Patrick Comerford
Lent began this week with Ash Wednesday. After a marathon journey we arrived in Kuching early this morning shortly after midnight. It has been an odyssey that began in Heathrow on Wednesday evening and that took us through Muscat Airport in Oman early yesterday and Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia last night, but little opportunity to see either capital.
We have lost much sleep over two nights and throughout a day and a half, and I hope to catch up on that sleep as we settle in today. Lent and Ramadan overlap this year, and it will be interesting to see how they are observed here. But, before this day begins, I am taking some quiet time early this morning to give thanks, to reflect, to pray and to read 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.
Matthew 9: 14-15 (NRSVA):
14 Then the disciples of John came to him, saying, ‘Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but your disciples do not fast?’ 15 And Jesus said to them, ‘The wedding-guests cannot mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them, can they? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast.’
Today’s Reflections:
In the Gospel reading at the Eucharist today (Matthew 9: 14-15), Christ answers a question on fasting put to him by the disciples of John the Baptist.
In the traditional Anglican liturgical introduction to Lent, the meaning of Lent is explained and the people are invited to observe it faithfully ‘by self-examination and repentance; by prayer, fasting, and self-denial; and by reading and meditating on God’s holy word.’
I was writing again about the great Lichfield literary figure Samuel Johnson, earlier this week, on Tuesday and Wednesday. He once bemoaned the fact that the observance of Lent had fallen into neglect in his time. He wrote in Abyssinia: ‘During the great Lent, they eat neither butter nor milk, not any thing that has had life. They fast all Holy Week upon bread and water; … Thus Lent is observed throughout Abyssinia, men, women and children fasting with great exactness.’
On the other hand, he noted in contrast: ‘Abstinence from lacticinia [milk foods], which included butter, cheese, and eggs, was never strictly enforced in Britain, Ireland and the Scandinavian countries because of the lack of oil and other products that could serve as substitutes.’
Johnson’s diaries show that such fasting was a regular practice for him, including the anniversary of his mother’s death (23 January 1759), during Lent, and from Good Friday until Easter morning. His biographer, James Boswell, notes that Johnson fasted so strictly on Good Friday that ‘he did not even taste bread, and took no milk with his tea; I suppose because it is some kind of animal food.’
In my time of reflection early this morning, I am reading once again two commentaries on fasting in two early Patristic sources.
The Didache (Διδαχὴ, ‘Teaching’) is a brief early treatise (ca 50-160 CE) with instructions for Christian communities. While the manuscript is commonly referred to as the Didache, this is a shortened version of the title used by the Church Fathers, The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles (Διδαχὴ τῶν δώδεκα ἀποστόλων).
Some Church Fathers considered it as part of the New Testament but others rejected it as spurious, and eventually it was excluded from the New Testament canon.
In Chapter 8, the Didache discusses ‘Fast-Days and Prayer’:
1 Do not keep the same fast-days as the hypocrites. Mondays and Thursdays are their days for fasting, so yours should be Wednesdays and Fridays.
2 Your prayers, too, should be different from theirs. Pray as the Lord enjoined in His Gospel, thus:
Our Father, who art in heaven,
Hallowed be thy Name,
Thy kingdom come,
Thy will be done,
As in heaven, so on earth;
Give us this today of our daily bread,
And forgive us our debt as we forgive our debtors,
And lead us not into temptation,
But deliver us from the Evil One,
For thine is the power and glory for ever and ever.
3 Say this prayer three times a day.
The Patristic writer Tertullian (Quintus Septimius Florens Tertullianus) denounced Christian doctrines he considered heretical, but later in life adopted views that came to be regarded as heretical themselves. Late in his life, he left the Church of Rome and joined the Montanists, which explains why he has never been regarded as a saint.
But he was the first great writer of Latin Christianity, and is sometimes known as the ‘father of the Latin Church.’ He introduced the term Trinity and probably also the formula ‘three Persons, one Substance.’
In his Treatise on Prayer (ca 200/206 CE), Tertullian writes (19, 1), echoes Christ’s teaching in this morning’s Gospel reading:
Likewise, regard to days of fast, many do not think they should be present at the sacrificial prayers, because their fast would be broken if they were to receive the Body of the Lord. Does the Eucharist, then, obviate a work devoted to God, or does it bind it more to god? Will not your fast be more solemn if, in addition, you have stood at God’s altar? The body of the Lord having been received and reserved, each point is secured: both the participation in the sacrifice and the discharge of duty.
Today’s Prayers (Friday 20 February 2026):
The theme this week (15-21 February 2026) in ‘Pray With the World Church,’ the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is: ‘Look to the Amazon!’ (pp 28-29). This theme was introduced on Sunday with a Programme Update by the Most Revd Marinez Bassotto, Bishop of Amazonia and Archbishop of the Igreja Episcopal Anglicana do Brasil.
The USPG Prayer Diary today (Friday 20 February 2026, World Day of Social Justice) invites us to pray:
Gracious God, inspire fairness and equality. May initiatives like MOCAMBO bring dignity, opportunity, and hope to women and families throughout Brazil.
The Collect:
Almighty and everlasting God,
you hate nothing that you have made
and forgive the sins of all those who are penitent:
create and make in us new and contrite hearts
that we, worthily lamenting our sins
and acknowledging our wretchedness,
may receive from you, the God of all mercy,
perfect remission and forgiveness;
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 God,
you have given your only Son to be for us
both a sacrifice for sin
and also an example of godly life:
give us grace
that we may always most thankfully receive
these his inestimable gifts,
and also daily endeavour
to follow the blessed steps of his most holy life;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Additional Collect:
Holy God,
our lives are laid open before you:
rescue us from the chaos of sin
and through the death of your Son
bring us healing and make us whole
in 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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