Daily prayer in Christmas 2025-2026: 26, Monday 19 January 2026

Feasting and fasting are important topics in all three Abrahamic faiths (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

The 40-day season of Christmas continues until Candlemas or the Feast of the Presentation (2 February). This week began with the Second Sunday of Epiphany (Epiphany II), with readings that continue to focus on the Baptism of Christ by Saint John the Baptist, one of the three great Epiphany themes, alongside the Visit of the Magi and the Wedding at Cana.

Today is the Second Day of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, from 18 to 25 January. This year’s theme is ‘One Body, One Spirit’ – from Ephesians 4: 1-13 – which was prepared by the Armenian Apostolic Church, along with the Armenian Catholic and Evangelical Churches. The calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship today remembers Saint Wulfstan (1095), Bishop of Worcester in 1062-1095.

I have an appointment this afternoon for a regular injection that helps me to cope with my B12 deficiency. Before today begins, however, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, to reflect, to pray and to read in these ways:

1, 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.

‘No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old cloak’ … the HIV+ Women’s Group Quilt at Open Heart House at an exhibition in Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Mark 2: 18-22 (NRSVA):

18 Now John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting; and people came and said to him, ‘Why do John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?’ 19 Jesus said to them, ‘The wedding-guests cannot fast while the bridegroom is with them, can they? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. 20 The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast on that day.

21 ‘No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old cloak; otherwise, the patch pulls away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear is made. 22 And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and the wine is lost, and so are the skins; but one puts new wine into fresh wineskins.’

Ramadan bread on sale as sunset draws in Kuşadasi (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflections:

The story of the Wedding at Cana (John 2: 1-11), The Gospel reading in two weeks’ time (Epiphany IV, 1 February 2026), is one of the three great Epiphany themes, along with the Visit of the Magi (Matthew 2: 1-12, 6 January 2026, The Epiphany), and the story of the Baptism of Christ by Saint John the Baptist (Matthew 3: 13-17, 11 January 2025, Epiphany I). These three themes at Epiphany tell us who Christ truly is: truly God and truly human.

That wedding theme in Gospel reading on Epiphany IV is also found in today’s reading, with a wedding feast used to illustrate a debate about feasting and fasting.

Saint Wulfstan, who is remembered in the church calendar today, was known for his guilelessness, his remarkable simplicity and humility, and his campaigning to abolish 11th century slave trading. Wulstan, together with Lanfranc, was mainly responsible for ending the 11th century slave trade between Bristol and Ireland. He was canonised by Pope Innocent III in 1203 on the testimony of Archbishop John Comyn of Dublin. His views on feasting and fasting have made him the patron saint of vegetarians and dieters.

Feasting and fasting are important themes in the three Abrahamic faiths – Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

For many Jews, the central act of worship and prayer is not what takes place in a synagogue on a Saturday morning, but the shared family meal in the home on Friday evening, when the candles are lit and blessings are said over the shared wine and bread.

Passover or Pesach begins this year on the evening of Wednesday 1 April 2026, and ends after nightfall on 9 April. Passover involves elements of both feasting and fasting, with the Seder meals but removing all leavened foods or chametz and abstaining from all food and drink that includes anything leavened or fermented, such as bread, crackers, cookies, pretzels and pasta, and most brands of beer, whiskey, vodka and gin.

The Eucharist is the central act of worship for Christians. The Church of Ireland, for example, teaches that ‘Holy Communion is the central act of worship’ and ‘warmly’ invites ‘all communicant members of Christian churches to join us at the Lord’s Table.’

The Iftar meals are shared, communal and spiritual experiences for Muslims.

Fasting is not only a Christian tradition, but is a form of spiritual discipline in all the great religious traditions: think of Yom Kippur, the great Jewish fast, or of Ramadan, a whole month of fasting for Muslims.

The association between feasting and fasting and the quest for justice are emphasised by Orthodox Christians in the prayers and readings on Clean Monday (Καθαρή Δευτέρα), which marks the beginning of Lent and which falls on 23 February this year (2026).

Greeks traditionally mark Clean Monday (Καθαρή Δευτέρα) by gathering for a traditional κούλουμα (koulouma) celebration, flying kites and eating halva. A special kind of azyme bread (λαγάνα, lagana) is baked only on this day. Some Orthodox Christians abstain from eating meat, eggs and dairy products throughout Lent, eating fish only on major feast days.

Liturgically, Clean Monday – and Lent itself – begins with a special service called Forgiveness Vespers, which ends with the Ceremony of Mutual Forgiveness, when those present bow down before each other and ask for forgiveness. In this way, they begin Lent with a clean conscience, with forgiveness, and with renewed Christian love.

The theme of Clean Monday is set by the reading appointed for the Sixth Hour (Isaiah 1: 1-20), which says in part:

Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean;
remove the evil of your doings
from before my eyes;
cease to do evil,
learn to do good;
seek justice,
rescue the oppressed,
defend the orphan,
plead for the widow.

Come now, let us argue it out,
says the Lord:
though your sins are like scarlet,
they shall be like snow;
though they are red like crimson,
they shall become like wool (verses 16-18).

In the first week of Lent, the Orthodox Church celebrates the hope that, as the Vespers that Wednesday say, ‘the springtime of the Fast has dawned, the flower of repentance has begun to open.’

Ramadan this year begins on Tuesday 17 February and cotinues until the evening of Wednesday 18 March 2026. I have visited in Egypt, Pakistan and Turkey during the month of Ramadan, or Ramazan as it is known in Turkey, and I have found it is a very spiritual time to be in a country with a predominantly Muslim population.

In Kuşadasi, a resort town on the Aegean coast, I have noticed how among tourists no-one is affected by Ramadan – the cafés, bars and restaurants stay open and life goes on as normal. But during Ramadan, practising Muslims are taught not to eat, drink, or have sexual relations between dawn and sunset. I realised there how it must be tough on the cooks and waiters in hotels, restaurants and bars as they cook and serve food and watch the tourists eating and drinking throughout the day.

One tradition in many places in Turkey is the ‘Ramazan Drummer,’ a ‘human alarm clock’ who starts to stroll and beat his drum in the streets around 3 am to wake up those who are fasting so that they can rise and prepare the Sahur, the morning meal before sunrise.

The fast of Ramadan is broken each evening with Itfar, which is a celebration and a sharing with the community. In the evening, a cannon booms out to announce the end of the fast and the beginning of darkness.

Stewed fruits are indispensable foods at both iftar dinners and sahur breakfasts. Stuffed bagels are associated with sahur, while Turkish bread is preferred at the evening meal.

But, before the evening meal, the fast is traditionally broken with olives and water firstly, with the main meal following later. It is unhealthy to fill empty stomachs with heavy foods, and – in any case – for centuries the olive has been considered a holy food by every religious tradition in the Eastern Mediterranean.

Once the sun goes down, many restaurants become busy with local people who come out to eat with their family members. Or people rush home to be with their families to enjoy the Iftar, or the breaking of the fast.

Many young people use those evenings to meet and visit their friends, and there is often a party atmosphere … although most of this passes unnoticed by the many young Turks in Kuşadasi working until well into the night in the hotels, tourist shops and bars, and the young tourists who know little about the spiritual values of feasting and fasting and of tolerance and justice, and how they are intertwined.

I find it interesting that there is going to be a partial overlap this year between Lent and Easter, Passover and Ramadan.

‘The springtime of the Fast has dawned, the flower of repentance has begun to Open’ … an image in the journal Koinonia, Lent 2011, Vol 4, Issue 13, Kansas City, MO

Today’s Prayers (Monday 19 January 2026):

The theme this week (18-24 January 2026) in Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘Freedom Theologies’ (pp 20-21). This theme was introduced yesterday with Reflections from Dr Thandi Gamedze, poet, theologian, and senior researcher at the Desmond Tutu Centre for Religion and Social Justice.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Monday 19 January 2026) invites us to pray:

Lord, we thank you for the stories of courage in South Africa’s history and for the Kairos Document that called the Church to justice. Help us to learn from this witness and act with boldness in our own faith.

The Collect:

Almighty God,
in Christ you make all things new:
transform the poverty of our nature by the riches of your grace,
and in the renewal of our lives
make known your heavenly glory;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, ow and for ever.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

God of glory,
you nourish us with your Word
who is the bread of life:
fill us with your Holy Spirit
that through us the light of your glory
may shine in all the world.
We ask this in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

Eternal Lord,
our beginning and our end:
bring us with the whole creation
to your glory, hidden through past ages
and made known
in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s Reflections

Continued Tomorrow

Sunset in the Aegean at Ladies Beach in Kuşadasi … practising Muslims are expected to fast from sunrise to sunset each day during Ramadan (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

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

Greek food for the soul with memories of Thessaloniki, family history and stories of the Jewish communities

The Jewish Museum in Thessaloniki … the the city was known to Jews as ‘la Madre de Israel’ or ‘the Mother of Israel,’ and to non-Jews as ‘the Jerusalem of the Balkans’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

Despite yesterday’s refreshing boost that came with rediscovering and listening to some inspirational Greek songs and music, I am still feeling a little low and more than a little sorry for myself following my surgical procedures in Oxford a week ago.

However, I also took some comfort this week in coming across reports of a new book with recipes for and stories about my favourite Greek food and with recollections of the stories of the Jewish community in Thessaloniki. It is a combination that is balm for my soul: Greek food, reminiscences of Thessaloniki, family history and stories of the Jewish communities in Greece.

In a very peculiar way, I have found Thessaloniki is second only to Crete as the part of Greece that I feel most at home in. I first visited Thessaloniki in 1996 – 80 years after my grandfather had been there during World War I and had been sent home with malaria. Since then, I have returned to Thessaloniki at least half a dozen times, walking in my grandfather’s footsteps, writing from there for The Irish Times, attending academic seminars at the Aristotelean University and exhibition, and exploring the story of the Jewish community in a city that was once known in Ladino as La Madre de Israel or ‘Mother of Israel’ and that once had the largest Jewish community in Europe.

The story of the Jews of Thessaloniki reaches back more than 2,300 years, and the Jewish community was boosted in size with arrival of Sephardic Jews who migrated there after the expulsion of Jews from Spain in 1492.

During World War II, the Jews of Thessaloniki were forced into a ghetto near the railway lines, and then deported to the concentration camps. On 11 July 1942, known to this day as the ‘Black Shabbat’, all the men of the community between the ages of 18 to 45 were rounded up in Eleftherias Square (Freedom Square) in the city centre. More than 90% of the total Jewish population of the city was murdered in those years, and only 1,200 Jews live there today.

To this day, 80 years after the end of World War II, the descendants of the Jewish communities of Thessaloniki maintain their distinctive language, Ladino, their cultural traditions, their way of praying, their music and their cuisine.

Shaily Lipa’s grandparents, Levana and Angel, at their wedding in September 1946

Shaily Lipa was born and raised in Tel Aviv to a Jewish family with Jewish-Greek origin. She is a culinary and lifestyle expert, and a TV personality. She invites her audience to take part in her daily life with cooking and hosting adventures at home through her Instagram account. She has written 11 best-selling cookbooks in Israel, and Yassou: The Simple, Seasonal Mediterranean Cooking of Greece, published earlier this year (11 March 2025), is her first English-language cookbook.

Levana and Angel lived in Israel, but their world was Greek. ‘All of their friends were Greek — from Thessaloniki,’ Shaily explains. They spoke Ladino with one another, played cards together on Friday nights, listened to Greek music, and ate Greek food. Most of their friends, she believes, were Holocaust survivors like her grandfather Angel. He was born in Thessaloniki, but, like most Jews in the city, his family was deported to Auschwitz in 1943.

His parents, two sisters, and one brother died; only Angel and his brother Dario survived. However, the two were separated during the war and did not know that each other had survived until they both reached Puglia in Italy as refugees. Angel lived there in a home with several other Jewish refugees. Eager to find a place to pray, they converted one room into a small synagogue. Angel knew how to write in Hebrew and inscribed the parochet, a curtain that covers the Torah ark, for the small sanctuary.

When Dario heard that another member of his family was alive, he went to the home and spotted his brother’s handwriting on the ark, only to learn that Angel had left for Israel the day before. The two were finally reunited in Israel and built new lives there — including the Shabbat breakfasts at Angel and Levana’s home.

Both of Shaily’s grandparents have died. But her memories of those Shabbat breakfasts remain strong and have had a lasting impact on her. Today, Shaily keeps her grandmother’s tradition alive, hosting Greek Shabbat breakfasts when her family is together, making Greek salad, her grandmother’s white beans, and her own version of spanakopita, which she serves as a large pie.

In ‘Yassou’, Shaily Lipa celebrates Greek and Jewish food in a delicious journey (Photographer: Armando Rafael. Food stylist: Judy Haubert. Prop stylist: Vanessa Vazquez)

In her new book, Shaily Lipa recalls how ‘Shabbat breakfast was iconic’ in her family. Every Saturday, they would gather on her grandparents’ balcony for a Greek spread of flaky spanikopita, tangy white bean salad, creamy tzatziki, hard boiled eggs, and a classic horiatiki or Greek salad.

Shaily tells how her Shabbat clothes were always dusted with powdered sugar on Saturday mornings. Her grandparents Levana and Angel hosted the whole family for a Greek Shabbat breakfast on their balcony in Holon, south of Tel Aviv. Before the meal was served, Shaily and her cousins would steal sugar-dusted Greek butter cookies, kourabiedes, from the secret stash their grandmother kept under her bed. But the sugar that dusted their clothes always gave them away.

In a recent interview, she told Jewish Foood Society that when her grandparents lived in Israel, their world was Greek: they spoke Ladino, listened to Greek music, and continued to make the recipes they knew from Thessaloniki where they were born. Their Shabbats have left a lasting impression on Shaily, and inform every page and image in Yassou, in which she celebrates the original Mediterranean diet in a delicious journey.

Greek food embraces abundant fresh vegetables and fish, and includes generous and ample use of olive oil, tomatoes, whole grains, legumes, artisanal cheeses and fruit, accompanied by a healthy glass of wine. In Yassou, the traditions and the rich appeal of this food is captured in the recipes and gorgeous photographs. They include mezes like tzatziki and fried zucchini, through a menu of stuffed vegetables, soups for all seasons, zingy white bean salad with lemon and vinegar, grilled mains like souvlaki, and savoury pies like spanakopita, with 80 dishes in all to prepare, cook, eat and savour.

Now, when Shaily Lipa looks back at those Shabbats at her grandparents’ home, dusted in sugar, she says: ‘I think this is the reason I love Shabbat — thanks to them. I like to host and be social — these are the things I learned from them.’

Shabbat Shalom, Buen Shabat, שבת שלום

• Sally Lipa, Yassou: The Simple, Seasonal Mediterranean Cooking of Greece (Artisan, 2025), 272 pp, ISBN-13 978-1648291852

Pithy ways to remember those first Greek phrases you learn in Apollonia in Newport Pagnell

The tastes and smells of Greece in Apollonia in Newport Pagnell (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Patrick Comerford

It’s still less than a month since I was in Crete, celebrating Holy Week and Easter in Rethymnon. But already I’m feeling homesick for Greek food, Greek coffee, Greek wine, Greek music, and the smells, tastes and sights of Greek life.

Newport Pagnell is about 9 km east of Stony Stratford, and we had a number of tasks there yesterday [16 May 2025], including photographs to take of some interesting buildings associated with the architect Edward Swinfen Harris. It was a good suggestion from Charlotte to have dinner afterwards to have dinner in Apollonia, the Greek restaurant on the High Street, almost directly opposite the Dolphin.

The Greater Milton Keynes area has a number of good Greek restaurants, including Eating Greek MK on Church Street in Wolverton, Greek Souvlaki on Brooklands Road, Bletchley, and, of course, Souv Lucky Day which offers authentic Greek street food on Midsummer Place.

An old time recipe for traditional Greek tzatziki in Apollonia (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

It was a balmy late Friday afternoon that felt like early summer, and Apollonia offered us authentic Greek tastes and sounds that met some of that homesickness and yearning late yesterday.

But while many Greek restaurants, both in England and Ireland offer the sights of Greece through large prints and photographs – typically of Santorini, Mykonos and Athens – Apollonia has a different, and humorous approach to the framed decorations on its walls.

Yes, there are prints with recipes for Gyros and traditional Greek tzatziki, and there are sketches of ouzo bottles that are reminders of Rhodes. But if you want to be reminded of the sounds of Greek conversation, there half a dozen or so flash cards, with the pithy dictionary-like of some of the basic words and phrases that any visitor or tourist can quickly pick up on the first few days in Greece.

Καλή Όρεξη, kali orexi … more than just ‘bon appetit’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

kali orexi
[ph] [Greek]

a Greek blessing for food lovers everywhere. More than just ‘enjoy you’re meal,’ it’s a call to savour every bite, share laughter at the table, and let the flavours of life fill your soul. Warning: may lead to spontaneous dancing and an extra serving of tzatziki.

Καλημέρα, kaliméra … Good Morning to all (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

kaliméra
[noun] [Greek]

meaning good morning and is happily bestowed upon anyone who is walking past.

Γειά Σου, Yia Sou … you are more than welcome (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Yia Sou
[noun] [Greek]

A warm Greek greeting, wishing health, happiness, and comfort to all who enter. A reminder that every guest is welcome, and every moment is a celebration of life.

'Γεια Μας, Yia Mas … it means much more than ‘cheers’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Yia Mas
[noun] [Greek]

A toasted friendship, love, and the moments that bring us together. A celebration of health, happiness, and all that is good in life.

Μαλάκας, Malakas … the meaning depends on context and tone (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Malakas
[noun] [Greek]

A word with versatile meanings. It can denote ‘wanker,’ ‘asshole,’ or ‘jerk,’ but also ‘dude’ or ‘mate,’ depending on context and tone. It can express pleasure, anger, affection, or other emotions.

Σ'αγαπώ, s'agapo, I love you (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

s'agapo
[verb] [Greek]

a tender and expressive phrase in Greek, translating to ‘I love you.’ It encapsulates profound emotions and conveys deep affection and attachment.

Here there is humour, wit, sincerity, and even the bar-room Greek that sometimes shocks new students approaching Biblical Greek as they realise that even Saint Paul uses the word μαλάκας.

It is a pity, perhaps, that the original Greek words themselves are not part of the framed flash cards: καλή όρεξη, καλημέρα, Γειά Σου, 'Γεια Μας, μαλάκας, σ'αγαπώ.

A taste of Greece in Apollonia in Newport Pagnell (Photographs: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Daily prayer in Easter 2025: 16, Monday 5 May 2025

‘The … crowd that had stayed … saw that Jesus had not got into the boat … but that his disciples had gone away alone’ (John 6: 22) … a lone boat against the harbour walls in Rethymnon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Patrick Comerford

Easter is a 50-day season that continues until the Day of Pentecost, and this week began with the Third Sunday of Easter (Easter III, 4 May 2025).

This is a public holiday in both England and Ireland as the first Monday in May and the nearest Monday in May to May Day. In the Calendar of the Greek Orthodox Church, today is the Feast of Saint Irene the Great Martyr (Αγίας Ειρήνης της Μεγαλομάρτυρος), and this morning I especially appreciate the gift I received in Rethymnon at Easter from my friend the icon writer Alexandra Kaouki of an icon of Saint Irene. 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.

‘They … got into the boats and went … looking for Jesus’ (John 6: 24) … boats in the harbour in Iraklion (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

John 6: 22-29 (NRSVA):

22 The next day the crowd that had stayed on the other side of the lake saw that there had been only one boat there. They also saw that Jesus had not got into the boat with his disciples, but that his disciples had gone away alone. 23 Then some boats from Tiberias came near the place where they had eaten the bread after the Lord had given thanks. 24 So when the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they themselves got into the boats and went to Capernaum looking for Jesus.

25 When they found him on the other side of the lake, they said to him, ‘Rabbi, when did you come here?’ 26 Jesus answered them, ‘Very truly, I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. 27 Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For it is on him that God the Father has set his seal.’ 28 Then they said to him, ‘What must we do to perform the works of God?’ 29 Jesus answered them, ‘This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.’

‘Very truly, I tell you, you are looking for me … because you ate your fill of the loaves’ (John 6: 26) … bread on the table in Rethymnon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Today’s Reflection:

We have read in recent days about Jesus feeding of the 5,000 and walking on the water, and we are now introduced to reading the long Bread of Life discourse (verses 22-59), spoken in the synagogue in Capernaum (John 6: 59).

This ‘Bread’ is compared the manna with which God fed his people during their long wanderings in the desert in the wilderness. Today’s reading is an introduction, and the discourse itself begins tomorrow (6 May 2025). The last part of the discourse is about the mixed reaction of Jesus’ disciples and about Peter’s profession.

The day following the feeding of the 5,000, the people go in search of Jesus. There had been only one boat tied up at the shore, and the disciples had taken it to cross the lake. However, Jesus had not accompanied them, he had stayed behind. The people realise he did not cross the lake with his disciples, but when they go to the site of the feeding, they find he is not there either.

Eventually they find Jesus and his disciples near Capernaum, Jesus’ principal base in Galilee. They ask him: ‘Rabbi, when did you come here?’ (verse 25). In typically Johannine fashion, the question is loaded with deeper meanings, of which those asking it are quite unaware. Jesus’ origin (where he comes from) is a constant source of misunderstanding both on the part of the crowds and of the religious leadership of the day.

Jesus begins by telling the crowds that they are coming in search of him not because of the ‘signs’ that he is doing, but because of the bread that they had been given to eat. They have missed the point of what Jesus is doing. They have seen the things that Jesus has been doing, but have missed the ‘sign’, the deeper meaning behind them.

There are two kinds of food: food for the body, and food for the inner person, the spirit or the soul. The food the people are looking for is not the food that counts. The real food brings a life that never ends, and that is the food that Jesus is offering. It parallels the ‘spring of water gushing up to eternal life’ that Jesus promised the Samaritan woman (John 4: 14).

The source of this ‘bread’ is the Son on whom the Father has set his seal. This ‘seal’ was given at his baptism. It is the Spirit of the Father, who is the power of God working in and through Jesus.

The people ask him: ‘What must we do to perform the works of God?’ (verse 28). Jesus tells them: ‘This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent’ (verse 29).

‘Work’ in this context refers to the fulfilment of the requirements of the religious law of the day. But Jesus substitutes this with faith in himself as the delegate of the Father. He challenges us not just to ‘believe’, but to ‘believe in’. This is not merely a question of accepting certain statements about Jesus and who he really is. ‘Believing in’ involves a total and unconditional self-commitment to Christ, to the Gospel and the vision of life that Jesus proposes, and making it part of myself. This is where the real bread is to be found.

Jesus is not just speaking of the Eucharistic bread, but the deep-down nourishment of which the Eucharist is the sign and sacrament – nourishment that also comes from the Word of God in Scripture and the experience of the whole Christian community.

As we read this full chapter, we should not limit the truth of Jesus as the Bread or Food of our life simply to the Eucharist, which is the sacramental sign of something much larger – all that we receive through Christ and the whole Christian way of life.

Christ is risen!
The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia!

‘Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life’ (John 6: 27) … food in Crete in recent weeks (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Today’s Prayers (Monday 5 May 2025):

‘Inconvenient Migration’ provides the theme this week 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 yesterday with Reflections from Carol Miller, Church Engagement Manager, USPG.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Monday 5 May 2025) invites us to pray:

God of compassion, we ask for your mercy on all refugees and displaced people. Grant your grace, favour and protection. Bring them to safety.

The Collect:

Almighty Father,
who in your great mercy gladdened the disciples
with the sight of the risen Lord:
give us such knowledge of his presence with us,
that we may be strengthened and sustained by his risen life
and serve you continually in righteousness and truth;
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:

Living God,
your Son made himself known to his disciples
in the breaking of bread:
open the eyes of our faith,
that we may see him in all his redeeming work;
who is alive and reigns, now and for ever.

Additional Collect:

Risen Christ,
you filled your disciples with boldness and fresh hope:
strengthen us to proclaim your risen life
and fill us with your peace,
to the glory of God the Father.

Yesterday’s Reflections

Continued tomorrow

An icon of Aghia Irini (Αγία Ειρήνη) or Saint Irene by Alexandra Kaouki, a gift at Easter in Rethymnon … today is the Feast of Saint Irene the Great Martyr in the Greek Orthodox Church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

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

Yes you can … you can help MK Food Bank break a record

Patrick Comerford

MK Food Bank is organising ‘MK CAN’ - a major initiative involving the whole of Milton Keynes in an effort to smash the current world record for the longest line of cans of food.

Businesses, community groups, schools, churches and parish councils are involved in reaching an ambitious target of 132,000 cans, that’s 10 km long.

The line will wind its way round Campbell Park Milton Keynes on Monday (16 October 2023), starting at the World Food Day Pillar at the iconic MK Rose. This will provide over half of the canned food the Food Bank need for an entire year.

The public celebration is from 12:30 to 3:30 pm, with the public invited to ‘walk the line’ with limited edition goody bags, with live music at the main stage, roving performers and food and drinks.

How can you get involved?

Wolverton Benefice is getting involved in joint effort by Saint George’s Church, Wolverton, and Holy Trinity Church, Old Wolverton.

I brought along cans to Holy Trinity Church last week as a contribution from Charlotte and me to this record-breaking effort. There is still time to support this effort and to get involved.

You can help by:

1, Collecting and donating cans of food for a section of ‘the line’;

2, Volunteering to help or volunteer at a section of ‘the line’ on Monday.

MK Food Bank has supported the local community with emergency food parcels since 2004. Last year, the effects of Covid and the subsequent cost of living crisis led to increased demand for food support.

In 2022, they gave out 26,000 food parcels and equivalents – 40% more than in 2021 and nearly double what was given out in the whole of 2019.

It is estimated that MK Food Bank has supported around 1 in 30 households in Milton Keynes over the last 18 months. This represents one child in every class, at least one household in every street and possibly at least one in most workplaces.

Every week about 50 people are contacting MK Food Bank for the very first time … people who have never had to ask for help before.

Scattering rice dumplings from an old arcade and the Asia Market in Dublin

The Asia Market in Dublin is preparing for next week’s Dragot Boat Festival (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Patrick Comerford

One of my early assignments when I was training in Dublin as a chartered surveyor and studying for a BSc in estate management at Reading University was to assist in a survey and valuation of George’s Street Arcade in Dublin.

I was then a naïve school leaver, still in my late teens, and much to the chagrin of the senior surveyor I was assisting I thought it humorous that the same large complex that housed a temperance hotel also had a large bonded store in its basement.

South City Markets was Dublin’s first purpose-built Victorian shopping centre. Dublin (South) City Market Company was incorporated in 1876 with a share capital of £200,000 and a loan capital of £50,000, for establishing a market in the south inner city. A special Act of Parliament gave the company power to acquire the property.

George’s Street Arcade or South City Markets was Dublin’s first purpose-built Victorian shopping centre (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The Bradford architects Henry Francis Lockwood (1811-1878) and William Mawson (1828-1889) won the competition to design the market. But their partnership had ended when Lockwood moved to London, and the market was designed by William Mawson and his brother Richard Mawson (1834-1904). South City Market was opened by the Lord Mayor of Dublin, Sir George Moyers, in 1881.

At first, the Market was not popular with ordinary Dubliners, and tragedy befell the market on 27 August 1892 when the massive city fire that day devastated the whole building. There was a flood of public sympathy, and a fund was organised for the relief of the stallholders. By then, Mawson had died, but the centre was rebuilt in the same style to designs by the Dublin architect William Henry Byrne (1844-1917), who had been placed second in the original competition and who is particularly associated with Catholic church architecture.

South City Market or George’s Street Arcade reopened on 13 September 1894, and has traded continuously since then, with varying fortunes down through the years. Today, this Victorian arcade, between South Great George’s Street, Exchequer Street, Drury Street and Fade Street, has its own very special ambience with over 40 independent retailers in the arcade.

When I am back in Dublin, I enjoy strolling through the arcade with cathedral-like Gothic entrance, its quirky stalls, and especially the second-hand book outlets.

Asia Market is part of the vibrant cultural diversity of Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Behind the George’s Street façade, the area around Drury Street was once the centre of the rag trade in Dublin. Today, it has a variety of cafés, bars, restaurants and food shops that reflect the vibrant cultural diversity of Dublin.

Last week, Charlotte and I visited the Asia Market on Drury Street, which is within the George’s Arcade complex. This is perhaps the largest importer, retailer, wholesaler and distributor of Asian food products in Ireland, supplying the majority of Asian restaurants, shops and takeaways in Ireland.

For more than 25 years, the Asia Market has been run on ‘customer-first’ policy, sending their purchasing team to their places of origin to investigation, to hire professionals for assessments, and to ensure the qu of products. The shop stocks more than 3,000 lines, with goods mainly from Asia, including South Korea, Japan, mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Thailand, Malaysia and Vietnam.

The Asia Market started as a single entity in Drury Street in 1981, offering ethnic food to the then growing Asian population.

The Asia Market sells goods from South Korea, Japan, mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Thailand, Malaysia and Vietnam (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

When we visited the Asia Market last week, there were special promotions and decorations for this year’s Dragon Boat Festival, often known as the Duanwu Festival. This traditional festival in China falls on the 5th Day of the 5th Month in the traditional Chinese calendar, and this year it falls on 22 June.

The legend of the Dragon Boat Festival tells of Qu Yuan, a popular poet and minister in the ancient state of Chu during the ‘Warring States’ period of the Zhou Dynasty. He was slandered by jealous government officials and banished by the King for opposing the alliance. In his disappointment, he died by suicide, drowning himself in the Miluo River. The people who admired him rushed to the river to try to save him and to recover his body, and scattered rice in the water to feed the fish and to prevent them from eating his body.

To commemorate Qu Yuan’s death, Chinese people hold Dragon Boat Races along the river on the anniversary of his death, and scatter rice on the water, recalling how the fish were fed to save the body of Qu Yuan.

The scattered rice today is symbolised by savoury glutinous rice dumplings. Each region in China has its own style of glutinous rice dumplings, either a savoury style or a sweet style. The savoury-style dumplings are wrapped in bamboo leaves and include glutinous rice, mung bean, preserved duck egg yolk and spiced meat. The sweet-style dumplings have more variations. They too are wrapped in bamboo leaves, but are often filled with red beans, peanuts and other beans or dates. There are vegetarian-style dumplings too.

The Asia Market in Dublin is selling both styles of dumplings in time for next week’s festival.

The Asia Market started as a single entity in Drury Street in 1981 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Praying for World Peace and with USPG: Friday 21 October 2022

The reredos in the Unitarian Church, Dublin, is inscribed with the Beatitudes, one on each panel … the Week of Prayer for World Peace invites prayers today on the theme of ‘Role of Peace Makers in Wars’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

Before today gets busy, I am taking some time this morning for reading, prayer and reflection.

This year, the Week of Prayer for World Peace is from 16 to 23 October. In my prayer diary from last Sunday until next Sunday, I am reflecting in these ways:

1, One of the readings for the morning;

2, A reflection from the programme for the Week of Prayer for World Peace (16 to 23 October);

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary, ‘Pray with the World Church.’

Peace in the languages of the world … the Church of Saint Botolph without Aldgate in London (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Luke 12: 54-59 (NRSVA):

54 He also said to the crowds, ‘When you see a cloud rising in the west, you immediately say, “It is going to rain”; and so it happens. 55 And when you see the south wind blowing, you say, “There will be scorching heat”; and it happens. 56 You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky, but why do you not know how to interpret the present time?

57 ‘And why do you not judge for yourselves what is right? 58 Thus, when you go with your accuser before a magistrate, on the way make an effort to settle the case, or you may be dragged before the judge, and the judge hand you over to the officer, and the officer throw you in prison. 59 I tell you, you will never get out until you have paid the very last penny.’

The Week of Prayer for World Peace takes place this year from Sunday 16 October 2022 to Sunday 23 October 2022

Week of Prayer for World Peace 2022, Day 6:

The week of Prayer for World Peace takes place from the second to third Sunday in October each year, which this year is from last Sunday (Sunday 16 October 2022) to next Sunday (23 October 2022).

The Week of Prayer for World Peace is supported by a wide range of organisations, many of which I have engaged with over the years, including the Anglican Pacifist Fellowship, Christian CND, the Fellowship of Reconciliation, Pax Christi, and Quaker Peace and Social Witness.

Day 6: Role of Peace Makers in Wars:

Let us pray for all working for peace often in dangerous situations.

‘If there is to be peace in the world,
There must be peace in the nations.
If there is to be peace in the nations,
there must be peace in the cities.
If there is to be peace in the cities,
there must be peace between neighbours.
If there is to be peace between neighbours,
there must be peace in the home.
If there is to be peace in the home,
there must be peace in the heart.’
– Lao-Tse, Taoist tradition prayer for peace

‘May peace be your virtue,
May peace be your property,
May peace be your prayer.
May you bring peace to all those you meet, you talk to, you live with.
May you even bring peace to the person you hate, your enemy.’

‘May your friends enjoy your peaceful disposition
and may your enemies enjoy your peaceful opposition.
May this world be based on one word: peace.
As God has shredded Himself into all souls
and piece by piece we get together into this beautiful world.
May we pray in our hearts this day for world peace. Sat Nam.’
– Sikh tradition Taken from a blog of Sikh Dharma International

‘I desire neither earthly kingdom, nor even freedom from birth and death. I desire only the deliverance from grief of all those afflicted by misery. Lead us from the unreal to the real; from darkness to light; from death to immortality.’
– Hindu Peace Prayer

The United Nations Peace Garden at Saint Mary’s Cathedral, Limerick, remembers UN peacekeepers … the Week of Prayer for World Peace invites prayers today on the theme of ‘Role of Peace Makers in Wars’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayer (Friday 21 October 2022):

The Collect:

Almighty and everlasting God,
increase in us your gift of faith
that, forsaking what lies behind
and reaching out to that which is before,
we may run the way of your commandments
and win the crown of everlasting joy;
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:

We praise and thank you, O Christ, for this sacred feast:
for here we receive you,
here the memory of your passion is renewed,
here our minds are filled with grace,
and here a pledge of future glory is given,
when we shall feast at that table where you reign
with all your saints for ever.

The theme in the USPG Prayer Diary this week is ‘World Food Day.’ This theme was introduced on Sunday.

The USPG Prayer Diary invites us to pray today in these words:

Let us pray for farmers in the Global South who are having to adapt to changing climates because of global warming.

Yesterday’s reflection

Continued tomorrow

‘If there is to be peace in the nations, there must be peace in the cities’ … peace at night along the River Thames between the City of London and Southwark (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

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

‘Ring For Peace’ … the peace bell at Holy Trinity Church, Goodramgate, York … the inscription reads, Sit Nomen Domini Benedictum, Blessed be the name of the Lord (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

Praying for World Peace and with USPG: Thursday 20 October 2022

The Killing of the Holy Innocents, by Giotto (ca 1304-1306), in the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua … the Week of Prayer for World Peace invites prayers today on the theme of ‘Effects on Children’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

Before today gets busy, I am taking some time this morning for reading, prayer and reflection.

This year, the Week of Prayer for World Peace is from 16 to 23 October. In my prayer diary from last Sunday until next Sunday, I am reflecting in these ways:

1, One of the readings for the morning;

2, A reflection from the programme for the Week of Prayer for World Peace (16 to 23 October);

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary, ‘Pray with the World Church.’

‘Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth?’ (Luke 12: 51) … the Reconciliation monument in the ruins of Coventry Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Luke 12: 49-53 (NRSVA):

[Jesus said:] 49 ‘I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! 50 I have a baptism with which to be baptized, and what stress I am under until it is completed! 51 Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division! 52 From now on, five in one household will be divided, three against two and two against three; 53 they will be divided:

father against son
and son against father,
mother against daughter
and daughter against mother,
mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law
and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.’

The Week of Prayer for World Peace takes place this year from Sunday 16 October 2022 to Sunday 23 October 2022

Week of Prayer for World Peace 2022, Day 5:

The week of Prayer for World Peace takes place from the second to third Sunday in October each year, which this year is from last Sunday (Sunday 16 October 2022) to next Sunday (23 October 2022).

The Week of Prayer for World Peace is supported by a wide range of organisations, many of which I have engaged with over the years, including the Anglican Pacifist Fellowship, Christian CND, the Fellowship of Reconciliation, Pax Christi, and Quaker Peace and Social Witness.

Day 5: Effects on Children:

Let us pray for all children who suffer because of the decisions of others, including children who suffer physical or mental injuries and those who are bereaved.

‘Pray for all victims of war, for all those innocent children who have been objects of these vicious wars. Pray for the children who never got to experience what the joy of childhood was really like. Pray for those who struggle to find a loaf of bread to feed their loved ones.’
– Adapted from a Muslim prayer

‘O Great Spirit of our Ancestors, I raise my pipe to you.
To your messengers the four winds, and to Mother Earth who
provides for your children,
Give us the wisdom to teach our children to love, to respect and to be
kind to each other so that they may grow with peace in mind.

Let us learn to share all the good things that you provide for us on This Earth.’
– Appalachian Cherokee Nation Prayer

Hungry, the world’s poor children cry,
In tragic millions doomed to die,
We care not why or how;
While wealth beyond all bounds is spent
On vast destructive armament,
Where is compassion now?
– Extracted from a poem by Stanley Finch

May God bless you and keep you.
May God shine light on you and be gracious to you.
May God turn toward you and grant you peace.
– Hebrew blessing for children

A detail from The Killing of the Holy Innocents, by Giotto (ca 1304-1306), in the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua … the Week of Prayer for World Peace invites prayers today on the theme of ‘Effects on Children’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayer (Thursday 20 October 2022):

The Collect:

Almighty and everlasting God,
increase in us your gift of faith
that, forsaking what lies behind
and reaching out to that which is before,
we may run the way of your commandments
and win the crown of everlasting joy;
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:

We praise and thank you, O Christ, for this sacred feast:
for here we receive you,
here the memory of your passion is renewed,
here our minds are filled with grace,
and here a pledge of future glory is given,
when we shall feast at that table where you reign
with all your saints for ever.

The theme in the USPG Prayer Diary this week is ‘World Food Day.’ This theme was introduced on Sunday.

The USPG Prayer Diary invites us to pray today in these words:

We pray for people around the world who cannot afford to eat. May we work for a future where no one goes hungry.

Yesterday's reflection

Continued tomorrow

May God bless you and keep you. May God shine light on you and be gracious to you. May God turn toward you and grant you peace. – Hebrew blessing for children (Photograph: Kevin Martin)

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

Children of the Holocaust … a Holocaust memorial at the Jewish cemetery in Berlin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Praying for World Peace and with USPG: Monday 17 October 2022

Street art in Rethymnon in Crete … today, the Week of Prayer for World Peace invites prayers on the theme of the Environmental Crisis caused by wars (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

The Calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship today (17 October) remembers Saint Ignatius, Bishop of Antioch and Martyr, (ca) 107, with a Lesser Festival.

Before today gets busy, I am taking some time this morning for reading, prayer and reflection.

This year, the Week of Prayer for World Peace is from 16 to 23 October. In my prayer diary from this Sunday until next Sunday, I am reflecting in these ways:

1, One of the readings for the morning;

2, A reflection from the programme for the Week of Prayer for World Peace (16 to 23 October);

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary, ‘Pray with the World Church.’

The view of the Coliseum from the Basilica of San Clemente … Saint Ignatius of Antioch was martyred in the Coliseum and his relics were moved to San Clemente in the year 637 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Saint Ignatius was born probably in Syria in about the year 35 CE and was either the second or third Bishop of Antioch, the third largest city in the Roman Empire. Nothing is known of his life except his final journey under armed escort to Rome, where he was martyred around the year 107. In the course of this journey, he met Polycarp in Smyrna, and wrote a number of letters to various Christian congregations that are among the greatest treasures of the primitive Church. In the face of persecution, he appealed to his fellow Christians to maintain unity with their bishop at all costs. His letters reveal his passionate commitment to Christ, and how he longed ‘to imitate the passion of my God.’

John 6: 52-58 (NRSVA):

52 The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, ‘How can this man give us his flesh to eat?’ 53 So Jesus said to them, ‘Very truly, I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. 54 Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day; 55 for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink. 56 Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them. 57 Just as the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me will live because of me. 58 This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like that which your ancestors ate, and they died. But the one who eats this bread will live for ever.’

The Week of Prayer for World Peace takes place this year from Sunday 16 October 2022 to Sunday 23 October 2022

Week of Prayer for World Peace 2022, Day 2:

The week of Prayer for World Peace takes place from the second to third Sunday in October each year, which this year is from yesterday (Sunday 16 October 2022) to next Sunday (23 October 2022).

The Week of Prayer for World Peace is supported by a wide range of organisations, many of which I have engaged with over the years, including the Anglican Pacifist Fellowship, Christian CND, the Fellowship of Reconciliation, Pax Christi, and Quaker Peace and Social Witness.

Day 2: Environmental Crisis Caused by Wars:

We pray for the restoration of lands damaged by chemicals and other products of war.

‘May the heavens be at peace, may the sky be at peace, may the Earth be at peace, peace to the water, peace to the trees and nature, may the gods be at peace, that peace unto Brahma (the creator) and may we humans realise that peace.

‘Om Peace Peace Peace Om.’ – Shanti Path/Peace Mantra (Hindu)

‘Let us pray for an end to the waste and desecration of God’s creation, for access to the fruits of creation to be shared equally among all people.’ – part of Jesuit resource (time.com).

‘O loving God, from ravaged lands,
‘destroyed by war,
‘Your people lift their hands to you.
‘We pray for stillness, for justice and for peace to come and to last.’ – From Ignatian Solidarity Network prayer for an end to violence, war and death

‘May all I say and all I think
be in harmony with thee,
God within me,
God beyond me,
maker of the trees.’ – Chinook prayer, Pacific Northwest Coast

‘Fear, separation, hate and anger come from the wrong view that you and the earth are two separate entities, the Earth is only the environment. You are in the centre and you want to do something for the Earth in order for you to survive. That is a dualistic way of seeing.’ – Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh

A colonnade of 14 Corinthian columns on the west side of the Stoa of Smyrna, the only surviving classical site in Izmir … Saint Ignatius of Antioch wrote four of his letters, including one to the Church in Smyrna, while he was a prisoner in Smyrna (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayer (Monday 17 October 2022, Saint Ignatius of Antioch):

The Collect:

Feed us, O Lord, with the living bread
and make us drink deep of the cup of salvation
that, following the teaching of your bishop Ignatius
and rejoicing in the faith
with which he embraced a martyr’s death,
we may be nourished for that eternal life
for which he longed;
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:

God our redeemer,
whose Church was strengthened by the blood of your martyr Ignatius:
so bind us, in life and death, to Christ’s sacrifice
that our lives, broken and offered with his,
may carry his death and proclaim his resurrection in the world;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

The theme in the USPG Prayer Diary this week is ‘World Food Day.’ This theme was introduced yesterday.

The USPG Prayer Diary invites us to pray today in these words:

We pray for the Anglican Council of Malawi and their service to communities across Malawi.

Yesterday’s reflection

Continued tomorrow

Street art in Rethymnon in Crete … today, the Week of Prayer for World Peace invites prayers on the theme of the Environmental Crisis caused by wars (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

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

The 42-hectare Kültürpark was laid out on the ruins of the Greek quarter of Smyrna … while Saint Ignatius was in Smyrna as a prisoner, representatives of Churches throughout Asia Minor came to meet him and to comfort him (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)