Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2026: 87, Sunday 2 August 2026, Ninth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity IX)

Five loaves and two fish in a motif on the railings at Saint Joseph’s Cathedral, Kuching (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar and today is the Ninth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity IX, 2 August 2026). Later this morning, I hope to take part in the Parish Eucharist in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford.

Meanwhile, 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.

Five loaves and two fish … ‘St Peter’s Harrogate Feeding Hungry People’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Matthew 14: 13-21 (NRSVA):

13 Now when Jesus heard this, he withdrew from there in a boat to a deserted place by himself. But when the crowds heard it, they followed him on foot from the towns. 14 When he went ashore, he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them and cured their sick. 15 When it was evening, the disciples came to him and said, ‘This is a deserted place, and the hour is now late; send the crowds away so that they may go into the villages and buy food for themselves.’ 16 Jesus said to them, ‘They need not go away; you give them something to eat.’ 17 They replied, ‘We have nothing here but five loaves and two fish.’ 18 And he said, ‘Bring them here to me.’ 19 Then he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven, and blessed and broke the loaves, and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. 20 And all ate and were filled; and they took up what was left over of the broken pieces, twelve baskets full. 21 And those who ate were about five thousand men, besides women and children.

The miracle of the loaves and fishes in a fresco in Analipsi Church in Georgioupoli, Crete … there are only two fish, but the loaves of bread have already been multiplied (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflections:

The feeding of the multitude is the only miracle recorded in all four Gospels (see Mark 6: 30-44; Luke 9: 12-17; John 6: 1-15), with only minor variations on the location, the timing and the circumstances.

In the verses immediately before this morning’s reading, Saint Matthew 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 Matthew 14: 1-11).

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 (verse 12).

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 he cures the sick among them (verses 13-14).

But a greater miracle is about to unfold – perhaps even two greater miracles.

This is a story of a miracle, but which miracle?

The multiplication of the five loaves and two fish is a miracle in itself, of course. But we might consider how there is another miracle here too.

Saint Matthew places this story in a section in his Gospel about training the disciples for their mission. So, perhaps, Christ is teaching them about how they can do this.

Christ tells the people to sit down – well, not so much to sit down as to recline (ἀνακλίνω, anaklíno, verse 19). They are asked to recline on the grass as they would at a banquet or at a feast – just as Christ reclines with the disciples at the Last Supper.

In verse 19, we have a reminder of the feeding of the people in the Wilderness (see Exodus 16), but also a foretaste or anticipation of the Last Supper (see Matthew 26: 20-29), the Eucharistic feast, and of the Messianic banquet at the end of time.

Christ takes bread, looks up to heaven, blesses it, breaks it, and gives it to them to distribute it among the people

The feeding with the fish also looks forward to the Resurrection. The fish is an early symbol of faith in the Risen Christ: Ichthus (ἰχθύς, ΙΧΘΥC) is the Greek word for fish, and can be read as an acrostic, a word formed from the first letters of words, spelling out ἰησοῦς Χριστός, Θεοῦ Υἱός, Σωτήρ (Iēsous Christos Theou Huios, Sōtēr), ‘Jesus Christ, Son of God, Saviour.’

In verse 20, we are told all ate and were filled (see Exodus 16: 15-18, Numbers 11: 31-32; Elisha’s food miracles, II Kings 4:42-44; cf John 6: 31-33, Revelation 2: 17). In Apocryphal writings, II Baruch 29: 8, a Jewish pseudepigraphical text thought to date from the late 1st century CE or early 2nd century CE, also connects the feeding in the wilderness in Exodus 16 with the Messianic age.

There is yet another level to the story in verse 20. The disciples get everyone to work together with a common purpose. All are filled, and yet much is left over: a basket for each disciple. Each of them has a mission, telling the good news of the infinite abundance of God's love and the kingdom in which all can eat.

Whether they are birthdays, baptisms, weddings, anniversaries, graduations, retirements, end-of-term or parish celebrations, we all enjoy a good party. Parties affirm who we are, where we fit in, and mark the rhythm of life and the continuity of families and communities.

It is not only the eating or the drinking. It is very difficult to sit beside someone at the same table after a funeral, or to stand beside someone at the bar at a wedding, and not to end up getting to know them and – as is said in Ireland – getting to know ‘their seed, breed and generation.’

Families share names, share stories, share memories, share identities, share anniversaries. And that is not all in the past. These celebrations allow us to express and share our hopes for the future too … is that not what baptisms and weddings are about in every family – hope for the future, hope for life itself?

In this story, the disciples have failed to buy or produce enough bread for a meal. Christ responds not by sympathising but by demanding greater generosity (see verse 18).

The disciples gather up what is left over. Gathering is an act of reverential economy towards the gifts of God; but gathering also anticipates Christ gathering all to himself. The amount that is left over is a sign of the outpouring of God’s generosity. There are 12 baskets – one for each tribe of Israel and one for each of the 12 disciples. God’s party, the Eucharist, looks forward to the new Israel, not the sort of earthly kingdom that the people now want but the Kingdom of God.

Christ puts no questions of belief to the disciples or to the crowd when he feeds them on the mountainside. They do not believe in the Resurrection – it has yet to happen. But he feeds them, and he feeds them indiscriminately. The disciples wanted to send them away (verse 15), but Christ wants to count them in. Christ invites more people to the banquet than we can fit into our churches.

The Revd Albert Ogle, who was once a priest in Dublin and, like me, was a student at the Irish School of Ecumenics, now lives in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He recalled this story on Facebook the year before last:

‘One of the bishops who participated in the irregular ordination of the first 11 women priests in the Episcopal Church was Bishop Daniel Corrigan. I met him in Santa Barbara many years ago and he told me this amazing story about connections and memory.

‘The Episcopal Church has a long history to Scotland and Corrigan found himself as a 15 year old serving with the US Naval submarine unit, off the coast of a remote Scottish island where the locals lived in cave houses. Corrigan and the crew had been submerged for days and without food, decided to knock on one of these creaky wooden doors in the dead of night.

‘He recalls how a very tall gaunt figure appeared at the door in lamplight to greet the strangers who were covered in oil and grime from the submarine. They wanted something to eat. She turned away from them and the next thing he remembered was seeing her return to the door with a large round loaf, like a priest at the Eucharist.

‘This impression of priestly generosity and open invitation remained with Corrigan all his life and it was this seminal experience for him to agree to ordain the Philadelphia 11 …

‘I am sure the enigmatic generous Scottish woman had no idea what her kindness would release into the world. Keep loving and being generous. You never know who or what you might be feeding.’

We often describe this morning’s Gospel story as the Feeding of the Multitude, or the Feeding of the Five Thousand. But how many people are there?

Verse 21 tells us that there were ‘about five thousand men,’ but adds also, ‘besides women and children.’

If there were 5,000 men there that day, and one woman and two children for each couple, we are then talking about the feeding of 20,000 people, or the population of a town like Wexford, Celbridge or Mullingar in Ireland, Berkhamsted, Brownhills, Truro or Newquay in England, or Ierapetra and Agios Nikolaos in Crete.

Sir Colin Humphreys of Selwyn College, Cambridge, former Professor of Materials Science, in his analysis of the number of people in the Exodus story suggests the number of Israelite men over the age of 20 in the census following the Exodus was 5,000, and not 603,550. He attributes the apparent error to an error in interpreting or translating the Hebrew word ’lp (אלף), and he goes on to suggest the number of men, women and children at the Exodus was about 20,000. Both of his figures correlate with the figures for the feeding of the multitude in this Gospel reading.

When we invite people into the Church, we have so much to share – much more that the meagre amount people may think we have in our bags.

As we enjoy the feast, enjoy the banquet, enjoy the party, share the Eucharist, are we prepared to be open to more being brought in to enjoy the banquet and the party than our imagination allows us to imagine.

A basket of bread in Barron’s Bakery in Cappoquin, Co Waterford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Sunday 2 August 2026, Trinity IX):

In Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), the theme this week (2-8 August 2026, pp 24-25), is ‘Faith Under Pressure in Nicaragua’. This theme is introduced today with a Reflection by the Most Revd Juan David Alvarado, Bishop of El Salvador and Primate of the Province of the Anglican Church in Central America:

‘In Nicaragua, the Church is under intense pressure, a reality many outside the region may not be aware of. Since 2018, persecution has been relentless.

‘The government has violated human rights, restricting freedom of worship and expression. It is not only Catholic churches that suffer; clergy, schools, universities, and religious organisations have been targeted. Nuns have been expelled, and the Episcopal Church of Nicaragua faces constant pressure simply for speaking truth to power.

‘Some clergy have been prevented from returning after travelling abroad. One priest left for the United States and was barred from returning. Last December, a reverend visiting family abroad could not re-enter and remains in the United States. Bishop Harold Dixon lives in fear, unable to speak openly. The Church has lost legal recognition and risks losing its properties. Even sending financial support is fraught with difficulty.

‘In the face of fear, the Church must speak out. Silence is not an option. Statements have been issued, letters sent to the United Nations, and attempts made to accompany the diocese in every possible way. I have personally attempted three times to visit Nicaragua to offer pastoral support, yet entry has been denied.

‘It is painful to witness people stripped of homes, lands, and even their identities. As members of the Anglican Communion, we cannot look away. Even small gestures like a letter or a prayer can strengthen those who cannot freely practise their faith. It remains true that the love of Christ reaches even the most fearful corners of our world.’

The USPG prayer diary today (Sunday 2 August 2026) invites us to pray as we read and meditate on today’s Gospel reading (Matthew 14: 13-21).

The Collect of the Day:

Almighty God,
who sent your Holy Spirit
to be the life and light of your Church:
open our hearts to the riches of your grace,
that we may bring forth the fruit of the Spirit
in love and joy and peace;
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:

Holy Father,
who gathered us here around the table of your Son
to share this meal with the whole household of God:
in that new world where you reveal the fullness of your peace,
gather people of every race and language
to share in the eternal banquet of Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

Gracious Father,
revive your Church in our day,
and make her holy, strong and faithful,
for your glory’s sake
in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s reflections

Continued tomorrow

Warm bread and a warm welcome in Pepi Studios on Tsouderon Street in Rethymnon in Crete

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

Saint Paul’s Church, Cambridge, has moved from harsh criticism and divisive schism to being open to questions

Saint Paul’s Church on the corner of Hills Road and Saint Paul’s Road is less than a mile from the centre of Cambridge (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Patrick Comerford

I often walk past Saint Paul’s Church on the corner of Hills Road and Saint Paul’s Road on my way between the train station and the centre of Cambridge. But I took some time to look at the church last week for the first time as I walking back to the train station after a day in Cambridge with a visiting friend from Ireland.

Saint Paul’s is a Grade II listed building less than a mile from the centre of Cambridge, and is known to all who are interested in the Gothic revival in church architecture because of the criticism it drew from AWN Pugin and the Cambridge Camden Society in The Ecclesiologist and because of its interesting links with the architects George Gilbert Scott and Temple Moore.

Saint Paul’s traces its origins to the mediaeval parish of Saint Andrew the Less on the Newmarket Road. This Augustinian community of Barnwell Priory took charge of the parish ca 1200, and the prior became the rector of the parish, with the right to receive its tithes, as well as its patron, with the right to appoint the clergy. In effect, the priors of Barnwell appointed vicars to look after ministry in the parish.

At the dissolution of the monastic houses during the Tudor Reformation, the priory was dissolved in 1538 and the prior’s rights passed to the crown and were then sold on.

The present church owes its origins to the work in the 1840s of the Revd Charles Perry (1807-1891), later the first Anglican Bishop of Melbourne, who was the first Vicar of Saint Paul’s.

Charles Perry was a fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1835 when he bought the advowson of the living of Saint Andrew-the-Less, with the right to appoint the clergy. He has been described as a ‘stout evangelical clergyman, equally opposed to ritualistic and rationalistic tendencies.’

As part of his evangelistic work among the railway workers and tradesmen who were beginning to settle in the Newtown area of Cambridge, Perry established a mission hall on Hills Road that became Saint Paul’s. He secured a district of its own, and was licensed by the Bishop of Ely as its first ‘perpetual curate’.

The parish was formed out of Saint Andrew the Less, with the addition of some land to the west of Hills Road that had previously been part of the parish of Saint Andrew the Great, near the Market Square in the centre of Cambridge. In his history of Saint Paul’s, Gerald Bray describes how Saint Paul’s became a separate district in the parish of Saint Andrew-the-Less in 1842, and became a new parish in its own right in 1845.

Perry began introducing extensive reforms, commissioned a new church that would became the centre of a new parish and also built Christ Church on Newmarket Road to replace Saint Andrew the Less as the parish church in 1846.

Perry became the first Anglican Bishop of Melbourne in 1847 and spent 29 years in Australia. When he retired, he returned to England and became one of the founders of Ridley Hall, the evangelical Anglican theological college in Cambridge, and of Wycliffe Hall, Oxford.

Saint Paul’s Church, Cambridge, was designed by Ambrose Poynter and was heavily criticised by the Cambridge Camden Society, ‘The Ecclesiologist’ and AWN Pugin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Saint Paul’s Church was designed by the architect Ambrose Poynter (1796-1886), a founding member of the Institute of British Architects. Poynter was born in London into a family of Huguenot origin. He worked with John Nash in 1814-1818, and then travelled through Italy, Sicily and the Ionian Islands (1819-1821).

Poynter lived in Paris between 1830 and 1832. Back in London, he began his own practice as an architect and became noted for his Palladian and Tudor Gothic fusion architecture. He was secretary of the Institute of British Architects in 1840, 1841, and 1844, and also its vice-president, and in the mid-1840s he became Professor of Fine Arts at King’s College London. When Poynter went blind, some of his commissions were taken over by William Burges.

Poynter designed three churches in Cambridge: Christ Church, Newmarket Road (1837-1839), Saint Paul’s, Hills Road (1841), and Saint Andrew the Great, Saint Andrew’s Street (1842-1843). The nave and the west tower of Saint Paul’s were built in 1841.

Saint Paul’s was criticised by the Cambridge Camden Society in the first issue of its journal, The Ecclesiologist (November 1841), in an attack that was supported by AWN Pugin. The Cambridge Camden Society was established in 1839 to study ‘ecclesiastical antiquities.’ The society published The Ecclesiologist from 1841 to 1868, arguing that architects should adopt a religious stance in their work.

The issue was withdrawn, but an offer then to review another of the Poynter churches was not conciliatory. Saint Paul’s had been called a ‘cheap church’, and in 1843 Saint Andrew’s was called ‘miserable and meagre’.

Historic England designates Saint Paul’s as a Grade II Listed Building, pointing to its historically significance as one of the new churches harshly criticised in the Ecclesiologist, ‘an important publication of the Gothic Revival but which possesses visual interest in its own right.’

Poynter intended the exterior of Saint Paul’s to be an interpretation of Great Saint Mary’s in the Market Place, Cambridge, but in brick. However, the Ecclesiologist vilified Poynter’s original design for not having a chancel, for its use of brick instead of stone, and for its unornamented, late 16th or early 17th century style. The design was criticised because its ‘style of architecture and plan of internal arrangement should have been after some approved ancient model.’

The critique was toned down in the second edition, following objections from senior church leaders to the first edition. Still, it said ‘there are many arrangements and details in this church which are on every other ground quite indefensible, even on the ground of cheapness. Such are the huge clock; the disproportionate octagonal turrets; the great four-centred belfry windows without cusping or mouldings; the figures 1841 in the spandrils of the clock; the square clerestory-windows; the enormous windows in the aisles; the mullions made to stand on the same plane as the wall; the square heads; the want of foliation; the jambs without mouldings; the graduated parapet of the nave; the thin mullions and tracery of the east windows; the difference between the supports of the western and the other galleries; the startling contrast of the red brick and the white quoins of dressed ashlar; the trellis-work of black bricks; and many other things which time forbids us to notice.’

Pugin reprinted the original critique in his Present State of Ecclesiastical Architecture (1842-1843), and suggested it should be circulated as a warning to be ‘hung up in terrorem in every church-competing architect’s office.’ At the time, Pugin was working on Saint Andrew’s Church, a few steps further north along Hills Road, on the corner of Lensfield Road, and the first post-Reformation Roman Catholic church in Cambridge. A few years later, Pugin would play an important role in the restoration, decoration and furnishing of the mediaeval fabric of the chapel of Jesus College in 1846-1849.

The chancel and vestry of Saint Paul’s were added in 1864, perhaps by HG Elborne. The north and south transepts were added in 1893 to designs by the Tullamore-born architect Temple Lushington Moore (1856-1920). Despite later reordering and change, the interior of Saint Paul’s retains spatial interest and some fixtures of note, including the work in the 1890s by Temple Moore (1856-1920) and the stained glass windows.

Temple Moore also designed the east range and south part of Westcott House, Cambridge, in 1914 and was the architect of Pusey House, Oxford. His only son, Richard Temple Moore (1891-1918), was killed when the RMS Leinster was torpedoed and sunk off Dublin a mere month before the end of World War I.

Temple Moore has been described as ‘England’s leading ecclesiastical architect from the mid-Edwardian years’. The architectural historian Sir Nikolaus Pevsner said that he was ‘always sensitive in his designs and often interesting.’ His designs reflect his Anglo-Catholic practice and values. His work can be seen across England; he is known for a series of fine Gothic Revival churches built about 1890 and 1917 and he also restored many churches and designed church fittings.

The stained glass windows in Saint Paul’s include: the chancel north window, after Holman Hunt, by Heaton, Butler and Bayne (1906); the south transept east window by Heaton, Butler and Bayne (1920); and the east window, ‘The Conversion of Saint Paul’, by Alfred Wilkinson (1960).

The World War II war memorial at Saint Paul’s Church, Cambridge (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Charles Perry was succeeded at Saint Paul’s from 1847 to 1860 by the Revd John Scott, a brother of the architect George Gilbert Scott. The former parsonage built in Saint Paul’s Road behind the church in 1853-1854 was designed by George Gilbert Scott for his brother and is now the Cambridge Muslim College.

Perry’s immediate successors were styled ‘perpetual curates’ but in 1891 Canon Henry Paine Stokes (1849-1931) became the first vicar (1891-1917). Stokes came from an Irish family and was a former chaplain and a fellow of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. He was President of the Cambridge Antiquarian Society (1909-1911) and President of the Jewish Historical Society (1914-1916). He moved to Little Wilbraham in 1917, and died in 1931.

Meanwhile, the original parish was subdivided in the late 19th and early 20th century with the creation of Saint Barnabas (1888) and Saint Philip (1902).

The Revd Mark Ruston, who was a curate at Saint Paul’s in 1954-1955, later became the vicar of the Round Church (Holy Sepulchre) in the centre of Cambridge. There he developed a student ministry that continues to this day, though it is now located in the Saint Andrew the Great.

The Revd Herbert Moore Carson (1922-2003) was a controversial Vicar of Saint Paul’s in 1958 to 1964. He graduated from Trinity College Dublin and was ordained in the Church of Ireland by the Bishop of Connor. He had two curacies in Belfast, then worked as the travelling secretary of the Inter-Varsity Fellowship and spent five years at Saint Michael and All Angels, Blackheath Park, from 1953. He moved to Cambridge in 1958 and was the Vicar of Saint Paul’s for almost seven years.

He resigned from Saint Paul’s in December 1964, and seceded from Anglicanism in 1965 because of misgivings about liturgy, establishment, bishops, and infant baptism. Subsequently, he was baptised as a believing adult with his wife Delphine. He assisted Martyn Lloyd-Jones at Westminster Chapel London, and then became the minister of Hamilton Road Baptist Church, Bangor, Co Down, in 1967. He moved to Leicester in 1982 and was the minister of Knighton Evangelical Free Church until he retired in 1988.

When he left the Church of England, Carson split the congregation in the process. The damage caused by this was considerable but it was repaired to a degree by the Revd John Gwyn-Thomas, who had a popular ministry of preaching and counselling.

Saint Martin’s parish was also carved out of Saint Paul’s parish in 1961.

Canon Michael Robert Wedlake Farrer, Vicar in 1978-1992, was Rural Dean of Cambridge (1984-1989), a canon of Ely Cathedral (1988-1992), and senior chaplain to the Bishop of Ely (1992-1995). He died in 2018 at the age of 96.

The Revd Michael Shaun Beckett was the priest-in-charge and then vicar for over 30 years until he retired in 2021. He is the author of Gospel in Esther. In a foreword to the book, Stephen Sykes, a former Bishop of Ely, describes Saint Paul’s as a ‘parish church long noted for its attentiveness to the work of preaching’.

Saint Paul’s Church, Cambridge, hosts a variety of meals and runs an active community programme throughout the week (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Saint Paul’s Church was Listed Grade II in 1972. The interior became a multi-use space in 1996, designed by Freeland Rees-Roberts. Meeting rooms and porch were added 2012-2013.

The Revd Imogen Nay has been the vicar of Saint Paul’s since 2022. She has been the Rector of Saint Andrew’s, Rugby, and the Canon for Evangelism and Discipleship in Chelmsford Cathedral. The Revd Dr Becky Applin Warner is the self-supporting assistant curate.

Despite its background and its turbulent history into the second half of the 20th century, Saint Paul’s describes itself today as a church that travels with questions, not firm answers, that seeks to have healthy conversations, learning from the world around us, and open to the Spirit and new forms of truth. ‘This is the Anglican way: balancing Scripture, Tradition and Reason. We are guided in our searching through conversation with the Bible, the historic creeds and the traditions of the church’.

Each week, Saint Paul’s hosts a variety of meals and runs an active community programme, and also runs a Fairbite social supermarket.

‘We are a member of inclusive church and we try and make church an accessible and safe place for all. However, we know this is an ongoing journey, and we don't always get it right.’

• Sunday Services in Saint Paul’s are Holy Communion at 10:30 am and a variety of reflective services at 6 pm. The church is open Monday to Friday 10 to 4 pm.

The Revd Imogen Nay has been the vicar of Saint Paul’s since 2022 (Photograph: Saint Paul’s Parish website)

Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2026: 86, Saturday 1 August 2026

An icon of the Beheading of Saint John the Baptist in a church in Koutouloufari in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church, we have reached the beginning of a new month today, and tomorrow is the Ninth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity IX, 2 August 2026).

In many places, in the past, 1 August was known as Lammas, from an Old English word hlāfmæsse, meaning loaf-mass, or as Loaf Mass Day. The name originates from the word ‘loaf’ in reference to bread and ‘Mass’ in reference to the Eucharist. It is a festival to mark the blessing of the First Fruits of harvest, with a loaf of bread being brought to the church for this purpose. Lammastide falls at the halfway point between the summer solstice and the autumn equinox.

Later today, the Greek community in Stony Stratford is opening its pop-up café at Swinfen Harris Church Hall, London Road. Το Στεκι Μας, Our Place, takes place every first Saturday of the month from 10:30 to 5 pm.

But, 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 Beheading of Saint John the Baptist’ by Caravaggio in the Oratory of Saint John’s Co-Cathedral in Valletta, Malta (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Matthew 14: 1-12 (NRSVA):

14 At that time Herod the ruler heard reports about Jesus; 2 and he said to his servants, ‘This is John the Baptist; he has been raised from the dead, and for this reason these powers are at work in him.’ 3 For Herod had arrested John, bound him, and put him in prison on account of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife, 4 because John had been telling him, ‘It is not lawful for you to have her.’ 5 Though Herod wanted to put him to death, he feared the crowd, because they regarded him as a prophet. 6 But when Herod’s birthday came, the daughter of Herodias danced before the company, and she pleased Herod 7 so much that he promised on oath to grant her whatever she might ask. 8 Prompted by her mother, she said, ‘Give me the head of John the Baptist here on a platter.’ 9 The king was grieved, yet out of regard for his oaths and for the guests, he commanded it to be given; 10 he sent and had John beheaded in the prison. 11 The head was brought on a platter and given to the girl, who brought it to her mother. 12 His disciples came and took the body and buried it; then they went and told Jesus.

Father Irenaeus, a monk in the Monastery of Saint Macarius in Wadi Natrun, shows me the relics in the crypt of Saint John the Baptist below the north wall of the church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflections:

This morning’s Gospel reading (Matthew 14: 1-12) is in sequence with our Gospel readings throughout the past week. However, we are going to hear it once again near the end of the month, when 29 August is observed liturgically by most Christian traditions, including most Anglican, Roman Catholic, Orthodox and Lutheran churches, as a day commemorating the Beheading of Saint John the Baptist.

That liturgical commemoration is almost as old as the commemoration of the Birth of Saint John the Baptist on 24 June. In some Orthodox cultures, the day is one of strict fasting.

Saint John the Baptist was beheaded on the orders of Herod Antipas through the vengeful request of his daughter Salome. The story of his beheading is a story that places personal integrity, morality and honour in stark contrast to self-centred arrogance, vengeance, and the tyrannical abuse of power.

According to the Synoptic Gospels, Herod, who was Tetrarch of Judea, had imprisoned Saint John the Baptist after he reproved Herod for divorcing his wife and unlawfully marrying Herodias, the wife of his brother Herod Philip.

On Herod’s birthday, Salome, the daughter of Herodias, danced before him and his guests. The drunken Herod was so pleased that he promised her anything she desired, including half his kingdom. When her mother prompted Salome to ask for the head of Saint John the Baptist on a platter, he was executed in prison. The disciples took his body and buried it, but the Gospel accounts say nothing about what happened to his head (Matthew 14: 1-12; Mark 6: 14-29; see Luke 9: 7-9).

According to some Orthodox traditions, Saint John’s disciples buried his body at Sebaste, near present-day Nablus on the West Bank, but Herodias took his head and buried it in a dung heap. Later, Saint Joanna, the wife of one of Herod’s stewards, secretly recovered the head and buried it on the Mount of Olives, where it remained hidden for centuries. In the fourth century, a monk named Innocent is said to have found the buried head, but hid it again.

Over a century later, in the year 452 CE, when Constantine the Great was Emperor, two monks in Jerusalem on a pilgrimage claimed to have found the head once again, but it fell into the hands of an Arian monk, Eustathius. Eventually, Archimandrite Marcellus brought the head to Emesa in Phoenicia.

Yet other traditions say Herodias had the head buried in Herod’s fortress at Machaerus or in Herod’s palace in Jerusalem. It was found during the reign of Constantine and secretly taken to Emesa, where it was hidden until it was found once again in 453.

From Emesa, the head was brought to Constantinople. Although it was moved to Cappadocia in the early ninth century during the iconoclastic persecution, it was returned later to Constantinople.

According to another tradition, the body of Saint John the Baptist remained in Sebaste. However, his shrine was desecrated under Julian the Apostate ca 362. A portion of the rescued relics was brought first to Jerusalem and then to Alexandria in 395. Today, the former tomb in Nablus is at the Nabi Yahya Mosque or Saint John the Baptist Mosque.

Nowadays, several places claim to have the severed head of Saint John the Baptist, including the Church of San Silvestro in Capite in Rome, Amiens Cathedral in France, Antioch in Turkey, the Romanian skete of Saint John Prodromos (Saint John the Baptist) on Mount Athos in Greece, and the former Basilica of Saint John the Baptist in Damascus. Because of the traditions relating the head to the Syrian capital, many Muslims believe that Christ’s second coming will take place in Damascus.

In Egypt, when I visited the Coptic Orthodox Monastery of Saint Macarius the Great at Wadi el-Natrun, about 100 km north-west of Cairo, in the Desert of Sceits, Father Irenaeus, a monk in the monastery, showed me the relics of Saint John the Baptist in the crypt of the main church in the monastery.

The Church of Saint Macarius was restored in recent decades at the request of the late Pope Shenouda III. We were told that during the restoration of the church, the monks unearthed the crypt of Saint John the Baptist and the crypt of the Prophet Elisha below the northern wall . The relics were then gathered into a special reliquary and placed before the sanctuary of Saint John the Baptist in the Church of Saint Macarius.

The monastery has spiritual, academic and fraternal links with several monasteries outside Egypt, including Chevetogne in Belgium, Solesmes Abbey and the Monastery of the Transfiguration in France, Deir el-Harf in Lebanon and the Community of the Sisters of the Love of God at the Convent of the Incarnation at Fairacres in Oxford.

Each day, the monastery receives large numbers of Egyptian and foreign visitors, sometimes as many as 1,000 people a day. The monks give special priority to priests, full-time lay workers and Sunday school teachers as visitors, and during the summer holidays, the monastery offers many young people opportunities to spend a few days on retreat, with spiritual direction and guidance.

The monastery is playing a significant role in the spiritual awakening of the Coptic Church. ‘We receive all our visitors, no matter what their religious conviction, with joy, warmth and graciousness, not out of a mistaken optimism, but in genuine and sincere love for each person,’ says the monastery website.

In his book, Church and State, one of the monks, Father Matta el-Meskeen, declares that politics should be entirely separated from religion. ‘Give therefore to emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s’ (Matthew 22: 21). In other writings, such as Sectarianism and Extremism, Father Matta warns against the common tendency of minorities to be wrapped up in themselves and to despise others.

The monks say they live out fully the unity of the Church in spirit and in truth, ‘in anticipation of its visible attainment ecclesiastically. Through our genuine openness of heart and spirit to all men, no matter what their confession, it has become possible for us to see ourselves, or rather Christ, in others. For us, Christian unity is to live together in Christ by love. Then divisions collapse and differences disappear, and there is only the One Christ who gathers us all into his holy person.’

And they add: ‘It is our hope that the desert of Scetis will become once more the birth place of good will, reconciliation and unity between all the peoples on earth in Christ Jesus.’

These monks are an example to us all. Meanwhile, in my prayers this morning I am thinking of those places associated with Saint John the Baptist in the Middle East, including Israel, the West Bank and Gaza, and Egypt, Syria and Turkey. The people there must be in our prayers this morning, including the victims of war and violence, the people starving in a famine that has created through political and military policies, the missing hostages, children and families being forced to move constantly and in terror, the maimed and the dying, whole communities that have been traumatised, the suffering minorities in the region.

I pray this morning that integrity, morality and honour may triumph over arrogance, vengeance and the tyrannical abuse of power, and pray too for an end to the killing of people at the behest of those with too much power and too many weapons.

The beheading of Saint John the Baptist … a fresco in Analipsi Church or the Church of the Ascension in Georgioupoli, Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Saturday 1 August 2026):

In Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), the theme this week, from 26 July to 1 August 2026 (pp 22-23), is ‘Lives in Transit’. This theme was introduced last Sunday with a programme update by Rachel Weller, Communications Officer, USPG.

The USPG prayer diary today (Saturday 1 August 2026) invites us to pray:

Lord God, we pray for USPG and all church partners engaged in eradicating human trafficking and abolishing modern slavery. Guide their advocacy, deepen their compassion, and strengthen their efforts to bring justice, protection, and freedom.

The Collect of the Day:

Almighty Lord and everlasting God,
we beseech you to direct, sanctify and govern
both our hearts and bodies
in the ways of your laws
and the works of your commandments;
that through your most mighty protection, both here and ever,
we may be preserved in body and soul;
through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post Communion Prayer:

Strengthen for service, Lord,
the hands that have taken holy things;
may the ears which have heard your word
be deaf to clamour and dispute;
may the tongues which have sung your praise be free from deceit;
may the eyes which have seen the tokens of your love
shine with the light of hope;
and may the bodies which have been fed with your body
be refreshed with the fullness of your life;
glory to you for ever.

Additional Collect:

Lord God,
your Son left the riches of heaven
and became poor for our sake:
when we prosper save us from pride,
when we are needy save us from despair,
that we may trust in you alone;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Collect on the Eve of Trinity IX:

Almighty God,
who sent your Holy Spirit
to be the life and light of your Church:
open our hearts to the riches of your grace,
that we may bring forth the fruit of the Spirit
in love and joy and peace;
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.

Yesterday’s reflections

Continued tomorrow

An icon of Saint John the Baptist in a small chapel in Georgioupoli 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