Patrick Comerford
Easter is a 50-day season, beginning on Easter Day (5 April 2026) and continuing until the Day of Pentecost (24 May 2026), or Whit Sunday, next Sunday. Today is the Seventh Sunday of Easter (Easter VII, 17 May 2026), an ‘in-between’ Sunday, between Ascension Day and the Day of Pentecost, a question full of questions and waiting.
Later this morning, I am leading the intercession at the Parish Eucharist in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford, and singing with the choir. 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: 1-11 (NRSVA):
1 After Jesus had spoken these words, he looked up to heaven and said, ‘Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son so that the Son may glorify you, 2 since you have given him authority over all people, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. 3 And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. 4 I glorified you on earth by finishing the work that you gave me to do. 5 So now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had in your presence before the world existed.
6 ‘I have made your name known to those whom you gave me from the world. They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. 7 Now they know that everything you have given me is from you; 8 for the words that you gave to me I have given to them, and they have received them and know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. 9 I am asking on their behalf; I am not asking on behalf of the world, but on behalf of those whom you gave me, because they are yours. 10 All mine are yours, and yours are mine; and I have been glorified in them. 11 And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one.’
Today’s Reflections
This Sunday is a strange ‘In-Between Time’ in the calendar of the Church. On Thursday (14 May 2026), we celebrated the Day of the Ascension; next Sunday (24 May 2026), we celebrate the Day of Pentecost.
In the meantime, we are in what we might call ‘in-between’ time.
It is still the season of Easter, which lasts for 50 days from Easter Day until the Day of Pentecost. But, this morning, we are still in the Easter season, in that ‘in-between’ time, these 10 days between the Day of Ascension and the pouring out of the Holy Spirit on the Church at Pentecost.
Following the Ascension, two angels in white robes ask the disciples why they are standing around looking up into heaven. In the Gospel account of the Ascension (Luke 24: 44-53), they return to ‘Jerusalem with great joy,’ and seem to spend the following days in the Temple.
As the story unfolds in the Acts of the Apostles, the disciples, as well as the Virgin Mary and other women (see verse 14), spend their time in prayer, choosing a successor to Judas, as we are told in this morning’s first reading (Acts 1: 6-14).
Ten days after the Ascension, they are going to be filled with Holy Spirit, who comes as a gift not only to the 12 but to all who are gathered with them, including the Virgin Mary and the other women, the brothers of Jesus (verse 14), and other followers in Jerusalem – in all, about 120 people (see verse 15).
But during these 10 days, they and we are in that ‘in-between’ time, the 10 days between the Ascension and Pentecost. Their faith persists, but the promise has not yet been fulfilled.
They wait in hope. But until that promise is fulfilled they are, you might say, transfixed, believing without doing, unable to move from Jerusalem out into the wider world.
This Gospel reading follows Christ’s ‘Farewell Discourse’ at the Last Supper (John 14: 1 to 16: 33), 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 now read from 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, a day remembering the Fathers of the First Ecumenical Council at Nicaea in the year 325. 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.
Verses 1-2: the Father gives this glory to the Son, and this adds to the Father’s glory because of the authority the Father has given to the Son over all people, with the promise of eternal life.
Verse 3: this eternal life is knowing the Father and Christ, who has been sent by the Father.
Verses 4-5: Christ glorifies the Father by finishing the work he has been given, and he is being restored to glory in the Father’s presence, a glory Christ had in God’s presence before the world existed.
Verse 6: Christ has made God’s name known in the world, and those who have heard him and have been obedient to the word of God.
Verses 7-8: the disciples now know that the Father is the source of all that the Christ has been given, they know that he has been sent from the Father, and that the Father sent him into the world.
Verse 9: Christ’s petitions are on behalf of his followers.
Verse 10: Those who follow Christ are committed to God’s care.
Verse 11: Looking forward to the time after his departure – after his Crucifixion, Resurrection and Ascension – Christ now asks the Father to protect the disciples in the world, and prays that they may have a unity that reflects the unity of the Father and the Son … ‘that they may be one, as we are one.’
Too often we are caught between Ascension Day and Pentecost, waiting but not sure that the kingdom is to come, frightened in the terror and the pain of the present moment. Feeling powerless and fearful and not knowing what to do combine to make a deadly cocktail that not only immobilises us but robs us of hope.
But I remember how during the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown, we came to see reflections of our hope for the future in the nurses, the doctors, the police, the emergency responders, who responded immediately, without considering how they were putting themselves in danger … the supermarket staff, the delivery drivers, the people in communities who delivered shopping, the postal workers who checked on the elderly and the vulnerable, the police who take smiles and verbal abuse with equal stoicism.
In those ‘In-Between Times’, we came to see ourselves in them and even to see the face of God in them. And this too is our Easter hope and faith. This is the hope that we will never lose our capacity as Christians to live with the Risen Christ, listening to his desire that we should be not afraid, and that we should love one another.
This is the hope we wait for between the glory of the Ascension and the empowering gifts the Holy Spirit gives us and promises us at Pentecost.
Christ is risen!
The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia!
Today’s Prayers:
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 is introduced today with Reflections from Tamara Khismisi, Projects Coordinator, Anglican Church in Malawi:
The Gender Justice through Girls’ Education Advocacy Campaign, supported by USPG, seeks to address low retention and transition rates for girls in rural Malawi, where child marriages and limited access to sexual reproductive health information are major barriers. Implemented in the Mchinji and Chiladzulu districts under the Anglican Church in Malawi (ACM), the programme mobilises faith leaders, local authorities, and community volunteers to advocate for girls’ education. By raising awareness, influencing policy, and partnering with rights groups, the initiative promotes sustainable change and creates supportive environments for girls to remain in school.
A shining example of change is Lina*, a teenage girl from Kapiri Parish, Saint Peter’s Anglican Church in Mchinji. Life for Lina had not been easy – her family, relying on small-scale farming, struggled to make ends meet, and she had to leave school several times to help at home. Adding to these challenges, the significant lack of menstrual health education leaves many girls like Lina without guidance or support.
Thanks to the Anglican Church in Malawi’s advocacy campaign, Lina’s life began to change. She received guidance on her health and partners in global mission 56 rights, learned how to manage her menstrual hygiene with dignity, and was given a school uniform that allowed her to attend school consistently. Today, Lina sits confidently in Class 7, attending school regularly and dreaming of pursuing higher education in the future.
* name changed
The USPG Prayer Diary today (Sunday 17 May 2026) invites us to pray as we read and meditate on John 17: 1-11.
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.
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
