Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2025: 79, Sunday 27 July 2025, Sixth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity VI)

‘Padre Nuestro, que estas en el Cielo … Our Father, who art in Heaven’ … the words of the Lord’s Prayer in Spanish in the shape of a Cross (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church and today is the Sixth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity VI, 27 July 2025). Later this morning, I hope to take part in the Parish Eucharist in the Church of Saint Mary and Saint Giles, Stony Stratford, reading one of the lessons.

I am looking forward the UEFA women’s final between England and Spain later this afternoon. 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 reflection on the Gospel reading;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

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

‘Give us each day our daily bread’ … bread on the table in a restaurant in Rethymnon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Luke 11: 1-13 (NRSVA):

1 He was praying in a certain place, and after he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, ‘Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.’ 2 He said to them, ‘When you pray, say:

Father, hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come.
3 Give us each day our daily bread.
4 And forgive us our sins,
for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us.
And do not bring us to the time of trial.’

5 And he said to them, ‘Suppose one of you has a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say to him, “Friend, lend me three loaves of bread; 6 for a friend of mine has arrived, and I have nothing to set before him.” 7 And he answers from within, “Do not bother me; the door has already been locked, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot get up and give you anything.” 8 I tell you, even though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, at least because of his persistence he will get up and give him whatever he needs.

9 ‘So I say to you, Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. 10 For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. 11 Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for a fish, will give a snake instead of a fish? 12 Or if the child asks for an egg, will give a scorpion? 13 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!’

‘Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for a fish, will give a snake instead of a fish?’ (Luke 11: 11) … fish in a taverna at the harbour in Rethymnon, Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

This morning’s reflection:

Language can be very amusing, but very difficult, at times.

There are times when the language of the Bible can almost hit us in the face.

For example, the language in the first reading (Hosea 1: 2-10) this morning is very direct, almost frightening, with its comparisons of a people being unfaithful to God with adultery, whoring and whoredom. I imagine this is one of those Sundays when many of my colleagues are glad that summer holidays mean they do not need to ask the Sunday School to act out that reading.

When I was the chair of Christian CND in the early 1980s, we made a banner that incorporated words from this morning’s second reading (Colossians 2: 6-15, 16-19c): ‘On the cross he disarmed the rulers and authorities’ and made a public example of them’ (verses 14-15). It was a good banner to use during protests at time of a US President’s visit, and would be so timely to use again this weekend during Trump’s visit to the UK.

When it comes to the Gospel reading, we are all so familiar with the Lord’s Prayer, that we often recite it by rote without noticing the significance and intention of each petition. Have you noticed this in your own prayer life?

The Gospel reading includes Saint Luke’s version of the Lord’s Prayer, which is not the same as the familiar text we use, based on the version in Saint Matthew’s Gospel.

In Saint Matthew’s Gospel, Christ teaches the Lord’s Prayer within the context of the Sermon on the Mount. But in Saint Luke’s Gospel, immediately after visiting the home of Mary and Martha in Bethany, Christ finds a private place to pray. It is then that the disciples ask him to teach them ‘to pray, as John taught his disciples.’

The disciples are already familiar not only with the prayers of Saint John the Baptist, but also with traditional Jewish prayers in the home, in the synagogue and in the Temple in Jerusalem. So why did they ask Jesus to teach them how to pray?

As a rabbi and a religious leader, Jesus was responsible for teaching his followers how to fulfil Jewish religious commandments, including the obligation to pray at certain times and in certain forms.

Then and now, a religious community has a distinctive way of praying; ours is exemplified by the Lord’s Prayer, which is a communal rather than individual prayer, expressed in the plural and not the singular:

Father, hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come.
Give us each day our daily bread.
And forgive us our sins,
for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us.
And do not bring us to the time of trial.

We approach God in a personal way, as Father. We then bring before him five petitions that are not on behalf of me personally, but on behalf of us, on behalf of all.

Sometimes we miss out on the impact of the Lord’s Prayer because we are so familiar with it. But in the public worship of the Church we often facilitate people missing out on the impact of the Lord’s Prayer when we privatise it.

Many of us were taught to pray the Lord’s Prayer as a private personal prayer as children, perhaps even saying it kneeling by our bedside, hands joined together, fingers pointing up.

So often, in our churches, we encourage people to kneel for the Lord’s Prayer, as if this was now both the most sacred and the most personal part of the Liturgy, rather than asking them to remain standing and to continue in collective prayer.

Or, at great public events, such as synods and mission conferences, we invite everyone present to say the Lord’s Prayer in their own first language. In this way, a collective, public prayer becomes a private, personal prayer, detached from and ignoring where everyone else is at each stage in the petitions.

As someone with English as my first language, I often notice how others finish a lot later than English-speakers do – the Finns in particular, but even the Germans too. Each language has its own rhythms and cadences. And the cacophony and conflicting rhythms mean it sounds as if we are in Babel as atomised individuals rather than praying together, collectively and in the plural.

The first two petitions place us in God’s presence (‘hallowed be your name’ and ‘your kingdom come’), the next two bring our needs before God, both physical (‘daily bread,’ verse 3) and spiritual (forgiveness, verse 4), and the final petition has an eschatological dimension, looks forward to the fulfilment of all God’s promises, in God’s own time (‘the time of trial,’ verse 4).

The ‘time of trial’ is the final onslaught of evil forces, before Christ comes again, but also refers to the temptations we experience day-by-day.

So there is a temporal and an eternal dimension to these petitions, even when we pray for ourselves in the here and now.

The privatisation of the Lord’s Prayer, even on Sundays, takes away from its impact and from the collective thrust of each of the petitions.

Jesus, when he is teaching us to pray, is responding not to one individual but to the disciples as the core, formative group of the Church. God is addressed not as my Father, but our Father, and each petition that follows is in the plural: our daily bread, our forgiveness, our sins, our debts, how we forgive, and do not ‘bring us.’

When we say ‘Amen’ at the end, are we really saying ‘Amen’ to the holiness of God’s name, to the coming of Kingdom, to the needs of each being met, on a daily basis, to forgiveness, both given and received, to being put on the path of righteousness and justice, to others falling into no evil or into no harm.

If we privatise the Lord’s Prayer, we leave little room for its collective impact to grab a hold of those who are praying, and we leave little room for our own conversion, which is a continuing and daily need.

And so, let the kingdom, the power and the glory be God’s as we pray:

Father, hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come.
Give us each day our daily bread.
And forgive us our sins,
for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us.
And do not bring us to the time of trial.

‘Knock, and the door will be opened for you’ (Luke 11: 9) … door knockers in the streets of Rethymnon (Photographs: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Today’s Prayers (Sunday 27 July 2025, Trinity VI):

The theme this week (27 to 2 August) in Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘Reunited at Last’ (pp 22-22). This theme is introduced today with a programme update from Raja Moses, Programme Coordinator, Diocese of Durgapur, Church of North India:

The Diocese of Durgapur is at the forefront of the Church of North India’s fight against human trafficking. Tragically, the evil of the flesh trade is common in our region. Through focused efforts on prevention, protection, and prosecution, our anti-trafficking programme is making a significant impact.

Recently, one father’s nightmare began when he returned home from work to find his daughter missing. He describes the moment when he realised what had happened: ‘I searched for her everywhere, but nobody could help me find where she had gone. It was devastating.’

Days later, he received a call. ‘My heart broke as I listened to my daughter weeping out of fear. She told me she had been kidnapped. I felt so powerless.’

Miraculously, the landlord at the property where she was being held was horrified by the suffering and contacted the father to help him locate his daughter. With the help of our Anti-Human Trafficking team, the father filed a police complaint and travelled to rescue his daughter.

‘I can hardly describe the relief of having her home with me at last.’

Thanks to kind donations from supporters, the ‘Anti-Human Trafficking’ programme can continue running. Donations really transform lives.

Interested in partnering with the Church of North India? Find out more about Partners in Mission on pages 60-62 or visit uspg.org.uk.

The USPG prayer diary today (Sunday 27 July 2025, Trinity VI) invites us to pray by reading and meditating on Luke 11: 1-13.

The Collect:

Merciful God,
you have prepared for those who love you
such good things as pass our understanding:
pour into our hearts such love toward you
that we, loving you in all things and above all things,
may obtain your promises,
which exceed all that we can desire;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Post Communion Prayer:

God of our pilgrimage,
you have led us to the living water:
refresh and sustain us
as we go forward on our journey,
in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

Creator God,
you made us all in your image:
may we discern you in all that we see,
and serve you in all that we do;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s reflection

Continued tomorrow

‘Lord, teach us to pray’ (Luke 11: 1) … prayer books and prayer shawls in the synagogue in Porto (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 2024: 69, Wednesday 17 July 2024

‘The human hearts has hidden treasures, in secret kept, in silence sealed’ (Charlotte Brontë) … part of ‘The Foundation of Poetry’, a sculpture by Peter Walker in Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church and this week began with the Seventh Sunday after Trinity (Trinity VII).

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 Secret Garden in Wolverton (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Matthew 11: 25-27 (NRSVA):

25 At that time Jesus said, ‘I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants; 26 yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. 27 All things have been handed over to me by my Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.’

‘Grandma’s Secret Recipes’ … an invitation outside Nikos the Fisherman, a restaurant in Koutououfari a mountain village in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

This morning’s reflection:

I love the way this morning’s Gospel reading gives us so many contrasting pairs in the space of just three verses: heaven and earth, hidden and revealed, intelligent and wise, wise and intelligent, Father and Son, all things and no one, no one and anyone.

That something sacred may be both hidden and revealed is repeated throughout Scripture. In Saint Luke’s Gospel, Christ says: ‘For nothing is hidden that will not be disclosed, nor is anything secret that will not become known and come to light’ (Luke 8: 17).

Saint Paul tells the Colossians his mission is ‘to make the word of God fully known, the mystery that has been hidden throughout the ages and generations but has now been revealed to his saints’ (Colossians 1: 25-26).

This contrast of the hidden and the revealed nature of what is sacred is first articulated when Moses summons the wandering people, reminds them how God has feed them from slavery, and has brought them into a covenantal relationship. He tells then: ‘The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the revealed things belong to us and to our children for ever, to observe all the words of this law’ (Deuteronomy 29: 29).

Charlotte Brontë once wrote: ‘The human heart has hidden treasures, In secret kept, in silence sealed; The thoughts, the hopes, the dreams, the pleasures, Whose charms were broken if revealed.’

Despite all my fretting and anxiety about my health and my ministry and myfuture, I cannot know the hidden will of God and I cannot see into the future. These events belong to God’s wisdom alone. Sometimes, it is only with the benefit of hindsight, as I reflect on what has happened and what has been that I think I may be able to discern what God’s will has been or where God has been leading me.

But so often, God’s will or God’s plans seem hidden or concealed.

Where is the hidden God to be revealed to us?

Of course, God is revealed to us in God’s word, and is experienced through living a life that is rooted in the two great commands to ‘love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind’ and to ‘love your neighbour as yourself’ (Matthew 22: 37-39), for on ‘these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets’ (Matthew 22: 40).

Secondly, God is revealed to us as we live out the sacramental life of the Church. The first and most basic ecclesiological principle at Vatican II is that the Church is a mystery, or sacrament. To say that the Church is a mystery, or sacrament, means, in the words of Pope Paul VI, that it is ‘a reality imbued with the hidden presence of God.’

In other words, the Church is not just a religious organisation to which we belong or which we serve. Rather, the Church is the corporate presence of God in Christ, with a unity created and sustained by the Holy Spirit.

There is a presumption or a conviction in much of today’s theological thinking and writing that language and images that depict transcendent rather than empirical reality are mere metaphors. They are ‘symbols’ in the modern, popular sense, which means they are mere ‘signs’ that point beyond themselves to something else.

To early theologians in the Church, on the other hand, words and images are genuinely symbolic: they actually participate in the reality they depict. They have the capacity, under the right conditions, to take part in the very existence of the person, object, event or promise to which they refer. It is this capacity that enables words and images to become vehicles of divine revelation.

This understanding of the symbolic character of words and images is basic to Orthodox Christianity, according to the Orthodox theologian Father John Breck, who was Professor of New Testament and Ethics at Saint Vladimir’s Seminary and Professor of Biblical Interpretation and Ethics at Saint Sergius Theological Institute, Paris.

Because of their symbolic quality, they do more than simply point beyond themselves to some future reality – they actually participate in that reality, share in it and bring it to completion.

The Church as the Body of Christ recapitulates and fulfils the covenant relation God had already established with the people, and in Christ God reveals his presence and purpose within the realm of human history, the realm of our daily life.

To understand this, he says, there are two basic truths: that the ‘ineffable, inconceivable, invisible and incomprehensible’ God actually reveals himself in human history, in the framework of human experience; and that the mode of his self-revelation is essentially that of word and image.

Theological language always points beyond itself and beyond the limits of our understanding and experience. Behind every creedal confession, as behind every Gospel account or apostolic exhortation, there lies ultimate, unfathomable mystery, hiddenness.

As this morning’s Gospel reading reminds us, God reveals himself and makes himself known in the person of Jesus Christ. To a limited extent, words and images can capture that self-revelation and present it to us in language that we can understand. Behind the language, verbal or graphic, however, there lies an incomprehensible realm of being, power and glory that the human mind cannot begin to fathom, much less express.

God reveals himself, yet he remains essentially hidden. God calls us to use our intellects to search the Scriptures and to perceive, to understand, his presence and purpose within history and within our lives. Yet God remains mystery, inaccessible to thought and inexpressible by means of words or images, but experienced when we love God and love one another.

The Turf Garden on Bath Place has Oxford’s ‘only city walled garden’ and claims to be ‘Oxford’s best kept secret’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Today’s Prayers (Wednesday 17 July 2024):

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 ‘Advocacy, human, environmental and territorial rights programme in Brazil.’ This theme was introduced on Sunday by the Revd Dr Rodrigo Espiúca dos Anjos Siqueira, Diocesan Officer for human, environmental and territorial rights in the Anglican Diocese of Brasilia.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Wednesday 17 July 2024) invites us to pray:

We pray for activists and human, environmental and territorial rights defenders who are under constant threats to their lives and families.

The Collect:

Lord of all power and might,
the author and giver of all good things:
graft in our hearts the love of your name,
increase in us true religion,
nourish us with all goodness,
and of your great mercy keep us in the same;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Post Communion Prayer:

Lord God, whose Son is the true vine and the source of life,
ever giving himself that the world may live:
may we so receive within ourselves
the power of his death and passion
that, in his saving cup,
we may share his glory and be made perfect in his love;
for he is alive and reigns, now and for ever.

Additional Collect:

Generous God,
you give us gifts and make them grow:
though our faith is small as mustard seed,
make it grow to your glory
and the flourishing of your kingdom;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

The Posada on Lichfield Street in Wolverhampton has a ‘secret courtyard’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Yesterday’s reflection

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

Daily prayers during Christmas and Epiphany: 23, 16 January 2024

Philemon (right), Apphia (centre) and Archippus (left) depicted in a traditional icon … Saint Paul’s Letter to Philemon is addressed to all three

Patrick Comerford

The celebrations of Epiphany-tide continue today (16 January 2023), and this week began with the Second Sunday of Epiphany (14 January 2024). Christmas is a season that lasts for 40 days that continues from Christmas Day (25 December) to Candlemas or the Feast of the Presentation (2 February).

Before today begins, I am taking some time for reflection, reading and prayer. My reflections each morning during the seven days of this week include:

My reflections each morning during the seven days of this week include:

1, A reflection on one of the seven people who give their names to epistles in the New Testament;

2, the Gospel reading of the day;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary.

A traditional icon of Philemon … the Letter to Philemon is the shortest of the Pauline letters

3, Philemon:

Although Saint Paul does not give his own name to any of his letters, seven people give their names to a total of eleven of the letters or epistles in the New Testament: Timothy (I and II Timohty), Titus, Philemon, James, Peter (I and II Peter), John (I, II and III John), and Jude.

Three of the Pauline letters are known as the Pastoral Letters: I Timothy, II Timothy and Titus. They are generally discussed as a group – sometimes along with the Letter to Philemon – and have been known as the pastoral letters since the 18th or 19th century because they address two individuals, Timothy and Titus, who have pastoral oversight of local churches and discuss in pastoral ways issues of Christian living, doctrine and leadership.

These letters are arranged in the New Testament in order of size, although this does not represent their chronological order.

The Letter to Philemon was written from prison by the Apostle Paul and Saint Timothy to Philemon, a leader in the Colossian church, and deals with the themes of forgiveness and reconciliation.

Saint Paul identifies himself not as an apostle with authority but as ‘a prisoner of Christ Jesus,’ and calls Timothy ‘our brother,’ and they address Philemon as a ‘dear friend’ and ‘co-worker.’ The letter is also addressed to two other recipients, Apphia ‘our sister’ and Archippus ‘our fellow-soldier,’ as well as ‘the church in your house.’

Onesimus, a slave who had left his master Philemon, is returning with this letter in which Paul asks Philemon to receive him as a ‘beloved brother.’ Philemon was a wealthy Christian, possibly a bishop of the church that met in his home in Colossae.

This letter is the shortest of the Pauline letters, with only 335 words in the Greek text. It was written ca 57-62 CE by Paul while in prison at Caesarea Maritima or in Rome, perhaps at the same time as he wrote the Letter to the Colossians.

The letter is addressed to Philemon, Apphia and Archippus, and the church in Philemon’s house. Philemon (Φιλήμων) is generally assumed to have lived in Colossae. He may have converted to Christianity through Paul’s ministry, possibly in Ephesus. Apphia in the salutation is probably Philemon’s wife. Some commentators suggest that Archippus is their son.

Saint Paul writes this letter on behalf of Onesimus, a runaway slave who had wronged his owner Philemon. It is often assumed that Onesimus had fled after stealing money, and Paul says that if Onesimus owes anything, Philemon should charge this to Paul.

After leaving Philemon, Onesimus met Paul and became a Christian. Paul sends Onesimus back to Philemon with the letter, hoping the two are reconciled. The survival of the letter suggests Paul’s request was granted.

Onesimus’ status as a runaway slave has been challenged by Allen Dwight Callahan, who argues that, beyond verse 16, ‘nothing in the text conclusively indicates that Onesimus was ever the chattel of the letter’s chief addressee.’

Callahan argues that Origen and other early commentators are silent on the possible status of Onesimus as a slave and traces the origins of this interpretation to John Chrysostom ca 386-398. Callahan suggests that Onesimus and Philemon are brothers both by blood and religion, but who have become estranged. But other early writers who assume that Onesimus was a runaway slave include Athanasius and Basil of Caesarea.

In this letter, Paul does not label slavery as negative or positive. Rather than deal with the morality of slavery directly, he undermines the foundation of slavery which is dehumanisation of other human beings. Paul feels that Onesimus should return to Philemon but not as a slave; rather, under a bond of familial love.

Tradition speaks of Philemon as a saint who is commemorated on 22 November and who was martyred with Apphia, Archippus and Onesimus at Colossae during the first persecution in the reign of Nero. In the list of the Seventy Apostles (see Luke 10) attributed to Dorotheus of Tyre, Philemon is described as bishop of Gaza.

As for Onesimus, the only other Biblical reference to him is in Colossians, where Onesimus is called a ‘faithful and beloved brother’ (Colossians 4: 9). He is known in Eastern Orthodox tradition as Onesimus of Byzantium and the Holy Apostle Onesimus. Onesimus is named by Ignatius of Antioch as bishop in Ephesus, which would put his death close to 95 CE. He is commemorated on 15 February.

Onesimus is known in Orthodox tradition as Onesimus of Byzantium and the Holy Apostle Onesimus

Philemon, Ovid, Faust and Jung:

Philemon is also the name of a figure in Ovid’s Metamorphoses and in Goethe’s Faust. In the Metamorphoses, Ovid tells how Jupiter and Mercury went wandering disguised as mortals in of Phrygia. Philemon and Baucis, an old poor couple, welcomed the strangers into their humble cottage. To repay them for their hospitality and kindness, Jupiter and Mercury granted the old couple any wish. Philemon and Baucis wished to become priests in a new shrine and to die at the same time as a testimony to their enduring love. When they died, they were transformed into trees that continued to live side by side.

In Faust 2, Act V, Goethe has Faust build a city on land reclaimed from the sea. In order to accomplish this task, Faust tells Mephistopheles that he wants Philemon and Baucis moved. Instead, to Faust’s horror, Mephistopheles burns down their cottage with Philemon and Baucis inside.

Philemon in Goethe’s Faust made a tremendous impression on CJ Jung and held a life-long significance for him. Jung felt it was his responsibility to atone for this crime and to prevent its repetition. Healing this Faustian split was a central theme in Jung’s life work, and Philemon played an important role in Jung’s fantasies1 To Jung, Philemon represented superior insight. Jung commemorated Philemon at his tower in Bollingen. Over the gate, he carved the inscription, Philemonis Sacrum – Fausti Poenitentia (‘Philemon’s Shrine – Faust’s Repentance’), and in a room he painted a huge mural of the winged Philemon.

Jung painted a huge mural of the winged Philemon in a room in his tower in Bollingen

Mark 2: 23-28 (NRSVA):

23 One sabbath he was going through the cornfields; and as they made their way his disciples began to pluck heads of grain. 24 The Pharisees said to him, ‘Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the sabbath?’ 25 And he said to them, ‘Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry and in need of food? 26 He entered the house of God, when Abiathar was high priest, and ate the bread of the Presence, which it is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and he gave some to his companions.’ 27 Then he said to them, ‘The sabbath was made for humankind, and not humankind for the sabbath; 28 so the Son of Man is lord even of the sabbath.’

‘The sabbath was made for humankind, and not humankind for the sabbath’ (Mark 2: 27) … bread in a shop window in Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Today’s Prayers (Tuesday 16 January 2024):

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: ‘Climate Justice from Bangladesh perspective.’ This theme was introduced on Sunday by the Right Revd Shourabh Pholia, Bishop of Barishal Diocese, Church of Bangladesh.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (16 January 2024) invites us to pray in these words:

We pray for the vulnerable communities around the world who are affected by climate change, especially for those who are in need of protection, provision and support.

The Collect:

Almighty God,
in Christ you make all things new:
transform the poverty of our nature by the riches of your grace,
and in the renewal of our lives
make known your heavenly glory;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

God of glory,
you nourish us with your Word
who is the bread of life:
fill us with your Holy Spirit
that through us the light of your glory
may shine in all the world.
We ask this in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

Eternal Lord,
our beginning and our end:
bring us with the whole creation
to your glory, hidden through past ages
and made known
in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s reflection (Titus)

Continued tomorrow (James)

Remains of the basilica in Ephesus … Onesimus is said to have been Bishop of Ephesus before he was martyred (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 prayers in the Kingdom Season with USPG: (20) 24 November 2023

Colossus Way in Bletchley recalls the giant computers at Bletchley Park … where did Saint Paul’s Colossae get its name? (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

In this time between All Saints’ Day and Advent Sunday, we are in the Kingdom Season in the Calendar of the Church of England. This week began with the Second Sunday before Advent (19 November 2023).

Throughout this week, I am reflecting on the seven churches in cities or places that give their names to the titles of nine letters or epistles by Saint Paul: Rome, Corinth, Galatia, Ephesus, Philippi, Colossae and Thessaloniki.

My reflections this morning follow this pattern:

1, A reflection on a Pauline church;

2, the Gospel reading of the day in the Church of England lectionary;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary.

The Harbour of Rhodes … the medieval poet Manuel Philes linked the name of Colossae with the Colossus of Rhodes (Photograph: RGH Travel)

Saint Paul’s Colossae:

Colossus was a set of computers at Bletchley Park developed by British codebreakers in 1943-1945. They were the world’s first electronic computer with a single purpose: to help decipher the Lorenz-encrypted (Tunny) messages between Hitler and his generals during World War II. The first computer was immediately dubbed ‘Colossus’ by the staff at Bletchley Park due to its immense proportions.

The Colossus of Rhodes (Κολοσσός της Ρόδου) was a colossal statue of the Greek sun god Helios that bestraddled the harbour of Rhodes and it was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. The Colosseum in Rome may have taken its name from a colossal statue of Nero on the model of the Colossus of Rhodes.

When I was on Colossus Way in Bletchley earlier this month, I wondered where the city of Colossae, which gives its name to one of Saint Paul’s letters, derived its name from. The medieval poet Manuel Philes, incorrectly, connected the name ‘Colossae’ with the Colossus of Rhodes. More recently, the name has been connected to the idea of setting up a sacred space or shrine. Another proposal relates the name to the Greek κολάζω (kolazo), ‘to punish,’ while others suggest the name derives from the manufacture there of a dyed wool known as colossinus.

The Apostle Paul wrote 14 of the 27 books the New Testament. He founded several Christian communities in Asia Minor and Europe from the mid-40s to the mid-50s AD, and wrote letters to the churches in Rome, Corinth, Galatia, Ephesus, Philippi, Colossae and Thessaloniki. The Letter to the Colossians is the twelfth book in the New Testament.

The Letter to the Colossians is addressed to the church in Colossae, a small Phrygian city near Laodicea, which is named in the Book of Revelation, and about 160 km (100 miles) from Ephesus in Asia Minor, which is also named in the Book of Revelation and which also received a letter from Saint Paul.

Colossae (Κολοσσαί) was an ancient city of Phrygia in Asia Minor, and one of the most celebrated cities of southern Anatolia (modern Turkey). Colossae was 15 km (9.3 mi) south-east of Laodicea on the road through the Lycus Valley near the Lycus River at the foot of Mount Cadmus, the highest mountain in Turkey’s western Aegean Region, and between the cities of Sardeis and Celaenae, and south-east of the ancient city of Hierapolis and Pamukkale.

The first mention of the city may be in a 17th-century BCE Hittite inscription, which refers to a city called Huwalušija, which some archaeologists believe is a reference to early Colossae.

Colossae was significant city from the 5th century BCE. At Colossae, Herodotus describes how, ‘the river Lycos falls into an opening of the earth and disappears from view, and then after an interval of about five furlongs it comes up to view again, and this river also flows into the Maiander.’

The geographer Herodotus is the first to refer to Colossae by name in the fifth century BCE. He says it was a ‘great city in Phrygia’ that accommodates the Persian king Xerxes I when he was on his way to wage war against the Greeks in the Greco-Persian Wars. By then the city had reached a certain level of wealth and size. Writing in the 5th century BCE, Xenophon described Colossae as ‘a populous city, wealthy and of considerable magnitude.’

Colossae was famous for its wool trade. According to Strabo, the city earned great revenue from the flocks and the wool of Colossae gave its name to the colour colossinus.

The rebellious Persian satrap Tissaphernes was executed in Colossae In 396 BCE, when he was lured there and slain on the command of Cyrus the Younger.

The city continued to enjoy commercial prosperity during the Hellenistic period. But it had dwindled greatly in size and in importance by the time of Saint Paul, when it was known for a local angel cult.

Saint Paul’s Letter to the Colossians points to the existence of an early Christian community. It may have been written in the 60s, while he was in prison. Colossians could have been written in Rome during his first imprisonment, at about the same time he wrote his letters to Philemon and Ephesians, as all three letters were sent with Tychicus and Onesimus. Other scholars, however, suggest it was written in Caesarea or Ephesus.

Colossae was known for its fusion of religious ideas and practices, including Jewish, Gnostic and pagan strands, in what was described in the first century CE as an angel cult. This unorthodox cult venerated the Archangel Michael, said to have caused a curative spring to gush from a fissure in the earth. Saint Theodoret of Cyrrhus said these cults survived in Phrygia during the fourth century.

Saint Paul’s Letter to the Colossians addresses the challenges the Christians in Colossae faced in the context of syncretistic Gnostic religions that were developing in Asia Minor. According to the letter, Epaphras seems to have been a person of some importance in the Christian community in Colossae, and tradition presents him as its first bishop. The epistle also seems to imply that Sain Paul had never visited the city, because it only speaks of him having ‘heard’ of the Colossians’ faith.

In his Letter to Philemon, Saint Paul speaks of his hope to visit Colossae after he is freed from prison. Tradition also names Philemon as the second bishop of Colossae. The first historically documented bishop is Epiphanius, who did not attend the Council of Chalcedon. Thee metropolitan bishop Nunechius of Laodicea, the capital of the Roman province of Phrygia Pacatiana, signed the decrees of Chalcedon on his behalf.

Colossae, Laodicea and Hierapolis were destroyed by an earthquake in the 64 CE, and Colossae was rebuilt independent of the support of Rome. Colossae was part of the Roman and Byzantine province of Phrygia Pacatiana. The city’s fame and status continued into the Byzantine period, and in 858 CE, it was a Metropolitan See. The Byzantines also built the church of Saint Michael in the vicinity of Colossae, one of the largest church buildings in the region.

The town may have been abandoned when Arab invasions forced the population to resettle nearby in Chonae (Chonai), modern-day Honaz. Colossae’s famous church was destroyed in 1192-1193, during the Byzantine civil wars. Chonae was the birthplace of the Byzantine Greek writers Nicetas and Michael Choniates, and it was ruled by Manuel Maurozomes in 1206-1230.

What remains of the buried ruins of Colossae (‘the mound’) is 3 km north of Honaz. The site has never been fully excavated. Instead, most archaeological attention has been focused on nearby Laodicea and Hierapolis. The site extends to 8.8 ha (22 acres), and includes a biconical acropolis almost 30 metres (100 ft) high.

A theatre on the eastern slope could seat around 5,000 people, suggesting the city had a population of 25,000 to 30,000 people during the Roman period. A necropolis has Hellenistic tombs. The remains of sections of columns may have marked a processional way, or the cardo or main street in the city. The remains of one column mark the supposed location of a church once stood, possibly that of Saint Michael.

In this letter, Paul condemns the false teachings circulating in Colossae. He insists that angel worship, ‘secret’ knowledge and asceticism have no place in Christian belief, and he repeats his teaching that Gentile believers do not need to adopt Jewish religious laws or be circumcised.

Saint Paul constantly tells his readers that the whole law is summed up in one single commandment, ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself’ (Galatians 5: 5). On more than one occasion, he summarises the Christian message in this way. In the Letter to the Galatians, for example, he says: ‘The only thing that counts is faith working through love’ (Galatians 5: 6). Then he writes, ‘For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, “You shall love your neighbour as yourself”.’ (Galatians 5: 14).

In the Letter to the Colossians, Saint Paul writes: ‘Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in harmony’ (Colossians 3: 14).

The Colosseum in Rome … Saint Paul’s Letter to the Colossians may have been written in the 60s while he was a prisoner in Rome (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Luke 19: 45-48 (NRSVA):

45 Then he entered the temple and began to drive out those who were selling things there; 46 and he said, ‘It is written,

“My house shall be a house of prayer”;
but you have made it a den of robbers.’

47 Every day he was teaching in the temple. The chief priests, the scribes, and the leaders of the people kept looking for a way to kill him; 48 but they did not find anything they could do, for all the people were spellbound by what they heard.

The remains of the ancient city of Colossae (Photograph: A. Savin / Wikipedia / FAL)

Today’s Prayers (Friday 24 November 2023):

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 ‘16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence’. This theme was introduced on Sunday.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (24 November 2023) invites us to pray in these words:

Give thanks for the lives and work of women throughout the world. Pray for an end to gender inequality.

The Collect:

Heavenly Father,
whose blessed Son was revealed
to destroy the works of the devil
and to make us the children of God and heirs of eternal life:
grant that we, having this hope,
may purify ourselves even as he is pure;
that when he shall appear in power and great glory
we may be made like him in his eternal and glorious kingdom;
where he is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

Gracious Lord,
in this holy sacrament you give substance to our hope:
bring us at the last
to that fullness of life for which we long;
through Jesus Christ our Saviour.

Yesterday’s Reflection (Philippi)

Continued Tomorrow (Thessaloniki)

The site of Colossae has never been fully excavated

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

What remains of the buried ruins of Colossae (‘the mound’), 3 km north of Honaz