The Synaxis of the Apostles … an icon in the Cathedral in Rethymnon in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Patrick Comerford
We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar and the week began with the Twelfth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity XII, 7 September 2025). Yesterday the Church celebrated the Birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary (8 September), and today the calendar of the Church of England in
Common Worship remembers Charles Fuge Lowder (1820-1880), who, in many ways, epitomise the 19th-century Anglo-Catholic ‘slum priest’.
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 Twelve Apostles … an icon in the church in Panormos, east of Rethymnon in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Luke 6: 12-19 (NRSVA):
12 Now during those days he went out to the mountain to pray; and he spent the night in prayer to God. 13 And when day came, he called his disciples and chose twelve of them, whom he also named apostles: 14 Simon, whom he named Peter, and his brother Andrew, and James, and John, and Philip, and Bartholomew, 15 and Matthew, and Thomas, and James son of Alphaeus, and Simon, who was called the Zealot, 16 and Judas son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.
17 He came down with them and stood on a level place, with a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea, Jerusalem, and the coast of Tyre and Sidon. 18 They had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases; and those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured. 19 And all in the crowd were trying to touch him, for power came out from him and healed all of them.
The Twelve Apostles depicted in the East Window in Saint Editha’s Church, Tamworth (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Today’s Reflection:
This morning’s Gospel reading (Luke 6: 12-19) tells of the selection of the Twelve from among the disciples, and naming of the Twelve. Their selection comes not only after a night of prayer alone on the mountain top, but between the stories of two healing miracles: a man in the synagogue whose right hand was withered (Luke 6: 6-11), which we read about yesterday, and the large number of people who come to hear Jesus and to be healed of their diseases (Luke 6: 17-19), which is the second part of today’s Gospel reading.
The call and ministry of the Twelve seems to be grounded firmly in the need of ordinary, everyday people, from far and wide, for healing, wholeness, restoration and acceptance.
Cardinal Karl Lehmann (1936-2018) was described as the face and voice of Catholicism in Germany for over 35 years. He was the Bishop of Mainz and former Professor of Dogmatic Theology at the University of Mainz, and during the Second Vatican Council he had been an assistant to Karl Rahner, the Jesuit theologian.
Dr Johanna Rahner, who succeeded Hans Küng as Professor of Dogmatics, History of Dogma and Ecumenical Theology at the Catholic Theological Faculty of Tübingen University, and told the German weekly
Die Zeit some years ago that Cardinal Lehmann ‘interpreted the Church’s teaching as a
seelsorger (a ‘carer of souls’ – the German word for priest) and not in the narrow, doctrinal, sense.’
I like the idea of seeing the priest or the pastor as the physician or doctor of souls. The German theological journal
Seelsorger describes itself as a ‘Journal for the Contemporary Cure of Souls,’ and the topics on pastoral care it discusses range from sexuality to post-modernity, the conscience to the use of story, vice, virtue, and baptism and the dangers and blessings of a long-term pastorate.
The soul is the deepest centre of the psyche. Problems at the level of the soul radiate out to all levels of the psyche and even the body.
The priest, the soul doctor, traces the problem to its deepest point. A hurting person should be addressed at all of those levels, but it is the soul doctor who addresses the very deepest level.
Among the Patristic writers, Saint John Chrysostom says that every priest is, as it were, the father of the whole world, and therefore should have care of all the souls to whose salvation he can co-operate by his labours. Besides, priests are appointed by God as physicians to cure every soul that is infirm. Origen has called priests ‘physicians of souls,’ while Saint Jerome calls us ‘spiritual physicians.’ Later, Saint Bonaventure asks: ‘If the physician flees from the sick, who will cure them?’
Canon 21 of the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215 drew an analogy between the physicians of the body and the physicians of the soul. This analogy between medical or physical care and spiritual or pastoral care was enthusiastically developed in mediaeval sermons and penitential literature, opening the door to many further comparisons.
The English word curate refers to a person who is charged with the care or cure (
cura) of souls in a parish. In this sense, ‘curate’ correctly means a parish priest. In France, the
cure is the principal priest in a parish, as is the Italian
curato and the Spanish
cura. But in English-speaking places, the term curate is commonly used to describe priests who are assistants to the parish priest.
However, the word curate in the 1662
Book of Common Prayer means the incumbent of a benefice, who is licensed by the bishop to the ‘cure of souls.’ The shared cure of souls is made clear by the traditional wording of the bishop’s deed of institution to a new incumbent, ‘
habere curam animarum, et accipe curam tuam et meam, receive the cure of souls which is both mine and thine.’
In other words, when a parish priest begins his or her new ministry, the bishop is sharing the care of the parish — described traditionally as ‘the cure of souls’ — with the priest, but the bishop does not give it away. In the Church of Ireland, the 43 Canons listed in Chapter IX of the Constitution refer specifically to cures rather than parishes.
The soul is just as complicated as the body, just as rich and strange and puzzling. And it needs just as much attention. That does not mean that any priest can necessarily address these soul problems. But the true soul doctor is the depth psychologist.
When we think about salvation, it is worth recalling that the English word ‘salve’ is derived from the Latin
salvus, which means healing. The priest, as an
alter Christus, is seen as one who mends broken hearts, heals hurting souls, and applies God’s soothing balm on pained and wounded lives.
The priest truly is the ‘doctor of souls.’ Perhaps theology is the technical language of soul doctoring. But the prescription is the word and the medicine is the Eucharist, regular confession and daily prayer. The proper exercise is found in prayer, regular good deeds and acts of kindness.
The popular German word for priest means ‘carer of souls’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Today’s Prayers (Tuesday 9 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), is ‘Cementing a Legacy’ (pp 36-37). This theme was introduced on Sunday with reflections from Rachel Weller, Communications Officer, USPG.
The USPG Prayer Diary today (Tuesday 9 September 2025) invites us to pray:
Father, we praise you for the Mji Mwema Micro-city. We pray that it will richly bless the Diocese of South West Tanganyika and support local education and care for years to come.
The Collect:
Almighty and everlasting God,
you are always more ready to hear than we to pray
and to give more than either we desire or deserve:
pour down upon us the abundance of your mercy,
forgiving us those things of which our conscience is afraid
and giving us those good things
which we are not worthy to ask
but through the merits and mediation
of 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 all mercy,
in this eucharist you have set aside our sins
and given us your healing:
grant that we who are made whole in Christ
may bring that healing to this broken world,
in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord.
Additional Collect:
God of constant mercy,
who sent your Son to save us:
remind us of your goodness,
increase your grace within us,
that our thankfulness may grow,
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Yesterday’s reflections
Continued tomorrow
Saint John Chrysostom says priests are appointed by God as physicians to cure every soul that is infirm (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 Apostles and Evangelists in two sets of icons in the tiny Church of the Twelve Apostles on the island of Gramvousa off the north-west coast of Crete (Photographs: Patrick Comerford; click on images for full-screen view)
