Nicholas Ferrar, Deacon, 1592- 1637b

                               Advent Antiphon on the Venite 

                                                at Morning Prayer

         Our 

         King 

         and 

         Savior 

         now 

         draws 

         near: 

         Come, 

         let us adore him. 

 Nicholas Ferrar established a religious community at Little Gidding which existed from 1626-1646. It was “renowned for its devotion, … the place where the problems of time and human fallibility are more or less resolved” says a website called Sparknotes It was also the inspiration of the fourth of the Four Quartets of TS Eliot, the last of the same name, a snippet of which reads:

And glow 

more intense 

than blaze of branch, or brazier, 

Stirs the dumb spirit: no wind, but pentecostal fire 

In the dark time of the year.

                                 Pray today for religious communities and for all experiments in shared Christian living., and for a wider use of the daily prayer of the church.