Readings, hymns and sermon ideas for Sunday 28 February 2021, the Second Sunday in Lent

Simon of Cyrene takes up the Cross and follows Christ … Station 5 in the Stations of the Cross in Saint Mel’s Cathedral, Longford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

Sunday next [28 February 2021] is the Second Sunday in Lent. The readings in the Revised Common Lectionary as adapted for use in the Church of Ireland are:

The Readings: Genesis 17: 1-7 and 15-16; Psalm 22: 23-31; Romans 4: 13-25; Mark 8: 31-38.

There is a link to the readings HERE.

How many of us are continuing on the Lenten journey? (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Introduction:

Lent in Ireland has traditionally been a time for making resolutions – resolutions that are often like New Year’s resolutions. We start out well, giving up drinks, or sweets, or smoking or chocolate – at least for the first week or two.

But now that we are into the second week of Lent, I imagine Lenten resolutions are much forgotten already, just like New Year’s resolutions.

How many of us can remember what your New Year’s resolution was this year?

And if we can remember it, have we stuck to it?

How many of us are continuing on the Lenten journey?

Yet, we often start doing things like this, not as spiritual disciplines, but to reshape, remould ourselves in an image and likeness that I or my friends will find more acceptable.

And when we fail, when we go back to our old habits, how often we feel precisely that – that I’m a failure, that I am worth a little less in the eyes of others, that I’m not quite as close to perfection as I thought I might be

And we are constantly reminded in advertising and through the media of the need to be perfect. If only I drove this car, had that new DVD player for home viewings, cooked in that well-stocked kitchen, or drank that tempting new wine or beer, then I would be closer to others seeing me like a perfect Greek god.

Yet the lectionary readings next Sunday are a call to put aside the struggle to conform to outside demands and pressures, and instead to journey in faith with God.

‘Ibrahim/Abraham/Avraham’ by Stephen Raw in the ‘Holy Writ’ exhibition in Lichfield Cathedral, which brought together the traditions of the Abrahamic faiths (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Genesis 17: 1-7, 15-16

On the First Sunday in Lent [21 February 2021], we heard a story of journey and covenant when we read about Noah, his family, and the journey in the ark that ends with a new covenant not only with Noah, not just with his family, but with all humanity and all creation.

This story the following Sunday is a story about the next major journey in Genesis that ends with a new covenant, not just with Abraham, not just with his family, but with all humanity and all creation.

Abraham’s journey in Genesis is a struggle to better understand God and to discern his place in God’s plan. Along the way, Abraham learns that no one individual has a monopoly on God’s covenant.

A covenant is between two parties, each of whom have benefits and obligations; it is made by both and can be terminated by either.

However, God’s covenant with Abram is different. It is God who makes the covenant (verses 2, 6) and God who and establishes it (verse 7). Most of the obligations rest with God, and most of the benefits are designed for Abram. God promises to make Abram ‘the ancestor of a multitude of nations’ (verse 4), giving him ‘numerous’ descendants (verse 2) and giving him for ever the land of Canaan where he is now an alien (verse 8).

It is not clear how God is to benefit. But Abram has one obligation, to ‘walk before [God] and be blameless’ (verse 1). In return, God will never break the pact (verse 7), and it applies to Abraham and his descendants.

As a sign of this covenant, all males will be circumcised soon after birth, so that they will carry the sign or mark of this covenant as part of their life-long journey, their life-long identity. A man who is born a Jew can never forget that he is born a Jew. As the poet-singer Leonard Cohen sings in his poem/song, ‘First we take Manhattan’:

I’m guided by a signal in the heavens (guided, guided)
I’m guided by this birthmark on my skin

Abram becomes Abraham; his change in name is significant (verse 5): the gift of a new name signifies a new relationship, a new status, a new stage in life.

Sarai shares in God’s blessing; she too has a change of name and becomes Sarah (verse 15). She will be blessed with fertility; she too will ‘give rise to nations’ (v. 16) and kings (verse 16).

But Sarai is childless and elderly and has not given Abram an heir. Abraham laughs in disbelief at the idea that Sarah is going to have a son (verse 17). He will be named Isaac, meaning ‘May God laugh in delight.’

Not only will Sarah have a child, but Abraham and Sarah will be the ancestors of a people that shall share in this covenant, and shall be the ancestors of the Messiah.

The story of Joseph, Mary and Jesus is deeply woven into the story of Abraham, Sarah and Isaac. We too can laugh with God, for we have been incorporated into a covenantal relationship with God through Christ.

We are to be a people who are peaceful and a blessing to all. We are to be a people who go and a people who find God out in the world. We are a people who have a covenant with God, who see God at work in the world, and who show this to the world.

This story is also a counter-balance to tendencies to overemphasise personal salvation. The story of salvation is not about a personal covenant but about a covenant with a whole family, that expands to a whole people, and that then widens out to the whole of humanity. There are no individual, solo Christians, we are always in partnership with God and with others who are invited into that covenant.

God’s promise to Abraham and Sarah in their old age changes the course of history not just for one person, one couple, one family, but for the whole of humanity … a painting in the Jewish Museum in Krakow (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Psalm 22: 23-31

This psalm is a prayer for deliverance from illness. The psalmist, who is gravely ill, feels that God has forsaken him. But he offers thanksgiving in the Temple and in this portion of the psalm he comes to the conclusion that God hears the voice of the poor and the hungry (verse 26).

God is the God of all people and nations, to the ends of the earth, and the God of the generations to come, a people yet unborn (verse 31).

The Colosseum in Rome … Saint Paul describes Abraham to the Church in Rome as an archetype of faithfulness (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Romans 4: 13-25

Earlier in this Epistle (Chapter 2-3), the Apostle Paul argues that through the Gospel, it is faith that brings humanity into harmony with God. Now he considers Abraham as an example. At the time, it was believed that God’s blessings came to Abraham because he kept the Law of the Covenant.

Here, however, Saint Paul argues that Abraham was blessed because he believed, because he had faith that he would be the father of a nation and a source of blessing for ‘all ... families’ (Genesis 12: 3). Those who are part of God’s covenant and family are not those who keep the law, but those who have faith in God.

Our relationship with God is founded on faith (verse 16), and on God’s free gift of love or grace. If it was based on law, we would all break the law continually, and find ourselves outside God’s covenant. But it is based on faith, and so Abraham is the spiritual ancestor of us all (verse 17; see Genesis 17: 5).

Sarah becomes the mother of Isaac because of God’s promise and because of this faith. Contrary to expectations, Abraham, who had every reason to doubt that he would become a father, believed because of the hope given by God’s promise, his faith grew stronger as he thanked God for this gift (verse 20), and he found a right relationship with God (verse 22).

For Saint Paul, Abraham is an archetype of faithfulness, but not because of what he did. For Saint Paul, faith is much more than keeping the law – it is about accepting God’s gift, about keeping faith in God’s promise. God loves us because God has created us worthy of God’s love.

We may choose to live life differently, but we can never be perfect. But we can freely receive God’s promise, God’s love, and God’s mercy, and our faith is our response to that promise.

‘Let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me’ (Mark 8: 34) … Simon of Cyrene takes up the Cross, Station 5 in the Stations of the Cross in Friars’ graveyard in Gormanston, Co Meath (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Mark 8: 31-38

We have been reading about the journey of Abraham, and the promise that goes with being faithful on that journey. Now Jesus and the disciples are on the journey from Bethsaida to the villages of Caesarea Philippi (Mark 8: 27) in today’s Golan Heights and then a centre of the cult of Pan, from an area inhabited by Jews, by people of the Covenant, to an area that is Greek-speaking and inhabited by many Gentiles.

On the way, some of the disciples reveal that they are not quite sure who Jesus is. Some may think he is another John the Baptist or Elijah, or another prophet. But Peter recognises that Jesus is the promised Messiah (Mark 8: 29), even though he cannot yet know the meaning of this declaration of faith, or the cost of discipleship that it implies.

Jesus then speaks openly about his forthcoming death and resurrection. But Peter, who has just confessed his faith in Christ, now takes him aside to rebuke him, only to be rebuked himself. When Peter impetuously rejects Christ’s teaching, he is told that he is under the influence of the devil: he is relying on human values, not divine ones (verse 33).

Yet, Peter’s reaction is a normal reaction. Who would want to continue on a journey like this, to face a short-term future like this, without knowing the long-term promises, the full promises of God?

Christ then describes true discipleship: first, a disciple must renounce self-centeredness (verse 34) and follow him. Those who are prepared to give even their lives for his sake and for the sake of spreading the good news (verse 35) will find true life. But those who opt for material well-being deny their true selves and lose out (verses 35-37).

There is a cost to discipleship, but the challenge to take up the Cross and follow Christ is open to the crowd, not just to the disciples, is open to Gentiles and not just Jews, is open to all (see verses 34-38).

God in Christ has come to enfold humanity. The cross will not stop the proclamation of the Good News, nor will it keep salvation history from breaking into the cosmos.

So often, in the face of criticism, the Christian response is either to shut down or to retreat to a different understanding of God and Jesus. But Christ tells the people that if they want to follow him on the journey, there is a cost to discipleship.

We are challenged on this Second Sunday in Lent to take up our cross and follow Christ on that journey.

Christianity cannot be reduced to an individual mental or philosophical decision. It is a journey with Christ and with not only the disciples but with the crowd, the many, who are also invited to join that journey.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer distinguishes between cheap grace and costly grace, and reminds us of the ‘Cost of Discipleship’

Some reflections: the Cost of Discipleship

Saint Mark’s Gospel next Sunday reminds us of our failings in discipleship, in taking up the cross. How often we want God to be a god made in our image and likeness, rather than us being shaped in God’s image and likeness.

And that is how the disciples behave in this Gospel reading. They want Jesus to be a messiah who will meet their expectations. When Jesus starts telling his disciples what sort of demands are being laid on them if they want to be his followers, they react with shock and horror at what he has to say.

They were not expecting a counter-cultural Messiah, a Messiah who would be rejected by the social and religious leaders of the day. They were expecting a lot more than that. And they were hoping that the coming of the Messiah would make things easier and more comfortable rather than more making things more difficult and more demanding.

Peter takes Jesus aside and gives him a good ticking off. After all, who did this Jesus think he was? If he was going to be the Messiah, he had better start behaving like one, like one that had been expected to act … to act with power and command.

When we find we fall short of other people’s expectations, it is often not because of who we are, but because of other people’s expectations – false expectations – of us.

How often have you heard someone say, ‘I’m surprised to hear you say that,’ or ‘That’s not the way I expected you to behave’?

And how often do we do that to God?

How often do we pray to God expecting God to do something? And if we do not get the answer to our prayers, we blame God for not answering me, for not being God in my image and likeness – instead of praying to God and asking to be more in God’s image and likeness?

The beginning of the creation story is that we are made in God’s image and likeness. The beginning of the Gospel stories is that God in Christ took on our image and likeness. Now Lent, in part, is about preparing to accept that in taking on our true image and likeness.

God in Christ totally identifies with us – with all that is difficult in life, with all that is messy and dirty in our lives, with all that is painful and gross in my life – to the point of actually dying in the most messy, dirty, painful and gross way possible.

If Peter knew what was ahead of him, he might have been even stronger in rebuking Christ in this Gospel reading. But the triumph comes not in getting what we want, not in engineering things so that God gives us what we desire and wish for, so that we get a Jesus who does the things we want him to do. The triumph comes in a few weeks’ time, at Easter, in the Resurrection.

True discipleship and true prayer mean making God’s priorities my priorities: the poor, the sick, the imprisoned, the isolated, the marginalised, the victims, the unloved. It that is difficult, nobody said that being a Christian was going to be easy, that being a Christian would not cost anything.

As the German martyr and theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer might have put it, being a disciple means having to pay the cost of discipleship. There is no cheap Christianity and there is no cheap grace.

‘Let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me’ (Mark 8: 34) … the Byzantine-style crucifix by Laurence King (1907-1981) in the crypt of Saint Mary le Bow on Cheapside in London (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Mark 8: 31-38 (NRSVA):

31 Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. 32 He said all this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. 33 But turning and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, ‘Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.’

34 He called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them, ‘If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 35 For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it. 36 For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life? 37 Indeed, what can they give in return for their life? 38 Those who are ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of them the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.’

‘Let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me’ (Mark 8: 34) … Simon of Cyrene takes up the Cross, Station 5 in the Stations of the Cross in the chapel of Saint John’s Hospital, Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Liturgical resources:

Liturgical colour: Violet.

The canticle Gloria may be omitted in Lent.

Traditionally in Anglicanism, the doxology or Gloria at the end of Canticles and Psalms is also omitted during Lent.

Penitential Kyries:

In the wilderness we find your grace:
you love us with an everlasting love.
Lord, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.

There is none but you to uphold our cause;
our sin cries out and our guilt is great.
Christ, have mercy.
Christ, have mercy.

Heal us, O Lord, and we shall be healed;
Restore us and we shall know your joy.
Lord, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.

The Collect of the Day:

Almighty God,
you show to those who are in error the light of your truth
that they may return to the way of righteousness:
Grant to all those who are admitted
into the fellowship of Christ’s religion,
that they may reject those things
that are contrary to their profession,
and follow all such things
as are agreeable to the same;
through our Lord Jesus Christ.

The Lenten Collect:

Almighty and everlasting God,
you hate nothing that you have made
and forgive the sins of all those who are penitent:
Create and make in us new and contrite hearts
that we, worthily lamenting our sins
and acknowledging our wretchedness,
may receive from you, the God of all mercy,
perfect remission and forgiveness;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

The Collect of the Word:

God of all times and places,
in Jesus Christ, who was lifted up on the cross,
you opened for us the path to eternal life:
grant that we, being born again of water and the Holy Spirit,
may joyfully serve you in newness of life
and faithfully walk in your holy ways;
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you
and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.

Introduction to the Peace:

Being justified by faith,
we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. (Romans 5: 1, 2)

Preface:

Through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who was in every way tempted as we are yet did not sin;
by whose grace we are able to overcome all our temptations:

The Post-Communion Prayer:

Creator of heaven and earth,
we thank you for these holy mysteries
given us by our Lord Jesus Christ,
by which we receive your grace
and are assured of your love,
which is through him now and for ever.

Blessing:

Christ give you grace to grow in holiness,
to deny yourselves,
and to take up your cross and follow him:

God’s covenant with Abraham makes him ‘the ancestor of a multitude of nations’ … a menorah in the Synagogue in Thessaloniki (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Suggested hymns:

Genesis 17: 1-7, 15-16:

545, Sing of Eve and sing of Adam
323, The God of Abraham praise

Psalm 22: 23-31

581, I, the Lord of sea and sky
8, The Lord is King! lift up your voice
493, Ye servants of God, your master proclaim

Romans 4: 13-25

418, Here, O my Lord, I see thee face to face
545, Sing of Eve and sing of Adam
244, There is a green hill far away

Mark 8: 31-38

608, Be still and know that I am God
93, I danced in the morning when the world was begun
94, In the name of Jesus
588, Light of the minds that known him
59, New every morning is the love
108, Praise to the Holiest in the height
599, ‘Take up thy cross’, the Saviour said
605, Will you come and follow me

‘Take up thy cross’, the Saviour said (Hymn 599) … the East Window in the Church of Saint Mary and Saint Nicholas, Beaumaris on the Isle of Anglesey (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Full resources for Lent and Holy Week 2021, published on 3 February 2021, are available HERE

Material from the Book of Common Prayer is copyright © 2004, Representative Body of the Church of Ireland.

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

The hymn suggestions are provided in Sing to the Word (2000), edited by Bishop Edward Darling. The hymn numbers refer to the Church of Ireland’s Church Hymnal (5th edition, Oxford: OUP, 2000).

‘I danced in the morning when the world was begun’ (Hymn 599) … dancing in the square in front of the Cathedral of the Holy Cross and Saint Eulalia, Barcelona, on Easter morning (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Readings, hymns and sermon ideas for Sunday 21 February 2021, the First Sunday in Lent

The Triptych of the Baptism of Christ in the Chapel of Saint John’s Hospital, Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

Sunday next, 21 February 2021, is the First Sunday in Lent.

The readings in the Revised Common Lectionary (RCL) as adapted for use in the Church of Ireland are:

The Readings:Genesis 9: 8-17; Psalm 25: 1-9; I Peter 3: 18-22; Mark 1: 9-15.

An icon of the Baptism of Christ, worked on a cut of olive wood by Eleftheria Syrianoglou, in an exhibition in the Fortezza in Rethymnon, Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Putting the readings in context:

The Gospel reading, in a style so typical of Saint Mark’s Gospel, tells four stories, one immediately after the other, in short, pithy, summarised ways, punctuated with the word καὶ (‘and’): the Baptism of Christ in the Jordan; the 40 days Christ spends in the wilderness; the arrest of Saint John the Baptist, and the beginning of Christ’s ministry in Galilee.

The theme of 40 days in the wilderness makes an obvious connection with the start of the Season of Lent. But first we should ask how the readings connect with the Gospel theme and with Lent too?

How do we put them in context?

Noah and Abraham … a window in Saint John’s Church, Wall, near Lichfield, shows Noah (left) holding the ark in his arms (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Genesis 9: 8-17

This first reading comes immediately after the Flood. During the flood, Noah has self-isolated with his family in a wooden ark for 40 days and 40 nights, while the world as they’d known it drowns in a deluge of rain and rising seas. The waters have receded, and Noah, his family and the remaining animals have set foot on dry land. Immediately before this reading (Genesis 9: 1-3), God renews the promise made at creation (Genesis 1), and again gives the commands: ‘Be fruitful and multiply.’

With this is a warning about the need to show respect for all human life: because humanity is made in the image of God, wilful bloodshed must be accounted for to God (verses 5-6).

God makes a ‘covenant’ (verse 9) with Noah, his sons and ‘every living creature’ (verse 10). Because it is from his sons that ‘the whole earth’ (verse 19) shall be ‘peopled,’ the agreement is between God and all humanity. He will never again destroy humankind (verses 11, 15, 16). This covenant is with all creatures and with ‘the earth’ (verse 13) itself, and it is an ‘everlasting covenant’ (verse 16).

Ancient people imagined a rainbow as a divine warrior’s weapon, his ‘bow’ (verse 13), and that the flashes of lighting were his arrows. But God turns this around and instead makes the bow as a visible sign of the covenant. God’s ‘bow’ is in the clouds, not on earth, showing us that God is no longer angry with humanity.

When the rains come, they will not continue ceaselessly any more but shall end with a rainbow, which is now a sign of hope. The story of the Flood teaches us that God judges the world according to human behaviour, punishes evil, and rescues the worthy.

‘Noah and the Dove’ by Simon Manby in 2006 … a sculpture in the gardens of Saint John’s Hospital, Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Psalm 25: 1-10

The psalmist prays that God will show him his way (verses 4, 8 and 9) and his ‘paths’ (verses 4 and 10). He trusts in God (verse 2), and he hopes that God will deliver him from his personal enemies. May none who trust in God be shamed or be subject to treachery. Instead, those who follow God’s ways will be saved (verse 6).

The psalmist trusts that God will forgive his sins through his mercy and love.He prays that God may remember his present fidelity rather than his youthful deviances (verse 7). God instructs sinners (verse 8), and he leads and teaches the humble and those who respect him (verse 9).

Abel and Enoch in a window in Saint John’s Church, Wall, near Lichfield … the story of Enoch is recalled in I Peter 3: 19 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

I Peter 3: 18-22

Before this reading, the author writes: ‘Always be ready to make your defence to anyone who demands from you an accounting for the hope that is in you … Keep your conscience clear, so that, when you are maligned, those who abuse you for your good conduct in Christ may be put to shame’ (verses 15-16). We are called to do more than defend ourselves: we are to respond to any request for an explanation of our ‘hope,’ engage the outsider in conversation, even though this may lead to suffering, for which Christ is the example.

Christ suffered for the sins of us all (verse 18). He is ‘the righteous,’ and he brings us to God. He really died (‘in the flesh’), but he overcame death and rose to new life.

In verses 19-20, the reader is reminded of the story that angelic beings had intercourse with women, and so broke the boundary between heaven and earth (see Genesis 6: 1-4). In late Judaism, people believed that this action provoked the Flood. In I Enoch, an apocryphal book known when this epistle was written, Enoch goes on God’s behalf to tell these beings that they are confined to prison. The story of Enoch is applied to the risen Christ in verse 19, and the ‘spirits in prison’ are these bad angels.

During the building of the ark, God waited patiently for humanity to turn to him, but no-one did (verse 20). The eight people are Noah, his wife, their three sons, and their wives.

Then in verse 21, we are told how baptism also involves water, but in a different way. Its role is not ritual cleansing (‘removal of dirt’); baptism saves us, putting us in a condition to be found worthy by God at the Last Day (‘appeal’), sharing as we do in Christ’s death and resurrection. Christ has gone to heaven and is in God’s place of honour (on his ‘right hand’, verse 22), and he has angelic beings (‘angels, authorities, and power’) subject to him. God saved people in the past; now he saves us through Baptism.

‘And the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness’ (Mark 1: 12) (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Mark 1: 9-15

Saint John the Baptist has come, ‘proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins’ (verse 4). Many have taken the opportunity to start new lives in God. Jesus, too, is baptised by Saint John – Saint Mark does not tell us why. The opening of the heavens symbolises the start of a new mode of communication between God and humanity.

The description of the Holy Spirit ‘descending like a dove’ (verse 10) recalls the Spirit hovering over the waters of creation in Genesis 1: 2. For Saint Mark, the ‘voice ... from heaven’ (verse 11) confirms the already existing relationship between God and Christ.

Saint Matthew (Matthew 4: 1-11) and Saint Luke (Luke 4: 1-13) describe Christ’s temptation in the wilderness in detail, but Saint Mark mentions it only briefly.

All three synoptic Gospels say that Christ overcame tempting and enticement by the devil. Satan (verse 13) is the supreme demon whose kingdom is now ending. The forty days (verse 13) recalls the 40 days and nights of the flood and Israel’s 40 years in the ‘wilderness.’ But it also echoes the 40 days of testing Moses endured when the covenant was renewed after the golden calf incident (Exodus 34: 28). Elijah also spent 40 days on Mount Sinai (see I Kings 19: 8).

The wilderness was probably the Judaean desert, which was regarded as the home of demons. There too, he was in danger of being attacked by wild beasts, but angels wait on him and protect him.

The word Saint Mark uses in verse 14 for arrest also occurs in the story of Christ’s passion and death. So Saint John’s fate foreshadows the arrest and death of Christ.

Christ then returns to Galilee. His message begins with: ‘The time is fulfilled’ (verse 15). This is the time appointed by God. The decisive time for God’s action has arrived. ‘The kingdom of God has come near’ (verse 15). The final era of history is imminent, and Christ calls people to start a new life in God’s way, to ‘repent, and believe in the good news’ (verse 15). We could say the whole of Saint Mark’s Gospel builds on this verse, and is an explication of it.

Is your Lent going to be an opportunity to be part of the new creation in Christ?

Is your Lent going to be a time to take account of your own hidden temptations?

Is your Lent going to be a time to explore your own wilderness places and to be aware of them?

Is your Lent going to be a time of preparation for the acceptance of the Kingdom of God?

‘Driven by the Spirit into the Wilderness’ (1942), by Stanley Spencer (1891-1959)

An appropriate painting to illustrate our reflections on this Gospel reading as we prepare a sermon for the First Sunday in Lent is the painting Driven by the Spirit into the Wilderness (1942), by the English painter Stanley Spencer (1891-1959).

This painting is inspired by a verse in this Gospel reading: ‘And the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness’ (Mark 1: 12). It is one a series of beautiful and compelling paintings, Christ in the Wilderness, produced by Spencer between 1939 and 1945, portraying the 40 days Christ spent in the wilderness.

Stanley Spencer was one of 11 children, born in in 1891 in Cookham, a small Thames-side village in Berkshire where his grandfather was the village builder. His father William was a professional musician and organist at a nearby church, with a passion for reading and discussing the Bible out loud with his family each evening.

Spencer was in the Royal Army Medical Corps in World War I with the field ambulances in Macedonia. It was an experience that had a profound effect on him as an artist, and the memories of war infiltrated his spirit.

Spencer became well known for his paintings depicting Biblical scenes occurring as if in Cookham, the village where he was born and lived much of his life. The best-known of these works must be The Resurrection, Cookham (1923-1927), which is clearly set in the village and with actual villagers portrayed taking part in Resurrection on Easter morning in the parish churchyard.

In 1938, Spencer moved to London and started working on the Christ in the Wilderness series in his bedsit in Swiss Cottage. In the 1950s, many of the paintings in the series were exhibited in Spencer’s parish church in Cookham. He died of cancer on 14 December 1959.

In this painting, Spencer shows the massive figure of Christ striding through a bleak and desolate land. Yet we can see the promise of resurrection in the figure of Christ.

He was in the wilderness for forty days (Mark 1: 13) … on Gramvousa, off the coast of Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Mark 1: 9-15 (NRSVA):

9 In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. 10 And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him. 11 And a voice came from heaven, ‘You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.’

12 And the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. 13 He was in the wilderness for forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him.

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.’

The Baptism of Christ depicted in a window in Saint Brigid’s Church, Ardagh, Co Longford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Liturgical resources:

Liturgical Colour: Violet.

The canticle Gloria may be omitted in Lent.

Traditionally in Anglicanism, the doxology or Gloria at the end of Canticles and Psalms is also omitted during Lent.

Penitential Kyries:

In the wilderness we find your grace:
you love us with an everlasting love.
Lord, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.

There is none but you to uphold our cause;
our sin cries out and our guilt is great.
Christ, have mercy.
Christ, have mercy.

Heal us, O Lord, and we shall be healed;
Restore us and we shall know your joy.
Lord, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.

The Collect of the Day:

Almighty God,
whose Son Jesus Christ fasted forty days in the wilderness,
and was tempted as we are, yet without sin:
Give us grace to discipline ourselves
in obedience to your Spirit;
and, as you know our weakness,
so may we know your power to save;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

The Lenten Collect:

Almighty and everlasting God,
you hate nothing that you have made
and forgive the sins of all those who are penitent:
Create and make in us new and contrite hearts
that we, worthily lamenting our sins
and acknowledging our wretchedness,
may receive from you, the God of all mercy,
perfect remission and forgiveness;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

This collect may be said after the Collect of the Day until Easter Eve.

The Collect of the Word:

Holy God,
heavenly Father,
in the waters of the flood you saved the chosen,
and in the wilderness of temptation
you protected your Son from sin.
Renew us in the gift of baptism.
May your holy angels be with us,
that the wicked foe may have no power over us,
through Jesus Christ our Saviour and Lord,
who lives and reigns with you
and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Introduction to the Peace:

Being justified by faith,
we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. (Romans 5: 1, 2)

Preface:

Through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who was in every way tempted as we are yet did not sin;
by whose grace we are able to overcome all our temptations:

Post Communion Prayer:

Lord God,
you renew us with the living bread from heaven.
Nourish our faith,
increase our hope,
strengthen our love,
and enable us to live by every word
that proceeds from out of your mouth;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Blessing:

Christ give you grace to grow in holiness,
to deny yourselves,
and to take up your cross and follow him:

The Baptism of Christ depicted in a fifth century mosaic in the Neonian Baptistry in Ravenna (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Suggested hymns:

Genesis 9: 8-17:

592, O Love that wilt not let me go

Psalm 25: 1-9:

17, Lead me, Lord, lead me in thy righteousness
(Treoragh mé, treoragh mé a Thiarna)
652, Lead us, heavenly Father, lead us
712, Tell out, my soul, the greatness of the Lord

I Peter 3: 18-22:

218, And can it be that I should gain
260, Christ is alive! Let Christians sing
257, Christ is the world’s Redeemer
417, He gave his life in selfless love
553, Jesu, lover of my soul
431, Lord, enthroned in heavenly splendour
229, My God, I love thee; not because
102, Name of all majesty
234, O Love divine, what hast thou done?
214, O Love, how deep, how broad, how high (verses 1-3, 7)
235, O sacred head, sore wounded
177, Once in royal David’s city (verses 1, 2, 5, 6)
439, Once, only once, and once for all
200, The sinless one to Jordan came
244, There is a green hill far away

Mark 1: 9-15:

66, Before the ending of the day (verses 1, 2, 3d)
207, Forty days and forty nights
668, God is our fortress and our rock
324, God, whose almighty word
322, I bind unto myself today (verses 1, 2, 8 and 9)
652, Lead us, heavenly Father, lead us
635, Lord, be my guardian and my guide
637, O for a closer walk with God
363, O Lord of heaven and earth and sea
136, On Jordan’s bank the Baptist’s cry
595, Safe in the shadow of the Lord
197, Songs of thankfulness and praise
341, Spirit divine, attend our prayers
200,The sinless one to Jordan came
204, When Jesus came to Jordan

He was in the wilderness for forty days (Mark 1: 13) … the Kourtaliotilo Gorge in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Material from the Book of Common Prayer is copyright © 2004, Representative Body of the Church of Ireland.

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

The hymn suggestions are provided in Sing to the Word (2000), edited by Bishop Edward Darling. The hymn numbers refer to the Church of Ireland’s Church Hymnal (5th edition, Oxford: OUP, 2000).

He was in the wilderness for forty days (Mark 1: 13) … at the edge of Ireland on Mizen Head (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Readings, hymns and sermon ideas for Wednesday 17 February 2021, Ash Wednesday

The Crucifixion depicted in the East Window in Holy Cross Church, Kenmare, Co Kerry (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

Patrick Comerford

Next Wednesday, 17 February 2021, is Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent.

The readings for the principal service on Ash Wednesday are the same each year and do not vary.

Readings: Joel 2: 1-2, 12-17 or Isaiah 58: 1-12; Psalm 51: 1-18; II Corinthians 5: 20b to 6: 10; Matthew 6: 1-6, 16-21.

There is a link to the readings HERE.

The Crucifixion and the Harrowing of Hell, depicted in a chapel in Saint John’s Monastery, Tolleshunt Knights, Essex (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Introducing Ash Wednesday:

It is striking how often in the Bible encounters with God take place on a mountain top: Mount Sinai, Mount Zion, the Mount of Olives, Calvary and the Ascension from the mount called Olivet.

On the previous Sunday [14 February 2021], in our Gospel reading, we hear the story of the Transfiguration, where Christ is presented on a high mountain as the Father’s beloved Son, and placed on either side of him are Moses and Elijah – for Christ is truly the fulfilment of the Law and the Prophets, of all of God’s promises.

In the Gospel reading for Ash Wednesday, we meet Christ as we as we listen to his Sermon on the Mount.

In Lent, we are preparing once again for Good Friday and for Easter. This season began not as a time of repentance, but as a time of preparation for the catechumens – those preparing for baptism at Easter, those preparing to die with Christ and to rise again with Christ.

Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent, is a day that is often marked by the spiritual disciplines of fasting, abstinence from meat, and repentance. And so, the Book of Common Prayer designates Ash Wednesday as a day of ‘special observance’ and a day of ‘discipline and self-denial.’

For many in this culture, it is a day associated with long faces, the joyless giving up of some questionable pleasures – such as smoking – and of doing so in a way that sometimes amounts to self-indulgent penitence.

But, instead, this should really be the start of a time of preparation, a time to look forward to our real hope and joy. For the countdown is beginning – Ash Wednesday is only 40 days from Easter.

Perhaps Easter is in danger of losing all meaning in society today. Just like people readily sing Christmas carols even before Advent begins, people are now eating Cadbury’s crème eggs long before Lent begins – without ever thinking of the symbolism the egg once carried of the gravestone being rolled back on Easter morn and new life rising in joy.

But just as the whole point of Advent is looking forward with joyful anticipation to Christmas, so too should Lent be a time of looking forward with joyful anticipation to Easter.

And in so many ways that tone – that set of values or priorities – is captured by TS Eliot in his first long poem, ‘Ash Wednesday.’

This poem has been described as Eliot’s conversion poem. It was written to mark his conversion to Anglicanism over 90 years ago, on 29 June 1927, although it was not published until 1930. In this poem, he answers the despair found in The Waste Land, and this is a poem that is less about penitence and more about repentance.

In ‘Ash Wednesday,’ Eliot deals with the struggles that arise when one who once lacked faith turns and strives to move towards God. In this poem, he writes about his hopes to move from spiritual barrenness to hope for human salvation. And that is what Lent and the spiritual disciplines we associate with it are all about.

Burning Palm Crosses from Palm Sunday to prepare ashes for Ash Wednesday (Photograph: Barbara Comerford)

Ashes on Ash Wednesday

In some parishes, people come forward for ashes. The practice is more common among our neighbours and throughout the Anglican Communion than in the Church of Ireland. Despite its gradual introduction in the Church of Ireland, some people are more reserved, bearing in mind, perhaps, the words of Christ in the Gospel reading: ‘And whenever you fast, do not look dismal like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces so as to show others that they are fasting … But when you fast, put oil on your face and wash your face …’ (Matthew 6: 16-17).

Those words are not merely wise, but words that reprove those who would misrepresent the meaning of the Lenten fast. For I sometimes think that the misrepresentation and misinterpretation of Lent has, in turn, deprived many of its true meaning and significance.

Writing in the Guardian some years ago [2010], the Orthodox theologian Aaron Taylor wrote of how he hoped that the Lenten fast ‘must never become a source of pride on the one hand, or something oppressive on the other. It is a measuring stick for our individual practice … [it] is primarily about obedience, and thus humility. But it also creates a sense of need and sobriety. It teaches us to seek our consolation in things of the spirit rather than of the flesh.’

He pointed out that fasting ‘is merely a physical accompaniment to the real heart and joy of Lent: the prayer and worship that are intensified during this season …’ and he referred to the ‘joy-making mourning’ recommended by an early writer, Saint John Klimakos, in The Ladder of Divine Ascent, to the ‘bright sadness’ of Lent.

At Lent, we should remind ourselves that we have all fallen short, so that we are not the people we should be. We all too easily focus on ourselves. But true Lenten fasting allows us to experience a sense of freedom as we relinquish our self-centredness and can produce joy in our hearts – just what TS Eliot experienced, just what we pray for in the Collect of Ash Wednesday.

And Aaron Taylor added: ‘If we do not to some extent attain to this joy-through-mourning, we have entirely missed the point of Lent.’

He concluded his ‘Face to Faith’ column in the Guardian by saying: ‘As long as there is evil in the world, we can be sure that some of it still lies hidden in our hearts. And as long as we are able to shed tears over our condition, there remains hope that we will one day see the glorious day of resurrection.’

Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world … the Byzantine-style crucifix by Laurence King (1907-1981) in the crypt of Saint Mary le Bow, Cheapside, London (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Matthew 6: 1-6, 16-21 (NRSVA):

1 [Jesus said:] ‘Beware of practising your piety before others in order to be seen by them; for then you have no reward from your Father in heaven.

2 ‘So whenever you give alms, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be praised by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. 3 But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4 so that your alms may be done in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

5 ‘And whenever you pray, do not be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, so that they may be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. 6 But whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

16 ‘And whenever you fast, do not look dismal, like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces so as to show others that they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. 17 But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, 18 so that your fasting may be seen not by others but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

19 ‘Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust[g] consume and where thieves break in and steal; 20 but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.’

A window ledge in the chapel in Dr Milley’s Hospital, Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Liturgical Resources:

Liturgical Colour: Violet (Purple).

The Collect of the Day:

Almighty and everlasting God,
you hate nothing that you have made
and forgive the sins of all those who are penitent:
Create and make in us new and contrite hearts
that we, worthily lamenting our sins
and acknowledging our wretchedness,
may receive from you, the God of all mercy,
perfect remission and forgiveness;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

The Collect of the Word:

Gracious God,
out of your love and mercy
you breathed into dust the breath of life,
creating us to serve you and one another;
call forth our penitence and acts of love,
and strengthen us to face our mortality,
so that we may look with confidence for your salvation;
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you
and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

An Ash Wednesday Liturgy:

The Gathering:

The traditional Ash Wednesday invitation or exhortation in the Book of Common Prayer begins:

‘Brothers and sisters in Christ: since early days Christians have observed with great devotion the time of our Lord's passion and resurrection. It became the custom of the Church to prepare for this by a season of penitence and fasting.

‘At first this season of Lent was observed by those who were preparing for baptism at Easter and by those who were to be restored to the Church’s fellowship from which they had been separated through sin. In course of time the Church came to recognize that, by a careful keeping of these days, all Christians might take to heart the call to repentance and the assurance of forgiveness proclaimed in the gospel, and so grow in faith and in devotion to our Lord.

‘I invite you, therefore, in the name of the Lord to observe a holy Lent, by self-examination and repentance; by prayer, fasting, and self-denial; and by reading and meditating on God’s holy word.’

Silence may be kept.

Then the priest says:

Let us pray for grace to keep Lent faithfully.

Almighty and everlasting God
you hate nothing that you have made
and forgive the sins of all those who are penitent.
Create and make in us new and contrite hearts,
that we may be truly sorry for our sins
and obtain from you, the God of all mercy,
perfect remission and forgiveness;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Book of Common Prayer suggests that at the Confession and the Commandments may be read (and should be read during Advent and Lent), but neither the Beatitudes nor the Summary of the Law is used at the Ash Wednesday service. The Book of Common Prayer suggests ‘there should be two readers if possible, one reading the Old Testament statement and the second the New Testament interpretation’:

Hear what our Lord Jesus Christ says:
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart
and with all your soul and with all your mind.
This is the first and great commandment.
And the second is like it.
You shall love your neighbour as yourself
On these two commandments depend all the law
and the prophets. (Matthew 22: 37-39)

Lord, have mercy on us,
and write these your laws in our hearts.

Penitential Kyries:

In the wilderness we find your grace:
you love us with an everlasting love.

Lord, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.

There is none but you to uphold our cause;
our sin cries out and our guilt is great.

Christ, have mercy.
Christ, have mercy.

Heal us, O Lord, and we shall be healed;
Restore us and we shall know your joy.

Lord, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.

The Book of Common Prayer (pp 340-341) also provides this form of Confession and Absolution:

After The Litany Two (pp 175-178), silence is kept for a time, after which is said:

Make our hearts clean, O God,
and renew a right spirit within us.

Father eternal, giver of light and grace,
we have sinned against you and against our neighbour,
in what we have thought, in what we have said and done,
through ignorance, through weakness,
through our own deliberate fault.
We have wounded your love, and marred your image in us.
We are sorry and ashamed, and repent of all our sins.
For the sake of your Son Jesus Christ, who died for us,
forgive us all that is past;
and lead us out from darkness to walk as children of light. Amen.

This prayer is said:

God our Father,
the strength of all who put their trust in you,
mercifully accept our prayers;
and because, in our weakness,
we can do nothing good without you,
grant us the help of your grace,
that in keeping your commandments
we may please you, both in will and deed;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Or

The priest pronounces the Absolution:

Almighty God,
who forgives all who truly repent,
have mercy upon you,
pardon and deliver you from all your sins,
confirm and strengthen you in all goodness
and keep you in life eternal;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The canticle Gloria in Excelsis may be omitted in Advent and Lent and on weekdays that are not holy days. Other versions of this canticle may be used, or when appropriate another suitable hymn of praise.

The invitation to Communion:

The invitation to Communion begins:

Most merciful Lord,
your love compels us to come in.
Our hands were unclean, our hearts were unprepared;
we were not fit even to eat the crumbs from under your table.
But you, Lord, are the God of our salvation,
and share your bread with sinners.
So cleanse and feed us with the precious body and blood of your Son,
That he may live in us and we in him;
and that we, with the whole company of Christ,
may sit and eat in your kingdom. Amen.

This prayer may be used in place of the Prayer of Humble Access (see p 342). As such it comes before the Peace and not as part of the Invitation to Communion (the Church of England usage).

Introduction to the Peace:

Being justified by faith,
we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. (Romans 5: 1, 2)

Preface:

Through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who was in every way tempted as we are yet did not sin;
by whose grace we are able to overcome all our temptations:

Post Communion Prayer:

Almighty God,
you have given your only Son to be for us
both a sacrifice for sin and also an example of godly life:
Give us grace
that we may always most thankfully receive
these his inestimable gifts,
and also daily endeavour ourselves
to follow the blessed steps of his most holy life;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Blessing:

Christ give you grace to grow in holiness,
to deny yourselves,
and to take up your cross and follow him;
and the blessing of God Almighty,
the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit,
be with you, and remain with you always. Amen.

The Crucifix on the Nave Altar in Lichfield Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Suggested Hymns:

Joel 2: 1-2, 12-17:

210, Holy God of righteous glory
538, O Lord, the clouds are gathering

Isaiah 58: 1-12:

647, Guide me, O thou great Jehovah
125, Hail to the Lord’s anointed
535, Judge eternal, throned in splendour
592, O Love that wilt not let me go
712, Tell out, my soul, the greatness of the Lord
497, The Church of Christ in every age
510, We pray for peace

Psalm 51: 1-18

630, Blessed are the pure in heart
297, Come, thou Holy Spirit, come
614, Great shepherd of your people, hear
208, Hearken, O Lord, have mercy upon us
553, Jesu, lover of my soul
305, O Breath of life, come sweeping through us
638, O for a heart to praise my God
557, Rock of ages, cleft for me

II Corinthians 5: 20b to 6: 10

643, Be thou my vision, O Lord of my heart
566, Fight the good fight with all thy might
352, Give thanks with a grateful heart
417, He gave his life in selfless love
322, I bind unto myself today (verses 1, 2, 8 and 9)
587, Just as I am, without one plea
652, Lead us, heavenly Father, lead us
487, Soldiers of Christ, arise
488, Stand up, stand up for Jesus

Matthew 6: 1-6, 16-21:

207, Forty days and forty nights
646, Glorious things of thee are spoken
619, Lord, teach us how to pray aright
363, O Lord of heaven and earth and sea
625, Prayer is the soul’s sincere desire

The liturgical colours change to Violet in Lent (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Full resources for Lent and Holy Week 2021, published on 3 February 2021, are available HERE

Material from the Book of Common Prayer is copyright © 2004, Representative Body of the Church of Ireland.

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

The hymn suggestions are provided in Sing to the Word (2000), edited by Bishop Edward Darling. The hymn numbers refer to the Church of Ireland’s Church Hymnal (5th edition, Oxford: OUP, 2000).

The crucifixion depicted in the East Window in Saint John’s Church, Ballybunion, Co Kerry (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Readings, hymns and sermon ideas for Sunday 14 February 2021, Sunday before Lent, Transfiguration Sunday

The Transfiguration depicted in a stained-glass window in the Collegiate Church of Saint Nicholas, Galway (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

Sunday next, 14 February 2021, is the Sunday before Lent, or Transfiguration Sunday. The options for the Sunday between 11 and 17 February (Proper 1) should not be used, as these apply only in years when this Sunday comes before the Second Sunday before Lent.

The readings in the Revised Common Lectionary (RCL) as adapted for use in the Church of Ireland for Sunday next are:

The Readings: II Kings 2: 1-12; Psalm 50: 1-6; II Corinthians 4: 3-6; and Mark 9: 2-9.

We should also remember that many people, especially young couples, are more likely to think of 14 February as Saint Valentine’s Day instead of the Sunday before Lent.
Witth this in mind, there are some additonal notes on Saint Valentine, and some appopriate liturgical resources and suggestions at the end of this posting.

The Transfiguration depicted in a stained-glass window in a church in Lucan, Co Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Celebrating the Transfiguration:

The two Sundays before Lent have special themes outside the cycle of readings in Ordinary Time. The Second Sunday before Lent focusses on Creation, while the Sunday before Lent is Transfiguration Sunday.

In early Church tradition, the Transfiguration is connected with the approaching death and resurrection of Christ, and so it was said to have taken place 40 days before the Crucifixion.

At first, the feast of the Transfiguration belonged to the pre-Easter season of the Church and was celebrated on one of the Sundays of Lent. For example, a sermon on the Transfiguration was preached in Lent by Saint John Chrysostom while he was a priest in Antioch in 390. The Feast of the Transfiguration was celebrated on Mount Sinai from the mid-fifth century, and in Constantinople from the late seventh century. Saint Gregory Palamas, the great teacher of the Transfiguration, is commemorated during Lent.

From 1474 until at least 1969, the Transfiguration was observed in the Roman Catholic Church on the Second Sunday in Lent. In some modern calendars, including Roman Catholic, Lutheran and Anglican calendars, the Transfiguration is now commemorated on the Sunday immediately before Ash Wednesday, although traditionally, the Feast of the Transfiguration is also observed in the Anglican, Roman Catholic and Orthodox calendars on 6 August. It may have been moved there because 6 August is 40 days before 14 September, the Feast of the Holy Cross, so keeping the tradition that the Transfiguration took place 40 days before the Crucifixion.

Among Anglicans, the Feast of the Transfiguration disappeared from the 1549 Book of Common Prayer. When it reappeared in the 1662 Book of Common Prayer, it returned to the calendar but without any other provisions.

In The Book of Common Prayer (2004), the Church of Ireland has Collects and Post-Communion prayers for the Feast of the Transfiguration on 6 August, along with this provision to mark the Transfiguration on the Sunday before Lent.

In the Orthodox Church, the Feast of the Transfiguration is a major feast, and is counted among the Twelve Great Feasts of the Church. This is also the second of the ‘Three Feasts of the Saviour in August.’ These are:

● The Procession of the Cross (1 August).
● The Transfiguration (6 August).
● The ‘Icon of Christ Not Made by Hands’ (16 August).

But the Transfiguration is also associated with ordinations: from the time of Pope Leo the Great (died 460), the Transfiguration was the Gospel reading set for Ember Saturday, the day before ordinations.

‘A chariot of fire and horses of fire separated the two of them, and Elijah ascended in a whirlwind into heaven’ (II Kings 2: 11) … Elijah in the Chariot of Fire, depicted in a window in Church of Saint Mary the Virgin, Newport, Essex (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

II Kings 2: 1-12:

The first reading is the story of Elijah ascending in the chariot of fire in a whirlwind into heaven.

Israel has split into two kingdoms: Israel in the north and Judah in the south. At the time of this reading (850-849 BC), Ahaziah is King of Israel. The Bible describes only two people as worthy enough to be taken up to heaven without dying: Enoch (Genesis 5: 24) and Elijah.

Elijah and Elisha start their journey at Gilgal, in the hill country north of Bethel. On three occasions, Elijah invites Elisha to travel no further, and he tests Elisha, to see whether he is truly loyal. Elisha proves his loyalty each time, and so the two travel south from Gilgal to Bethel, then east to Jericho and the Jordan.

The ‘company of prophets’ are communities of followers, disciples, of Elijah. They are like monks, and traditions about them have become part of the story of the Carmelite order.

Elijah’s mantle or cloak is almost part of him. When the waters part, readers would recall the crossing of the Red Sea (Exodus 14) and the Ark being carried across the Jordan (Joshua 3: 14-17).

Elijah offers Elisha a reward for his loyalty. Elisha asks that he receive a double share or the principal part of Elijah’s spirituality. Custom and law said the eldest son should inherit a double portion of his father’s possessions (see Deuteronomy 21: 17). Elijah cannot grant this request himself, for it is God’s to give. If Elisha sees Elijah taken up, God will grant the wish. Fire is a symbol of God’s presence, and recalls how God appeared in the burning bush (see Exodus 3: 2).

What is happening in verse 12? Perhaps Elisha is comparing the chariots of God with the chariots of Israel; perhaps he recognises that Elijah’s spiritual strength is better security for Israel than its army. Elisha sees Elijah’s departure. Tearing clothes is still a Jewish tradition in expressing grief.

In the verses that follow, Elisha picks up Elijah’s mantle, the symbol of spirituality. Elijah has been taken up to heaven, and Elisha is his successor.

‘Let the heavens declare his righteousness’ (Psalm 50: 6) … the skies seen from inside the bell tower beside Saint Mary’s Church, Askeaton, Co Limerick (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Psalm 50: 1-6:

Psalm talks 50 is about God who shines forth and who being revealed in glory. This psalm is a liturgy of divine judgment.

God calls summons the whole earth and the heaven above to witness his legal judgment of the ungodly. In Zion, or Jerusalem, he shows himself in traditional Biblical ways: in fire and tempest (verse 3). This is the God of heaven and earth (verse 4).

He is both judge (verse 6) and prosecutor (‘testify,’ verse 7), and the heavens declare his righteousness (verse 6).

‘We have this treasure in clay jars’ (II Corinthians 4: 7) … clay jars on a street in Rethymnon in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

II Corinthians 4: 5-12:

In this Epistle reading, the Apostle Paul writes about the minds of unbelievers being blinded, while our eyes should be focussed on the light of the Gospel, which is the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, and of light shining out of darkness.

Saint Paul is continuing to answer a letter from the Church in Corinth. It seems some Church members there have criticised him for failing to make clear the good news, or for limited success in bringing people to Christ.

Now, in this reading, Saint Paul defends himself, saying that, despite what some may say, he proclaims not himself but Jesus Christ as Lord (verse 5).

He quotes the first words God speaks in the Bible, ‘Let light shine out of darkness’ (verse 6, see Genesis 1: 3). He points out that God begins the process of creation with light, and this light is ‘the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.’

Despite our sufferings in this world, the life of Jesus is made visible in the way we live (verse 11).

The Transfiguration by Aidan Hart … in the Transfiguration, both the humanity and divinity of Christ are manifested to us

The Transfiguration

The Transfiguration is described in the three Synoptic Gospels (see Matthew 17: 1-9; Mark 9: 2-8; Luke 9: 28-36). In addition, there may be allusions to the Transfiguration in John 1: 14 and in II Peter 1: 1-18, where Peter describes himself as an eyewitness ‘of his sovereign majesty.’

The Synoptic accounts of the Transfiguration are very similar in wording.

So, what is different between Saint Mark’s account of the Transfiguration and the accounts in the other two Synoptic Gospels?

Saint Mark, like Saint Matthew, tells us these events take place ‘six days later,’ although Saint Luke says they take place ‘eight days later.’

All three accounts tell us that Christ’s robes become dazzling white, but Saint Mark alone tells us they are a white ‘such as no one on earth could bleach them’ (verse 3).

Saint Mark also tells us the three disciples were ‘terrified.’

A modern icon of the Transfiguration … the Transfiguration also points to Christ’s great and glorious Second Coming and the fulfilment of the Kingdom of God

Telling the story

Should we describe the Transfiguration as a miracle? If we do, then it is the only Gospel miracle that happens to Christ himself. On the other hand, Saint Thomas Aquinas spoke of the Transfiguration as ‘the greatest miracle,’ because it complemented Baptism and showed the perfection of life in Heaven.

Saint Peter’s reference to the booths could imply that the Transfiguration took place during the time of the Feast of Tabernacles, when Biblical Jews were camping out in the fields for the grape harvest. This Feast also recalled the wanderings in the wilderness recorded in the Book Exodus.

None of the Gospel accounts identifies the ‘high mountain’ by name. The earliest identification of the mountain as Mount Tabor was by Jerome in the late fourth century. But does it matter where the location is?

Consider the place of Mountains in the salvation story and in revelation:

● Moses meets God in the cloud and the burning bush on Mount Sinai, and there receives the tablets of the Covenant (Exodus 25 to 31);
● Elijah confronts the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel (I Kings 18);
● Elijah climbs Mount Sinai and finds God not in the wind, the earthquake or the fire, but in the still small voice in the cleft of the Mountain (I Kings 19: 12);
● The Sermon, which is the ‘manifesto’ of the new covenant, is the Sermon on the Mount;
● The Mount of Olives is a key location in the Passion narrative;
● Christ is crucified on Mount Calvary;
● Saint John receives his Revelation in the cave at the top of the mountain on Patmos.

As for the cloud, all three Synoptic Gospels describe the cloud’s descent in terms of overshadowing (επισκιαζειν, episkiazein), which in Greek is a pun on the word tent (σκηνάς, skenas). But this is also the same word used to describe the Holy Spirit overshadowing the Virgin Mary at the Annunciation: καὶ δύναμις ὑψίστου ἐπισκιάσει σοι (Luke 1: 35).

We may recall how the pillar of cloud leads the people through the wilderness by day, just as the pillar of fire leads them by night. Moses entered the cloud on Mount Sinai (Exodus 24: 18), the Shekinah cloud is the localised manifestation of the presence of God (Exodus 19: 9; 33: 9; 34: 5; 40: 34; II Maccabees 2: 8).

The cloud takes Christ up into heaven at the Ascension (Acts 1: 9-10).

Saint Paul talks about the living and the dead being caught up in the cloud to meet the Lord (I Thessalonians 4: 17).

The Transfiguration … a fresco in an Orthodox church in the US

The principle characters:

Christ is the focus of the Transfiguration, but who are the other principle characters in this story?

1, The Trinity: in Orthodox theology, the Transfiguration is not only a feast in honour of Christ, but a feast of the Holy Trinity, for all three Persons of the Trinity are present at that moment:

● God the Father speaks from heaven: ‘This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him’ (Matthew 17: 5).
● God the Son is transfigured.
● God the Holy Spirit is present in the form of a cloud.

In this sense, the Transfiguration is also considered the ‘Small Epiphany’ – the ‘Great Epiphany’ being the Baptism of Christ, when the Holy Trinity appears in a similar pattern).

2, Moses and Elijah: At the Transfiguration, Christ appears with Moses and Elijah, the two pre-eminent figures of Judaism, standing alongside him. Saint John Chrysostom explains their presence in three ways:

● They represent the Law and the Prophets – Moses receives the Law from God, and Elijah is a great prophet.
● They both experience visions of God – Moses on Mount Sinai and Elijah on Mount Carmel.
● They represent the living and the dead – Elijah, the living, because he is taken up into heaven in a chariot of fire (see the first reading for this day), and Moses, the dead, because he does experience death.

Moses and Elijah show that the Law and the Prophets point to the coming of Christ, and their recognition of and conversation with Christ symbolise how he fulfils ‘the law and the prophets’ (Matthew 5: 17-19). Moses and Elijah also stand for the living and dead, for Moses dies and his burial place is known, while Elijah is taken alive into heaven in order to appear again to announce the time of God’s salvation.

It was commonly believed that Elijah would reappear before the coming of the Messiah (see Malachi 4), and the three interpret Christ’s response as a reference to Saint John the Baptist (Matthew 17: 13).

3, The Disciples: Saint Peter, Saint James and Saint John are with Christ on the mountain top. But, we may ask, why these three disciples?

Do you remember how this might relate to Moses and Elijah? Moses ascends the mountain with three trusted companions, Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, to confirm the covenant (Exodus 24: 1), and God’s glory covers the mountain in a cloud for six days (Exodus 25 to 31).

In some ways, Saint Peter, Saint James and Saint John serve as an inner circle or a ‘kitchen cabinet’ in the Gospels. Perhaps this intimacy is reflected in the fact that they are the only disciples who are given nickname by Christ: Simon becomes the Rock, and James and John are the sons of thunder (Luke 5: 10).

They are at the Transfiguration (Matthew 17: 1, Mark 9: 2; Luke 9: 28), but they are also at the raising of the daughter of Jairus (Mark 5: 35-43; Luke 6: 51), they are 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).

Jerome speaks of Saint Peter as the rock on which the Church is built, Saint James as the first of the apostles to die a martyr’s death, Saint John as the beloved disciple.

They are a trusted group who also serve to represent us at each moment in the story of salvation.

The Church of the Transfiguration in Sneem, Co Kerry (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

The meaning of the Transfiguration:

The Transfiguration of Christ in itself is the fulfilment of all of the Theophanies and manifestations of God, a fulfilment made perfect and complete in the person of Christ. We could say the Transfiguration is the culmination of Christ’s public life, just as his Baptism is its starting point, and his Ascension its end. As Archbishop Michael Ramsey writes in his book, The Glory of God and the Transfiguration of Christ: ‘The Transfiguration stands as a gateway to the saving events of the Gospel.’

The Transfiguration reveals Christ’s identity as the Son of God. In the Gospel, after the voice speaks, Elijah and Moses have disappeared, and Christ and the three head down the mountain. The three ask themselves what he means by ‘risen from the dead’ (Mark 9: 9-10). When they ask Christ about Elijah, he responds: ‘Elijah is indeed coming and will restore all things; but I tell you that Elijah has already come …’ (Mark 9: 12-13). He tells them to keep these things a secret until the Son of Man has risen from the dead. Yet, in keeping with the Messianic secret, he tells the three not to tell others what they have seen until he has risen on the third day after his death.

Event and process

The Transfiguration is both an event and a process. The original Greek word for Transfiguration in the Gospel accounts is μεταμόρφωσις (metamorphosis), which gives us access to a deeper and more theological meaning, a deeper truth, than the word derived from the Latin transfiguratio, which can be translated by ‘to be changed into another from.’ But the Greek μεταμόρφωσις means ‘to progress from one state of being to another.’ Consider the metamorphosis of the chrysalis into the butterfly.

Saint Paul also uses the word μεταμόρφωσις when he describes how the Christian is to be transfigured, transformed, into the image of Christ (II Corinthians 3: 18).

The metamorphosis invites us into the event of becoming what we have been created to be. This is what Orthodox writers call deification. Transfiguration is a profound change, by God, in Christ, through the Spirit. And so, the Transfiguration reveals to us our ultimate destiny as Christians, the ultimate destiny of all people and all creation to be transformed and glorified by the majestic splendour of God himself.

The Transfiguration points to Christ’s great and glorious Second Coming and the fulfilment of the Kingdom of God, when all of creation will be transfigured and filled with light. The vision of Christ in his glory and the experience of the divine light are at the very heart of both Orthodox mysticism and Orthodox eschatology. The ‘uncreated light’ is a hallmark theme in Orthodox spirituality, especially in the writings of Saint Gregory Palamas and the school of the thought that is hesychasm, which draws constantly on the themes of the Transfiguration.

Saint Gregory Palamas distinguishes between the essence of God, which is beyond human apprehension, and the energies of God, which are the ways in which we can experience and know God. According to him, the light of the Transfiguration ‘is not something that comes to be and then vanishes.’ Rather, Christ’s disciples experienced a transformation of their senses so that ‘they beheld the Ineffable Light where and to the extent that the Spirit granted it to them.’

This was, therefore, not only a prefiguration of the eternal blessedness to which all Christians look forward, but also of the Kingdom of God already revealed, realised and come.

In Orthodox theology, since Patristic times, the three booths or tents that the three disciples want to erect represent three stages of salvation:

● Virtue, which is the active life of ascetic struggle, and which is represented by Elijah.
● Spiritual knowledge, which requires right discernment in natural contemplation or contemplation of the natural order, which was disclosed by Moses.
● Theology, which means contemplation of God, which requires the consummate perfection of wisdom, and which was revealed by Christ.

The Transfiguration in a poster from the Institute for Orthodox Christian Studies, Cambridge

Concluding images:

In a lecture in Cambridge ten years ago [2011], Metropolitan Kallistos [Ware], the pre-eminent Orthodox theologian in England, spoke of the Transfiguration as a disclosure not only of what God is but of what we are. The New Adam shows us human nature as it was before the fall. The Transfiguration looks back to the beginning, but also looks forward to the end, to the final glory of Christ’s second coming, because through the incarnation Christ raised human nature to a new level, opening new possibilities.

The incarnation is a new beginning for the human race, and in the Transfiguration we see not only our human nature at the beginning, but as it can be in and through Christ at the end, he told the Summer School in Sidney Sussex College organised by the Institute for Orthodox Christian Studies.

Secular Christianity rests satisfied with our human nature as it is now. But he wants us to look to our potentialities, as seen in the Transfiguration of Christ. The light of the Transfiguration embraces all created things, nothing is irredeemably secular, all created things can be bathed in the light of the Transfiguration.

He also referred to Revelation 21: 5, where Christ tells the Seer of Patmos: ‘Behold, I make all things new’ – not: ‘Behold, I make all new things.’ The Transfiguration is a pre-figuration of the transfiguration of the cosmos, he said.

But with the Transfiguration comes the invitation to bear the cross with Christ. Peter, James and John were with Christ on Mount Tabor and with him in Gethsemane. We must understand the Passion of Christ and the Transfiguration in the light of each other, not as two separate mysteries, but aspects of the one single mystery. Mount Tabor and Mount Calvary go together; and glory and suffering go together.

If we are to undertake the task of Transfiguration, we cannot leave our cross behind. If we are to bring the secular, fallen world into the glory of Christ, that has to be through self-emptying κένωσις (kenosis), cross-bearing and suffering. There is no answer to secularism that does not take account of the Cross, as well taking account of the Transfiguration and the Resurrection.

The Transfiguration provides a guideline for confronting the secular world, he said. And he retold a story from Leo Tolstoy, Three Questions. The central figure is set a task of answering three questions:

What is the most important moment? The most important moment is now, the past is gone, and the future does not exist yet.

Who is the most important person? This person who is before you in this very instant.

What is the most important task? This task which you are engaged in here and now.

The light which shone from Christ on the mountaintop is not a physical and created light, but an eternal and uncreated light, a divine light, the light of the Godhead, the light of the Holy Trinity.

The experience on Mount Tabor confirms Saint Peter’s confession of faith which reveals Christ as the Son of the Living God. Yet Christ remains fully human as ever he was, as fully human as you or I, and his humanity is not abolished. But the Godhead shines through his body and from it.

In Christ dwells all the fullness of the Godhead. But at other points in his life, the glory is hidden beneath the veil of his flesh. What we see in Christ on Mount Tabor is human nature, our human nature, taken up into God and filled with the light of God. ‘So this should be our attitude to the secular world,’ Metropolitan Kallistos said.

Or, as the Revd Dr Kenneth Leech once said: ‘Transfiguration can and does occur “just around the corner,” occurs in the midst of perplexity, imperfection, and disastrous misunderstanding.’

The Transfiguration in an icon in the parish church in the hill-side village of Piskopiano in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Some questions to consider

Is this a more appropriate time for celebrating the Transfiguration?

Can you identify with Saint Peter’s hasty response?

Or do you sometimes feel terrified in the presence of God, and know not what to do?

Saint Matthew alone has Christ telling the three disciples: ‘Get up and do not be afraid.’ (Matthew 17: 7). What are people’s fears today? What role have we in calming those fears and in reassuring people of the presence of Christ?

Where do you think people can be brought to see Christ today? In the Church? In the poor? In themselves?

Look at verse 9. Is there an appropriate time for mission and an inappropriate time?

The Transfiguration, an icon by Adrienne Lord in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Mark 9: 2-9 (NRSVA):

2 Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, and led them up a high mountain apart, by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, 3 and his clothes became dazzling white, such as no one on earth could bleach them. 4 And there appeared to them Elijah with Moses, who were talking with Jesus. 5 Then Peter said to Jesus, ‘Rabbi, it is good for us to be here; let us make three dwellings, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.’ 6 He did not know what to say, for they were terrified. 7 Then a cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud there came a voice, ‘This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him!’ 8 Suddenly when they looked around, they saw no one with them any more, but only Jesus.

9 As they were coming down the mountain, he ordered them to tell no one about what they had seen, until after the Son of Man had risen from the dead.

The Transfiguration depicted in a fresco in the Analipsi Church (Resurrection) in Georgioupoli, Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Liturgical Resources:

Liturgical Colour: White (Transfiguration) or Green (the Sunday before Lent).

Note the liturgical colour returns to Green for Monday and Tuesday, and then turns to Violent on Wednesday 17 February 2021 (Ash Wednesday).

Penitential Kyries:

Your unfailing kindness, O Lord, is in the heavens,
and your faithfulness reaches to the clouds.
Lord, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.

Your righteousness is like the strong mountains,
and your justice as the great deep.
Christ, have mercy.
Christ, have mercy.

For with you is the well of life:
and in your light shall we see light.
Lord, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.

The Collect of the Day:

Almighty Father,
whose Son was revealed in majesty
before he suffered death upon the cross:
Give us grace to perceive his glory,
that we may be strengthened to suffer with him
and be changed into his likeness, from glory to glory;
who is alive and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Collect of the Word:

Holy God,
you have revealed the glory of your love in Jesus Christ,
and have given us a share in your Spirit.
May we who listen to Christ
follow faithfully,
and, in the dark places where you send us,
reveal the light of your gospel.

Introduction to the Peace:

Christ will transfigure our human body
and give it a form like that of his own glorious body.
We are the Body of Christ. We share his peace.
(cf Philippians 3: 21, 1 Corinthians 11: 27, Romans 5: 1)

Preface:

Through Jesus Christ our Lord,
whose divine glory shone forth upon the holy mountain
before chosen witnesses of his majesty;
when your own voice from heaven
proclaimed him your beloved Son:

Post Communion Prayer:

Holy God
we see your glory in the face of Jesus Christ.
May we who are partakers at his table
reflect his life in word and deed,
that all the world may know
his power to change and save.
This we ask through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Blessing:

The God of all grace,
who called you to his eternal glory in Christ Jesus,
establish, strengthen and settle you in the faith:

The Transfiguration depicted in a fresco in the Church of the Four Martyrs in Rethymnon, Crete … in Orthodox icons of the Transfiguration, we have drama and a moment full of movement (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Suggested Hymns:

II Kings 2: 1-12:

643, Be thou my vision, O Lord of my heart
297, Come, thou Holy Spirit, come
298, Filled with the Spirit’s power, with one accord
647, Guide me, O thou great Jehovah
386, Spirit of God, unseen as the wind
310, Spirit of the living God

Psalm 50: 1-6:

501, Christ is the world’s true light
381, God has spoken – by his prophets
97, Jesus shall reign where’er the sun
362, O God, beyond all praising

II Corinthians 4: 3-6:

684, All praise to thee, for thou, O King divine
11, Can we by searching find our God
52, Christ, whose glory fills the skies
613, Eternal light shine in my heart
481, God is working his purpose out as year succeeds to year
324, God, whose almighty word
6, Immortal, invisible, God only wise
482, Jesus bids us shine with a pure clear light
484, Lift high the cross, the love of Christ proclaim
195, Lord, the light of your love is shining
228, Meekness and majesty
486, People of God, arise
341, Spirit divine, attend our prayers
490, The Spirit lives to set us free
491, We have a gospel to proclaim
493, Ye that know the Lord is gracious

Mark 9: 2-9:

325, Be still, for the presence of the Lord, the Holy One is here
643, Be thou my vision, O Lord of my heart
501, Christ is the world’s true light
205, Christ upon the mountain peak
52, Christ, whose glory fills the skies
331, God reveals his presence
209, Here in this holy time and place
101, Jesus, the very thought of thee
195, Lord, the light of your love is shining
102, Name of all majesty
60, O Jesus, Lord of heavenly race
449, Thee we adore, O hidden Saviour, thee
112, There is a Redeemer
374, When all thy mercies, O my God

Hearts and gifts for Saint Valentine’s Day in a shopfront in Askeaton, Co Limerick (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

An additional note on Saint Valentine’s Day:

For many people, especially young couples, they are more likely to think of 14 February as Saint Valentine’s Day instead of the Sunday before Lent.

Thousands of locks will be secured to bridges and fences across Europe, Juliet’s supposed balcony in Verona will be visited by countless tourists and the Carmelite Church in Whitefriar Street, Dublin, will be full for special masses marking Saint Valentine’s Day, when the martyr’s reliquary is taken from a special shrine in a side chapel and placed before the High Altar.

Saint Valentine is a widely believed to have been a third century Roman martyr. He is commemorated on 14 February and since the High Middle Ages he has been associated with young love.

Yet, despite his popularity, we know nothing reliable about Saint Valentine apart from his name and the tradition that he died a martyr’s death on 14 February on the Via Flaminia, north of Rome. Many of the stories about his life are mythical and unreliable.

Popular legend says Valentine was a Roman priest who was martyred during the reign of Claudius II, Claudius Gothicus. He was arrested and imprisoned when he was caught marrying Christian couples and helping persecuted Christians.

It is said Claudius took a liking to this prisoner. But when Valentinus tried to convert the Emperor, he was condemned to death. He was beaten with clubs and stones; when that failed to kill him, he was beheaded outside the Flaminian Gate.

Many of the legends about Saint Valentine can be traced only to 14th century England and the writings of Geoffrey Chaucer and his circle, when 14 February was already linked with romantic love.

Because of the myths and legends, Saint Valentine was dropped from the Roman Catholic Calendar of Saints in 1969. Nevertheless, the ‘Martyr Valentinus who died on 14 February on the Via Flaminia close to the Milvian Bridge in Rome’ is still on the list of officially recognised saints.

The day is alsocelebrated as Saint Valentine’s Day with a commemoration in Common Worship in the Church of England and in other churches in the Anglican Communion.

The relics of Saint Valentine were given by Pope Gregory XVI as a gift to Father John Spratt, an Irish Carmelite Prior, after he preached a popular sermon in the Jesuit church in Rome, the Gesu, in 1836. Since then, they have been kept in a shrine in the Carmelite Church in Whitefriar Street, Dublin.

Although the story of Saint Valentine is inextricably linked with romantic young love, it is good to be reminded of love as we prepare for Lent, and that our Lenten pilgrimage is a journey towards fully accepting the love of God offered to us through Christ on Good Friday and Easter Day.

Liturgical resources:

These prayers, included in suggested intercessions in the Book of Common Prayer for Wednesdays, may be helpful in writing prayers on the theme of love:

Loving Father, we give you thanks
for the obedience of Christ fulfilled in the cross,
his bearing of the sin of the world,
his mercy for the world which never fails …

for the joy of loving and being loved,
for friendship,
the lives to which our own are bound,
the gift of peace with you and one another …

for the communities in whose life we share
and all relationships in which reconciliation may be known …

These collects may also be used as additional collects after the Collect of the Day:

The Collect (Trinity II):

Lord, you have taught us
that all our doings without love are nothing worth:
Send your Holy Spirit
and pour into our hearts that most excellent gift of love,
the true bond of peace and of all virtues,
without which whoever lives is counted dead before you.
Grant this for your only Son Jesus Christ’s sake.
(Book of Common Prayer, p 141).

The Collect (Trinity VI):

Merciful God,
you have prepared for those who love you
such good things as pass our understanding:
Pour into our hearts such love toward you
that we, loving you above all things,
may obtain your promises,
which exceed all that we can desire;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Concluding Prayer:

Help us to share in Christ’s ministry
of love and service to one another;
through the same Jesus Christ our Lord,
who in the unity of the Holy Spirit
is one with you for ever. Amen.
(Book of Common Prayer, p 141).

The shrine of Saint Valentine in the Carmelite Church in Whitefriar Street, Dublin (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

Material from the Book of Common Prayer is copyright © 2004, Representative Body of the Church of Ireland.

The hymn suggestions are provided in Sing to the Word (2000), edited by Bishop Edward Darling. The hymn numbers refer to the Church of Ireland’s Church Hymnal (5th edition, Oxford: OUP, 2000).

The Monastery of the Transfiguration or Great Meteoron in Meteora, northern Greece (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)