Patrick Comerford
We are in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar, Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent are less than two weeks away (18 February 2026) and tomorrow is the Second Sunday before Lent. Later today, I hope to attend Το Στέκι Μας (Our Place), the pop-up Greek café at the Greek Orthodox Church on London Road, Stony Stratford, from 10:30 to 3 pm, with traditional Greek desserts and Greek coffees and delicacies.
Later this afternoon, after Ireland’s crushing 36-14 defeat by France the night before last, I hope to find appropriate places to watch the Six Nations rugby fixtures between Italy and Scotland (14:10) and England and Wales (16:40).
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, 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.
Mark 6: 30-34 (NRSVA):
30 The apostles gathered around Jesus, and told him all that they had done and taught. 31 He said to them, ‘Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while.’ For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat. 32 And they went away in the boat to a deserted place by themselves. 33 Now many saw them going and recognized them, and they hurried there on foot from all the towns and arrived ahead of them. 34 As he went ashore, he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things.
Today’s Reflections:
In the Gospel reading at the Eucharist today (Mark 6: 30-34), we read what might be described as the ‘curtain-raiser’ to the feeding of the 5,000.
The feeding of the multitude is the only miracle recorded in all four Gospels (see Matthew 14: 13-21; Mark 6: 30-44; Luke 9: 12-17; John 6: 1-15), with only minor variations on the place and the circumstances.
In the verses immediately before, in yesterday’s reading, Saint Mark tells of the beheading of Saint John the Baptist, who was executed after he denounced Herod Antipas for marrying his brother Philip’s wife, while Philip was still alive (see Mark 6: 14-29).
The disciples of Saint John the Baptist took his body and buried it – a foreshadowing of how his disciples are going to desert Christ at his own death and burial – and they then go to Christ to tell him the news (verses 29-30).
When Jesus hears this, he takes a boat and withdraws to a deserted place. But the crowds follow him on foot around the shore and find him, and when he comes ashore there is a great crowd waiting for him. He has ‘compassion for them, and because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things’ (verse 34).
I cannot help but think this morning of the immediate relevance of the sequence of events where the cruel actions of a despotic leader are followed immediately by Jesus showing compassion for the wandering and oppressed people ‘because they were like sheep without a shepherd’, and he teaches them and he feeds them.
It is just over a year since Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde, in her sermon at the National Cathedral prayer service in Washington (21 January 2025), urged Donald Trump to show mercy and compassion towards scared individuals, including ‘gay, lesbian and transgender children in Democratic, Republican and independent families’, towards immigrants and those fleeing war and persecution.
But in a response to Bishop Budde online, in a lengthy, bullying rant on social media the next day, Trump labelled her a ‘Radical Left hard line Trump hater’ who had ‘brought her church into the World of politics in a very ungracious way’, claiming she was ‘nasty’ in her tone.
Bishop Mariann opened her sermon by praying: ‘O God, you made us in your own image and redeemed us through Jesus your Son: Look with compassion on the whole human family; take away the arrogance and hatred which infect our hearts; break down the walls that separate us; unite us in bonds of love; and work through our struggle and confusion to accomplish your purposes on Earth; that, in your good time, all nations and races may serve you in harmony around your heavenly throne; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.’
And she concluded: ‘Have mercy, Mr President, on those in our communities whose children fear that their parents will be taken away. Help those who are fleeing war zones and persecution in their own lands to find compassion and welcome here. Our God teaches us that we are to be merciful to the stranger, for we were once strangers in this land.
‘May God grant us all the strength and courage to honour the dignity of every human being, speak the truth in love, and walk humbly with one another and our God, for the good of all the people of this nation and the world.’
As Sarah Jones, senior writer for Intelligencer, wrote, ‘For MAGA, the Line Between God and Trump Has Blurred.’ She wrote, ‘MAGA has chosen its god-king … The god-king is human, fallible, and frail, and his worship distorts the world.’ For some, the choice between Herod and Jesus may have been difficult at the time, with severe consequences. But for many the choice today is stark, and the moral options are clear, no matter what the cost is going to be.
Those stark choices are being made, and the costly but moral choices are being made. According to a report in the Church Times yesterday, Episcopal bishops in the US are warning that Americans must be prepared to lose their lives as they stand up for their values in the crisis caused by Trump’s immigration clampdown.< (‘US Bishops: Prepare for era of martyrdom, 6 February 2026, p 10)br />
More than 150 bishops of the Episcopal Church have signed an open letter calling on Americans to ‘stand by their values and act.’ The Presiding Bishop, Dr Sean Rowe, is quoted in the New York Times saying: ‘I think that we may be called on to put our bodies on the line and that we should be ready to do that. We all have a responsibility to resist this as Christians and that kind of resistance my cost us our life.’
Today’s Prayers (Saturday 7 February 2026):
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), has been: ‘Serving the Lord with Dignity’ (pp 24-25). This theme was introduced on Sunday with a Programme Update by the Revd Mauricio Mugunhe, Executive Director of Acção Social Anglicana, Igreja Anglicana de Moçambique e Angola.
The USPG Prayer Diary today (Saturday 7 February 2026) invites us to pray:
Lord, we know that unless you build the house, the builders labour in vain. Direct IAMA according to your purpose, and uphold the vision with steadfast faith.
The Collect:
Almighty God,
by whose grace alone we are accepted
and called to your service:
strengthen us by your Holy Spirit
and make us worthy of our calling;
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 of truth,
we have seen with our eyes and touched with our hands the bread of life:
strengthen our faith
that we may grow in love for you and for each other;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Additional Collect:
God of our salvation,
help us to turn away from those habits which harm our bodies
and poison our minds
and to choose again your gift of life,
revealed to us in Jesus Christ our Lord.
Collect on the Eve of the Second Sunday before Lent:
Almighty God,
you have created the heavens and the earth
and made us in your own image:
teach us to discern your hand in all your works
and your likeness in all your children;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who with you and the Holy Spirit reigns supreme over all things,
now and for ever.
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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