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A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Revd Dr Paul Mathole

Good morning.

Yesterday, I talked about Daniel Defoe who wrote A Journal of the Plague Year, about the terrible plague of 1665.

When we read about what life was like then, it has a strangely familiar ring to it. As the plague progressed it took hold of ordinary life. The governing authorities did what they could to contain the disease. Orders were issued for the City of London. Transport and the movement of people was a big worry. Hackney-coaches (like our modern taxis) were to be well aired and be given five or six days between uses. Keeping clean was high priority: Streets were to be swept, no infected garments were to be taken out of houses. The hospitality industry was crushed: the theatres were all closed, 鈥渁ll public feasting鈥� at taverns and alehouses was prohibited. It was thought that in these places the plague was most easily transmitted.

And some of the instructions are haunting: They appointed 鈥渨atchmen鈥� to stop people entering or leaving infected houses. They appointed 鈥渨omen searchers鈥� who went into check parishes for infections. It must have been the most sacrificial frontline work.

And infected houses were shut up and marked with a red cross, a foot long, in the middle of the door, and the words 鈥淟ord, have mercy upon us鈥�.

It has an extraordinary Biblical echo. At the Exodus, the people put red blood on the doorposts of their houses. At the sign of that blood, the people would be spared.

Gracious Lord, living in a pandemic reminds us that we are all fragile human beings. In the words of the Psalmist, 鈥淩emember, Lord, your great mercy and love, for they are from of old.鈥�

Amen.

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