Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2025: 161, Monday 20 October 2025

An old barn at Comberford Manor Farm, between Lichfield and Tamworth in Staffordshire (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Patrick Comerford

We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar, and the week began with the Eighteenth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity XVIII, 19 October 2025).

Before the day begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, and for reflection, prayer and reading in these ways:

1, today’s Gospel reading;

2, a short reflection;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

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

An empty barn near Comberford Hall, between Lichfield and Tamworth in Staffordshire (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Luke 12: 13-21 (NRSVA):

13 Someone in the crowd said to him, ‘Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me.’ 14 But he said to him, ‘Friend, who set me to be a judge or arbitrator over you?’ 15 And he said to them, ‘Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.’ 16 Then he told them a parable: ‘The land of a rich man produced abundantly. 17 And he thought to himself, “What should I do, for I have no place to store my crops?” 18 Then he said, “I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. 19 And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.” 20 But God said to him, “You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?” 21 So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich towards God.’

Old barns at Frating Hall Farm, east of Colchester in Essex (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Today’s Reflections:

If money was no barrier, what would I buy?

Would it make me happy?

Would it make anyone else happy?

Would it tell anyone that they are loved, loving, worth loving, that I love them, that I really enjoy their love?

On the other hand, I understand why the man in today’s Gospel reading (Luke 12: 13-21) does many of the things he does.

He has a bumper crop one year, and not enough room to store it in. Was he to leave what he could not store to rot in the fields?

It is a foundational principle of all economics, whatever your political values – from Marx and Malthus to Milton Friedman – that the production of surplus food is the beginning of the creation of wealth and the beginning of economic prosperity.

Even if you are a complete suburbanite, it should have brought joy to your heart the see the fields of green and gold in recent week, for the abundance of the earth is truly a blessing from God.

And it would have been wrong for this man to leave the surplus food to rot in the fields because he failed to have the foresight to build larger barns to store the surplus grain.

It provides income, creates wealth, allows us to export and so to import. Surplus food is the foundation of economics … and makes possible generosity, charity and care for the impoverished.

For the people who first heard this story, just image those people who first heard this parable – they would have imagined so many Biblical images of the benefits of producing surplus food.

Joseph told Pharaoh to store surplus food in Egypt and to prepare and plan ahead for years of famine (see Genesis 41: 1-36). In the long run, this provides too for the survival of the very brothers who had sold him into slavery (see Genesis 42), and, eventually, for the salvation of the people of God.

The production of extra grain in the fields at the time of the harvest allows Ruth and her mother-in-law Naomi to glean in the corners of the field behind the reapers (Ruth 2: 1-4). In the long run, this provides too for the survival of Boaz and his family line, and, eventually, for the salvation of the people of God.

When the people of God go hungry, the provision of surplus food is seen as a sign of God’s love and God’s protection … whether it is:

• the hungry people in the wilderness who are fed with manna (see Exodus 16), which is also referred to in the psalm (see Psalm 107: 1-9, 43);

• or the way the Prophet Hosea reminds the people that God is the God who can say throughout their history: ‘I bent down to them and fed them’ (Hosea 11: 4);

• or the hungry people who are fed with the abundant distribution of five loaves and two fish (Matthew 14: 13-21; Mark 6: 30-44; Luke 9: 10-17; John 6: 1-14; see Mark 8: 1-9);

• or the Disciples who find the Risen Christ has provided for their needs with breakfast (John 21: 9-14).

Surplus food, wealth, providing for the future, building bigger and better barns … it is never an excuse to ‘relax, eat, drink, [and] be merry.’

Today’s Gospel reading offers the abundance and generosity of God’s provision as a sign of God’s love, for us as individuals and for all around us.

The rich man is not faulted for being an innovative farmer who manages to grow an abundant crop.

The rich man is not faulted for storing up those crops.

The rich man is not condemned for tearing down his barns and building larger ones to store not only his grain but his goods too.

The rich man is not even condemned for being rich.

The man condemns himself, he makes himself look foolish, for thinking that all that matters in life is our own pleasure and personal satisfaction.

We are human because we are made to relate to other humans.

There is no shared humanity without relationship.

We are made in the image and likeness of God, but that image and likeness is only truly found in relationship … or God is already relational, God is already revealed as community, in God’s existence as Trinity.

This man thinks not of his needs, but of his own pleasures. He has a spiritual life … we are told he speaks to his Soul. But he speaks only to his own soul. His spiritual life extends only to his own spiritual needs, to his own Soul, it never reaches out to God who has blessed him so abundantly, the God who reminds us in the Psalms that he ‘fills the hungry soul with good’ (Psalm 107: 9).

His spiritual persona never reaches out to or acknowledges God who has blessed him so abundantly, or to the people around him who have needs and who could benefit from his charitable generosity or from his business acumen.

In failing to take account of the needs of others, he fails to realise his own true needs: for a true and loving relationship with God, and a true and loving relationship with others.

He has no concern for the needs of others, physical or spiritual. He is spiritually dead. No wonder Saint Paul says that greed is idolatry (Colossians 3: 5).

But if he has stopped speaking to God, God has not stopped speaking to him. And God tells him that night in a dream that this man is spiritually dead.

God says to him in that dream that his life is being demanded of him (Luke 12: 20).

Curiously, we never hear how he responds, we never hear whether he dies.

The story ends just there.

Unlike the story of the rich man who kept Lazarus at the gate, and then died (Luke 16: 19-31), we are never told what happened to the rich man in today’s Gospel reading.

Did he die of fright?

Did he die after drinking too much?

Did he wake up and carry on regardless?

Or, like Scrooge in A Christmas Carol, did he wake up and realise his folly, and embrace the joys of the Incarnation?

I am challenged not to pass judgment on this Rich Man. Instead, Christ challenges me, in the first part of this reading (Luke 12: 13-15), to put myself in the place of this man.

If we are to take the earlier part of this Gospel reading to heart, perhaps we might reserve judgment on this foolish rich man.

Perhaps, instead of judging this young man with the benefit of hearing this story over and over again, perhaps in the light of the first part of this Gospel reading, I might reflect on this Gospel reading by asking myself two questions again:

‘If money was no barrier, what would I buy?’

and:

‘Would that choice reflect the priorities Christ sets us of loving God and loving one another?’

A full barn on my grandmother’s former farm near Cappoquin, Co Waterford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Monday 20 October 2025):

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

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Monday 20 October 2025) invites us to pray:

Lord, we pray for The Revd Rachel Moshanah and her studies at the College of the Transfiguration. May her education strengthen her faith and equip her to serve your people with wisdom and grace.

The Collect:

Almighty and everlasting God,
increase in us your gift of faith
that, forsaking what lies behind
and reaching out to that which is before,
we may run the way of your commandments
and win the crown of everlasting joy;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post Communion Prayer:

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

Additional Collect:

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

Yesterday’s Reflections

Continued Tomorrow

Filling the barn at harvest time in Calverton, near Stony Stratford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

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

Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2025: 86, Sunday 3 August 2025, Seventh Sunday after Trinity (Trinity VII)

‘I will pull down my barns and build larger ones’ (Luke 12: 18) … a large barn near Comberford Hall, between Lichfield and Tamworth in rural Staffordshire (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Patrick Comerford

We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church, and today is the Seventh Sunday after Trinity (Trinity VII, 3 Augus 2025). Later today, I hope to attend the Parish Eucharist in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford.

Today in the Hebrew Calendar is also Tisha B’Av, which begin at sundown last night (2 August 2025) and ends at nightfall this evening (3 August 2025). It is an annual fast day that commemorates the destruction of both the First Temple and Second Temple in Jerusalem, and many other disasters in the course of Jewish history.

But, before today begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, for reflection, prayer and reading in these ways:

1, today’s Gospel reading;

2, a reflection on the Gospel reading;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

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

‘So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves’ (Luke 12: 21) … inside an antique shop in Rethymnon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Luke 12: 13-21 (NRSVA):

13 Someone in the crowd said to him, ‘Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me.’ 14 But he said to him, ‘Friend, who set me to be a judge or arbitrator over you?’ 15 And he said to them, ‘Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.’ 16 Then he told them a parable: ‘The land of a rich man produced abundantly. 17 And he thought to himself, “What should I do, for I have no place to store my crops?” 18 Then he said, “I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. 19 And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.” 20 But God said to him, “You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?” 21 So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich towards God.’

‘I will pull down my barns and build larger ones’ (Luke 12: 18) … … old barns at Frating Hall Farm, near Colchester, Essex (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Today’s Reflection:

I did not watch the first episode of Destination X a few nights ago; I never watched any of the episodes of the X Factor, Traitors, Love Island or Big Brother. Nor am I too fond of television quiz programmes, or programmes that ask silly questions of people. I enjoy Have I Got News For You? and Would I Lie to You? But I cannot see the point in Pointless or most other quiz shows.

You have programme presenters sitting there, looking smug with both the questions and answers, researched by paid researchers, and the poor members of the public sitting there, anxious about obscure questions about the crew members of the Moon Landing in 1969, or the No 1 hits in 2005, or celebrity weddings in 2025.

I could not, for the life of me, answer any one of those questions. But some poor people, for the sake of €100 or €1,000 – never, it seems, on the way to being a millionaire – are made to look silly or ridiculous.

Quite frankly, I find it demeaning. I enjoy the fun of table quizzes as fundraisers. But I have never wanted to hoard up all the answers for a television quiz, or, for that matter, for a parish table quiz. As I advance in years, I know this is anxiety that I do not need, and it is probably knowledge I am better off not storing up.

But I found myself watching one of those programmes accidentally as I was idly flicking through the channels to see what was on the television, to be told: ‘I could never go on a programme like that with you!’

‘Why?’ I asked.

‘Because I could never answer: “What is his favourite piece of music.” Or: “If money was no barrier, what would he buy?”’

Well, there is a lot of good music to listen to.

But if money was no barrier, what would I buy?

Would it make me happy?

Would it make anyone else happy?

Would it tell anyone that they are loved, loving, worth loving, that I love them, that I really enjoy their love? And I don’t meant what passes for love on Love Island.

On the other hand, I understand why the man in this morning’s Gospel reading (Luke 12: 13-21) does many of the things he does.

He has a bumper crop one year, and not enough room to store it. Was he to leave what he could not store to rot in the fields?

It is a foundational principle of all economics, whatever your political values – from Marx and Malthus to Milton Freedman – that the production of surplus food is the beginning of the creation of wealth and the beginning of economic prosperity.

Even if you are a complete ‘townie,’ it should bring joy to your heart to see the fields of green and gold these weeks, for the abundance of the earth is truly a blessing from God.

And it would have been wrong for this man to leave the surplus food to rot in the fields because he failed to have the foresight to build larger barns to store the surplus grain.

It provides income, creates wealth, allows us to export and so to import, allows us to plan for the future. Surplus food is the foundation of economics … and it makes possible generosity, charity and care for the impoverished.

For the people who first heard this story, just image those people who first heard this parable – they would have imagined so many images in the Old Testament of the benefits of producing surplus food.

Joseph told Pharaoh to store surplus food in Egypt and to prepare and plan ahead for years of famine (see Genesis 41: 1-36). In the long run, this provides too for the survival of the very brothers who had sold him into slavery (see Genesis 42), and, eventually, for the salvation of the people of God.

The production of extra grain in the fields at the time of the harvest allows Ruth and her mother-in-law Naomi to glean in the corners of the field behind the reapers (Ruth 2: 1-4). In the long run, this provides too for the survival of Boaz and his family line, and, eventually, for the salvation of the people of God.

When the people of God go hungry, the provision of surplus food is seen as a sign of God’s love and God’s protection … whether it is:

• the hungry people in the wilderness who are fed with manna (see Exodus 16), which is alluded to in this morning’s psalm (Psalm 107: 1-9, 43);

• or the way the Prophet Hosea reminds the people, in the Old Testament reading this morning (Hosea 11: 1-11), that God is the God who can say throughout their history: ‘I bent down to them and fed them’ (Hosea 11: 4);

• or the hungry people who are fed with the abundant distribution of five loaves and two fish (Matthew 14: 13-21; Mark 6: 30-44; Luke 9: 10-17; John 6: 1-14; see Mark 8: 1-9);

• or the Disciples who find the Risen Christ has provided for their needs with breakfast (John 21: 9-14).

Surplus food, wealth, providing for the future, building bigger and better barns … yet it is never an excuse to ‘relax, eat, drink, [and] be merry’ (Luke 12: 19).

This Gospel reading offers the abundance and generosity of God’s provision as a sign of God’s love, for us as individuals and for all around us.

The rich man is not faulted for being an innovative farmer who manages to grow an abundant crop.

The rich man is not faulted for storing up those crops.

The rich man is not condemned for tearing down his barns and building larger ones to store not only his grain but his goods too.

The rich man is not even condemned for being rich.

The man condemns himself, he makes himself look foolish, for thinking that all that matters in life is my own pleasure and my personal satisfaction.

We are human because we are made to relate to other humans. There is no shared humanity without relationship. We are made in the image and likeness of God, but that image and likeness is only truly found in relationship … for God is already relational, God is already revealed as community, in God’s existence as Trinity.

This man thinks not of his needs, but of his own pleasures. He has a spiritual life … we are told he speaks to his Soul (verse 19). But he speaks only to his own soul. His spiritual life extends only to his own spiritual needs, to his own Soul; it never reaches out to God who has blessed him so abundantly, the God who in the Psalm reminds us that he ‘fills the hungry soul with good’ (Psalm 107: 9).

His spiritual persona never reaches out to or acknowledges God who has blessed him so abundantly, or to the people around him who have needs and who could benefit from his charitable generosity or from his business acumen.

In failing to take account of the needs of others, he fails to realise his own true needs: for a true and loving relationship with God, and a true and loving relationship with others.

He has no concern for the needs of others, physical or spiritual. He is spiritually dead. No wonder Saint Paul says in the epistle reading that greed is idolatry (Colossians 3: 5).

But if he has stopped speaking to God, God has not stopped speaking to him. And God tells him that night in a dream that this man is spiritually dead.

God says to him in that dream that his life is being demanded of him (Luke 12: 20).

But, did you notice how we never hear how he responds, how we never hear whether he dies?

The story ends just there.

The Gospel reading on the last Sunday of next month [28 September 2025, Trinity XV] is the story of the rich man who kept Lazarus at the gate, and then died (see Luke 16: 19-31). But unlike that rich man, we are never told what happened to the rich man in this morning’s Gospel reading.

Did he die of fright?

Did he die after drinking too much?

Did he wake up and carry on regardless?

Or, like Scrooge in A Christmas Carol, did he wake up and realise his folly, and embrace the joys of the Incarnation?

These may not be the sort of questions you would be asked on Who wants to be a millionaire?. However, I am challenged not to pass judgment on the Rich Man. Instead, Christ challenges me, in the first part of this reading (Luke 12: 13-15), to put myself in the place of this man.

If we are to take the earlier part of this Gospel reading to heart, perhaps we might reserve judgment on this foolish rich man, just like Christ reserves judgment on the man who wants a share of his brother’s riches.

Perhaps, instead of judging this young man with the benefit of hearing this story over and over again, perhaps in the light of the first part of this Gospel reading, we might reflect on this Gospel reading by asking ourselves two questions:

‘If money was no barrier, what would I buy?’

and:

‘Would that choice reflect the priorities Christ sets us of loving God and loving one another?’

‘And I will say to my soul … relax, eat, drink, be merry’ (Luke 12: 19) … summer lunches in Rethymnon and Iraklion in Crete (Photographs: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Today’s Prayers (Sunday 3 August 2025, Trinity VII):

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

The Igreja Episcopal Anglicana do Brasil is dedicated to a journey that merges faith with a profound respect for the earth and its people. In listening to the voices of Indigenous groups who have lived in harmony with creation for centuries, the Anglican Church in Brazil is reminded – and challenges us – to a deeper, spiritual connection between land, people, and God.

Whether it’s the sound of crashing waves or tweeting birds, creation speaks. The beauty of creation teaches us of God’s presence in the land, the waters, and the skies. In this simplicity, it draws us to listen to God - not just with our ears, but with our spirits. As Jocabed Solano, of the Gunadule Indigenous people group in Panama, explained: ‘The earth is the first theologian … it reveals God not only to us but through us.’

We also need reminding of our inter-connectedness, something that the modern world seems quick to replace with a drive for independence. Winston Tarere from Fiji urges us to: ‘Reconnect with the sacred rhythms of the earth, ocean, and skies as kin and family.’ Referring to the earth as family might be new to us, but it’s Indigenous wisdom. It reminds us that, similar to our own families or friends, we need the earth, and it provides for us in return.

And so, it is obvious to see why Isabel Dessana, of the Desana people in the Amazon, concludes: ‘Our ancestors' wisdom sustains us; it is our source of hope.’ The fight for land is more than a political battle—it is a spiritual one, a fight for identity, for survival, for the sacred bond between people and place.

Keep an eye out for the USPG Harvest Appeal 2025, which focuses on the Diocese of Amazônia and the urgent need for climate justice. Learn more at www.uspg.org.uk.

The USPG prayer diary today (Sunday 3 August 2025, Trinity VII) invites us to pray by reading and meditating on Luke 12: 13-21.

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 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.

Yesterday’s reflection

Continued tomorrow

‘And I will say to my soul … relax, eat, drink, be merry’ (Luke 12: 19) … waiting for dinner at Kyria Maria restaurant in Rethymnon in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

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

Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2025: 78, Saturday 26 July 2025

‘The kingdom of heaven may be compared to someone who sowed good seed in his field’ (Matthew 13: 24) … fields at Frating Hall Farm, near Colchester, Essex, at the end of the day (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Patrick Comerford

We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church and tomorrow is the Sixth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity VI, 27 July 2025). Today, the Church Calendar remembers Anne and Joachim, Parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary (26 July).

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.

‘Gather the wheat into my barn’ (Matthew 13: 30) … a barn near Comberford Hall, between Lichfield and Tamworth in rural Staffordshire (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Matthew 13: 24-30 (NRSVA):

24 He [Jesus] put before them another parable: ‘The kingdom of heaven may be compared to someone who sowed good seed in his field; 25 but while everybody was asleep, an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and then went away. 26 So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared as well. 27 And the slaves of the householder came and said to him, “Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? Where, then, did these weeds come from?” 28 He answered, “An enemy has done this.” The slaves said to him, “Then do you want us to go and gather them?” 29 But he replied, “No; for in gathering the weeds you would uproot the wheat along with them. 30 Let both of them grow together until the harvest; and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Collect the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn”.’

‘Gather the wheat into my barn’ (Matthew 13: 30) … an old barn at Comberford Manor Farm, between Lichfield and Tamworth in rural Staffordshire (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

This morning’s reflection:

Like many of my neighbours, I have been excited by the performance of the Lionesses, the English team in the UEFA European Women’s Championship. The last two matches have been nail-biting to the very last minute, the very last kick, and I am looking forward to tomorrow’s final between England and Spain.

England’s 2025 squad has four players with Black ancestry that equates to 17%. Compared to the 64% in the recent England men’s squad, the diversity in the Lionesses appears to be low. But there may be greater diversity when we take into account the family names of many of the players: Chloe Kelly, for example, has Irish parents.

Michelle Agyemang, the star player in the semi-final, grew up in South Ockendon in Essex, and her parents of Ghanaian descent. So much vile racism and misogyny has directed at Jess Carter is unacceptable that many MPs have signed a cross-party letter calling on social media companies to step up and take responsibility.

In the Church, we have become very vocal in condemning racism and in promoting ethnic and culutural diversity, I hope. But, when it comes to other areas of life where we need to promote tolerance, diversity and peace, how good are we at valuing and respecting difference? Are there othere areas of life wehere we concentrate too much on our divisions, seeking perfection within the church at the expense of respect, tolerance, diversity, understanding and love?

These are questions I am challenged to ask as I read this morning’s Gospel passage.

In the Gospel reading at the Eucharist today (Matthew 13: 24-30), Christ speaks by the lake first to the crowd, telling them the parable of the wheat and the weeds (verse 24-30). The word that we have traditionally translated as tares or weeds (verses 25, 26, 27, 29, 30, 36, 38, 40) is the Greek word ζιζάνια (zizania), a type of wild rice grass, although Saint Matthew is probably referring to a type of darnel or noxious weed. It looks like wheat until the plants mature and the ears open, and the seeds are a strong soporific poison.

In the verses that follow, Christ then withdraws into a house, and has a private conversation with the Disciples (verses 36-43), in which he explains he is the sower (verse 37), the good seed is not the Word, but the Children of the Kingdom (verse 38), the weeds are the ‘Children of the Evil One’ (verse 38), and the field is the world (verse 38).

The harvest is not gathered by the disciples or the children of the kingdom, but by angels sent by the Son of Man (verses 39, 41).

It is an apocalyptic image, describing poetically and dramatically a future cataclysm, and not an image to describe what should be happening today.

It is imagery that draws on the apocalyptic images in the Book of Daniel, where the three young men who are faithful to God are tried in the fires of the furnace, yet come out alive, stronger and firmer in their faith (see Daniel 3: 1-10).

The slaves or δοῦλοι (douloi), the people who want to separate the darnel from the wheat (verse 27-28), are the disciples: Saint Paul introduces himself in his letters with phrases like Παῦλος δοῦλος Χριστοῦ Ἰησοῦ (Paul, a doulos or slave, or servant of Jesus Christ), (see Romans 1: 1, Philippians 1: 1, Titus 1: 1), and the same word is used by James (see James 1: 1), Peter (see II Peter 1: 1) and Jude (see Jude 1), to introduce themselves in their letters.

In the Book of Revelation, this word is used to describe the Disciples and the Church (see Revelation 1: 1; 22: 3). In other words, the Apostolic writers see themselves as slaves in the field, working at Christ’s command in the world.

This is one of eight parables about the last judgment found only in Saint Matthew’s Gospel, and six of the seven New Testament uses of the phrase ‘weeping and gnashing of teeth’ (ὁ κλαυθμὸς καὶ ὁ βρυγμὸς τῶν ὀδόντων) occur in this Gospel (Matthew 8: 12; 13: 42; 13: 50; 22: 13; 24: 51; and 25: 30; see also Luke 13: 28).

When it comes to explaining the parable to the disciples in the second part of our verses that follow this reading (verses 36-43), the references to the slaves in the first part (verses 27-28) are no longer there. It is not that the slaves have disappeared – Christ is speaking directly to those who would want to uproot the tares but who would find themselves uprooting the wheat too.

The weeding of the field is God’s job, not ours. The reapers, not the slaves, will gather in both the weeds and the wheat, the weeds first and then the wheat (verse 30).

As I travelled through the Staffordshire countryside yesterday, around Tamworth and Lichfield, I could see how farmers are already baling the hay and taking in the harvest in many places. In the coming weeks, many farmers will be seen burning off the stubble on their fields to prepare the soil for autumn sowing and the planting of new crops. In this sense, the farmer understands burning as purification and preparation – it is not as harsh as city dwellers think.

It is not for us to decide who is in and who is out in Christ’s field, in the kingdom of God. That is Christ’s task alone.

Christ gently cautions the Disciples against rash decisions about who is in and who is out. Gently, he lets them see that the tares are not damaging the growth of the wheat, they just grow alongside it and amidst it.

But so often we decide to assume God’s role. We do it constantly in society, and we do it constantly in the Church, deciding who should be in and who should be out.

The harvest comes at the end of time, not now, and I should not hasten it even if the reapers seem to tarry.

The weeds we identify and want to uproot may turn out to be wheat; what we presume to be wheat because it looks like us may turn out to be weeds.

We assume the role of the reapers every time we decide we would be better off without someone in our society or in the Church because we disagree with them about issues like sexuality, women bishops and priests, and other issues that we mistake for core values.

The core values, as Christ himself explains, again and again, are loving God and loving others.

It is not without good reason that the Patristic writers warn that schism is worse than heresy (see Saint John Chrysostom, Patrologia Græca, vol. lxii, col. 87, On Ephesians, Homily 11, §5). We do not need to demythologise this reading. Christ leaves that to the future. This morning we are called to grow and not to worry about the tares. That growth must always emphasise love first.

When some members of the Church have sought to ‘out’ or ‘throw out’ people because of their sexuality, they have caused immense personal tragedy for individuals and their families and friends – weeping and gnashing of teeth indeed.

How painful it is that in the wars waged in the name of democracy and freedom we have eventually violated the basic concepts of human rights and dignity. In recent decades, across the word, we have seen murdered innocent children murdered while playing on a beach, innocent women and children murdered in their homes, in hospitals, in schools and at weddings. There have been disturbing rises in antisemitism and Islamophobia across the western world in these recent years.

When I want a Church or a society that looks like me, I eventually end up living on a desert island or as a member of a sect of one – and there I might just find out too how unhappy I am with myself!

But if I allow myself to grow in faith and trust and love with others, I may, I just may, to my surprise, find that they too are wheat rather than weeds, and they may discover the same about me.

An empty barn on my grandmother’s former farm near Cappoquin, Co Waterford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Saturday 26 July 2025):

The theme this week (20 to 26 July) in Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), has been ‘Diversity in Sarawak’ (pp 20-21). I introduced this theme last Sunday with reflections from Sarawak and the Diocese of Kuching.

The USPG prayer diary today (Saturday 26 July 2025) invites us to pray:

We pray that ecumenical relations and inter-faith dialogue in Kuching and throughout Sarawak and Malaysia may be enriched by the role of the Diocese of Kuching and may continue to bring new insights and fresh hope.

The Collect:

Lord God of Israel,
who bestowed such grace on Anne and Joachim
that their daughter Mary grew up obedient to your word
and made ready to be the mother of your Son:
help us to commit ourselves in all things to your keeping
and grant us the salvation you promised to your people;
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:

Father,
from whom every family in heaven and on earth takes its name,
your servants Anne and Joachim revealed your goodness
in a life of tranquillity and service:
grant that we who have gathered in faith around this table
may like them know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge
and be filled with all your fullness;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Collect on the Eve of Trinity VI:

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.

Yesterday’s reflection

Continued tomorrow

‘We pray that … inter-faith dialogue in Kuching and throughout Sarawak and Malaysia may be enriched by the role of the Diocese of Kuching’ (USPG Prayer Diary) … the ‘Floating Mosque’ in Kuching (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

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

Saint Botolph’s Church in Colchester and Saint Botolph’s Priory, the first Augustinian foundation in England

Saint Botolph’s Priory, Colchester, founded ca 1093 … the first and leading Augustinian house in England (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Patrick Comerford

During our recent visit to Colchester, I visited some of the churches in the town centre, as well as the castle, the Roman and Norman walls, the town hall, the former Jewish quarter in Stockwell Street, and the sites of the town’s synagogues.

Saint Botolph’s Priory in Colchester was founded ca 1093, and was the first and leading Augustinian house in England until it was dissolved at the Tudor reformation in 1536.

The priory was founded on the site of a Saxon church dedicated to Saint Botolph, with a tower that resembled the Saxon tower of Holy Trinity Church in Colchester. The church’s transformation into an Augustinian priory was initiated by priest named Norman, who had studied under Anselm of Canterbury in France before returning to England and settling in Colchester.

In Colchester, Norman joined a college of secular priests at Saint Botolph’s Church who wanted to join a religious order. Norman suggested the Augustinian order, which at the time had no houses in England, and received the approval of Anselm as Archbishop of Canterbury.

Saint Botolph’s Church became Saint Botolph’s Priory, and Norman later left Colchester to become the first prior of Holy Trinity Priory, Aldgate.

Saint Botolph’s Priory, Colchester, was built on the site of an earlier Saxon church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Unlike nearby Saint John’s Abbey, Saint Botolph's Priory at first received little support from rich patrons, despite an endowment from Henry I, and it was several decades before the priory church was fully built. It was built in the Norman style on the site of the earlier church, and the work was completed by 1177 when the priory church was dedicated.

The house was headed by a Prior, and initially had 12 canons representing the 12 Apostles; a thirteenth canon was added to the foundation in 1281. The church was 53.7 metres (176 ft) long – about twice as long as the surviving standing ruins – with a central tower and transepts. The nave was 33.5 metres (110 ft) long, and 16.75metres (55 ft) wide. The rose window in the gable is thought to have been one of the earliest examples in England.

The church had several side chapels, including a lady chapel and chapels dedicated to Saint Catherine of Alexandria, Saint Thomas Becket and the Holy Trinity.

The main west door of the church was known as the Pardon Door, because it was there pardons were granted on the feast of Saint Denis (9 October), known as Pardon Day in mediaeval Colchester.

The cloisters were on its south side of the church, and the canons’ dormitory was refurbished in 1383.

The church had at least two bells, a Sanctus bell and a requiem bell.

The main west door of the priory church was known as the Pardon Door (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Although Saint Botolph’s not as wealthy as its neighbour and rival, Saint John’s Abbey, the priory had considerable holdings in Essex and other places in south and east England. The church of Saint Peter, Colchester, was appropriated to the priory in 1318, and other churches attached to the priory included All Saints’, Saint James’s, and Saint Martin in Colchester, and the church in Frating.

A violent clash between the prior and canons of Saint Botolph’s and the monks of Saint John’s Abbey in the mid-14th century arose out of disputes over Saint Peter’s Church in Colchester.

Thomas Turner, the last prior of Saint Botolph’s, was elected 1527. The prior and seven canons of Saint Botolph’s took the oath of fealty in 1534, and the priory was dissolved in 1535, when it was granted to Sir Thomas Audley. The nave of the priory church was retained as a parish church, but the choir was demolished along with the cloisters, chapter house and other monastic buildings.

During the Siege of Colchester in 1648 in the Second English Civil War, when Colchester was besieged by the Parliamentarian New Model Army, Saint Botolph’s was caught in the crossfire of the assault on South Gate, and was reduced to ruins.

Saint Botolph’s Priory was destroyed by a Parliamentarian assault during the siege of Colchester in 1648 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

The parish of Saint Botolph’s was left without a parish church after the siege of Colchester, and for almost 200 years the parishioners worshipped at All Saints’ Church on the High Street.

A Gothic Victorian church was built next to the priory ruins in 1837, on the site of the monastic kitchens and refectory. It was designed by the architect William Mason (1810-1897), and his design, inside and outside, reflects that of its 12th century predecessor.

Saint Botolph’s Church, dominated by its massive tower, was built in white brick, earning it the nickname of ‘the White Elephant’. The external brickwork has weathered to a darker hue, but, inside, the visitor is greeted by a bright contrast of white, scarlet and gold.

The church retains its original plan and most of its three-sided gallery in the style of the gallery churches in London. The east windows are of splendid Flemish stained glass and a window in the south aisle commemorates Samuel Harsnett (1561-1631), Archbishop of York (1629-1631), who was born in Colchester. His writings are said to have influenced Shakespeare and Milton.

Saint Botolph’s Church, built beside the priory ruins in 1837, was designed by William Mason (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

The nave was reordered in the 1970s, when the cast iron rood screen and pulpit were removed from the chancel and the fixed pews were removed from the nave.

The raised daises, left after the pews were taken out, were removed in 1988 and the nave was levelled. A dividing partition was installed at the west end in 1990 to give a separate welcome area and some hospitality facilities. The church extension in 2001 provided a hall, kitchen, toilets and a vestry and meeting room.

The ruins of Saint Botolph’s Priory are now a public park, and improvements in 2010-2012 made the ruins more accessible to the public.

Saint Botolph’s Church, Colchester, was once nicknamed ‘the White Elephant’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Frating Hall Farm in Essex was once home to a pacifist experiment in community living

‘Let the field be joyful, and all that is therein: then shall all the trees of the wood rejoice’ (Psalm 96: 12) … the sun sets behind the fields at Frating Hall Farm, near Colchester in Essex (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Patrick Comerford

I have been writing these evenings about our visit to Colchester earlier this week. But for two of us the primary purpose in being in that part of Essex on Monday was to visit Metallic Elephant, a printing machinery business based in Frating Hall Farm Industrial Estate.

Frating is almost half-way between Colchester and Clacton and the home of Metallic Elephant, a family-owned business with a lengthy experience in the printing industry and a team of dedicated, skilled craft workers and engineers.

Frating is a small village with a population of about 540, on the Tendring Peninsula, about 8 km (5 miles) east of Colchester and 15 km (9 miles) north-west of Clacton-on-Sea. The nearest railway station is 3 km (2 miles) away at Great Bentley, so Charlotte and I took a taxi from Colchester through the village of Elmstead Market.

Frating includes both Frating Green and Hockley. The parish church is now a private house and Frating also has a village hall, Frating War Memorial Hall, which celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2022, and one public house, the King’s Arms.

Frating is recorded as Fretingham in the Domesday Book and Frating Church dates from the 12th century. Frae is the Saxon word for a lord, and the name means the settlement of the people of Fraete.

The village sign incorporates a fruited apple tree, recalling the apple-growing industry in Frating during the 20th century, a bell representing the three church bells of Frating Church, a cartwheel representing the 19th century wheelwright of Haggar’s Lane, and a ram’s head from the coat of arms of the Bendish family of Steeple Bumpstead.

Sir Thomas Bendish (1540-1603) of Steeple Bumpstead married Eleanor Ford, a daughter of John Ford of Frating Hall, and was buried at Frating Church. Their son, Sir Thomas Bendish (1568-1636), was created a baronet in 1611 and was High Sheriff of Essex in 1618-1619 and 1630-1631. His son, the royalist Sir Thomas Bendish (1607-1674), was the English ambassador to the Ottoman court in Constantinople in the mid-17th century. Another son, Richard Bendish, inherited Frating Hall.

The barns on Frating Hall Farm, near Colchester in Essex, probably date from the 17th or 18th century (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

The barns on Frating Hall Farm probably date from the 17th or 18th century. The more recent history of Frating Hall Farm is an interesting chapter in the history of pacifist communitarianism, and the links between pacifism and agrarianism, or the ‘back-to-the-land’ movement, in the mid-20th century, when farm work offered a way for pacifists and conscientious objectors to remain within the law.

Frating Hall Farm is associated with key figures in the pacifist and anti-war movements from the 1930s to the 1950s, including Vera Brittain, author of Testament of Youth and a founding figure in the Peace Pledge Union (PPU) in 1936, along with the Dean of Canterbury, Dick Sheppard (1880-1937), the poet Max Plowman and the literary critic John Middleton Murry, a friend of DH Lawrence.

For many years, a photograph of Dick Sheppard, a former Vicar of Saint Martin-in-the-Fields, hung over my desk in my study in the house in Firhouse where I lived for 20 years until the mid-1990s. His pacifism and his social activism were among the many influences on the development of my Anglicanism and my spirituality.

By the end of the 1930s, the Peace Pledge Union had almost 100,000 members, all of whom had signed a pledge declaring: ‘War is a crime against humanity. I renounce war, and am therefore determined not to support any kind of war. I am also determined to work for the removal of all causes of war.’

Two pacifist settlements in Essex played a major role in developing the link between the peace movement and farming: the Adelphi Centre in Langham (1934-1942) and Frating Hall Farm (1943-1954).

The Adelphi Centre at the Oaks, a rural Edwardian mansion at Langham near Colchester, was a socialist education centre with a degree of agricultural self-sufficiency, and had links with George Orwell, John Middleton Murry and other intellectuals.

Frating Hall Farm, on the other hand, was a Christian pacifist community where a 300-acre arable and livestock farm was home to more than 50 people, including refugees and former prisoners-of-war. The story of Frating Hall Farm is told by Ken Worpole in his recent book No Matter How Many Skies Have Fallen: back to the land in wartime Britain (2001). The title of his book is from the opening paragraph of DH Lawrence’s novel, Lady Chatterley’s Lover (1928), and Worpole charts the history of the Frating community over 11 years.

The pacifist community at Frating Hall Farm lasted from 1943 to 1954 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

A group from Murry’s failing project in Langham took over Frating Hall Farm in 1943 and ran it as a radical pacifist settlement until 1954. At its peak, more than 50 people lived and worked at Frating, one of the most successful of the pacifist rural initiatives providing legitimate alternatives to conscription during World War II.

The settlement also provided shelter and accommodation for visiting supporters at harvest time, and offered sanctuary to refugees and former German prisoners-of-war. Over time, Frating Hall Farm became a centre for the arts, winning the grudging respect of their neighbours.

It was an extraordinary geographical and international cultural mingling of religious and political interests – between the steelworks and mines of north-east England, bohemian London, rural Anglicanism, Russian anarchism and Jewish phenomenology. Many of the community members at Frating Hall shared strong religious beliefs and an interest in the works of Leo Tolstoy, DH Lawrence, and religious philosophers, writers and theologians such as Nikolai Berdyaev, Martin Buber and Simone Weil – all referred to in letters and farm broadsheets.

Shirley Williams (1930-2021), later a Labour cabinet minister, went to work there as the ‘second cowman’ after leaving school at the age of 18. She was in charge of ‘a herd of Ayrshire dairy cows, handsome red-and-white animals of a certain temper.’

Her mother Vera Brittain (1893-1970) contributed towards buying the farm. Shirley Williams learnt much of her politics at Frating from the earnest radicals there, particularly the charismatic Joe Watson. She later recalled her experiences at Frating in her autobiography Climbing the Bookshelves.

When the co-operative structure was dissolved in 1954, a former Quaker member bought the farm at Frating Hall, and eventually bequeathed it to his stepson, Martyn Thomas, who arrived there at the age of four and then continued to farm there with his wife Barbara.

Frating is part of Clacton constituency, where the MP is Nigel Farage. I had thought of visiting Clacton-on-Sea for a walk on the beach. But, by the time we had finished our afternoon business, darkness had enveloped the Essex countryside, and we returned to Colchester under the January full moon, which is known as the Wolf Moon – because it was thought wolves howled more at this time of year as there was less food in the middle of winter.

The parish church in Frating dates from the 12th century and is now a private house (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)