Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2026: 25, Monday 1 June 2026, the Visitation

The ‘Madonna of the Magnificat’, a sculpture by Laurence Broderick in Saint Peter’s Priory Church, Dunstable (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Patrick Comerford

Since the 50-day season of Easter came to an end with the Day of Pentecost or Whit Sunday (24 May 2026), we are in Ordinary Time once again. This week began with Trinity Sunday (31 May 2026), and on Trinity Sunday the liturgical colour returned from the Green of Ordinary Time to the white or gold of a festival.

The liturgical colour remains white or gold today because the Feast of the Visit of the Blessed Virgin Mary to Elizabeth has been transferred from 31 May to 1 June this year because yesterday was Trinity Sunday. Before today begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, to reflect, to pray and to read in these ways:

1, reading today’s Gospel reading;

2, a short reflection;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

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

The Visitation (Luke 1: 39-45) … a panel from the 19th century Oberammergau altarpiece in the Lady Chapel in Lichfield Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Luke 1: 39-49 [50–56] (NRSVA):

39 In those days Mary set out and went with haste to a Judean town in the hill country, 40 where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. 41 When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leapt in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit 42 and exclaimed with a loud cry, ‘Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. 43 And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me? 44 For as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leapt for joy. 45 And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfilment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.’

46 And Mary said,

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

56 And Mary remained with her for about three months and then returned to her home.]

‘The Visitation’ in a stained-glass window in Great Saint Mary’s Church in Saffron Walden (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflections:

At the Feast of the Visitation, transferred from 31 May this year because yesterday was Trinity Sunday, the Church recalls the visit of the Virgin Mary to her cousin Saint Elizabeth, as Saint Luke’s Gospel records in today’s Gospel reading (Luke 1: 39-49 [50–56]).

This feast was first celebrated at a Franciscan Order General Chapter in 1263 and quickly spread throughout Europe. Since it is a celebration clearly described in the Gospel, the churches of the Reformation were less inclined to proscribe it than they were other Marian feasts, particularly as it was the occasion for the Virgin Mary to sing her great hymn of praise in honour of her Lord and God.

The Canticle Magnificat (Luke 1: 46-55) is familiar to Anglicans at Evening Prayer and Evensong throughout the week. The great German theologian and martyr, Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945), in a sermon in London over 90 years ago (17 December 1933), said Magnificat ‘is the oldest Advent hymn,’ and he spoke of how Mary knows better than anyone else what it means to wait for Christ’s coming:

‘In her own body she is experiencing the wonderful ways of God with humankind: that God does not arrange matters to suit our opinions and views, does not follow the path that humans would like to prescribe. God’s path is free and original beyond all our ability to understand or to prove.’

Today’s Gospel reading (Luke 1: 39-56) recalls Mary of the Magnificat and tells the story of the Virgin Mary’s visit to her cousin, Saint Elizabeth.

When she visits, they are both pregnant – one with the Christ Child, the other with Saint John the Baptist.

Immediately after the Annunciation, the Virgin Mary leaves Nazareth and travels south to an unnamed ‘Judean town in the hill country,’ perhaps Hebron outside Jerusalem, to visit Elizabeth. When she arrives, although he is still in his mother’s womb, Saint John the Baptist is aware of the presence of Christ, and the unborn child leaps for joy.

Saint Elizabeth too recognises that Christ is present, and declares to Mary with a loud cry: ‘Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me? For as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leaped for joy’ (Luke 1: 42-44).

The Virgin Mary responds to Saint Elizabeth immediately with the words that we now know as the canticle Magnificat.

So we see, side-by-side, two women, one seemingly too old to have a child, but destined to bear the last prophet of the age that is passing away; and the other woman, seemingly too young to have a child, but about to give birth to he who is the beginning of the age that is not going to pass away.

The Virgin Mary of the canticle Magnificat and of the Visitation is a strong and revolutionary woman, unlike the Virgin Mary of the plaster-cast statues and the Rosary.

The Mary I see as a role model for belief and discipleship is the Mary who sets off in a hurry and a flurry to visit her cousin Elizabeth, the Mary with a gob on her who speaks out of turn when she comes out with those wonderful words we hear in this Gospel reading, the Mary who sings the Canticle Magnificat.

What a contrasting pair these two cousins, Mary and Elizabeth, are.

How much they speak to so many of the dilemmas we have in our lives today.

Elizabeth is the older woman. She has been married for years. Because of social and family pressures, she had started to become embarrassed that after all those years of marriage she has not become pregnant.

In those days, even in many places to this day, this was an embarrassing social stigma. She had no son to inherit her husband’s lands, his family position, the place of Zechariah as a priest in the Temple in Jerusalem.

She reminds us too of Sarah, who is so embarrassed at the thought of becoming pregnant in her old age that she laughs in the face of the three visitors, she laughs in the face of the living Triune God.

Today, a woman who became pregnant at her stage in life might not laugh. She might quake with fear. She might ask for amniocentesis or an amniotic fluid test.

And yet Elizabeth takes control of her situation. She turns a predicament into an opportunity, a crisis of a pregnancy so late in life into a blessing for us all.

She is so filled with joy when Mary arrives that as soon as she hears the knock on the door, as soon as she hears the sound of Mary on her doorstep, her joy is infectious, so infectious that even the child in her womb – the child who would grow up to be Saint John the Baptist – leaps with joy in her womb.

Elizabeth’s action is radical. Life is tough enough for her. Her husband has been struck dumb. A dumb priest was unlikely to be able to continue to earn a liturgical living in the Temple in Jerusalem. How was she now going to provide for her child when he was born?

But Elizabeth’s actions are more radical than that.

How many women of her age, and her respectable background, would have been so quick to rush out and welcome her much younger, single and pregnant cousin?

How many women would have been worried: ‘What if she stays here and has the child here? Would we ever live with the shame?’

How many women might have suggested instead that Mary goes off and finds a home where they can find someone else to take care of her child when he is born?

Instead, Elizabeth welcomes Mary with open arms. Elizabeth’s joyful greeting, ‘Blessed are you among women …,’ echoes the greeting of the Archangel Gabriel (see Luke 1: 28), ‘Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.’

It is almost as if Elizabeth is saying: ‘It doesn’t matter what others think of you. It doesn’t matter how other people are going to judge you. I love you.’

Which is precisely what God says in the Incarnation, in the precious gift of the Christ come among us: ‘It doesn’t matter what others think of you. It doesn’t matter how other people are going to judge you. I love you.’

Mary for her part is such a wonderful, feisty person. She is, what might be described in the red-top tabloid newspapers today as ‘a gymslip Mum.’ But, instead of hiding herself away from her family, from her cousins, from the woman in her family who is married to a priest, she rushes off to her immediately, to share her good news with her.

And she challenges so many of our prejudices and our values and our presumptions today. Not just about gymslip mums and unexpected or unplanned pregnancies, but about what the silent and the marginalised have to say about our values in society today.

And Mary declares:

He has shown strength with his arm;
he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.
He has brought down the powerful from their thrones,
and lifted up the lowly;
he has filled the hungry with good things,
and sent the rich away empty.
He has helped his servant Israel,
in remembrance of his mercy,
according to the promise he made to our ancestors,
to Abraham and to his descendants for ever.’

She sings a song of hope in a world where those who are proud in their hearts need to be scattered, where the powerful need to be brought down from their thrones, where the lowly wait to be lifted up.

She sings a song of hope for the hungry who long to be filled with good things, where the rich are about to be sent away empty, where those who have been at the bottom of pile too long need help and mercy.

‘The Visitation’ depicted in a stained-glass window in Saint John’s Church, Pallaskenry, Co Limerick (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Monday 1 June 2026, the Visitation, transferred):

A new edition of Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), was published last week, in time for the USPG conference in the High Leigh, Hertfordshire, from tomorrow (2 June) until Thursday (4 June). The theme this week, from 31 May to 6 June 2026 (pp 6-7) is ‘Peacebuilding in the Gulf’. This theme was introduced yesterday with a reflection from Saint Christopher’s Cathedral in Bahrain.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Monday 1 June 2026, the Visitation, transferred) invites us to pray:

Lord, uphold the people of Saint George’s and all who gather in Baghdad, giving them courage to walk streets shadowed by conflict. Thank you that there is peace in your presence. We pray with them for peace across the country too.

The Collect:

Mighty God,
by whose grace Elizabeth rejoiced with Mary
and greeted her as the mother of the Lord:
look with favour on your lowly servants
that, with Mary, we may magnify your holy name
and rejoice to acclaim her Son our Saviour,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

Gracious God,
who gave joy to Elizabeth and Mary
as they recognized the signs of redemption
at work within them:
help us, who have shared in the joy of this eucharist,
to know the Lord deep within us
and his love shining out in our lives, that the world may rejoice in your salvation; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s Reflections

Continued Tomorrow

The Visitation depicted in a window in Saint Ailbe’s Church, Emly, Co Tipperary (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 Christmas 2025-2026: 40, Monday 2 February 2026, the Presentation (Candlemas)

The Presentation depicted in a window in Saint Olave’s Church, York (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

Today is the last day in the 40-day season of Christmas, which concludes today with the Feast of the Presentation of Christ in the Temple (Monday 2 February 2026), also known as Candlemas, although most parishes and churches probably transferred this celebration to yesterday, which was also the Fourth Sunday of Epiphany (Epiphany IV, 1 February 2026) and Septuagesima.

Later today, I may visit the exhibition of Icons by the traditional Byzantine iconographer Hanna-Leena Ward in Lichfield Cathedral, which opened on Friday (30 January) and continues for three weeks until 19 February. But, before today begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, to reflect, to pray and to read in these ways:

1, today’s Gospel reading;

2, a short reflection;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

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

The Presentation depicted in a window in Saint Peter’s Church, Kuching (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Luke 2: 22-40 (NRSVA):

22 When the time came for their purification according to the law of Moses, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord 23 (as it is written in the law of the Lord, ‘Every firstborn male shall be designated as holy to the Lord’), 24 and they offered a sacrifice according to what is stated in the law of the Lord, ‘a pair of turtle-doves or two young pigeons.’

25 Now there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon; this man was righteous and devout, looking forward to the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit rested on him. 26 It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Messiah. 27 Guided by the Spirit, Simeon came into the temple; and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him what was customary under the law, 28 Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying,

29 ‘Master, now you are dismissing your servant in peace,
according to your word;
30 for my eyes have seen your salvation,
31 which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples,
32 a light for revelation to the Gentiles
and for glory to your people Israel.’

33 And the child’s father and mother were amazed at what was being said about him. 34 Then Simeon blessed them and said to his mother Mary, ‘This child is destined for the falling and the rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be opposed 35 so that the inner thoughts of many will be revealed – and a sword will pierce your own soul too.’

36 There was also a prophet, Anna the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was of a great age, having lived with her husband for seven years after her marriage, 37 then as a widow to the age of eighty-four. She never left the temple but worshipped there with fasting and prayer night and day. 38 At that moment she came, and began to praise God and to speak about the child to all who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem.

39 When they had finished everything required by the law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth. 40 The child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom; and the favour of God was upon him.

The Presentation depicted in a window in Saint Mary’s Church, Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflection:

Today is the Feast of the Presentation of Christ in the Temple, or Candlemas [2 February 2026]. This feast falls 40 days after Christmas when, according to traditional religious law, the Virgin Mary, the mother of the Christ-Child, presents her first-born to the priest in the Temple in Jerusalem. Because the Holy Family was poor, they offered a turtle dove and two pigeons as a submission and a sacrifice.

This is a feast rich in meaning, with several related themes running through it – presentation, purification, meeting, and light for the world. The several names by which this day has been known throughout Christian history illustrate just how much this feast has to teach and to celebrate. These names include the Presentation, and the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary, although today we talk more commonly of the Feast of Candlemas.

The true meaning of Candlemas is found in its ‘bitter-sweet’ nature. It is a feast day, and the revelation of the Christ Child in the Temple, greeted by Simeon and Anna, calls for rejoicing. Nevertheless, the prophetic words of Simeon, which speak of the falling and rising of many and the sword that will piece Mary’s heart, lead on to the Passion and Easter, as the Gospel according to Saint Luke makes clear:

‘… This 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 inner thoughts of many will be revealed – and a sword will pierce your own soul too.’

Candlemas is the climax of the Christmas and Epiphany season, the last great festival of the Christmas cycle. It brings Christmas celebrations to a close, and is a real pivotal day in the Christian year. The focus shifts from the cradle to the cross, from Christmas to Passiontide – Ash Wednesday and the start of Lent are little more than a fortnight away (18 February 2026).

At times, instead of a sermon, I read TS Eliot’s poem, ‘A Song for Simeon’, based on the canticle Nunc Dimittis.

This is one of two poems written about the time of Eliot’s conversion in 1927. He titles his poem ‘A Song for Simeon’ rather than ‘A Song of Simeon’, the English sub-title of the canticle in The Book of Common Prayer, and it is one of four poems he published between 1927 and 1930 known as the Ariel Poems.

A Song for Simeon, by TS Eliot:

Lord, the Roman hyacinths are blooming in bowls and
The winter sun creeps by the snow hills;
The stubborn season had made stand.
My life is light, waiting for the death wind,
Like a feather on the back of my hand.
Dust in sunlight and memory in corners
Wait for the wind that chills towards the dead land.

Grant us thy peace.
I have walked many years in this city,
Kept faith and fast, provided for the poor,
Have given and taken honour and ease.
There went never any rejected from my door.
Who shall remember my house, where shall live my children’s children
When the time of sorrow is come?
They will take to the goat’s path, and the fox’s home,
Fleeing from the foreign faces and the foreign swords.

Before the time of cords and scourges and lamentation
Grant us thy peace.
Before the stations of the mountain of desolation,
Before the certain hour of maternal sorrow,
Now at this birth season of decease,
Let the Infant, the still unspeaking and unspoken Word,
Grant Israel’s consolation
To one who has eighty years and no to-morrow.

According to thy word.
They shall praise Thee and suffer in every generation
With glory and derision,
Light upon light, mounting the saints’ stair.
Not for me the martyrdom, the ecstasy of thought and prayer,
Not for me the ultimate vision.
Grant me thy peace.
(And a sword shall pierce thy heart,
Thine also).
I am tired with my own life and the lives of those after me,
I am dying in my own death and the deaths of those after me.
Let thy servant depart,
Having seen thy salvation.

A hymn often sung on this day is ‘In his temple now behold him’, by Canon Henry John Pye (1827-1903), who was the Rector of Clifton Campville, Staffordshire, where he was also Lord of the Manor, and a canon of Lichfield Cathedral.

Henry John Pye was born Henry James Pye in Chacombe Banbury Priory, Northamptonshire, on 31 January 1827. His father, Henry John Pye (1802-1884), lived at Clifton Hall, Staffordshire, close to Comberford, and 10 miles east of Lichfield and seven miles north of Tamworth. He was the lord of the manor and the patron of the local living; his grandfather was Henry James Pye (1745-1813), the Poet Laureate (1790-1813).

The Pye family was also related to the Willington family of Colehill and Tamworth.

The younger Henry John Pye was educated at Eton and Trinity College Cambridge (BA, 1848; MA 1852). He was ordained deacon in 1850, and priest in 1851. He first served as curate of Cuddesdon, outside Oxford (1850-1851), where Bishop Samuel Wilberforce lived. He married the bishop’s daughter, Emily Charlotte Wilberforce, on 21 October 1851.

Pye’s father appointed him the Rector of Clifton Campville in the Diocese of Lichfield in 1851, and he remained rector until 1868. Pye also became the Prebendary of Handsacre (1865-1868) in Lichfield Cathedral.

While he was the Rector of Clifton Campville, Pye compiled a collection of hymns for use in the parish, including the hymn ‘In his temple now behold him,’ intended for use on the feast of the Presentation or Candlemas today.

Pye also commissioned George Edmund Street, the Gothic Revival architect, to restore Saint Andrew’s, the parish church in Clifton Campville. Street, who is known for his restoration of Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, and the Law Courts in London, had also designed Wilberforce’s new theological college in Cuddesdon.

Henry, his wife Emily, and his brother and sister joined the Roman Catholic Church in 1868. Pye later turned to the law: he was admitted at the Inner Temple in 1873 and was called to the bar in 1876.

Pye died in Tamworth on 3 January 1903, and the Manor of Clifton Campville and Clifton Hall, which had been in the Pye family since 1700, were sold in 1906.

In his temple now behold him;
See the long-expected Lord!
Ancient prophets had foretold him;
God hath now fulfilled his word.
Now to praise him, his redeemèd
Shall break forth with one accord.

In the arms of her who bore him,
Virgin pure, behold him lie,
While his aged saints adore him,
Ere in perfect faith they die:
Alleluia! Alleluia!

Lo, the incarnate God most high!
Jesus, by thy Presentation,
Thou, who didst for us endure,
Make us see thy great salvation,
Seal us with thy promise sure;
And present us in thy glory
To thy Father cleansed and pure.

Prince and author of salvation,
Be thy boundless love our theme!
Jesus, praise to thee be given
By the world thou didst redeem,
With the Father and the Spirit,
Lord of majesty supreme!

The Presentation depicted in a window in Saint Giles Church, Oxford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Monday 2 February 2025, the Presentation):

The theme this week in ‘Pray With the World Church,’ the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is: ‘Serving the Lord with Dignity’ (pp 24-25). This theme was introduced yesterday with a Programme Update by the Revd Mauricio Mugunhe, Executive Director of Acção Social Anglicana, Igreja Anglicana de Moçambique e Angola.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Monday 2 February 2026, the Presentation) invites us to pray reflecting on these words:

Lord, as Simeon held the Christ Child, we long to see your promise fulfilled in our lives. Help us to trust in your guidance and walk in faith each day.

The Collect:

Almighty and ever–living God,
clothed in majesty,
whose beloved Son was this day presented in the Temple,
in substance of our flesh:
grant that we may be presented to you
with pure and clean hearts,
by your Son Jesus Christ our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

Lord, you fulfilled the hope of Simeon and Anna,
who lived to welcome the Messiah:
may we, who have received these gifts beyond words,
prepare to meet Christ Jesus when he comes
to bring us to eternal life;
for he is alive and reigns, now and for ever.

Additional Collect:

Lord Jesus Christ,
light of the nations and glory of Israel:
make your home among us,
and present us pure and holy
to your heavenly Father,
your God, and our God.

Yesterday’s Reflections

Continued Tomorrow

The Presentation (centre) depicted in a window in Lichfield Cathedral … Henry John Pye was the Prebendary of Handsacre in Lichfield Cathedral (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

The Presentation depicted in a window in Peterborough Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Daily prayer in Advent 2025: 23, Monday 22 December 2025

An image of the Virgin Mary in a quiet corner at the High Leigh Conference Centre in Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are in the final days of the Season of Advent, yesterday was the Fourth Sunday of Advent (Advent IV, 21 December 2025), today is the last of the eight days of Hanukkah this year, and Christmas Day is just a few days away.

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.

The words of the canticle Magnificat carved on a wooden screen in Mount Melleray Abbey, Cappoquin, Co Waterford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Luke 1: 46-56 (NRSVA):

46 And Mary said,

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

56 And Mary remained with her for about three months and then returned to her home.

The Virgin Mary with the Crown of Thorns depicted in a church window in Bansha, Co Tipperary (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflections:

In the Gospel reading at the Eucharist today (Luke 1: 46-56), we continue a series of readings before Christmas that draw on the two nativity narratives found in Matthew 1: 1-24 and Luke 1: 5-79.

During the days before Christmas, the great canticle Magnificat at Evensong traditionally has a refrain or antiphon attached to it proclaiming the ascriptions or ‘names’ given to God through the Old Testament. Each name develops into a prophecy of the coming of the Messiah.

O Sapientia, or O Wisdom, is the first of these days, and was marked on Wednesday (17 December). It was followed on Thursday (18 December) by O Adonai, by O Root of Jesse on Friday (19 December), O Key of David on Saturday (20 December), O Dayspring yesterday (21 December), and by O King of the Nations today (22 December), and, finally O Emmanuel tomorrow (23 December).

The seven majestic Messianic titles for Christ are based on Biblical prophecies, and they help the Church to recall the variety of the ills of humanity before the coming of the Redeemer as each antiphon in turn pleads with mounting impatience for Christ to save his people.

The Gospel reading at the Eucharist today is set withing the story of the Visitation of the Virgin Mary to her cousin Saint Elizabeth.

This Advent has been a time of waiting, a time of preparation, a time of anticipation. Since 30 November, in our time of waiting, preparation and anticipation, we have been preparing ourselves in the liturgy and the music, with carol services and quiet days, with Christmas Markets and Santa’s grotto, with the Advent Wreath and the Crib.

The four candles on the Advent wreath have reminded us, week-after-week, of those who prepared us in the past for the Coming of the Christ Child: first the Patriarchs and Matriarchs, our ancestors in faith, including Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Jacob; then the prophets, including Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Micah; then Saint John the Baptist; and yesterday, the fourth and final candle reminded us of the Virgin Mary. This fourth candle connects with the Gospel reading yesterday, telling the story of Joseph’s response to Mary’s pregnancy, and today’s reading from the Canticle Magnificat (Luke 1: 46-55), so often heard at Evening Prayer.

The great German theologian and martyr, Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945), in an Advent sermon in London 92 years ago (17 December 1933), said Magnificat ‘is the oldest Advent hymn,’ and he spoke of how Mary knows better than anyone else what it means to wait for Christ’s coming:

‘In her own body she is experiencing the wonderful ways of God with humankind: that God does not arrange matters to suit our opinions and views, does not follow the path that humans would like to prescribe. God’s path is free and original beyond all our ability to understand or to prove.’

The Virgin Mary of the Visitation and of the canticle Magnificat is a strong and revolutionary woman, unlike the Virgin Mary of the plaster-cast statues and the Rosary.

The Mary I see as a role model for belief and discipleship is the Mary who sets off in a hurry and a flurry to visit her cousin Elizabeth, the Mary with a gob on her who speaks out of turn when she comes out with those wonderful words we hear in this Gospel reading, the Mary who sings the Canticle Magnificat.

This Mary is a wonderful, feisty person. She is what the red-top tabloid newspapers today might describe ‘a gymslip Mum.’ But, instead of hiding herself away from her family, from her cousins, from the woman in her family who is married to a priest, she rushes off to her immediately, to share her good news with her.

And she challenges so many of our prejudices and our values and our presumptions today. Not just about gymslip mums and unexpected or unplanned pregnancies, but about what the silent and the marginalised have to say about our values in society today.

And Mary declares:

He has shown strength with his arm;
he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.
He has brought down the powerful from their thrones,
and lifted up the lowly;
he has filled the hungry with good things,
and sent the rich away empty.
He has helped his servant Israel,
in remembrance of his mercy,
according to the promise he made to our ancestors,
to Abraham and to his descendants for ever.’

It is almost like this is the programme or the agenda we can expect when the Christ Child is born, a programme and agenda that the world so desparately needs to hear the promise of today.

An icon of the Virgin Mary in an antique shop in Rethymnon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Monday 22 December 2024):

The theme this week (21 to 27 December 2025) in Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘Love Brings Life in Tanzania’ (pp 12-13). This theme was introduced yesterday with a Programme Update by Imran Englefield, Individual Giving Manager, USPG.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Monday 22 December 2025) invites us to pray:

Loving God, we give thanks for Dr Chalinzee and his devoted service at Mvumi Hospital. Strengthen him with wisdom, patience, and compassion as he cares for mothers and children.

The Collect:

God our redeemer,
who prepared the Blessed Virgin Mary
to be the mother of your Son:
grant that, as she looked for his coming as our saviour,
so we may be ready to greet him
when he comes again as our judge;
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

Heavenly Father,
who chose the Blessed Virgin Mary
to be the mother of the promised saviour:
fill us your servants with your grace,
that in all things we may embrace your holy will
and with her rejoice in your salvation;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

Eternal God,
as Mary waited for the birth of your Son,
so we wait for his coming in glory;
bring us through the birth pangs of this present age
to see, with her, our great salvation
in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s Reflections

Continued Tomorrow



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

An Advent Calendar with Patrick Comerford: 9, 8 December 2025

‘The angel Gabriel from heaven came’ … the Annunciation depicted in a window in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Patrick Comerford

We are one-third of the way through Advent this year and yesterday was the Second Sunday of Advent (Advent II, 7 December 2025). At noon each day in Advent this year, I am offering one image as part of my ‘Advent Calendar’ for 2025, and one Advent or Christmas carol, hymn or song.

Today, the Calendar of the Church of England marks the Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary (8 December), and so my choice of an Advent hymn or carol today is ‘Gabriel’s Message’, also known as ‘The Angel Gabriel from Heaven came’.

This lilting carol takes inspiration from the Magnificat in Luke 1: 26-38, where the Angel Gabriel appears to the Virgin Mary, telling her she will conceive and have a son named Jesus.

The hymn was translated or written by the Revd Sabine Baring-Gould (1834-1924), a priest, poet and hymn writer who is best-known for ‘Onward, Christian Soldiers’ and ‘Now the Day is Over’. He translated the carols ‘Gabriel’s Message’ and ‘Sing Lullaby’ from Basque carols.

‘Gabriel's Message’ quotes the account of the Annunciation and the Virgin Mary’s Magnificat (Luke 1: 46-55) with the opening lines:

The angel Gabriel from heaven came,
his wings as drifted snow, his eyes as flame:
‘From God, all hail,’ the angel said to Mary,
‘most highly favoured lady!’
Gloria!

The Basque folk carol, in turn, is based on Angelus ad virginem a 13th or 14th century Latin carol. It was collected by the French composer Charles Bordes (1863-1909) and published in Paris 1897. It was then paraphrased in English and published in 1922 by Sabine Baring-Gould, who had spent a winter as a boy in the Basque country.

The tune ‘Gabriel’s Message’ is commonly performed in an arrangement by Edgar Pettman published in 1922. With their youthful sense of humour, this carol has been known irreverantly as to generations of choirboys as ‘most highly flavoured gravy’. But its use of the lilting phrase ‘Most highly favoured lady’ made it the favourite carol of Richard Harries when he was Bishop of Oxford.

Notable modern interpretations include a track on Sting’s single ‘Russians’ (1985) and on his album If on a Winter's Night … (2009). His interpretation of this carol is also part of the album A Very Special Christmas (1987).

Other recordings have been made by Charlotte Church on the album Dream a Dream (2000), Aled Jones on The Christmas Album(2004) and Moya Brennan of Clannad on her album An Irish Christmas (2005).

The Archangel Gabriel and the Virgin Mary in icons of the Annunciation in Lichfield Cathedral (Photographs: Patrick Comerford)

The angel Gabriel from heaven came,
his wings as drifted snow, his eyes as flame:
‘From God, all hail,’ the angel said to Mary,
‘most highly favoured lady!’
Gloria!

‘Fear not, for you shall bear a holy child,
by him shall we to God be reconciled;
his name shall be Emmanuel, the long-foretold:
most highly favoured lady!’
Gloria!

Then gentle Mary humbly bowed her head:
‘To me be as it pleases God,’ she said,
‘My soul shall praise and magnify his holy name.’
Most highly favoured lady!
Gloria!

‘And so,’ she said, ‘how happy I shall be!
All generations will remember me;
for God has kept his promises to Israel.’
Most highly favoured lady! Gloria!

Of her, Emmanuel – the Christ – was born
in Bethlehem, upon that Christmas morn.
And Christian folk throughout the world will ever say,
‘Most highly favoured lady!’
Gloria!

The Church of the English Martyrs, with its tall campanile, is York’s largest Roman Catholic church

The Church of the English Martyrs and its campanile on Dalton Terrace, built in 1931-1932 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Patrick Comerford

During our recent visit to York, I was welcomed at the Church of the English Martyrs on Dalton Terrace by the Parish Priest, Canon Michael Loughlin. The Grade II listed Roman Catholic church is the largest Catholic church in York. It is in a conservation area and faces the Mount, the Quaker-run girls’ school.

The church is dedicated to the English Martyrs, a group of men and women, lay and religious, who were executed between 1535 and 1679 in the aftermath of the English Reformations. They range from Carthusian monks who in 1535 declined to accept Henry VIII’s Act of Supremacy to seminary priests who were caught up in the alleged ‘Popish Plot’ against Charles II in 1679. Many were sentenced to death at show trials or with no trial at all.

The English martyrs include John Fisher and Thomas More, who were canonised in 1935, and 40 further martyrs who were canonised in 1970, including Edmund Campion, Margaret Clitherow of York, Margaret Ward, and Edmund Gennings from Lichfield. Following beatifications between 1886 and 1929, Pope Paul VI recognised the whole group of 40 as saints and they were canonised together in Rome on 25 October 1970.

A painting of Saint Margaret Clitherow of York in the Church of the English Martyrs (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

The parish boundaries include York railway station, Micklegate and the communities along the Tadcaster and Boroughbridge roads, the villages of Copmanthorpe, Upper Poppleton, Nether Poppleton and Bishopthorpe. The parish also includes the oldest convent in England, the Bar Convent founded in 1686.

The first congregation of the Church of the English Martyrs began meeting in a room in Saint Mary’s Court, off Blossom Street in 1881, the parish dates from 1882, and it took 50 years to build the church.

At first, Mass was celebrated in a room in Saint Mary’s Court, off Blossom Street. The congregation moved in 1889 to 17 Blossom Street, where it used the upper storey of a school building until the church and presbytery were built in Dalton Terrace in 1931-1932 and opened on 4 May 1932.

Inside the Church of the English Martyrs, York, facing the east end (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

The Church of the English Martyrs and the presbytery are listed at Grade II and are regarded as a well-preserved example of the ‘Early Christian’ style of architecture that was popular with inter-war Catholic churches. The architects were Williams and Jopling of Hull, who also built Saint Vincent de Paul Church, Hull, to a similar but smaller design.

The church is built of red brick laid in English garden wall bond, with brick and stone dressings and pantile roofs. It has of a nave with clerestory and chancel under a continuous roof, with plain brick apse projections to the chancel and flanking chapels.

A tall Italianate campanile at the south-west is linked to the church by the baptistry. The clerestory has seven round-headed windows on each side and – as with all the windows in the church and the presbytery – has attractive geometrical leaded lights. The church incorporates subtle Art Deco influences and most of the original fittings and furnishing remain in place.

The west front entrance to the Church of the English Martyrs, York (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

The main entrance is at the west front in a stone surround carved with martyrs’ palms and similar images. Over the doorway are the stone carved coat-of-arms of Pope Pius XI, and above this a mosaic panel of the Virgin Mary inscribed Regina Martyrum (Queen of the Martyrs).

The entrance is framed by orders of arched brickwork and surmounted by a dentil cornice and gable. On either side are lower arched orders of brickwork with smaller, flat-headed windows.

There is a second entrance on the garden-facing side of the campanile, with an accessible wheelchair ramp.

Inside the Church of the English Martyrs, York, facing the west end and the choir gallery (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Inside, the church has moulded arches without piers to the single bay chancel, painted red to evoke the blood of the martyrs. The plain half-domed apse is painted blue and side-lit with narrow windows. The seven bay arcades of the nave have round ashlar piers and cushion capitals, and moulded red brick arches with linked hoodmoulds.

Above this, the wall surface is plastered and painted. A sill band runs below the clerestory windows. There is a timber wagon roof on corbels in the nave and the chancel. At the west end a rebated round arch is spanned by a choir and organ gallery, the frontal inscribed Te Martyrum Candidatus Laudat Exercitus, a phrase from the canticle Te Deum, ‘The white-robed army of martyrs praises you’.

Below is a central pair of doors flanked by piers with capitals, enclosing the underside of the gallery to form a narthex and repository. The aisles have strutted lean-to roofs and windows with patterned leaded glass, the timber given a polychromatic paint scheme of Art Deco character.

A shrine or display area with relics and mementoes of the English martyrs (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

The Lady Chapel at the east end of the north aisle has a statue of Our Lady of Walsingham. Off this aisle are confessionals with oak doors and square glass panels. Some confessionals have been removed to create a shrine or display area for relics and mementoes of the English martyrs, including the jawbone of Nicholas Postgate and a small portion of Thomas More’s hat, which Canon Loughlin pointed out to me.

The south aisle has a Blessed Sacrament chapel at its east end, and at the west end a curtained off and disused baptistry area with a fine carved stone font and iron gates.

The pews are made of Austrian oak, with moulded tops on the bench ends.

The Stations of the Cross were carved by GW Milburn of York. They are octagonal, with low-relief carving reflecting the style of Eric Gill.

The relics in the church include a small portion of Thomas More’s hat (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

The square campanile is about 80 ft high and is of four stages, with flat-headed windows on each side of the lower stages. It has rebated corners and corbelled turrets at the top of the third stage, and on these sit martyrs’ crosses made of creased tiles. The corniced octagonal bell stage has ribbed corners and four paired openings, each with a stone central shaft with a carved capital. Above this, a pyramidal pantile roof is topped with a cross.

An open loggia links the church and the presbytery at the ground floor. It is built with similar materials and detailing to the church. There are two parish halls: the small hall was built first, and the large hall was built later, in the 1950s.

The sanctuary was reordered by Weightman and Bullen in 1967. The high altar, altar rails and pulpit were removed. A new forward altar was introduced, with a new parquet floor in the chancel and seating around the apse, and a new terrazzo floor in the nave and aisles.

The sanctuary was reordered by Weightman and Bullen in 1967 and a new forward altar was introduced (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Pope John Paul II visited the parish on 31 May 1982 as part of his visit to Britain, which included a gathering at York race course. That year, the parish was transferred from the Diocese of Leeds to the Diocese of Middlesbrough.

The English martyrs were formerly commemorated in England with a feast day on 25 October. They are now celebrated together with all the 284 canonised or beatified martyrs of the English Reformation on 4 May.

The arcades and arches in the Church of the English Martyrs, York (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

• Sunday Masses are at 6 pm on Saturday evening and at 10:30 on Sunday mornings. Masses on holy days are at 9:30 am and 6 pm, and on All Saints’ Day at 9: 30 in York Minster. There are weekday Masses from Monday to Friday, and Mass is celebrated in the chapel of the Bar Covent at 12 noon on Fridays.

The Church of the English Martyrs was designed by the architects Williams and Jopling of Hull (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

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

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

Patrick Comerford

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

We got back to Stony Stratford late last night after a weekend visiting family and friends in York. As I awake slowly this morning, and before today begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, for reflection, prayer and reading in these ways:

1, today’s Gospel reading;

2, a reflection on the Gospel reading;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

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

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

Luke 1: 46-55 (NRSVA):

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

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

Today’s Reflection:

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

And there are only 108 days to Christmas.

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Collect:

Almighty and everlasting God,
who stooped to raise fallen humanity
through the child–bearing of blessed Mary:
grant that we, who have seen your glory
revealed in our human nature
and your love made perfect in our weakness,
may daily be renewed in your image
and conformed to the pattern of your Son,
Jesus Christ our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post Communion Prayer:

God most high,
whose handmaid bore the Word made flesh:
we thank you that in this sacrament of our redemption
you visit us with your Holy Spirit
and overshadow us by your power;
strengthen us to walk with Mary the joyful path of obedience
and so to bring forth the fruits of holiness;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s reflections

Continued tomorrow

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

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

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

Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2025: 37, Sunday 15 June 2025, Trinity Sunday

An icon of the Trinity in Saint Nektarios Church in Tsesmes, near Rethymnon in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

Since the 50-day season of Easter came to an end last Sunday with the Day of Pentecost or Whit Sunday (8 June 2025), we are in Ordinary Time once again. Today is Trinity Sunday (15 June 2025) and also Father’s Day, and on Trinity Sunday the liturgical colour returns from the Green of Ordinary Time to the white or gold of a festival. In the Orthodox Church, the first Sunday after Pentecost is celebrated as All Saints’ Day, and is also known as the Sunday of All Saints or the Synaxis of All Saints.

Later this morning, I hope to sing with the choir at the Parish Eucharist in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford. But, before today begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, to reflect, to pray and to read in these ways:

1, reading today’s Gospel reading;

2, a short reflection;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

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

The symbol of the Holy Trinity in the East Window in Holy Trinity Church, Old Wolverton (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

John 16: 12-15 (NRSVA):

[Jesus said:] 12 ‘I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. 13 When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. 14 He will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it to you. 15 All that the Father has is mine. For this reason I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.’

The mediaeval fresco of the Holy Trinity in the south choir aisle in Lichfield Cathedral … severely damaged by 17th century Puritans (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflection:

The Gospel reading today (John 16: 12-15) is part of the ‘Farewell Discourse’ at the Last Supper in Saint John’s Gospel (John 14: 1 to 17: 26), where Christ reminds his followers of his promise of his abiding word, the guidance of the Holy Spirit, and the creating and sustaining love of the Father.

This same Gospel reading was also provided as the weekday Gospel reading at the Eucharist two or three weeks ago (28 May 2025), as we were reading through the ‘Farewell Discourse’.

This year we are celebrating the 1,700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea in the year 325 and the agreement that became the Nicene Creed. One of the most popular hymn choices for organists and choirs on Trinity Sunday is Reginald Heber’s ‘Holy! Holy! Holy!’ We sang it to the tune ‘Nicaea’ by JB Dykes in the New English Hymnal (No 146) at Evensong in Pusey House in Oxford on Friday evening, and we are singing it in Stony Stratford this morning as the processional hymn – although we are also singing it to a setting by Tchaikovsky as the anthem.

At Evensong on Friday, I was reminded too how often we add the Trinitarian doxolgy at the end the Psalms and Canticles. The opening words at Benediction in Pusey House also serve as a reminder that all our worship and liturgy, no matter what form it takes, should always be truly Trinitarian:

O saving victim, opening wide
The gate of heaven to man below,
Our foes press hard on every side,
Thine aid supply, thy strength bestow.

All praise and thanks to thee ascend
Forevermore, blest one in thee;
O grant us life that shall not end,
In our true native land with thee. Amen.

But, how do we explain, or even introduce, the topic of the Trinity in a way that people can understand without being theologically boring or wrapped up in our own liturgical tastes and styles?

As I have thought about the Trinity and Trinity Sunday in the past, I have spent time in prayer and reading and I have found those reflections have been helped by an image in a fresco on the wall of the south choir aisle in Lichfield Cathedral depicting the Holy Trinity.

This scene, showing the Trinity flanked by two censing angels, was painted sometime between the 14th and mid-15th century. It was damaged severely by the Puritans in the religious strife later in the mid-17th century. But it is still possible to look closely and to see how this fresco originally depicted the Holy Trinity.

As I look at it closely, I can just make out the representation of God the Father seated on a golden throne, clad in a red robe.

He is holding his crucified Son, God the Son, Jesus Christ, before him. Originally, this fresco would have shown a full depiction of the Crucifixion. However, all that can be seen today are the legs of Christ, with his feet nailed to the Cross.

God the Holy Spirit, traditionally depicted as a white dove, is now missing from this painting because of Puritan vandalism. But originally the Holy Spirit was placed in this painting between the heads of God the Father and God the Son.

What this fresco teaches me is that we can always catch glimpses of God. When we see the work of Christ, we see the work of God the Father, and so on. We may not always see how the Holy Spirit is working in us, or in others, but we still know that God is working in love in us and in others.

And the best way we experience that is being open to the love of God and in loving others.

The late Thomas Hopko (1939-2015), a renowned Orthodox theologian, has argued that if God were not Trinity, God could not have loved prior to creating other beings on whom to bestow God’s love … if God were not Trinity, God could not have loved prior to creating other beings on whom to bestow God’s love.

This love or communion of God as Trinity is extended to us in the communion of the Church. It is not just the Trinitarian faith into which we are baptised, but also the love or fellowship of the Trinity.

That message of love at the heart of what we believe and experience in the truth of the Holy Trinity was explained in a very non-dogmatic, non-doctrinal, non-philosophical way by three students at the Graduation Ceremony in Coláiste na Trócaire in Rathkeale some years ago when they read this:

I believe …

That our background and circumstances may have influenced who we are, but we are responsible for who we become.

That no matter how good a friend is, they’re going to hurt you every once in a while and you must forgive them for that.

That just because someone doesn’t love you the way you want them to doesn’t mean that they don’t love you with all they have.

That true friendship continues to grow even over the longest distance, same goes for true love.

That it’s taking me a long time to become the person I want to be.

That you should always leave loved ones with loving words. It may be the last time you see them.

That you can keep going long after you think you can’t.

That we are responsible for what we do, no matter how we feel.

That either you control your attitude, or it controls you.

That heroes are the people who do what has to be done, when it needs to be done, regardless of the consequences.

That my best friend and I can do anything or nothing and still have the best time.

That sometimes the people you expect to kick you when you are down will be the ones to help you get back up.

That sometimes when I’m angry I have the right to be angry, but that doesn’t give me the right to be cruel.

That it isn’t always enough to be forgiven by others. Sometimes you have to learn to forgive yourself.

That no matter how bad your heart is broken, the world doesn’t stop for your grief.

That you shouldn’t be so eager to find out a secret, it may change your life forever.

That two people can look at the exact same thing and see something totally different.

That your life can be changed in a matter of hours by people who don’t even know you.

That the people you care about in life are taken from you much too soon.

And I realised then that their teachers had taught them so much about the truth that lies behind everything we try to teach about why the doctrine of the Holy Trinity matters now more than ever in the Church.

The Trinity in an icon of the Heavenly Divine Liturgy by Michael Damaskinos, ca 1585-1591, in the Museum of Christian Art in Iraklion, Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Sunday 15 June 2025, Trinity Sunday):

‘Crossing the Channel’ is the theme this week (15-21 June) in Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel). This theme is introduced today with reflections by Bradon Muilenburg, Anglican Refugee Support Lead:

‘My wife and I took the ferry across to the UK recently. We had no particular reason for our trip, but we noticed how we were able to make the crossing very easily. Once onboard, we spotted a much smaller boat just outside the window. I was happy to see that the people aboard were wearing life jackets as these are often confiscated by the police. Whether they would survive the crossing, however, is still not guaranteed.

‘2024 was the deadliest year on record for Channel crossings on the UK-France border since 1999. It's important to remember these people by name if we can. I'm thinking especially of seven-year-old Rula, seven-year-old Sarah, and 40-day-year-old Miriam. Remember that these are real people who lived and laughed and played and had dreams and hopes. All of this was sadly extinguished by current border policies.

‘Ahead of World Refugee Day, please join me in mourning the heartbreaking reality of the lives lost while seeking safety.

‘Over this week, I ask you to remember the families of those who have died. Please pray, mourn and, if you can, offer support. As people of faith, we must stand with families in their suffering.

The USPG prayer diary today (Sunday 15 June 2025, Trinity Sunday) invites us to pray in this way:

Read and meditate on John 16: 12-15.

Praise God for the beauty of the Trinity, reflecting on his nature as Father, Son and Spirit.

The Collect:

Almighty and everlasting God,
you have given us your servants grace,
by the confession of a true faith,
to acknowledge the glory of the eternal Trinity
and in the power of the divine majesty to worship the Unity:
keep us steadfast in this faith,
that we may evermore be defended from all adversities;
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:

Almighty and eternal God,
you have revealed yourself as Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
and live and reign in the perfect unity of love:
hold us firm in this faith,
that we may know you in all your ways
and evermore rejoice in your eternal glory,
who are three Persons yet one God,
now and for ever.

Additional Collect:

Holy God,
faithful and unchanging:
enlarge our minds with the knowledge of your truth,
and draw us more deeply into the mystery of your love,
that we may truly worship you,
Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Yesterday’s Reflection

Continued Tomorrow

The Church of Aghia Triada in the suburban village of Platanias, on the eastern fringes of Rethymnon, dates from 1959 (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

Updated: 15 June 2025 (to take account of the hymns sung in Stony Stratford)