in Göreme with traditional décor

I spent Easter week some years ago in Cappadocia in Central Anatolia, an area of ancient Christian, archaeological and geological heritage. This is a region of exceptional natural wonders on central Turkey, known for its ‘fairy chimneys’ and its unique historical and cultural heritage.

I was staying in the Maccan Cave Hotel in Göreme, a cave hotel with traditional décor in the arched rooms and a garden and a rooftop terrace with panoramic city views.

Cappadocia’s ‘fairy chimneys’ in Göreme today (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The hotel takes its name from one of the ancient names for Göreme (Greek Κόραμα). In the past, the town has also been known as Korama, Matiana, Maccan or Machan, and Avcilar.

The Göreme National Park was added to the Unesco World Heritage List in 1985, and when the Göreme Valley nearby was designated an important tourist destination and a centre for tourism in Cappadocia, the name of the town was changed to Göreme.

6, Al Capello Rosso Hotel, Bologna:

The Al Cappello Rosso Hotel in Bologna dates back to 1375 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The Al Cappello Rosso Hotel, where I celebrated some important family occasions at the end of 2017, was first built in 1375 and is one of the oldest hotels in Bologna. It is in the cultural and historical heart of in Bologna, just 50 metres from the Piazza Maggiore, and with wonderful views of the old city.

The hotel is in the central but secluded Via Fusari and boasts an interesting history. The first documents trace this hotel back to 1375, and it welcomed the first ‘foreigners’ passing through the city in the 14th century.

The Al Cappello Rosso Hotel is an ideal place to start exploring Bologna on foot (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Advertising in the late 19th and early 20th century boasts this ‘ancient and renowned hotel-restaurant Cappello’ offers guests ‘elegant rooms from 1.50 lire, with electric light, telephone, radiators, toilets and showers’ – all modern comforts at the time. The hotel also had a banqueting hall, home cooking, wines from Romagna, Tuscany and Piedmont, and ‘the real lambrusco from Sorbara,’ all at ‘moderate prices.’

The hotel was recently renovated in 2001, and it was an ideal place to explore the monuments, markets, shops, mediaeval streets and hidden corners of Bologna on foot.

7, Palazzetto San Lio, Venice:

An intimate view of Venice from the Palazzetto San Lio (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

I had often visited Venice on day trips, but I stayed there for the first time at the end of 2018, staying at the Palazzetto San Lio in the heart of Venice, between the Rialto Bridge and Saint Mark’s Square. It is at the end Calle del Frutariol in the sestiere or district of Castello, and just a stone’s throw from Rialto and the Grand Canal.

Palazzetto San Lio is a small but splendid Venetian palace built in the 17th and 18th centuries. It is owned by an old Venetian family that for generations has been committed to keeping alive the traditional splendour of the palace and its Venetian style. All the apartments have canal views, and they are furnished with Venetian antique furniture, Murano chandeliers and upholstered walls in the grand Venetian style.

Our very own ‘small private cellar with a selection of our finest wines’ in the apartment in the Palazzetto San Lio in Venice (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The careful restoration of the building’s exterior last year has given new life to the external façades, while maintaining the original architectural features.

One of the surprises and unexpected joys of staying in the Palazzetto San Lio was an invitation to enjoy our own ‘small private cellar with a selection of our finest wines.’

The family that owns this small palace also owns its own vineyard on the banks of the River Piave, just outside Venice, where they have been producing their own fine DOC wines since 1925.

8, Arcadia Boutique Hotel, Frantiskanska Street, Bratislava:

The Arcadia Boutique Hotel is in the heart of the old city of Bratislava, a building that dates back to the 13th century (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

I spent a few days in Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia, last November, celebrating some landmark dates in the family, and stayed in the Arcadia Boutique Hotel on Frantiskanska Street, in the heart of the old city.

It is close in the old town this afternoon, and the attractions on the doorstep include Saint Martin’s Cathedral, Gothic churches, palaces and castles, the Museum of Jewish Culture, the banks of the River Danube and the other sites that make Bratislava a charming European capital.

During the Third Crusade (1189-1192), it is said, the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa stayed at a building on the site of this hotel. The hotel building claims to date back to 1290, with memories than date back seven or eight centuries, housed in mediaeval buildings that have been transformed into a romantic hotel, but retaining its vaults, old ceilings and winding corridors.

Parts of the Arcadia Boutique Hotel are said to date back to the 13th century (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Evidence of a Celtic settlement in the area in the 3rd century BC has been found in the cellar, archaeological research has revealed indications of a Roman settlement at the site, and objects from the 12th and 13th centuries have been found in the hotel grounds. Inside, the building retains fine works in wrought iron from the Renaissance, Baroque and Classicism eras.

The building served as the headquarters of the Hussite movement in Bratislava in 1432. As a legacy from that time, a chalice as the symbol of the Hussites was carved in stone into one of the arcades in the building.

The hotel’s cellar, now used as a wellness area, is the oldest part of the building and has a fine example of Gothic vaults. On the first floor, there are examples of late-Gothic wall ornaments and stone window frames. The arcades in the central courtyard area that now forms the hotel’s lobby area are among the finest examples of Renaissance architecture in Slovakia. The Renaissance-era vaulted ceiling in the cocktail bar is decorated with Baroque ornaments.

9, Varvaras Diamond Hotel, Platanias:

The Varvaras Diamond Hotel is on a quiet corner in Platanias, east of Rethymnon on a leafy, flower-filled street that leads to the beach (Photograph: Patrick Comerford

In recent years, during my return visits to Rethymnon, I have stayed in the suburban villages of Platanias and Tsesmes, about 5 km east of this old Venetian harbour city, and close to the long, sandy beach. Although the pandemic cancelled my plans to spend Greek Easter in Crete this year, over the last five years or I have stayed in a variety of apartments and hotels in Platanias and Tsesmes, including Julia Apartments, La Stella, and the Varvaras Diamond Hotel, which is set in a quiet corner on a leafy, flower-filled street that leads to the beach.

All these hotels are close to restaurants, tavernas and shops, yet in a quiet, laid-back area. The Varvaras Diamond Hotel, a family-run hotel owned by the Kantartzis family, was built in 2001 and is surrounded by evergreen trees and gardens with palm trees, colourful plants and flowers.

The Varvaras Diamond is on a leafy, flower-filled street that leads to the beach at Platanias (Photograph: Patrick Comerford

From my balcony there that Easter two years ago, I was looking out onto lemon trees with the fruits in full bloom. It was late May and early June – the beginning of summer.

During those two weeks, I spent time in a monastery, visited icon workshops, browsed in bookshops, swam in the Mediterranean, rambles around archaeological sites, sought out churches and buildings of architectural and historical interest, looked for old mosques, synagogues, hanging balconies and fountains in the former Muslim and Jewish quarters of Rethymnon and Chania, got lost in the back streets of both cities, found time to read poetry, novels, history and newspapers, enjoyed long lazy lunches in the sun and dinners in the sunset, tried to get up to speed with Greek politics and even brushed up on my rusty and limited knowledge of the Greek language.

10, Syntagma Square, Athens:

Both the Athens Plaza and the Acropolis View left me close to the Acropolis and Syntagma Square (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

I have often visited Athens both for work and for family breaks. Sometimes I have stayed in Air B&B apartments, on other occasions in small but comfortable hotels.

On one occasion I had lunch in the Grande Bretagne Hotel on Syntagma Square – the most famous hotel in Athens. And on another working visit I was booked into the Athens Plaza Hotel, on another corner of Syntagma Square, in a room with stunning panoramic views of Athens and the Acropolis.

On two occasions I have also stayed at the Acropolis View Hotel at No 10 Webster Street, and close to Dionysiou Areopagitou Street, one of the most beautiful pedestrian streets of Athens, and close to the Acropolis rock.

I was close to Filopappou Hill, the Pnyx, the Odeon of Herodes Atticus, and all the other major classical sites in Athens.

11, Penn Club, London:

The Penn Club in Bedford Place … an oasis of tranquillity in Bloomsbury (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

I first stayed in an hotel in Britain in 1965, I have stayed in a variety of places in England, from youth hostels, monasteries and rectories to friends’ homes, Cambridge and Oxford colleges and hotels. I stayed in two different hotels in London in recent months, but my favourite place to stay in London is not an hotel but the Penn Club in the heart of Bloomsbury.

The Penn Club is a quiet place in Bedford Place off Russell Square, and the accommodation is plain rather than simple. At times, I have had a room at the back overlooking the gardens that back onto Museum Street at the side the British Museum.

The Penn Club is beside the British Museum (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The club is housed in three inter-linking Georgian terrace houses built in the 1800s. Russell Square, a pleasant green space with shady trees, a café and a beautiful fountain in the centre, is just a few steps from the Penn Club, as are Tavistock Square with its Gandhi memorial and peace monuments, and tiny Bloomsbury Square. The club is also close to London University, the British Museum, the British Library, and Covent Garden and the West End theatres.

The Penn Club was established by Quakers in 1920 with funds left over from the Friends Ambulance Unit, which was active during World War I. The club continues to have connections with Quakers throughout Britain and world-wide, and maintains traditional Quaker values of integrity, equality, tolerance and simplicity, honesty and fairness in all its dealings. The value Quakers place on silence means there is no television in the rooms, and all mobile phones were switched off during breakfast this morning.

12, Hotel Franklin Feel the Sound, Via Rodi, Rome:

In the lobby of the Hotel Franklin Feel the Sound on Via Rodi … just a stroll from the Vatican (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

When I was last in Rome three years ago, I stayed at the Hotel Franklin Feel the Sound on Via Rodi.

The hotel is in Rome’s elegant Prati district, between the Vatican walls and Piazza Mazzini. I was just a few steps from the Vatican and the Sistine Chapel, which meant I could walk to Saint Peter’s Basilica and Castel Sant’ Angelo in just minutes.

The Hotel Franklin Feel the Sound is a music-themed hotel (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The hotel is part of the Best Western Group, and – as you can imagine, with a name like that – it is a music-themed hotel. The nearby metro stops at Ottaviano and Cipro-Vatican Museums, and Ottaviano is on line A, the same line as the Spanish Steps and Termini Train Station.

Prati is known for its wide, sweeping avenues, elegant buildings, and modern European charm. The grid layout and its elegant ‘Art Nouveau’ and ‘Umbertino’ style give Prati a unique personality, so that it has a distinct personality and a style reminiscent more of a quartier in Paris than a former marshland in Rome.

There are many other hotels and favourite places to stay I could mention, from hotels in the Peloponnese and other Greek islands, to hotels in Turkey, the Middle East and the Far East … including the spectacular Fuji View in Japan that I promised to return to when I was there in 1979.

But that’s another story. Let’s hope we can all travel again, safely and soon.

Some recent ‘virtual tours’:

A dozen hotels in Ireland.

A dozen buildings in Tamworth (Part 1);

A dozen buildings in Tamworth (Part 2);

More than a dozen Comberford family homes;

More than a dozen Comerford and Quemerford family homes;

A dozen Wren churches in London;

Ten former Wren churches in London;

More than a dozen churches in Lichfield;

More than a dozen pubs in Lichfield;

A dozen former pubs in Lichfield;

A dozen churches in Rethymnon;

A dozen restaurants in Rethymnon;

A dozen churches in other parts of Crete;

A dozen monasteries in Crete;

A dozen sites on Mount Athos;

A dozen historic sites in Athens;

A dozen historic sites in Thessaloniki;

A dozen churches in Thessaloniki;

A dozen Jewish sites in Thessaloniki.

A dozen churches in Cambridge;

A dozen college chapels in Cambridge;

A dozen Irish islands;

A dozen churches in Corfu;

A dozen churches in Venice.

A dozen churches in Rome.

A dozen churches in Bologna;

A dozen churches in Tuscany.