Daily prayer in Easter 2026: 45, Tuesday 19 May 2026

‘Father … glorify your Son’ (John 17: 1) … a modern icon in the Monastery of Varlaam in Meteora (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

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 May 2026). This week began with the Seventh Sunday of Easter (Easter VII, 17 May 2026). The calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship today remembers Saint Dunstan, Archbishop of Canterbury, Restorer of Monastic Life, 988.

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.

‘For the words that you gave to me I have given to them’ (John 17: 7) … Christ as the Great High Priest with an open Bible … an icon in the Church of Saint Spyridon in Palaiokastritsa, Corfu (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

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.’

‘For the words that you gave to me I have given to them’ (John 17: 7) … Christ as the Great High Priest with an open Bible in an icon in the Church of the Metamorphosis in Piskopiano, Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflection:

As I was saying in my reflections on Sunday, 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 next Sunday [24 May 2026].

The Gospel reading at the Eucharist today (John 17: 1-11) 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 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. 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 in today’s Gospel reading 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.’

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

‘So now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had in your presence before the world existed’ (John 17: 5) … candles in the narthex of Saint Titus Church in Iraklion, Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Tuesday 19 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 (Tuesday 19 May 2026):

Heavenly Father, bless the Anglican Church in Malawi as it advocates for girls’ education. Strengthen Bishops, parish priests, volunteers, and community leaders to speak out against child marriage and champion safe, supportive learning environments.

The Collect:

Almighty God,
who raised up Dunstan to be a true shepherd of the flock,
a restorer of monastic life
and a faithful counsellor to those in authority:
give to all pastors the same gifts of your Holy Spirit
that they may be true servants of Christ and of all his people;
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, shepherd of your people,
whose servant Dunstan revealed the loving service of Christ
in his ministry as a pastor of your people:
by this eucharist in which we share
awaken within us the love of Christ
and keep us faithful to our Christian calling;
through him who laid down his life for us,
but is alive and reigns with you, now and for ever.

Yesterday’s Reflections

Continued Tomorrow

Saint Dunstan depicted in a stained glass window above the High Altar in Saint Dunstan-in-the-West Church, Fleet Street, London (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

Daily prayer in Easter 2026: 7, Saturday 11 April 2026, Saturday in Easter Week

The Paradise, inspired by a Byzantine fresco created by Theophanes of Crete in 1527 in Meteora, Greece … seen at Easter in a shopfront on Mavrokordatou Alexandrou street in Reththymnon, Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

Our Easter celebrations continue in the Church Calendar, and tomorrow is the Second Sunday of Easter (Easter II) in the western church calendar and Easter Day in the calendar of the Orthodox Church.

I hope to be at the Easter celebrations in the Greek Orthodox Church in Stony Stratford tonight. But, 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.

Μη μου άπτου, ‘Noli me Tangere’ … the Risen Christ appears to Saint Mary Magdalene (Mark 16: 9) … a fresco in the Church of Saint Constantine and Saint Helen in Rethymnon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Mark 16: 9-15 (NRSVA):

9 Now after he rose early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, from whom he had cast out seven demons. 10 She went out and told those who had been with him, while they were mourning and weeping. 11 But when they heard that he was alive and had been seen by her, they would not believe it.

12 After this he appeared in another form to two of them, as they were walking into the country. 13 And they went back and told the rest, but they did not believe them.

14 Later he appeared to the eleven themselves as they were sitting at the table; and he upbraided them for their lack of faith and stubbornness, because they had not believed those who saw him after he had risen. 15 And he said to them, ‘Go into all the world and proclaim the good news to the whole creation.’

The Risen Christ appears to the myrrh-bearing women (see Mark 16: 4-7) … a fresco in the Church of Saint Constantine and Saint Helen in Rethymnon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflections:

This morning’s Easter Gospel reading at the Eucharist (Mark 16: 9-15) is part of what is known as ‘the Longer Ending of Mark’ and this section and the remaining verses in Saint Mark’s Gospel are often placed in parentheses in many modern translations of the Bible.

Mark 16 begins after the sabbath has ended, with Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome buying spices to bring to the tomb next morning to anoint Jesus’ body. When they arrive, the see the stone has been rolled away, the tomb is open, and a young man dressed in a white robe announces that Jesus has been raised from the dead (verses 1-6).

The two oldest manuscripts of Mark 16 conclude with verse 8, which ends with the women fleeing from the empty tomb and saying nothing to anyone, ‘for they were afraid’.

The longer ending tells of three separate appearances of the Risen Christ: 1 his appearance early on the first day of the week to Mary Magdalene, who goes and tells the mourning disciples who do not believe her; 2, his appearance later that day to the two walking into the country, on the road to Emmaus, who go too and tell the others, although they refuse to believe them; and 3, a later appearance to remaining eleven of the twelve as they are eating at the table.

It is interesting that this reading places the first meal of the Risen Christ with disciples not at the inn in Emmaus, as in Wednesday’s reading (Luke 24: 13-35), nor by the shore of Tiberias, as in yesterday’s reading (John 21: 1-14), but at the table, perhaps in the ‘Upper Room’.

At the table, Jesus is critical of the disciples for their lack of faith and stubbornness, and because they had not believe the women who saw him after he had risen, or the two people who met him on the road.

As this is a post-resurrection narrative, we must understand Jesus becoming present at the table as a way of understanding how Christ becomes present among us at the table when we eat and drink together at the Eucharist.

In the Eucharist, I am challenged constantly to face the ways in which my faith is inadequate and the so many ways in which I am stubbornly set in my ways and in my prejudices. Yes, Jesus upbraids for all this, yet he becomes present at the table, and he welcomes me and I welcome him.

He upbraids me when I am complicit in the church looking into itself, being turned in on itself, too concerned with its own inner workings, and refusing to listen to the voice of women, the voice of those who find themselves outside the boundaries and yet have seen the living Lord, the Risen Christ.

Christ tells them the way forward is to move from looking inward to looking out. He tells them, ‘Go into all the world and proclaim the good news to the whole creation’ (verse 16).

Sending out is the act of mission. The original Greek phrases here show that the disciples are sent out in mission not to those like me, not to those who are the ‘saved’, the ‘chosen’ or the ‘elect’, not even to the whole of humanity or into ‘all the world’, as the NRSV recalls. The Greek text is all embracing: we are sent out into the whole cosmos or universe (κόσμον ἅπαντα), and out into the whole created order (πάσῃ τῇ κτίσει).

Creation is not an added-on dimension of mission, but integral to the Church’s theology of mission. The fifth of the five marks of mission accepted throughout the Anglican Communion is: ‘To strive to safeguard the integrity of creation and sustain and renew the life of the earth.’

In the Orthodox Church, care for the creation has become the defining hallmark of Patriarch Bartholomew. ‘Ecology is not a political or economic issue,’ the Ecumenical Patriarch said last year. ‘It is mainly a spiritual and religious issue because God created and gave it to us to protect it, to cultivate it, to use it, but not to abuse it. This is the spiritual dimension of ecology.’

The late Pope Francis, in his encyclical Laudato sí on care for our common home, made creation and the environment an important agenda item in all theological and ecumenical dialogue.

Perhaps the greatest ecumenical dialogue has yet to take place, and concerns not our differences on doctrine, liturgy and church order, but how must fulfil the commission from the Risen Christ: ‘Go into all the world and proclaim the good news to the whole creation’ (Mark 16: 15).

Χριστὸς ἀνέστη!
Christ is Risen!

‘Go into all the world and proclaim the good news to the whole creation’ (Mark 16: 15) … spring blooms on the street leading to Pavlos Beach in Platanias, near Rethymnon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Saturday 11 April 2026, Saturday in Easter Week):

‘In the Garden’ provides the theme this week (5-11 April 2026) in ‘Pray With the World Church’, the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), pp 44-45. This theme was introduced last Sunday with Reflections by Rachel Weller, Communications Officer, USPG.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Saturday 11 April 2026, Saturday in Easter Week) invites us to pray:

Heavenly Father, we give thanks for Bishop Vikinduku Mnculwane and his leadership of the Diocese of Zululand. Strengthen him to seek your guidance above all else, trusting in you as a faithful God.

The Collect:

Lord of all life and power,
who through the mighty resurrection of your Son
overcame the old order of sin and death
to make all things new in him:
grant that we, being dead to sin
and alive to you in Jesus Christ,
may reign with him in glory;
to whom with you and the Holy Spirit
be praise and honour, glory and might,
now and in all eternity.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

God of Life,
who for our redemption gave your only-begotten Son
to the death of the cross,
and by his glorious resurrection
have delivered us from the power of our enemy:
grant us so to die daily to sin,
that we may evermore live with him in the joy of his risen life;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

God of glory,
by the raising of your Son
you have broken the chains of death and hell:
fill your Church with faith and hope;
for a new day has dawned
and the way to life stands open
in our Saviour Jesus Christ.

Collect on the Eve of Easter II:

Almighty Father,
you have given your only Son to die for our sins
and to rise again for our justification:
grant us so to put away the leaven of malice and wickedness
that we may always serve you
in pureness of living and truth;
through the merits of your Son Jesus Christ our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Yesterday’s Reflections

Continued Tomorrow

‘When the Sabbath was over … very early on the first day of the week' (Mark 16: 1-2) … walking through the streets of Rethymnon in the dark (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

Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2025: 126, Saturday 13 September 2025

‘No good tree bears bad fruit … Figs are not gathered from thorns’ (Luke 6: 43-44) … a fig tree near Pavlos Beach in Platanias, east of Rethymnon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Patrick Comerford

We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar and tomorrow is Holy Cross Day and the Thirteenth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity XIII, 14 September 2025). The Church Calendar today remembers Saint John Chrysostom (407), Bishop of Constantinople, Teacher of the Faith.

Later today, I hope to be part of ‘Be a Chorister for the Afternoon’, from 1:30 to 6 pm in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford, for singers who would like to sing for Evensong with the Willis Pipe Organ, conducted by Marcela Campaña with Jacob Collins playing the organ. The music chosen by Jacob Collin includes introits, psalms, canticles, preces and responses, hymns and an anthem, and ends with the particpants singing Choral Evensong at 5 pm. This free event is part of Heritage Open Days.

Meanwhile, before today begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, for reflection, prayer and reading in these ways:

1, today’s Gospel reading;

2, a reflection on the Gospel reading;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

4, the Collects and Post-Communion prayer of the day.

‘Each tree is known by its own fruit. Figs are not gathered from thorns’ (Luke 6: 44) … figs on a fig tree near Pavlos Beach in Platanias, east of Rethymnon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Luke 6: 43-49 (NRSVA):

[Jesus said:] 43 ‘No good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit; 44 for each tree is known by its own fruit. Figs are not gathered from thorns, nor are grapes picked from a bramble bush. 45 The good person out of the good treasure of the heart produces good, and the evil person out of evil treasure produces evil; for it is out of the abundance of the heart that the mouth speaks.

46 ‘Why do you call me “Lord, Lord”, and do not do what I tell you? 47 I will show you what someone is like who comes to me, hears my words, and acts on them. 48 That one is like a man building a house, who dug deeply and laid the foundation on rock; when a flood arose, the river burst against that house but could not shake it, because it had been well built. 49 But the one who hears and does not act is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. When the river burst against it, immediately it fell, and great was the ruin of that house.’

‘Nor are grapes picked from a bramble bush’ (Luke 6: 44) … grapes on a vine at the Hedgehog Vintage Inn in Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Today’s Reflection:

This morning’s Gospel reading (Luke 6: 43-49) is a reminder that our faith must always be reflected in your lifestyles, that there must be a connection between what we believe and what we do, that our faith must bear fruit, that if our faith does not have firm foundations it will disappear with the next challenges we face.

Today’s reading should prompt me to reflect on my own actions with the sort of introspection I find in the prayers of Saint John Chrysostom, who is remembered in the Church Calendar today (13 September):

1. O Lord, deprive me not of your heavenly blessings.
2. O Lord, deliver me from eternal torment.
3. O Lord, if I have sinned in my mind or thought, in word or deed, forgive me.
4. O Lord, deliver me from every ignorance and heedlessness, from pettiness of the soul and stony hardness of heart.
5. O Lord, deliver me from every temptation.
6. O Lord, enlighten my heart darkened by evil desires.
7. O Lord, I, being a human being, have sinned; I ask you, being God, to forgive me in your loving kindness, for you know the weakness of my soul.
8. O Lord, send down your grace to help me, that I may glorify your holy Name.
9. O Lord Jesus Christ, inscribe me, your servant, in the Book of Life, and grant me a blessed end.
10. O Lord my God, even if I have done nothing good in your sight, yet grant me, according to your grace, that I may make a start in doing good.
11. O Lord, sprinkle on my heart the dew of your grace.
12. O Lord of heaven and earth, remember me, your sinful servant, cold of heart and impure, in your Kingdom.
13. O Lord, receive me in repentance.
14. O Lord, leave me not.
15. O Lord, save me from temptation.
16. O Lord, grant me pure thoughts.
17. O Lord, grant me tears of repentance, remembrance of death, and the sense of peace.
18. O Lord, grant me mindfulness to confess my sins.
19. O Lord, grant me humility, charity, and obedience.
20. O Lord, grant me tolerance, magnanimity, and gentleness.
21. O Lord, implant in me the root of all blessings: the fear of you in my heart.
22. O Lord, grant that I may love you with all my heart and soul, and that in all things I may obey your will.
23. O Lord, shield me from evil persons and devils and passions and all other lawless matters.
24. O Lord, who knows your creation and what you have willed for it; may your will also be fulfilled in me, a sinner, for you art blessed for evermore. Amen.

These are prayers that I handed out each year to students taking the elective on Patristics I offered on the MTh course in the Church of Ireland Theological Institute and Trinity College Dublin.

The rediscovery of Patristic texts and writings in the 15th and 16th centuries, following the exodus of Greek scholars with the fall of Byzantium is a major factor in understanding the Reformations, in particular the Anglican Reformation. Thomas Cranmer introduced the ‘Prayer of Saint Chrysostom’ to Anglicanism:

‘Almighty God, you have given us grace at this time with one accord to make our common supplication to you; and you have promised through your well-beloved Son that when two or three are gathered together in his Name you will be in the midst of them: Fulfil now, O Lord, our desires and petitions as may be best for us; granting us in this world knowledge of your truth, and in the age to come life everlasting. Amen.’

‘A man building a house … dug deeply and laid the foundation on rock’ (Luke 6: 48) … the Monastery of Great Meteoron, the largest of the monasteries at Meteora in Greece (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Saturday 13 September 2025):

The theme this week (7 to 13 September) in Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), has been ‘Cementing a Legacy’ (pp 36-37). This theme was introduced last Sunday with reflections from Rachel Weller, Communications Officer, USPG.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Saturday 13 September 2025) invites us to pray:

Lord, we pray for future residents of the housing complex at Mji Mwema. May it be a place of safety, community, and growth.

The Collect:

God of truth and love,
who gave to your servant John Chrysostom
eloquence to declare your righteousness in the great congregation
and courage to bear reproach for the honour of your name:
mercifully grant to those who minister your word
such excellence in preaching,
that all people may share with them
in the glory that shall be revealed;
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 of truth,
whose Wisdom set her table
and invited us to eat the bread and drink the wine
of the kingdom:
help us to lay aside all foolishness
and to live and walk in the way of insight, that we may come with John Chrysostom to the eternal feast of heaven;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Collect on the Eve of Holy Cross Day:

Almighty God,
who in the passion of your blessed Son
made an instrument of painful death
to be for us the means of life and peace:
grant us so to glory in the cross of Christ
that we may gladly suffer for his sake;
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Collect on the Eve of Trinity XIII:

Almighty God,
who called your Church to bear witness
that you were in Christ reconciling the world to yourself:
help us to proclaim the good news of your love,
that all who hear it may be drawn to you;
through him who was lifted up on the cross,
and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Yesterday’s reflections

Continued tomorrow

Saint John Chrysostom is commemorated on 13 September … the Monastery of Vatopedi on Mount Athos has the skull of Saint John Chrysostom (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

Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2025: 89, Wednesday 6 August 2025, The Transfiguration

The Transfiguration depicted in the Church of the Transfiguration in Piskopianó, in the hills above Hersonissos in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford; click on image for full-screen viewing)

Patrick Comerford

We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar and the week began with the Seventh Sunday after Trinity (Trinity VII). The Church Calendar today celebrates the Feast of the Transfiguration (6 August 2025).

Today also marks the 80th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima on 6 August 1945. To mark this auspicious anniversary, I have recorded contributions to two seminars or gatherings today, one organised by Christian CND and the Anglican Pacifist Fellowship, the other in Dublin organised by the Peace and Neutrality Alliance.

Later this evening, Charlotte and I plan to take part in the annual Hiroshima Day commemorations at the Japanese Peace Pagoda beside Willen Lake in Milton Keynes, a ceremony we have been attending for the past four years.

The Anglican Pacifist Fellowship and Christian CND are marking Hiroshima Day with an online vigil at 8 pm this evening.

I visited Hiroshima when I was a student in Japan in 1979, and for over 40 years I took part in Irish CND’s Hiroshima Day commemorations in Merrion Park, Dublin. During the day, I shall be remembering the many victims of the Hiroshima and the survivors. But, before today begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, for reflection, prayer and reading in these ways:

1, today’s Gospel reading;

2, a reflection on the Gospel reading;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

4, the Collects and Post-Communion prayer of the day.

The Church of the Transfiguration in Piskopianó in the mountains above Hersonissos in Crete was established in 2002, completed in 2008 and dedicated in 2014 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Luke 9: 28-36 (NRSVA):

28 Now about eight days after these sayings Jesus took with him Peter and John and James, and went up on the mountain to pray. 29 And while he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became dazzling white. 30 Suddenly they saw two men, Moses and Elijah, talking to him. 31 They appeared in glory and were speaking of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. 32 Now Peter and his companions were weighed down with sleep; but since they had stayed awake, they saw his glory and the two men who stood with him. 33 Just as they were leaving him, Peter said to Jesus, ‘Master, it is good for us to be here; let us make three dwellings, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah’ – not knowing what he said. 34 While he was saying this, a cloud came and overshadowed them; and they were terrified as they entered the cloud. 35 Then from the cloud came a voice that said, ‘This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him!’ 36 When the voice had spoken, Jesus was found alone. And they kept silent and in those days told no one any of the things they had seen.

The icon of the Transfiguration in the Greek Orthodox Church in Stony Stratford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

This morning’s reflection:

Earlier this year, I was back in Crete, staying in Rethymnon for the Greek celebrations of Easter. During the previous year, I managed also to return to the village of Piskopianó in the hillside above Hersonissos, which I have known for more than 30 years, since the mid-1990s.

The new village church in Piskopianó, which has been renamed the Church of the Transfiguration, was built in 2002-2008 and was dedicated in 2014. A fresco of the Transfiguration in the church shows, on the left, Christ leading the three disciples, Peter, James and John, up the mountain; in the centre, these three disciples are stumbling and falling as they witness and experience the Transfiguration; and then, to the right, Christ is leading these three back down the side of the mountain.

In other words, we are invited to see the Transfiguration not as a static moment but as a dynamic event. It is a living event in which we are invited to move from all in the past that weighs us down, to experience the full life that Christ offers us today, and to bring this into how we live our lives as Disciples in the future, a future that begins here and now.

The Transfiguration is both an event and a process. The original Greek word for Transfiguration in the Gospels is μεταμόρφωσις (metamorphosis), which means ‘to progress from one state of being to another.’ Consider the metamorphosis of the chrysalis into the butterfly. Saint Paul uses the same word (μεταμόρφωσις) when he describes how the Christian is to be transfigured, transformed, into the image of Christ (II Corinthians 3: 18).

This metamorphosis invites us into the event of becoming what we have been created to be. This is what Orthodox writers call deification. Transfiguration is a profound change, by God, in Christ, through the Spirit. And so, the Transfiguration reveals to us our ultimate destiny as Christians, the ultimate destiny of all people and all creation – to be transformed and glorified by the majestic splendour of God himself.

The Transfiguration points to Christ’s great and glorious Second Coming and the fulfilment of the Kingdom of God, when all of creation shall be transfigured and filled with light.

According to Saint Gregory Palamas, the light of the Transfiguration ‘is not something that comes to be and then vanishes.’ It not only prefigures the eternal blessedness that all Christians look forward to, but also the Kingdom of God already revealed, realised and come.

The Transfiguration is described in the three Synoptic Gospels (see Matthew 17: 1-9; Mark 9: 2-8; Luke 9: 28-36), and all three accounts are very similar in wording.

The Transfiguration is an encounter with God as the Trinity; it is a reminder with the presence of Moses and Elijah that Christ is the fulfilment of the Law and the Prophets; it is a meeting of past, present and future; and it is a reminder of how frail is our humanity in the responses of the three Disciples present, Peter, James and John.

The Transfiguration is a reminder that God has created us in God’s image and likeness, that in Christ’s Incarnation, God took on our image and likeness, and that now we are called once again to take on the image and likeness of God.

In a lecture in Cambridge many years ago [2011], I heard the late Metropolitan Kallistos [Ware], who was the pre-eminent Orthodox theologian in England, speak of the Transfiguration as a disclosure not only of what God is but of what we are. It reminds us of our beginning, but also reminds us of the possibilities and the potentials of what it is to become like God once again.

But is the response of the disciples to the Transfiguration one that we should imitate or emulate?

As they hear the voice of God, they fall down in terror, they are overcome by fear, they are made speechless.

They are immobilised and when they think of acting, look at what they want to do: they want to put up three booths, or tents, or dwelling places, in which they can keep Jesus and Moses and Elijah. It is as if, frightened of the new, they want to fall back on the old certainties.

It is as if they want to contain God, to capture God, to keep God in a place where they can be assured of the old certainties, to turn God into a god that they can contain, capture and control. They want to put God in a box, to keep God in a box.

And, so often, instead of wanting to be in the image and likeness of God, people want God to be in our image and likeness, doing our bidding rather than listening to what God wants of us.

Seeking to capture God, to make God a captive and to control God, are strong religious instincts throughout history. In the 20th century, Hitler used the German Churches to control the people of Germany. In more recent years, the simple faith of many American people has been hijacked to support extreme politics in a land that once prided itself on the separation of state and religion.

This is what Professor Rachel S Mikva of Chicago Theological Seminary describes as ‘dangerous religious ideas’ (Dangerous Religious Ideas: The Deep Roots of Self-Critical Faith in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, Penguin, 2020).

In an ‘Opinion’ column for USA Today in the wake of Donald Trump’s attempt to storm the Capitol in Washington on 6 January 2021, she argued that ‘Religion is a dangerous business.’ In the response to the insurrection and violence in Washington, she tried to go beyond the revulsion all of us must feel when white Christian nationalism turns violent, and she drew attention to the ‘substantial number of Christians who plan to take the country for Jesus another way.’

The Christian right is ‘distorting the very meaning of religious freedom,’ she wrote. There is the obvious danger we have seen recently, with extremists who call themselves Christians ‘ready to bring on the apocalypse.’

But she warns of ‘a more resilient threat’ posed by people who claim the mantle of being Christians and who are ‘embedded throughout the governing institutions in the US – courts, military, legislatures, agencies and the police.’ In her words, they pose a real threat ‘to religious pluralism in the United States.’

She argued cogently for the need for ‘consciousness of the vital self-critical dimensions of faith,’ and said: ‘Whatever one’s spiritual life stance, we are choosing in every moment whether its power will be wielded for harm or for blessing.’

Power for harm; or power for blessing.

Do we want to keep God in a box as a power for harm; or do we really want to see God being God, and empowering us to be a power for blessing in the world?

I see this as the first great challenge posed by the Transfiguration.

And the second is like it: to see humanity as Christ in the Transfiguration would see us and would have us see each other.

Do I, so often, put people in a box in a way that denies they are made in the image and likeness of God? That they are called to become, once again, like God in Christ … what the Orthodox call ‘deification’ …?

Every time I dismiss someone because of their social background, where they were born, their gender, sexuality, ethnicity or parentage, I am making these differences more important than the way God sees them: made in God’s image and likeness, and holding, embodying the light of God in Christ.

Because those characteristics, those traits, are not self-chosen; they come at birth, we do not ask for them, you might say they are God-given. For, indeed, God sees us in God’s own image and likeness, God sees in each one of us the potential to reflect the light of Christ in the Transfiguration.

Let’s not box God in, hidden away under a booth or in a tent. Let God be God, and let’s stop trying to control him by using him to our political and social advantage.

Let’s stop categorising people so we marginalise them instead of seeing them in God’s image and likeness.

For, when we love God and love others, we see the light of God in them and, hopefully, they see the light of God in us.

When she was the guest chaplain in the House of Representatives in 1995, Rabbi Rachel Mikva included these thoughts in her prayers:

However passionately we may cling to our vision of truth,
we must never fail to recognise your image, God,
reflected in the face of the other …

Ultimately, we stand before you,
naked of power or possessions,
seeking only to understand your will
and do it with a whole heart …

God, we pray that our words and our deeds
may be for Your sake,
bringing healing to our world
and wholeness to all those whose lives we touch.

Amen. אָמֵן׃

Peter, John and James … a detail in the icon of the Transfiguration in the iconostasis in the Greek Orthodox Church in Stony Stratford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Wednesday 6 August 2025, The Transfiguration):

The theme this week (3 to 9 August) in Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘Indigenous Wisdom’ (pp 24-25). This theme was introduced on Sunday with reflections from Dr Paulo Ueti, Theological Advisor and Regional Manager for the Americas and the Caribbean, USPG.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Wednesday 6 August 2025, The Transfiguration) invites us to pray:

Lord God, on the mountain you revealed your glory and the Father’s voice declared you, his Son. Shine your light into our hearts, transform us by your presence, and lead us to reflect your love in the world.

An icon of the Transfiguration in the Church of the Transfiguration in Piskopianó (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The Collect:

Father in heaven,
whose Son Jesus Christ was wonderfully transfigured
before chosen witnesses upon the holy mountain,
and spoke of the exodus he would accomplish at Jerusalem:
give us strength so to hear his voice and bear our cross
that in the world to come we may see him as he is;
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post Communion Prayer:

Holy God,
we see your glory in the face of Jesus Christ:
may we who are partakers at his table
reflect his life in word and deed,
that all the world may know his power to change and save.
This we ask through Jesus Christ our Lord.

The chapel on the highest peak on Mount Athos, at 2,033 metres, is dedicated to the Transfiguration (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

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

The Monastery of Great Meteoro, the largest of the monasteries at Meteora, is dedicated to the Transfiguration (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2025: 69, Thursday 17 July 2025

‘Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest’ (Matthew 11: 28) … ‘A Case History’ (1998) by John King, also known as ‘The Hope Street Suitcases’ in Liverpool (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar and the week began with the Fourth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity IV, 13 July 2025). 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.

‘For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light’ (Matthew 11: 30) … pilgrim figures in a shop window in Santiago de Compostela (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Matthew 11: 28-30 (NRSVA):

Jesus said: 28 ‘Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.’

‘Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens’ (Matthew 11: 28) … the bells in Vlatadon Monastery in Thessaloniki (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflection:

Today’s Gospel reading at the Eucharist (Matthew 11: 28-30) is particularly short, but holds out the offer and the promise of hope.

In the law of contract, there are two important elements … offer and acceptance.

This morning Christ invites all of us who are tired, frazzled and bothered, weary and heavy-laden, to come to him and if we do he offers us rest. There’s the offer.

What about acceptance?

He simply asks that we take his yoke and learn from him.

‘Ah,’ you may ask, ‘but what about the terms and conditions?’

As you know – as the banks and our mobile phone services constantly remind us – all contracts are subject to terms and conditions.

Well the terms and conditions are simple: for his yoke is easy and his burden is light.

I still remember how the former Dean of Lismore, the late Bill Beare, once challenged the clergy of the Diocese of Cashel, Ossory and Ferns at a meeting in Kilkenny in words like: ‘Who said you couldn’t dump everything at the foot of the cross.’

This morning, we might think of dumping everything at the foot of the cross during the day … and then try to do it every day. And become confident of the offer and the promise of hope.

In a recent posting on social media, the Right Revd Steven Charleston, retired Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Alaska, offers a reflection on the challenge of bringing hope to others:

Give the lonely heart a reason to be hopeful.
Give the weary traveller a place to rest.
Give the solo singer a chorus.
Give the troubled spirit room to breathe.
Give old poets a reason to keep writing.
Give young ones the same.

‘Come to me, all you that are … carrying heavy burdens’ (Matthew 11: 28) … suitcases as people prepare to leave USPG conference in High Leigh (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Thursday 17 July 2025):

The theme this week (13 to 19 July) in Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘Shaping the Future: Africa Six.’ This theme was introduced on Sunday with a programme update from Fran Mate, Senior Regional Manager: Africa, USPG.

The USPG prayer diary today (Thursday 17 July 2025) invites us to pray

God of the persecuted, we lift up the situation in Mozambique where many Christians fear for their lives due to extremism. As Bishop within the Church in Angola and Mozambique, strengthen Bishop Filomena as she proclaims your truth and points to our hope in you.

The Collect:

O God, the protector of all who trust in you,
without whom nothing is strong, nothing is holy:
increase and multiply upon us your mercy;
that with you as our ruler and guide
we may so pass through things temporal
that we lose not our hold on things eternal;
grant this, heavenly Father,
for our Lord Jesus Christ’s sake,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

Eternal God,
comfort of the afflicted and healer of the broken,
you have fed us at the table of life and hope:
teach us the ways of gentleness and peace,
that all the world may acknowledge
the kingdom of your Son Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

Gracious Father,
by the obedience of Jesus
you brought salvation to our wayward world:
draw us into harmony with your will,
that we may find all things restored in him,
our Saviour Jesus Christ.

Yesterday’s reflections

Continued tomorrow

‘O God … without whom nothing is strong, nothing is holy’ (Collect of the Day) … religious goods in the Zindos workshop in Kalambaka, near Meteora in northern Greece (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

Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2025: 48, Thursday 26 June 2025

‘Everyone then who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock’ (Matthew 7: 24) … a monastery built on a rock top in Meteora, Greece (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

The week began with the First Sunday after Trinity (Trinity I, 22 June 2025), and during the week I have been marking the 24th anniversary of my ordination as priest 24 years ago, on the Feast of the Birth of Saint John the Baptist [24 June 2001], and the 25th anniversary of my ordination as deacon [25 June 2000].

Later this morning, I have yet another clinical consultation in Oxford, although today’s consultation is by ’phone and does not involve repeating my recent experiences of 2-2½-hour return journeys by bus. Later, this afternoon, I may go to the Stony Last Thursday History Society event in the library in Stony Stratford.

Meanwhile, 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.

The Acropolis at night, standing on a large rocky outcrop above Athens (Photograph: Patrick Comerford; click on image for full-screen view)

Matthew 7: 21-29 (NRSVA):

[Jesus said:] 21 ‘Not everyone who says to me, “Lord, Lord”, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only one who does the will of my Father in heaven. 22 On that day many will say to me, “Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many deeds of power in your name?” 23 Then I will declare to them, “I never knew you; go away from me, you evildoers.”

24 ‘Everyone then who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock. 25 The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on rock. 26 And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on sand. 27 The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell – and great was its fall!’

28 Now when Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were astounded at his teaching, 29 for he taught them as one having authority, and not as their scribes.’

‘Everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on sand’ (Matthew 7: 26) … a sandcastle on the beach at Playa de la Carihuela in Torremolinos (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflection:

This morning’s reading (Matthew 7: 21-29) brings to a conclusion to our series of readings from the Sermon on the Mount in Saint Matthew’s Gospel. In yesterday’s reading, Jesus warns us of the dangers posed by ‘false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.’ We are to ‘know them by their fruits.’

Today he warns about what awaits those false prophets and wolves in sheep’s clothing, and like a foolish man who built his house on sand. On the other hand, those who both hear Christ’s words and act on them will show that their faith is built on firm foundation, ‘like a wise man who built his house on rock’.

I have, on many occasions times, stood at the top of Acropolis (Ἀκρόπολις) in Athens, taking in the breath-taking views in every direction across the city and out to the port of Piraeus.

The Acropolis is the highest point in Athens. It stands on an extremely rocky outcrop and on it the ancient Greeks built several significant buildings. The most famous of these is the Parthenon. This flat-topped rock rises 150 metres (490 ft) above sea level and has a surface area of about 3 ha (7.4 acres).

Below, immediately north-west of the Acropolis, is the Areopagus, another prominent, but relatively smaller, rocky outcrop. Its English name comes from its Greek name, Ἄρειος Πάγος (Areios Págos), the ‘Rock of Ares,’ known to the Romans as the Hill of Mars.

In classical Athens, this functioned as the court for trying deliberate homicide. It was said Ares was put on trial here for deicide, the murder of the son of the god Poseidon. In the play The Eumenides (458 BCE) by Aeschylus, the Areopagus is the site of the trial of Orestes for killing his mother.

Later, murderers would seek shelter there in the hope of a fair hearing.

There too the Athenians had an altar to the unknown god, and it was there the Apostle Paul delivered his most famous speech and sermon, in which he identified the ‘unknown god’ with ‘the God who made the world and everything in it, he who is Lord of heaven and earth’ (Acts 17: 24), for ‘in him we live and move and have our being’ (Acts 17: 28).

This is the most dramatic and fullest reported sermon or speech by the Apostle Paul. He quotes the Greek philosopher Epimenides, and he must have known that the location of his speech had important cultural contexts, including associations with justice, deicide and the hidden God.

The origin of the name of the Areopagus is found in the ancient Greek, πάγος (pagos), meaning a ‘big piece of rock.’

Another word, λιθος (lithos) was used for a small rock, a stone, or even a pebble – it is the Greek word that gives us words like lithograph and megalithic, meaning Great Stone Age.

When you see breath-taking sights like these, you understand how culturally relevant it was for Christ to talk in today’s Gospel reading about the wise man building his house on a rock rather than on sand (Matthew 7: 24-26).

Ordinary domestic buildings might have been built to last a generation or two, at most. But building on rock, building into rock, building into massive rock formations like the Acropolis, was laying the foundations for major works of cultural, political and religious significance that would last long after those who had built them had been forgotten.

And so, the Church is to be built on a rock, with the foundations a movement, an institution, an organisation, a community that is going to have lasting, everlasting significance, and survive the crass abuse of the Gospel message by the sort of politicians I thought about in my reflections yesterday.

The Acropolis in Athens seen from the new Acropolis Museum, standing on a large rocky outcrop (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Thursday 26 June 2025):

‘Windrush Day’ is the theme this week (22-28 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 Rachael Anderson, former Senior Communications and Engagement Manager, USPG.

The USPG prayer diary today (Thursday 26 June 2025) invites us to pray:

Lord help us to always ensure that our churches are places of safety, sanctuary and hope. Where all people are welcomed, entering a community where they are surrounded by your love.

The Collect:

O God,
the strength of all those who put their trust in you,
mercifully accept our prayers
and, because through the weakness of our mortal nature
we can do no good thing without you,
grant us the help of your grace,
that in the keeping of your commandments
we may please you both in will and deed;
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:

Eternal Father,
we thank you for nourishing us
with these heavenly gifts:
may our communion strengthen us in faith,
build us up in hope,
and make us grow in love;
for the sake of Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

God of truth,
help us to keep your law of love
and to walk in ways of wisdom,
that we may find true life
in Jesus Christ your Son.

Yesterday’s reflections

Continued tomorrow

Built on rock or built on sand? The ruins of Ballybunion Castle, Co Kerry (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version, Anglicised Edition copyright © 2021, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2025: 39, Tuesday 17 June 2025

‘For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good’ (Matthew 5: 54) … sunrise off the coast of Igoumenitsa in north-west Greece (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are in Ordinary Time and this week began with Trinity Sunday (15 June 2025). The calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship today remembers the Revd Samuel Barnett (1844-1913) and Henrietta Barnett (1851-1936), Social Reformers.

But, 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.

‘He … sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous’ (Matthew 5: 45) … reflections of rain in Saint Mark’s Square, Venice (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Matthew 5: 43-48 (NRSVA):

[Jesus said:] 43 ‘You have heard that it was said, “You shall love your neighbour and hate your enemy.” 44 But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous. 46 For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax-collectors do the same? 47 And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? 48 Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.’

‘For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good’ (Matthew 5: 54) … sunrise in Askeaton, Co Limerick (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflection:

The Gospel reading for the Eucharist this morning (Matthew 5: 43-48) continues our readings from the Sermon on the Mount, and continues reading from a passage that has often been misused and misinterpreted.

I wonder how often this reading has been a crippling burden on new disciples as they seek to live out their Christian faith?

‘Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you’ (verse 44) – now that’s a tough one for everyone. And what about: ‘Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect’ (verse 48)? That’s seemingly impossible.

So, as I did yesterday, let me look at each of these challenges.

The phrase, ‘Keep your friends close and your enemy closer’, is often used in situations where someone seeks to convey that do not trust some of the people around them.

The word ‘enemy’ (verses 43-44) comes from the Latin word enim, meaning ‘against’. In English, it means someone who is against us or our interests. For example, an enemy might be a person who wants to harm us physically or emotionally.

The Greek word used here, ἐχθρός ( echthros) refers to some who is hated, under disfavour, inimical, hostile, an enemy or adversary. In the New Testament, it refers to enemies of various kinds, including personal adversaries, enemies of God, and even the devil as the ultimate enemy of humanity.

In classical literature, Aristotle and other Greek writers classified people encountered by characters in tragedy into φίλοι (philoi, friends and loved ones), ἐχθροὶ (echthroi, enemies), and medetoeroi, who are neither or neutral. The characters and their audience seek a positive outcome for the first group and the downfall of the second, as the third group watched on passively or offered commentary.

Can we seek the downfall of our enemies, yet want what is best for them in God’s eyes?

At the time of Christ, ‘love’ and ‘hate,’ were not understood in terms of internal emotional feelings, or attitudes. He is not asking us to romantically or unquestioningly love our enemies.

People then did not understand ‘love’ and ‘hate’ in Jungian or Freudian psychological terms. They were internal states that had immediate connotations of corresponding external expressions.

The word ἀγαπάω (agapao) conveys ideas about welcoming others, entertaining them, seeking their better good, to be happy for them, to be content with the blessings they have received. Μισέω (miséo) means to hate in the sense of detesting.

To love our enemies does not mean to have romantic feelings for them, or to consider marrying them. It means to be attached to them, to be devoted to them, to be loyal to them, to seek their better good, to hope that they are treated fairly and justly. And to do that truly, our outward behaviour towards them must reflect our inner feelings.

Perhaps it would be easier merely to like them rather than to hope for the best for them.

But as Christ points out, God treats God’s enemies – the evil and the unrighteous – in the same as God treats God’s friends – the good and the righteous. Should we not do the same?

We are living in a world where the US President deploys National Guard troops on the streets against his own people and thinks it better to indulge himself on his birthday in a vainglorious and vulgar display of military hardware rather than seeking justice, mercy and peace.

We live in a world where war is escalating hour by hour, as we have seen in the Middle East, and in Russia and Ukraine in recent days.

We are living in a world where refugees are dehmanised, where hostages are held as bargaining tools and where starvation is used as a weapon of war, where a Republican politician suggests it is a good idea to tar and feather the Governor of California only days before Democrat politicians are shot at home and on their doorsteps, where the Governor of Florida says it is legal for drivers to run over protesters with their cars.

Wanting for our enemies what is the best for them in God’s eyes does not mean not praying to be defended against their evil, still less not wanting their downfall.

As the Trinity-tide collect prays this week:

‘keep us steadfast in this faith,
that we may evermore be defended from all adversities’.

If we are kind only to those we are close to, are we not simply repeating what those we hate also do? Where is the merit in doing that?

To be children of God is to be perfect enough.

‘He … sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous’ (Matthew 5: 45) … Saint Anne’s Church reflected in the rain on Dawson Street in Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Tuesday 17 June 2025):

‘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 (Tuesday 15 June 2025) invites us to pray:

Heavenly Father, give wisdom and compassion to political leaders and advocates. Please inspire a spirit of compassion so that harmful policies are changed.

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

‘Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect’ (Matthew 5: 48) … liturgical items in a shop in Kalabaka at the foot the monasteries of Meteora in Thessaly, Greece (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