16 October 2024

Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2024:
158, Wednesday 16 October 2024

‘For you load people with burdens hard to bear, and you yourselves do not lift a finger to ease them’ (Luke 11: 46) … ‘A Case History’ (1998) by John King, also known as ‘The Hope Street Suitcases’ in Liverpool (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar, and this week began with the Twentieth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity XX). Today the Calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship remembers Nicholas Ridley, Bishop of London, and Hugh Latimer, Bishop of Worcester, Reformation Martyrs, 1555.

Our lengthy and challenging odyssey continue yesterday, travelling on a rebooked flight from Paris to Singapore in time to make our connecting flight to Kuching. We have arrived safely, but have yet to find our feet. But I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, and for reflection, prayer and reading 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.

‘For you load people with burdens hard to bear, and you yourselves do not lift a finger to ease them’ (Luke 11: 46) … pilgrim figures in a shop window in Santiago de Compostela (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Luke 11: 42-46 (NRSVA):

42 ‘But woe to you Pharisees! For you tithe mint and rue and herbs of all kinds, and neglect justice and the love of God; it is these you ought to have practised, without neglecting the others. 43 Woe to you Pharisees! For you love to have the seat of honour in the synagogues and to be greeted with respect in the market-places. 44 Woe to you! For you are like unmarked graves, and people walk over them without realizing it.’

45 One of the lawyers answered him, ‘Teacher, when you say these things, you insult us too.’ 46 And he said, ‘Woe also to you lawyers! For you load people with burdens hard to bear, and you yourselves do not lift a finger to ease them.’

‘May your healing touch be upon people’ (USPG Prayer Diary) … the bells in Vlatadon Monastery in Thessaloniki (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflection:

In this morning’s Gospel reading, uses hyperbole once again as he challenges the lawyers, telling them: ‘For you load people with burdens hard to bear, and you yourselves do not lift a finger to ease them.’

How often, I wonder, do people feel that they are bearing the heavy burden of sins that have been projected onto them that were never sins in the first place?

People who have been told they are sinful because of their sexuality, because of the stigma of a broken marriage, a failed relationship, the bullying or abuse they suffered and endured in children?

How many people are told that their poverty, low self-esteem, poor housing of low-paid and meaningless employment are things they have brought upon themselves?

How many people face discrimination, rejection, marginalisation or oppression, only to have that compounded by being told they are the authors of their own plight? In this way, the victims are victimised again, and the oppressed are doubly oppressed.

The General Confession at Holy Communion in the 1662 Book of Common Prayer may be difficult to read today, not only because of its archaic language, but because of its gender-specific pronouns, and its undue emphasis on God’s ‘wrath and indignation’. But it still remains a positive attitude to the burdens we need to share, for it is phrased in the plural. We must ‘bewail our manifold sins and wickedness’.

We are invited to knell together as we say together:

Almighty God, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Maker of all things, Judge of all men: We acknowledge and bewail our manifold sins and wickedness, Which we from time to time most grievously have committed, By thought, word, and deed, Against thy Divine Majesty, Provoking most justly thy wrath and indignation against us. We do earnestly repent, And are heartily sorry for these our misdoings; The remembrance of them is grievous unto us; The burden of them is intolerable. Have mercy upon us, Have mercy upon us, most merciful Father; For thy Son our Lord Jesus Christ's sake, Forgive us all that is past; And grant that we may ever hereafter Serve and please thee In newness of life, To the honour and glory of thy Name; Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

We are heartily sorry for these our misdoings. The remembrance of sins is ‘is grievous unto us’ and ‘the burden of them is intolerable’.

We are to share that burden with one another. We are assured that forgiveness is available to all, and when we get up off our knees we are to experience the promise of ‘newness of life’, not individually but collectively. We are reminded at the very beginning of this morning’s Gospel reading that we must never ‘neglect justice and the love of God’.

The General Confession at Holy Communion in the 1662 ‘Book of Common Prayer’ is phrased in the plural … a reminder that we share one another’s burdens (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Wednesday 16 October 2024):

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), is the ‘Mission hospitals in Malawi’. This theme was introduced on Sunday with a programme update by Tamara Khisimisi, Project Co-ordinator, Anglican Council in Malawi.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Wednesday 16 October 2024) invites us to pray:

May your healing touch be upon people who have been affected by malaria, restoring their health and vitality.

The Collect:

God, the giver of life,
whose Holy Spirit wells up within your Church:
by the Spirit’s gifts equip us to live the gospel of Christ
and make us eager to do your will,
that we may share with the whole creation
the joys of eternal life;
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 Father,
whose Son, the light unfailing,
has come from heaven to deliver the world
from the darkness of ignorance:
let these holy mysteries open the eyes of our understanding
that we may know the way of life,
and walk in it without stumbling;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

God, our light and our salvation:
illuminate our lives,
that we may see your goodness in the land of the living,
and looking on your beauty
may be changed into the likeness of Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s reflection

Continued tomorrow

‘Let these holy mysteries open the eyes of our understanding’ … the Collect of the Day (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

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