Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2026: 147, Friday 2 October 2026

‘Whoever listens to you listens to me, and whoever rejects you rejects me’ (Luke 10: 16) … listening ears in street art on Tottenham Court Road, London (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar, and the week began with the Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity XV,II 27 September). Later this morning, I expect to sing with the choir of Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church at a funeral Mass in Stony Stratford.

In the Jewish calendar, Shemini Atseret or Shemini Atzeret (שְׁמִינִי עֲצֶרֶת) begins this evening (2 October) and ends at nightfall tomorrow (3 October). Shemini Atzeret is an intimate, sacred Jewish holiday on the 22nd day of Tishrei that immediately follows the seven days of Sukkot.

But, before today begins, 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.

‘They would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes’ (Luke 10: 13) … could the disciples have expected the same rejection in Galilean towns and in Phoenician towns? (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Luke 10: 13-16 (NRSVA):

[Jesus said:] 13 ‘Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the deeds of power done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. 14 But at the judgement it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon than for you. 15 And you, Capernaum,

will you be exalted to heaven?
No, you will be brought down to Hades.

16 ‘Whoever listens to you listens to me, and whoever rejects you rejects me, and whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me.’

‘Whoever listens to you listens to me, and whoever rejects you rejects me’ (Luke 10: 16) … the Ear of Dionysius, near Syracuse in Sicily, where legend says the tyrant Dionysius I eavesdropped on prisoners (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflections:

We have been reading in Saint Luke’s Gospel this week how Jesus set his face to go to Jerusalem, and a Samaritan village had refused to welcome his messengers (Luke 9: 51-62). But Christ rebuked James and John for their response to this rejection, and he then sent out 70 (or 72) disciples on a mission of healing and proclaiming the coming of the Kingdom of God.

In this morning’s readings, Christ tells the Seventy to expect but not to be dejected when they meet hostility, and to leave rejection to God’s own judgment and God’s own time.

The term ‘woe’ (Greek: ου̉̀αὶ, ouai) is often used in prophetic literature to express divine displeasure and impending judgment, and it appears frequently in prophetic writings, such as Isaiah, Jeremiah, and in Christ’s teachings.

Could the disciples could have expected to face rejection in these familiar Galilean town or even similar rejections in the Phoenician towns of Tyre and Sidon?

Chorazin was about 3 km (two miles) north of the Sea of Galilee, and archaeological excavations suggests the small town had a thriving Jewish community. Bethsaida, on the north-east shore of the Sea of Galilee, was the hometown of apostles Peter, Andrew and Philip, and the town where Jesus healed a blind man (Mark 8: 22-26). Capernaum is often called Jesus’ own city (Matthew 9: 1), it served as the centre for his Galilean ministry, and he taught and healed in the synagogue there.

Tyre and Sidon were ancient Phoenician coastal cities, known for their wealth and maritime trade. Prophets often denounced them for their pride and wickedness (Ezekiel 26-28, Isaiah 23). Sodom was infamous for its wickedness and destroyed by God in the time of Abraham (Genesis 19), and became a byword for divine judgment and extreme sinfulness among Jews and Christians.

But Jesus and the disciples often retreated to Tyre and Sidon, the Syrophoenician woman in Tyre begged for healing for her daughter (Matthew 15: 21-28; Mark 7: 24-37), and the deaf man was healed in Sidon (Mark 7: 31-36).

The woes serve as both a lament and as a warning, expressing sorrow over the cities’ current state and educating those who are listening about the future consequences of such a state.

They are a challenge too to think of how the very threats we face in life are not always the ones we fear, and those who offer us comfort and support in life may be those we least expect to offer it.

‘Whoever listens to you listens to me, and whoever rejects you rejects me’ (Luke 10: 16)) … part of a sculpture in St Pancras International Station in London (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Friday 2 October 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 27 September to 3 October 2026 (pp 42-43), is ‘Power of Language’. This theme was introduced on Sunday with a reflection by Rachel Weller, Communications Officer, USPG.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Friday 2 October 2026) invites us to pray:

Lord God, bless the Anglican Church in Sri Lanka as it brings Tamil, Singala, and English communities together in worship. We thank you for this amazing example of unity in diversity.

The Collect of the Day:

Almighty God,
you have made us for yourself,
and our hearts are restless till they find their rest in you:
pour your love into our hearts and draw us to yourself,
and so bring us at last to your heavenly city
where we shall see you face to face;
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:

Lord, we pray that your grace
may always precede and follow us,
and make us continually to be given to all good works;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

Gracious God,
you call us to fullness of life:
deliver us from unbelief
and banish our anxieties
with the liberating love of Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s Reflections

Continued Tomorrow

div class="separator" style="clear: both;">

Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2026: 124, Wednesday 9 September 2026

‘Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you’ (Luke 6: 22) … the Battle of Cable Street mural in the East End, London (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar and the week began with the and the week began with the Festival of Creation in Christ or the Fourteenth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity XIV, 6 September 2026). Today the Church of England in the Calendar in Common Worship remembers Charles Fuge Lowder (1820-1880), who, in many ways, epitomise the 19th-century Anglo-Catholic ‘slum priest’.

I have another medical appointment later this morning, to review recent blood tests as my sarcoidosis and Vitamin B12 levels continue to be monitored. Later, I hope to return to the choir rehearsals in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford. 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.

‘Woe to you who are full now, for you will be hungry’ (Luke 6: 25) … full meals at restaurants in Rethymnon in Crete (Photographs: Patrick Comerford)

Luke 6: 20-26 (NRSVA):

20 Then he looked up at his disciples and said:

‘Blessed are you who are poor,
for yours is the kingdom of God.
21 ‘Blessed are you who are hungry now,
for you will be filled.
‘Blessed are you who weep now,
for you will laugh.

22 ‘Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man. 23 Rejoice on that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven; for that is what their ancestors did to the prophets.

24 ‘But woe to you who are rich,
for you have received your consolation.
25 ‘Woe to you who are full now,
for you will be hungry.
‘Woe to you who are laughing now,
for you will mourn and weep.

26 ‘Woe to you when all speak well of you, for that is what their ancestors did to the false prophets.’

‘Blessed are you who weep now …’ (Luke 6: 21) … street art in Limerick (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflections:

The typesetters’ decision to present much of the New Testament as narrative discourse has left us with little poetry in the New Testament compared with the Hebrew Bible.

But there are poetic hymns throughout the New Testament, and Saint Luke’s Gospel has several poems that we continue to use as poems or songs in the form of liturgical canticles:

• The Song of Mary, or Magnificat (Luke 1: 46-55), part of which we read on Monday;
• The Prophecy of Zechariah, known as Benedictus (Luke 1: 68-79);
• The Song of the Heavenly Host, Gloria in Excelsis (Luke 2: 14);
• The Song of Simeon, Nunc Dimittis (Luke 2: 29-32), which inspired TS Eliot’s ‘A Song for Simeon.

Two of the best known poetic passages in the Gospels are the two accounts of the Beatitudes (Matthew 5: 3-10; Luke 6: 20-26). In today’s Gospel reading, Saint Luke then narrates his account of the ‘Sermon on the Mount’ (verses 20-26). He offers four beatitudes and four corresponding woes or warnings.

The word blessed (Greek μακαριοι, makarioi) also means ‘happy’ or ‘fortunate.’ Some people are blessed, happy, fortunate to be included in the Kingdom of God, others are warned of the consequences of their choices in life.

The paired blessings and warnings in today’s Gospel reading are:

• to the poor (verse 20), and to the rich (verse 24);
• to the hungry (verse 21), and to the ‘full’ (verse 25a);
• to those who weep (verse 21), and to those are laughing (verse 25);
• to those who are hated, excluded, reviled and defamed (verse 22), and those who are held in esteem (verse 26).

Saint Luke records the ‘poor’ without any qualification (verse 20), compared with Saint Matthew’s ‘poor in spirit’ (see Matthew 5: 3). In Jewish tradition, the poor and the hungry are not cursed or impure, but are deserving recipients of divine and earthly care (see Deuteronomy 11: 15; Isaiah 49: 10; Jeremiah 31: 25; Ezekiel 34: 29). The poor are to receive the Kingdom of God; the rich have their reward today in their comfortable lifestyles.

Those who are excluded are denied their right to worship in the Temple and in the synagogue. But in the past, the prophets – including Jeremiah – were hated, excluded, reviled and defamed (verse 23), while the people in power spoke well of the false prophets (verse 26; see Jeremiah 5: 31).

This Gospel reading today is set within a large crowd of people who came to hear Jesus and to be healed, and that those who were troubled were cured. If the same people came to our churches today – if they came to me as a priest of the church today – would they know from how we behave – from how I behave – that Jesus cares for them, that he seeks to restore them to the fullness of life?

Poverty comes in many forms today. Exclusion and marginalisation are common experiences for many in our society. Those who hunger and who weep are not just around us, but among us, in the Church, in our community, in this society.

If you feel you are excluded or marginalised, if you know you are hungry and you are often close to tears, do you feel the rest of us in the Church do enough to see to it that you know you are counted in when it comes to the Church being a sign of the Kingdom of God?

If you think you are financially secure, that you have enough to eat, if you have plenty of good reason to laugh and be happy, if you know people respect you and treat you properly, do you see the rest of us in the Church as a blessing to you, as an opportunity to share your blessings, to share your joys, to share your Easter faith in the Risen Christ?

Poor and rich, hungry and ‘full’, those who weep and those who laugh, the hated, excluded, reviled and defamed and those held in esteem: in Oscar Wilde’s satirical play, A Woman of No Importance (1893), Lord Illingworth observes wisely: ‘The only difference between the saint and the sinner is that every saint has a past, and every sinner has a future.’

He was probably paraphrasing a quotation popularly attributed to Saint Augustine: ‘There is no saint without a past, no sinner without a future.’

‘The only difference between the saint and the sinner is that every saint has a past, and every sinner has a future’ … Oscar Wilde or Saint Augustine? (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Wednesday 9 September 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 6-12 September 2026 (pp 36-37), is ‘Turning Pain into Glory’. This theme was introduced on Sunday with a Reflection by Nolene Sheppard, Leader of a Women’s Empowerment Group, Magnificat, and Ukraine Aid Project Support Lead at Saint Thomas à Becket, Hamburg, Germany.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Wednesday 9 September 2026) invites us to pray:

Father in heaven, we thank you for Nolene and for carrying her through when she felt overwhelmed and alone. Thank you for walking beside her step by step. Remind us to trust you too and know that you are with us.

The Collect of the Day:

Almighty God,
whose only Son has opened for us
a new and living way into your presence:
give us pure hearts and steadfast wills
to worship you in spirit and in truth;
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:

Lord God, the source of truth and love,
keep us faithful to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship,
united in prayer and the breaking of bread,
and one in joy and simplicity of heart,
in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

Merciful God:
your Son came to save us
and bore our sins on the cross:
may we trust in your mercy
and know your love,
rejoicing in the righteousness
that is ours through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s reflections

Continued tomorrow

‘Woe to you when all speak well of you’ (Luke 6: 26) … street art in 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

Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2026: 112, Friday 28 August 2026

‘Ten bridesmaids took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom … and five were wise’ (Matthew 25: 1-2) … sculptures at the West Front of Saint Fin Barre’s Cathedral, Cork (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar and this week began with the Twelfth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity XII). The calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship today remembers Saint Augustine (430), Bishop of Hippo, Teacher of the Faith.

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.

‘Ten bridesmaids took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom … Five of them were foolish’ (Matthew 25: 1-2) … sculptures at the West Front of Saint Fin Barre’s Cathedral, Cork (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Matthew 25: 1-13 (NRSVA):

[Jesus said:] 1 ‘Then the kingdom of heaven will be like this. Ten bridesmaids took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. 2 Five of them were foolish, and five were wise. 3 When the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them; 4 but the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps. 5 As the bridegroom was delayed, all of them became drowsy and slept. 6 But at midnight there was a shout, “Look! Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.” 7 Then all those bridesmaids got up and trimmed their lamps. 8 The foolish said to the wise, “Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.” 9 But the wise replied, “No! there will not be enough for you and for us; you had better go to the dealers and buy some for yourselves.” 10 And while they went to buy it, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went with him into the wedding banquet; and the door was shut. 11 Later the other bridesmaids came also, saying, “Lord, lord, open to us.” 12 But he replied, “Truly I tell you, I do not know you.” 13 Keep awake therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.’

Ten bridesmaids took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom (Matthew 25: 1)

Today’s Reflections:

The setting for the Gospel reading (Matthew 25: 1-13) is on the Mount of Olives, looking down on the Temple. Christ has been teaching there in the week leading up to the Passover, and in the week leading up to his Passion, Death and Resurrection.

In the verses immediately before this reading (Matthew 24: 45-51), Christ tells the parable of a master who leaves his household for a time, but suddenly returns. If, while he is away, his servant lives a godly, ethical life, he is ‘blessed’ when the master returns. On the other hand, if he thinks his master is delayed in returning, misbehaves and lives a life of debauchery, he will be condemned when his master returns.

In fact, the master will return when the servant least expects him to return.

The wise and foolish young women in verse 2 can be compared to the wise man and the foolish man who each build a house, one on firm foundations, the other on sand (see Matthew 7: 24).

In Christ’s day, weddings could last for days, as we know from the story of the Wedding at Cana (see John 2: 1-11). Weddings still go on, for days on end, in Greece and other Mediterranean countries today.

In Christ’s day, the groom and his family would gather at his household, while the bride and her family and guests would gather at her household. The groom and his family then make their way to the bride’s house to meet the bride. When the groom arrived, he would take the bride inside, the marriage would be consummated and the wedding celebrations would continue.

In this parable, the party goes ahead without the bridesmaids who have not prepared themselves properly for the arrival of the groom, and who hastily rush away and try to return in the pretence that they had been prepared all along.

It was normal at Jewish weddings for the bridegroom to be delayed (verse 5). So, the sudden, early arrival of the bridegroom (verses 10) is unexpected and surprising to those who are the first to listen to the telling of this parable.

Oil is not only a symbol of life but also a symbol of repentance and anointing (see Matthew 6: 17). Each of the wise bridesmaids has made her preparation and has made sure she is spiritually prepared. But being prepared is something we cannot transfer to others. Their refusal to give oil to the foolish bridesmaids is not an act of selfishness but a lesson in how each of us is expected to make his or her own preparations.

The Greek word that the NRSVA translates as ‘bridesmaid’ and the RSV as ‘maidens’ (verse 1) is παρθένος, which means a virgin, a marriageable maiden, a woman who has never had sexual intercourse with a man, or a marriageable daughter.

But this word has resonances that go beyond single, chaste women. This is the word that also gives us the name of the Parthenon in Athens. Athena Parthenos (Ἀθηνᾶ Παρθένος, Athena the Virgin) was the title of a giant-size statue in gold and ivory of the Greek goddess Athena in the Parthenon in Athens.

It was the best-known cult image of Athens, and was seen as the greatest achievement of Phidias, the most acclaimed sculptor in ancient Greece.

There may be a reference here, therefore, to cult worship, often in the night and under the cover of darkness, and true worship of God, which should take place in the light. If so, there is an interesting connection between this Gospel reading and the persistent Johannine theme of darkness and light and the true worship Christ invites us to take part in.

Other Johannine parallels can be found in the Book of Revelation:

‘Let us rejoice and exult
and give him the glory,
for the marriage of the Lamb has come,
and his bride has made herself ready’ (Revelation 19: 7).

‘And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband’ (Revelation 21: 2).

The surprise created by the early arrival of the bridegroom is added to as two further developments unfold in the story: the door is shut against those who arrive late (verse 10); and the groom refuses to recognise the foolish bridesmaids: ‘I do not know you’ (verse 12). Those who are not prepared, or are too late in their preparation, are refused entry to the Kingdom.

The surprise is shocking when we think that this is the same Jesus who taught, healed, and broke bread with anyone who would join him, and who has particular compassion for the poor and outcast. Why now is Christ portrayed as someone who would shut the door on half of those who are waiting for his arrival?

But what are the expectations of the majority of people in our society today?

What would they prefer most?

The values of this world’s kingdoms … or the demands and expectations of the Kingdom of God?

The exhortation to ‘keep awake’ (verse 13) is a call to be prepared – for the coming of the Kingdom of God, for the Second Coming of Christ.

The Parthenon on the Acropolis in Athens … the word παρθένος has resonances that go beyond single, chaste women (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Friday 28 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 23 to 29 August 2026 (pp 32-33), is ‘Legacies of History’. This theme was introduced on Sunday with a reflection by the Revd Dr Rachele Evie Vernon O’Brien, a Jamaican-born theologian and advocate.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Friday 28 August 2026) invites us to pray:

Holy God, where the legacy of Codrington reveals pain or contradiction, bring your healing. Turn learning into action, and shape your Church to reflect your love more clearly in the world.

The Collect:

Merciful Lord,
who turned Augustine from his sins
to be a faithful bishop and teacher:
grant that we may follow him in penitence and discipline
till our restless hearts find their rest in you;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post Communion Prayer:

God of truth,
whose Wisdom set her table
and invited us to eat the bread and drink the wine
of the kingdom:
help us to lay aside all foolishness
and to live and walk in the way of insight,
that we may come with Augustine to the eternal feast of heaven;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s reflections

Continued tomorrow

Later the other bridesmaids came also, saying, ‘Lord, lord, open to us.’ But he replied, ‘Truly I tell you, I do not know you’ (Matthew 25: 11-12)

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 Augustine’s Church, built by Underwood in Rugeley in the 1820s, is ‘remarkable for its date’

Inside Saint Augustine’s Church, Rugeley, facing east … the church was built in 1822-1823 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Patrick Comerford

In recent days, I have been visiting a number of churches in the Rugeley area that I first got to know when I was about 19 or 20, including the old and new Saint Augustine’s Church, the ruins of the early mediaeval parish church, now known as the ‘Old Chancel’, and the early 19th century church across the street that replaced it in the 1820s; Saint Joseph and Saint Etheldreda Church; Saint Michael’s Church in Brereton; and Hawkesyard Hall and Spode House in Armitage, where the Dominicans once had a priory.

Saint Augustine’s Church, the parish church of Rugeley, is dedicated to Saint Augustine of Canterbury, first Archbishop of Canterbury, and is a Grade II* listed building. It was built in 1822-1823 to replace the mediaeval parish church and what remains of the former church – the tower and chancel – is now a Grade II listed building known as the Old Chancel.

The parish decided about 1818 that a new parish church was needed because the population of Rugeley was growing rapidly and because the chancel of the old parish church seemed to be beyond repair. A site across the street from the old church, large enough for a new burial ground, was given in 1819 by Thomas William Anson (1795-1854), 2nd Viscount Anson, later 1st Earl of Lichfield (1831).

Saint Augustine’s Church, Rugeley, was built in 1822-1823 to replace the mediaeval parish church, now known as the ‘Old Chancel’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

The architectural historian Sir Niklaus Pevsner describes the church as ‘remarkable for its date’. The church was built in stone in 1822-1823 and is an early example of the simplified perpendicular Gothic Revival style of the builder and architect Charles Underwood (1791-1883).

Underwood designed the church in Rugeley early in his career after he had moved to Oxford, where ‘Survivalist Gothic’ had lingered on in the grounds of some of the colleges and institutions.

The church originally consisted of a rectangular nave of five bays with aisles and clerestory, a shallow chancel, and a tall west tower. It was consecrated on 21 January 1823.

The building cost £6,501 17s 2d, which was partly met through the sale of materials from the original church. The new church was consecrated on 1 January 1823 by George Henry Law (1761–1845), Bishop of Chester (1812-1824).

The high altar and reredos in Saint Augustine’s Church, Rugeley (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Internally the nave arcades have lofty shafted piers and four-centred arches, and the aisles are occupied by the north and south galleries. The base of the tower forms an entrance lobby, and there is a large gallery across the west end of the church. Below this gallery are tables of parish charities.

The fittings were altered In 1867-1868 and the box pews were cut down to form open seats. The marble font dates from 1874.

By 1894, great dissatisfaction was being expressed with the building. It was said to be in bad structural repair and to be ‘inconveniently arranged and unsuited for purposes of public worship’. Some parishioners complained that it was impossible to preserve due order in the galleries and ‘to prevent the young people who crowd into them at an evening service from behaving in an irreverent and unseemly manner’.

Sarah Hopkins had left a bequest in her will in 1844 for the improvement of the church and over half a century this had accumulated to about £3,000.

The reredos was carved in an Alpine village in Northern Italy (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

After various schemes were discussed, it was agreed to enlarge the existing church and a new chancel with north and south aisles, including a Lady Chapel, were built in 1905-1906 and dedicated on 29 June 1906. The stone was given by Thomas Francis Anson (1856-1918), 3rd Earl of Lichfield.

The design is a scholarly example of Perpendicular architecture by Frank Loughborough Pearson (1864-1947), son of the Gothic Revival architect John Loughborough Pearson (1817-1897), renowned for his work on churches and cathedrals.

The reredos was carved in an Alpine village in Northern Italy, with the gilding and colour added in London.in North Italy. The reredos and the panelling in the sanctuary were presented in 1930 by WJ Stanton in memory of his wife.The central panel depicts the the Risen Christ appearing to Mary Magdalene on Easter morning. On either side of this panel are three angels who recall the Preface and the Sanctus at the Eucharist. On either side are figures of the Blessed Virgin, Saint Ann, Saint Peter and Saint Paul, together with smaller figures on either side of Saint Stephen, Saint Matthew, Saint George and Saint Mark; these saints all represent stages in the life of Mrs Stanton who was, for example, baptised in Saint Stephen’s Church, South Kensington.

The reredos is incribed with the words, ‘In thy presence is fullness of joy’.

The East Window above the high altar and reredos is by Charles Eamer Kempe (1837-1907). It depicts the crucifixion and as well as the Virgin Mary and Saint John the Divine, the saints depicted include Saint Augustine of Canterbury and Saint Chad of Lichfield.

The East Window in the chancel (above) and the window in the Lady Chapel (below) by CE Kempe (Photographs: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

The north aisle forms a Lady Chapel, where the East Window is also by Kempe. The south aisle has a vestry and organ loft. The west end of the church remains as it was built in 1822, but the start of a proposed new nave arcade is visible near the chancel arch. The east window of the Lady Chapel was given in 1906 in memory of Fanny Louise Slade by her sister.

Other stained glass windows in the chapel date from 1907 and commemorate Gilbert Woolland and Thomas and Mary Ann James. The carved organ screen was given in memory of Emma O Litler (d 1908).

The pulpit was made in 1907 in memory ofthe parish benefactor Sarah Hopkins who died in 1844 and has a simple but expressive oak carving of Saint Augustine. The font at the west end of the church is made of the finest alabaster and was given in 1874 by Ralph Armishaw.

The pulpit, made in 1907, has an oak carving of Saint Augustine (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

The wall tablets in the church commemorate Rebecca Simpson (1849), Mary and William Landor (1860), Robert W Nuttall (1904), John AB Burrough (1918), and Robert Landor and members of his family (1914-1951).

The church plate includes a silver chalice and paten, a copper cross, two pewter candlesticks, a silver viaticum and a latten censer dating from 16th century, a silver cup and flagon given by Mary Chetwynd in 1704, and two silver-gilt chalices, two silver-gilt patens and a silver-gilt flagon given by William Bamford in 1855.

The peal of bells includes six from the old church dating from 1706-1708. They were renovated for the millennium. A special peal was rung out over the town in 2007 to mark the bells’ 300th anniversary.

The octagonal chuurch hall was added in 1972.

The organ loft in the south aisle of Saint Augustine’s Church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Saint Augustine’s initiated a number of missions and chapels in the Rugeley and Brereton area, including Saint John the Baptist, Slitting Mill), which closed in 2025; Saint Michael’s Church, Brereton; the Church of the Holy Spirit, Etching Hill (1881); the Church of the Good Shepherd, Pear Street Estate; and missions in Horse Fair (ca 1875-1881), Saint Mary’s mission in Rugeley (ca 1880-1916), and a misson chapel at Fairoak (ca 1882-1894).

Saint Augustine’s churchyard has been reconfigured due to the risk of subsidence and many of the grave stones now lie around the edge.

The graves and monuments in the churchyard include the headstone to Christina Collins who was murdered on a canal boat in 1839 and the grave of John Parsons Cook, the final victim of Dr William Palmer, the ‘Rugeley Poisoner’, who was convicted of murder at the Old Bailey and hanged at Stafford in 1856. But more about these stories in the days to come, perhaps, when I recall some grisly murders in Rugeley.

The marble font in Saint Augustine’s dates from 1874 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

• The Revd Cath Leighton is the Team Rector of the Benefice of Brereton and Rugeley and Armitage with Handsacre, with five churches serving 25,000 people. The Sunday services at 10:30 am in Saint Augustine’s Church alternate between Sung Worship (first and third Sundays) and Holy Communion (second and fourth Sundays), and there is Holy Communion on Thursdays at 10 am. Saint Augustine’s Day is celebrated on 26 May.

The west end of Saint Augustine’s Church, Rugeley, seen from the chancel (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

How the late 12th century Saint Augustine’s Church in Rugeley has survived as ‘The Old Chancel’

The remains of the original Saint Augustine’s Church in Rugeley, now known as the Old Chancel, date from the 12th century and include the chancel and tower (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Patrick Comerford

When I was in Rugeley this week and last week, I visited a number of churches in the area that I first got to know when I was about 19 or 20, including the old and new Saint Augustine’s Church, the ruins of the early mediaeval parish church, now known as the ‘Old Chancel’, and the early 19th century church across the street that replaced it in the 1820s; Saint Joseph and Saint Etheldreda Church; Saint Michael’s Church in Brereton; and Hawkesyard Hall and Spode House in Armitage, where the Dominicans once had a priory.

The remains of the original Saint Augustine’s Church in Rugeley, now known as the Old Chancel, date from the 12th century, when the church had just a nave and a chancel. A lady chapel was added in the 13th century, and a tower in the 14th century. A north aisle was also.

There was a church in Rugeley by 1189, when Richard I granted it with the manor to the Bishop of Lichfield but the church may have may have been built earlier ca 1150, possibly under the direction of the De Puys family who were then local landowners.

By 1192, the Bishop of Lichfield had given the church to the Dean and Chapter of Lichfield Cathedral, although the bishop reserved his episcopal rights. In 1255, the bishop exempted the church from the jurisdiction of the archdeacon, and so the dean and chapter acquired a peculiar jurisdiction.

A vicar was appointed from 1276, but the dean and chapter retained their rights. The vicarage was endowed that year with a house, lands and some of the tithes. Richard de Rugeley later granted the vicar adjoining lands and further lands were given on behalf of the Precentor of Lichfield.

An assistant priest was appointed in 1325 because the first vicar, Henry de Barton alias de Passelewe, was helpless and blind.

By 1338, the dean and chapter delegated many of their rights in the parish to the Vicar of Rugeley. In 1356 and 1357, the dean and chapter rebuked the vicar for being non-resident despite the stipulation that he must fulfil his duties personally.

The church had a number of private oratories, chantry chapels and side chapels, with their own chaplains, trustees and keepers of lights, including those endowed by William de Thomenhorn, Henry Puys, and the Chantry of Our Lady. Many of the parish endowments were provided by the Weston and Chetwynd families.

The parish registers date from 1569. From 1639 to 1646 the vicar, the Revd Richard Chapman, was non-resident and the church was served by a curate.

A floor plan of the original church, depicted on a noticeboard in the old churchyard (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

After a new parish church was built in 1822-1823, the old building was partly demolished. The chancel and the adjacent north chapel were left standing and walled up, and the west tower was left in position, but the nave and aisle were demolished apart from the arches of the arcade.

The oldest remaining part of the old church is the chancel, dating from the late 12th century. The south wall, which has a contemporary string course and a single-light window dates from this time. The window’s pointed head may be a later replacement.

The 12th century nave was probably without aisles; the eastern respond and the most easterly pier of the arcade are circular on plan and represent an early13th-century reconstruction of the nave.

The north chapel or Lady Chapel is the same length as the chancel but slightly narrower and was added in the late 13th century. The east window has three graded lancets under a single head, and there is a flat contemporary buttress at the north-east angle. The chapel is divided from the chancel by an arcade which originally consisted of two bays.

The remains of a single-light window, part of the earlier north wall of the chancel, can be seen in the spandrel between the arches. The west respond and single pier of the arcade have engaged semicircular shafts with wide fillets.

The bell capitals, undercut abaci, and double-roll bases are probably from 1250-1300. Alterations made to the chancel about this time include a trefoil-headed piscina and a two-light window with original geometrical tracery. To the west of the piscina is a large niche with a trefoil head, presumably a single sedile or seat for the priest.

The walling thar partially blocks the east arch of the arcade appears to date from the 14th century and was probably inserted to form a screen between the two altars.

The side of the chapel has a double piscina and an ogee-headed recess. The floor level of the sanctuary may originally have been higher and that this recess represents another single sedile. An oblique shaft at the back of the recess is cut through the masonry and links with a small ogee-headed opening on the west face of the wall. The wall and openings have been much restored, but if this feature is original it suggests a squint enabling a server at Mass to keep both chancel and chapel altars in view.

The priest’s door in the south wall of the chancel has a shouldered arch and may date from after the Reformation. Near it is a roughly built pyramidal buttress.

The head of a 15th or 16th century two-light window has been built into the 19th century west wall of the chancel. This window was once immediately west of the priest’s door.

There are two post-Reformation windows in the north wall of the chapel, and the east window of the chancel was formerly of the ‘churchwarden Gothic’ type, having simple interlacing tracery.

The nave arcade dates from the late 13th century (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Except at its east end, the nave arcade dates from the late 13th century and is similar to the arcade dividing chancel and chapel. It has a pointed arch at each end with two wide semicircular arches between them. The central arches are twice the width of the others, suggesting that two piers have been removed and that the arcade originally consisted of six equal bays.

The tower dates from the 14th century with boldly projecting angle buttresses and a later castellated parapet. The west face has a pointed doorway of two orders, and above it is a two-light 14th century window. Above the tower arch are the weather marks of the former nave roof, and other weather marks show that the aisle had a gabled roof.

Drawings of the church before its partial demolition show that the south nave wall continued in the same line as the chancel wall.

A large porch east of the tower had a pointed arch and angle buttresses. There may have been a short projecting aisle on the south side, with a four-bay arcade having four bays, but it was but demolished in the 17th century.

The north chapel, which was almost certainly the site of the altar dedicated to Our Lady before the dissolution of the chantries, was still known as ‘Westons’ Chancel’ in the 18th century.

Under the terms of the lease of the rectory in 1637, Walter Littleton was obliged to repair the chancel. By the 19th century the church was in a poor state of repair, it was in danger of collapse and had become too small for the growing population of Rugeley. A decision was taken in 1818 to build a new parish and a site across the street, large enough for a new burial ground, was given in 1819 by Viscount Anson, later Earl of Lichfield.

The new Saint Augustine’s Church which was built across the street in 1822-1823, and the nave, north aisle, porch and vestry of the original church were demolished in 1823, and the materials were sold to help pay for building the new church.

The east end of the chancel and the Lady Chapel, with the tomb of sisters Elizabeth Cuting and Emma Hollinhurst to the fore (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

What was left of the church was restored in 1869-1872, and stained glass was inserted in one of the chancel windows in 1883 in memory of Louisa Frances and Francis Mary Levett. Two more stained glass windows were added in 1891, one in memory of Ralph Armishaw and the other, the east chancel window by Charles Eamer Kempe, in memory of the Revd Robert Litler.

Several monuments were moved to the Lady Chapel before the nave was demolished. The monuments from the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries included many to members of the Weston family and the Landor family. They included monuments to John Weston, (1566), Ralph Weston (1605), and Richard Weston (1613), a monument to Thomas Landor (1670), and the original charity boards. Two 17th century tablets to members of the Chetwynd family (1653-1691) were moved to Grendon, Warwickshire.

Other monuments in the north chapel included an incised alabaster floor slab with part of a female figure and an incomplete inscription dated 1400. A second figure had been obliterated by wear.

The carved stone font has a 15th century design but probably dates from the late 19th century. Six bells cast in 1706 by the Rudhall family of Gloucester were later moved to the new church, where they can still be heard.

The chancel and Lady Chapel was used for many years as a Sunday school, and the surviving tower, chancel, lady chapel and four-bay nave arcade were grade II listed in 1972. But it seems they are no longer accessible to visitors.

The original Grammar School (1567-1968) stood in the grounds of what is now the Chancel Primary School.

The graveyard was landscaped in 1974 and the displaced gravestones now pave the area where the nave and north aisle once stood.

Part of a late 14th-century penitential cross in the churchyard (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Part of a late 14th-century cross is still in place in the churchyard. Before the Reformation, it served as a single memorial to everyone buried here. Much of the stepped base is now below ground level but there is a deep recess at its top where penitents would have knelt in prayer.

One of the remaining graves in the old churchyard, east of the chancel, is the joint table tomb of sisters Elizabeth Cuting and Emma Hollinhurst who died a year apart at the end of the 17th century, Elizabeth in 1695 and Emma in 1696.

Local lore says the sisters were buried alive in sacks by Oliver Cromwell – although Cromwell died 40 years previously. But more about the sisters and their supposed burial alive in the days to come, hopefully, when I recall the tales of some grisly murders in Rugeley.

The 14th century of the original Saint Augustine’s Church, with the 19th century tower of the new Saint Augustine’s Church in the background (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2025: 123, Wednesday 10 September 2025

‘Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you’ (Luke 6: 22) … the Battle of Cable Street mural in the East End, London (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar and the week began with the Twelfth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity XII, 7 September 2025). Later today, I hope to be part of a meeting of local clergy at Heron’s Lodge in Loughton. 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.

‘Woe to you who are full now, for you will be hungry’ (Luke 6: 25) … full meals at restaurants in Rethymnon in Crete (Photographs: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Luke 6: 20-26 (NRSVA):

20 Then he looked up at his disciples and said:

‘Blessed are you who are poor,
for yours is the kingdom of God.
21 ‘Blessed are you who are hungry now,
for you will be filled.
‘Blessed are you who weep now,
for you will laugh.

22 ‘Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man. 23 Rejoice on that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven; for that is what their ancestors did to the prophets.

24 ‘But woe to you who are rich,
for you have received your consolation.
25 ‘Woe to you who are full now,
for you will be hungry.
‘Woe to you who are laughing now,
for you will mourn and weep.

26 ‘Woe to you when all speak well of you, for that is what their ancestors did to the false prophets.’

‘Blessed are you who weep now …’ (Luke 6: 21) … street art in Limerick (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflection:

The typesetters’ decision to present much of the New Testament as narrative discourse has left us with little poetry in the New Testament compared with the Old Testament.

But there are poetic hymns throughout the New Testament, and Saint Luke’s Gospel has several poems that we continue to use as poems or songs in the form of liturgical canticles:

• The Song of Mary, or Magnificat (Luke 1: 46-55), part of which we read on Monday;
• The Prophecy of Zechariah, known as Benedictus (Luke 1: 68-79);
• The Song of the Heavenly Host, Gloria in Excelsis (Luke 2: 14);
• The Song of Simeon, Nunc Dimittis (Luke 2: 29-32), which inspired TS Eliot’s ‘A Song for Simeon.

Two of the best known poetic passages in the Gospels are the two accounts of the Beatitudes (Matthew 5: 3-10; Luke 6: 20-26). In this morning’s Gospel reading, Saint Luke then narrates his account of the ‘Sermon on the Mount’ (verses 20-26). He offers four beatitudes and four corresponding woes or warnings.

The word blessed (Greek μακαριοι, makarioi) also means ‘happy’ or ‘fortunate.’ Some people are blessed, happy, fortunate to be included in the Kingdom of God, others are warned of the consequences of their choices in life.

The paired blessings and warnings in today’s Gospel reading are:

• to the poor (verse 20), and to the rich (verse 24);
• to the hungry (verse 21), and to the ‘full’ (verse 25a);
• to those who weep (verse 21), and to those are laughing (verse 25);
• to those who are hated, excluded, reviled and defamed (verse 22), and those who are held in esteem (verse 26).

Saint Luke records the ‘poor’ without any qualification (verse 20), compared with Saint Matthew’s ‘poor in spirit’ (see Matthew 5: 3). In Jewish tradition, the poor and the hungry are not cursed or impure, but are deserving recipients of divine and earthly care (see Deuteronomy 11: 15; Isaiah 49: 10; Jeremiah 31: 25; Ezekiel 34: 29). The poor are to receive the Kingdom of God; the rich have their reward today in their comfortable lifestyles.

Those who are excluded are denied their right to worship in the Temple and in the synagogue. But in the past, the prophets – including Jeremiah – were hated, excluded, reviled and defamed (verse 23), while the people in power spoke well of the false prophets (verse 26; see Jeremiah 5: 31).

This Gospel reading is set within a large crowd of people who came to hear Jesus and to be healed, and that those who were troubled were cured. If the same people came to our churches today – if they came to me as a priest of the church today – would they know from how we behave – from how I behave – that Jesus cares for them, that he seeks to restore them to the fullness of life?

Poverty comes in many forms today. Exclusion and marginalisation are common experiences for many in our society. Those who hunger and who weep are not just around us, but among us, in the Church, in our community, in this society.

If you feel you are excluded or marginalised, if you know you are hungry and you are often close to tears, do you feel the rest of us in the Church do enough to see to it that you know you are counted in when it comes to the Church being a a sign of the Kingdom of God?

If you think you are financially secure, that you have enough to eat, if you have plenty of good reason to laugh and be happy, if you know people respect you and treat you properly, do you see the rest of us in the Church as a blessing to you, as an opportunity to share your blessings, to share your joys, to share your Easter faith in the Risen Christ?

Poor and rich, hungry and ‘full’, those who weep and those who laugh, the hated, excluded, reviled and defamed and those held in esteem: in Oscar Wilde’s satirical play, A Woman of No Importance (1893), Lord Illingworth observes wisely: ‘The only difference between the saint and the sinner is that every saint has a past, and every sinner has a future.’

He was probably paraphrasing a quotation popularly attributed to Saint Augustine: ‘There is no saint without a past, no sinner without a future.’

‘The only difference between the saint and the sinner is that every saint has a past, and every sinner has a future’ … Oscar Wilde or Saint Augustine? (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Wednesday 10 September 2025):

The theme this week (7 to 13 September) in Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘Cementing a Legacy’ (pp 36-37). This theme was introduced on Sunday with reflections from Rachel Weller, Communications Officer, USPG.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Wednesday 10 September 2025) invites us to pray:

God, we thank you for the partnerships that made this project possible. May USPG continue to work alongside the mission of the diocese and support its community so your glory may be known.

The Collect:

Almighty and everlasting God,
you are always more ready to hear than we to pray
and to give more than either we desire or deserve:
pour down upon us the abundance of your mercy,
forgiving us those things of which our conscience is afraid
and giving us those good things
which we are not worthy to ask
but through the merits and mediation
of Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post Communion Prayer:

God of all mercy,
in this eucharist you have set aside our sins
and given us your healing:
grant that we who are made whole in Christ
may bring that healing to this broken world,
in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

God of constant mercy,
who sent your Son to save us:
remind us of your goodness,
increase your grace within us,
that our thankfulness may grow,
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s reflections

Continued tomorrow

‘Woe to you when all speak well of you’ (Luke 6: 26) … street art in 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

Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2025: 110, Thursday 28 August 2025

‘You have one teacher, and you are all students’ (Matthew 23: 8) … ‘Teacher and Student’ (1904), J Gerberhole, burnished clay, the Old Synagogue Museum, Kraków (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar and this week began the Tenth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity X) and then the Summer bank holiday on Monday. The calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship today remembers Saint Augustine (430), Bishop of Hippo, Teacher of the Faith, whose mother, Saint Monica (387), was commemorated yesterday (27 August).

Later today, we are planning to visit London. 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 greatest among you will be your servant’ (Matthew 23: 11) … service at a table for two in Rethymnon in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Matthew 23: 8-12 (NRSVA):

[Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples:] 8 ‘But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all students. 9 And call no one your father on earth, for you have one Father – the one in heaven. 10 Nor are you to be called instructors, for you have one instructor, the Messiah. 11 The greatest among you will be your servant. 12 All who exalt themselves will be humbled, and all who humble themselves will be exalted.’

Do I need a manual, a discourse or a lecture on how to use a fork … or to love? … at a table in Piskopiano in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflection:

This morning’s Gospel reading (Matthew 23: 8-12) is part of the Gospel reading we looked at last Saturday (Matthew 23: 1-12, 23 August 2025). This morning, we hear a more general rebuke of those among the Scribes and the Pharisees who ‘do not practise what they teach’ (verse 4), who ‘do all their deeds to be seen by others’ (verse 5) and who ‘love to have the place of honour at banquets and the best seats in the synagogues, and to be greeted with respect in the market-places, and to have people call them rabbi’ (verses 6-7).

We are warned about the dangers built into loving honorific titles, such as ‘teacher,’ ‘father’ and instructor (see verses 8-10) – perhaps for me that may mean ‘Father’, ‘Canon’ and ‘Professor’ – because, of course, we are all students, we are all brothers and sisters, we are all disciples and children of God.

Yet I too am a father and have been a teacher and a tutor. Is Christ warning against the position; or is he warning against seeking honours that have not been earned?

It is a truism that parents must earn the respect of their children, not seek or demand it. Most parents have, at one time or another, said to their children: ‘Do what I tell you, not what I do.’ Needless to say, children never listen to parents when we say something so silly. All parents know, on the other hand, that actions speak louder than words.

This morning’s reading must not be understood as a general rebuke of all scribes and Pharisees, for Jesus prefaces all he says here by reminding those present that they ‘sit on Moses’ seat; therefore, do whatever they teach you and follow it’ (verses 2-3).

Perhaps this morning’s reading reflects later tensions between the Jewish synagogue and the new Christian community. But, in Christ’s own days, people expected a Pharisee to be a careful observer of the Law. Unlike the Temple priests and village elders, the Pharisees did not have a high social status.

Before the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem in the year 70 CE, the Pharisees were a relatively modest group of people without political power and they tried to live out Jewish tradition and the Torah seriously and conscientiously in their daily lives. The Pharisees saw the Law as applying not only to every aspect of public life, but to every aspect of private, domestic, daily life too.

There is a well-worn saying that advises: ‘It’s not where you start out but where you end up.’ The Pharisees started out with good intentions, but some of them ended by seeking to be great, seeking to be exalted (verses 11-12). They started out being concerned for holiness, but some ended at exclusion. They started out seeking to recognise God in all aspects of life, but some of them ended by seeking recognition at banquets and in the synagogue (verses 6-7).

Christ calls us to live in such a way that we can say to the world: ‘Do as we say and do as we do.’

As I was suggesting in my reflections last Saturday, the problem here may not so much be a conflict between words and actions, but the need to make the connection between words and actions. Words must mean what they point to, and the actions must be capable of being described in words.

Most of us, as children, learned by watching how adults behave, we learn as members of the human community. As a child, when I needed to learn how to use a fork, I did not need a lecture on the hygienic and sanitary contributions that forks have made to the benefit European lifestyles since the introduction of the fork through Byzantium and Venice to mediaeval Europe.

I did not need an engineering lecture on the practicalities and difficulties of balancing the prongs and the handle.

I would have been too young to read a delightful discussion by Judith Herrin of how the fork-using Byzantines were much more sophisticated than their western allies or rivals who ate with their hands (Judith Herrin, Byzantium – the Surprising Life of a Mediaeval Empire, London: Allen Lane, 2007).

The same principle applies to everything else. I recalled on Saturday how Andrew Davison, Regius Professor of Divinity, Oxford, points out in his contribution to Imaginative Apologetics (London: SCM Press, 2011), that the same principle applies to how we learn about everything else in life – cups, books, bicycles and so on.

He might have added love – the love of God and the love of one another.

Thinking requires language, language is a communal experience, and, as Andrew Davison points out, we learn language as members of a human community and through induction into common human practices.

We can talk about prayer, forgiveness, and most of all about love itself, to others. But if it only remains talk and has no application, then the words have no meaning.

We may say we believe in the two great commandments, but we only show we believe in them with credibility when we live them out in our lives. There must be no gap that separates what we teach and how we live out what we teach in our lives.

Saint Augustine depicted in a stained glass window by George W Walsh in Saint Augustine’s Church, Galway (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Thursday 28 August 2025):

The theme this week (24 to 30 August) in Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is been ‘From Strangers to Neighbours’ (pp 32-33) This theme was introduced on Sunday with a programme update from the Right Revd Antonio Ablon, Chaplain of Saint Catherine’s Anglican Church, Stuttgart, Germany.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Thursday 28 August 2025) invites us to pray:

God of the journey, sustain those facing hardships in foreign lands. When they feel unseen or unheard, may they be reminded that you are near. May their faith be their refuge, and may they find kindness in those they meet.

The Collect:

Merciful Lord,
who turned Augustine from his sins
to be a faithful bishop and teacher:
grant that we may follow him in penitence and discipline
till our restless hearts find their rest in you;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post Communion Prayer:

God of truth,
whose Wisdom set her table
and invited us to eat the bread and drink the wine
of the kingdom:
help us to lay aside all foolishness
and to live and walk in the way of insight,
that we may come with Augustine to the eternal feast of heaven;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s reflections

Continued tomorrow

Saint Augustine and Saint Monica, in a window by J Clarke and Sons in Holy Cross Church, Charleville, Co Cork … they are commemorated on 27 and 28 August (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