Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2026: 167, Thursday 22 October 2026

The 15th-century font with images of the Seven Sacraments and the Crucifixion in Saint Mary and All Saints’ Church, Walsingham (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Patrick Comerford

We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar, and the week began with the Twentieth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity XX, 18 October 2026).

Before the day begins, I am taking some quiet time early this morning to give thanks, and for reflection, prayer and reading 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.

‘Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth?’ (Luke 12: 51) … the Peace Globe in the nave in Norwich Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Luke 12: 49-53 (NRSVA):

[Jesus said:] 49 ‘I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! 50 I have a baptism with which to be baptized, and what stress I am under until it is completed! 51 Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division! 52 From now on, five in one household will be divided, three against two and two against three; 53 they will be divided:

father against son
and son against father,
mother against daughter
and daughter against mother,
mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law
and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.’

‘And you yourself a sword shall pierce’ … Station IV of Ken Thompson’s Stations of the Cross in Saint Mel’s Cathedral, Longford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflection:

Once again we are confronted with a Gospel reading this morning that is difficult, with its images of division and strife, shattering all our expectations of Gospel values that emphasise domestic bliss and harmony.

I cannot resist finding irony in the coincidence just two days before we mark United Nations Day and the beginning of UN Disarmament Week, while the US continues to wage an undeclared against war against Iran and is now openly facilitating Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the Gospel reading is a passage in which Jesus says: ‘Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division!’ (verse 51).

In today’s Gospel reading (Luke 12: 49-53), we hear warnings of fire on earth (verse 49), and of families and households divided and fighting each other to the death (verses 52-53). The verses that follow include images of people being blown about by the storms and tempests of the day (verses 54-56).

They are images that might have inspired ‘hellfire and brimstone’ sermons. But they have inspired too great creative and literary minds in the English language, from William Shakespeare and William Blake to TS Eliot in the Four Quartets:

This is the death of earth.

Water and fire succeed
The town, the pasture and the weed.
Water and fire deride
The sacrifice that we denied.
Water and fire shall rot
The marred foundations we forgot,
Of sanctuary and choir.
This is the death of water and fire. ( – Little Gidding)

If we dismiss these apocalyptic images because they have been hijacked by fundamentalist extremists for their own religious and political ideals, then we miss an opportunity to allow our values to challenge those ways we may be allowing our lives to drift along without questioning or examination.

Fire and water were a challenge for me earlier this year when I visited Saint Mary and All Saints’ Church, the Church of England parish church in Walsingham. I was speaking at the Ecumenical Pilgrimage in March, and I had two separate opportunities to visit the Church of England parish church.

Saint Mary and All Saints’ Church dates from the 14th and 15th centuries, and is built from flint with stone dressings. In addition to nave and chancel, there are north and south aisles and north and south transepts. The west tower has a lead needle spire. The church was destroyed in a major fire in 1961; although the original tower and north porch survived. The rest of the church was rebuilt and it is a Grade I listed, building, while the churchyard walls and gates are separately listed Grade II. The original dedication of the church was to All Saints. When Father Alfred Hope Patten (1885-1958) was appointed the Vicar in 1921, he changed the dedication to the present double dedication of Saint Mary and All Saints.

The church has a 15th-century font that illustrate the Seven Sacraments and the Crucifixion. The font survived the fire in 1961, but the 17th-century font cover did not, and the 1964 font cover is a replica of the original. The beautiful baptismal font has now been placed at the west end of the church, close to entrance. The font is a challenge to all who enter the church and is placed exactly where it should be, for Baptism is entry to the Church.

Baptism is not a naming ceremony, it is not about my individual experience, it is never a private event. It is a public event, and it incorporates me into the unity, the community of the Body of Christ.

In the Gospel reading today (Luke 12: 49-53), Christ challenges us with three themes: Fire, Baptism and Division.

In the Bible, fire can represent the presence of God – think of the pillar of fire in the wilderness (Exodus 13: 17-22) or the tongues of flame at Pentecost (Acts 2: 1-4).

It can represent judgment (see Revelation 20: 7-10), and it can represent purification – the prophets Zachariah (13: 9) and Malachi (3: 2-3) speak of the refiner’s fire in which God purifies his people, as a refiner purifies silver by fire.

At the Presentation in the Temple (Luke 2: 22-38), old Simeon foresees how the Christ Child ‘is destined for the falling and the rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be opposed so that the inward thoughts of many will be revealed – and a sword will pierce your own soul too’ (verses 34-35).

The sword that pierces the soul of the Virgin Mary, the sword that has killed the prophets, the sword the divides families, is a reminder that Christ, who embodies the presence of God, simultaneously judges and purifies.

In the New Testament, Baptism represents both judgment and purification and Saint John the Baptist connects it with fire (Luke 3: 16-17).

In this Gospel reading, however, Christ is referring not to the baptism he brings but to the baptism he receives. He not only brings the fire of judgment and purification, but he bears it himself also.

The Kingdom of God he proclaims is governed:

• not by might but by forgiveness (think of forgiveness in the Lord’s Prayer, Luke 11: 4);
• not by fear but by courage (‘be not afraid’ in Luke 1: 13, 30, 2: 10, 5: 11, 8: 50, 12: 4, 7, 32);
• not by power but by humility (see Magnificat, Luke 1: 46-55).

But it is easy to be lured by the temptations of wealth, status, power and political promises rather than the promises that come with our Baptism.

‘Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division!’ (Luke 12: 51) … Luke Perry’s sculpture of Æthelflæd in Tamworth points to Saint Editha’s Church and Tamworth Castle (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Thursday 22 October 2026):

The theme this week (18 to 24 October) in Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘Inclusive Education in Handeni’ (pp 48-49). This theme was introduced on Sunday with a programme update from Father John George Sembuyagi, Programme Lead, Diocese of Tanga, Anglican Church of Tanzania.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Thursday 22 October 2026) invites us to pray:

God of unity, we pray for your church in Handeni that it may be known as a place of welcome, where hearts and minds are open to recognise and celebrate the gifts present in every person.

The Collect of the Day:

God, the giver of life,
whose Holy Spirit wells up within your Church:
by the Spirit’s gifts equip us to live the gospel of Christ
and make us eager to do your will,
that we may share with the whole creation
the joys of eternal life;
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 our Father,
whose Son, the light unfailing,
has come from heaven to deliver the world
from the darkness of ignorance:
let these holy mysteries open the eyes of our understanding
that we may know the way of life,
and walk in it without stumbling;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

God, our light and our salvation:
illuminate our lives,
that we may see your goodness in the land of the living,
and looking on your beauty
may be changed into the likeness of Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s Reflections

Continued Tomorrow

‘I have a baptism with which to be baptized’ (Luke 12: 50) … the baptismal font in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford (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 Ordinary Time 2026: 130, Tuesday 15 September 2026

The Widow of Nain … a window by Hardman at the west end of the south aisle in Saint Mary’s Church, St Neots, Cambridgeshire (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar and the week began with the Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity XV). The calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship today (15 September 2026) remembers Saint Cyprian (258), Bishop of Carthage and 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.

The resurrection of the young man of Nain, by Lucas Cranach (1569)

Luke 7: 11-17 (NRSVA)

11 Soon afterwards he went to a town called Nain, and his disciples and a large crowd went with him. 12 As he approached the gate of the town, a man who had died was being carried out. He was his mother’s only son, and she was a widow; and with her was a large crowd from the town. 13 When the Lord saw her, he had compassion for her and said to her, ‘Do not weep.’ 14 Then he came forward and touched the bier, and the bearers stood still. And he said, ‘Young man, I say to you, rise!’ 15 The dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus[b] gave him to his mother. 16 Fear seized all of them; and they glorified God, saying, ‘A great prophet has risen among us!’ and ‘God has looked favourably on his people!’ 17 This word about him spread throughout Judea and all the surrounding country.

Jesus Raising the Widow’s Son at Nain (James Tissot, ca 1890)

Today’s Reflection:s

Funeral stories and the stories of children being raised to life, like the story in the Gospel reading this morning, are not always the most cheerful Bible readings. This reading was particularly difficult when I was preaching one Sunday morning many years ago in Saint Patrick’s Church, Donabate, north Co Dublin, when I was baptising a little baby boy.

But at the moment in the lectionary each weekday morning we are working our way through Saint Luke’s Gospel. It is full of stories about healing and wholeness. And I found myself that morning asking who does Jesus bring healing and wholeness to in this reading.

When we look at any Gospel story it is always good to ask a few basic questions, like who, what, where, when and why.

If you want to watch a movie on Netflix this evening, you would probably ask a few basic questions before making your choice:

• What’s the story all about?

• Who are the principal characters, the main actors?

• In other words, is there anything in this for me?

In a similar way, if we are to find anything in a Gospel story that not only makes it interesting but makes it relevant for me, then I suppose I could approach a Gospel reading with the same questions:

• What’s the story all about?

• Who are the main characters?

• Where’s the action?

In today’s Gospel story, there is a lot of action, and a lot of people. In fact, there are two large crowds, and the drama is created in the way they meet each other, in an unexpected and unplanned way.

The first crowd is made up of those following Jesus, who have just arrived after a long, 20-mile walk with him from Capernaum.

This group includes not just those who are his disciples. But a lot of other people too – people are there to see what he is doing, what’s going on. Like Netflix viewers after a hard day’s work, they are looking for the entertainment, looking for the drama, perhaps even hoping for a miracle or too … after all, at Capernaum they have seen him heal the centurion’s servant.

And we ought not to be too dismissive of this crowd following Jesus, or their motives. After all, that is the way a lot of people end up coming to church. They go with the flow, they like what is on offer for their children, it gives them a sense of identity. And, in coming along, they find out who Jesus really is, why it matters to follow him.

Perhaps they were expecting nothing. Perhaps they were just tired, and after a 20-mile walk are anxious about whether there are enough beds in the tiny village of Nain for them all to stay overnight.

And, unexpectedly – in a way that no-one could have planned – this large crowd bumps into another, second large crowd. Nain is called a town here, but it was more like a village, about nine or ten miles south of Nazareth. Until the mid-20th century, it had a population of less than 100 or 200, so we can imagine a tiny place in the days of Jesus.

So, one large crowd bumps into another large crowd. And it is bad news for the large crowd that has been following Jesus.

In a tiny place like Nain, to have a large crowd they must have been drawn from every house and dwelling place, every family in the village. If they are all in mourning, not only are they unlikely to be able to offer anyone bed and breakfast for the night, they probably are ritually unable to do so: a dead body, a corpse, a funeral, a burial, all make a practising, observant Jew ritually unclean.

The disciples and the other people who are following Jesus on the road from Capernaum to Nain must have taken pity on themselves. Where are they going to go tonight? What can they do? Where can they stay?

Perhaps the appeal of following Jesus, waiting for the miracle to happen, suddenly evaporated as this reality dawned on them.

Perhaps they even thought that Jesus should have pity on them, pity on their plight.

But instead, Jesus takes pity, not on them, and not even on the poor young lad who has died either. Instead, he takes pity on the boy’s widowed mother. He has compassion for her, he tells her not to weep.

However, having compassion and doing something about it make two separate sets of demands.

The love of a mother for her young son is incomparable, as people knew too that Sunday morning at the baptism in Donabate, Co Dublin.

Jesus recognises, Jesus identifies with, Jesus is consumed with, the love of this widowed, probably young widowed, mother. As a widow, left financially ruined, her only hope of survival in this world may have been in the livelihood her son would eventually attain.

She has already been widowed, now her son has died. She faces not only emotional devastation, but financial destruction and social ruin … she will have no-one to work her fields, no-one to provide an income, no-one to guarantee her safety and security.

Jesus recognises her plight … and he does something about it. First he does something that is shocking in his day, shocking behaviour for a rabbi in those days. He touches the bier, he touches the dead body. It is no wonder the bearers stood still. He has identified so much with the widow’s plight that he too becomes ritually unclean. In Christ, God’s identification with our humanity is so complete that he takes on everything about us. God so identifies with us in Christ that he even identifies with us in birth, in life, and in death.

The miracle is amazing. The fact that God identifies so much with us is even more amazing. God’s compassion should be more amazing than God’s miracles. It is because of his love and compassion in the first place that there are miracles.

No wonder the crowds, the two large crowds, all of them, are seized with fear. It is awesome.

And yet, in telling this story, Luke rises to some of his most poetic language in this Gospel.

He looks back to the words of the pregnant Mary and ageing Zechariah in the canticles Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis, when Saint Luke says they glorified God (7: 16, cf Luke 1: 47-48), when they realised a great prophet had risen among them (cf Luke 1: 69-70), when they said God has looked favourably on his people (cf Luke 1: 48), when they realised a new day had dawned. She has been shown mercy, she has been saved from the hands of her enemies, she has received the tender mercy of God.

Saint Luke looks forward to that moment when the suffering Christ meets the weeping women outside the gates of Jerusalem (Luke 23: 28-29). And he looks forward to that moment on the Cross, in Saint John’s Gospel, when the dying Jesus takes pity on his widowed mother and entrusts her and the Beloved Disciple to the mutual care of each other (John 19: 26-27).

What we are invited to be witnesses to is not some old-fashioned miracle show. That’s what the large crowd was hanging around Jesus for what the large crowd was hanging around the funeral procession for.

What we are being invited to is the realisation that in his compassion, in his actions, in his caring, Jesus shows us that God loves us, each of us individually, as a mother loves her only and precious child.

If you imagine for one moment the love that little boy who was being baptised in Donabate that morning could expect from his parents, then you can catch, just catch, a glimpse of the love that God has for each of us, individually. God loves you and God loves me as if were the only child in the world that matters … and even more than that.

This is a new dawn. That is what the promise of Baptism is: it is about dying to sin, to the old ways, rising to new life in Christ, and continuing for ever.

The raising of the son of the widow of Nain … a modern icon in a Greek Orthodox church

Today’s Prayers (Tuesday 15 September 2026):

The theme this week (13 -19 September 2026) in ‘Pray With the World Church,’ the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘Witness as With-ness’ (pp 38-39). This theme was introduced on Sunday with a reflection by the Revd Canon Dr Peniel Rajkumar, Director of Global Mission and Theologian, USPG.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Tuesday 15 September 2026) invites us to pray:

God of the margins, open my eyes to the many ‘Simons’ around me who feel unseen and unwanted. Help me to walk beside them with humility and compassion.

The Collect:

Holy God, who brought Cyprian to faith in Christ,
made him a bishop in the Church
and crowned his witness with a martyr’s death:
grant that, after his example,
we may love the Church and her teachings,
find your forgiveness within her fellowship
and so come to share the heavenly banquet
you have prepared for us;
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:

Eternal God,
who gave us this holy meal
in which we have celebrated the glory of the cross
and the victory of your martyr Cyprian:
by our communion with Christ
in his saving death and resurrection,
give us with all your saints the courage to conquer evil
and so to share the fruit of the tree of life;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

or

God our redeemer,
whose Church was strengthened by the blood of your martyr Cyprian:
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.

Yesterday’s reflections

Continued tomorrow

Saint Cyprian’s Church on Glentworth Street, Marylebone … the Church calendar remembers Saint Cyprian (258), Bishop of Carthage and Martyr, on 15 September (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

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 missed opportunity to see the Despenser Reredos, but seeing other treasures in Norwich Cathedral

The Despenser Reredos in Saint Luke’s Chapel in Norwich Cathedral (Photograph: Wikipedia/CCL)

Patrick Comerford
When we were staying in Norwich last month, I visited Norwich Cathedral once again, and still managed to miss one of the great mediaeval treasures of the cathedral – the Despenser Reredos above the altar in Saint Luke’s Chapel.

When I visited Norwich Cathedral last year, the Despenser Reredos was covered in Lenten array, so that perhaps explains why I missed seeing it once again last month, not just once, but twice.

However, I managed to see a number of other mediaeval treasures this time round, including: the reredos in the Chapel of Saint Saviour, made with panels recovered from old mediaeval rood screens; the Adoration of the Magi by Martin Schwarz in the Jesus Chapel; and the old baptismal font and the statue of Saint Felix in Saint Luke’s Chapel; as well as another modern treasure in Saint Luke’s Chapel – the Hanging Chrismatory.

Norwich Cathedral is best known for its two-storey cloisters (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Norwich Cathedral is best known for its two-storey cloisters. But the Despenser Reredos, dating from ca 1380, is one of the cathedral’s greatest treasures, its most important work of art and the only surviving mediaeval English altarpiece with scenes of Christ’s Passion.

The Despenser Reredos, also known as the Despenser Retable, was saved from destruction over the centuries because it was hidden as the underside of a table until 1847. It depicts five scenes from the life of Christ: his scourging at the pillar, Christ carrying his cross, the Crucifixion, the Resurrection and the Ascension. The scenes are painted in vivid colours on wood, and are surrounded by a rectangular frame.

The original reredos may have been located at the High Altar originally. It was probably commissioned in 1382 by Henry le Despenser, the Bishop of Norwich, after the defeat of the Peasants’ Revolt at the Battle of North Walsham in 1381. Heraldic shields around the frame may represent the families involved in suppressing the Peasants’ Revolt in East Anglia, or who contributed to the cost of producing the piece.

An alternative theory suggests it was commissioned to mark the visit to Norwich by King Richard II and his queen Anne of Bohemia in 1383.

Albert Way, a local historian, and the art historian Matthew Digby Wyatt believed the altarpiece came from Italy. However, its origins remain uncertain. At first, experts thought it was of Italian or German origin, but later specialists believed it was influenced by French or Bohemian craftsmen. The English antiquarian William Henry St John Hope in 1898 described it as an example of ‘genuine English art’, and suggested it had been made in Norwich, was commissioned by Bishop Despenser at the time of the Peasants’ Revolt.

The panels are similar to those in another church in Norwich, Saint Michael-at-Plea, but experts have not been able to conclude from this that it was made locally. The historian David King concludes that the origin of the reredos cannot be ascertained by the style of the panels. On the other hand, the mediaeval art historian Pamela Tudor-Craig wrote that there is evidence that the reredos was ‘executed by local craftsmen’.

The mediaevalist Sarah Beckwith has argued that the commission was directly related to the insurrection in the manner of an object lesson, suggesting that ‘the peasants who had dared, albeit abortively, to contest their ordained position in the social hierarchy and whose revolutionary gestures were based on an identification with Christ, are once again shown a story, a story they already know very well.’

Early morning at Norwich Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

During the English Civil war, many religious works of art were kept secret to save them from the Puritan armies and the reredos was removed, turned upside down and used as a tabletop, with the paintings concealed underneath. The upper part, including part of the central figure of Jesus, was sawn off by carpenters who made the table top, and the four corners were cut out to allow table legs to be inserted.

The converted table was kept for years in an upper room, with the altarpiece paintings hidden underneath. The reredos remained lost until 1847, when it was accidentally rediscovered, supposedly when someone dropped something that rolled underneath the table. After its discovery, the reredos was displayed in a glass case in the south ambulatory.

The panels and frame and the vibrant colours were restored by Pauline Plummer in 1958, and since then the reredos has been used once again as an altarpiece in Saint Luke’s Chapel.

The reredos in Saint Saviour’s Chapel is made with panels recovered from mediaeval rood screens (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Another reredos in Norwich Cathedral is to be seen in Saint Saviour’s Chapel, the chapel of the Royal Norfolk Regiment and Royal Anglian Regiment. This memorial space at the east end of the cathedral is on the site of the 13th century Lady Chapel that was demolished in the late 16th century.

The architect Sir Charles Nicholson (1867-1949) designed Saint Saviour’s Chapel in 1930-1932. The reredos in the chapel is made with panels recovered from old mediaeval rood screens.

Nicholson’s other work on Anglican cathedrals includes the west front of Saint Anne’s Cathedral, Belfast, where he was the cathedral architect in 1924-1948), additions to Chelmsford Cathedral, and the reconstruction of Portsmouth Cathedral. His internal restorations were carried out at Brecon, Carlisle, Exeter, Leicester, Lichfield, Lincoln, Llandaff, Manchester, Salisbury, Wakefield, Wells and Winchester.

Martin Schwarz’s ‘Adoration of the Magi’ … a late mediaeval painting in the Jesus Chapel (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Martin Schwarz’s ‘Adoration of the Magi’ is a late mediaeval painting in the Jesus Chapel. The painting may have been created in the late 15th or early 16th century as part of a triptych and shows the three Magi brining their gifts to the Christ Child. The figures may have been modelled on contemporary merchants and noblemen who commissioned the work, while the gifts of the Magi are depicted as intricate gold and silver pieces.

Modern wooden panels on either side of the painting quote Latin texts from the Epiphany service: Omnes de saba venient (‘They will all come from the East’, Isaiah 60: 6) … the passage continues: ‘They shall bring gold and frankincense, and shall proclaim the praise of the Lord; and Omnis Terra Adoret Te (‘All the earth worships you’, Psalm 66: 4).

The Hanging Chrismatory in Saint Luke’s Chapel was designed by Henry Freeland and Rupert Harris (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Saint Luke’s Chapel, where the Despenser Reredos now stands behind the altar, was formerly dedicated to Saint John the Baptist, and has served as the parish church of Saint-Mary-in-the-Marsh since the 16th century.

The 15th century baptismal font in Saint Luke’s Chapel is a Seven Sacrament font, although the details and figures are difficult to make out due to the destructive and damage actions of iconoclasts and neglect over the centuries.

The Hanging Chrismatory in Saint Luke’s Chapel hangs directly above the baptismal font. It is a silver-gilt and glass vessel that holds the three holy oils and designed by Henry Freeland, the cathedral architect, and Rupert Harris, a conservator and restorer. Norwich Cathedral is believed to be unique in having the oils suspended in the manner of a ‘hanging pyx’ for the Blessed Sacrament.

Each vessel has its own distinctive marking that indicates the oil’s particular use:

IO, Oleum Infirmorum: the oil for anointing the sick and the dying. This oil is used to invoke God’s healing of body, mind and spirit.

OC, Oleum Catechumenorum: the oil for signing with the cross at Baptism. This oil is used immediately after Baptism to invoke God’s protection and to affirm our belonging to Christ.

SC, Sacrum Chrisma: the oil of chrism. This oil is used immediately after Baptism, at Confirmation, at the ordination of priests and at the consecration of bishops, to invoke God’s blessing on our life and work as faithful disciples in God’s kingdom.

The stone effigy outside Saint Luke’s Chapel is now said to represent Saint Felix, who brought Christianity to East Anglia (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

A stone effigy on the wall just outside Saint Luke’s Chapel was originally thought to depict Bishop Herbert de Lonsinga, the founder of the cathedral. But experts now suggest although it was commissioned by Bishop Herbert de Lonsinga it represents Saint Felix, who is said to have brought Christianity to East Anglia.

Saint Felix was the first bishop of the Kingdom of the East Angles when England was divided into several kingdoms. He is credited with introducing Christianity to the East Angles and so freeing ‘the whole kingdom from long-standing evil and unhappiness’, according to the Venerable Bede in his Ecclesiastical History of the English People.

Initially, the statue stood in a niche outside the bishop’s door in the north transept, and was brought to its present location in 1969.

Lent begins next week on Ash Wednesday, and the Despenser Reredos will be covered in Lenten array again until Easter. It may be some time before I have another opportunity to see the most important work of art in Norwich Cathedral and the only surviving mediaeval English altarpiece.

Saint Saviour’s Chapel was designed by the architect Sir Charles Nicholson in 1930-1932 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Daily prayer in Christmas 2025-2026: 18, Sunday 11 January 2026, First Sunday of Epiphany (Epiphany I)

The Baptism of Christ by Saint John the Baptist … an icon cross by Alexandra Kaouki for last Tuesday’s celebrations of Theophany or Epiphany in Rethymnon in Crete (© Αλεξανδρα Καουκι, 2026)

Patrick Comerford

The 40-day season of Christmas continues until Candlemas or the Feast of the Presentation (2 February), and today is the First Sunday of Epiphany (Epiphany I). Later this morning, I hope to sing with the choir at the Parish Eucharist in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford.

Before today begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, to reflect, to pray and to read in these ways:

1, today’s Gospel reading;

2, a short reflection;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

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

An icon of the Baptism of Christ, worked on a cut of olive wood by Eleftheria Syrianoglou, in an exhibition in the Fortezza in Rethymnon in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Matthew 3: 13-17 (NRSVA):

13 Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan, to be baptized by him. 14 John would have prevented him, saying, ‘I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?’ 15 But Jesus answered him, ‘Let it be so now; for it is proper for us in this way to fulfil all righteousness.’ Then he consented. 16 And when Jesus had been baptized, just as he came up from the water, suddenly the heavens were opened to him and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. 17 And a voice from heaven said, ‘This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.’

‘Will you strive for justice and peace … and respect the dignity of every human being?’ … a reminder of the Baptismal Covenant in the Episcopal Church during a protest in the US

Today’s Reflections:

The three traditional events in the life of Christ that are associated with Epiphany are:

1, The visit of the Magi (Matthew 2: 1-12), which we recalled on Tuesday (6 January), and which was read in many churches last Sunday (4 January).

2, The Baptism of Christ by Saint John the Baptist in the River Jordan, which we read about today (Epiphany I, 11 January 2026, Matthew 3: 13-17) and next Sunday (Epiphany II, John 1: 29-42, 18 January 2026).

3, The miracle at the Wedding at Cana, which we read about in two weeks time (Epiphany IV, 1 February 2026, John 2: 1-11).

Today’s Gospel reading this morning (Matthew 3: 13-17) tells us of the Baptism of Christ in the River Jordan by Saint John the Baptist. It marks the beginning of Christ’s public ministry, but it also presents Christ as the fulfilment of the Law and the prophets and presenting this Epiphany event as a new creation.

This is a Sunday that is also an appropriate opportunity, at the beginning of a new year, to think about the meaning of our own Baptismal promises, and many churches and parishes include the renewal of these Baptismal promises in today’s services.

Saint John the Baptist is at the River Jordan, calling the people to repentance, to turn back to God’s ways, to return the way of life to which the people committed themselves in the Covenant with God.

And this leads us to the Baptism of Christ, which is an Epiphany or Theophany moment, and it is a Trinitarian moment.

At first, Saint John tries to dissuade Christ from being baptised. But Christ insists, he wishes to fulfil the Father’s will; this Baptism shows Christ’s continuity with God’s will that has been revealed through the Law and the Prophets.

The words spoken by the voice from heaven, ‘This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased’ (verse 17), sound like the words of Isaiah at the opening of the first reading (Isaiah 42: 1-9): ‘Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights’ (Isaiah 42: 1).

Christ is the Suffering Servant, the messenger of God, who will suffer for others. He is God’s Son, chosen for ministry to God’s people, and he prepares his people for the coming crisis.

In this Gospel story, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit come together, acting as one, with distinctive personal roles: when Christ is baptised, heaven opens, the Holy Spirit descends upon Christ ‘in bodily form like a dove.’ And the voice of the Father comes from heaven declaring: ‘This is my Son, the Beloved; with whom I am well pleased’ (Matthew 3: 17).

This Gospel reading is also the story of a new beginning in every sense of the meaning.

After the waters are parted, and Christ emerges, just as the waters are separated, earth and water are separated, and then human life emerges as in the Creation story in Genesis (see Genesis 1: 1 to 2: 3).

Here too the Holy Spirit appears over the waters (see Genesis 1: 2), and God says ‘I am well pleased,’ just as God sees that every moment of creation is good (see Genesis 1: 4, 10, 12, 18, 21, 25) and with the creation of humanity it becomes ‘very good.’

Saint John tells the people that the Kingdom of God is near, that the time has come for the fulfilment of God’s promises to people. A new era is arriving, when God rules.

This morning’s Gospel story is also a reminder of our own Baptisms, and it is the story of a new creation.

The Baptism of Christ is about new beginnings for each of us individually and for us collectively as members of the Body of Christ, the Church.

But this Gospel reading also poses two sets of questions for me.

My first set of questions begins by asking:

• What would a parting of the waters and the promise of a new beginning, a new creation, mean for us today?

• Do we believe that what God has made is ‘very good’?

• Are we responsible when it comes to the care of the creation that has been entrusted to us?

And my second set of questions begins:

• What would a parting of the waters and the promise of a new beginning mean for people caught as refugees in the English Channel between France and England in this winter weather or in the cold waters of the Mediterranean?

• Would they be able to believe in the hope that is offered at Epiphany?

It is at the very end of the creation cycle, after the creation and separation of the waters, when God has created us in human form, that God pronounces not just that all is good, but that all is very good.

In our Baptism promises, we not only affirm our faith in God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, but we also promise to be faithful in our prayer life, in our sacramental life, as members of the Church and the Body of Christ, to resist evil, to show our faith in word and deed, to serve all people, to love our neighbours as ourselves, to pray for the world and its leaders, to defend the weak and to seek peace and justice.

In our promises at Baptism, we take responsibility for creation and for humanity. Those responsibilities are inseparable. They are at the heart of the Epiphany stories if we show that we truly believe that the best is yet to come.

The Baptism of Christ by Saint John the Baptist … a fifth century mosaic in the Neonian Baptistry in Ravenna (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Sunday 11 January 2026, Epiphany I):

The theme this week (11-17 January 2026) in Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘Gaza Crisis Response’ (pp 18-19). This theme is introduced today with a Programme Update from the Diocese of Jerusalem:

Walid, a young man from Tubas, a small village near Nablus, arrived at Saint Luke’s Hospital in visible distress. He was suffering from intense abdominal pain and laboured breathing. On clinical examination, signs pointed to an urgent and serious condition.

But Walid’s struggle wasn’t only medical. Due to the ongoing war in Gaza, he had recently lost his job. He came not just in need of medical care, but also seeking mercy – pleading for exemption from the costs of the life-saving surgery he could not afford. Moved by his situation, the hospital administration waived the fees, an operation was provided free of charge. Thanks to timely intervention and the dedication of our surgical team, Walid made a swift recovery.

In the words of one of the doctors: ‘The patients in need know that this Christian hospital will give them support without discrimination. This is our Christian mission. We never send any patient away.’ This story, like many others that USPG receives through our partners in the Diocese of Jerusalem, is a sign of the power of a simple act of humanity.

USPG is part of an Anglican coalition supporting hospitals like Al Ahli in Gaza and Saint Luke’s in the West Bank. We invite you to join us in prayerful solidarity or consider giving at uspg.org.uk

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Sunday 11 January 2026, Epiphany I) invites us to read and meditate on Matthew 3: 13-17.

The Collect of the Day:

Eternal Father,
who at the baptism of Jesus
revealed him to be your Son,
anointing him with the Holy Spirit:
Grant to us, who are born of water and the Spirit,
that we may be faithful to our calling as your adopted children;
through 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:

Lord of all time and eternity,
you opened the heavens and revealed yourself as Father
in the baptism of Jesus your beloved Son:
by the power of your Spirit
complete the heavenly work of our rebirth
through the waters of the new creation;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

Heavenly Father,
at the Jordan you revealed Jesus as your Son:
may we recognize him as our Lord
and know ourselves to be your beloved children;
through Jesus Christ our Saviour.

Yesterday’s Reflections

Continued Tomorrow

When Jesus had been baptized … the heavens were opened to him and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him (Matthew 3: 16) … a fresco in a church in Maroulas, near Rethymnon in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org

Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2025: 164, Thursday 23 October 2025

‘I have a baptism with which to be baptized’ (Luke 12: 50) … the font in Saint Mel’s Cathedral, Longford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar, and the week began with the Eighteenth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity XVIII).

Before the day begins, I am taking some quiet time early this morning to give thanks, and for reflection, prayer and reading 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.

‘Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth?’ (Luke 12: 51) … a sculpture beneath the Fortezza in Rethymnon in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Luke 12: 49-53 (NRSVA):

[Jesus said:] 49 ‘I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! 50 I have a baptism with which to be baptized, and what stress I am under until it is completed! 51 Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division! 52 From now on, five in one household will be divided, three against two and two against three; 53 they will be divided:

father against son
and son against father,
mother against daughter
and daughter against mother,
mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law
and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.’

‘And you yourself a sword shall pierce’ … Station IV of Ken Thompson’s Stations of the Cross in Saint Mel’s Cathedral, Longford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflection:

Once again we are confronted with a Gospel reading this morning that is difficult, with its images of division and strife, shattering all our expectations of Gospel values that emphasise domestic bliss and harmony.

I cannot resist finding irony in the coincidence that the day before we mark United Nations Day and the beginning of UN Disarmament Week, the Gospel reading is a passage in which Jesus says: ‘Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division!’ (verse 51).

In today’s Gospel reading (Luke 12: 49-53), we hear warnings of fire on earth (verse 49), and of families and households divided and fighting each other to the death (verses 52-53). The verses that follow include images of people being blown about by the storms and tempests of the day (verses 54-56).

They are images that might have inspired ‘hellfire and brimstone’ sermons. But they have inspired too great creative and literary minds in the English language, from William Shakespeare and William Blake to TS Eliot in the Four Quartets:

This is the death of earth.

Water and fire succeed
The town, the pasture and the weed.
Water and fire deride
The sacrifice that we denied.
Water and fire shall rot
The marred foundations we forgot,
Of sanctuary and choir.
This is the death of water and fire. ( – Little Gidding)

If we dismiss these apocalyptic images because they have been hijacked by fundamentalist extremists for their own religious and political ideals, then we miss an opportunity to allow our values to challenge those ways we may be allowing our lives to drift along without questioning or examination.

Fire and water were a challenge for me a few years ago during a visit to Longford. One afternoon, as part of a church history ‘field trip’ from the Church of Ireland Theological Institute, three of us went to see the restoration work at Saint Mel’s Cathedral in Longford.

The cathedral was destroyed in a blazing fire early on Christmas morning in 2009, but was restored and rebuilt so beautifully that it has been voted Ireland’s favourite building.

Outside, it still looks like a grey, classical revival, fortress-style cathedral. But inside it is filled with light and joy. It has risen from the ashes, and its restoration is truly a story of redemption and resurrection.

As we walked into the cathedral, I was overwhelmed by the beautiful baptismal font that has been placed at the main entrance door to the cathedral.

The font was sculpted by Tom Glendon and the blue mosaic work by Laura O’Hagan is a creative representation of the Water of Life.

This font is a challenge to all who enter the church and is placed exactly where it should be, for Baptism is entry to the Church.

Baptism is not a naming ceremony, it is not about my individual experience, it is never a private event. It is a public event, and it incorporates me into the unity, the community of the Body of Christ.

In the Gospel reading today (Luke 12: 49-53), Christ challenges us with three themes: Fire, Baptism and Division.

In the Bible, fire can represent the presence of God – think of the pillar of fire in the wilderness (Exodus 13: 17-22) or the tongues of flame at Pentecost (Acts 2: 1-4).

It can represent judgment (see Revelation 20: 7-10), and it can represent purification – the prophets Zachariah (13: 9) and Malachi (3: 2-3) speak of the refiner’s fire in which God purifies his people, as a refiner purifies silver by fire.

At the Presentation in the Temple (Luke 2: 22-38), old Simeon foresees how the Christ Child ‘is destined for the falling and the rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be opposed so that the inward thoughts of many will be revealed – and a sword will pierce your own soul too’ (verses 34-35).

The sword that pierces the soul of the Virgin Mary, the sword that has killed the prophets, the sword the divides families, is a reminder that Christ, who embodies the presence of God, simultaneously judges and purifies.

In the New Testament, Baptism represents both judgment and purification and Saint John the Baptist connects it with fire (Luke 3: 16-17).

In this Gospel reading, however, Christ is referring not to the baptism he brings but to the baptism he receives. He not only brings the fire of judgment and purification, but he bears it himself also.

The Kingdom of God he proclaims is governed:

• not by might but by forgiveness (think of forgiveness in the Lord’s Prayer, Luke 11: 4);
• not by fear but by courage (‘be not afraid’ in Luke 1: 13, 30, 2: 10, 5: 11, 8: 50, 12: 4, 7, 32);
• not by power but by humility (see Magnificat, Luke 1: 46-55).

But it is easy to be lured by the temptations of wealth, status, and power rather than the promises that come with our Baptism.

‘Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division!’ (Luke 12: 51) … Luke Perry’s sculpture of Æthelflæd in Tamworth points to Saint Editha’s Church and Tamworth Castle (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Thursday 23 October 2025):

My prayers this morning include prayers that the prayers Pope Leo and King Charles share in Rome later today lead to closer links between the Roman Catholic Church and the member churches of the Anglican Communion, mutual respect, recognition and co-operation, so that dialogue may eventually bring hope for mutual inter-communion, perhaps even in my own lifetime.

The theme this week (19 to 25 October) in Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘Advancing Theological Education for Young Women in Africa’ (pp 48-49). This theme was introduced on Sunday with reflections from Esmeralda (Essie) Pato, Chair of the Communion-Wide Advisory Group for USPG; she is based in Johannesburg, South Africa.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Thursday 23 October 2025) invites us to pray:

Lord, thank you for USPG’s commitment to investing in theological education. Bless all those who are supported through these scholarships, that they may grow in knowledge and faith to serve your kingdom.

The Collect:

Almighty and everlasting God,
increase in us your gift of faith
that, forsaking what lies behind
and reaching out to that which is before,
we may run the way of your commandments
and win the crown of everlasting joy;
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:

We praise and thank you, O Christ, for this sacred feast:
for here we receive you,
here the memory of your passion is renewed,
here our minds are filled with grace,
and here a pledge of future glory is given,
when we shall feast at that table where you reign
with all your saints for ever.

Additional Collect:

God, our judge and saviour,
teach us to be open to your truth
and to trust in your love,
that we may live each day
with confidence in the salvation which is given
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s Reflections

Continued Tomorrow

‘I have a baptism with which to be baptized’ (Luke 12: 50) … the font in Saint Giles’s Church, London (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

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: 117, Thursday 4 September 2025

The Miraculous Draught of Fish … a fresco in the Church of Saint Konstantinos and Saint Eleni in Rethymnon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025; click on image for full-screen view)

Patrick Comerford

We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar and the week began with the Eleventh Sunday after Trinity (Trinity XI, 31 August 2025). The Season of Creation began on Monday (1 September 2025), and it continues until 4 October.

Today, the Calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship remembers Saint Birinus (650), Bishop of Dorchester (Diocese of Oxford), and Apostle of Wessex.

Later this morning, I hope to attend a Baptism in Calverton and the mid-week Eucharist in All Saints’ Church, Calverton. 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 Miraculous Draught of Fish … a window by Heaton, Butler and Bayne in Saint Mary’s Church, St Neots, Cambridgeshire (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Luke 5: 1-11 (NRSVA):

1 Once while Jesus was standing beside the lake of Gennesaret, and the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, 2 he saw two boats there at the shore of the lake; the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. 3 He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little way from the shore. Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat. 4 When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, ‘Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.’ 5 Simon answered, ‘Master, we have worked all night long but have caught nothing. Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets.’ 6 When they had done this, they caught so many fish that their nets were beginning to break. 7 So they signalled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both boats, so that they began to sink. 8 But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, ‘Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!’ 9 For he and all who were with him were amazed at the catch of fish that they had taken; 10 and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. Then Jesus said to Simon, ‘Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching people.’ 11 When they had brought their boats to shore, they left everything and followed him.

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 Reflection:

As I prepare to attend today’s baptism in Calverton, I find myself asking whether we ever ask whether we are worthy of the call of Christ – the call to follow him, the call to be a disciple, the call that was first answered for us, on our behalf, at our own baptism?

There are times when I have to question my worthiness to be priest. I am not a priest because I think it is my right to be one, or because I thought at one stage this would be a good career move. I am a priest because, despite my resistance to the call over many years, I believe God called me – called me many years ago, more than 50 years ago, at the age of 19.

This morning, in the Gospel reading (Luke 5: 1-11), we hear how the renewed call to some of the disciples, including Peter, James and John, come not to them because they are worthy of this call, or have inherited a call, or have a right to speak on God’s behalf.

Peter, James and John are called not only to speak on Christ’s behalf, but to do what he commands and to follow him. In his response, Simon Peter expresses his feelings of inadequacy and unworthiness, yet accepts the call to speak in Christ’s name, unconditionally and in faith.

Our Baptism has ethical implications for our discipleship: in the community of the baptised, ethnic and social barriers are shattered, for ‘Christ is all and in all.’

In our Gospel story, we hear a story of commitment to Christ, to his message and to discipleship. Christ calls Simon or Simon Peter to be a disciple, promising him he is to be a ‘fisher of men,’ and Peter, James and John leave everything and follow Christ.

This story begins by the ‘lake of Gennesaret,’ on the south-west shore of the Sea of Galilee. The crowd is pressing in to hear Christ, the Word of God, preach the ‘word of God’ or the Christian message.

Christ gets into the boat with Simon Peter. There are two boats in this episode, and James and John are also fishing in one of the boats.

They not only listen to Christ, but they do what he tells them to do, and they are amazed at the consequences. Simon Peter acknowledges Jesus as ‘Master’ or teacher, and responds by falling down before Jesus in humility, pointing to himself as a sinful man, and calling Jesus ‘Lord,’ which becomes an expression of faith.

Peter, James and John make a total commitment to Christ, leave everything, and follow him.

In Christian art, the boat is often used as an image of the Church, while the fish is an image of Christ.

In the Early Church, the fish came to symbolise Christ because the Greek word Ichthus (ΙΧΘΥΣ), meaning ‘fish’, is an acrostic for Ἰησοῦς Χριστός, Θεοῦ Υἱός, Σωτήρ, ‘Jesus Christ, Son of God, Saviour.’

Some years ago, when I was visiting Kaş, a pretty town on the south coast of Turkey, I visited the former Church of the Annunciation. Kaş had once been a Greek-majority town known as Andifli, but the Greek ethnic community was expelled in 1923 in one of the early examples of ‘ethnic cleansing’ in 20th century Europe.

For 40 years, the Church of the Annunciation on the acropolis or hilltop above the town lay deserted and crumbling. But in 1963, 40 years after these people were expelled from Andifli, their former parish church was requisitioned as a mosque, and – despite its age – was renamed Yeni Cami (New Mosque). A minaret was added, along with a fountain with a quotation in Turkish, rather than Arabic, from the Quran: ‘We made from water every living thing’ (Surat al-Anbiyya, the Prophets, 21: 30).

Inside, the church was aligned facing east, a new mihrab or prayer niche facing Mecca and a minbar (pulpit) were inserted into the south wall, the frescoes were stripped away and the icon screen was removed. All obvious Christian symbols, including crosses, were picked out of the hoklakia or pebble mosaic in the courtyard. But no-one noticed the significance of the fish, symbolising the Greek word Ichthus (ΙΧΘΥΣ), so that dozens of fish symbolising Christ and the Christian faith are still scattered though this pebble mosaic.

This is, truly, the story of the ‘big fish that got away.’

Have you ever spoken of someone or some thing as a ‘good catch’? A person you had an emotional or romantic interest in? A job you wanted? A house you wanted to buy?

Can you imagine how Christ sees you as ‘a good catch’?

If the Church is the agent of Christ, do we do a good job in drawing in his ‘good catch’?

Are we trusting enough to do what he asks us to do as his disciples?

And are we trusting enough to know that he sees you, you and me, as ‘good catches’?

But there are more and more ‘good catches’ that he wants us to draw into the boat, into the Church. And the way to do this is to listen to what he says and what he asks us to do. ‘When they had brought their boats to shore, they left everything and followed him’ (Luke 5: 11).

What he has been asking us to do in the readings this week – what he asked us to in his reading from the Prophet Isaiah, which we read as the Gospel reading on Monday morning (Luke 4: 16-30, 1 September 2025) are:

• to bring good news to the poor
• to proclaim release to the captives
• to proclaim recovery of sight to the blind
• to let the oppressed go free
• to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.

The Ichthus symbol remains discreetly unnoticed in the pebble mosaic of the former church courtyard in Kaş (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Thursday 4 September 2025):

The theme this week (31 August to 6 September) in Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘A Faith that Listens and Grows’ (pp 34-35). This theme was introduced on Sunday with reflections from Soshi Kawashima, Seminarian, Diocese of Chubu, Nippon Sei Ko Kai (Anglican Church in Japan). Soshi took part in the Emerging Leaders Academy (ELA), a cross-cultural learning opportunity for young people across the Anglican Communion.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Thursday 4 September 2025) invites us to pray:

Lord God, we pray your blessing on the previous cohort of the Emerging Leaders Academy who continue to serve you around the world – from Japan to Papua New Guinea.

The Collect:

O God, you declare your almighty power
most chiefly in showing mercy and pity:
mercifully grant to us such a measure of your grace,
that we, running the way of your commandments,
may receive your gracious promises,
and be made partakers of your heavenly treasure; 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 of all mercy,
we your faithful people have celebrated that one true sacrifice
which takes away our sins and brings pardon and peace:
by our communion
keep us firm on the foundation of the gospel
and preserve us from all sin;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

God of glory,
the end of our searching,
help us to lay aside
all that prevents us from seeking your kingdom,
and to give all that we have
to gain the pearl beyond all price,
through our Saviour Jesus Christ.

Yesterday’s reflections

Continued tomorrow

‘When they had brought their boats to shore, they left everything and followed him’ (Luke 5: 11) … fishing boats on a shore at Mount Athos (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 stained glass depiction in Saint Birinus Church, Dorchester, of Saint Birinus baptising King Cynegils at a font

Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2025: 100, Sunday 17 August 2025, Ninth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity IX)

‘When you see a cloud rising in the west, you immediately say, “It is going to rain”; and so it happens’ (Luke 12: 54) … evening clouds above Saint Paul’s Cathedral and the River Thames in London (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Patrick Comerford

We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar and today is the Ninth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity IX).

Later this morning, I hope to attend 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, 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.

‘End of the beach’ at Platanias in Rethymnon … but do we know how to read the signs of the end of the times? (see Luke 12: 54-56) (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Luke 12: 49-56 (NRSVA):

[Jesus said to his disciples:]

49 ‘I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! 50 I have a baptism with which to be baptized, and what stress I am under until it is completed! 51 Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division! 52 From now on, five in one household will be divided, three against two and two against three; 53 they will be divided:

father against son
and son against father,
mother against daughter
and daughter against mother,
mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law
and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.’

54 He also said to the crowds, ‘When you see a cloud rising in the west, you immediately say, “It is going to rain”; and so it happens. 55 And when you see the south wind blowing, you say, “There will be scorching heat”; and it happens. 56 You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky, but why do you not know how to interpret the present time?’

‘I have a baptism with which to be baptized’ (Luke 12: 50) … the font in Saint Mel’s Cathedral, Longford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflection:

When I was a student at the Irish School of Ecumenics in the early 1980s, we all had to do a residential placement in Northern Ireland in a church that was in a tradition other than our own. I spent time with Shankill Road Methodist Church in Belfast, while others went to Roman Catholic, Presbyterian or Anglican churches.

One Anglican student, a priest from Barbados, was placed with the Redemptorists in Clonard Monastery.

As his placement came to end, there was one experience he had not yet explored. On his last Sunday evening, he went to hear Ian Paisley preach in the Martyrs’ Memorial Church on Ravenhill Road.

When he returned to Clonard Monastery, unscathed, an old priest asked him, tongue in cheek, ‘Well, did the Big Man give you an old-style Redemptorist sermon filled with hellfire and brimstone?’

Perhaps this is the sort of sermon some people may expect in churches this morning with the lectionary readings.

The Prophet Isaiah, in words that echo the Psalm, speaks of vineyards that yield only wild grapes (verses 2, 4); breaking and trampling down walls (verse 4); vines giving way to briars and thorns (verse 6); bloodshed instead of justice, a cry instead of righteousness (verse 7).

The Epistle reading speaks of mockings and floggings (verse 36), chains and jails (Hebrews 11: 36), prophets being stoned to death, sawn in two and killed by the sword (verse 37), or wandering in deserts and mountains, hiding in caves and holes (verse 38).

And then, we hear the warnings in the Gospel reading of fire on earth (verse 49), families and households divided and fighting each other to the death (verses 52-53), people being blown about by the storms and tempests of the day (verses 54-56).

They are images that might have inspired Ian Paisley’s sermons. But they have inspired too great creative and literary minds in the English language, from William Shakespeare and William Blake to TS Eliot in the Four Quartets:

This is the death of earth.

Water and fire succeed
The town, the pasture and the weed.
Water and fire deride
The sacrifice that we denied.
Water and fire shall rot
The marred foundations we forgot,
Of sanctuary and choir.
This is the death of water and fire. ( – Little Gidding)

If we dismiss these apocalyptic images because they have been hijacked by fundamentalist extremists, for their own religious and political ideals, then we miss an opportunity to allow our values to challenge those ways we may be allowing our lives to drift along without question or examination.

Fire and water were a challenge for me some years ago during a visit to Longford. One Sunday afternoon, three of us headed off from the Church of Theological Institute in Dublin on what we had come to call our church history ‘field trips.’ We wanted to see the completed restoration work at Saint Mel’s Cathedral.

The cathedral was destroyed in a blazing fire early on Christmas morning 2009, but was restored and rebuilt so beautifully that it has been voted Ireland’s favourite building.

Outside, it still looks like a grey, classical revival, fortress-like cathedral. But inside it is filled with light and joy. It has risen from the ashes, and its restoration is truly a story of redemption and resurrection.

As we walked into the cathedral, I was overwhelmed by the beautiful baptismal font that has been placed at the main entrance door to the cathedral. The font was sculpted by Tom Glendon and the blue mosaic work by Laura O’Hagan is a creative representation of the Water of Life.

This font is a challenge to all who enter the church and is placed exactly where it should be, for Baptism is entry to the Church.

Baptism is not a naming ceremony, it is not about my individual experience, it is never a private event. It is a public event, and it incorporates me into the unity, the community of the Body of Christ.

In this Gospel reading, Christ challenges us with three themes: Fire, Baptism and Division.

In the Bible, fire can represent the presence of God – think of the pillar of fire in the wilderness (Exodus 13: 17-22) or the tongues of flame at Pentecost (Acts 2: 1-4).

It can represent judgment (see Revelation 20: 7-10), and it can represent purification – the prophets Zachariah (13: 9) and Malachi (3: 2-3) speak of the refiner’s fire in which God purifies his people, as a refiner purifies silver by fire.

At the Presentation in the Temple (Luke 2: 22-38), old Simeon foresees how the Christ Child ‘is destined for the falling and the rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be opposed so that the inward thoughts of many will be revealed – and a sword will pierce your own soul too’ (verses 34-35).

The sword that pierces the soul of the Virgin Mary, the sword that has killed the prophets, the sword the divides families, is a reminder that Christ, who embodies the presence of God, simultaneously judges and purifies.

In the New Testament, Baptism represents both judgment and purification and Saint John the Baptist connects it with fire (Luke 3: 16-17).

In today’s Gospel reading, however, Christ is referring not to the baptism he brings but to the baptism he receives. He not only brings the fire of judgment and purification, but he bears it himself also.

The Kingdom of God he proclaims is governed:

• not by might but by forgiveness (think of forgiveness in the Lord’s Prayer, Luke 11: 4);
• not by fear but by courage (‘be not afraid’ in Luke 1: 13, 30, 2: 10, 5: 11, 8: 50, 12: 4, 7, 32);
• not by power but by humility (see Magnificat, Luke 1: 46-55).

But it is easy to be lured by the temptations of wealth, status, and power rather than the promises that come with our Baptism.

In the second half of the Gospel reading, Christ chides the crowd for not recognising the signs he bears. They know how to forecast the weather, but they cannot forecast, watch for the signs of, the coming Kingdom of God.

There is a fashion in the Church today for ‘fresh expressions of the Church’ that blow where the wind blows. They seek to be fashionable and claim that they are relevant.

Sometimes, you may not know whether you are in a coffee shop or in a church, whether you are in the guiding hands of a barista or of a priest. The old forms of church have been abandoned, and with it we may ask whether they have thrown out the core content too.

I visited one of these churches one Sunday morning. Yes, there was a rambling sermon of 35 or more minutes. Yes, there was a time of ‘fellowship’ where people turned around their chairs and were chummy with one another, in a clumsy sort of way.

There was one reading, but no Gospel reading. There was no confession and absolution, no Creedal statement, no Trinitarian formula in the prayers. The prayers prayed for those present and those like them, but there were no prayers for people outside, no prayers for a world that is divided and suffering, no challenge or judgment for those who have created the plight and sufferings of wars, refugees, racism, homelessness, economic injustice and climate change.

In this smug self-assurance, without any reference to the world outside, there was no challenge to discipleship, to live up to the promises and challenges of Baptism.

And, needless to say, there was no Sacrament, and no hint of there ever being a sacramental ministry.

Content had been abandoned for the sake of form. But the form had become a charade. For the sake of relevance, the church had become irrelevant.

The challenge of our Baptism is a challenge for the Church to be a sign of, a sacrament of, the Kingdom of God.

We can be distracted by the demands and fashions of what pass as ‘fresh expressions of Church’ and never meet the needs of a divided and suffering world.

Or we can be nourished by Word and Sacrament and respond to the demands of our Baptism in a discipleship that seeks to challenge and confront a suffering and divided world with the values and promises of the Kingdom of God.

But it is costly. And in that struggle, like Simeon warns Mary, we may find ‘a sword will pierce your own soul too.’

‘When I expected it to yield grapes, why did it yield wild grapes’ (Isaiah 5: 4) … grapes on a vine at the Hedgehog Vintage Inn in Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Today’s Prayers (Sunday 17 August 2025, Trinity IX):

The theme this week (17 to 23 August) in Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘Tell the Full Story’ (pp 28-29). This theme is introduced today with reflections from Dr Jo Sadgrove, Research and Learning Advisor, USPG:

At a workshop entitled ‘Atoning for the Sins of Our Past’ held at Oxford’s Centre for Black Theology, I had the privilege of joining faith leaders and scholars in a thoughtful exploration of critical topics, including Black theology, whiteness, and reparative justice. Led by Dr Anthony Reddie and Ms Thandi Soko de Jong, the event fostered open and honest dialogue on the enduring impacts of colonialism, encouraging meaningful engagement with historical injustices and their contemporary implications. The key takeaway was clear: we need to tell the full story.

Remembering the Slave Trade and its Abolition requires us to recall a violent, complex and poorly understood history in which the English Church, state and monarchy collaborated to benefit financially from the transatlantic trade in enslaved Africans. This is a highly distressing realisation for all.

In our work of repentance and repair, we must be willing to dwell in the discomfort of this reality. Within the Church of England, the tradition of moving too quickly towards conversations about white Christian abolitionists, rather than white Christian enslavers has imposed further pain and insult, particularly for Caribbean descendants. This simply perpetuates the system of racist violence enshrined within the slave trade.

Our calling today is to kneel at the foot of the cross, to remember the violent sacrifices made for us and, out of our discomfort, begin to reimagine the kind of world we want to hand down to our descendants.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Sunday 17 August 2025, Trinity IX) invites us to read and meditate on Luke 12: 49-56.

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 reflection

Continued tomorrow

‘When you see a cloud rising in the west, you immediately say, “It is going to rain”; and so it happens’ (Luke 12: 54) … morning clouds above the beach in Rethymnon in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

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