Patrick Comerford
Easter is a 50-day season, beginning on Easter Day (5 April 2026) and continuing through Ascension Day until the Day of Pentecost or Whit Sunday next Sunday (24 June 2026). This week began with the Seventh Sunday of Easter (Easter VII, 17 May 2026), and today the Church calendar remembers Saint Helena (330), Protector of the Holy Places.
A local tradition in Essex claims Saint Helena was from Colchester. Her son Constantine, who is associated with York, became Emperor in the year 306 and raised her to the position of Empress. Helena visited the Holy Land as a pilgrim in the year 326. There, it is said, she found Christ’s cross. She is commemorated in the Orthodox Church on this day with her son Constantine, so today is the name day for everyone named Eleni, Dina, Kostas or Konstantinos.
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, reading 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.
John 17: 20-26 (NRSVA):
[Jesus said:] 20 ‘I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, 21 that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one, 23 I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. 24 Father, I desire that those also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory, which you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.
25 ‘Righteous Father, the world does not know you, but I know you; and these know that you have sent me. 26 I made your name known to them, and I will make it known, so that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.’
Today’s Reflections:
As I was saying in my reflections on Sunday (17 May 2026), we are, in some ways, caught in the church calendar in an in-between time, between Ascension Day last Thursday [14 May 2026], and the Day of Pentecost on Sunday next [24 May 2026].
The Gospel reading at the Eucharist today (John 17: 20-26) follows Christ’s ‘Farewell Discourse’ at the Last Supper (John 14: 1 to 16: 33), and Christ has just ended his instructions to his disciples, which conclude with the advice, ‘In the world you face persecution But take courage; I have conquered the world!’ (John 16: 33).
We are now coming to the end of his prayer to the Father (John 17: 1-26), in which he summarises the significance of his life as the time for his glory – his Crucifixion, Resurrection and Ascension – has arrived.
This prayer is often referred to as the High Priestly Prayer, as it includes many of the elements of prayer a priest offers when a sacrifice is about to be made: glorification (verses 3-5, 25), remembrance of God’s work (verses 2, 6-8, 22, 23), intercession on behalf of others (verses 9, 11, 15, 20, 21, 24), and a declaration of the offering itself (verses 1, 5).
In the Orthodox Church, this passage is also read on the Seventh Sunday of Easter (1 June 2025), a day remembering the Fathers of the First Ecumenical Council at Nicaea in the year 325. We were celebrating the 1,700th anniversary of that council last year and its formulation of the Nicene Creed. That council condemned the heresy of Arianism that taught that the Son of God was created by the Father and that there was a time when the Son of God did not exist. Christ’s words here bear witness to his divinity and to his filial relationship with the Father.
In his time alone in the Garden of Gethsemane, Christ looks up to heaven and prays to the Father, asking him ‘that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe.’ (verse 21).
In this reading, Christ prays for the Church of all times. He looks beyond those who follow him now, to those who will come to believe through their witness. May the Church be rooted in the oneness he shares with the Father (verse 21), which is a relationship of mutual love (verse 23).
He prays that his followers may attain the ultimate goal: to share in Christ’s glory, which is founded in love that has been there before time began (verse 24).
His followers know that Christ has been sent by the Father (verse 25). Now he prays that as we are sent out into the world that ‘the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.’
Meanwhile, our reading tomorrow returns to the post-Resurrection appearances.
Christ is risen!
The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia!
Today’s Prayers (Thursday 21 May 2026):
The theme this week (17-23 May 2026) in ‘Pray With the World Church’, the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel) has been ‘Breaking Barriers: Gender Justice in Malawi’ (pp 56-57). This theme was introduced on Sunday with Reflections from Tamara Khismisi, Projects Coordinator, Anglican Church in Malawi.
The USPG prayer diary invites us to pray today (Thursday 21 May 2026):
Lord, we lift up mission hospitals such as St Peter’s, St Luke’s and St Anne’s in Malawi. We pray that doctors, nurses, and staff are provided with the strength, resources, and wisdom to care for mothers, children, and families in rural communities.
The Collect of the Day:
O God the King of Glory,
you have exalted your only Son Jesus Christ
with great triumph to your kingdom in heaven:
Mercifully give us faith to know
that, as he promised,
he abides with us on earth to the end of time;
who is alive and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
The Post-Communion Prayer:
Eternal Giver of love and power,
your Son Jesus Christ has sent us into all the world
to preach the gospel of his kingdom.
Confirm us in this mission,
and help us to live the good news we proclaim;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Additional Collect:
Risen, ascended Lord,
as we rejoice at your triumph,
fill your Church on earth with power and compassion,
that all who are estranged by sin
may find forgiveness and know your peace,
to the glory of God the Father.
Yesterday’s Reflections
Continued Tomorrow
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
