Daily prayer in Christmas 2024-2025: 20, Monday 13 January 2025

The calling of James and John in their boat mending the nets … a window in Saint George’s Church, Belfast (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Patrick Comerford

The 40-day season of Christmas continues until Candlemas or the Feast of the Presentation (2 February). This week began with the First Sunday of Epiphany (Epiphany I, 12 January 2025), with readings that focus on the Baptism of Christ.

Today, the calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship remembers Saint Hilary (367), Bishop of Poitiers, Teacher of the Faith; Saint Kentigern or Mungo (603), Missionary Bishop in Strathclyde and Cumbria; and George Fox (1691), founder of the Society of Friends or Quakers.

The commemoration of Saint Hilary today (13 January) explains Hilary Term, the second academic term at the University of Oxford and Trinity College Dublin. The other terms are Michaelmas term and Trinity term. These terms originated in the mediaeval legal system when courts in England, Wales and Ireland divided the legal year into four terms: Hilary, Easter, Trinity and Michaelmas. Lent term is the equivalent of Hilary term in Cambridge.

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.

The calling of James and John with their symbols … a window in Saint George’s Church, Belfast (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Mark 1: 14-20 (NRSVA):

14 Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, 15 and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.’

16 As Jesus passed along the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake – for they were fishermen. 17 And Jesus said to them, ‘Follow me and I will make you fish for people.’ 18 And immediately they left their nets and followed him. 19 As he went a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John, who were in their boat mending the nets. 20 Immediately he called them; and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men, and followed him.

‘The Call of the Disciples’ … a window designed by the Harry Clarke Studios in Christ Church, Spanish Point, Co Clare (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflection:

In the Gospel reading at the Eucharist the Saturday before last (John 1: 35-42, 4 January 2025), we read how immediately after his baptism by Saint John the Baptist in the River Jordan, Christ began calling his first disciples. First, he calls Andrew and Simon Peter. Andrew is called first, but before responding to the call to follow Christ, he goes back and fetches his brother Simon and brings him to Jesus. This was followed later in that chapter with the call of Philip and Nathanael.

Andrew and Peter are brothers, but their names indicate the early differences and divisions within the Church. Andrew’s name is Greek ('Ανδρέας, Andreas), meaning ‘manly’ or ‘valorous,’ while Peter’s original name, Simon (שמעון‎, Shimon) is so obviously Jewish, meaning ‘hearing’.

In a similar way, Philip is a strong Greek name: everyone in the region knew Philip of Macedon was the father of Alexander the Great, while Nathanael’s name is a Hebrew compound meaning ‘the Gift of God.’

It is as though we are being reminded from the very beginning, with the story of the call of the disciples, the diversity and divisions are part of the essential fabric of the Church. They are woven into that fabric, even in the names that show that the disciples represent both Jews and Greeks, the Hebrew-speakers and those who are culturally Hellenised.

In today’s Gospel reading (Mark 1: 14-20), Saint Mark follows a slightly different sequence in the call of the first disciples: first he calls the brothers Simon and Andrew, and then the brothers James and John, the sons of Zebedee (see Matthew 4: 21-22). Here it is as though we are reminded that ministry and discipleship is always collaborative: we are never called alone, but called as brothers and sisters to one another.

Andrew is often referred to as the ‘first called.’ But in some ways, the other three, Peter, James and John serve, as an inner circle or a ‘kitchen cabinet’ in the Gospels.

Zebedee, the father of James and John, was a fisherman on the Sea of Galilee, and probably lived in or near Bethsaida in present Galilee, perhaps in Capernaum. Their mother Salome was one of the pious women who followed Christ and ‘ministered unto him of their substance.’

Saint James and Saint John, or their mother, ask Christ to be seated on his right and left in his glory. They also want to call down fire on a Samaritan town, but they are rebuked for this (see Luke 9: 51-6).

Peter, James and John are at the Transfiguration (Matthew 17: 1, Mark 9: 2; Luke 9: 28), but also at the raising of the daughter of Jairus (Mark 9: 2; Luke 6: 51), at the top of the Mount of Olives when Christ is about to enter Jerusalem (Mark 13: 3), they help to prepare for the Passover (Luke 22: 8), and they are in Gethsemane (Matthew 26: 37).

They are the only disciples to have been given nickname by Jesus: Simon became the Rock, James and John are also known as ‘the Sons of Thunder’ (see Mark 3: 17; Luke 5: 10).

Jerome likes to refer to Peter as the rock on which the Church is built, James as the first of the apostles to die a martyr’s death, John as the beloved disciple. They are a trusted group who also serve to represent us at each moment in the story of salvation, and remind us that we are called not individually but alongside one another.

The symbols of Saint James (left) and Saint John (right) in a window in Saint George’s Church, Belfast (Photographs: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Today’s Prayers (Monday 13 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 ‘A Bag of Flour. This theme was introduced yesterday with a Programme Update by Rachel Weller, Communications Officer, USPG.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Monday 13 January 2025) invites us to pray:

Lord, we pray for people who are terrified, mourning and suffering. We pray to the God that can heal, asking that they may be saved from despair – for the trauma and violence they’ve experienced not to overshadow hope.

The Collect:

Everlasting God,
whose servant Hilary
steadfastly confessed your Son Jesus Christ
to be both human and divine:
grant us his gentle courtesy
to bring to all the message of redemption
in the incarnate Christ,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

God of truth,
whose Wisdom set her table
and invited us to eat the bread and drink the wine
of the kingdom:
help us to lay aside all foolishness
and to live and walk in the way of insight,
that we may come with Hilary to the eternal feast of heaven;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s Reflection

Continued Tomorrow

The Transfiguration, with Peter, James and John, depicted in the Church of the Transfiguration in Piskopianó, Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024; click on image for full-screen viewing)

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 Christmas 2024-2025: 19, Sunday 12 January 2025, the First Sunday of Epiphany

The Baptism of Christ … a stained glass window in Saint Mary’s Church, St Neots, Cambridgeshire (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Patrick Comerford

The 40-day season of Christmas continues until Candlemas or the Feast of the Presentation (2 February). Today is the First Sunday of Epiphany (Epiphany I, 12 January 2025), and the readings focus on the Baptism of Christ.

Later this morning, I hope to take part in the Parish Eucharist in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford, singing with the choir, reading one of the readings and leading the intercessions. But, before today begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, to reflect, to pray and to read in these ways:

1, 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.

The Baptism of Christ by Saint John the Baptist … the centre panel in a three-light window in Saint John the Baptist Church in Blisworth, Northamptonshire (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Luke 3: 15-17, 21-22 (NRSVA):

15 As the people were filled with expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Messiah, 16 John answered all of them by saying, ‘I baptize you with water; but one who is more powerful than I is coming; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 17 His winnowing-fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing-floor and to gather the wheat into his granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.’

21 Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heaven was opened, 22 and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, ‘You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.’

The Baptism of Christ … an icon in the Lady Chapel in Lichfield Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Today’s Reflection:

Traditionally, the Church associates Epiphany-tide with three public, epiphany moments, before beginning to look at Christ’s public ministry:

• The visit by the wise men, who, on behalf of the nations of the world, acknowledge him as king, priest, prophet and king with their gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh (Matthew 2: 1-12, 6 January 2025).

• Christ’s baptism by Saint John the Baptist in the River Jordan, when he is acknowledged in a Trinitarian movement by both the Father and the Holy Spirit as the Son of God (Luke 3: 15-17, 21-22, today, 12 January 2025).

• The Wedding at Cana, the first of the seven signs in the Fourth Gospel, which sees Christ reveal his glory so that his disciples believe in him (John 2: 1-11, next Sunday, 19 January 2025).

The Gospel reading this morning (Luke 3: 15-17, 21-22) tells us of the Baptism of Christ in the River Jordan by Saint John the Baptist. It marks the beginning of Christ’s public ministry, but it also presents Christ as the fulfilment of the Law and the prophets and presents this Epiphany event as a new creation.

Saint John the Baptist is at the River Jordan, calling the people to repentance, to turn back to God’s ways, to return the way of life to which the people committed themselves in the Covenant with God.

And this leads us to the Baptism of Christ, which is an Epiphany or Theophany moment, and it is a Trinitarian moment.

At first, Saint John tries to dissuade Christ from being baptised. But Christ insists, he wishes to fulfil the Father’s will; this Baptism shows Christ’s continuity with God’s will that has been revealed through the Law and the Prophets.

The words spoken by the voice from heaven, ‘You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased’ (verse 22), echo the words of Isaiah: ‘Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights’ (Isaiah 42: 1).

In this Gospel story, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit come together, acting as one, with distinctive personal roles: when Christ is baptised, heaven opens, the Holy Spirit descends upon Christ ‘in bodily form like a dove.’ And the voice of the Father comes from heaven declaring: ‘You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased’ (Luke 3: 22).

This Gospel reading is also the story of a new beginning in every sense of the meaning.

After the waters are parted, and Christ emerges, just as the waters are separated, earth and water are separated, and then human life emerges as in the Creation story in Genesis (see Genesis 1: 1 to 2: 3).

Here too the Holy Spirit appears over the waters (see Genesis 1: 2), and God says ‘I am well pleased,’ just as God sees that every moment of creation is good (see Genesis 1: 4, 10, 12, 18, 21, 25) and with the creation of humanity it becomes ‘very good.’

John the Baptist tells the people that the Kingdom of God is near, that the time has come for the fulfilment of God’s promises to people. A new era is arriving, when God rules.

This morning’s Gospel story is also a reminder of our own Baptisms, and it is the story of a new creation. This Sunday is an appropriate opportunity, at the beginning of a new year, to think about the meaning of our own Baptismal promises.

The Baptism of Christ is about new beginnings for each of us individually and for us collectively as members of the Body of Christ, the Church.

But this Gospel reading also poses two sets of questions for me.

My first set of questions begins by asking:

• What would a parting of the waters and the promise of a new beginning, a new creation, mean for us today?

• Do we believe that what God has made is ‘very good’?

• Are we responsible when it comes to the care of the creation that has been entrusted to us?

And my second set of questions begins:

• What would a parting of the waters and the promise of a new beginning mean for people caught as refugees in the cold waters of the Mediterranean or in the English Channel between France and England in this winter weather?

• Would they be able to believe in the hope that is offered at Epiphany?

It is at the very end of the creation cycle, after the creation and separation of the waters, when God has created us in human form, that God pronounces not just that it is good, but that it is very good.

This morning, while we are still at the beginning of a New Year, we are it is appropriate to remind ourselves of the promises made on our behalf at our own Baptism.

In our Baptism promises, we affirm our faith in God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and also promise to be faithful in our prayer life, in our sacramental life, as members of the Church and the Body of Christ, to resist evil, to show our faith in word and deed, to serve all people, to love our neighbours as ourselves, to pray for the world and its leaders, to defend the weak and to seek peace and justice.

In responding to our promises at Baptism, we take responsibility for creation and for humanity. Those responsibilities are inseparable. They are at the heart of the Epiphany stories if we show that we truly believe that the best is yet to come.

The Baptism of Christ … a window in the Chapel of Westminster College, Cambridge (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Today’s Prayers (Sunday 12 January 2025, Epiphany I):

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 ‘A Bag of Flour. This theme is introduced today with a Programme Update by Rachel Weller, Communications Officer, USPG:

Yusuf* was inside his tent when he learnt that trucks were distributing flour in a nearby town. Getting food had quickly become a great concern for every Palestinian. Leaving his tent, Yusuf joined crowds making the one-hour journey by foot in search of the distribution spot. Some flour would help him bake some bread, perhaps.

Upon arriving, all was not as it seemed. Whirring noises overhead indicated an air strike. Before long, Yusuf had been hit and was unable to walk. In a place where he should have received help, instead he found harm. Miraculously, a stranger passing by carried him onto a cart. The driver mentioned that only Al-Ahli Hospital was still operational in Gaza City. He was losing a lot of blood but maybe they could help.

Arriving at the emergency room, Yusuf was quickly admitted to orthopaedics and rushed into urgent surgery. The doctor, aware of the seriousness of the situation, relied on God for the operation. The hospital medical staff provided Yusuf with all necessary treatment, free of charge. After some time, his condition improved. He thanked the medical staff for the successful surgery as well as the specialist who had attended to him with particular care.

The Shuja’iyya neighbourhood in Gaza has suffered some of the worst destruction from occupying forces due to its proximity to the border. For many like Yusuf, this is home.

*name changed to protect privacy

USPG’s Lent Appeal 2025 will focus on the Diocese of Jerusalem. www.uspg.org.uk

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Sunday 12 January 2025, Epiphany I) invites us to pray reflecting on these words:

Together we lament with the Psalmist David: ‘How long, O Lord? … How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?’ (extracts from Psalm 13: 1-2). The suffering in the Middle East is heartbreaking, and we mourn the injustice committed against innocent people.

The Baptism of Christ … a window in the North Transept in Holy Trinity Church, Old Wolverton, Buckinghamshire (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

The Collect:

Eternal Father,
who at the baptism of Jesus
revealed him to be your Son,
anointing him with the Holy Spirit:
grant to us, who are born again by water and the Spirit,
that we may be faithful to our calling as your adopted children;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

Lord of all time and eternity,
you opened the heavens and revealed yourself as Father
in the baptism of Jesus your beloved Son:
by the power of your Spirit
complete the heavenly work of our rebirth
through the waters of the new creation;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

Heavenly Father,
at the Jordan you revealed Jesus as your Son:
may we recognize him as our Lord
and know ourselves to be your beloved children;
through Jesus Christ our Saviour.

Yesterday’s Reflection

Continued Tomorrow

The Baptism of Christ … a window in the Baptistry in Saint Joseph’s Church, Singapore (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

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 Christmas 2024-2025: 13, Monday 6 January 2025, the Epiphany

The wise men or Magi waiting to be pleaced in the crib in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford, Buckinghamshire, yesterday (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Patrick Comerford

We are still in the season of Christmas, which is a 40-day season and it ends not today, the Feast of the Epiphany (6 January), but continues until Candlemas or the Feast of the Presentation (2 February).

Today is the Feast of the Epiphany, although many parishes and churches may have held their celebrations of Epiphany yesterday (Sunday 5 January 2025), with the traditional Epiphany ‘chalking’ of the church doors.

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.

The visit of the wise men or Magi depicted in a window in Saint Mary’s Church in St Neots, Cambridgeshire (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Matthew 2: 1-12 (NRSVA):

2 In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, 2 asking, ‘Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we observed his star at its rising, and have come to pay him homage.’ 3 When King Herod heard this, he was frightened, and all Jerusalem with him; 4 and calling together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born. 5 They told him, ‘In Bethlehem of Judea; for so it has been written by the prophet:

6 “And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;
for from you shall come a ruler
who is to shepherd my people Israel”.’

7 Then Herod secretly called for the wise men and learned from them the exact time when the star had appeared. 8 Then he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, ‘Go and search diligently for the child; and when you have found him, bring me word so that I may also go and pay him homage.’ 9 When they had heard the king, they set out; and there, ahead of them, went the star that they had seen at its rising, until it stopped over the place where the child was. 10 When they saw that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy. 11 On entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother; and they knelt down and paid him homage. Then, opening their treasure-chests, they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. 12 And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for their own country by another road.

The visit of the wise men or Magi depicted in a window in Newman University Church, Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Today’s Reflection:

The Gospel reading this morning (Matthew 2: 1-12) recalls the story of the visit of the Magi, one of the three Gospel stories associated with Epiphany. The other two traditional Epiphany are the Baptism of Christ, which we read about next Sunday (Epiphany I, 12 January 2025, Luke 3: 15-17, 21-22), and the Wedding at Cana, which we read about the following Sunday (Epiphany II, 19 January 2025, John 2: 1-11).

These days after Christmas can be a letdown for many people. For weeks, sometimes months, in advance, we had been preparing for the dawning of that one single day.

We write Christmas cards, draw up lists, go shopping, wrap the gifts, put up the tree and the decorations, listen to carols and Christmas songs, wear Christmas jumpers and Santa hats, go to office parties, plan family meals, bring in the holly and the ivy, and light candles on the Advent wreath.

Then Christmas Day comes and goes in 24 hours, just like any other day.

Then what?

Few notice that yesterday was the twelfth day of Christmas. Fewer still realise that the Christmas season includes today’s important Feast of the Epiphany and that it continues until the Feast of the Presentation or Candlemas on 2 February.

By now, the decorations are down, the cards have been binned, the trees have been recycled, the presents have been used and put away, and for some these days are some sort of anticlimax.

The angels, the shepherds and the magi are ‘yesterday’s men.’ What are we to do?

Some of the best answers are provided in the poem ‘The Work of Christmas’, written by Howard Thurman (1899-1981), an African-American theologian, academic and civil rights leader, and included in his book The Mood of Christmas and Other Celebrations (1973):

The Work of Christmas, by Howard Thurman:

When the song of the angels is stilled,
When the star in the sky is gone,
When the kings and princes are home,
When the shepherds are back with their flock,
The work of Christmas begins:

To find the lost,
To heal the broken,
To feed the hungry,
To release the prisoner,
To rebuild the nations,
To bring peace among others, To make music in the heart.

The visit of the wise men or Magi depicted in a window in Saint Michael’s Church, St Albans (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Today’s Prayers (Monday 6 January 2025, the Epiphany):

The theme this week in ‘Pray With the World Church’, the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘The Melanesian Brotherhood Centenary’. This theme was introduced yesterday with a Programme Update by Ella Sibley, Regional Manager for Europe and Oceania, USPG.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Monday 6 January 2025, the Epiphany) invites us to pray:

Almighty God, as we celebrate the Epiphany and the revealing of Christ’s light to the nations, we give thanks for the Melanesian Brotherhood and their century of faithful witness. We remember especially the martyrs who, like the Magi, followed your call and gave their lives in the service of peace.

The Collect:

O God,
who by the leading of a star
manifested your only Son to the peoples of the earth:
mercifully grant that we,
who know you now by faith,
may at last behold your glory face to face;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

Lord God,
the bright splendour whom the nations seek:
may we who with the wise men have been drawn by your light
discern the glory of your presence in your Son,
the Word made flesh, Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

Creator of the heavens,
who led the Magi by a star
to worship the Christ-child:
guide and sustain us,
that we may find our journey’s end
in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s Reflection

Continued Tomorrow

The visit of the wise men or Magi depicted in the East Window in the chapel of Oriel College, Oxford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

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

Daily prayer in Christmas 2024-2025: 6, Monday 30 December 2024

The Presentation in the Temple and the Flight into Egypt … scenes from Christ’s childhood years in windows designed by Father Vincent Chin in Saint Peter’s Church, Kuching (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Patrick Comerford

On the sixth day of Christmas my true love sent to me … ‘six geese a-laying, five golden rings, four colly birds, three French hens, two turtle doves, and a partridge in a pear tree’.

This is the sixth day of Christmas, and the Hanukkah holiday continues today.

Before today begins, however, 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.

The Christ Child in the Temple and the Holy Family in Nazareth … scenes from Christ’s childhood years in windows designed by Father Vincent Chin in Saint Peter’s Church, Kuching (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Luke 2: 41-52 (NRSVA):

36 There was also a prophet, Anna the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was of a great age, having lived with her husband for seven years after her marriage, 37 then as a widow to the age of eighty-four. She never left the temple but worshipped there with fasting and prayer night and day. 38 At that moment she came, and began to praise God and to speak about the child to all who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem.

39 When they had finished everything required by the law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth. 40 The child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom; and the favour of God was upon him.

‘Christ in the House of His Parents’ (1850) by John Everett Millais

Today’s Reflection:

The Christian interpretation of the song ‘The 12 Days of Christmas’ often sees the six geese a-laying as figurative representations of the six days of Creation (see Genesis 1).

The Gospel reading yesterday, for the First Sunday Christmas (Luke 2: 41-52), jumped from the story of Jesus’ birth in a stable in Bethlehem on Christmas Day to the story of the teenage Christ who is lost in the Temple on this first Sunday after Christmas.

It may have left some people wondering what happened to the intervening years, between the story of the stable and Jesus at the age of 12?

Saint Luke gives no account of the exile in Egypt or Herod’s slaughter of the innocent children. Instead, after the circumcision and naming of Jesus eight days after his birth and his presentation in the Temple at 40 days, we are told Mary and Joseph returned with him to Galilee and their own town of Nazareth, and that ‘the child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom; and the favour of God was upon him.’ The translation in the Authorised or King James Version says ‘the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom: and the grace of God was upon him.’

Very little is told about the childhood of Jesus, between his birth and the beginning of his public ministry, apart from the meeting in the Temple with Simeon and Anna and the 12-year-old being lost in the Temple.

Between the two Temple incidents, he spent the years of his childhood and youth growing, learning and developing. Nothing in Scripture suggests his divine nature disqualified him from the human experiences of learning and development.

The infinite, eternal God took on human flesh. This is the miracle of Christmas, the Incarnation. The Second Person of the Trinity, uncreated, without beginning and without end, at a particular time and place in history came into this world just like one of us, needing to grow, learn develop, for Jesus Christ was truly God and truly human.

As a normal child, he learned to walk and talk, probably learned several languages, including Aramaic, Hebrew and Greek, and perhaps a little Latin, hung around with the local children, learned the building and carpentry trades from Joseph, and probably went fishing too, went to the synagogue on Friday nights and on Saturdays, studied Scripture, learned how to pray and celebrated high days and holy days.

The stories of Christ as an apprentice in the workshop of Joseph the carpenter are popular and pious, but are not found in any Gospel narrative (see Luke 2: 39-40). But these ‘hidden years’ inspired Pre-Raphaelite artists and stained-glass artists in the 19th century, including John Everett Millais, William Holman Hunt and Nathaniel Westlake.

Sir John Everett Millais (1829-1869) was one of the founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, which was founded at his parents’ house in London. He completed his painting ‘Christ in the House of His Parents’ (1849-1850) in 1850. It is a work in oil on canvas, measures 86.4 cm × 139.7 cm and is in the Tate Britain in London.

Millais created controversy when this painting was first exhibited in 1850. But it brought the previously obscure Pre-Raphaelites to public attention and was a major contributor to the debate about Realism in the arts.

By the late 1850s, Millais was moving away from the Pre-Raphaelite style. His later works were enormously successful, making him one of the wealthiest artists of his day. His ‘Christ in the House of His Parents’ depicts the Holy Family in Saint Joseph’s carpentry workshop. The painting was controversial when it was first exhibited, prompting many negative reviews.

The realistic depiction of a carpentry workshop, especially the dirt and detritus on the floor, down to the details of Saint Joseph’s dirty fingernails, stirred criticism. Charles Dickens accused Millais of portraying the Virgin Mary as an alcoholic who looks ‘… so hideous in her ugliness that … she would stand out from the rest of the company as a Monster, in the vilest cabaret in France, or the lowest gin-shop in England.’

Dickens said the young Christ looks like a ‘hideous, wry-necked, blubbering, red-haired boy in a night-gown who seems to have received a poke playing in an adjacent gutter.’

Other critics also objected to the portrayal of Christ, one complaining that it was ‘painful’ to see ‘the youthful Saviour’ depicted as ‘a red-headed Jew boy.’ Others still suggested that the characters displayed signs of rickets and other disease associated with slum conditions.

Saint Joseph is making a door, which is laid on his carpentry work-table. Christ has cut his hand on an exposed nail, leading to a sign of the stigmata, prefiguring the crucifixion. As Saint Anne removes the nail with a pair of pincers, his concerned mother, the Virgin Mary, offers her cheek for a kiss while Saint Joseph examines his wounded hand.

The young Saint John the Baptist is bringing in water to wash the wound, and so prefigures his later baptism of Christ. An assistant of Saint Joseph, representing potential future Apostles, is watching all that is going on.

In the background we can see many objects that hep to further point up the theological significance of the subject. A ladder, referring to Jacob’s ladder and the ladder used to take Christ down from the cross, is leaning against the back wall. A dove, representing the Holy Spirit rests on it. Other carpentry implements refer to the Holy Trinity.

The sheep in the fold in the background represent Christ’s future followers, who know Christ as the Good Shepherd.

The painting was exhibited at the Royal Academy, with a companion piece by Millais’s colleague, William Holman Hunt, ‘A Converted British Family sheltering a Christian Missionary from the persecution of the Druids.’

John Ruskin supported Millais in letter to the press and in his lecture ‘Pre-Raphaelitsm,’ although he personally disliked the painting. Its use of Symbolic Realism led to a wider movement in which typology was combined with detailed observation.

Because of the controversy, Queen Victoria asked for the painting to be taken to Buckingham Palace so that she could view it in private. We do not know whether she was amused, but Millais said he hoped the painting ‘would not have a bad effect on her mind.’

The critical reception of the painting brought prompt attention to the Pre-Raphaelite movement and stimulated a debate about the relationship between modernity, realism and mediaevalism in the arts.

William Holman Hunt (1827-1910) was another founding member of the Pre-Raphaelite movement. His ‘The Shadow of Death’ is painted in oil on canvas, measures 214.2 cm × 168.2 cm, and is in the Manchester City Art Gallery.

Holman Hunt was born in Cheapside, London, on 2 April 1827, and died in Kensington on 7 September 1910. He concentrated on history and religious painting, and his best-known works include ‘The Light of the World,’ ‘The Finding of the Saviour in the Temple,’ ‘The Shadow of Death,’ and ‘The Scapegoat.’

He worked on ‘The Shadow of Death’ from 1870 to 1873, during his second visit to Jerusalem and the Holy Land. He painted it as he sat on the roof of his house in Jerusalem, and the work was completed it in 1873.

The artist shows Christ as a young man working as a carpenter in Saint Joseph’s workshop in Nazareth. The youthful Christ is stretching his arms after sawing wood. The shadow of his outstretched arms falls on a wooden spar on which carpentry tools hang, creating a shadow of death that prefigures the crucifixion. His mother, the Virgin Mary, looks up at the cross-shaped shadow, having been searching in a box where she keeps the gifts from the Magi.

Hunt’s depiction of Christ as a muscular hard-working craftsman was also probably influenced by Thomas Carlyle, who emphasised the spiritual value of honest labour and who earlier criticised Holman Hunt’s earlier depiction of Christ in ‘The Light of the World’ as ‘papistical’ because it showed Christ in regal clothing.

The portrayal of the Virgin Mary, who has carefully saved the Magi’s gifts, depicts the working class values of thrift, financial responsibility and honesty.

The first painting went on display in 1874, the year after its completion. It went on show in Dublin and Belfast in 1875. It was a popular success, especially among the working class, and was widely reproduced as an engraving. The profits from the prints paid for its donation to the city of Manchester in 1883, and it is now held by Manchester City Art Gallery.

Hunt also painted a smaller version in 1873. It was sold for £1.8 million in 1994, which at the time was the highest price paid for a Pre-Raphaelite painting.

Jesus as an apprentice in Joseph the Carpenter’s workshop … a window by NHJ Westlake in the south wall in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Monday 30 December 2024):

The theme this week in ‘Pray With the World Church’, the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘We Believe, We Belong: Nicene Creed’. This theme was introduced yesterday by Dr Paulo Ueti, Theological Advisor and Regional Manager for Latin America and the Caribbean, USPG.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Monday 30 December 2024) invites us to pray:

We pray for a Church that embraces diversity in all its forms. Help us recognise the beauty in differing expressions of faith and remain united in Christ without suppressing the unique voices within your Church.

The Collect:

Almighty God,
who wonderfully created us in your own image
and yet more wonderfully restored us
through your Son Jesus Christ:
grant that, as he came to share in our humanity,
so we may share the life of his divinity;
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

Heavenly Father,
whose blessed Son shared at Nazareth the life of an earthly home:
help your Church to live as one family,
united in love and obedience,
and bring us all at last to our home in heaven;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

God in Trinity,
eternal unity of perfect love:
gather the nations to be one family,
and draw us into your holy life
through the birth of Emmanuel,
our Lord Jesus Christ.

Yesterday’s Reflection

Continued Tomorrow

‘The Shadow of Death’ (1870-1873) by William Holman Hunt

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 Christmas 2024-2025: 1, Wednesday 25 December 2024, Christmas Day

The first Christmas … a window in Saint Mary’s Church, St Neots, Cambridgeshire (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Patrick Comerford

The Advent waiting and watching has reached its climax, and this is Christmas Day.

I sang with the choir in All Saints’ Church, Calverton, last night, singing carols and then at the ‘Midnight Mass’ . Later this morning, I hope to be part of the choir at the Christmas Eucharist in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford.

For the first time in 19 years, Christmas Day and the first day of Hanukkah also fall on the same day this year.

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.

The first Christmas … a window in the Chapel of Westminster College, Cambridge (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

John 1: 1-14 (NRSVA):

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being 4 in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.

6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. 8 He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. 9 The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.

10 He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. 11 He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. 12 But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.

14 And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.

The statue of Franz Kafka beside the Spanish Synagogue in Prague … his story is a reminder of incarnation, redemption and resurrection, a story of unconditional love, and reminds me that ‘love came down at Christmas’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Today’s Reflection:

The lectionary for Christmas today provides three Gospel readings for today: Luke 2: 1-14 (15-20), Luke 2: (1-7) 8-20, and John 1: 1-14. This provides for separate readings of the Nativity narrative in Saint Luke’s Gospel on Christmas Night and on Christmas Day, but there is also a strong recommendation that the Prologue to Saint John’s Gospel ‘should be used at some service during the celebration’.

Today marks the 100th anniversary of the death of Franz Kafka near Vienna on 3 June 1924. Earlier this year, I visited an exhibition at the Bodleian’s Weston Library in Oxford, ‘Kafka: Making of Icon’, that ran from 30 May until 27 October 2024, marking this centenary.

Franz Kafka (1883-1924) is one of towering literary figures of the 20th century. He was born in Prague, and when he died near Vienna he was buried in Prague. His best-known novels were published after he died, and include his novella, The Metamorphosis, first published in German as Die Verwandlung (1915), The Trial (1925), The Castle (1926), and America (1927).

In Prague, Kafka’s statue in Dusni Street stands beside the ‘Spanish Synagogue,’ there are streets named after him, and I have visited a collection of items associated with Kafka in the ‘Spanish Synagogue,’ close to where he was born.

The Catalan children’s writer Jordi Sierra i Fabra has written the story, ‘Kafka and the Travelling Doll,’ based on a real-life event in Kafka’s life and on the memoirs of Dora Diamant – she had lived with Kafka in Berlin, and he died in her arms.

It may not immediately strike readers as a Christian or Christmas story. But it is a story of incarnation, redemption and resurrection, a story of unconditional love, a story that reminds me of how ‘love came down at Christmas,’ and a story that reminds me why children should take centre stage during our Christmas celebrations.

There are many versions of this story of Kafka, including an adaptation for RTÉ read some years ago by Caitríona Ní Mhurchú:

One year before his death, Franz Kafka sees in one of Berlin’s parks, Steglitz City Park, a girl who is crying because she has lost her doll.

The writer calms her down by telling her that her doll had gone on a trip and that he, a doll postman, would take her a letter the next day.

Over 13 days, he brought a letter to the park every day in which the doll tells of her adventures, which he himself had written the night before.

‘Your doll has gone off on a trip,’ he said. ‘How do you know that?’ the girl asks.

‘Because she’s written me a letter,’ Kafka says.

The girl seems suspicious. ‘Do you have it on you?’ she asks.

‘No, I’m sorry,’ he says. ‘I left it at home by mistake, but I’ll bring it with me tomorrow.’

He’s so convincing, the girl doesn’t know what to think anymore. Can it be possible that this mysterious man is telling the truth?

The next day, Kafka rushes back to the park with the letter. The little girl is waiting for him, and since she hasn’t learned how to read yet, he reads the letter out loud to her.

The doll is very sorry, but she’s grown tired of living with the same people all the time. She needs to get out and see the world, to make new friends. It’s not that she doesn’t love the little girl, but she longs for a change of scenery, and therefore they must separate for a while. The doll then promises to write to the girl every day and keep her abreast of her activities.

‘Please do not mourn me, I have gone on a trip to see the world. I will write you of my adventures.

After a few days, the girl had forgotten about the real toy that she’d lost, and she was only thinking about the fiction that she’d been offered as a replacement.

Kafka wrote every sentence of this story in such detail, and with such humorous precision, that it made the doll’s situation completely understandable: the doll had grown up, gone to school, met other people.

She always reassured the child of her love, but made reference to the complications of her life, her other obligations and interests that prevented her from returning to their shared life right now. She asked the little girl to think about this, and in doing so she prepared her for the inevitable, for doing without her.

By that point, of course, the girl no longer misses the doll. Kafka has given her something else instead, and by the time those two weeks are up, the letters have cured her of her unhappiness. She has the story, and when a person is lucky enough to live inside a story, to live inside an imaginary world, the pains of this world disappear.

For as long as the story goes on, reality no longer exists.

One day the girl got her doll back. It was a different doll of course, bought by Kafka as a last gift for her.

An attached letter explained, ‘My travels have changed me.’

Many years later, long after Kafka’s death, the now grown girl found a letter stuffed into an unnoticed crevice in the cherished replacement doll.

In summary it said:

‘Everything that you love, you will eventually lose, but in the end, love will return in a different form.’

In the end, love will return.

But, there are so many differences … Christ’s love for us is not fiction, but is true; and he is with us, not just at Christmas, but always. And, in the end, he will return.

In the deep mid-winter, Love came down at Christmas. Have a happy and a holy Christmas.

Pages from Saint John’s Gospel, the first complete hand-written and illuminated Bible since the Renaissance, in the Holy Writ exhibition in Lichfield Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Wednesday 25 December 2024, Christmas Day):

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 ‘Love – Advent’. This theme was introduced on Sunday with Reflections by the Revd Lopa Mudra Mistry, Presbyter in the Diocese of Calcutta, the Church of North India (CNI).

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Wednesday 25 December 2024, Christmas Day) invites us to pray:

Loving God who has come to dwell among us, we celebrate with joy that with the coming of Jesus you have made a way for us to become like you. We give thanks that you chose to make yourself known in the birth of a child. Help us to receive the Son with childlike faith.

The Collect:

Almighty God,
you have given us your only-begotten Son
to take our nature upon him
and as at this time to be born of a pure virgin:
grant that we, who have been born again
and made your children by adoption and grace,
may daily be renewed by your Holy Spirit;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

God our Father,
whose Word has come among us
in the Holy Child of Bethlehem:
may the light of faith illumine our hearts
and shine in our words and deeds;
through him who is Christ the Lord.

Additional Collect:

Lord Jesus Christ,
your birth at Bethlehem
draws us to kneel in wonder at heaven touching earth:
accept our heartfelt praise
as we worship you,
our Saviour and our eternal God.

Yesterday’s Reflection

Continued Tomorrow

The first Christmas … a window in Saint Mary’s Church, Bletchley (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

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 Advent 2024: 20, Friday 20 December 2024

The ‘angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin [whose] name was Mary’ (Luke : 26-27) … the Annunciation depicted in a window in Saint Mary’s Church, St Neots, Cambridgeshire (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Patrick Comerford

We are in the final days of the Season of Advent, and Christmas Day is less than a week away. The week began with the Third Sunday of Advent (Advent III, 15 December 2024), also known as Gaudete Sunday.

As we prepare for Christmas and our carol services, the choir of Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford, is rehearsing once again this afternoon. But, before today begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, to reflect, to pray and to read in these ways:

1, 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.

The icon of the Annunciation in the iconostasis in the Greek Orthodox Church in Stony Stratford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Luke 1: 26-38 (NRSVA):

26 In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, 27 to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. 28 And he came to her and said, ‘Greetings, favoured one! The Lord is with you.’ 29 But she was much perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. 30 The angel said to her, ‘Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favour with God. 31 And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. 32 He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David. 33 He will reign over the house of Jacob for ever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.’ 34 Mary said to the angel, ‘How can this be, since I am a virgin?’ 35 The angel said to her, ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God. 36 And now, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son; and this is the sixth month for her who was said to be barren. 37 For nothing will be impossible with God.’ 38 Then Mary said, ‘Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.’ Then the angel departed from her.

The Annunciation depicted in a window in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflection:

In the Gospel reading at the Eucharist today (Luke 1: 26-38), we continue a series of readings before Christmas that draw on the two nativity narratives found in Matthew 1: 1-24 and Luke 1: 5-79.

During the week before Christmas, the great canticle Magnificat at Evensong traditionally has a refrain or antiphon attached to it proclaiming the ascriptions or ‘names’ given to God through the Old Testament. Each name develops into a prophecy of the coming of the Messiah.

O Sapientia, or O Wisdom, is the first of these days, and was marked on Tuesday (17 December). It was followed on Wednesday (18 December) by O Adonai, by O Root of Jesse yesterday (19 December), and O Key of David today (20 December), and then O Dayspring tomorrow (21 December), O King of the Nations, and, finally on 23 December, O Emmanuel.

In the old Sarum rite, these were sung one day earlier, beginning on 16 December, requiring another ascription for 23 December, this being O Virgin of Virgins. Since this was clearly apposite to the Blessed Virgin Mary, and not a ‘title’ of God, it was not adopted much beyond Sarum and, with the revision of the Calendar, Anglicans have adopted the more widely-used formulæ and dating.

The seven majestic Messianic titles for Christ are based on Biblical prophecies, and they help the Church to recall the variety of the ills of humanity before the coming of the Redeemer as each antiphon in turn pleads with mounting impatience for Christ to save his people.

The Gospel reading at the Eucharist today (Luke 1: 26-38), tells the story of the Annunciation to the Virgin Mary, a feast we usually celebrate nine months before Christmas, on 25 March. This year, however, the Annunciation was transferred from 25 March to 8 April because it fell within Holy Week.

The icon of the Annunciation presents the joy of the announcement of the coming of Christ. It is an icon of bright colours, depicting the Archangel Gabriel (left), who has come from heaven, and the Virgin Mary, who has been chosen to be the Mother of God.

The Archangel Gabriel presents the good news of the coming of Christ to Mary. He is shown with his feet spread apart as if he is running to share the good news with Mary. In his left hand is a staff, the symbol of a messenger. His right hand is extended toward Mary as he delivers the message and announces the blessing bestowed on her by God.

On the right side of the icon, the Virgin Mary sits on an elevated seat, indicating that as the Mother of God she is ‘greater in honour than the cherubim, and beyond compare more glorious than the seraphim, who without corruption gave birth to God the Word.’

In her left hand she holds a spindle of scarlet or crimson yarn that depicts the task she is engaged in of making the purple and scarlet material used in making the veil for the Temple in Jerusalem.

Her right hand is raised in a gesture of acceptance in response to the Archangel Gabriel’s message. Her posture expresses willing co-operation with God’s plan of salvation.

The three stars on the garments of the Theotokos represent that she is a Virgin before, during and after the birth of Christ.

At the top of the icon, the segment of a circle represents the divine realm from which three rays emerge. This demonstrates the action of the Holy Spirit coming upon her. In other depictions of the same icon, Christ himself – as a man – is shown in this semi-circle.

Images of the Pieta might remind us that the Virgin Mary was a mother who knew the fears and lost hopes of so many women: the women who see the death of their own children; the women who hope to be mothers and grandmothers, but never are; the women who see, experience and feel violence and violation at first-hand in their own lives; the women whose own grief is hijacked by others for their own agendas; the women of Ukraine and Russia, the women of Gaza, Israel and Palestine, the women of Lebanon and Syria.

But the Virgin Mary’s ‘Yes’ at the Annunciation is her yes, is our yes, is the ‘Yes’ of humanity and of creation, not only to the Incarnation, but also to the Crucifixion on Good Friday, and to the Resurrection on Easter Day, and all the hope for the future that Christmas and Easter bring.

The Archangel Gabriel and the Virgin Mary in icons of the Annunciation in Lichfield Cathedral (Photographs: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Today’s Prayers (Friday 20 December 2024):

The theme this week in ‘Pray With the World Church’, the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘Joy – Advent’. This theme was introduced on Sunday with Reflections by the Revd Sonja Hunter, Priest at All Saints’ Anglican Church in Samoa, Diocese of Polynesia.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Friday 20 December 2024) invites us to pray:

God, we thank you that the Anglican Church in Samoa is investing in initiatives that tell people about who you are. Please bless their boldness and openness to people of other or no faiths, that many may come to know of your saving grace.

The Collect:

O Lord Jesus Christ,
who at your first coming sent your messenger
to prepare your way before you:
grant that the ministers and stewards of your mysteries
may likewise so prepare and make ready your way
by turning the hearts of the disobedient to the wisdom of the just,
that at your second coming to judge the world
we may be found an acceptable people in your sight;
for you are alive and reign with the Father
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

We give you thanks, O Lord, for these heavenly gifts;
kindle in us the fire of your Spirit
that when your Christ comes again
we may shine as lights before his face;
who is alive and reigns now and for ever.

Additional Collect:

God for whom we watch and wait,
you sent John the Baptist to prepare the way of your Son:
give us courage to speak the truth,
to hunger for justice,
and to suffer for the cause of right,
with Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s Reflection

Continued Tomorrow

The Annunciation depicted in a large window by William Earley in the Church of the Annunciation in Clonard, Wexford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

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

Daily prayer in Advent 2024: 19, Thursday 19 December 2024

‘O Radix Jesse’ … the Tree of Jesse (1703), an icon in the Museum of Christian Art in Iraklion, Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are in the final days of the Season of Advent, and Christmas Day is less than a week away. The week began with the Third Sunday of Advent (Advent III, 15 December 2024), also known as Gaudete Sunday.

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.

The Birth of Saint the Baptist (see Luke 1: 57-66) … an icon from the Monastery of Anopolis in the Museum of Christian Art in Iraklion, Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Luke 1: 5-25 (NRSVA):

5 In the days of King Herod of Judea, there was a priest named Zechariah, who belonged to the priestly order of Abijah. His wife was a descendant of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. 6 Both of them were righteous before God, living blamelessly according to all the commandments and regulations of the Lord. 7 But they had no children, because Elizabeth was barren, and both were getting on in years.

8 Once when he was serving as priest before God and his section was on duty, 9 he was chosen by lot, according to the custom of the priesthood, to enter the sanctuary of the Lord and offer incense. 10 Now at the time of the incense-offering, the whole assembly of the people was praying outside. 11 Then there appeared to him an angel of the Lord, standing at the right side of the altar of incense. 12 When Zechariah saw him, he was terrified; and fear overwhelmed him. 13 But the angel said to him, ‘Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you will name him John. 14 You will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth, 15 for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He must never drink wine or strong drink; even before his birth he will be filled with the Holy Spirit. 16 He will turn many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God. 17 With the spirit and power of Elijah he will go before him, to turn the hearts of parents to their children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.’ 18 Zechariah said to the angel, ‘How will I know that this is so? For I am an old man, and my wife is getting on in years.’ 19 The angel replied, ‘I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you and to bring you this good news. 20 But now, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their time, you will become mute, unable to speak, until the day these things occur.’

21 Meanwhile, the people were waiting for Zechariah, and wondered at his delay in the sanctuary. 22 When he did come out, he could not speak to them, and they realized that he had seen a vision in the sanctuary. He kept motioning to them and remained unable to speak. 23 When his time of service was ended, he went to his home.

24 After those days his wife Elizabeth conceived, and for five months she remained in seclusion. She said, 25 ‘This is what the Lord has done for me when he looked favourably on me and took away the disgrace I have endured among my people.’

Saint John the Baptist as a child with his mother Saint Elizabeth … a stained-glass window in Saint Mary’s Church, Dingle, Co Kerry (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflection:

In the Gospel reading at the Eucharist today (Luke 1: 5-25), we continue in a series of readings before Christmas that draw on the two nativity narratives found in Matthew 1: 1-24 and Luke 1: 5-79.

During the week before Christmas, the great canticle Magnificat at Evensong traditionally has a refrain or antiphon attached to it proclaiming the ascriptions or ‘names’ given to God through the Old Testament. Each name develops into a prophecy of the coming of the Messiah.

O Sapientia, or O Wisdom, is the first of these days, and was marked on Tuesday (17 December). It was followed yesterday (18 December) by O Adonai, and then O Root of Jesse today (19 December), O Key of David tomorrow (20 December), and then O Dayspring, O King of the Nations, and, finally on 23 December, O Emmanuel.

In the old Sarum rite, these were sung one day earlier, beginning on 16 December, requiring another ascription for 23 December, this being O Virgin of Virgins. Since this was clearly apposite to the Blessed Virgin Mary, and not a ‘title’ of God, it was not adopted much beyond Sarum and, with the revision of the Calendar, Anglicans have adopted the more widely-used formulæ and dating.

The seven majestic Messianic titles for Christ are based on Biblical prophecies, and they help the Church to recall the variety of the ills of humanity before the coming of the Redeemer as each antiphon in turn pleads with mounting impatience for Christ to save his people.

The Gospel reading at the Eucharist today (Luke 1: 5-25), tells the story of the birth of Saint John the Baptist.

The story of Saint John the Baptist is central to the Nativity narrative, but it is interesting to note that Saint John the Baptist is also revered as a prophet in Islam and that, as Yaḥyā ibn Zakariyā, he is mentioned five times in the Qur’an.

The passages on Yāhya in the Qur’an describe his God-given gift of wisdom which he acquires in youth, as well as his parallels with Jesus. The Qur’an frequently mentions Zechariah (Zakariya) and his continuous praying for the birth of a son. Zakariya's wife Elizabeth (Isha') was barren and therefore the birth of a child seemed impossible. As a gift from God, Zakariya was given a son named Yāhya.

Islamic tradition says John the Baptist or Yāhya greeted Muhammad on the night of the Al-Isra al-Mi’raj, along with Jesus (Isa), on the second heaven. His story was also told to the Abyssinian king during the Muslim migration to Abyssinia. According to the Qur’an, Yahya was one on whom God sent peace on the day that he was born and the day that he died.

Although most Muslims do not celebrate Christmas, the birth of Jesus is also described in two places in the Qur’an: Sura 3 (Al Imram) and Sura 19 (Maryam), and in popular Muslim belief the second coming or return of Jesus is to take place at the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus.

The Minaret of Jesus is the tallest of the three minarets of the Umayyad Mosque, also known as the Great Mosque of Damascus mosque. Muslims and Christians alike also revere that mosque as the burial place of the head of John the Baptist.

Syria itself is a central location in understanding the beginnings of Christianity: in his popular hymn ‘Dear Lord and Father of Mankind’, John Greenleaf Whittier locates Christ’s ministry and miracles ‘by the Syrian Sea’; Saint Luke’s Gospel dates the first Christmas to the time ‘while Quirinius was governor of Syria’ (Luke 2: 2); later, Saint Paul experiences his dramatic conversion on the road to Damascus (Acts 9: 1-22); and it was in Antioch, long a part of Syria, that the disciples are first called ‘Christians’ (Acts 11: 25).

Recent events in Syria are a reminder that the Christmas story is a story shared by all people in that region. When Syrians celebrated the fall of the Assad regime at Friday prayers last week (13 December), they converged in their thousands on the Umayyad Mosque.

Saint John the Baptist remains a key figure for all who are engaged in Christian-Muslim dialogue.

The Chapel and the Hospital of Saint John Baptist without the Barrs, Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Today’s Prayers (Thursday 19 December 2024):

The theme this week in ‘Pray With the World Church’, the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘Joy – Advent’. This theme was introduced on Sunday with Reflections by the Revd Sonja Hunter, Priest at All Saints’ Anglican Church in Samoa, Diocese of Polynesia.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Thursday 19 December 2024) invites us to pray:

Father, we pray for the Anglican Church in Samoa and all dioceses across the Communion who welcome many to church over the Christmas period. We pray that churches may be places of welcome, and the services may glorify you and be moments of great joy.

The Collect:

O Lord Jesus Christ,
who at your first coming sent your messenger
to prepare your way before you:
grant that the ministers and stewards of your mysteries
may likewise so prepare and make ready your way
by turning the hearts of the disobedient to the wisdom of the just,
that at your second coming to judge the world
we may be found an acceptable people in your sight;
for you are alive and reign with the Father
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

We give you thanks, O Lord, for these heavenly gifts;
kindle in us the fire of your Spirit
that when your Christ comes again
we may shine as lights before his face;
who is alive and reigns now and for ever.

Additional Collect:

God for whom we watch and wait,
you sent John the Baptist to prepare the way of your Son:
give us courage to speak the truth,
to hunger for justice,
and to suffer for the cause of right,
with Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s Reflection

Continued Tomorrow

Saint John the Baptist depicted in a window in the Chapel of Saint John’s Hospital, Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

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

Saint John the Baptist depicted in the east window in the south chapel of the Church of Saint John the Baptist, Spon Street, Coventry (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)