Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2026: 88, Monday 3 August 2026

‘He made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead to the other side’ (Matthew 14: 22) … a fishing boat on the Sarawak River in Kuching (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Patrick Comerford

We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar and the week began with the Ninth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity IX, 2 August 2026).

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.

Punters on the Backs and the River Cam behind King’s College, Cambridge (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Matthew 14: 22-36 (NRSVA):

22 Immediately he made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds. 23 And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone, 24 but by this time the boat, battered by the waves, was far from the land, for the wind was against them. 25 And early in the morning he came walking towards them on the lake. 26 But when the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified, saying, ‘It is a ghost!’ And they cried out in fear. 27 But immediately Jesus spoke to them and said, ‘Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid.’

28 Peter answered him, ‘Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.’ 29 He said, ‘Come.’ So Peter got out of the boat, started walking on the water, and came towards Jesus. 30 But when he noticed the strong wind, he became frightened, and beginning to sink, he cried out, ‘Lord, save me!’ 31 Jesus immediately reached out his hand and caught him, saying to him, ‘You of little faith, why did you doubt?’ 32 When they got into the boat, the wind ceased. 33 And those in the boat worshipped him, saying, ‘Truly you are the Son of God.’

34 When they had crossed over, they came to land at Gennesaret. 35 After the people of that place recognized him, they sent word throughout the region and brought all who were sick to him, 36 and begged him that they might touch even the fringe of his cloak; and all who touched it were healed.

Boats at Salter’s by Folly Bridge in Oxford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Today’s Reflections

In last year or two, I have enjoyed being on boats in Sarawak and Singapore, barge trips on the Grand Union Canal, and watching rowers and boats in York, on the Backs in Cambridge, on the river in Oxford and in York. I even had the pleasure many years ago of one college boat club in Cambridge asking to use one of my photographs in a fundraising drive.

It is almost 60 years since I first went rowing as a teenager on Lough Ramor in Virginia. But I had long thought that I would be left regretting that I had taken up courses in Cambridge when I was too late in life to learn, or to re-learn, how to row.

I had come to enjoy rowing as a sport and an activity, but in a very passive way.

Then, shortly after I arrived in Askeaton in 2017, one evening, as I was standing at a slipway by the banks of the Rover Deel, I was invited suddenly and unexpectedly to get into a boat and to row.

I was fearless. It was a pleasure I had often hoped for and wished for. And for almost an hour, we rowed upstream, under the bridge at Askeaton, and as far as the castle, and then downstream past the factory, although not as far as the estuary. When I suggested that I might be too old to learn, or re-learn, how to row, I was told brusquely and with humour that once I stopped learning I had stopped living.

Later that same week, I watched children and teenagers hop in and out of boats, freely and fearlessly, confident of their own ability and the ability of those who were training them.

Fearlessly. But as I was messing about on boats in Crete some weeks earlier, hopping on and off them in the sun as I visited smaller islands and lagoons, I thought of how this was a pleasure that I was paying for and wondered but how many refugees were full of fear as they boarded boats in the dark trying to arrive on Greek islands, having paid exorbitantly for the risk and the dangers.

Fearlessly. What are your worst fears?

I know, at present, many of us have fears arising out of the wars between Russia and Ukraine, the wars involving the US in Iran and the Gulf, Israel in Gaza and Lebanon, and the global insecurity created by the mercurial decision-making by the Trump regime.

As we grow up and mature, we tend to have fewer fears of the outside world, and as adults we begin to cope with the fears we once had as children, by turning threats into opportunities.

The fears I had as a child – of snakes, of the wind, of storms at sea, of lightning – are no longer the stuff of recurring nightmares they were as a child. I have learned to be cautious, to be sensible and to keep my distance, and to be in awe of God’s creation.

But most of us have recurring dreams that are vivid and that have themes that keep repeating themselves. They fall into a number of genres, and most psychotherapists identify a number of these types of dreams that most of us deal with in our sleep at various stages in adult life.

They include dreams about:

• Drowning.

• Finding myself unprepared for a major function or event, whether it is social or work-related.

• Flying or floating in the air, but then falling suddenly.

• Being caught naked in public.

• Missing a train, a bus or a plane.

• Caught in loos or lifts that do not work, or that overwork themselves.

• Calling out in a crowd but failing to vocalise my scream or not being heard in the crowd or recognised.

• Falling, falling into an abyss.

There are others. But in sleep the brain can act as a filter or filing cabinet, helping us to process, deal with and put aside what we have found difficult to understand in our waking hours, or to try to find ways of dealing with our lack of confidence, feelings of inadequacy, with the ways we confuse gaining attention with receiving love, or with our needs to be accepted, affirmed and loved.

There are two choices in the lectionary for Gospel readings at the Eucharist today: Matthew 14: 13-21, or Matthew 14: 22-36. The first choice was also the Gospel reading yesterday.

In this second, alternative Gospel reading (Matthew 14: 22-36), Saint Peter’s plight seems to be a working out of a constant, recurring, vivid dream of the type that many of us experience at some stage: the feelings of drowning, floating and falling suddenly, being in a crowd and yet alone, calling out and not being heard, or not being recognised for who we are.

Peter sees Christ walking on the lake or floating effortlessly above the water. At first, he thinks he is seeing a ghost. But then Christ calls to him, and Saint Peter responds.

Once he recognises Christ, Saint Peter gets out of the boat, starts walking on the water, and comes towards Christ. But he loses his confidence when he notices the strong wind, he is frightened, and he begins to sink.

He cries out: ‘Lord, save me.’ Christ immediately reaches out his hand and catches him, saying to him, ‘You of little faith, why did you doubt?’

They get back into the boat, the wind ceases. And those in the boat worship him, saying, ‘Truly you are the Son of God.’

Was the sight of Christ walking on the water an illusion?

Was Peter’s idea that he could walk on the water the product of an over-worked mind while he was sleeping?

Did he realise he was unprepared for the great encounter?

Did the wind cease when he woke from the dream?

All of these questions are over-analytical and fail to deal with the real encounter that takes place.

Even before the Resurrection, in his frailty, in his weakness, in his humble humanity, Saint Peter calls out to Christ: ‘Lord, save me’ (verse 30).

Do the others in the boat fall down at Christ’s feet and worship him because he can walk on water? Because he can lift a drowning man out of the depths? Or because they recognise that in Christ they can find the end to all their worst dreams and nightmares?

Despite the heatwaves we have been experiencing this summer, we know too, as they say, to expect the unexpected when we are on water, whether it is a river or a canal, a lake or at sea. Everyone needs to know that the weather can turn, the waters can become choppy, and this can be a frightening experience, even on rivers, close to the river bank and close to firm land.

As seasoned boat-handlers, the Disciples know not to try walking on water. They know the risk of sudden storms and swells, and they know the safety of a good boat, as long as it has a good crew.

But since the early history of the Church, the boat has symbolised the Church.

The bark (barque or barchetta) symbolises the Church tossed on the sea of disbelief, worldliness, and persecution but finally reaching safe harbour. Part of the imagery comes from the ark saving Noah’s family during the Flood (I Peter 3: 20-21). Christ protects Peter’s boat and the Disciples on the stormy Sea of Galilee (see also Mark 6: 45-52; John 6 16-21). The mast forms the shape of the Cross.

It is an image that appears in Apostolic Constitutions and the writings of Tertullian and Clement of Alexandria. We still retain the word nave for the main part of the church, which, architecturally often looks like an up-turned boat.

So, I do would not want any of us to risk walking on water, or to play stupidly in boats on the river or on a lake, and certainly not off the coast or out to see.

But if we are to dream dreams for our parishes, for the Church, for the Kingdom of God, we need to be aware that it comes at the risk of feeling our dreams may be the nightmares of others.

If we are going to dream dreams for our parishes, for the Church, for the Kingdom of God, we may need to step out of our safety zones, our comfort zones, and know that this comes with a risk warning.

And if we are going to dream dreams for our parishes, for the Church, for the Kingdom of God, we need to keep our eyes focussed on Christ, and to know that the Church is there to bring us on that journey.

Let us dream dreams, take risks for the Kingdom of God, step outside the box. But let us keep our eyes on Christ and remember that the boat, the Church, is essential for our journey, and let us continue to worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness.

An icon of the Church as a boat, including Christ, the Apostles and the Church Fathers (Icon: Deacon Matthew Garrett, www.holy-icons.com)

Today’s Prayers (Monday 3 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 (2-8 August 2026, pp 24-25), is ‘Faith Under Pressure in Nicaragua’. This theme was introduced yesterday 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.

The USPG prayer diary today (Monday 3 August 2026) invites us to pray:

Lord, strengthen your Church in Nicaragua as it faces fear and persecution. Grant courage and protection to all who continue to witness to your truth.

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

Learning, or re-learning, how to row on the River Deel at Askeaton, Co Limerick

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

Daily prayer in Easter 2026: 22, Sunday 26 April 2026

Christ as the Good Shepherd … a window in Saint Ailbe’s Church in Emly, Co Tipperary (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

Easter is a 50-day season, beginning on Easter Day (5 April 2026) and continuing until the Day of Pentecost (24 May 2026), or Whit Sunday. Today is the Fourth Sunday of Easter (Easter IV, 26 April 2026), sometimes known as ‘Good Shepherd Sunday’.

Later this morning, I hope to sing with the choir at the Parish Eucharist in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford. 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, reading 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.

Christ the Good Shepherd, with the Virgin Mary and Saint John the Baptist on each side … a stained-glass window in Saint Mary’s Church, Lichfield. The words below Christ read ‘Pastor Bonus’ … ‘The Good Shepherd’; the words on Saint John's scroll read ‘Ecce Agnus Dei’ … ‘This is the Lamb of God’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

John 10: 1-10 (NRSVA):

[Jesus said:] 1 ‘Very truly, I tell you, anyone who does not enter the sheepfold by the gate but climbs in by another way is a thief and a bandit. 2 The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. 3 The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep hear his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 When he has brought out all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. 5 They will not follow a stranger, but they will run from him because they do not know the voice of strangers.’ 6 Jesus used this figure of speech with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them.

7 So again Jesus said to them, ‘Very truly, I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. 8 All who came before me are thieves and bandits; but the sheep did not listen to them. 9 I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture. 10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.’

Sheep at the Balancing Lakes in Wolverton (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflection:

The Gospel reading today (John 10: 1-10) on the theme of the Good Shepherd, is opening part-of the ‘Good Shepherd Discourse’ in Saint John’s Gospel (John 10: 1-42).

When I was a child on my grandmother’s farm at Cappoquin in West Waterford, all the summer days, it seems, were filled with sunshine, and there was endless time to go fishing in the brooks, and walking through the meadows.

But there were two tasks I hated. One was trying to milk the cows: inevitably, I ended up covered in something more odious than milk – and I never even liked the smell of milk, anyway.

The other task was one that came around, it seemed, every time I was around – the great sheep dip. My city friends and cousins joked at the time about television ads about liver fluke and sheep dipping. But I knew all about it – and it was no joking matter.

Sheep are easy to call together – that was not the problem – and no, I did not have to milk them. But the smell of the sheep dip was only surpassed by the smells I associate with milking the cows. It was pungent … and there was always some fresh-faced younger uncle who thought it funny, seeing my face, to ensure that I ended up in the dipping area too.

So, when Jesus says he is the Good Shepherd and the Gate for the sheep, he has no romantic city delusions.

I imagine that the Good Shepherd is one of the most popular images for stained glass windows in churches. But we portray him dressed in dry-cleaned or freshly-laundered and pressed red and white clothes, when everyone knows that it is impractical for any shepherd to dress like that.

He has a cuddly, white lamb draped around his shoulders, when any shepherd knows that a lamb that needs to be rescued is only that is likely to be covered in briars and brambles, cut and dirty, lost and bewildered and frightened.

At this time of the year, we have moved beyond lambing time, and the little ones are beginning to grow although still suckling.

I remember hearing many year ago on Achill Island about a man who died when he climbed down a cliff face in search of sheep that had strayed. He lost his footing and fell to the sea below. It was a risky undertaking, and he paid the price. And someone commented on the low price sheep were fetching marts at the time. The lost sheep worked their way back up the cliff face, in any case, but they were not worth it.

Shepherding has seldom been a good career move. It is not on the list of most guidance teachers or careers advisers.

That is why the Christmas story is so shocking to those who first heard about it.

Sheep were cheap meat, and the shepherds were easy prey – to wolves, to hyenas, to thieves and to sheep rustlers. Sheep provided wool, meat, milk, cheese and yoghurt. Yet, shepherds were cheap to hire, and they did a lowly job. They were exposed to unprotected heat in the day, and to the bitter cold at night.

Christ is humbling himself when he calls himself the Good Shepherd.

The Prophet Ezekiel compared the well-off politicians and rulers of his day with negligent, impoverished shepherds: ‘My sheep were scattered, they wandered over all the mountains and on every high hill; my sheep were scattered over all the face of the earth, with no one to search or seek for them’ (Ezekiel 34: 6).

And Ezekiel, of course, is reminding the people that they too were once like lost sheep. They had wandered like lost sheep in the wilderness.

Everyone expected the Messiah to be a king, but kings were not good role models. No-one expected the Messiah to be a shepherd, and so it is shocking when the shepherd boy David is chosen to be king, and shocking when Jesus compares himself not with kings but with shepherds.

This is costly leadership. This is leadership that allows itself to be vulnerable, to be a potentially victimised.

When Christ becomes the good shepherd, he becomes vulnerable and compassionate, and he expresses his compassion for the lost sheep in going to meet them where they are, in their towns and villages, teaching them, bringing them the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness.

Yes, the one who is hailed by Saint John the Baptist as the Lamb of God (John 1: 35), becomes the Good Shepherd. And the God Shepherd becomes the Lamb of God.

Christ calls us to turn our values upside down, not for the fun of it, but out of compassion for the vulnerable and the lost, those who have fallen by the wayside, those everyone else thinks are not worth the risk of going after.

Who are the lost sheep for you this morning?

Who do you think Christ is foolhardy in going after?

Will we follow him to find them?

Will they be welcome back in through the gate?

Christ is risen!
The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia!

Sheep on a small holding near the beach in Platanias, east of Rethymnon in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Sunday 26 April 2026, Easter IV):

‘Prayer and Action in Pakistan’ provides the theme this week (26 April to 2 May 2026) in ‘Pray With the World Church’, the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), pp 50-51. This theme is introduced today with Reflections from the Revd Davidson Solanki, Senior Regional Manager for Asia and the Middle East:

The Church of Pakistan, founded in 1970 through the merger of Anglican, Methodist, Lutheran, and Presbyterian churches, unites worship, service, and faith. Comprising eight dioceses and governed by a synod of bishops and clergy, the Church focuses on evangelism, education, healthcare, social development, youth and women’s empowerment, and climate action. It provides disaster relief and champions human rights, a mission made urgent by the recent devastating floods.

Since the start of the monsoon in June 2025, severe flooding has torn through multiple provinces, with Punjab particularly hard hit. The Ravi, Sutlej, and Chenab Rivers have burst their banks, marking the largest flood in Punjab’s history and the first time all three rivers have carried such high-water levels simultaneously. Evacuations in Punjab alone exceeded 1.2 million people, and more than 3.3 million are affected across the east, with over 3,300 villages and towns inundated.

Within the Church, dioceses including Raiwind, Lahore, Sialkot, Faisalabad, and Multan have suffered significant damage. Many people have lost homes, crops, and livelihoods, and rural churches require urgent repair. Christians have been particularly affected, raising concerns that their plight may be overlooked in broader relief efforts.

In response, the Church continues to call on the faithful to offer ‘prayer and action’ for those most vulnerable. The Diocese of Raiwind is mobilising parish networks to provide food, clean water, and other essential support, helping communities cope with the immediate impact of the floods and prevent disease. Working alongside USPG and other partners, these efforts aim not only to assist Christians but also to support Muslim neighbours, building solidarity and demonstrating Christ’s love in action.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Sunday 26 April 2026, Easter IV) invites us to pray by reading and meditating on today’s Gospel reading: John 10:1-10.

The Collect:

Almighty God,
whose Son Jesus Christ is the resurrection and the life:
raise us, who trust in him,
from the death of sin to the life of righteousness,
that we may seek those things which are above,
where he reigns with you
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

Merciful Father,
you gave your Son Jesus Christ to be the good shepherd,
and in his love for us to lay down his life and rise again:
keep us always under his protection,
and give us grace to follow in his steps;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

Risen Christ,
faithful shepherd of your Father’s sheep:
teach us to hear your voice
and to follow your command,
that all your people may be gathered into one flock,
to the glory of God the Father.

Yesterday’s Reflections

Continued Tomorrow

The Good Shepherd … the Hewson Memorial Window in Saint Mary’s Church, Askeaton, Co Limerick (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

Daily prayer in Lent 2026: 27, Monday 16 March 2026

Capernaum … with the synagogue on the left and the domes of the Greek Orthodox church in the background

Patrick Comerford

This week began with the Fourth Sunday in Lent (Lent IV, 15 March 2026) and Mothering Sunday. I have a hospital appointment later this morning for an echocardiogram, a non-invasive, ultrasound scan that uses sound waves to create live, moving images of the heart’s chambers, valves, and surrounding vessels. It assesses heart function, blood flow, and structure, and takes 30-60 minutes to diagnose issues such as heart failure, valve disease, and damage from heart attacks.

Meanwhile, 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, reading 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.

The Greek Orthodox Church in Capernaum on the shores of the Sea of Galilee, with the Golan Heights in the distance

John 4: 43-54 (NRSVA):

43 When the two days were over, he went from that place to Galilee 44 (for Jesus himself had testified that a prophet has no honour in the prophet’s own country). 45 When he came to Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him, since they had seen all that he had done in Jerusalem at the festival; for they too had gone to the festival.

46 Then he came again to Cana in Galilee where he had changed the water into wine. Now there was a royal official whose son lay ill in Capernaum. 47 When he heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went and begged him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death. 48 Then Jesus said to him, ‘Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe.’ 49 The official said to him, ‘Sir, come down before my little boy dies.’ 50 Jesus said to him, ‘Go; your son will live.’ The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and started on his way. 51 As he was going down, his slaves met him and told him that his child was alive. 52 So he asked them the hour when he began to recover, and they said to him, ‘Yesterday at one in the afternoon the fever left him.’ 53 The father realized that this was the hour when Jesus had said to him, ‘Your son will live.’ So he himself believed, along with his whole household. 54 Now this was the second sign that Jesus did after coming from Judea to Galilee.

‘Ecce Signum’, Sean Lynch’s work on a gable end in East Square, Askeaton, Co Limerick … the healing in John 4 is the second of the seven signs (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflections:

The Dominican author and theologian, Cardinal Timothy Radcliffe, points out that that in the Bible, seven is the number of perfection. We know of the six days of creation and how God rested on the seventh. In Saint John’s Gospel, we have seven signs and seven ‘I AM’ sayings disclosing s who Jesus truly is.

In the Gospel reading at the Eucharist today (John 4: 43-54), we have two separate incidents that run together in Saint John’s Gospel: the return of Jesus to Galilee, and the second of the seven signs in the Fourth Gospel.

The first part of this reading (verses 43-45), recalling the return to Galilee, is a bridge passage, a link between two stories of encounters Jesus has with key non-Jewish figures – the Samaritan woman and the villagers of Sychar (see John 4: 1-42) and the royal official from Capernaum (verses 43-54). So with Nicodemus, the woman at the well, and the royal official, we have three key personalities, one Jewish, one Samaritan, and one Gentile.

In between the Samaritans and the Gentiles, Jesus continues on his journey from Jerusalem to Galilee, on the third day he arrives in Cana. So already, we are being prepared to hear about a story of life and death and new life.

We can find a link here between this story and the incident in Saint Luke’s Gospel (Luke 4: 14-21), when Jesus tells us that a prophet is without honour in his own country, and yet he appears at first to be received with honour in Galilee, as he was first received in the synagogues in Galilee when he returned from Jerusalem, according to Saint Luke (see Luke 4: 15).

Jesus says ‘a prophet has no honour in his own country’ (verse 44). But if Jesus believed that he would have no honour in ‘his own country’, why does John tell us that the Galileans ‘welcomed’ him? This same proverb is found in Matthew 13: 57, Mark 6: 4, and Luke 4: 24.

When Jesus comes to Nazareth and teaches in the synagogue, some local people who were there had probably been in Jerusalem when he had performed signs (see John 2: 23; 4: 45). If they had not been in Jerusalem, they would have heard about some of his miracles there. When Jesus arrives in his ‘hometown’, there must have been high expectations. Yet, some people start to ask questions. He may be a popular person and have a growing following. But Nazareth is his hometown, they all know all about him. And so, Jesus performs few miracles there.

He has returned to Galilee, to his ‘own country’ (verse 45), where a prophet is without honour. But when Jesus arrives in Galilee, the people there ‘welcome him’. From what we have seen in Matthew’s account of his arrival at Nazareth, we see virtually the same phenomena. Jesus returns to his ‘hometown’ and receives an initially warm welcome.

The people are aware of the miracles he performed in Jerusalem and now hope to see many more in their own town. But as they reflect on his origins and family background, they find they are not so sure. Has he come to bless the Gentiles as well as the Jews? What seems to start off well ends up in a very disappointing way, both for Christ and for those from his ‘hometown’.

A short-lived, superficial acceptance of Christ is not the same as an informed, long-term commitment. Although the Galileans initially welcomed Christ, this does not mean that they truly accept him as Messiah. His visit home is disappointing because, although he is initially welcomed, he is not truly honoured.

And yet this interlude also tells us that Christ came as the Saviour of Jews (these three verses), of Samaritans (the previous story), and of Gentiles (the next story) … in other words, of all people, and that he is the Saviour of the whole world.

On a first reading, the story about the healing of the royal official’s son in verses 46-54 seems similar to that of the healing of the centurion’s servant or slave (Matthew 8: 5-13; Luke 7: 2-10). But, despite the similarities, there are many differences. They can be summarised:

• The centurion was a Gentile; the royal official was probably a Gentile, although we are not told so – there is a possibility that he was Jewish.

• The centurion’s servant suffered from a paralysis; the royal official’s son was ill with a fever.

• The centurion lives in Capernaum; the royal official lives in Cana.

• The centurion’s faith is praised by Christ; the royal official and others are rebuked for a deficient faith.

• The centurion urges Jesus not to come, but only to speak the word; the royal official urges Jesus to come.

• The Centurion asks Jewish elders to plead his case; the royal official pleads personally with Jesus.

And so the story of Christ healing the royal official’s son is unique to the Fourth Gospel, as is most of the material in Saint John’s Gospel.

Jesus returns to Cana of Galilee (verse 46), where he turned water into wine at a wedding (John 2: 1-11). The NRSV translates βασιλικός (basilikós) as royal official, although other versions call him a ‘nobleman’. He was probably a servant of Herod, the Tetrarch of Galilee, who is referred to as a king in the New Testament (see Matthew 14: 9; Mark 6: 14, 22).

Capernaum was a border town, and it was there that this royal official heard that Jesus is back in Cana once again. The official’s son is at the point of death and this father is desperate. Jesus is now his last and only hope to save his son. He makes the 30 km journey to Cana to find Jesus, and there he begs him to return with him to Capernaum immediately and to heal his dying son.

At first reading, Christ’s response to the royal official appears disturbing: Then Jesus said to him, ‘Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe.’ The NRSV in a footnote, and other translations, point out that the ‘you’ in verse 48 is plural, and not singular. Therefore, Jesus is speaking to a larger audience and not to, or not just to the royal official.

At first reading, as with the story of the Syro-Phoenician woman in Saint Mark’s Gospel (Mark 7: 24-30), who asks for healing for her daughter, Jesus appears to be caught with his compassion down. But back in Galilee, where a prophet is without honour among his own people, Jesus is not going to rush into performing a miracle to entertain the crowd and to draw attention to himself.

His words of rebuke may be in the hope of dispersing the crowd. He chides them for being interested only in his miracles and not taking to heart what the signs point to.

Certainly the official does not interpret these words as a personal rebuke. For he asks – perhaps even tells – Jesus to come back with him (verse 49).

Perhaps the crowds have left by now. Jesus’ next words are to tell the man: ‘Go; your son will live’ (verse 50). If the crowd has stayed around, these words would have sounded as though they were only intended to get rid of this persistent father, not as words of assurance. He probably headed back home on his own to Capernaum. The crowd disperses, the sign-seekers go away disappointed.

From this story, it appears that the royal official believes – but only to a degree, and not fully. The royal official did not get what we wanted. Jesus did not go back to Capernaum with him. He probably headed home wondering what was happening to his son (verses 51-52).

The man’s belief only comes to full fruition in verse 53, later that evening or perhaps a day later, when he hears that his son was healed at the time Jesus spoke to him. The father now knows he has witnessed a miracle, and he believes, along with his entire household. But this new belief in verse 53 is more informed than the belief in verse 50. It is now a belief in Jesus as the Messiah, as the Saviour of the world.

This is the second sign in Saint John’s Gospel (verse 54). The first sign was at Cana, when Jesus turned the water into wine on the third day, but when most of the guests at the wedding never knew what had happened. It was a ‘sign’ seen only by a few, but it results in the faith of the disciples (see John 2: 1-12).

So too with the second sign, also on the third day. The royal official’s son is healed not in front of the gaping crowd, not even in front of the official’s household. Christ performs this miracle in such a way that only the royal official knows it is a miracle. But when he explained this miracle to his servants, they too become members of the household of faith.

‘He came again to Cana in Galilee where he had changed the water into wine’ (John 4: 46) … an icon in the Lady Chapel in Lichfield Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Monday 16 March 2026):

The theme this week (15-21 March 2026) in ‘Pray With the World Church,’ the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘Lament and Hope’ (pp 38-39). This theme was introduced yesterday with a programme update by Kennedy Jones, Church Engagement and Fundraising Officer, USPG.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Monday 16 March 2026) invites us to pray:

We pray for all those still affected by the legacy of slavery and racial injustice. May God guide us to recognise the harm done and to work for reconciliation and healing.

The Collect:

Merciful Lord,
absolve your people from their offences,
that through your bountiful goodness
we may all be delivered from the chains of those sins
which by our frailty we have committed;
grant this, heavenly Father,
for Jesus Christ’s sake, our blessed Lord and Saviour,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post Communion Prayer:

Lord God,
whose blessed Son our Saviour
gave his back to the smiters
and did not hide his face from shame:
give us grace to endure the sufferings of this present time
with sure confidence in the glory that shall be revealed;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

Merciful Lord,
you know our struggle to serve you:
when sin spoils our lives
and overshadows our hearts,
come to our aid
and turn us back to you again;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s Reflections

Continued Tomorrow

‘Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe’ (John 4: 48) … signs and wonders on the High Street in Little Walsingham, Norfolk (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

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

Daily prayer in Advent 2025: 10, Tuesday 9 December 2025

‘If a shepherd has a hundred sheep … does he not … go in search of the one that went astray?’ (Matthew 18: 12) … Christ as the Good Shepherd in the Mausoleum of Galla Placidia, Ravenna (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are in the Season of Advent and the week began with the Second Sunday of Advent (Advent II, 7 December 2025). Later this afternoon, I am speaking to Wolverton and District Archaeological Society in Stony Stratford Library on the work of the architect Edward Swinfen Harris.

Before today day 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.

Christ the Good Shepherd (see Matthew 18: 12-14) … a window in Christ Church, Leamonsley, Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Matthew 18: 12-14 (NRSVA):

Jesus said: 12 ‘What do you think? If a shepherd has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go in search of the one that went astray? 13 And if he finds it, truly I tell you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine that never went astray. 14 So it is not the will of your Father in heaven that one of these little ones should be lost.’

Sheep grazing by the Balancing Lakes near Wolverton Mill last week (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Today’s Reflections:

In my experience, most people warm to the Gospel readings in which Christ is depicted as the model of pastoral care as the Good Shepherd. It iss a popular image, filling stained-glass windows in churches of every tradition, surpassed in popularity only by windows showing the Crucifixion or the Last Supper.

But sometimes I have problems with our cosy, comfortable image of the Good Shepherd. Christ is so often portrayed in clean, spick-and-span, neatly tailored, nicely dry-cleaned, red and white robes, complete with a golden clasp to hold all those robes together.

And the lost sheep is one-in-a-hundred, a huggy, lovable, white fluffy Little Lamb, a little pet, no different from the Little Lamb that Mary had in the nursery rhyme and that followed her to school.

But shepherds and sheep, in real life, are not like that.

I remember once, on Achill Island, hearing about a shepherd who went down a rock-face looking for a lost sheep, and who lost his life. Local people were shocked – lambs don’t fetch a price in the mart that makes them worth losing your life for.

The sheep survived. But as you can imagine, in the process of being lost, it had been torn by brambles, had lost a lot of its wool, was bleeding and messy. Any shepherd going down after a lost sheep will get torn by brambles too, covered in sheep droppings, slip on the rocks, risk his life.

And all for what?

And yet Jesus compares himself the Good Shepherd who seeks out the lost sheep, in the face of great risks from wolves and from the terrain, and against all common wisdom, as the hired hands would know.

Christ, against all the prevailing wisdom, identifies with those who are lost, those who are socially on the margins, who are smelly and dirty, injured and broken, regarded by everyone else as worthless, as simply not worth the bother.

God sees us – all of us – in our human condition, with all our collective and individual faults and failings, and in Christ totally identifies with us.

And how should we respond to that?

Christ the Good Shepherd … a window in Saint John’s Church, Wall, near Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Tuesday 9 December 2025):

The theme this week (7 to 13 December 2025) in Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘Divine Sufficiency’ (pp 8-9). This theme was introduced on Sunday with Reflections from the Revd Neli Miranda, Vicar at Saint James the Apostle in Guatemala City and Professor of Theology at the University Mariano Gálvez of Guatemala.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Tuesday 9 December 2025) invites us to pray:

We pray for the daily resilience of believers and for all Christians living in Guatemala. May the Spirit strengthen, correct and equip all who believe in order that Christ’s glory may be known.

The Collect:

O Lord, raise up, we pray, your power
and come among us,
and with great might succour us;
that whereas, through our sins and wickedness
we are grievously hindered
in running the race that is set before us,
your bountiful grace and mercy
may speedily help and deliver us;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
to whom with you and the Holy Spirit,
be honour and glory, now and for ever.

The Post Communion Prayer:

Father in heaven,
who sent your Son to redeem the world
and will send him again to be our judge:
give us grace so to imitate him
in the humility and purity of his first coming
that, when he comes again,
we may be ready to greet him
with joyful love and firm faith;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect

Almighty God,
purify our hearts and minds, that when your Son Jesus Christ comes again
as judge and saviour
we may be ready to receive him,
who is our Lord and our God.

Yesterday’s Reflections

Continued Tomorrow

Christ the Good Shepherd … the Hewson Memorial Window in Saint Mary’s Church, Askeaton, Co Limerick (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

Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2025: 145, Saturday 4 October 2025, Saint Francis of Assisi

A sculpture at Gormanston College, Co Meath, marking the 800th anniversary of the birth of Saint Francis of Assisi in 1982 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar, and tomorrow is the Sixteenth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity XVI, 5 October). Today, the calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship remembers (1182-1226), Friar, Deacon and founder of the Friars Minor (4 October).

Today is also the last day of Creationtide or the Season of Creation in the Church Calendar, which began on 1 September, the beginning of the Church Year in the Orthodox Church, and ends today on the feast of Saint Francis of Assisi.

Later today, I plan to drop in to Το Στεκι Μας (‘Our Place’), the ‘pop-up’ Greek Café at the Swinfen Harris Church Hall, beside the Greek Orthodox Church on London Road, Stony Stratford. This café opens every first Saturday of the month, between 10:30 am and 5 pm. Before today begins, however, 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 reflection on the Gospel reading;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

4, the Collects and Post-Communion prayer of the day.

A mediaeval carved statue of Saint Francis of Assisi in the ruins of the Franciscan Friary in Askeaton, Co Limerick (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Luke 12: 22-34 (NRSVA):

22 He said to his disciples, ‘Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat, or about your body, what you will wear. 23 For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing. 24 Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds! 25 And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? 26 If then you are not able to do so small a thing as that, why do you worry about the rest? 27 Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. 28 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you – you of little faith! 29 And do not keep striving for what you are to eat and what you are to drink, and do not keep worrying. 30 For it is the nations of the world that strive after all these things, and your Father knows that you need them. 31 Instead, strive for his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well.

32 ‘Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. 33 Sell your possessions, and give alms. Make purses for yourselves that do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. 34 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.’

The former Saint Francis Church … once the most important church in the Venetian town and now the Archaeological Museum of Rethymnon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Today’s Reflection:

A year ago, I was with former schoolfriends, celebrating 55 years since we left school at Gormanston College in Co Meath. Over 30 or more 70-somethings gathered together for a long and lingering lunch in Peploe’s restaurant at Saint Stephen’s Green, Dublin, at a lunch organised mainly by Frank Hunt and Russell Shannon.

We had last gathered for a previous lunch like that five years earlier, in 2019, when we marked 50 years since leaving Gormanston. There were sad but grateful memories last year of those who could not join us for lunch, and we remembered those we know who died in the previous year, including John McCarthy and Tom Lappin.

Since then, Father Louis Brennan, a former Rector of Gormanston and the most inspirational and encouraging teacher I had in my schooldays, has also died.

That afternoon was also filled with memories of what were largely happy school days, and how well we were prepared to go out into the world. Some of us also remembered, with gratitude, the Franciscan values that were shared with us by the friars at Gormanston in the 1960s.

Today is the feast of Saint Francis of Assisi. This day is popular for blessing the animals and also marks the end of ‘Creation Time’ in many parts of the Church.

I was reminded of Saint Francis and his values when I lived close to the Friary in Wexford, and during my time at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, which was founded on the site of a Franciscan friary.

Throughout my five years when I lived in Askeaton, Co Limerick, as priest-in-charge of the Rathkeale Group of Parishes, I regularly visited the ruins of the Franciscan friary and its beautiful cloisters, with a mediaeval carved image of Saint Francis of Assisi. Earlier this year, during my Easter retreat or holiday in Crete, I visited again – as I have done so many times since the 1980s – the former Saint Francis Church, once the most important church in the Venetian town and now the Archaeological Museum of Rethymnon.

Apart from figures in the Biblical figures, Saint Francis may be the most popular saint in the Church, and he is loved in the all the churches. He inspired Pope Francis, who took the saint’s name when he was elected Pope in 2013. Like Saint Francis, Pope Francis washed the feet of women prisoners each year on Maundy Thursday and he visited a soup kitchen in Assisi.

Saint Francis was born in Assisi in Italy ca 1181-1182, and he was baptised with the name Giovanni (for Saint John the Baptist). But his father changed the boy’s name to Francesco because he liked France.

As a young boy and a teenager, Francesco di Bernardone was a rebel. He dressed oddly, spent much of his time alone and quarrelled with his father.

His father expected him to take over the family business. But young Francis was too much of a rebel. All that began to change when he was taken prisoner in 1202 during a war. When he was freed, he was seriously ill, and while he was recovering he had a dream in which he was told ‘to follow the Master, not the man.’

He turned to prayer, penance and almsgiving. One day while praying, he said, God called him to ‘repair my house.’ In 1206, he sold some valuable cloth from his father’s shops to rebuild a run-down church of San Damiano.

His father dragged the young man before the religious authorities, and that was that, finally, for Francis and his father.

Francis turned his back on all that wealth, became a friar, put his complete trust in God, and made his home in an abandoned church. He wore simple clothes, looked after the lepers, made friends with social outcasts and embraced a life of no possessions.

Others joined him, and so began the story of the Franciscans.

Saint Francis is said to have once told his followers, ‘Preach the gospel, and if necessary, use words.’ In other words, people are more likely to see what we believe in what we do rather than believe us because of what we say.

The widely known ‘Prayer of Saint Francis’ has also been attributed to Saint Francis:

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace;
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is discord, union;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master,
grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled, as to console;
to be understood, as to understand;
to be loved, as to love;
for it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen.

Saint Francis celebrated God’s creation, and his most famous poem is his ‘Canticle of the Sun.’ He also organised the first Crib to celebrate Christmas.

Two years before his death, the Franciscan friars first arrived in England in 1224, and they soon spread to Ireland.

Saint Francis was 44 when he died on the evening of 3 October 1226. By then, his order had spread throughout western Christendom. Next year marks the 800th anniversary of his death.

I recall 83 names from my school year in Gormanston in 1969, and since then 21 have died – almost 1 in 4 or 25 per cent. That class year, remembered fondly by all of us, are:

William Barrett, + Hillary Barry, Michael Bolger, Brian Brady, Aidan Brosnan, + Derek Browne, + Henry Browne, Peter Burke, + Patrick Cassidy, Seamus Claffey,

Patrick Comerford, Justin Connolly, Breen Coyne, Thomas Delaney, David Dennehy, Michael Dervan, Gerald Dick, Frank Domoney, Paul Egan, Sean Finn,

+ Donal Geaney, Michael Geraghty, John Grogan, Richard Hayes, Michael Hickey, Liam Holmes, John Horgan, Frank Hunt, Stephen Kane, + Paul Keatings,

Noel Keaveney, Thomas Keenan, Bernard Kelly, John Kelly, David Kerrigan, + Tom Lappin, Malachy Larkin, + Cyril Lynch, David Lynch, Liam Lynch,

Domhnall Mac a Bháird, + John McCarthy, Alfred McCrann, Brian McCutcheon, + Harold McGahern, Pat McGowan, + Donal McGrath, + Joe McGuinness, + Niall McMahon, Kieran McNamee,

James Madden, Seamus Moloney, Francis Moran, + James Moran, Peter Morgan, + Raymond Murphy, Paul Nolan, Kevin O’Brien, Dermot O’Callaghan, Einde O’Callaghan,

Derry O’Connor, Des O’Connor, William O’Connor, James O’Dea, Dermot O’Donoghue, + Tim O’Driscoll, Dermott O’Flanagan, Joseph O’Keeffe, Donal O’Mahony, + Michéal O Morain,

+ Sean O’Meara, + Joe O’Neill, John O’Reilly, + Cian O'Shea, George Pratt, Dermot Rainey, Sean Regan, Noel Reilly, Russell Shannon, Paul Smith,

+ Maurice Sweeney, Donagh Tierney, Michael Walsh.

Gormanston College, Co Meath … in among the 6C year on 27 June 1969, 56 years ago

Today’s Prayers (Saturday 4 October 2025):

The theme this week (28 September to 4 October) in Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), has been ‘One Faith: Many Voices’ (pp 42-43). This theme was introduced last Sunday with Reflections from Rachel Weller, Communications Officer, USPG.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Saturday 4 October 2025) invites us to pray:

Father, thank you that you are unbound by language and all people can come to know you.

The Collect:

O God, you ever delight to reveal yourself
to the childlike and lowly of heart:
grant that, following the example of the blessed Francis,
we may count the wisdom of this world as foolishness
and know only Jesus Christ and him crucified,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post Communion Prayer:

Merciful God,
who gave such grace to your servant Francis
that he served you with singleness of heart
and loved you above all things:
help us, whose communion with you
has been renewed in this sacrament,
to forsake all that holds us back from following Christ
and to grow into his likeness from glory to glory;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Collect on the Eve of Trinity XVI:

O Lord, we beseech you mercifully to hear the prayers
of your people who call upon you;
and grant that they may both perceive and know
what things they ought to do,
and also may have grace and power faithfully to fulfil them;
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

Saint Francis at the gates into Gormanston College, Co Meath (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

Updated 4 and 5 October 2025, with the addition of five names

Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2025: 121, Monday 8 September 2025, Birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary

A traditional Greek icon of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Patrick Comerford

We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar. The week began with the Twelfth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity XII, 7 September 2025), and today the Church celebrates the Birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary (8 September).

We got back to Stony Stratford late last night after a weekend visiting family and friends in York. As I awake slowly this morning, and 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.

Saint Anne with her young daughter, the Virgin Mary, holding the Christ Child, in a fresco by the icon writer Alexandra Kaouki of Rethymnon in Crete

Luke 1: 46-55 (NRSVA):

46 And Mary said,
‘My soul magnifies the Lord,
47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour,
48 for he has looked with favour on the lowliness of his servant.
Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed;
49 for the Mighty One has done great things for me,
and holy is his name.
50 His mercy is for those who fear him
from generation to generation.
51 He has shown strength with his arm;
he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.
52 He has brought down the powerful from their thrones,
and lifted up the lowly;
53 he has filled the hungry with good things,
and sent the rich away empty.
54 He has helped his servant Israel,
in remembrance of his mercy,
55 according to the promise he made to our ancestors,
to Abraham and to his descendants for ever.’

The Virgin Mary with her parents, Saint Anne and Saint Joachim, in a mosaic by the Russian artist Boris Anrep (1883-1969) in Mullingar Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford; click on images for full-screen views)

Today’s Reflection:

Today is the Feast of the Birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary. This is one of four festivals in the Calendar of the Church of England that celebrate her life: the Annunciation (25 March), the Visitation (31 May), her death, the Dormition or the Assumption (15 August), and her birth (8 September).

There is a surprising number of cathedrals and churches in both the Church of England and the Church of Ireland that are dedicated to the Virgin Mary, including Saint Mary’s Church, Askeaton, Co Limerick, where I was the priest-in-charge for five years, Saint Mary’s Cathedral, Limerick, where I was once the canon precentor, and Saint Mary and Saint Giles, which is now my parish church in Stony Stratford.

Of course, the Gospels do not record the Virgin Mary’s birth. The earliest known account of her birth is found in the Protoevangelium of James (5: 2), a text from the late second century, in which her parents are named as Saint Anne and Saint Joachim. Tradition says they were childless and were fast approaching the years that would place Anna beyond the age of child-bearing.


Traditionally, the Church commemorates saints on the date of their death. The Virgin Mary, Saint John the Baptist and Christ are the only three whose birth dates are commemorated.

The reason for this is found in the singular mission each had in salvation history, but traditionally also because they were also seen as being holy in their birth – Saint John was believed to be sanctified in the womb of his mother, Saint Elizabeth, before his birth (see Luke 1: 15). In the same way, we respect that Christ first came to dwell among us in the womb of the Virgin Mary.

This morning’s Gospel reading includes the words of the canticle Magnificat:

My soul magnifies the Lord,
and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour,
for he has looked with favour on the lowliness of his servant.
Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed

The canticle Magnificat, which is part of the Gospel reading today, is traditionally associated with Evensong, sung every evening in cathedrals and many churches in the Anglican Communion across the world.

Differences of opinion about the Virgin Mary were not divisive arguments at the Reformation in the 16th century. Martin Luther emphasised that the Virgin Mary was a recipient of God’s love and favour, accepted the Marian decrees of the ecumenical councils and the dogmas of the Church, and held to the belief that the Virgin Mary was a perpetual virgin and the Theotókos, the Mother of God.

Luther accepted the view of the Immaculate Conception that was popular then, over three centuries before Pope Pius IX, and he believed in the Virgin Mary’s life-long sinlessness. Although he pointed out that the Bible says nothing about her Assumption, he believed that the Virgin Mary and the saints live on after death.

Luther approved keeping Marian paintings and statues in churches, said ‘Mary prays for the Church,’ and advocated the use of a portion of the ‘Hail Mary.’

In 2004, the report of the Second Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission, Mary: Grace and Hope in Christ, noted: ‘In honouring Mary as Mother of the Lord, all generations of Anglicans and Roman Catholics have echoed the greeting of Elizabeth: ‘Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb’ (Luke 1: 42).’

In its response the following year, the Church of Ireland pointed out that in recognising the role of Mary in the incarnation, Anglicans are following the Council of Ephesus (431), which used the term Theotókos (‘God-bearer’) to affirm the oneness of Christ’s person by identifying Mary as the Mother of God the Word incarnate. The Church of Ireland also identified with the statement that ‘in receiving the Council of Ephesus and the definition of Chalcedon, Anglicans and Roman Catholics together confess Mary as Theotókos.’

The response welcomed the acknowledgement that some of the non-scriptural devotions associated with the Virgin Mary have been to ‘excess.’ On the other hand, it said, the full significance of the role of Mary as the Theotókos or God-bearer ‘has sometimes been lacking in the consciousness of some Anglicans.’

Some widely used, unofficial Anglican office books, such as Celebrating Common Prayer, include the Angelus and Regina Coeli. But the response pointed out that language such as ‘co-redeemer’ are ‘theologically impossible for members of the Church of Ireland.’

So, is there a way that as Anglicans we can talk about the Virgin Mary that is theologically appropriate, without compromising key Anglican traditions and beliefs for the sake of being ‘ecumenically correct’ or on the other hand descending into accepting a series of devotional practices that most Roman Catholics have long since come to regard as outdated, irrelevant and theologically questionable?

In our responses, Anglicans can fall back on culturally defensive ways of thinking. I admit that many of the plaster cast statues and framed images of the Virgin Mary lack cultural finesse and taste. But they, like many other practices, including May processions and Rosary-based prayer cycles are recent innovations.

I am reminded that devotion to the Virgin Mary was part-and-parcel of the piety that sustained many Christians through decades of suffering and oppression in Eastern Europe. The use of icons of the Virgin Mary in the Orthodox tradition and talk about her as the Theotókos is consonant with Anglican thinking theologically if not always culturally.

The Orthodox Church disagrees with the concept of the Immaculate Conception. The Orthodox position is that since Jesus Christ is God, he alone is born without sin. Orthodox theologians argue that if the immaculate conception is taken literally, the Virgin Mary would assume the status of a goddess alongside God. At the same time, the popularity of the name Mary attests to the fact that the Virgin Mary is revered throughout the Orthodox world.

The Orthodox believe that she was conceived in the normal way of humanity, and so was in the same need of salvation as all humanity. Orthodox thinking varies on whether she actually ever sinned, though there is general agreement that she was cleansed from sin at the Annunciation.

It is easy to forget that the dogmas of the Immaculate Conception and the Assumption are recent innovations, having been proclaimed by Popes in 1854 and 1950. They did not divide us and could not have divided us at the Reformation, and many Roman Catholics are still confused about their meaning. Places like Lourdes, the Knock Shrine, Fatima and Medjugorje do not share the antiquity or history of Anglican Marian sites such as Walsingham, the Anglican tradition of singing Magnificat at Evensong, or the names of our cathedrals, churches and lady chapels.

The Anglican tradition of singing Magnificat at Evensong, and the names of our cathedrals and many churches both in England and Ireland remind me of a message that she proclaims in the Gospel reading that challenges the rise of far-right racism and populism in the world today:

‘He has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.
He has brought down the powerful from their thrones,
and lifted up the lowly;
he has filled the hungry with good things,
and sent the rich away empty.’

Saint Andrew of Crete writes: ‘This day is for us the beginning of all holy days. It is the door to kindness and truth.’

Indeed, without the birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary, there would have been no birth of Christ, and then no Good Friday, no Crucifixion, no Easter, no Resurrection.

And there are only 108 days to Christmas.

The Virgin Mary with the Crown of Thorns in a window in a church in Bansha, Co Tipperary … without the birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary, there would have been no birth of Christ, and then no Good Friday and no Crucifixion, no Easter and no Resurrection (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Monday 8 September 2025, the Birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary):

In my prayers this morning, I am remembering my parents, Stephen Edward Comerford (1918-2004) of Terenure and Ellen Murphy (1919-2014) of Monkstown, Co Dublin, but originally from Millstreet, Co Cork, who were married in Blackrock, Co Dublin, 80 years ago on 8 September 1945. They had waited until the end of World War II to get married; after their marriage, they lived in Bray, Co Wicklow, and then in Harold’s Cross and Rathfarnham in Dublin. He died on 27 December 2004, she died on 20 May 2014; five of their six children and nine of their ten grandchildren survive, as well as great-grandchildren.

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 yesterday with reflections from Rachel Weller, Communications Officer, USPG.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Monday 8 September 2025, the Birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary) invites us to pray:

Lord, we thank you for the life and legacy of Ms Eira Lloyd and her faithful service to you in Tanzania. May her example continue to inspire us to serve with love, dedication, and generosity.

The Collect:

Almighty and everlasting God,
who stooped to raise fallen humanity
through the child–bearing of blessed Mary:
grant that we, who have seen your glory
revealed in our human nature
and your love made perfect in our weakness,
may daily be renewed in your image
and conformed to the pattern of your Son,
Jesus Christ 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 most high,
whose handmaid bore the Word made flesh:
we thank you that in this sacrament of our redemption
you visit us with your Holy Spirit
and overshadow us by your power;
strengthen us to walk with Mary the joyful path of obedience
and so to bring forth the fruits of holiness;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s reflections

Continued tomorrow

The birth of the Virgin Mary depicted in an icon by Mihai Cocu in the Lady Chapel in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin (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

A statue of Saint Anne with her young daughter, the Virgin Mary, in Nicker Church, Co Limerick (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2025: 88, Tuesday 5 August 2025

‘He made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead to the other side’ (Matthew 14: 22) … a boat on the other side of the Ouse in Old Stratford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Patrick Comerford

We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar and the week began with the Seventh Sunday after Trinity (Trinity VII, 3 August 2025). The calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship today remembers Oswald (642), King of Northumbria, Martyr.

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.

A boat in the small harbour in Loughshinny in north Co Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Matthew 14: 22-36 (NRSVA):

22 Immediately he made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds. 23 And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone, 24 but by this time the boat, battered by the waves, was far from the land, for the wind was against them. 25 And early in the morning he came walking towards them on the lake. 26 But when the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified, saying, ‘It is a ghost!’ And they cried out in fear. 27 But immediately Jesus spoke to them and said, ‘Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid.’

28 Peter answered him, ‘Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.’ 29 He said, ‘Come.’ So Peter got out of the boat, started walking on the water, and came towards Jesus. 30 But when he noticed the strong wind, he became frightened, and beginning to sink, he cried out, ‘Lord, save me!’ 31 Jesus immediately reached out his hand and caught him, saying to him, ‘You of little faith, why did you doubt?’ 32 When they got into the boat, the wind ceased. 33 And those in the boat worshipped him, saying, ‘Truly you are the Son of God.’

34 When they had crossed over, they came to land at Gennesaret. 35 After the people of that place recognized him, they sent word throughout the region and brought all who were sick to him, 36 and begged him that they might touch even the fringe of his cloak; and all who touched it were healed.

A boat full of tourists off the coast of Crete … is the only difference between tourism and people smuggling the way people pay? Or is it the difference between present pleasures and future hopes? (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflection

In recent months, I have enjoyed being on boats in Sarawak and Singapore, barge trips on the Grand union Canal, and watching rowers and boats in York, on the Backs in Cambridge and on the river in Oxford. I even had the pleasure many years ago of one college boat club in Cambridge asking to use one of my photographs in a fundraising drive.

It is almost 60 years since I first went rowing as a teenager on Lough Ramor in Virginia. But I had long thought that I would be left regretting that I had gone to Cambridge as a student too late in life to learn, or to re-learn how to row.

I had come to enjoy rowing as a sport and an activity, but in a very passive way.

Then, shortly after I arrived in Askeaton in 2017, one evening, as I was standing at a slipway by the banks of the Rover Deel, I was invited suddenly and unexpectedly to get into a boat and to row.

I was fearless. It was a pleasure I had often hoped for and wished for. And for almost an hour, we rowed upstream, under the bridge at Askeaton, and as far as the castle, and then downstream past the factory, although not as far as the estuary. When I suggested that I might be too old to learn, or re-learn, how to row, I was told brusquely and with humour that once I stopped learning I had stopped living.

Later that same week, I watched children and teenagers hop in and out of boats, freely and fearlessly, confident of their own ability and the ability of those who were training them.

Fearlessly. But as I was messing about on boats in Crete some weeks earlier, hopping on and off them in the sun as I visited smaller islands and lagoons, I thought of how this was a pleasure that I was paying for and wondered but how many refugees were full of fear as they boarded boats in the dark trying to arrive on Greek islands, having paid exorbitantly for the risk and the dangers.

Fearlessly. What are your worst fears?

I know, at present, many of us have fears arising out of the wars between Russia and Ukraine, the wars involving Israel in Gaza, and the global insecurity created by the mercurial decision making by the Trump regime.

As we grow up and mature, we tend to have fewer fears of the outside world, and as adults we begin to cope with the fears we once had as children, by turning threats into opportunities.

The fears I had as a child – of snakes, of the wind, of storms at sea, of lightning – are no longer the stuff of recurring nightmares they were as a child. I have learned to be cautious, to be sensible and to keep my distance, and to be in awe of God’s creation.

But most of us have recurring dreams that are vivid and that have themes that keep repeating themselves. They fall into a number of genres, and most psychotherapists identify a number of these types of dreams that most of us deal with in our sleep at various stages in adult life.

They include dreams about:

• Drowning.

• Finding myself unprepared for a major function or event, whether it is social or work-related.

• Flying or floating in the air, but then falling suddenly.

• Being caught naked in public.

• Missing a train, a bus or a plane.

• Caught in loos or lifts that do not work, or that overwork themselves.

• Calling out in a crowd but failing to vocalise my scream or not being heard in the crowd or recognised.

• Falling, falling into an abyss.

There are others. But in sleep the brain can act as a filter or filing cabinet, helping us to process, deal with and put aside what we have found difficult to understand in our waking hours, or to try to find ways of dealing with our lack of confidence, feelings of inadequacy, with the ways we confuse gaining attention with receiving love, or with our needs to be accepted, affirmed and loved.

Saint Peter’s plight in the Gospel reading (Matthew 14: 22-36) at the Eucharist today seems to be the working out of a constant, recurring, vivid dream of the type that many of us experience at some stage: the feelings of drowning, floating and falling suddenly, being in a crowd and yet alone, calling out and not being heard, or not being recognised for who we are.

Peter sees Christ walking on the lake or floating effortlessly above the water. At first, he thinks he is seeing a ghost. But then Christ calls to him, and Saint Peter responds.

Once he recognises Christ, Saint Peter gets out of the boat, starts walking on the water, and comes towards Christ. But he loses his confidence when he notices the strong wind, he is frightened, and he begins to sink.

He cries out: ‘Lord, save me.’ Christ immediately reaches out his hand and catches him, saying to him, ‘You of little faith, why did you doubt?’

They get back into the boat, the wind ceases. And those in the boat worship him, saying, ‘Truly you are the Son of God.’

Was the sight of Christ walking on the water an illusion?

Was Peter’s idea that he could walk on the water the product of an over-worked mind while it was sleeping?

Did he realise he was unprepared for the great encounter?

Did the wind cease when he woke from the dream?

All of these questions are over-analytical and fail to deal with the real encounter that takes place.

Even before the Resurrection, in his frailty, in his weakness, in his humble humanity, Saint Peter calls out to Christ: ‘Lord, save me’ (verse 30).

Do the others in the boat fall down at Christ’s feet and worship him because he can walk on water? Because he can lift a drowning man out of the depths? Or because they recognise that in Christ they can find the end to all their worst dreams and nightmares?

In this come-and-go summer, we know too, as they say, to expect the unexpected. On a few occasions, black clouds have moved across our rivers. The weather could turn, the waters could become choppy, and this can be a frightening experience, even on rivers, close to the river bank and close to firm land.

As seasoned boat-handlers, the Disciples know not to try walking on water. They know the risk of sudden storms and swells, and they know the safety of a good boat, as long as it has a good crew.

But since the early history of the Church, the boat has symbolised the Church.

The bark (barque or barchetta) symbolises the Church tossed on the sea of disbelief, worldliness, and persecution but finally reaching safe harbour. Part of the imagery comes from the ark saving Noah’s family during the Flood (I Peter 3: 20-21). Christ protects Peter’s boat and the Disciples on the stormy Sea of Galilee (see also Mark 6: 45-52; John 6 16-21). The mast forms the shape of the Cross.

It is an image that appears in Apostolic Constitutions and the writings of Tertullian and Clement of Alexandria. We still retain the word nave for the main part of the church, which, architecturally often looks like an up-turned boat.

So, I do would not want any of us to risk walking on water, or to play stupidly in boats on the river or on a lake, and certainly not off the coast or out to see.

But if we are to dream dreams for our parishes, for the Church, for the Kingdom of God, we need to be aware that it comes at the risk of feeling our dreams may be the nightmares of others.

If we are going to dream dreams for our parishes, for the Church, for the Kingdom of God, we may need to step out of our safety zones, our comfort zones, and know that this comes with a risk warning.

And if we are going to dream dreams for our parishes, for the Church, for the Kingdom of God, we need to keep our eyes focussed on Christ, and to know that the Church is there to bring us on that journey.

Let us dream dreams, take risks for the Kingdom of God, step outside the box. But let us keep our eyes on Christ and remember that the boat, the Church, is essential for our journey, and let us continue to worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness.

An icon of the Church as a boat, including Christ, the Apostles and the Church Fathers (Icon: Deacon Matthew Garrett, www.holy-icons.com)

Today’s Prayers (Tuesday 5 August 2025):

The theme this week (3 to 9 August) in Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘Indigenous Wisdom’ (pp 24-25). This theme was introduced on Sunday with reflections from Dr Paulo Ueti, Theological Advisor and Regional Manager for the Americas and the Caribbean, USPG.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Tuesday 5 August 2025) invites us to pray:

Lord, bless Jocabed, Winston and Isabel as they stand up for justice. Strengthen their advocacy, protect the communities they belong to, and guide us to stand together in faith and action.

The Collect:

Lord God almighty,
who so kindled the faith of King Oswald with your Spirit
that he set up the sign of the cross in his kingdom
and turned his people to the light of Christ:
grant that we, being fired by the same Spirit,
may always bear our cross before the world
and be found faithful servants of the gospel;
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.

Post-Communion Prayer:

God our redeemer,
whose Church was strengthened by the blood of your martyr Oswald:
so bind us, in life and death, to Christ’s sacrifice
that our lives, broken and offered with his,
may carry his death and proclaim his resurrection in the world;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Collect in the Eve of the Transfiguration:

Father in heaven,
whose Son Jesus Christ was wonderfully transfigured
before chosen witnesses upon the holy mountain,
and spoke of the exodus he would accomplish at Jerusalem:
give us strength so to hear his voice and bear our cross
that in the world to come we may see him as he is;
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Yesterday’s reflection

Continued tomorrow

Learning, or re-learning, how to row on the River Deel at Askeaton, Co Limerick

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