Daily prayer in Christmas 2024-2025: 32, Saturday 25 January 2025, the Conversion of Saint Paul

A statue of Saint Paul at Saint Peter and Saint Paul Church, Singapore (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Patrick Comerford

The 40-day season of Christmas continues until Candlemas or the Feast of the Presentation (2 February). Tomorrow is the Third Sunday of Epiphany (Epiphany III), with the Gospel reading recalling the beginning of Christ’s public ministry when Jesus reads and teaches in the synagogue in Nazareth (Luke 4: 14-21).

Today is the Feast of the Conversion of Saint Paul and the Eighth Day and closing day of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. 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.

Saint Peter and Saint Paul … a fresco in the Church of the Four Martyrs in Rethymnon in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Matthew 19: 27-30 (NRSVA):

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.’

The Apostle Peter and the Apostle Paul holding the church in unity … an early 18th century icon in the Museum of Christian Art in Iraklion, Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflection:

Today is the Feast of the Conversion of Saint Paul [25 January]. The Gospel reading at the Eucharist today (Matthew 19: 27-30) talks about abandoning everything from the past for the sake of following Christ in apostolic ministry.

The account of the Apostle Paul’s conversion on the road to Damascus is provided in one of the other readings today (Acts 9:1-22).

Because I was born a day after this feast day, my mother wanted to call me Paul. The uncle and aunt who brought me to be baptised – my father’s half-brother Arthur and his wife Kathleen – had other ideas. Another of my father’s brothers was also called Patrick, named after his maternal grandfather, Patrick Lynders. But my mother often continued to call me Paul. I am more than comfortable with the name Patrick, yet there is a way in these two days – the Conversion of Saint Paul (25 January) and my birthday (26 January) – come together for me as one celebration.

The Apostle Paul’s entire life is explained in terms of one experience – his meeting with Christ on the road to Damascus. Although he had a zealot’s hatred for Christ, who was just a few years older than him, Saint Paul probably never saw Jesus before the Ascension. Yet he was determined in chasing down the followers of Christ: ‘entering house after house and dragging out men and women, he handed them over for imprisonment’ (Acts 8: 3b).

But, on the road to Damascus, Christ enters Saint Paul’s own inner home, seizes possession of him, takes command of all his energy, and harnesses it so that Saint Paul becomes a slave of Christ in the ministry of reconciliation as a consequence of one simple sentence: ‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting’ (Acts 9: 5b).

Saint Paul, who was blind in his prejudice, is blinded so that he can have a new vision. He is imprisoned so that he can bring his great message to the world. And the magnitude of his sins, including his attempts to wipe out Christianity completely, show us clearly that no matter how terrible the sin may be any sinner may be forgiven.

In the same way, the Apostle Peter’s denial of Christ – three times during his Passion – did not put him beyond the forgiveness and love of Christ. Saint Peter too, in an effort to save his own skin, denied he knew the prisoner, but became a prisoner himself and a martyr for Christ.

No matter what our failings and our weaknesses, no matter where our blind spots may be, Christ calls us – not once but constantly – to turn around, to turn towards him, to turn our lives around, to turn them over to him.

Instead of his persecution, Saint Paul is remembered as the first and greatest missionary.

Instead of his three denials, Saint Peter is remembered for his confession of faith, his acceptance of Jesus as the Messiah or the Christ, recorded in the three synoptic Gospels (Matthew 16: 13-20; Mark 8: 13-20; Luke 9: 18-20). That Confession of Saint Peter was marked many Church calendars last Saturday [18 January 2025], and marked the beginning of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.

Today, the Conversion of Saint Paul is celebrated throughout the Church – in the Anglican, Roman Catholic, Lutheran and Orthodox traditions. This day also marks the end of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.

The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity – or rather, the Octave of Christian Unity – from 18 to 25 January, linking those two feasts, was first suggested in 1908 by an American Episcopalian or Anglican monk, Father Paul Wattson, who was the superior of the Franciscan Friars of the Atonement, and who reintroduced Franciscan life to the Anglican Communion.

Appropriately, the icon of Christian Unity in the Eastern Orthodox tradition shows Peter and Paul embracing – almost wrestling – arms around each other, beards so close they are almost inter-twining. Every time I see this icon, I think of Psalm 133:

How very good and pleasant it is
when [brothers] live together in unity!
It is like the precious oil on the head,
running down upon the beard,
on the beard of Aaron,
running down over the collar of his robes.
It is like the dew of Hermon,
which falls on the mountains of Zion.
For there the Lord ordained his blessing,
life for evermore.

So, despite many readings of the New Testament, especially the Acts of the Apostles, that see Saint Peter and Saint Paul in conflict with each other rather than complementing each other, they can be models for Church Unity.

Without that unity in the Early Church, its mission would have been hamstrung and hampered. For without unity there can be no effective mission, as the great Edinburgh Missionary Conference realised in 1910. And so the modern ecumenical movement has real roots in the mission of the Church.

As we come to the end of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, I pray that we may rejoice in the fact that differences can complement each other, and that we will see the diversity and unity that Saint Peter and Saint Paul wrestled with but eventually rejoiced in as models for our own unity today and in times to come.

Saint Peter (left) and Saint Paul (right) among the carved figures on the west front of Lichfield Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Today’s Prayers (Saturday 25 January 2025, the Conversion of Saint Paul):

The theme this week in ‘Pray With the World Church’, the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), has been ‘Whom Shall I Send?’ This theme was introduced last Sunday with a Programme Update by Rachael Anderson, Senior Communications and Engagement Manager, USPG.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Saturday 25 January 2025) invites us to pray:

O Lord, we thank you for the conversion of Paul and the power of your grace to transform lives. Give us the courage to follow your call, spreading the gospel with love and boldness. Like Paul, may we be faithful witnesses to your redeeming power.

The Collect:

Almighty God,
who caused the light of the gospel
to shine throughout the world
through the preaching of your servant Saint Paul:
grant that we who celebrate his wonderful conversion
may follow him in bearing witness to your truth;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

Almighty God,
who on the day of Pentecost
sent your Holy Spirit to the apostles
with the wind from heaven and in tongues of flame,
filling them with joy and boldness to preach the gospel:
by the power of the same Spirit
strengthen us to witness to your truth
and to draw everyone to the fire of your love;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s Reflection

Continued Tomorrow

A modern icon of the Conversion of Saint Paul

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: 45, 23 June 2024, Trinity IV

An interpretation of the ‘Icon not made by Hands’ or the ‘Mandylion’ above the Royal Doors in the new iconostasis in the Greek Orthodox Church in Stony Stratford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Patrick Comerford

Today is the Fourth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity IV, 23 June 2024), but in the calendar of the Orthodox Church this is the Day of Pentecost. Later this morning I hope to be part of the Parish Eucharist in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford.

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

1, today’s Gospel reading;

2, a reflection on the icons in the new iconostasis or icon stand in the Greek Orthodox Church in Stony Stratford.

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

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

The image of the ‘Icon not made by Hands’ or the ‘Mandylion’ in the new iconostasis in Stony Stratford is above the Royal Doors and beneath an icon of the Mystical Supper or Last Supper (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Mark 4: 35-41 (NRSVUE):

35 On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, “Let us go across to the other side.” 36 And leaving the crowd behind, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. Other boats were with him. 37 A great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that the boat was already being swamped. 38 But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion, and they woke him up and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” 39 And waking up, he rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Be silent! Be still!” Then the wind ceased, and there was a dead calm. 40 He said to them, “Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?” 41 And they were filled with great fear and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?”

A Romanian version of ‘The Icon not made by Hands’ or the ‘Mandylion’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The Stony Stratford iconostasis 8: ‘The Icon not made by Hands’ (‘Mandylion’):

Over the last few weeks, I have been watching the building and installation of the new iconostasis or icon screen in the Greek Orthodox Church in Stony Stratford. In my prayer diary over these weeks, I am reflecting on this new iconostasis, and the theological meaning and liturgical significance of its icons and decorations.

The lower, first tier of a traditional iconostasis is sometimes called Sovereign. On the right side of the Beautiful Gates or Royal Doors facing forward is an icon of Christ, often as the Pantokrator, representing his second coming, and on the left is an icon of the Theotokos (the Virgin Mary), symbolising the incarnation. It is another way of saying all things take place between Christ’s first coming and his second coming.

Other icons on this tier usually include depictions of the patron saint or feast day of the church, Saint John the Baptist, one or more of the Four Evangelists, and so on.

The six icons on the lower, first tier of the iconostasis in Stony Stratford depict Christ to the right of the Beautiful Gates, as seen from the nave of the church, and the Theotokos or Virgin Mary to the left. All six icons depict (from left to right): the Dormition, Saint Stylianos, the Theotokos, Christ Pantocrator, Saint John the Baptist and Saint Ambrosios.

Immediately above the Royal Doors or Beautiful Gates, and beneath the icon of the Mystical Supper or Last Supper is a carved interpretation of the ‘Icon not Made by Hands’ or ‘Mandylion’.

According to Orthodox tradition, the ‘Image of Edessa’ – as it is also known – was a square or rectangle of cloth imprinted with a miraculous image of the face of the living Christ, which would make it the first icon. In the Eastern Orthodox tradition, it is often known as the Mandylion.

According to legend, King Abgar of Edessa (present-day Urfa in south-east Turkey, near the border of northern Syria) wrote to Christ, asking him to come to cure him of leprosy. King Abgar received a reply from Christ, declining the invitation. However, he says that when he has completed his earthly mission and has ascended, one of his disciples will visit the king and heal Abgar.

Later, it is said, the Apostle Thaddaeus or Jude came to Edessa, bearing the words of Christ, and by these words the king was miraculously healed.

Later legends say that when the successors of King Abgar reverted to paganism, the Bishop of Edessa placed the image inside a wall, and set a lamp before the image, sealing them behind the wall. The image was uncovered later on the night of a Persian attack, and saved the city from the Persians.

This legend was first recorded in the early 4th century by Eusebius of Caesarea in his History of the Church (1.13.5-1.13.22). Eusebius says he transcribed and translated the actual letter in the Syriac chancery documents of the King of Edessa. However, he does not mention any image.

In the year 384, Egeria, a pilgrim from either Gaul or Spain, was given a personal tour by the Bishop of Edessa, who told her of many miracles that saved Edessa from the Persians. He gave her embellished transcripts of the correspondence between Christ and King Abgarus. She spent three days visiting every corner of Edessa and the surrounding area. However, her account makes no reference to any image or icon in Edessa.

The first reference to an image of Christ is found in a Syriac text, the Doctrine of Addai, ca 400. Addai is the Disciple Thaddeus, and the messenger is the painter Hannan or Ananias who paints the image and brings it back to King Abgar, who treasures it in his royal palace in Edessa.

The image is said to have resurfaced in 525, during a flood of the Daisan, a tributary stream of the Euphrates that passed by Edessa. This flood is mentioned in the writings of the court historian Procopius of Caesarea. During rebuilding work, a cloth bearing human facial features was discovered hidden in the wall above one of the city gates of Edessa.

Writing soon after the Persian siege of Edessa, led by the Emperor Chozroes I in 544, Procopius says that the text of Christ’s letter, by then including a promise that ‘no enemy would ever enter the city,’ was inscribed over the city gate, but does not mention an image.

The first record of an icon like this comes half a century later from Evagrius Scholasticus, who writes in his Ecclesiastical History (593) about a portrait of Christ, which is of divine origin (θεότευκτος) and which miraculously helps the defence of Edessa during the Persian siege in 544.

The later, developed legend, says the painter was unable to capture Christ’s image because he was so dazzled by the light shining from his face. Instead, Christ wiped his face on a towel after washing himself and left an image behind.

So the legend develops from a letter, but without an image (Eusebius), to an image painted by a court painter (Addai), to a miraculously-created image supernaturally made when Christ presses a cloth to his wet face (Evagrius).

This last and latest stage of the legend became accepted in Eastern Orthodoxy, so that the ‘Image of Edessa’ was ‘created by God, and not produced by human hands.’ This idea of an icon that was acheiropoietos (αχειροποίητος, ‘not-made-by-hand’) is a later enrichment of the original legend. I have come across similar accounts of supernatural origins for other Orthodox icons in Greece.

It is said the Holy Mandylion disappeared again after the Arab Sassanians conquered Edessa in 609. A local legend says conquering Muslims threw it into a well in what is today the city’s Great Mosque.

However, other accounts say the Image of Edessa was moved to Constantinople in the in 944, when Edessa was besieged by John Kourkouas and it was exchanged for a group of Muslim prisoners.

The Image of Edessa was received with great celebrations in Constantinople by the Emperor Romanos I Lekapenos, and placed in the Church of the Most Holy Theotokos on 16 August. The earliest known Byzantine icon of the Mandylion or Holy Face dates from the following year, 945, and is in Saint Catherine’s Monastery on Mount Sinai.

It is said this icon repeatedly gave exact imprints of itself. One of these, ‘On Ceramic,’ was imprinted when Ananias hid the icon in a wall on his way to Edessa; another, imprinted on a cloak, ended up in Georgia.

The Image disappeared during the Sack of Constantinople in 1204 in the Fourth Crusade. It later reappeared in Paris as a relic belonging to King Louis IX in Sainte-Chapelle, Paris – not to be confused with the Sainte Chapelle at Chambéry, which housed the ‘Shroud of Turin’ for a time.

It has not been seen since the French Revolution, but some accounts claim the Mandylion of Edessa is now in the Pope’s private Matilda chapel in the Vatican.

The Eastern Orthodox Church feast of this icon is on 16 August (29 August New Style), and commemorates its translation from Edessa to Constantinople.

I had a number of icons in my study in the Church of Ireland Theological Institute, in the house where I lived in Dublin and in the Rectory in Askeaton. One of those icons, in a quiet corner, was a Romanian version of ‘The Icon not made by Hands’ or the Mandylion, but, like the original, it has been lost or mislaid during the course of many moves in recent years.

In front of the iconostasis in Stony Stratford, another new fitting in the church is the chandelier or polyelaios (πολυελαιος).

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 Polyeleos also gives 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 chandelier or ‘polyelaios’ (πολυελαιος) in front of the iconostasis in Stony Stratford is another new fitting in the church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Today’s Prayers (Sunday 23 June 2024, Trinity IV):

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 ‘Anglican support and advocacy for exiled people in Northern France.’ This theme is introduced today with a programme update by Bradon Muilenburg, Anglican Refugee Support Lead in Northern France, the Diocese in Europe, the Diocese of Canterbury and USPG:

They spent forty days in doing this, for that is the time required for embalming. And the Egyptians wept for him for seventy days. Genesis 50:3 (NRSV).

‘Grief is the price we pay for love.’ – Queen Elizabeth II

Jacob fled famine and died in exile. Egypt responds with something akin to a royal state funeral: 70 days of national mourning.

Let’s follow their example and hold space for lament this week in our prayers. As the Church, let’s grieve the continued suffering and deaths of refugees far and near home.

The day I’m writing this reflection marks seven days since I was at the burial of a little girl from Iraq named Roula, that’s one day for each year she lived. Her life was cut short because she was allowed no safe route to claim asylum in the UK.

Lament means facing harsh realities. It means refusing to use the luxury of power to distract ourselves. We must pass through grief, then we will find hope. The Kingdom of Heaven is waiting for all of us on the other side.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Sunday 23 June 2024, Trinity IV) invites us to pray:

Bless all who seek refuge on this earth.
Meet their needs for safety and home.
Move the hearts of your people to show them welcome.
Cause wars to cease and bring justice to the nations
so that no one will need to flee again. – Diocese of Salisbury.

The Collect:

O God, the protector of all who trust in you,
without whom nothing is strong, nothing is holy:
increase and multiply upon us your mercy;
that with you as our ruler and guide
we may so pass through things temporal
that we lose not our hold on things eternal;
grant this, heavenly Father,
for our Lord Jesus Christ’s sake,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Post Communion Prayer:

Eternal God,
comfort of the afflicted and healer of the broken,
you have fed us at the table of life and hope:
teach us the ways of gentleness and peace,
that all the world may acknowledge
the kingdom of your Son Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

Gracious Father,
by the obedience of Jesus
you brought salvation to our wayward world:
draw us into harmony with your will,
that we may find all things restored in him,
our Saviour Jesus Christ.

Collect on the Eve of Birth of John the Baptist:

Almighty God,
by whose providence your servant John the Baptist
was wonderfully born,
and sent to prepare the way of your Son our Saviour
by the preaching of repentance:
lead us to repent according to his preaching
and, after his example,
constantly to speak the truth, boldly to rebuke vice,
and patiently to suffer for the truth’s sake;
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.

Standing beneath the ‘polyelaios’ (πολυελαιος) or chandelier in front of the iconostasis in Stony Stratford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

The introduction to the Stony Stratford iconostasis (15 June 2024)

Yesterday’s reflection

Continued tomorrow

Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition copyright © 2021, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

When TS Eliot and CS Lewis met for afternoon tea at the Mitre in Oxford

The Mitre on the corner of the High and Turl Street in Oxford … now Gusto Italian, TS Eliot and CS Lewis met there in 1945 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Patrick Comerford

The Mitre is an historic building in Oxford owned by Lincoln College since 1475 and now known as Gusto Italian restaurant. It may have been one of the ancient centres of learning that eventually led to the foundation of the University of Oxford, but the history of the Mitre history is even older.

The Mitre was closed for a number of years recently as Lincoln College refurbished the accommodation above and behind the premises. As it became a derelict-looking eyesore, many people in Oxford feared it had closed for good.

Their fears rested not only in the antiquity of the Mitre, but also, I suppose, because it has a place in literary history as the place where two of the great literary giants of the last century, TS Eliot and CS Lewis, were brought together by mutual friends in a disastrous effort to reconcile them after very public feuding.

I had another look at Gusto or the Mitre last week while I was in Oxford. It stands on the site of several houses on the corner of the High and Turl Street. They were converted into an inn in 1310. They have changed so much over time it is impossible to say whether any elements from the original places survive, although the cellars may well date back to the 13th century.

Lincoln College became the owner of the inn in 1475 when was donated to the college by the Bishop of Lincoln, Thomas Rotherham. It was probably named after the mitre of the college founder, Richard Fleming, Bishop of Lincoln, depicted on the college coat of arms. Fleming had become Archbishop of York when he obtained a royal licence in 1427 empowering him to found a college at Oxford for the special purpose of training theologians to combat Wyclif’s heresy

The mitre and arms of Bishop Richard Fleming in the arms of Lincoln College (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

The impressive façade of the Mitre dates from 1631. It was an important coaching inn in the 17th century, and as early as 1671 there were coaches running between London and the Mitre on three days a week.

Anthony Wood writes of a coach service in 1671 that ran from the Mitre to the Greyhound in Holborn, London, at 6 am on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, returning on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

Wood records that when Prince Maurice of Nassau came to see the library and colleges and ‘he layd at the Miter’. He also reports in 1691 how John Forster, a Fellow of All Souls’ College, ‘died at the Miter Inn late at night, after immoderate drinking.’

By the late 18th century, there was a daily service from the Mitre Inn through Henley to the Bell Savage, Ludgate Hill, London. In 1823, there were two services from the Mitre to Bristol and Bath. The Mitre’s coach business seems to have increased after the coming of the railways, presumably because of the closure of the Angel Hotel. By 1852, there were services to Birmingham, Cheltenham, Chipping Norton, London, Prince of Wales, Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday morning at 11; through Tetsworth, Wycombe, and Worcester.

A large mitre on the façade of the former Mitre, now Gusto Ialian, in Oxford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

The house and premises were held on a lease from the Rector and Fellows of Lincoln College, while the arched vault or cellar under the High Street was held on a lease from the City of Oxford. Part of the premises in a court adjoining All Saints’ Church behind No 19 was separated in 1883 and converted into a tutor’s residence for Brasenose College, and became known as Brasenose House.

The Mitre ceased to function as a coaching inn in 1926, and became simply an hotel, while the stables in Turl Street behind were converted into the Turl Bar.

The Mitre ceased being an hotel in 1969 when Lincoln College took over all the rooms upstairs to provide accommodation for 50 students. Since then many Lincoln students and a small number of fellows have called the Mitre home.

The Mitre restaurant and bar continued on the ground floor and became a Beni Inn. Whitbread took over the Berni chain from Grand Metropolitan in 1990, and the ground floor of the former hotel then became a Beefeater Restaurant.

The Mitre as a Beefeater restaurant ten years ago (Patrick Comerford)

In recent years, Lincoln College decided the buildings needed repairs and renovations if it was to continue in use. The buildings are listed Grade II* or Grade II, and the total cost was about £16 million. The work began in 2018, and Lincoln College closed the Mitre in 2019.

Regulars thought the pub would reopen once the work was complete in 2021. But it remained closed, and Dave Richardson, speaking on behalf of the Oxford branch of real ale group CAMRA, said it looked ‘increasingly dilapidated’ and had ‘become an eyesore in the heart of the city.’

Since then, the ground floor reopened as a Gusto Italian restaurant in December 2022.

Many people in Oxford had been taken aback when Saint John’s College closed the Lamb and Flag on Saint Giles after takings fell during the pandemic. But it was then taken over by community interest group calling themselves – appropriately – the Inklings and reopened the pub. Across the street on Saint Giles, the Eagle and Child, the pub where the Inklings actually met, has remained closed for some years.

Lincoln College recently repaired and renovated the buildings at the Mitre (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

But members of the Inklings also created a moment in literary in the Mitre almost 80 years ago, when Charles Williams, one of the leading Inklings, invited his mutual friends CS Lewis and TS Eliot, along with another Inkling, Father Gervase Mathew, to tea at the Mitre Hotel one afternoon in 1945.

‘Mr Lewis,’ Eliot exclaimed, ‘you are a much older man than you appear in photographs!’ The meeting could only go downhill after that. ‘I must tell you,’ Eliot continued, ‘I consider A Preface to Paradise Lost your best book.’

Lewis was in disbelief, it is said. He had dedicated that book to Charles Williams, but in it had been highly critical of Eliot. Lewis had once dismissed ‘The Waste Land’ as ‘infernal poetry’ and ‘The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock’ as ‘pleasantly unpleasant’, an ‘example of the decay of proper feelings’ and morally dangerous.

Williams died on 15 May 1945, only weeks after the disastrous encounter between Eliot and Lewis in the Mitre. Lewis edited a volume of essays in his honour, but Eliot missed the deadline for his contribution, and Lewis was disappointed. The other contributors included JRR Tolkien, another Inkling.

Lewis loathed Eliot’s poetry, and at times publicly, perhaps even purposefully, misspelled Eliot’s name as Elliot. In The Pilgrim’s Regress (1933), Lewis referred to Eliot indirectly as ‘Mr Neo-Angular.’ He was critical of ‘Anglo Catholicism, Materialism, Sitwellism, Psychoanalysis, and TS Elliot,’ and told his editor that Eliot was ‘the single man who sums up the thing I am fighting against.’

A mitre in stucco work on the façade of the Mitre (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

After their brief encounter in the Mitre, Lewis’s reputation as a popular religious writer grew through the 1940s and 1950s with books such as The Problem of Pain and Mere Christianity,. But Eliot and Lewis would meet again in the 1950s.

Lewis’s Reflection on the Psalms was praised by Gordon Selwyn, Dean of Winchester and the editor of Theology, in a letter to Archbishop Geoffrey Fisher of Canterbury and Archbishop Michael Ramsey of York. The archbishops had decided to revise the psalter used in the Church of England, and they now invited Lewis and Eliot to join the commission, which included scholars, theologians, priests and poets.

For the first time since their encounter in the Mitre in Oxford in 1945, Eliot and Lewis met again at a meeting of the commission in Lambeth Palace on 13 April 1959. In the intervening years, both men had married: Lewis had married Joy Davidman Gresham at the Oxford Registry Office at 42 St Giles (now a dental practice), beside the Quaker meeting house, on 23 April 1956; Eliot married Valerie Fletcher at Saint Barnabas Church, Kensington, on 10 January 1957. After their meeting in April 1959, Lewis wrote a warm letter to ‘My dear Eliot’. After another, three-day meeting of the commission in Magdalene College, Cambridge, in July 1959, Lewis and Eliot and their wives had lunch together.

CS Lewis and Joy Davidman Gresham were married at the Oxford Registry Office at 42 St Giles in 1956 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

The commission worked towards publishing The Revised Psalter in 1963. Despite their different perspectives on the essence of poetry and many critical aspects of Anglican faith, Eliot and Lewis became friends during the revision of the Psalter. Their letters from 1959 into the early 1960s are personal, sometimes jocular, and usually brief, where Lewis writes to ‘My Dear Eliot’ about lunches together, the work of the Psalter commission, and other events.

When Joy died, Lewis submitted a memoir of grief under the pseudonym NW Clerk to Faber in 1961. At Faber, Eliot immediately recognised that Lewis was the author despite his use of a pen name, and he published it as A Grief Observed. This short book stands out as Lewis’s most personal piece of writing. Lewis died on 22 November 1963, three years after Joy and in the same year as The Revised Psalter was published.

Lewis, according to his private secretary Walter Hooper, could have been talking about Eliot and himself when he wrote in The Four Loves: ‘Friendship arises out of mere Companionship when two or more of the companions discover that they have in common some insight or interest or even taste which the others do not share and which, till that moment, each believed to be his own unique treasure (or burden).’

In their shared Biblical work, the two greatest Anglican literary figures and apologists of the 20th century had been reconciled and had become fast friends. The Old Library in Magdalene College Cambridge holds both the Valerie Eliot bequest and the CS Lewis Collection.

A mitre in a window on Turl Street recalls the days when the Mitre was also a pub (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Daily prayer in Lent with early English saints: 19, 3 March 2024, Saint Aldhelm of Sherborne

Saint Aldhelm (709), Bishop of Sherborne and Abbot of Malmesbury … a modern icon

Patrick Comerford

The Season of Lent began on Ash Wednesday (14 February 2024), and today is the Third Sunday in Lent (Lent III, 3 March 2024).

Later this morning, I hope to be at the Parish Eucharist in the Church of Saint Mary and Saint Giles in Stony Stratford. The choir has been rehearsing Psalm 19: 7-14, which includes words that were once traditionally used by preachers before they started their sermons:

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart
Be always acceptable in thy sight:
O Lord my strength and my redeemer.

Throughout Lent this year, I am taking time each morning to reflect on the lives of early, pre-Reformation English saints commemorated in Common Worship.

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

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

2, today’s Gospel reading;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary.

Saint Aldhelm in a stained-glass window in Malmesbury Abbey (Photograph: Adrian Pingstone / Wikipedia)

Early English pre-Reformation saints: 19, Saint Aldhelm (709), Bishop of Sherborne

Saint Aldhelm (709), Bishop of Sherborne, is commemorated in Common Worship on 25 May.

Saint Aldhelm was born in Wessex in the year 639. When he was a young boy, he was sent to Canterbury to be educated under Adrian, Abbot of Saint Augustine’s, and soon impressed his teachers with his skill in studying Latin and Greek literature.

Aldhelm returned to Wessex some years later and joined the community of monks in Malmesbury, Wiltshire. He embraced the monastic life and, in 680, became the monks’ teacher. His reputation spread, and scholars from France and Scotland came to learn from him. By then, Aldhelm is said to have spoken and written fluent Latin and Greek, and was able to read the Old Testament in Hebrew. He wrote poetry, composed music and sang – King Alfred the Great placed him in the first rank of poets in the country and his ballads were popular into the 12th century. He excelled at playing many instruments, including the harp, fiddle and pipes.

Aldhelm became Abbot of Malmesbury in 683. Under his leadership, the Abbey continued to be a seat of learning and was endowed by kings and nobles. Aldhelm enlarged the monastery, and built the Church of Saint Peter and Saint Pau, and founded monasteries in Frome and Bradford-on-Avon, where he also built Saint Laurence’s Church which still stands today.

During his time as abbot, Aldhelm noticed that instead of attending to the monks at Mass, the local people preferred to spend their time gossiping and could not be persuaded to listen to the preacher. So one day, he stationed himself on a bridge, like a minstrel, and began to sing his ballads. The beauty of his verse attracted a huge crowd and, when he had caught their attention, he began to preach the Gospel.

The historian William of Malmesbury observed that if Aldhelm ‘had proceeded with severity … he would have made no impression whatever upon them.’ But by seeking out people where they were and speaking directly to them, Aldhelm had succeeded in ‘impressing on their minds a truer feeling of religious devotion.

When the Bishopric of Wessex was split into two dioceses in 705, Aldhelm was made Bishop of Sherborne. In his time as bishop, he rebuilt the church at Sherborne and helped to establish a nunnery at Wareham. He also built churches at Langton Matravers and the Royal Palace at Corfe. The headland commonly called Saint Alban’s Head in Dorset, where there is an ancient chapel, is in reality Saint Aldhelm’s Head.

Four years after his consecration, Aldhelm died at Doulting, Somerset, on 25 May 709, on his way to Malmesbury. His funeral procession travelled 50 miles from Doulting to Malmesbury and stone crosses were planted at seven-mile intervals, to mark each place where his body rested for the night.

Aldhelm was a great scholar, teacher and singer who, ‘by his preaching completed the conquest of Wessex’, according to Bede. Tradition has it that he would attract listeners by his singing and then preach the gospel to them. It seems he may have also been responsible for introducing the Rule of Saint Benedict to the area.

Saint Aldhelm depicted on a wall plaque at the Catholic Church of Saint Aldhelm, Malmesbury (Photograph: Adrian Pingstone / Wikipedia)

John 2: 13-22 (NRSVA):

13 The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 14 In the temple he found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves, and the money-changers seated at their tables. 15 Making a whip of cords, he drove all of them out of the temple, both the sheep and the cattle. He also poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables. 16 He told those who were selling the doves, ‘Take these things out of here! Stop making my Father’s house a market-place!’ 17 His disciples remembered that it was written, ‘Zeal for your house will consume me.’ 18 The Jews then said to him, ‘What sign can you show us for doing this?’ 19 Jesus answered them, ‘Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.’ 20 The Jews then said, ‘This temple has been under construction for forty-six years, and will you raise it up in three days?’ 21 But he was speaking of the temple of his body. 22 After he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this; and they believed the scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.

A statue of Saint Aldhelm in Sherborne Abbey by Marzia Colonna (Photograph: Matt Lake / Wikipedia)

Today’s Prayers (Sunday 3 March 2024, Lent III):

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 ‘International Women’s Day Reflection.’ This theme is introduced today by the Right Revd Beverley A Mason MA, Bishop of Warrington, who writes:

Read Mark 7: 24-29:

Some theologians believe that the woman is teaching the Teacher that to such as she, an ‘outsider’/Gentile/Syro-Phoenician, belongs the Kingdom of God

‘A woman with a sick daughter hears of a miracle worker. But how does she get to Him? The power differences between them are too great. He is a man in a patriarchal culture; He is a teacher, what did she know? He has status and renown, she is alone. Where is her husband, brother, father? Where was the sisterhood? He is a religious leader, but it is not her religion. Imagine the mental, physical, spiritual and social barriers she must cross. Jesus calls her a ‘dog’. At any point, she could be beaten or flee in fear or shame. Yet courageously she stays, humbles herself before Him and pleads for her child.

‘Some theologians believe the woman is teaching the Teacher that to such as her belongs the Kingdom of God. Kenneth Bailey by contrast suggests Jesus is using a clever theatrical technique, speaking the words expressed on the faces of His disciples whilst warmly encouraging the woman to press on to demonstrate that to such as this woman belongs the Kingdom of God. What do you think?

‘Clearly, we’re learning that all kinds of constructs can get in the way of us and God; that the faith, hope and love of just one woman can tear down barriers between us and Jesus – freedom, truth and healing. Just imagine the transformation by faith, hope and love when many women come together! Are you up for it?’

The USPG Prayer Diary today (3 March 2024, Lent III) invites us to pray in these words:

Spirit of God, strong as the wind
and gentle as the dove,
blow into our hearts
and fill them with your love
that we may be born anew
and know life in all its fullness.

The Collect:

Almighty God,
whose most dear Son went not up to joy but first he suffered pain,
and entered not into glory before he was crucified:
mercifully grant that we, walking in the way of the cross,
may find it none other than the way of life and peace;
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:

Merciful Lord,
grant your people grace to withstand the temptations
of the world, the flesh and the devil,
and with pure hearts and minds to follow you, the only God;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

Eternal God,
give us insight
to discern your will for us,
to give up what harms us,
and to seek the perfection we are promised
in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s Reflection: Saint Theodore of Tarsus, Archbishop of Canterbury

Tomorrow: Saint Wilfrid of Ripon (709), Bishop, Missionary

Sherborne Abbey, Dorset … Saint Aldhelm was the first Bishop of Sherborne (Photograph: Joe D / Wikipedia)

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

There are more animals than the sheep in Paternoster Square, thanks to Gillie and Marc

Gia the giant ‘mother’ gorilla welcomes the animals in Paternoster Square into the safety of her embrace (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Patrick Comerford

Paternoster Square on the north side of Saint Paul’s Cathedral is the location of the London Stock Exchange, investment banks and fund managers. Surprisingly, though, the square itself is privately owned public space. The London Stock Exchange was the initial target of the ‘Occupy London’ protests in 2011, but the police thwarted the protesters’ attempts to occupy the square and sealed off the entrance.

A High Court injunction defined the square as private property, even though it had been repeatedly described as ‘public space’ in the plans for Paternoster Square. It all means the public has access but without a right of way in law, and the owner can limit access at any time.

The main monument in the square is the 23 metre (75 ft) Paternoster Square Column, William Whitfield’s Corinthian column of Portland stone topped by a gold leaf covered flaming copper urn, illuminated by fibre-optic lighting at night. However, the most-known work in the square must be Dame Elisabeth Frink’s Shepherd and Sheep, or Paternoster.

The bronze statue, commissioned in 1975, recalls not only Psalm 23 (‘The Lord is my Shepherd’) – but is also a play on the words Pater and Pastor and is a reminder of the traditional right of the Freemen of London to drive their sheep across London Bridge into the City of London.

Apollo a giraffe and Mila a Javan rhino by Gillie and Marc in Paternoster Square (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

But there are more animals than sheep in Paternoster Square at present. Following last year’s sculpture of an animals’ dining table, the artists Gillie and Marc are back in Paternoster Square with yet another menagerie of animals with their sculptures ‘Wild About Babies’. Their current exhibition in Paternoster Square was launched last month (January 2024) and continues until January 2025.

This exhibition appeals to the inherent inability we all have to resist the charm of baby animals and our deep connection with the innocence of nature. They hope these creatures not only uplift people but also spark an urge to protect.

The project is a creative and artistic response to what is described as the ‘sixth mass extinction’. In January 2020, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) listed 203 critically endangered mammalian species, including 31 which were tagged as possibly extinct. Wildlife is facing enormous human-made challenges, including climate change and poaching.

The sculptures by Gillie and Marc now in Paternoster Square bring an array of baby animals to the streets in partnership with the WWF (World Wildlife Fund). The installation features six endangered baby animals, watched over by Gia, the giant 30-year-old ‘mother’ gorilla, a majestic three-metre creation representing the universal mother. She sits with her arms spread wide, welcoming all the animals into the safety of her embrace.

These creatures are crafted in bronze: Astrid, a young five-year-old giant tortoise; Bailey, a four-month-old African elephant; Apollo, a three-week-old giraffe; Mila, a four-month-old Javan rhino; Luna, a two-month-old hippo; and Clio, a six-month-old Bengal tiger.

The project is interactive, so each sculpture has a QR code with information and images of the real-life animal in its natural habitat and with an understanding of the diversity of wildlife, the plight these animals face and why they are so important to our planet.

Gillie and Marc’s Rabbitwoman and Dogman tell the tale of two opposites coming together as best friends and soul mates (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Nearby too are Gillie and Marc’s Rabbitwoman and Dogman sculptures, with a sign explaining the installation and telling of the work of Gillie and Marc.

Gillie and Marc Shattner are two British and Australian collaborative artists who have been called ‘the most successful and prolific creators of public art’ by the New York Times. They create innovative public sculptures, seeking to redefine what public art should be and spreading their message of love, equality, and conservation.

Gillie and Marc are known for Rabbitwoman and Dogman, two trademark characters who tell the tale of two opposites coming together as best friends and soul mates. They stand for diversity and acceptance through love. Their public artworks can be seen New York, London, Singapore, Shanghai and Sydney, and they have raised hundreds of thousands for wildlife charities.

Clio, a six-month-old Bengal tiger, and Astrid, a young giant tortoise (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Last year, I enjoyed their collections in Spitalfields, including the ‘Herd of Hope’ – a family of 21 life-sized bronze elephants embarking on the journey of a lifetime as they migrate across London – and ‘Together Forever on Wheels,’ incorporating two of their most popular sculpture themes, Rabbitwoman and Dogman, Vespas and coffee.

Now I need also to see the ‘Wild Table of Love,’ Gillie and Marc’s exhibition in Paddington, with the invitation to join the banquet, with Rabbitwoman and Dogman host at the party. The animals are already tucking in at the table, and all that is left is for the public to take our seats.

• Wild About Babies is Paternoster Square until January 2025.

Luna, a two-month-old hippo, and Bailey, a four-month-old African elephant (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

A mid-Lent retreat inLichfield Cathedral, with walks by Stowe Pool and in the countryside

Stillness descends on Lichfield Cathedral and the waters of Stowe Pool after sunset (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024; click on image for full-screen viewing)

Patrick Comerford

The day is thine, and the night is thine :
thou hast prepared the light and the sun.
Thou hast set all the borders of the earth :
thou hast made summer and winter. (Psalm 74: 17-18)

I was back in Lichfield earlier this week (26 February 2024) for one of my own self-guided mini-retreats. We are mid-way through Lent, and I followed the daily liturgical cycle in Lichfield Cathedral, but also had lunch in the Hedgehog Vintage Inn, one of my favourite restaurants and bijou hotels.

There were long walks along Beacon Street and Strafford Street and in the countryside along Cross in Hand Lane, heading out towards Farewell, and shorter walks during the day around the Cathedral Close, Stowe Pool and Minister Pool, and in the Herb Garden at Erasmus Darwin House and in Beacon Park.

There were visits to visits to the chapel of Saint John’s Hospital, Saint Michael’s Church on Greenhill and Saint Mary’s Church (now the Hub) in Market Square, and a little time to browse in some bookshops.

The Hedgehog Vintage Inn, once the home of the composer Muzio Clementi (1752-1832), who rented the house from the Earl of Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

I attended the mid-day Eucharist at the High Altar in the cathedral, and returned at the end of the day Evening Prayer in the Lady Chapel, with some quiet time for prayer and reflection.

I am working at the moment on proposals for two, paired guided historical walking tours, along Tamworth Street in Lichfield, and along Lichfield Street in Tamworth. So, I took time to photograph some of the older buildings on Tamworth Street, including the Methodist Church, the former Regal Cinema, and some of the locations associated with the poet Philip Larkin, who had many family connections with Lichfield.

These regular visits to Lichfield are an important part of my spiritual life and health. Lichfield – in particular, the Cathedral and the chapel in Saint John’s – helped to shape and grow my spiritual life and Anglican values when I was a teenager. For most of my life, they have been like a spiritual home for me, and, for more than 50 years, I have continued to return constantly, a few times each year, to pray, to reflect, to give thanks, for pilgrimage, and to be still.

Comberford Hall seen from the train between Tamworth and Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

The train journey between Milton Keynes and Lichfield Trent Valley rakes only an hour, making it much easier to plan these return visits.

On the final part of the train journey, between Tamworth and Lichfield, the train passes by Comberford Hall and Comberford village as it crosses the River Tame, and a smile comes across my face. The place has given me joy ever since my teens, when I decided to follow in the footsteps of my great-grandfather in search of the family history.

But there are reminders throughout Lichfield of Comberford family links: a hassock with the family name in the north aisle of the Cathedral; or an antique map in the window of the Studio in the Old Garage, Bird Street, beside the Garden of Remembrance.

Comberford on a map in the Studio shop window in Lichfield … between Lichfield and Tamworth, above the ‘W’ in Offlow (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

There was no choir in the Cathedral on Monday evening, but Evening Prayer from the Book of Common Prayer was led by the Canon Chancellor, Canon Gregory Platten.

At the end of the day, there was comfort in the words of Psalm 74, the Psalm for Evening Prayer that day:

The day is thine, and the night is thine :
thou hast prepared the light and the sun.
Thou hast set all the borders of the earth :
thou hast made summer and winter. (Psalm 74: 17-18)

Another verse in that evening psalm recalls how ‘all the earth is full of darkness’ (verse 21). Before catching a late train back to Milton Keynes, I went for another walk around Stowe Pool in that interesting light we get after sunset before darkness settles in, when the sky is deep blue, there are still hints of the sun in the distant west, the cathedral and the trees are still reflected in the waters, and it is possible to imagine and pray for a world that is at peace.

Comberford on a hassock in Lichfield Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Mid-Lent, by Christina Rossetti

Is any grieved or tired? Yea, by God’s Will:
Surely God’s Will alone is good and best:
O weary man, in weariness take rest,
O hungry man, by hunger feast thy fill.
Discern thy good beneath a mask of ill,
Or build of loneliness thy secret nest:
At noon take heart, being mindful of the west,
At night wake hope, for dawn advances still.
At night wake hope. Poor soul, in such sore need
Of wakening and of girding up anew,
Hast thou that hope which fainting doth pursue?
No saint but hath pursued and hath been faint;
Bid love wake hope, for both thy steps shall speed,
Still faint yet still pursuing, O thou saint.

A walk along Cross in Hand Lane in the countryside north of Lichfield, near the Hedgehog Vintage Inn (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Being served at room temperature at 72, defending the poor, and crushing the oppressor

72 on a front door in St Albans … but is this a significant number? (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Patrick Comerford

I have spent much of the day in Birmingham at a training day in Acocks Green for the trustees of almshouses. It has been a long day, beginning with long train journeys, and this evening I am on my way back by train again and bus to Stony Stratford.

I have had time on these journeys to think about my birthday tomorrow and to reflect on the significance of reaching the age of 72.

In number theory, 72 is the natural number after 71 and before 73, both prime numbers. It is a pronic number, as it is the product of 8 and 9, it is the smallest Achilles number, as it is a powerful number that is not itself a power.

The number 72 is an abundant number. With exactly 12 positive divisors, including 12 (one of only two sublime numbers), 72 is also the twelfth member in the sequence of refactorable numbers. It has a Euler totient of 24, which makes it a highly totient number, as there are 17 solutions to the equation φ(x) = 72, more than any integer below 72. It is equal to the sum of its preceding smaller highly totient numbers, 24 and 48, and contains the first six highly totient numbers 1, 2, 4, 8, 12 and 24 as a subset of its proper divisors.

The number 144, or twice 72, is also highly totient, as is 576, the square of 24. While 17 different integers have a totient value of 72, the sum of Euler’s totient function φ(x) over the first 15 integers is 72. It also is a perfect indexed Harshad number in decimal (28th), as it is divisible by the sum of its digits (9).

In addition, 72 is the second multiple of 12, after 48, that is not a sum of twin primes. It is, however, the sum of four consecutive primes (13 + 17 + 19 + 23), as well as the sum of six consecutive primes (5 + 7 + 11 + 13 + 17 + 19). Also, 72 is the first number that can be expressed as the difference of the squares of primes in just two distinct ways: 112 − 72 = 192 − 172.

In science, 72 is the atomic number of hafnium, and in degrees Fahrenheit 72 is 22.22 Celsius and is considered to be room temperature.

Tradition says the degrees of Jacob’s Ladder were 72 in number

Biblically, tradition says 72 is the number of languages spoken at the Tower of Babylon. The degrees of Jacob’s Ladder (Genesis 28:10–19) were 72 in number, according to the Zohar, a foundational work of Kabbalistic literature.

The conventional number of scholars involved in translating the Septuagint was 72, not 70, with six Hebrew scholars drawn from each of the 12 tribes. According to tradition, Ptolemy II Philadelphus sent 72 Hebrew scholars and translators from Jerusalem to Alexandria to translate the Tanakh from Biblical Hebrew into Koine Greek, for inclusion in his library.

The Gospel reading tomorrow for the Feast of Saint Timothy and Saint Titus, (Luke 10: 1-9), tells of the sending out of the 72, or the 70, depending on which translation you are reading. In the Eastern Christian traditions, they are known as the 70 or 72 apostles, while in Western Christianity they are usually described as disciples. Tradionally they are said to include Saint Timothy and Saint Titus.

The number 70 may derive from the 70 nations in Genesis 10, but the number 72 may represent the 12 tribes, as in the significance of the number of translators of the Septuagint, the symbolism of three days, and understanding the meaning of 144 (12 x 12), to appear again in the 144,000 in the Book of Revelation.

In translating the Vulgate, Jerome selected the reading of 72. In modern translations, the number 72 is preferred in the NRSV, NIV, ESV and the New Catholic Bible, for example, but 70 in the NRSV Anglicised and the Authorised or King James Version.

According to Kabbalah, 72 is the number of names of God. In Kaballah, the Shem HaMephorash (שֵׁם הַמְּפֹרָשׁ) or ‘the explicit name’ of God is composed of 72 letters. The 72-fold name is derived from a reading of Exodus 14:19-21. Kabbalist legends say the 72-fold name was used by Moses to cross the Red Sea, and that it could grant later holy men the power to cast out demons, heal the sick, prevent natural disasters, and even kill enemies. This, of course, relates directly to the commission of the 72 in Saint Luke’s Gospel.

So, at 72, having arrived at my prime – or, at least, between two prime numbers – perhaps I am best served at room temperature. I am now a powerful number, suited to translation, ready to be sent out.

The Tamworth Arms at 71-72 Lichfield Street, Tamworth is known locally as ‘The Bottom House’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

I once stayed at the Tamworth Arms at 71-72 Lichfield Street, almost directly across the street from the Moat House, the former Comberford family home. The Cock Hotel in Stony Stratford, where the choir of Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church regularly adjourns after Wednesday evening rehearsals, is at 72 High Street.

But what is there to look forward after 72?

When the long-serving Labour MP for Rochdale Sir Tony Lloyd last week at the age of 73, the Guardian reported him as saying some years ago: ‘There’s this recognition that you only have a certain time left … I’m 70, and as such you think, “Well, I’m probably not going to be around in X years’ time, so use these years wisely. Use these days wisely.” That’s good advice for us all.’

Of course that’s good advice for us all. But surely there is more to look forward to than merely counting the X number of years ahead, to something that has more meaning than what is left of my mere temporal existence.

My life is filled with love and with a sense of purpose. I am looking forward not only to my 72nd birthday tomorrow, but, in the words of Psalm 72, to something beyond my own interest at my own age, including justice, righteousness and long life, so that that those with power and in government may defend the poor, deliver the needy and crush the oppressor, so that righteousness may flourish and peace abound. Perhaps the expected general election later this year will result in a promise of that future. I live in hope.

‘May the kings of Tarshish and of the isles render him tribute, may the kings of Sheba and Seba bring gifts’ (Psalm 72: 10) … the visit of the Magi in the Basilica of Sant’Apollinare Nuovo in Ravenna (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Psalm 72 is a prayer for eternal life, for God’s blessings for ever. It is a song praying for gifts for ‘the king,’ including justice, righteousness and long life, so that he may defend the poor, deliver the needy and crush the oppressor and that righteousness may flourish and peace abound.

Psalm 72 is traditionally seen as being written by King Solomon, but some commentators suggest it was written by David to express his hope for Solomon.

Some commentators say the psalm contains memories of the Queen of Sheba visiting Solomon and the Temple in Jerusalem, and associate it with the anointing of Solomon as king while David was still living (see I Kings 1: 39-43).

Some commentators see David’s prayers fulfilled in some sense in the reign of Solomon: a temple will be built and there will be great peace and prosperity; yet the language is larger than Solomon: ‘May his glory fill the whole earth’ (verse 19).

This psalm is also recommended in many lectionaries for Sundays in this time of Epiphany. The psalmist mentions the kings of three areas: Tarshish, thought to be present-day Spain; the Isles, which may refer Crete and Cyprus; and Sheba and Saba, present-day Yemen, with its capital at Saba.

They bring together the trade routes across the breadth of the whole Mediterranean, and from Jerusalem to the tip of the Arabian Peninsula at the entrance to the Indian Ocean and the African coast. In this way, they symbolise poetically all earthly rulers.

The psalmist prays these three kings may bring gifts to the one true king, who delivers the needy, hears the cry of the poor, has pity on the week, saves the needy, delivers them from oppression and violence, redeems their lives and saves them from bloodshed.

‘May he judge your people with righteousness, and your poor with justice’ (Psalm 72: 2) … 72 on a front door in St Albans (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Psalm 72 (NRSVA):

Of Solomon.

1 Give the king your justice, O God,
and your righteousness to a king’s son.
2 May he judge your people with righteousness,
and your poor with justice.
3 May the mountains yield prosperity for the people,
and the hills, in righteousness.
4 May he defend the cause of the poor of the people,
give deliverance to the needy,
and crush the oppressor.

5 May he live while the sun endures,
and as long as the moon, throughout all generations.
6 May he be like rain that falls on the mown grass,
like showers that water the earth.
7 In his days may righteousness flourish
and peace abound, until the moon is no more.

8 May he have dominion from sea to sea,
and from the River to the ends of the earth.
9 May his foes bow down before him,
and his enemies lick the dust.
10 May the kings of Tarshish and of the isles
render him tribute,
may the kings of Sheba and Seba
bring gifts.
11 May all kings fall down before him,
all nations give him service.

12 For he delivers the needy when they call,
the poor and those who have no helper.
13 He has pity on the weak and the needy,
and saves the lives of the needy.
14 From oppression and violence he redeems their life;
and precious is their blood in his sight.

15 Long may he live!
May gold of Sheba be given to him.
May prayer be made for him continually,
and blessings invoked for him all day long.
16 May there be abundance of grain in the land;
may it wave on the tops of the mountains;
may its fruit be like Lebanon;
and may people blossom in the cities
like the grass of the field.
17 May his name endure for ever,
his fame continue as long as the sun.
May all nations be blessed in him;
may they pronounce him happy.

18 Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel,
who alone does wondrous things.
19 Blessed be his glorious name for ever;
may his glory fill the whole earth. Amen and Amen.

20 The prayers of David son of Jesse are ended.

The Cock Hotel at 72 High Street, Stony Stratford … where the choir of Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church regularly adjourns after Wednesday rehearsals (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)