Daily prayer in Christmas 2024-2025: 27, Monday 20 January 2025

Feasting and fasting are important topics in all three Abrahamic faiths (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

The 40-day season of Christmas continues until Candlemas or the Feast of the Presentation (2 February). This week began with the Second Sunday of Epiphany (Epiphany II), with readings that focussed on the Wedding at Cana, the third great Epiphany theme, alongside the Visit of the Magi and the Baptism of Christ.

Today is the Third Day of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. The calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship today remembers Richard Rolle of Hampole (1349), Spiritual Writer.

Two of us are on our way back to Stony Stratford from York this morning on an overnight/early morning coach, after a weekend that included a family celebration in Harrogate on Saturday night. 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, 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.

‘No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old cloak’ … the HIV+ Women’s Group Quilt at Open Heart House at an exhibition in Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Mark 2: 18-22 (NRSVA):

18 Now John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting; and people came and said to him, ‘Why do John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?’ 19 Jesus said to them, ‘The wedding-guests cannot fast while the bridegroom is with them, can they? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. 20 The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast on that day.

21 ‘No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old cloak; otherwise, the patch pulls away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear is made. 22 And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and the wine is lost, and so are the skins; but one puts new wine into fresh wineskins.’

Ramadan bread on sale as sunset draws in Kuşadasi (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflection:

The Gospel reading yesterday, the story of the Wedding at Cana (John 2: 1-11), one of the three great Epiphany themes, along with the Visit of the Magi (Matthew 2: 1-12, 6 January 2025, The Epiphany), and the previous Sunday’s story of the Baptism of Christ by Saint John the Baptist (Luke 3: 17-17, 21-22, 12 January 2025). These three themes at Epiphany tell us who Christ truly is: truly God and truly human.

That wedding theme in yesterday’s Gospel reading is continued today, with a wedding feast used to illustrate a debate about feasting and fasting.

Richard Rolle from Thornton, Yorkshire, who is remembered in the church calendar today, lived close to the Cistercian nuns at Hampole, where he wrote prolifically on mysticism and asceticism. He believed fasting and other ascetic practices were important for simplifying the self and eliminating vices.

However, he also warned against ascetic fasts that were too extreme, and in his Form of Living he advises moderation – moderation in fasting, prayer, sleep, and clothing.

Feasting and fasting are important themes in the three Abrahamic faith – Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

For many Jews, the central act of worship and prayer is not what happens in a synagogue on a Saturday morning, but the shared family meal in the home on Friday evening, when the candles are lit and blessings are said over the shared wine and bread.

Passover or Pesach begins this year on the evening of Saturday 12 April 2025, and ends after nightfall on 20 April. Passover involves elements of both feasting and fasting, with the Seder meals but removing all leavened foods or chametz and abstaining from all food and drink that includes anything leavened or fermented, such as bread, crackers, cookies, pretzels and pasta, and most brands of beer, whiskey, vodka and gin.

The Eucharist is the central act of worship for Christians. The Church of Ireland, for example, teaches that ‘Holy Communion is the central act of worship’ and ‘warmly’ invites ‘all communicant members of Christian churches to join us at the Lord’s Table.’

The Iftar meals are shared, communal and spiritual experiences for Muslims.

Fasting is not only a Christian tradition, but is a form of spiritual discipline in all the great religious traditions: think of Yom Kippur, the great Jewish fast, or of Ramadan, a whole month of fasting for Muslims.

The association between feasting and fasting and the quest for justice are emphasised by Orthodox Christians in the prayers and readings on Clean Monday (Καθαρή Δευτέρα), which marks the beginning of Lent and which falls on 3 March this year (2025).

Greeks traditionally mark Clean Monday (Καθαρή Δευτέρα) by gathering for a traditional κούλουμα (koulouma) celebration, flying kites and eating halva. A special kind of azyme bread (λαγάνα, lagana) is baked only on this day. Some Orthodox Christians abstain from eating meat, eggs and dairy products throughout Lent, eating fish only on major feast days.

Liturgically, Clean Monday – and Lent itself – begins with a special service called Forgiveness Vespers, which ends with the Ceremony of Mutual Forgiveness, when those present bow down before each other and ask for forgiveness. In this way, they begin Lent with a clean conscience, with forgiveness, and with renewed Christian love.

The theme of Clean Monday is set by the reading appointed for the Sixth Hour (Isaiah 1: 1-20), which says in part:

Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean;
remove the evil of your doings
from before my eyes;
cease to do evil,
learn to do good;
seek justice,
rescue the oppressed,
defend the orphan,
plead for the widow.

Come now, let us argue it out,
says the Lord:
though your sins are like scarlet,
they shall be like snow;
though they are red like crimson,
they shall become like wool (verses 16-18).

In the first week of Lent, the Orthodox Church celebrates the hope that, as the Vespers that Wednesday say, ‘the springtime of the Fast has dawned, the flower of repentance has begun to open.’

Ramadan this year starts on Friday 28 February and concludes on the evening of Sunday 30 March. I have visited in Egypt, Pakistan and Turkey during the month of Ramadan, or Ramazan as it is known in Turkey, and I have found it is a very spiritual time to be in a country with a predominantly Muslim population.

In Kuşadasi, a resort town on the Aegean coast, I have noticed how among tourists no-one is affected by Ramadan – the cafés, bars and restaurants are open, and life goes on as normal. But during Ramadan, practising Muslims are taught not to eat, drink, or have sexual relations between dawn and sunset. I realised there how it must be tough on the cooks and waiters in hotels, restaurants and bars as they cook and serve food and watch the tourists eating and drinking throughout the day.

One tradition in many places in Turkey is the ‘Ramazan Drummer,’ a ‘human alarm clock’ who starts to stroll and beat his drum in the streets around 3 am to wake up those who are fasting so that they can rise and prepare the Sahur, the morning meal before sunrise.

The fast of Ramadan is broken each evening with Itfar, which is a celebration and a sharing with the community. In the evening, a cannon booms out to announce the end of the fast and the beginning of darkness.

Stewed fruits are indispensable foods at both iftar dinners and sahur breakfasts. Stuffed bagels are associated with sahur, while Turkish bread is preferred at the evening meal.

But, before the evening meal, the fast is traditionally broken with olives and water firstly, with the main meal following later. It is unhealthy to fill empty stomachs with heavy foods, and – in any case – for centuries the olive has been considered a holy food by every religious tradition in the Eastern Mediterranean.

Once the sun goes down, many restaurants become busy with local people who come out to eat with their family members. Or people rush home to be with their families to enjoy the Iftar, or the breaking of the fast.

Many young people use those evenings to meet and visit their friends, and there is often a party atmosphere … although most of this passes unnoticed by the many young Turks in Kuşadasi working until well into the night in the hotels, tourist shops and bars, and the young tourists who know little about the spiritual values of feasting and fasting and of tolerance and justice, and how they are intertwined.

I find it interesting that there is going to be a partial overlap this year between Lent and Easter, Passover and Ramadan.

‘The springtime of the Fast has dawned, the flower of repentance has begun to Open’ … an image in the journal Koinonia, Lent 2011, Vol 4, Issue 13, Kansas City, MO

Today’s Prayers (Monday 20 January 2025):

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 ‘Whom Shall I Send?’ This theme was introduced yesterday with a Programme Update by Rachael Anderson, Senior Communications and Engagement Manager, USPG.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Monday 20 January 2025) invites us to pray:

Father, help these young people to carry the spirit of unity and cross-cultural understanding into their communities, that they may be your instruments of reconciliation in a divided world.

The Collect:

Almighty God,
in Christ you make all things new:
transform the poverty of our nature by the riches of your grace,
and in the renewal of our lives
make known your heavenly glory;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

God of glory,
you nourish us with your Word
who is the bread of life:
fill us with your Holy Spirit
that through us the light of your glory
may shine in all the world.
We ask this in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

Eternal Lord,
our beginning and our end:
bring us with the whole creation
to your glory, hidden through past ages
and made known
in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s Reflection

Continued Tomorrow

Sunset in the Aegean at Ladies Beach in Kuşadasi … practising Muslims are expected to fast from sunrise to sunset each day during Ramadan (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

The Greeks have a word for it: 36, Exodus, ἔξοδος

‘Eξοδος, Exodos, Exit 1’ … a sign at Rethymnon bus station (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Patrick Comerford

Passover begins this evening (22 April 2024), and continues until Tuesday next week (30 April 2024). This eight-day holiday celebrates the Exodus, the flight from Egypt, the liberation of Jewish people, delivered from slavery in Egypt to freedom and liberty.

I am in Chania Airport this evening, wating for my own flight out of Crete back to England, but conscious of the many celebrations of Passover in Crete tonight, especially with the people I know and love at Etz Hayyim synagogue in Chania.

Indeed, many resorts and hotels in Crete have organised special programmes for Passover, beginning this evening, with organised Seder meals and special entertainment. On the flight from Luton to Chania last Wednesday, a Jewish family from Finchley told me of their plans to spend Passover in Crete this year.

‘Eξοδος, Exodos, Exit 5’ … a sign at Chania airport this evening (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

The holiday of Passover is celebrated in the early spring, from the 15th until the 22nd of the Hebrew month of Nissan. Passover or Pesach is marked by avoiding leaven, but the highlight is the Seder meal this evening, retelling the story of the Exodus, with four cups of wine and eating matzah and bitter herbs.

In Hebrew, Passover is known as Pesach, which means ‘to pass over,’ because God passed over the Jewish homes as the Egyptian firstborn were killed on the eve of the very first Passover.

The Hebrew slaves were forced into back-breaking salve-labour and unbearable horrors when God saw the people’s distress and sent Moses to Pharaoh with a message: ‘Let my people go.’ When the despotic Pharaoh refused and did not listen, ten devastating plagues afflicted the people of Egypt, destroying everything from livestock to crops.

In the last of the ten plagues, all the firstborn Egyptians were killed. Pharaoh’s resistance was broken, and he virtually chased his former slaves out of the land. The former slaves left in such a hurry that the bread they baked for the exodus did not have time to rise. That night, 600,000 adult males, plus many more women and children, left Egypt and began the trek to Mount Sinai.

The highlight of Passover is the Seder, observed on each of the first two nights of the holiday. The Seder is a family-oriented tradition and ritual-packed feast. The Haggadah is a domestic liturgy that describes in detail the story of the Exodus. It fulfils the Biblical obligation to recount to children the story of the Exodus on the night of Passover, and begins with a child asking the traditional ‘Four Questions’: ‘What makes this night different from all other nights?’

On this night remembering the Exodus and the flight from Egypt, I am in Chania Airport, waiting to catch a flight back to Luton, leaving Greece after a five-day extended weekend in Crete. On the flight to Crete, I was sitting beside a Jewish family from Finchley who are spending the Pesach holiday in Crete.

Indeed, advertising in the Jewish Chronicle and on social media shows how many Jewish families are spending this holiday in Crete: kosher food is being provided, Seder meals have been organised, the programmes include traditional music and traditional entertainment and guided tours, and rabbis from a variety of traditions are on hand in many hotels and resorts.

A Torah scroll opened at the Exodus story (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The Exodus narrative is spread over four of the first five books of the Bible or Pentateuch – Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. The Hebrew name is יציאת מצרים (Yəṣīʾat Mīṣrayīm, ‘Departure from Egypt’). It is the founding story in the Israelite, Hebrew or Jewish story, and for many theologians the Exodus is the paradigmatic Biblical narrative of liberation and salvation.

The etymology of the word Exodus shows it comes from the Latin Exodus, but this in turn comes from the Ancient Greek ἔξοδος (éxodos), which comes from the Greek words ἐξ (ex, ‘out of’) and ὁδός (hodós, ‘way’ or ‘road’).

So, the word Exodus is not Hebrew but Greek in origin, and the Greek word Exodos literally means ‘the road out.’ Other related words in English derived from the Greek ὁδός (hodós) include episode, method, period and odometer or odograph. Several scientific words also can be traced back to hodos, such as anode and cathode, the positive and negative electrodes of a diode, and hodoscope, an instrument that traces the paths of ionising particles.

But the word Exodus only comes into the English language in the 17th century with the translations of the Bible. In Hebrew, the title of the book is שְׁמוֹת (shemōt, ‘Names’), from the beginning words of the text: ‘These are the names of the sons of Israel’ (Hebrew: וְאֵלֶּה שְׁמֹות בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל).

Chag Pesach Sameach, חג פסח שמח

Previous word: 35, autopsy and biopsy

Next word: 37, Bishop, ἐπίσκοπος

A Seder plate in the Jewish Museum of Art and History (mahJ) in Paris (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Searching again before Passover for Jewish memories in the streets of Rethymnon

The minaret of the Valide Sultana Mosque behind Tombázi Street has an inscription in Arabic and a sculpted Star of David … was this the site of the synagogue in Rethymnon? (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Patrick Comerford

This year marks the 80th anniversary of the virtual annihilation of the Jewish community of Crete in 1944. Early on the morning of 9 June 1944, the Greek freighter Tanais – which was carrying 265 people, the entire Jewish community of Crete – was torpedoed before it reached the port of Piraeus.

I am staying in the heart of Rethymnon for about five or six days, in the Brascos Hotel just outside the old town wall. Passover is approaching, and begins on Monday evening (22 April 2024), continuing until 30 April.

Pesach or Passover recalls and celebrates liberation from slavery and being brought into freedom and liberty. It is an appropriate time too to remember those Jews of Crete who never found freedom and liberty and who died on that fatal morning 80 years ago.

Over the past two or three days, I have returned to a search I engaged in eight years ago, looking for the history of the Jew of Rathymnon and trying to determine where they might have lived in the Ottoman era.

Jews had settled here in Crete long before the Christian era, and there are early references to the Jews in Gortynia, Crete, in I Maccabees 15: 23. A letter from Shimon the Maccabee sent to the ruler of Crete in 142 BCE expressing support for the local Jews. Philo of Alexandria speaks of the Jews of Crete. Josephus, the Jewish historian from the end of the Second Temple period, married a Jewish Cretan. He notes that ca 4 BC the false Alexander, on his way to Rome, visited the Jewish communities of Crete. They accepted him as a member of the Hasmonean dynasty and gave him large sums of money.

A few decades later, the New Testament records Cretan Jews were living in Jerusalem at the time of the Pentecost (Acts 2: 11).

The Emperor Theodosius II expelled Jews from Crete in the year 408 CE, but many families must have soon returned, because in 440 CE many Jews in Crete accepted the claims of Moses of Crete, a self-proclaimed Messiah.

The Jewish community in Rethymnon lived in an area immediately outside the Byzantine city (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

The Jewish communities of Crete may have survived the Byzantine and Saracen periods, and there probably was a Jewish presence in Crete when the island became a possession of Venice in 1204.

The Jews of Rethymnon are noted in 1222, when there is an indirect reference to them during a Greek rebellion against the Venetians.

Some documents give 1228 as the date for the foundation of a synagogue in Crete, although this may be an error and the date may be 1328.

By 1320, the Jewish community in Rethymnon lived in the old burgus or suburb, outside the Byzantine city. Sabateus Capsali, the Jewish owner of several houses abutting the walls of the suburb, was then authorised to open windows in this wall by Pietro Bragadin, the rector or governor of Rethymnon.

Some time later, two Jews were granted vacant land on the other side of the wall, in parte exterior dicti burgi … extra burgum, and allowed to build houses. Later they received permission to build them along the wall where Capsali had opened the windows.

Looking down Kapsali Street towards the Cathedral … could this have been part of the old Jewish quarter of Rethymnon? (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

The Jewish community of Rethymnon had its own institutions well before 1362, when it adopted an ordinance separating two ritual functions, the chazzan or synagogue cantor and the shochet or animal slaughterer.

There was a Jewish quarter in Rethymnon by 1386, when a request was made to reopen the synagogue in the Judaica that had been closed by Pietro Grimani. In return, these Jews were required to pay towards the expenses of building the port.

Following the Spanish massacres of 1391, a significant number of Sephardic Jews arrived in Venetian Crete having fled Iberia for the eastern Mediterranean. They were soon joined by more exiles from Venice in 1394 and then from Germany.

Although there were tensions between the leadership of the original Romaniot Jews of Crete and the new Sephardic arrivals, the two communities soon intermarried and over time the Jews of Crete were strongly influenced by Sephardic intellectual traditions.

Meanwhile, in 1392, the Jews of Rethymnon were required to supply 12 men to guard the ramparts near the ghetto, but this order was rescinded in 1395 in return for a payment.

There is a reference to this Jewish quarter in a resolution of the Venetian Senate in 1412, when there was a complaint that Jews owned all the shops in Rethymnon. Solomon, son of Lazzar da Meïr, had secured permission for himself and his descendants to open shops in any part of Rethymnon, but the concession was immediately revoked.

It was recorded in 1421 that Cherson, a son of Solomon of Rethymnon, owed a considerable sum of money to three Christian noblemen.

The boundaries of the Jewish quarter were marked by crosses in 1448, probably as a direct challenge to the faith of the residents by the Christian rulers of Rethymnon.

The Jewish population of Crete in the 15th century has been estimated at 1,160. The Capsali family, which had lived in Rethymnon from the 14th century or earlier, included leading rabbis such as Moses ben Elijah Capsali (1420–1495), Elijah Capsali (ca 1483–1555) and Elkanah Capsali. Moses Capsali became Hakham Bashi or Chief Rabbi of the Ottoman Empire, while Elijah Capsali later wrote histories of Crete and Venice.

When large numbers of exiles fleeing the Spanish Inquisition arrived at the end of the 15th and the beginning of the 16th century, the Jewish communities of Crete sold the golden ornaments in their synagogues to raise money to free many exiles being kept on board by ships’ captains who claimed their passengers as slaves.

After the Turks captured Rethymnon in 1647, it is said, the Jewish population left the city for economic reasons. But the Jewish communities survived in Iraklion and Chania. On the advice of the Chief Rabbi of Crete, Moses Ashkenazi, all Jews who were Greek subjects formally adopted Ottoman nationality in 1869.

At the beginning of the Greco-Turkish war in 1897, there were 225 Jewish families in Crete, including five families in Rethymnon.

But Ottoman Turkish rule had brought economic hardship and a loss of progressive intellectual life for the Jews of Crete, and the Jewish communities in Rethymnon, Chania and Iraklion declined significantly. Many Jewish families left Crete and moved to Venice and other parts of Italy and to other Jewish enclaves in the Mediterranean, such as Gibraltar, Istanbul and Thessaloniki.

Some of the remaining Jews managed to escape Crete before the Nazi occupation of the island.

During World War II, the Germans occupied Crete in 1941. They ordered a census of the remaining Jews on the island, and found 314 Jews in Chania and 26 in Iraklion. The Gestapo rounded up the last 265 Jews living on Crete on 29 May 1944, in the middle of the night. After a few days in inhumane conditions, these 265 Jews were transferred by trucks to Iraklion. It took several hours.

Early on the morning of 9 June 1944, they were all herded onto the Tanais, a cargo ship headed for the Greek mainland and Piraeus, the port of Athens. Among them were Rabbi Elias Osmos, the last rabbi of Crete, and 88 children. Their final destination was Auschwitz. But they were spared the gas chambers in a cruel twist: the British submarine HMS Vivid hit the ship with four torpedoes not far from the coast of Santorini. In all, about 1,000 prisoners were on board, including 400 Greek hostages and 300 Italian soldiers. No one survived.

The minaret of the Valide Sultana Mosque, seen from the Porta Guora in the heart of the old Venetian town of Rethymnon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

As I strolled through the narrow streets and alleys of the old Venetian parts of Rethymnon during these past few days, once again I could find no traces of the Jewish quarter or any of the former synagogues. In the past, I have traced the mosques and minarets of Rethymnon, many of the hidden fountains and covered balconies, and the Venetian doorways. But I could find no signs for the former synagogues, the Jewish Quarter or a Jewish cemetery.

The minaret of the old Porta Grande or Valide Sultana Mosque behind the shopfronts on Tombázi Street is visible from the Brascos Hotel and just a three-minute walk away. The minaret has an inscription in Arabic with a sculpted Star of David beneath. The mosque stands near the Guora Gate, the main gate into the Venetian city, built by Jacopo Guoro, the Governor or Rettore of Rethymnon in 1566-1588.

The mosque was built in 1670 next to the Great Gate and was later named after the Valide Sultana Kösem (1589-1651), the mother of the Sultan Ibrahim Han. Kösem Sultana, also known as Mâh-Peyker Sultan, was one of the most powerful women in Ottoman history, and the favourite consort and wife of Sultan Ahmed I (1603–1617). She was Valide Sultana or Queen Mother from 1623 to 1651, when Murad IV, Ibrahim I and Mehmed IV reigned as sultans.

Kösem was of Greek birth, born Anastasia, the daughter of a priest on the island of Tinos. After her capture, her name was changed to Mâh-Peyker (‘Moon-Shaped’). She was sent to Constantinople where, at the age of 15, she was sold into the harem of Sultan Ahmed I, who changed her name to Kösem. Could the Star of David have been included on the minaret because the mosque stood on the site of the original synagogue in Rethymon?

Close to the mosque, Kapsali Street, off Tombazi Street, is again just three minutes walk from where I am staying. The name of the street evokes memories of the Capsali family, one of the leading Jewish families in Rethymnon.

Although there are barely more than a dozen Jews left in Crete, the Etz Hayyim synagogue has been restored in recent years in the Ovraiki, or Jewish Quarter, in Chania. This year marks th80the anniversary of the virtual annihilation of the Jewish community of Crete on 9 June 1944.

The name of Kapsali Street, off Tombazi Street, evokes memories of the Capsali family, one of the leading Jewish families in Rethymnon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Shabbat Shalom

Morning prayers in Easter with USPG: (4) 12 April 2023

The Crucifixion scene in the central panel is the focus of the East Window by Nathaniel Westlake (1888) in Holy Trinity Church in Old Wolverton (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Patrick Comerford

Easter Day on Sunday (9 April 2023) ushered in all our hopes and joys.

This morning I am in Prague on a very brief visit to the Czech capital. But, before this day begins, I am taking some time early this morning for prayer, reflection and reading. In these days of Easter Week, I am reflecting each morning in these ways:

1, Short reflections on the stained-glass windows in Holy Trinity Church, Old Wolverton;

2, the Gospel reading of the day in the lectionary;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary.

Christ with the Disciples at the Last Supper, depicted in the East Window in Holy Trinity Church, Old Wolverton (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

The East Window, Inner Circle:

The East Window in Holy Trinity Church, Old Wolverton, dominates the chancel and the whole church. This is a spectacular Rose window by Nathaniel Westlake in 1888, with eight lobes around a large central circle and.

This window was the final element in the scheme of decoration in the church carried out from 1870 on under the supervision of the Stony Stratford-born architect Edward Swinfen Harris.

The window provides a magnificent climax to the interior of the church, drawing the attention of worshippers and visitors to the high altar below it.

The central panel window depicts the Crucifixion, with the Virgin Mary and Saint John, Christ standing beside the Cross.

The inner circle surrounding the central panel depicts four scenes:

1 (top), Christ with the Disciples at the Last Supper: this panel draws attention to the Eucharist celebrated at the High Altar below the window. Some descriptions say there are only 10 disciplines in this window. However, closer attention shows there is an eleventh halo, and that the face of a disciple is hidden behind his companions; Judas has already left the table.

2 (left), Moses striking the Rock for water (Exodus 17: 1-7; Numbers 20: 2-13): this scene is linked in Christian theology with Jesus’ description of himself as living water:

Jesus said to her, ‘Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.’ The woman said to him, ‘Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.’ (John 4: 13-15)

On the last day of the festival, the great day, while Jesus was standing there, he cried out, ‘Let anyone who is thirsty come to me, and let the one who believes in me drink. As the scripture has said, “Out of the believer’s heart shall flow rivers of living water”.’ Now he said this about the Spirit, which believers in him were to receive; for as yet there was no Spirit, because Jesus was not yet glorified. (John 7: 37-39)

3 (right), Moses lifting the brazen serpent (Numbers 21: 4-9; John 3: 14-15):

[Jesus said:] ‘And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.’ (John 3: 14-15)

4 (below), the Destroying Angel passing over the Israelites at the Passover: In the Passover story in Exodus, the Angel of Death slays the firstborn children of Egypt, but spares any Israelite where the lintels and the door posts have been painted with the blood of the lamb during the Passover feast (Exodus 12: 21-32; see Exodus 14: 19-31).

These scenes of the Last Supper and the Passover and Exodus story are intended to emphasise the celebration of the Eucharist at the High Altar beneath the window.

The stained glass artist NHJ Westlake (1833-1921) was a partner and finally the sole proprietor of Lavers, Barraud & Westlake (1855-1920s), a London-based firm that changed its name several times and became Lavers, Westlake and Co, and eventually NHJ Westlake, before closing in the 1920s.

Moses striking the Rock for water, depicted in the East Window in Holy Trinity Church, Old Wolverton (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Luke 24: 13-35 (NRSVA):

13 Now on that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, 14 and talking with each other about all these things that had happened. 15 While they were talking and discussing, Jesus himself came near and went with them, 16 but their eyes were kept from recognizing him. 17 And he said to them, ‘What are you discussing with each other while you walk along?’ They stood still, looking sad. 18 Then one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answered him, ‘Are you the only stranger in Jerusalem who does not know the things that have taken place there in these days?’ 19 He asked them, ‘What things?’ They replied, ‘The things about Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, 20 and how our chief priests and leaders handed him over to be condemned to death and crucified him. 21 But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things took place. 22 Moreover, some women of our group astounded us. They were at the tomb early this morning, 23 and when they did not find his body there, they came back and told us that they had indeed seen a vision of angels who said that he was alive. 24 Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said; but they did not see him.’ 25 Then he said to them, ‘Oh, how foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have declared! 26 Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and then enter into his glory?’ 27 Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them the things about himself in all the scriptures.

28 As they came near the village to which they were going, he walked ahead as if he were going on. 29 But they urged him strongly, saying, ‘Stay with us, because it is almost evening and the day is now nearly over.’ So he went in to stay with them. 30 When he was at the table with them, he took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. 31 Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him; and he vanished from their sight. 32 They said to each other, ‘Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us?’ 33 That same hour they got up and returned to Jerusalem; and they found the eleven and their companions gathered together. 34 They were saying, ‘The Lord has risen indeed, and he has appeared to Simon!’ 35 Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he had been made known to them in the breaking of the bread.

Moses lifting the brazen serpent, depicted in the East Window in Holy Trinity Church, Old Wolverton (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Today’s Prayer:

The theme in this week’s prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel) is ‘USPG’s Lent Appeal: supporting young mothers affected By HIV.’ This theme was introduced on Sunday by USPG’s Fundraising Manager, Rebecca Allin, who reflected on the 2023 Lent Appeal supporting young mothers affected by HIV, and their children.

The prayer in the USPG Prayer Diary today (12 April 2023, Wednesday of Easter Week) invites us to pray:

Let us pray for pregnant women who lack access to healthcare. May we work towards a fairer world where giving birth is not a major risk to mother and child.

Collect:

Lord of all life and power,
who through the mighty resurrection of your Son
overcame the old order of sin and death
to make all things new in him:
grant that we, being dead to sin
and alive to you in Jesus Christ,
may reign with him in glory;
to whom with you and the Holy Spirit
be praise and honour, glory and might,
now and in all eternity.

Post Communion:

God of Life,
who for our redemption gave your only-begotten Son
to the death of the cross,
and by his glorious resurrection
have delivered us from the power of our enemy:
grant us so to die daily to sin,
that we may evermore live with him in the joy of his risen life;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s reflection

Continued tomorrow

The Destroying Angel passing over the Israelites at the Passover, depicted in the East Window in Holy Trinity Church, Old Wolverton (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

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

Free journalism is essential for a free society and free world

Patrick Comerford

These eight days mark the Jewish holiday of Passover, which is celebrated in the early spring, from the 15th until the 22nd day of the Hebrew month of Nissan. Passover began this year on Wednesday evening, 5 April 2023 and continues until 13 April 2023.

Passover or Pesach is the most celebrated of all the Jewish holidays. regardless of religious observance. It commemorates the emancipation of the Israelites from slavery in ancient Egypt. Pesach is marked by avoiding leaven, and the highlight of the holiday is the Seder meals that include four cups of wine, eating matzah and bitter herbs, and retelling the story of the Exodus.

During many decades of slavery in Egypt, the pharaohs subjected the Israelites to back-breaking labour and unbearable horrors. God saw their distress and sent Moses to Pharaoh with the message: ‘Let my people go, so that they may worship me’ (Exodus 8: 1; 9: 1).

Despite numerous warnings, Pharaoh refused to heed God’s command. But his resistance was broken by ten plagues, culminating in the death of the first-born. Pharaoh virtually chased his former slaves out of the land. The Israelites left in such a hurry that the bread they baked as provisions for the exodus did not have time to rise.

On that night, 600,000 adult males, and many more women and children, left Egypt and began the trek to Mount Sinai, to religious freedom and to freedom as a people.

Nine days ago, on 29 March, the Jewish American journalist Evan Gershkovich of the Wall Street Journal was arrested by Russia’s security services on false charges and he faces a sentence of up to 20 years in prison.

Evan (31), is the American-son of Soviet-born Jewish exiles who settled in New Jersey,and the grandson of a Ukrainian Jewish Holocaust survivor. He is spending this Passover locked up in Moscow’s notorious Lefortovo prison, denied all contact with the outside world.

When Evan’s mother Ella was 22, she fled the Soviet Union using Israeli documents. She was whisked across the Iron Curtain by her own mother, a Ukrainian nurse and Holocaust survivor who would weep when she talked about the survivors of extermination camps she treated at a Polish military hospital at the end of World War II. Before fleeing Russia, they heard rumours that Soviet Jews were about to be deported to Siberia.

Evan’s father, Mikhail, also left the Soviet Union as part of the same wave of Jewish migration. The couple met in Detroit then moved to New Jersey where Evan and his elder sister Dusya grew up.

The Wall Street Journal asked Jews around the world to raise awareness of Evan’s plight this week by setting a place for Evan at their Seder table and sharing a picture along with the hashtags #FreeEvan and #IStandWithEvan.

Rabbi Angela Buchdahl, the senior rabbi at Central Synagogue in New York, announced on her Facebook page this week that she was leaving an empty chair at her Seder for Evan, and she urged others to do the same.

She wrote: ‘At our festival of freedom, may we remember those for whom the promise of freedom remains unfulfilled. Let us raise up God’s demand for justice as our own: “Let my people go”.’

To learn more about Evan, read this article from the Wall Street Journal: ‘Evan Gershkovich Loved Russia, the Country That Turned on Him.’

חַג פֵּסַח שַׂמֵחַ Chag Pesach Sameach

Shabbat Shalom

A new kosher deli opens in Rathmines in time for Passover in Dublin

Deli613 opened last in the former Zen Chinese restaurant on Upper Rathmines Road Upper (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Patrick Comerford

Pesach 5783 begins on Wednesday evening (5 April 2023), and the feast of Passover continues until the following week, on the evening of Thursday 13 April. Shabbat HaGadol (Great Shabbat, שבת הגדול), the Shabbat immediately before Passover, begins this evening.

Traditionally, the Seder dinner is held on the first and second night of Passover and includes several specific dishes and ingredients, like matzah – an unleavened, cracker-like bread – bitter herbs, wine, and charoset—a wine, fruit, and nut paste.

When I was in Dublin last week, I found how many of these dishes and ingredients can be found this year in Deli613, the latest eatery in Rathmines and the first Jewish deli in Dublin.

I walked into Deli613 last week to be told by Rifky Lent that Dublin’s newest foodie hot spot opened the weekend before. Chabad of Ireland has opened Deli613 in the former Zen Chinese restaurant at 89 Rathmines Road Upper, and is kosher-certified by Chabad.

Deli613 is on the ground floor of the new Chabad House, and offers a wide selection of dishes and has a well-stocked grocery with kosher snacks, wine, and more. I had a quick double espresso and a tasty bun as I browsed a menu that includes salt beef and smoked salmon sandwiches, potato latkes, salt-beef sandwiches on rye or bagels and pastrami, chopped herring and liver, as well as hummus, pitta falafel, and sabich.

The kosher grocery is open from Monday to Friday and is fully stocked with kosher breads, cold cuts, sausage, wine, bamba, bissli and much more.

Deli613 takes its name from the traditional 613 mitzvot or commandments in Judaism. They are based on a list in the Mishneh Torah compiled by one of the greatest mediaeval Jewish scholars, Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon, known in Jewish tradition by the acronym Rambam and to the wider world as Maimonides.

This new deli in Dublin aims to grow the number of Kosher food options available to the local Jewish community at an affordable price. The bread has been specially created by a local sourdough baker with lovers of rye and multi-grain loves in mind.

Anyone with a sweet tooth can, like me, indulge themselves with some cake over coffee. A brunch option includes pastries and potentially a Sunday breakfast is being offered in the coming month. Deli 631 is also promising a full dining experience on Sunday nights.

Rifky Lent also told me in our brief conversation how a full range of communal programmes and classes are also planned. She and her husband Rabbi Zalman Lent and their children have lived in Ireland since 2000, working with the Jewish community, first as youth rabbi and rebbetzin, and then as the Rabbi and rebbetzin of the Dublin Hebrew Congregation in Terenure Synagogue on Rathfarnham Road. During that time they were also the representatives in Ireland of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement.

They are now expanding their roles with the opening of the new Chabad centre in Rathmines, offering a friendly community space, educational classes, Shabbat dinners, a mitzva project, or even just a cup of coffee and a chat. For students and young professionals away from family and friends they promise a home away from home. Friday night dinners promise delicious food and a warm ambience, and visitors and newcomers are being invited too to holiday meals and shabbat lunch.

Reports of the planned sale of the site of Terenure Synagogue on Rathfarnham Road have been gloomy news from the Jewish community in Dublin. But visiting Deli613 in Rathmines last week I realised that that there is plenty of good news for the Jewish community in Dublin too.

חַג פֵּסַח שַׂמֵחַ Chag Pesach Sameach

Shabbat Shalom

Praying with the Psalms in Ordinary Time: 9 July 2022 (Psalm 136)

‘For his mercy endures forever’ (Psalm 136) … the polyelaios in the Church of San Giorgio dei Greci (Ἅγιος Γεώργιος τῶν Ἑλλήνων) in Venice (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

Patrick Comerford

In the Calendar of the Church, we are in Ordinary Time. Before today begins, I am taking some time this morning to continue my reflections drawing on the Psalms.

In my blog, I am reflecting each morning in this Prayer Diary 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 136:

Psalm 136 is notable for the refrain which forms the second half of each verse, ‘for his steadfast love endures for ever’. In the slightly numbering system in the Greek Septuagint and Latin Vulgate, this is Psalm 135.

Together, the two psalms Psalm 135 and 136 form a single composite unit, similar in tone, vocabulary and literary structure to the group of psalms known as Hallel. Some Jewish Sages called these two psalms ‘The Great Hallel’ to distinguish them from Psalms 113-118 which they called the ‘Egyptian Hallel,’ since it contains a reference to the Exodus from Egypt.

It is likely that both psalms were written for public worship in the Temple, and both are litanies or a series of invocations said by a leader of prayer, together with congregational responses.

Psalm 136 is arranged in well-marked groups of three verses to the end of verse 18, after which follow two groups of four verses.

The former Chief Rabbi, the late Lord (Jonathan) Sacks says that originally in the Temple, the leader of prayer said the first half of each verse of Psalm 136, to which the congregation responded with the second half.

As in several other psalms, this poem opens with cosmology and ends with history. It begins with God as Creator, and continues with God as Redeemer.

The Jewish Sages related the 26 verses of this psalm to the 26 generations between Adam and the giving of the Torah – from creation to revelation.

Because of its summary of the events of the Exodus, Psalm 136 forms part of the Haggadah on Pesach.

In the Eastern Orthodox Church, Psalm 135 and Psalm 136 (134 and 135 in the Septuagint) are called the Polyeleos (Πολυέλεος) or ‘Many Mercies,’ named such after the refrain ‘for his steadfast love endures for ever,’ or ‘for his mercy endures forever’ (ὅτι εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα τὸ ἔλεος αὐτοῦ) in Psalm 136.

The Polyeleos is sung at Orthros (Matins) of a Feast Day and at Vigils. On Mount Athos and in some Slavic traditions, it is read every Sunday at Orthros.

On Mount Athos, it is considered one of the most joyful periods of Matins-Liturgy, and the highest point of Matins. In Athonite practice, all the candles are lit, and the chandeliers are made to swing as the psalms are sung, it is also accompanied by a joyful peal of the bells and censing of the church, sometimes with a hand censer that has many bells. At vigils, it accompanies the opening of the Royal Doors and a great censing of the nave by the priests or deacons.

Because of its liturgical importance, beautiful settings for the Polyeleos have been composed by Sergei Rachmaninoff and other composers.

The name Polyeleos has given the name ‘polyelaios’ (πολυελαιος) to the chandelier in many churches in the form of a very large circle with many candles and often adorned with icons of saints. The polyelaios is suspended by a chain from the ceiling. During the chanting of the Polyeleos psalms, all the candles are lit, and it is pushed with a rod so that it turns back and forth during the singing to symbolise the presence of the angels and adding to the joy of the service. This custom is still a practice in the monasteries on Mount Athos and in many Orthodox monasteries.

The Lord made ‘the moon and stars to rule over the night’ (Psalm 136: 9) … the recent ‘Museum of the Moon’ installation in Saint Mary’s Cathedral, Limerick (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Psalm 136 (NRSVA):

1 O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good,
for his steadfast love endures for ever.
2 O give thanks to the God of gods,
for his steadfast love endures for ever.
3 O give thanks to the Lord of lords,
for his steadfast love endures for ever;

4 who alone does great wonders,
for his steadfast love endures for ever;
5 who by understanding made the heavens,
for his steadfast love endures for ever;
6 who spread out the earth on the waters,
for his steadfast love endures for ever;
7 who made the great lights,
for his steadfast love endures for ever;
8 the sun to rule over the day,
for his steadfast love endures for ever;
9 the moon and stars to rule over the night,
for his steadfast love endures for ever;

10 who struck Egypt through their firstborn,
for his steadfast love endures for ever;
11 and brought Israel out from among them,
for his steadfast love endures for ever;
12 with a strong hand and an outstretched arm,
for his steadfast love endures for ever;
13 who divided the Red Sea in two,
for his steadfast love endures for ever;
14 and made Israel pass through the midst of it,
for his steadfast love endures for ever;
15 but overthrew Pharaoh and his army in the Red Sea,
for his steadfast love endures for ever;
16 who led his people through the wilderness,
for his steadfast love endures for ever;
17 who struck down great kings,
for his steadfast love endures for ever;
18 and killed famous kings,
for his steadfast love endures for ever;
19 Sihon, king of the Amorites,
for his steadfast love endures for ever;
20 and Og, king of Bashan,
for his steadfast love endures for ever;
21 and gave their land as a heritage,
for his steadfast love endures for ever;
22 a heritage to his servant Israel,
for his steadfast love endures for ever.

23 It is he who remembered us in our low estate,
for his steadfast love endures for ever;
24 and rescued us from our foes,
for his steadfast love endures for ever;
25 who gives food to all flesh,
for his steadfast love endures for ever.

26 O give thanks to the God of heaven,
for his steadfast love endures for ever.

Today’s Prayer:

The theme in the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel) this week has been ‘Tackling Poverty.’ It was introduced on Sunday by Niall Cooper, Director at Church Action on Poverty.

Saturday 9 July 2022:

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

We pray for our political leaders that they may learn to make better provision for those living in poverty.

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

Praying with the Psalms in Pentecost: 9 June 2022 (Psalm 106)

‘Moses his chosen stood before him in the breach …’ (Psalm 106: 23) … a statue of Moses in the Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, Athlone (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Before today begins, I am taking some time this morning to continue my reflections from the seasons of Lent and Easter, including my morning reflections drawing on the Psalms.

In my blog, I am reflecting each morning in this Prayer Diary 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 106:

Psalm 106 is the final psalm in Book 4 (Psalms 90-106) of the Hebrew psalter. This is one of the longer psalms, and has 48 verses. It is sometimes known by its Latin name Confitemini. In the slightly different numbering system in the Greek Septuagint and Latin Vulgate, this psalm is counted as Psalm 105.

Psalms 105 and 106, the two psalms that end Book 4 of the Hebrew psalms, are closely related. Psalm 105 gives thanks for God’s faithfulness to the covenant he made with Abraham; Psalm 106 is a psalm of penitence, reciting the history of Israel’s faithlessness and disobedience.

This psalm and Psalm 107 are closely connected together, and the division of the fourth and fifth books does not correspond to any difference of source or character, as is the case in the other books.

Psalm 106 continue the themes Exodus themes in the previous Psalm, Psalm 105.

The first portion of this Psalm moves from praise and thanksgiving to petition and confession, through the full range of human emotion and the complexities of our relationship with God, relying on God’s continuing faithfulness.

The second portion of this Psalm moves to a confessional tone.

The closing words in verse 48 correspond to the concluding verses of Psalms 41 and 89, that end Books 1 and 3 of the psalter. The liturgical direction ‘let all the people say, ‘Amen.’ Praise the Lord!’ seems to imply that the doxology here is not a mere mark of the end of the Fourth Book, but was actually sung at the close of the Psalm.

In some Jewish traditions, this psalm is recited on the second day of Passover.

Arthur Szyk’s illuminated ‘Haggadah’ retells the Jewish liberation from Pharaoh’s repression as a cry for European Jews in the 1930s

Psalm 106 (NRSVA):

1 Praise the Lord!
O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;
for his steadfast love endures for ever.
2 Who can utter the mighty doings of the Lord,
or declare all his praise?
3 Happy are those who observe justice,
who do righteousness at all times.

4 Remember me, O Lord, when you show favour to your people;
help me when you deliver them;
5 that I may see the prosperity of your chosen ones,
that I may rejoice in the gladness of your nation,
that I may glory in your heritage.

6 Both we and our ancestors have sinned;
we have committed iniquity, have done wickedly.
7 Our ancestors, when they were in Egypt,
did not consider your wonderful works;
they did not remember the abundance of your steadfast love,
but rebelled against the Most High at the Red Sea.
8 Yet he saved them for his name’s sake,
so that he might make known his mighty power.
9 He rebuked the Red Sea, and it became dry;
he led them through the deep as through a desert.
10 So he saved them from the hand of the foe,
and delivered them from the hand of the enemy.
11 The waters covered their adversaries;
not one of them was left.
12 Then they believed his words;
they sang his praise.

13 But they soon forgot his works;
they did not wait for his counsel.
14 But they had a wanton craving in the wilderness,
and put God to the test in the desert;
15 he gave them what they asked,
but sent a wasting disease among them.

16 They were jealous of Moses in the camp,
and of Aaron, the holy one of the Lord.
17 The earth opened and swallowed up Dathan,
and covered the faction of Abiram.
18 Fire also broke out in their company;
the flame burned up the wicked.

19 They made a calf at Horeb
and worshipped a cast image.
20 They exchanged the glory of God
for the image of an ox that eats grass.
21 They forgot God, their Saviour,
who had done great things in Egypt,
22 wondrous works in the land of Ham,
and awesome deeds by the Red Sea.
23 Therefore he said he would destroy them—
had not Moses, his chosen one,
stood in the breach before him,
to turn away his wrath from destroying them.

24 Then they despised the pleasant land,
having no faith in his promise.
25 They grumbled in their tents,
and did not obey the voice of the Lord.
26 Therefore he raised his hand and swore to them
that he would make them fall in the wilderness,
27 and would disperse their descendants among the nations,
scattering them over the lands.

28 Then they attached themselves to the Baal of Peor,
and ate sacrifices offered to the dead;
29 they provoked the Lord to anger with their deeds,
and a plague broke out among them.
30 Then Phinehas stood up and interceded,
and the plague was stopped.
31 And that has been reckoned to him as righteousness
from generation to generation for ever.

32 They angered the Lord at the waters of Meribah,
and it went ill with Moses on their account;
33 for they made his spirit bitter,
and he spoke words that were rash.

34 They did not destroy the peoples
as the Lord commanded them,
35 but they mingled with the nations
and learned to do as they did.
36 They served their idols,
which became a snare to them.
37 They sacrificed their sons
and their daughters to the demons;
38 they poured out innocent blood,
the blood of their sons and daughters,
whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan;
and the land was polluted with blood.
39 Thus they became unclean by their acts,
and prostituted themselves in their doings.

40 Then the anger of the Lord was kindled against his people,
and he abhorred his heritage;
41 he gave them into the hand of the nations,
so that those who hated them ruled over them.
42 Their enemies oppressed them,
and they were brought into subjection under their power.
43 Many times he delivered them,
but they were rebellious in their purposes,
and were brought low through their iniquity.
44 Nevertheless, he regarded their distress
when he heard their cry.
45 For their sake he remembered his covenant,
and showed compassion according to the abundance of his steadfast love.
46 He caused them to be pitied
by all who held them captive.

47 Save us, O Lord our God,
and gather us from among the nations,
that we may give thanks to your holy name
and glory in your praise.

48 Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel,
from everlasting to everlasting.
And let all the people say, ‘Amen.’
Praise the Lord!

Today’s Prayer:

The theme in this week’s prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel) is ‘The Time to Act is Now!’ This theme was introduced on Sunday by Linet Musasa, of the Anglican Council of Zimbabwe.

The USPG Prayer Diary this morning (Thursday 9 June 2022) invites us to pray:

Let us pray for climate activists and the climate movement. May we lend our voices to this movement, helping them to bring about positive change where possible.

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

Praying with the Psalms in Pentecost: 8 June 2022 (Psalm 105)

‘They shackled his feet with fetters; his neck was ringed with iron’ (Psalm 105: 18) … the former prison cells in the Guildhall in Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Before today begins, I am taking some time this morning to continue my reflections from the seasons of Lent and Easter, including my morning reflections drawing on the Psalms.

In my blog, I am reflecting each morning in this Prayer Diary 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 105:

Psalm 105 is one of the longer psalms, and has 45 verses. It is sometimes known by its Latin name Confitemini Domino. In the slightly different numbering system in the Greek Septuagint and Latin Vulgate, this psalm is counted as Psalm 104.

Psalms 105 and 106, the two psalms that end Book 4 of the Hebrew psalms, are closely related. Psalm 105 gives thanks for God’s faithfulness to the covenant he made with Abraham; Psalm 106 is a psalm of penitence, reciting the history of Israel’s faithlessness and disobedience.

Psalm 105 was probably written for a major festival, and verses 1-15 are largely reproduced in I Chronicles 16: 8-22, with just two slight differences in the wording of the parallel passages.

Originally the psalm began as it ends, with the words ‘Alleluia!’ or ‘Praise the Lord.’ The word Ἁλληλουιά (alleluia) precedes the opening verse in the Septuagint, where it has been transposed from verse 35 of the previous psalm.

Psalm 105 recalls the events in Israel’s history, from Abraham to the entry into the Promised Land, that show God’s fidelity to his covenant, culminating in the giving of the Law.

Verses 1-6 invite the people, the ‘children of Jacob’ and the descendants of Abraham (verse 6) – not just Joseph and his brothers, but all people in the community of faith – to worship God.

They are called on to give thanks for his deeds with joy and gratitude. God is to be praised for his judgments and for his wonderful works. (verses 1-4).

God’s judgments are for all people. He first promised the land to Abraham, confirmed it to Isaac and to Jacob, and made it part of an everlasting covenant. We are to search for God with all our strength, and to recall his great deeds (verses 5-6).

As they sing this psalm, however, the people are reminded that Joseph was sold into slavery, and that the people were afflicted by famine (verses 16-19). Yet, when Pharaoh set Joseph free, he became a wise teacher, and this is worth recalling and celebrating, for its shows God’s hand in history (verses 20-22).

The story of slavery in Egypt is recalled in verses 23-25, the plagues in Egypt are recounted in verses 23-25, and the Exodus into the wilderness and to freedom are then recalled in verses 37-45.

And for this, we give praise to God (verse 45b).

In Jewish tradition, this Psalm is recited on the first day of Passover. Verses 8-10 are part of the prayers recited in the naming of a boy at his brit milah or circumcision, and verses 8-42 are repeated in the Amidah or principal prayer on New Year’s Day, Rosh Hashanah.

‘He sent darkness, and made the land dark; they rebelled against his words (Psalm 105: 28) … darkness falls on Dublin Castle (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

Psalm 105 (NRSVA):

1 O give thanks to the Lord, call on his name,
make known his deeds among the peoples.
2 Sing to him, sing praises to him;
tell of all his wonderful works.
3 Glory in his holy name;
let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice.
4 Seek the Lord and his strength;
seek his presence continually.
5 Remember the wonderful works he has done,
his miracles, and the judgements he has uttered,
6 O offspring of his servant Abraham,
children of Jacob, his chosen ones.

7 He is the Lord our God;
his judgements are in all the earth.
8 He is mindful of his covenant for ever,
of the word that he commanded, for a thousand generations,
9 the covenant that he made with Abraham,
his sworn promise to Isaac,
10 which he confirmed to Jacob as a statute,
to Israel as an everlasting covenant,
11 saying, ‘To you I will give the land of Canaan
as your portion for an inheritance.’

12 When they were few in number,
of little account, and strangers in it,
13 wandering from nation to nation,
from one kingdom to another people,
14 he allowed no one to oppress them;
he rebuked kings on their account,
15 saying, ‘Do not touch my anointed ones;
do my prophets no harm.’

16 When he summoned famine against the land,
and broke every staff of bread,
17 he had sent a man ahead of them,
Joseph, who was sold as a slave.
18 His feet were hurt with fetters,
his neck was put in a collar of iron;
19 until what he had said came to pass,
the word of the Lord kept testing him.
20 The king sent and released him;
the ruler of the peoples set him free.
21 He made him lord of his house,
and ruler of all his possessions,
22 to instruct his officials at his pleasure,
and to teach his elders wisdom.

23 Then Israel came to Egypt;
Jacob lived as an alien in the land of Ham.
24 And the Lord made his people very fruitful,
and made them stronger than their foes,
25 whose hearts he then turned to hate his people,
to deal craftily with his servants.

26 He sent his servant Moses,
and Aaron whom he had chosen.
27 They performed his signs among them,
and miracles in the land of Ham.
28 He sent darkness, and made the land dark;
they rebelled against his words.
29 He turned their waters into blood,
and caused their fish to die.
30 Their land swarmed with frogs,
even in the chambers of their kings.
31 He spoke, and there came swarms of flies,
and gnats throughout their country.
32 He gave them hail for rain,
and lightning that flashed through their land.
33 He struck their vines and fig trees,
and shattered the trees of their country.
34 He spoke, and the locusts came,
and young locusts without number;
35 they devoured all the vegetation in their land,
and ate up the fruit of their ground.
36 He struck down all the firstborn in their land,
the first issue of all their strength.

37 Then he brought Israel out with silver and gold,
and there was no one among their tribes who stumbled.
38 Egypt was glad when they departed,
for dread of them had fallen upon it.
39 He spread a cloud for a covering,
and fire to give light by night.
40 They asked, and he brought quails,
and gave them food from heaven in abundance.
41 He opened the rock, and water gushed out;
it flowed through the desert like a river.
42 For he remembered his holy promise,
and Abraham, his servant.

43 So he brought his people out with joy,
his chosen ones with singing.
44 He gave them the lands of the nations,
and they took possession of the wealth of the peoples,
45 that they might keep his statutes
and observe his laws.
Praise the Lord!

Today’s Prayer:

The theme in this week’s prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel) is ‘The Time to Act is Now!’ This theme was introduced on Sunday by Linet Musasa, of the Anglican Council of Zimbabwe.

The USPG Prayer Diary this morning (Wednesday 8 June 2022) invites us to pray:

We pray for those who are directly witnessing the impact of climate change. May we help them to mitigate and adapt to the effects of climate change.

Yesterday’s reflection

Continued tomorrow

The Four Questions (Ma Nishtanah) from Arthur Szyk’s ‘Haggadah,’ Łódź (1935) … In Jewish tradition, Psalm 105 is recited on the first day of Passover

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

49 days of preparation and growth, of leaving slavery and getting ready for social responsibility

Omer Counters (לוּחַ סְפִירָת הָעוֹמֶר‎) in synagogues and homes are seen in various decorative forms

Patrick Comerford

Last Friday was Pesach or the Feast of the Passover. Now, this 49-day period that follows Passover and leads up to Pentecost or Shavout is marked with the Counting of the Omer.

The Counting of the Omer begins on the second day of Passover (16 Nisan) and ends the day before the holiday of Shavuot, the fiftieth day. This year (2022), the Counting of the Omer began last Saturday evening (Saturday 16 April), and ends in the evening of Saturday 4 June.

The idea of counting each day represents spiritual preparation and anticipation for the giving of the Torah on Mount Sinai at the beginning of the month of Sivan, at the same time as the holiday of Shavuot.

The former Chief Rabbi, the late Lord (Jonathan) Sacks, writes: ‘The 49 days, connecting the Exodus from Egypt with the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai, are a time of preparation and growth – of leaving a world of slavery and getting ready to enter a world of social and special responsibility.’

The Counting of the Omer (סְפִירַת הָעוֹמֶר‎, Sefirat HaOmer), sometimes known simply as ‘Sefira’ or ‘the Omer,’ is an important verbal counting of each of the 49 days. This mitzvah or commandment derives from the Torah commandment to count 49 days beginning from the day on which the Omer, an omer-measure of barley, was offered in the Temple in Jerusalem, until the day before an offering of wheat was brought to the Temple on Shavuot (see Leviticus 23: 9-21, Deuteronomy 16: 9-12).

On the 50th day after the beginning of the count, corresponding to the holiday of Shavuot or Pentecost, two loaves of wheat were offered in the Temple to signal the wheat harvest.

The Sefer HaChinuch in 13th-century Spain says the slaves were only freed from Egypt at Passover in order to receive the Torah at Sinai, an event now celebrated on Shavuot, and to fulfil its laws.

However, the obligation after the destruction of the Temple is a matter disputed. Rambam (Maimonides) suggests that the obligation is still biblical, but most other commentaries assume it is of a rabbinic origin in modern times.

Some later rabbinic sources link the Omer count to the experience of the freed people in the desert. They say at the time of the Exodus, Moses announced that 50 days later they would celebrate a religious ceremony at Mount Sinai. The people was so excited that they counted the days until that ceremony took place. Later, when the Temple was destroyed and the Omer offering ceased, the rabbis instituted Omer counting to remember the counting up to Sinai.

Jonathan Sacks says ‘the Jewish mystics attached special significance to this period of the year as one in which the various facets of the soul were cleansed, one by one.’

In keeping with the themes of spiritual growth and character development in this time, Rabbinic literature compares the process of growth to the two types of grain offered at either end of the counting period: barley was simpler food while wheat was more luxurious.

The Exodus was an unearned gift from God, like the food of simple creatures who are not expected to develop their spiritual potential. Receiving the Torah created spiritual elevation and active cooperation. In this way, the Shavuot offering is ‘people food.’

As soon as it is definitely night – about 30 minutes after sundown – the person who is counting the Omer recites a blessing: ‘Blessed are you, Lord our God, King of the Universe, who has made us holy through his commandments, and has commanded us about counting the Omer.

Then that person states the count in terms of both total days and weeks and days. For example, on the seventh day of the count, the words in Hebrew declare: ‘Today is seventh day, making one week of the Omer.’

‘Omer-counters’ (לוּחַ סְפִירָת הָעוֹמֶר‎) in synagogues and homes can range from decorative boxes with an interior scroll to posters and magnets with tear-off pieces of paper, calendars, pegboards, reminders on tablets and laptops, and even SMS messages.

Psalm 67 is selected for this time because the psalm, excluding the superscription, contains 49 words in Hebrew, corresponding to the days of the counting of the Omer.

The period of counting the Omer is also a time of semi-mourning, during which traditional Jewish custom forbids haircuts, shaving, listening to instrumental music, or conducting weddings, parties, and dinners with dancing. Traditionally, the reason cited is that this is in memory of a plague that killed the 24,000 students of Rabbi Akiva ca 137 CE.

Lag BaOmer, the 33rd day of the Counting of the Omer (18/19 May 2022), marks the day the plague was lifted, and so on that day all the rules of mourning are lifted. However, some Sephardi Jews continue the mourning period until the 34th day of the Omer.

The period of the counting of the Omer is considered to be a time of potential for inner growth – for a person to work on one’s good characteristics (middot) through reflection and development of one aspect each day for the 49 days of the counting.

In Kabbalah, each of the seven weeks of the Omer-counting is associated with one of the seven lower sefirot: Chesed (loving kindness), Gevurah (might), Tipheret (beauty), Netzach (victory), Hod (acknowledgment), Yesod (foundation) and Malchut (kingdom).

Each day of each week is also associated with one of these same seven sefirot, creating 49 permutations. Symbolically, each of these 49 permutations represents an aspect of each person’s character that can be improved or further developed.

Some rabbis suggest this time also recalls the Jews who were murdered during the Crusades and the pogroms across Europe. In modern times, the Holocaust is also included among those events that are recalled: Yom Hashoah or Holocaust Memorial Day is observed during the Omer, and begins this year on Wednesday evening next (27 April) and continues until Thursday evening (28 April).

Shabbat Shalom