Patrick Comerford
We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar, and this week began with the Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity XVII, 12 October 2025). Today the Calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship and Exciting Holiness remembers Saint Teresa of Avila (1515-1582), Teacher of the Faith (15 October).
Later this evening, I hope to take part in the rehearsals with the choir of Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church in Stony Stratford. 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.
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.’
Today’s Reflection:
In this morning’s Gospel reading (Luke 11: 42-46), Jesus 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 as 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’.
Today’s Prayers (Wednesday 15 October 2025, Saint Teresa of Ávila):
The theme this week (12 to 18 October) in Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘A Life Dedicated to Care’ (pp 46-47). This theme was introduced on Sunday with a programme update on Sister Gillian Rose of the Bollobhpur Mission Hospital, Church of Bangladesh.
The USPG Prayer Diary today (Wednesday 15 October 2025, Saint Teresa of Ávila) invites us to pray:
Lord, like the staff at Bollobhpur, may your peace reign in our hearts and in our world, ending division and bringing unity. Guide us to live and work in harmony, regardless of faith or background.
The Collect:
Merciful God,
who by your Spirit raised up your servant Teresa of Avila
to reveal to your Church the way of perfection:
grant that her teaching
may awaken in us a longing for holiness,
until we attain to the perfect union of love
in 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 Teresa to the eternal feast of heaven;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Yesterday’s Reflections
Continued Tomorrow
Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org
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