Daily prayer in Easter 2025: 18, Wednesday 7 May 2025

Jesus said to them, ‘I am the bread of life’ (John 6: 35) … bread in the window of Hindley’s Bakery on Tamworth Street in Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

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).

Tomorrow is VE Day (Victory in Europe), and as thia weeks commorations continue, there is a special coffee morning with a VE Day theme in Stony Stratford Library. Later this evening, I hope to be at the choir rehearsals in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church. Stony Stratford. 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.

Jesus said to them, ‘I am the bread of life’ (John 6: 35) … bread in a shop window in Hampstead (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

John 6: 35-40 (NRSVA):

35 Jesus said to them, ‘I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. 36 But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. 37 Everything that the Father gives me will come to me, and anyone who comes to me I will never drive away; 38 for I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. 39 And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. 40 This is indeed the will of my Father, that all who see the Son and believe in him may have eternal life; and I will raise them up on the last day.’

Jesus said to them, ‘I am the bread of life’ (John 6: 35) … bread on the shelves in the Bretzel in Portobello in Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

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).

The day following the feeding of the 5,000, the people go in search of Jesus, 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).

When the people push their questions onto Jesus, he insists on speaking of himself in relationship to God the Father, who has sent him.

And then Jesus uses the first of his seven ‘I AM’ sayings in Saint John’s Gospel, ‘I am the bread of life’ (John 6: 35).

These seven ‘I AM’ sayings are traditionally listed as:

1, I am the Bread of Life (John 6: 35, 48)
2, I am the Light of the World (John 8: 12)
3, I am the gate (or the door) (John 10: 7)
4, I am the Good Shepherd (John 10: 11 and 14)
5, I am the Resurrection and the Life (John 11: 25)
6, I am the way, the truth and the life (John 14: 6)
7, I am the true vine (John 15: 1, 5)

These ‘I AM’ sayings echo the divine name revealed to Moses on Mount Sinai, ‘I AM’ (Exodus 3: 14). In the Hebrew Bible, the meaning of God’s name is closely related to the emphatic statement ‘I AM’ (see Exodus 3: 14; 6: 2; Deuteronomy 32: 39; Isaiah 43: 25; 48: 12; 51: 12; etc.). In the Greek translation, the Septuagint, most of these passages are translated with as ‘I AM’, ἐγώ εἰμί (ego eimi).

The ‘I AM’ of the Hebrew Bible and the ‘I AM’ of Saint John’s Gospel is the God who creates us, who communicates with us, who gives himself to us.

But what does it mean to acknowledge Christ as ‘the Bread of Life’?

I spent some time at Easter ten years ago in Cappadocia, in south-central Turkey, because of my interest in sites associated with the three Cappadocian Fathers: Saint Basil the Great (329-379), Bishop of Caesarea, his brother Saint Gregory (335-395), Bishop of Nyssa, and Saint Gregory Nazianzus (329-390), who became Patriarch of Constantinople.

They challenged heresies such as Arianism and their thinking was instrumental in formulating the phrases that shaped the Nicene Creed, and we are celebrating the 1,700th anniversary of the Nicene Creed this year.

Saint Basil is also remembered for his challenging social values. He wrote: ‘The bread which you do not use is the bread of the hungry; the garment hanging in your wardrobe is the garment of him who is naked; the shoes that you do not wear are the shoes of the one who is barefoot; the money that you keep locked away is the money of the poor; the acts of charity that you do not perform are so many injustices that you commit.’

So faith and belief must be related to how we live our lives as Christians.

Bishop Frank Weston, who was the Bishop of Zanzibar from 1908, held together in a creative combination his incarnational and sacramental theology with his radical social concerns formed the keynote of his address to the Anglo-Catholic Congress in 1923. He believed that a true sacramental focus gave a reality to Christ’s presence and power that nothing else could.

However, he concluded: ‘But I say to you, and I say it with all the earnestness that I have, if you are prepared to fight for the right of adoring Jesus in His Blessed Sacrament, then … you must walk with Christ, mystically present in you through the streets of this country, and find the same Christ in the peoples of your cities and villages. You cannot claim to worship Jesus in the tabernacle, if you do not pity Jesus in the slums … It is folly – it is madness – to suppose that you can worship Jesus in the Sacraments and Jesus on the throne of glory, when you are sweating him in the souls and bodies of his children.’

So, from Basil the Great in the fourth century to great mission pioneers in the Anglican Communion in recent generations, sacramental life is meaningless unless it is lived out in our care for those who are hungry, suffering and marginalised.

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

‘The bread which you do not use is the bread of the hungry’ (Saint Basil) … the rock-hewn Chapel of Saint Basil at Göreme in Cappadocia (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Wednesday 7 May 2025):

My prayers today include the Papal Conclave which begins today (7 May), when members of the College of Cardinals start voting for a new Pope in a secret ballot, with four rounds of voting per day until one candidate receives two-thirds support.

‘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 on Sunday with Reflections from Carol Miller, Church Engagement Manager, USPG.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Wednesday 7 May 2025) invites us to pray:

God of compassion, we ask for ample provision for refugees, that food, clothing, essential gear will be given to them along the way.

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

Aghios Vassilios (Saint Basil) in traditional icon-style on a door in Koutouloufári in Crete (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 Greeks have a word (or two) for it: 52, ἰχθύς (ichthýs) and ψάρι (psari), fish

A variety of fish on display in a seafood restaurant at the harbour in Rethymnon in Greece … there is more than one word in Greek for fish (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Patrick Comerford

When I was back in Crete two weeks ago, I realised not how much I had learned over the years, but how much I had forgotten in recent years.

When I was at theological college in 1984-1987, I soon dropped in the elective in Biblical Hebrew, but I kept up the elective in Biblical Greek and Koine Greek with enthusiasm. I was so enthusiastic, I followed it up immediately with a Cambridge course in classical Greek organised by Trinity College Dublin and the Royal Irish Academy in 1987, and then took private tutorials in modern Greek. Ever since, I tried to read the Bible in Greek on a daily basis and to encouraged students to take up Biblical Greek.

When I was in Greece almost every year over the past 40 years or so, I tried not only to read menus in Greek, but to read daily newspapers and poetry, watch television news, and to listen to Greek songs, even to sing along, and I try to join the liturgical prayers in Greek.

But over the last year or two, I have noticed how my conversational Greek is slipping, and it is difficult to maintain it, let alone improve it, without regular interaction. I noticed it back in Crete at Easter, and where I could once follow an everyday conversation, I was stunned into silence in one conversation within the Greek community in Milton Keynes last weekend.

However, rather remain mute, I have become more resolute about recovering and improving my conversational Greek before I return to Crete soon again.

A variety of fish at a fish shop in Rethymnon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

One of the difficulties many people find in learning Greek is how so often there seem to be two words where English has only one. For example, there are two words for wine, οίνος (oinos) and κρασί; two Greek words for bread, ἄρτος (artos) and ψωμί (psomi); and two Greek words for beer, μπύρα (bíra) and ζύθος (zythos).

Why, there are even three words for one: ένας (énas) is masculine, μία (mia) is feminine, and ένα (éna) is neuter; and three definitive articles: ο (o), η (i), and το (to), for the masculine, feminine, and neuter genders. And I often get them mixed up.

They are grammatically determined, but they come instinctively and intuitively to every born Greek speaker. I find it a compliment that many Greeks think I look Greek, but once I open my mouth they know that I am not.

Aghia Galini, a colourful fish shop or Ιχθυαγορά in Rethymnon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

There are at least two different nouns in Greek for fish: ἰχθύς (ichthus), and ψάρι (psari). A third word, ὀψάριον (opsarion), means fish or small fish. It is a diminutive of the word opson, which refers to anything eaten with bread, especially fish, or a cooked dish. In the New Testament, opsarion is used to describe the fish that Jesus provided for his disciples after his resurrection.

In the Gospel reading in the lectionary yesterday (John 21: 1-19), we find a number of Greek words related to fish and to fishing, including: ἁλιεύω (halieuō), to fish or to catch fish (John 21: 3), the only usage of this word in the New Testament; ἰχθύς (ichthus), a fish (verses 6, 8, 11); ὀψάριον (opsarion), a little fish (verses 9, 10, 13); and δίκτυον (diktyon), fishing net (verse 11).

The fish or the ἰχθύς fish, became a symbol of early Christianity. The word ἸΧΘΥΣ or also ἸΧΘΥϹ with a lunate sigma was read as an acronym or acrostic for Ἰησοῦς Χρῑστός Θεοῦ Υἱός Σωτήρ (Iēsoûs Khrīstós, Theoû Huiós, Sōtḗr, Jesus Christ, Son of God, Saviour. But the early Christians saw symbolism too linking baptism in water with fish in the water, so fish and bread came to represent Baptism and Communion.

Fish on the menu at Captain’s House in Panormos near Rethymnon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

The word word ἰχθύς (ichthus) is name used only in Katharevousa or very formal, stilted Greek. But there are words derived from it in everyday use in Greece today, including ιχθυαγορά (ichthyagorá), fish market, so that the Traditional Fishmarket by the old Venetian Harbour in Iraklion is the Παραδοσιακή Ιχθυαγορά (paradosiakí ichthuagorá); and ιχθυοπωλείο (ichthyopoleío), fishmonger or fish shop, so that Aghia Galini, a colourful fish shop in Rethymnon, is a παραγωγικό ιχθυοπωλείο (paragogiko ichthuopoleio), a traditional fishmonger.

But the normal, everyday word for fish in Greek, and the one used in everyday conversations, in shops and restaurants, is ψάρι (psari). This is the word used on their signs and menus when restaurants say they sell φρέσκα ψάρια (phreska psaria) or fresh fish.

I don’t know that I have ever seen the words ἰχθύς or ὀψάριον on a menu. But this not because my conversational Greek is slipping a little these days. It’s probably just because I’m a vegetarian and probably would not notice.

Fresh fish (φρέσκα ψάρια) at Barba Antreas in Panormos near Rethymnon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Last word: 51, Bimah, βῆμα

Next word: 53, Bible

The Traditional Fishmarket (Παραδοσιακή Ιχθυαγορά) by the old Venetian Harbour in Iraklion (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Previous words in this series:

1, Neologism, Νεολογισμός.

2, Welcoming the stranger, Φιλοξενία.

3, Bread, Ψωμί.

4, Wine, Οίνος and Κρασί.

5, Yogurt, Γιαούρτι.

6, Orthodoxy, Ορθοδοξία.

7, Sea, Θᾰ́λᾰσσᾰ.

8,Theology, Θεολογία.

9, Icon, Εἰκών.

10, Philosophy, Φιλοσοφία.

11, Chaos, Χάος.

12, Liturgy, Λειτουργία.

13, Greeks, Ἕλληνες or Ρωμαίοι.

14, Mañana, Αύριο.

15, Europe, Εὐρώπη.

16, Architecture, Αρχιτεκτονική.

17, The missing words.

18, Theatre, θέατρον, and Drama, Δρᾶμα.

19, Pharmacy, Φᾰρμᾰκείᾱ.

20, Rhapsody, Ραψῳδός.

21, Holocaust, Ολοκαύτωμα.

22, Hygiene, Υγιεινή.

23, Laconic, Λακωνικός.

24, Telephone, Τηλέφωνο.

25, Asthma, Ασθμα.

26, Synagogue, Συναγωγή.

27, Diaspora, Διασπορά.

28, School, Σχολείο.

29, Muse, Μούσα.

30, Monastery, Μοναστήρι.

31, Olympian, Ολύμπιος.

32, Hypocrite, Υποκριτής.

33, Genocide, Γενοκτονία.

34, Cinema, Κινημα.

35, autopsy and biopsy

36, Exodus, ἔξοδος

37, Bishop, ἐπίσκοπος

38, Socratic, Σωκρατικὸς

39, Odyssey, Ὀδύσσεια

40, Practice, πρᾶξις

41, Idiotic, Ιδιωτικός

42, Pentecost, Πεντηκοστή

43, Apostrophe, ἀποστροφή

44, catastrophe, καταστροφή

45, democracy, δημοκρατία

46, ‘Αρχή, beginning, Τέλος, end

47, ‘Αποκάλυψις, Apocalypse

48, ‘Απόκρυφα, Apocrypha

49, Ἠλεκτρον (Elektron), electric

50, Metamorphosis, Μεταμόρφωσις

51, Bimah, βῆμα

52, ἰχθύς (ichthýs) and ψάρι (psari), fish.

A traditional fishing boat by the old Venetian Harbour in Rethymnon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Daily prayer in Easter 2025: 17, Tuesday 6 May 2025

‘I am the Bread of Life’ (John 6: 35) … preparing bread for the Eucharist on a Sunday morning (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

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).

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.

‘My Father … gives you the true bread from heaven’ (John 6: 32) … a mosaic in Saint Matthew’s Church, Great Peter Street, Westminster (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

John 6: 30-35 (NRSVA):

30 So they said to him, ‘What sign are you going to give us then, so that we may see it and believe you? What work are you performing? 31 Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, “He gave them bread from heaven to eat.”’ 32 Then Jesus said to them, ‘Very truly, I tell you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. 33 For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.’ 34 They said to him, ‘Sir, give us this bread always.’

35 Jesus said to them, ‘I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.’

‘I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty’ (John : 35) … an icon of the Last Supper or Mystical Supper seen in a shop in Rethymnon in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

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).

The day following the feeding of the 5,000, the people go in search of Jesus, 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).

Some years ago (2010), I took part in the popular television series, Who Do You Think You Are? I did some of the research on Dervla Kirwan, famous for her roles from Ballykissangel to Smother. The show is still popular, and I still get messages from America and England from friends and family who have just seen repeats.

But that question, ‘Who Do You Think You Are?’, goes much deeper than the details that programme unearths about Victorian great-grandparents.

‘Who are you?’

When most of us are asked this question in normal chit-chat, we probably first answer by our name, the name we like to be known by.

Given a second chance, even when we ask ourselves that question, we usually reply in ways that show our most important, our deepest, relationships: Mother/Daughter, Father/Son, Wife/Husband, Sister/Brother, Uncle/Aunt, Niece/Nephew, Grandparent/Grandchild …

Relationships define us, relationships shape us, relationships place us in family and society … and relationships can sometimes even destroy us, yet they still continue to define us.

That is how we see ourselves, usually, when we are asked casually, ‘Who are you?’ But there is also a third way of asking and answering that question.

In my previous roles, in media and academic life, I noticed quite often when people asked one another these questions, and exchanged cards, they spent little time looking at each other’s names on the cards, and more time figuring out their roles.

The questions that are being really asked at these receptions and conferences are not ‘Are you Patrick?’ or ‘Are you a parent/partner?’ The questions being asked, deep down, are ‘What do you do?’ and ‘Are you useful in my network?’ Can you get me more business, more sales, more votes, more media attention?

And then, there is another, perhaps fourth question, when it comes to identity: ‘Where are you from?’

‘Where am I from?’ The answer connects me with so many shared connections, friends, family members, schoolfriends, memories … why, we might even find we are related!

These are the sort of questions the crowd are asking Jesus in our Gospel readings yesterday and today:

Where are you from? (verse 24)

When did you come here? (verse 25)

What do you work at? (verse 30)

What can you do for me? (verse 30)

Why, like scriptwriters for that television series, they even recall their ancestors and what they did in the past (verse 31).

But, like those people exchanging business cards at a reception, there are few questions about relationship or relationships. They try to define him (‘rabbi’, verse 25), so they can box him in.

Instead, Jesus tries to answer them in term of relationships.

Set aside all those wonders and miracles, he tells them (verse 26). Stop playing the status-seeking game (verse 29). What is more important than all these is what is in your heart (verse 29).

He insists on speaking of himself in relationship to God the Father, who has sent him.

And then Jesus uses the first of his seven ‘I AM’ sayings in Saint John’s Gospel, ‘I am the bread of life’ (John 6: 35).

These seven ‘I AM’ sayings are traditionally listed as:

1, I am the Bread of Life (John 6: 35, 48)
2, I am the Light of the World (John 8: 12)
3, I am the gate (or the door) (John 10: 7)
4, I am the Good Shepherd (John 10: 11 and 14)
5, I am the Resurrection and the Life (John 11: 25)
6, I am the way, the truth and the life (John 14: 6)
7, I am the true vine (John 15: 1, 5)

These ‘I AM’ sayings echo the divine name revealed to Moses on Mount Sinai, ‘I AM’ (Exodus 3: 14).

If I am made in the image and likeness of God, how could I possibly say who I am in the ways Jesus says who he is?

Bread: when did I last help to feed the hungry … those who are physically and spiritually hungry?

The Light of the World … when did I last speak out against prejudice, bigotry, hatred and scaremongering, and shine a light into these dark shadows of the world?

The gate or the door … am I welcoming, hospitable, open, an advocate of pluralism, diversity and tolerance in our society?

The Good Shepherd … do I look after people, care for them, especially those people no-one else seems to think is worth bothering about?

I could go down through all seven ‘I AM’ sayings and find they are a very good checklist not just for me as a priest but for any Christian, indeed for any person.

Christ is the bread of life and the light of the world. We must also offer that light and life that Christ offers us to the world.

Would it make any difference if the Church not only preached what it believes, but worked actively to see these beliefs put into practice?

Our response to the love we receive from God – a risky outpouring that is beyond all human understanding of generosity – can only be to love. That call to love is not just to love those who are easy to love. It is a call to love those who are difficult to love too, to love all in the world … and to love beyond words. And that should be a good enough definition of who I am.

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

‘Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness’ (John 6: 31) … in the mountain passes above Preveli on the south coast of Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Tuesday 6 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 on Sunday with Reflections from Carol Miller, Church Engagement Manager, USPG.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Tuesday 6 May 2025) invites us to pray:

God of compassion, we pray for people who support refugees along the way. May you strengthen and provide resource.

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

A modern icon of the Communion of the Apostles

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

Marylee’s house in Rethymnon has become a metaphor for the way time moves on in Crete

Time moves on at Marylee’s House beneath the Fortezza in Rethymnon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Patrick Comerford

It is almost two weeks since I got back from Crete, having spent most of Holy Week and the Easter weekend in Rethymnon.

I suppose it was like a ‘mini-retreat’, with time for prayer and reflection throughout those five or six days. But there was time too for coffee with friends, and some long, lingering, late lunches in Iraklion and in Panormos, and for much-needed time for walks on the beaches or by the harbours and the shoreline in Rethymnon, Platanias, Panormos and Iraklion.

I had so missed being in Greece for a few years. I had planned back in Crete at Easter 2022, but circumstances caught up on me. I caught Covid, not once but twice; I had a stroke; I brought forward the date for my planned retirement from parish ministry; my marriage at the time came to an end; and then, after moving to Stony Stratford, Charlotte and I got married in November 2023.

Time moves on at Marylee’s House beneath the Fortezza in Rethymnon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

I got back to Crete last year for Easter (April 2024), and now that I have been back again this Easter, I know how Greece, Crete and Rethymnon have become part and parcel of who I am.

For almost 40 years, Rethymnon has been like a second home to me. There are a few places I feel at home – Wexford, Cappoquin and Lichfield – and Rethymnon is certainly one of them. For half my life, I have felt at ease and at home there, and I have been in Crete 12 times within the past 15 years.

In the few years I was absent, I missed the colours, the smells and the sounds; I missed the tastes, the flowers, the Bougainvillea and hibiscus; I missed the scents, the sunsets, the sunrises, the blue skies and the blue seas; I missed the food and the wine; I missed the music and the poetry; I missed the olive groves; and I missed the people.

Year-by-year, I hardly notice the changes in Rethymnon and suburban Platanias and Tsesmes, or in Piskopiano and Koutouloufari. They have been natural, organic changes, and I realise and accept that life usually changes gradually and gently rather than forcibly.

But during these last two visits I noticed how many of the shops, bars and restaurants I have known over the years have changed hands or even closed: a friend’s icon studio in Rethymnon, Julia Apartments and the Taverna Garden Restaurant in Platanias and Lychnos in Piskopiano are long closed. Sarlo’s falafel shop on Paleologou street in Rethymnon has now closed too. A smallholding in Platanias, by a path I often walk to and from Pavlos Beach, has been ploughed up, and its vines uprooted, leaving only some fig trees that once sheltered the vines, and it looks like it is about to become another building site.

I can remember fondly and quite sharply each place I have stayed in over the years, so it jolts my mind to see how many of those places have closed too. Many restaurants in Platanias, like Finikas, Vergina, Myli and Merem, and hotels like La Stella in Tsesmes, were waiting until after Easter to open, but were busy with deep Springcleaning, repainting and decorating. It was good to here this weekend that Pagona’s restaurant in Tsesmes is going to reopen in the coming days.

I once asked how daily life would change on Tsouderon street without the kiosk or períptero (περίπτερο) beside the bank, with its unique character. But it too vanished with the passage of time, and yet life goes on.

Time moves on at Marylee’s House beneath the Fortezza in Rethymnon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

As I was strolling through the side streets and back streets of Rethymnon in recent days, I found myself once again photographing a colourful house that in many ways tells the stories of how life moves on in Rethymnon over the years, and how life moves on in Greece.

For the umpteenth time, I climbed the steep hills up to the old Venetian Fortezza to enjoy the views across the town and out to the sea. Clustered around the base of the Fortezza, there are labyrinthine back streets with houses, each pretty and charming in its own self-contained way.

Over the years, one attractive house on a corner of Cheimarras Street, with its colourful façade, flowerpots and window has come to represent or symbolise for me what I find typical of the charm of the back streets on the slopes tumbling down from the Fortezza.

Time moves on at Marylee’s House beneath the Fortezza in Rethymnon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

When I first noticed Marylee’s House back in 2012, a colourful but punctured bicycle stood outside, and it seemed then like a metaphor for the Greek economy – punctured and jaded, and waiting for someone to see that it could roll on once again.

The house provided one of my favourite images from Rethymnon that year. I had the photograph printed on canvas and mounted for a wall in the house in Dublin I was then living in.

A year later, the bicycle that had been outside Marylee’s house had given way to a motorbike in 2013. I suppose time moves on at a speed we never understand.

Then, in 2019, there was no bicycle or motor bike outside the house … once again, perhaps, a metaphor for the Greek economy and politics, as things stood still waiting to see whether the European election results that month were going to influence the choice of a date for a general election in Greece later that year.

Today, the house is colourful, there are plants and flowerpots on the window ledges, the steps and on the street outside. The door has been ajar, almost half-open, at times when I have walked by on my recent visits and a new café and set out tables across the street on this latest visit -- metaphors, I suppose, that Greece has always been open to me, and that I feel Greece is part of me and that I am part of Greece.

Time moves on at Marylee’s House beneath the Fortezza in Rethymnon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2012)

Marylee’s House stands on the corner of Cheimarras Street, a narrow street leading down from the Fortezza that takes its name from Himara or Himarë in southern Albania, known in Greek as Χειμάρρας, Cheimarras.

Since antiquity, the region of Himara has been predominantly populated by people who are ethnically Greek. Despite all the changes over time, that part of Albania has remained an important centre of Greek culture and politics in Albania, and the majority of people are Greek-speaking.

In classical antiquity, Himara was part of the Kingdom of Epirus, whose rulers included King Pyrrhus, who was a second cousin of Alexander the Great and who has given us the term ‘Pyrrhic Victory.’

The town revolted under Spyros Spyromilios in 1912 and expelled the Ottoman force in order to join Greece, and Himara was under Greek administration from October 1914 until September 1916, when it was occupied by Italy.

The region came under the control of the Albanian state in 1921, but there were revolts throughout the 1920s demanding respect for Greek culture and autonomy. During World War II, the town was captured briefly by the Greek army in December 1940.

Today, the people of Himara remain a majority-Greek population, but fear their culture, language and religion are constantly under threat.

Time moves on at Marylee’s House beneath the Fortezza in Rethymnon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2013)

An interesting Greek cultural figure from Himara was Pyrros Spyromilios (1913-1962). As director of the Greek Radio Orchestra, encouraged the composer Mikis Theodorakis to use his ensemble, along with the popular bouzouki instrumentalist, Manolis Chiotis, and singer Grigoris Bithikotsis, in the Greek radio premiere of the Epitaphios. This setting to music by Theodorakis of the epic poem by the Greek poet Yiannis Ritsos was an innovative move at the time and has had a lasting influence on modern Greek culture.

Each time I return to Rethymnon and walk down Cheimarras Street from the Fortezza, I watch out for Marylee’s House, but also find myself listening in my mind to the melody of Epitaphios.

And when I come back again, hopefully sooner rather than later, Marylee’s House beneath the Fortezza is still there to photograph yet again.

Blue steps on the corner of Cheimarras Street, a narrow street leading down from the Fortezza in Rethymnon (Photograph: 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

The Byzantine Church of Saint Matthew of the Sinaites in Iraklion and a unique collection of icons in Crete

The Byzantine Church of Saint Matthew of the Sinaites in the old city in Iraklion (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Patrick Comerford

On a sunny afternoon, as I was making my way from the Cathedral of Saint Minas in the heart of Iraklion to the Martinengo Bastion above the city to see the grave of Nikos Kazantzakis, I stopped to visit the mediaeval Byzantine Church of Saint Matthew of the Sinaites in the maze of streets in the old city.

This church with an unusual name is a monastic foundation linked to Saint Catharine’s Monastery on Mount Sinai, the oldest continuously inhabited Christian monastery, and it holds one of the most important collections of icons in Crete today, dating from the 16th to the 18th century.

The church is also intimately linked to events at the end of the 19th century that led to the end of Ottoman rule and the incorporation of Crete into modern Greece.

The main (south) aisle in the church … the first church on the site dated back to the second Byzantine period (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

I had last visited this church in September 2013. The church, on Taxiarchou Markopoulou street, is near the bustling city centre of Iraklion and Saint Minas Cathedral. But it is a quiet residential area, with traditional white-washed houses, cobbled streets, and cosy tavernas and cafés.

The two-aisled church is set in a shaded courtyard about 500 metres south of the cathedral of Saint Minas. The present building dates back to just after the earthquake of 1508.

The earliest references in the lists of churches in Candia say the first church on the site dated back to the second Byzantine period (961 to1204 CE), a significant period of cultural and economic revival for the island after its reconquest from Arab rule. Saint Matthew’s was regarded as ‘Great and Unique’ and was inextricably connected with life in the city.

The north aisle in the church … the church became a dependency of the Monastery of Saint Catherine on Mount Sinai in 1669 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

The Byzantine church of Saint Matthew Sinaitón or Saint Matthew of the Sinaites (Ναός Αγίου Ματθαίου Σιναϊτών) was rebuilt after the earthquake of 1508. The new church of Agios Matthaios (Saint Matthew) was probably built, as a family chapel in the early 17th century on the site of the older Byzantine church that had been destroyed in the earthquake. The founding inscription says it was built in 1600.

After the Ottomans captured Crete and Iraklion in 1669, the Church of Saint Catherine was turned into a mosque. Through the intervention of the Sultan’s interpreter, Nikosios Panagiotakis, Saint Matthew’s Church was then given by way of compensation as a metochion or small monastic establishment to the Monastery of Saint Catherine on Mount Sinai and its monks.

The seat of the Archbishop of Crete, and the icons, paintings and pulpits that had once adorned Saint Catherine were transferred to the church, and it has been known ever since as Saint Matthew of the Sinaites.

The carved pulpit in the south aisle is highly decorated with icons (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

However, it cannot be said with certainty whether the school of iconography at Saint Catherine’s operated on the church grounds during this period, although it was located there later, and was moved to the small Church of Agios Minas around 1750. The school continued to function through the work of Georgios Kastrophylakas and loannis Kastrophylakas, father and son, and Ioannis Kornaros, who had attended the school.

The church is known for its striking architecture and serene ambiance. It has an elegant façade, and the interior is equally captivating, with its frescoes and icons. This is a two-aisled, vaulted church with a transverse narthex. The complex also includes two neoclassical buildings and a newer building.

A relief marble slab above the north entrance of the church depicts Saint Matthew the Apostle. The church was expanded at the end of the 17th century, and the south aisle was added and dedicated to Saint Paraskevi. The flat-roofed narthex was rebuilt in the 18th century, and a chapel was added at the north-east end and dedicated to Saint Charalambos.

The church holds a rare collection of icons with important works of the Cretan School of Iconography (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Today the church holds a rare collection of icons with important works of the Cretan School of Iconography in the Venetian Era.

The icons include the Crucifixion by Georgios Kastrophylakas (1752); Saint Catherine and Saint Symeon the God-Receiver by Jeremiah Palladas; the Crucifixion (1772) and Saint Titus and Scenes of the Lives of the 10 Martyrs of Crete by Ioannis Kornaros (1773); the Crucifixion, attributed to Palaiokappa; and two unsigned icons by Michael Damaskinos, Saint Symeon Theodochos and Saint John the Baptist (16th century).

Other notable icons in the church include: Saint Phanourios by John, priest of Kolyva (1688); Saint Paraskevi (17th century); the Prophet Elias with scenes of his life, by Georgios Kydoniates (1752); the Lament (1753); Saint Charalampos and the martyrdom of the saint, by Ioannis Kornaros, (1773); and the Virgin Mary or Panaghia by Victor (1780).

The iconostasis in the main south aisle of the church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

For many decades, Saint Matthew and Saint Minas long remained the two principal Orthodox churches in Iraklion, and many influential members of the Christian community in the city were buried in the churchyard.

Many of the people slaughtered by the Turks in the massacre in Iraklion on 25 August 1898 are also buried in the churchyard. They include Lysimachos Kalokairinos (1840-1898), who had been the British Vice Consul in Iraklion from 1859 and a British subject since 1871.

Kalokairinos was killed when his home was burnt down during the violence in 1898, and most of his archaeological collection and that of his brother, Minos Kalokairinos (1843-1907), dragoman at the consulate, were destroyed. Minos Kalokairinos was an amateur archaeologist known for the first excavations at the Minoan palace of Knossos, and his excavations were continued later by Arthur Evans.

Many of the people slaughtered in the massacre in Iraklion on 25 August 1898 are buried in the churchyard (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

During the violence, known the ‘Candia Massacre’, it is estimated 500-800 Christians were massacred in Iraklion, 14 British military personnel were murdered, and Lysimachos Kalokairinos and his family were burnt alive in their home. A significant part of Candia was burned down and the massacre, which continued for four hours, ended only after British warships began bombarding the city.

The massacre on 6 September 1898 (Old Style 25 August) accelerated the end of Ottoman rule: the last Ottoman soldier left Crete two months later, on 28 November 1898, ending the 253-year Ottoman rule on the island. Crete became an autonomous state in 1899 and was incorporated into the modern Greek state in 1913.

The Church of Saint Matthew of the Sinaites remains a ‘Great and Unique’ church. It is an important part of the spiritual heritage of Crete and it is cherished as a landmark that has played a key role in the religious, political and cultural history of Iraklion.

The Church of Saint Matthew of the Sinaites is a ‘Great and Unique’ church in Iraklion (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Daily prayer in Easter 2025: 15, Sunday 4 May 2025, the Third Sunday of Easter

‘Feed my lambs … Tend my sheep … Feed my sheep’ (John 21: 15-17) … sheep feeding on a small farm at Platanias in Rethymnon, Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Patrick Comerford

Our Easter celebrations continue in the Church Calendar. Easter is a 50-day season that continues until the Day of Pentecost, and this is the Third Sunday of Easter (Easter III). In the Orthodox Church, this is known as the Myrrh-Bearers’ Sunday.

Later this morning, I am involved in the Parish Eucharist in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church in Stony Stratford, leading the intercession and singing in the choir. Before today begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, to reflect, to pray and to read in these ways:

1, reading today’s Gospel reading;

2, a short reflection;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

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

The Risen Christ by the shore of Tiberias with the disciples and their catch of fish (John 21: 1-14) … a fresco in Saint Constantine and Saint Helen Church, Rethymnon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

John 21: 1-19 (NRSVA):

1 After these things Jesus showed himself again to the disciples by the Sea of Tiberias; and he showed himself in this way. 2 Gathered there together were Simon Peter, Thomas called the Twin, Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two others of his disciples. 3 Simon Peter said to them, ‘I am going fishing.’ They said to him, ‘We will go with you.’ They went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing.

4 Just after daybreak, Jesus stood on the beach; but the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. 5 Jesus said to them, ‘Children, you have no fish, have you?’ They answered him, ‘No.’ 6 He said to them, ‘Cast the net to the right side of the boat, and you will find some.’ So they cast it, and now they were not able to haul it in because there were so many fish. 7 That disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, ‘It is the Lord!’ When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on some clothes, for he was naked, and jumped into the lake. 8 But the other disciples came in the boat, dragging the net full of fish, for they were not far from the land, only about a hundred yards off.

9 When they had gone ashore, they saw a charcoal fire there, with fish on it, and bread. 10 Jesus said to them, ‘Bring some of the fish that you have just caught.’ 11 So Simon Peter went aboard and hauled the net ashore, full of large fish, a hundred and fifty-three of them; and though there were so many, the net was not torn. 12 Jesus said to them, ‘Come and have breakfast.’ Now none of the disciples dared to ask him, ‘Who are you?’ because they knew it was the Lord. 13 Jesus came and took the bread and gave it to them, and did the same with the fish. 14 This was now the third time that Jesus appeared to the disciples after he was raised from the dead.

15 When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, ‘Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?’ He said to him, ‘Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Feed my lambs.’ 16 A second time he said to him, ‘Simon son of John, do you love me?’ He said to him, ‘Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Tend my sheep.’ 17 He said to him the third time, ‘Simon son of John, do you love me?’ Peter felt hurt because he said to him the third time, ‘Do you love me?’ And he said to him, ‘Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Feed my sheep. 18 Very truly, I tell you, when you were younger, you used to fasten your own belt and to go wherever you wished. But when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will fasten a belt around you and take you where you do not wish to go.’ 19 (He said this to indicate the kind of death by which he would glorify God.) After this he said to him, ‘Follow me.’

‘Feed my lambs … Tend my sheep … Feed my sheep’ … John 21: 15-19 was the Gospel reading at the funeral Mass of Pope Francis

Today’s Reflections:

The Easter Gospel reading at the Eucharist today (John 21: 1-19) can be divided into two parts. We read the first part (verses 1-14) ten days ago, on the Friday of Easter Week (25 April 2025). The second part (verses 15-19) is the Gospel reading read the following day at the funeral Mass of Pope Francis (26 April 2025).

In the second part of this reading, Christ has three questions that he puts to Peter this morning. They appear a little confused or repetitive in most English translations, but the difference is clear in the original Greek.

In his first two questions to Peter, Christ uses the verb ἀγαπάω (agapáo).

CS Lewis talks in one of his books of The Four Loves:

• The first, στοργή (storgé), is the affection of familiarity;

• the second is φιλία (philia), the strong bond between close friends;

• the third, ἔρως (eros), Lewis identifies not with eroticism but with the word we use when we say we are in love with someone;

• the fourth love is ἀγάπη (agape), the love that takes no account of my own interests, that loves no matter what happens – it is the greatest of loves, it reflects the love of God.

Perhaps, the first time, Christ asks: ‘Simon son of John, do you love me more than you and your friends love one another but in the way God loves you?’ (John 21: 15).

But Peter is either evasive or misses the point, and answers with a different verb: φιλέω (phileo): ‘I’m fond of you, I like you like a brother, I agree with you. I’m OK, you’re OK’ (verse 15).

‘OK,’ says Christ, ‘feed the little ones the Good Shepherd welcomes into the fold’ (verse 15).

Then a second time, we can imagine him asking more simply: ‘Simon son of John, do you love me the way God loves you?’ (verse 16).

But Peter once again misses the point, and answers with the verb φιλέω (phileo): ‘I’m fond of you, I like you like a brother, I agree with you. I’m OK, you’re OK’ (verse 16).

‘OK,’ says Christ, ‘look after those in the flock the Good Shepherd tends’ (verse 16).

But then he asks a third question: ‘Simon, son of John, do you love me?’ (verse 17).

Our English translations say Peter was upset, felt hurt, when Christ asked him a third time. We might be tempted to think this is because he was asked the same question repetitively, three times, that his answer was not listened to the first or second time round.

But this third time, Christ asks a different question, using Peter’s verb φιλέω (phileo), as if to ask: ‘OK Peter, do you love me as your brother?’ (verse 17).

This time around, Peter replies using the same word Christ uses in his third question. But, more importantly, he confesses Jesus as Lord (verse 17), as Lord of everything. This confession of faith comes the third time round from the disciple who earlier denied Christ three times (see John 18). And Christ then asks him to feed the whole flock, all the sheep of the Good Shepherd, lambs, ewes, lost ones, found ones, white sheep, black sheep, fluffy sheep, bedraggled and dirt-covered sheep – the whole lot (21: 17).

The disciples do not recognise Jesus as he stands on the beach just after daybreak (verse 4). But despite their initial blindness, their initial failings, their initial denials, God continues to call them.

And so too with us. God calls us in all our unworthiness to feed his lambs, to tend his sheep, to feed his sheep, not just the little ones, not just the big ones.

Do you love him enough, as he loves you, to see this as enough fame to bask in?

Do you love him enough to feed his little ones when others want to ignore them, despise them, call them racist names, see their children as extra added burdens, want to send them back?

Do you love him enough to see this as the benchmark against which you and I, society, the Church, priests and people together, all we are involved in, mark how we relate to the myriad, the thousands and thousands, to all living life?

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

Simon Peter said to them, ‘I am going fishing.’ They said to him, ‘We will go with you.’ They went out and got into the boat (John 21: 3) … a fisherman tends his nets and boat in the harbour in Rethymnon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Today’s Prayers (Sunday 4 May 2025, Easter III):

‘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 is introduced today with Reflections from Carol Miller, Church Engagement Manager, USPG:

I was comfortably sat in a camp chair on the Glade for the Eucharist Service at Greenbelt Festival, surrounded by several thousand people. They were gathered, mostly on blankets, in family or community groupings. Host Guvna B, rapper and author, took the stage and said:

‘Let’s pray for refugees. But let’s pray with our bodies. We’re gonna do something here, together. Could everyone please stand up. Now, I want you to move a few meters … just two or three meters. Yeah, I know it’s uncomfortable. Just gather up everything you came here with and move a bit. We’re doing this as an embodied prayer for refugees. Look out for the little ones, please. It’s not easy, is it?

Having spent two full days at our USPG stall telling people about our work in Calais and around Europe, I felt I knew the journey of refugees. I’d done all the research and read countless articles and statistics. And our team thoughtfully challenged those who stopped by. But to physically and collectively act out that inconvenient migration, small as it was, undid me. What momentary discomfort I felt in being displaced would need to be multiplied countless times over and amplified through fear and grief and physical exhaustion to even begin to understand the lived experience of refugees in the world today.

A definition of compassion: to suffer together, a feeling that arises when you are confronted with another’s suffering and feel motivated to relieve that suffering.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Sunday 4 May 2025, Easter III) invites us to pray, reflecting on these words:

‘[We praise you] God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.’ (Based on II Corinthians 1: 3-4).

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

‘Just after daybreak, Jesus stood on the beach’ (John 21: 4) … early morning on the town beach in Rethymnon after Easter (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