Patrick Comerford
We are in Ordinary Time: this week began with Trinity Sunday (15 June 2025), and yesterday was the Day of Thanksgiving for the Institution of Holy Communion or the Feast of Corpus Christi (19 June 2025).
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.
Matthew 6: 19-23 (NRSVA):
[Jesus said:] 19 ‘Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust 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.
22 ‘The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light; 23 but if your eye is unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!’
Today’s Reflection:
The Gospel reading at the Eucharist today (Matthew 6: 19-23) continues the series of readings from the Sermon on the Mount. In today’s reading, we are challenged to consider once again to think about the things we treasure, to keep our eyes open to all around us, to the needs of the world, and to step out of the darkness.
In these dark days – dark days for the world politically and socially, and dark days for refugees, the poor, the marginalised and those who suffer – what do I treasure most? What should the Church treasure?
Saint Lawrence the martyr, who lived in the third century, was one of seven deacons in charge of helping the poor and the needy in Rome. He was martyred during the persecution of Christians in the reign of the Emperor Valerian in the year 258.
When Pope Sixtus II became Pope in 257, he ordained Lawrence deacon and appointed him Archdeacon of Rome. Sixtus II was celebrating the liturgy on 6 August when he taken captive and was taken away to be beheaded, Lawrence followed him weeping: ‘Father, where are you going without your deacon?’ Pope Sixtus answered, ‘I am not leaving you, my son, in three days you will follow me.’
Lawrence proceeded to give to the poor the rest of the money he had with him, and sold treasured church vessels so he would have more money to give away.
The prefect of Rome searched for the hidden treasures of the Church, and ordered Lawrence to bring them to him. The deacon said he would, in three days. Then he went through the streets of Rome and gathered together all the poor and sick people supported by the Church. He showed them to the prefect and said: ‘Here are the treasures of the church. You see, the church is truly rich, far richer than your emperor!’
Ambrose of Milan says Lawrence told the prefect: ‘Behold in these poor persons the treasures which I promised to show you; to which I will add pearls and precious stones, those widows and consecrated virgins, which are the Church’s crown.’
The prefect was furious. In his anger he asked them to kill Lawrence slowly so he would suffer more. He was tied to an iron grill over a slow fire that roasted him. As he was dying on the grill, Lawrence is said to have said: ‘Turn me over’. Before he died, he prayed that the city of Rome might be converted and that Christianity would spread throughout the world.
Lawrence died on 10 August 258. His feast on 10 August spread throughout Italy and northern Africa. The Emperor Constantine built a basilica in his honour, and his name is among the saints named in the First Eucharistic Prayer at the Mass.
Today’s Prayers (Friday 20 June 2025, World Refugee Day):
‘Crossing the Channel’ is the theme this week (15-21 June) in Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel). This theme was introduced on Sunday with reflections by Bradon Muilenburg, Anglican Refugee Support Lead.
The USPG prayer diary today (Friday 20 June 2025, World Refugee Day) invites us to pray:
Father, on World Refugee Day, we thank you for Bradon and his frontline ministry in Calais. We pray that you bless him and his family with the strength to persevere when the realities on the ground are hard to bear.
The Collect:
Almighty and everlasting God,
you have given us your servants grace,
by the confession of a true faith,
to acknowledge the glory of the eternal Trinity
and in the power of the divine majesty to worship the Unity:
keep us steadfast in this faith,
that we may evermore be defended from all adversities;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
The Post-Communion Prayer:
Almighty and eternal God,
you have revealed yourself as Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
and live and reign in the perfect unity of love:
hold us firm in this faith,
that we may know you in all your ways
and evermore rejoice in your eternal glory,
who are three Persons yet one God,
now and for ever.
Additional Collect:
Holy God,
faithful and unchanging:
enlarge our minds with the knowledge of your truth,
and draw us more deeply into the mystery of your love,
that we may truly worship you,
Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Yesterday’s Reflection
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
