Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2026: 152, Wednesday 7 October 2026

Saint Matthew’s version of the Lord’s Prayer (bottom left) on the reredos in Saint Mary Woonoth Church in the City of London (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Patrick Comerford

We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar, and this week began with the Eighteenth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity XVIII, 4 October). Today is the third anniversary of the horrific attacks on kibbutzim close to the border between Israel and Gaza on 7 October 2023.

Later this evening, I hope to take part in the choir rehearsals in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford. Before today begins, however, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, and for reflection, prayer and reading in these ways:

1, today’s Gospel reading;

2, a reflection on the Gospel reading;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

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

‘Lord, teach us to pray’ (Luke 11: 1) … prayer books and prayer shawls in the Kadoorie Mekor Haim in Porto (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Luke 11: 1-4 (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.’

‘Give us each day our daily bread’ (Luke 11: 3) … bread in the window of Knead Baker on Oxford’s High Street (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflections:

The version of the Lord’s Prayer in Saint Luke’s Gospel (Luke 11: 2-4) is not the same as the familiar text we use, based on the version in Saint Matthew’s text.

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.

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.

At synods and mission conferences, we often 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 we 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 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, collective 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 the 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 together:

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.

‘Give us each day our daily bread’ … bread at a restaurant in Panormos, near Rethymnon in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Wednesday 7 October 2026):

In Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), the theme this week, 4-10 October 2026 (pp 44-45), is ‘The Gun, The Sword, and The Bible’. This theme was introduced on Sunday with a reflection by the Revd Les Isaac OBE, founder and President of Ascension Trust and co-founder of Street Pastors.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Wednesday 7 October 2026) invites us to pray:

Father, teach us to recognise that you have called all peoples into Your Kingdom. Break down division and unite us as true brothers and sisters in Christ.

The Collect of the Day:

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

‘Give us each day our daily bread’ … bread and wine on the table at the end of the day in the Sunset Taverna in Rethymnon in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

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

60 million tourists in Greek airports, ‘60 million and more’ slave deaths, $60 million for Trump but not for Gaza, 60 million readers of this blog to date

Nikos Kazantzakis International Airport in Iraklion … more than 60 million passengers travelled through Greece’s 39 commercial airports from January to August 2026 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

This blog reached a new record, with a total of 60 million readers or hits by about 9 pm last night (4 October 2026). Already, September has been an exceptionally busy time on this blog, with a steady, overwhelming rise in viewing and reading figures, having passed the million mark on 10 occasions last month alone.

These viewing and readership figures continue to be overpowering as this blog continues to reach volumes of readers I never expected when I first started blogging 16 years ago. At the end of last year, this blog had 21 million hits (31 December 2025). So far this year, there have been more than 39 million hits or visitors in 2026 alone, and more than 10. 4 million last month (September), the highest total in any single month since I began blogging.

Half of all hits or reader figures have been within a little more than six months or so, with 30 million hits since 29 March 2026. I first began blogging in 2010, and it took almost two years until July 2012 to reach half a million readers. Throughout this year, the daily figures have often been overwhelming.

Of the 10 days of busiest traffic on this blog, seven were last month alone, two were in May and one was in April. Although traffic has slowed down in the past few weeks, the daily averages remain high, with an average of almost 350,000 hits a day last month, and about 130,000-140,000 a day so far this month. Yet, I recall how 10 years ago, back in 2016, the daily average was around 1,000, or 30,000 a month.

The dozen most popular posting on this blog over the years, in rounded figures, have been:

1, About me (1 May 2007), 95,000 hits
2, All shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well (5 September 2008), 43,000 hits
3, ‘When all that’s left of me is love, give me away’ … a poem before Kaddish has gone viral (15 January 2020), 37,000 hits
4, What is a degree from Cambridge Theological Seminary worth? (29 July 2010), 35,000 hits
5, The Transfiguration: finding meaning in icons and Orthodox spirituality (7 April 2010) 33,000 hits
6, Poems for Lent (3): ‘Indifference,’ by GA Studdert Kennedy (27 February 2012), 25,000 hits

7, Poems for Lent (39): ‘All in an April Evening,’ by Katharine Tynan (3 April 2012), 23,000 hits
8, Talking about history, memories, war and vision in the chapel of Saint John’s Hospital, Lichfield (13 February 2015), 22,000 hits
9, Poems for Easter (2): ‘Easter Wings’ by George Herbert (9 April 2012), 19,000 hits
10, A year later, I get to find and visit Castle Matrix (19 February 2018), 19,000 hits
11, A visit to ‘Howth Castle and Environs’ (19 March 2012), 18,000 hits
12, Readings in Spirituality: the novelist as a writer in spirituality and theology (26 November 2009), 17,000 hits

Geologists at Trinity College Dublin have found that oxygen-producing life forms were present on Earth 60 million years earlier than previously thought (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Some curious though random statistics help to put this new figure of 60 million into perspective:

Around 50 to 60 million people lived in the combined eastern and western Roman Empire in the 4th century AD. The population of the United Kingdom had passed 60 million by 2001, according to a report in the Guardian on 25 August 2001.

About 60 million people worldwide are living with an amputation.

Beloved, the 1987 novel by the American writer Toni Morrison set after the American Civil War, tells the story of formerly enslaved people in Cincinnati. The epigraph to Beloved, ‘60 million and more’, is drawn from a number of studies on the African slave trade, which estimate that about half of each ship’s ‘cargo’ died in transit to America.

The children’s author and comedian David Walliams has sold more 60 million copies of his works worldwide. Hachette UK Distribution ships more than 60 million books globally each year.

Donald Trump spent $60 million of taxpayer dollars on his birthday UFC fight on the White House lawn in June.

When Trump claimed last year that the US gave $60 million in aid to Gaza, Federal officials could not answer questions about which agency or group received the funding and when. The State Department had previously said the US had approved a $30 million grant for aid but that by then the funds had not been distributed. Eventually, it turned out that the US gave $3 million in Gaza food aid, contradicting Trump’s lies about $60 million.

The centre:mk in Milton Keynes had a £60 million investment programme in recent years, with a multi-year transformation involved a significant modernisation of the space, a new multi-storey car park, and a 75,000 sq ft Primark letting.

More than 60 million passengers travelled through Greece’s 39 commercial airports from January to August 2026, with a record-breaking 4.5% increase in traffic compared to the same eight-month period in 2025.

The Greek government is offering a financial support package worth nearly €60 million to help ferry operators cope with rising marine fuel costs while preventing additional fare increases for passengers. The initiative comes as the price of marine gas oil (MGO), one of the sector’s main operating expenses, continues to fluctuate. Although fuel costs have increased significantly, ferry companies had avoided introducing another round of ticket price rises.

Geologists from Trinity College Dublin have found that oxygen-producing life forms were present on Earth three billion years ago – a full 60 million years earlier than previously thought. These life forms were responsible for adding oxygen to the atmosphere, which laid the foundations for more complex life to evolve and proliferate.

The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest ocean basin on Earth, covering more than 155 million sq km or 60 million sq miles or more than 30% of the Earth’s surface.

60 million minutes is equal to 114 years, 0 months, 29 days and 16 hours, which means that if this blog was receiving just one hit a minute, I would need to have started blogging back in September 1912, weeks before Thessaloniki was incorporated in the modern Greek state.

I retired from active parish ministry 4½ years ago, on 31 March 2022. These days, though, about 150 people on average are reading my daily prayer diary posted on this blog each morning, or more than 1,000 people each week. As this blog moves beyond 60 million hits, I am truly grateful today to the real readers among that 60 million. In particular, I am thankful for the faithful core group of people who join me in prayer, scripture reading and reflections each day.


A walk on the beach at Damai in Sarawak … the Pacific Ocean covers more than 60 million sq miles (Patrick Comerford)

Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2026: 149, Sunday 4 October 2026, Eighteenth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity XVIII)

‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone’ (Matthew 21: 42) … a cross cut into a cornerstone in the main church in the Monastery of Vlatádon in Thessaloniki (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar, and this is the Eighteenth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity XVIII). Later this morning, I hope to sing with the choir at the Parish Eucharist in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church in Stony Stratford, and we are planning a small family celebration later in the day.

In the Jewish calendar, the holiday of Simchat Torah (שִׂמְחַת תּוֹרָה) began at sunset last night (3 October) and ends at nightfall this evening (4 October). Simchat Torah involves joyous Torah-dancing of Simchat Torah and celebrates the completion of the annual public Torah-reading cycle and the immediate start of a new one.

Simchat Torah means ‘Rejoicing of the Law’ and the holiday follows immediately after Sukkot. The celebrations include hakafot or Torah dancing, with the Torah scrolls carried in seven celebratory circuits and dancing around the synagogue’s bimah or reading platform. The final verses of Deuteronomy are read, followed immediately by the opening verses of Genesis to show that the Torah is a continuous, never-ending cycle. Everyone in the community participates equally, holding the closed scrolls to emphasise unity, regardless of level of learning. Children often wave flags, receive sweet treats, and join the procession to associate learning with joy.

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.

‘Now when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do …’ (Matthew 21: 40) … vineyards, vines, groves and terraces in Tuscany (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Matthew 21: 33-46 (NRSVA):

[Jesus said:] 33 ‘Listen to another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a wine press in it, and built a watch-tower. Then he leased it to tenants and went to another country. 34 When the harvest time had come, he sent his slaves to the tenants to collect his produce. 35 But the tenants seized his slaves and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. 36 Again he sent other slaves, more than the first; and they treated them in the same way. 37 Finally he sent his son to them, saying, “They will respect my son.” 38 But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, “This is the heir; come, let us kill him and get his inheritance.” 39 So they seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him. 40 Now when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?’ 41 They said to him, ‘He will put those wretches to a miserable death, and lease the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the produce at the harvest time.’

42 Jesus said to them, ‘Have you never read in the scriptures:
“The stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone;
this was the Lord’s doing,
and it is amazing in our eyes”?

43 ‘Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that produces the fruits of the kingdom. 44 The one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and it will crush anyone on whom it falls.’

45 When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they realized that he was speaking about them. 46 They wanted to arrest him, but they feared the crowds, because they regarded him as a prophet.

Today’s Reflections:

A Mediterranean village vineyard … grapes ripening in Tsesmes, near Rethymnon in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflections:

We have had a lot of visits to the vineyard in the Gospel readings for the past few weeks.

Two weeks ago (20 September 2026), we had the landowner who hired labourers at different times of the day to work in his vineyard (Matthew 20: 1-16). And we saw how those who worked from early in the day were upset that those who were hired later in the day were still paid a full day’s pay.

Last week (27 September 2026), we had the father who asked his two sons to go to work in the vineyard (Matthew 21: 23-32). And we saw there how one son said no, but still went to work there, while another son said yes, and went off and did his own thing.

This morning (4 October 2026), we have another story set in the vineyard (Matthew 21: 33-46).

I imagine we have very few vineyards in England or Ireland. Yet, most of us can identify with the time and season in this morning’s Gospel reading.

It is harvest time, and it is time to collect the harvest. It should be a time for celebration, and for counting our blessings, as we celebrated the harvest on Friday evening.

But this morning’s Gospel reading challenges us to ask what if we think more about the field than the harvest, more about our personal gain and profit than the overall plans that God may have for us, more about short-term gains than about the long-term impact of our decisions, what if I think more about my individual needs than the good of wider society and community.

The setting of the parable is the estate of a wealthy landowner. This landowner does not live on the land, and does not work at planting or harvesting. The hard work is carried out by the hired labourers, who must turn over most of what they grow to the landowner. The landowner in the parallel parable in Luke 19 is a harsh, demanding man, reaping what he does not sow (see Luke 19: 20).

This absentee landlord does not send messengers out of any great love for the people or the land, but to collect the profits from their labour that sustain his life of ease in the cosmopolitan city where he lives.

In Saint Matthew’s version of parable, the farmers have had enough. The next time the landowner sends one of his servants to collect the rent, the farmers send him packing. Forget how you have consistently read this parable for years. Those who listened to Christ telling this parable for the first time probably smiled at the demanding landlord getting a revolutionary response from the exploited tenants living on the edge and on the margins.

After all, Saint Paul tells us in the Pastoral Epistles: ‘for the scripture says, “You shall not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain,” and, “The labourer deserves to be paid”.’ (I Timothy 5: 18)

Then the landowner sends another agent to collect the rent. Again, the farmers get together to send him away empty-handed. More cause for rejoicing among the first listeners.

Then the son of the landowner arrives. He has a different standing than the messengers. He is the son, perhaps the ‘beloved son,’ probably the only son. If he is the heir and the landowner had died, then he has inherited the estate himself. If the son dies and he does not have an heir, the land goes to those who live on it, and the farmers will be free. The farmers have been resisting years of what they feel has been exploitation, and now they rise up and kill the son.

But the twist in the story is that the landowner is not dead. He does exactly what we expect him to do in the circumstances. He wreaks revenge, slaughters the farmers and replaces them with others. He does this so he can return to his life of ease in the city, living on the income provided by the labour of others.

But no-one among those who hear this ending to the story for the first time would hardly regard it as comforting or good news.

The chief priests and the scribes who are listening the audience, and who come from the same social class as the rich landowner and his hirelings, must realise that they have just heard a scathing condemnation from Christ of how they exploit their fellow Jews.

The peasants or tenant farmers who hear the story are reminded that escalating the spiral of violence only results in more violence being visited upon them and their children.

Everyone who listens is challenged to rethink their prejudices and their judgmental values.

In this, the parable is a challenge to us today.

In what ways are we like the absentee landlord, dependent on others’ exploitation to support our lives of relative ease?

How much do we consume without knowing or caring about where our clothes, our coffee, our computers, our gadgets and toys come from, or about the cost to poor people and the environments in which they live?

In what ways are we like the agents, willing to do wrong to achieve what we think is right, to escalate interpersonal and international conflict in ways that will be visited upon generations to come?

And in what ways are we responding to Christ’s challenge to care for those the world disregards and to disregard the world’s standards of strength and honour?

As the American theologian and writer Sarah Dylan Breuer once wrote, Christ challenges us to do the unthinkable, to turn the other cheek and let others think us weak, to care as much for God’s children who make our clothes and shoes, who mine the ore for our electronics and dispose of the toxic computer monitors we discard when want newer and better ones, as we do for our own children.

Christ challenges us to bless and honour the peacemakers rather than the mighty, to strive for justice and peace and the dignity of every human being above our own comfort.

‘There was a landlord who planted a vineyard’ … grapes ripening on the vine in the Hedgehog in Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Sunday 4 October 2026, Trinity XVIII):

In Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), the theme this week, from 4 to 10 October 2026 (pp 44-45), is ‘The Gun, The Sword, and The Bible’. This theme is introduced today with a reflection by the Revd Les Isaac OBE, founder and President of Ascension Trust and co-founder of Street Pastors:

I distinctly remember sitting in my local church in London and asking myself: “How come the Jesus that I’m seeing up there looks like the people who hate me?” I couldn’t ask my mother that as it was seen as rude in my culture. But it did get me thinking.

I’ve not spent the last 40 years defending the negative side of the Church’s history, but rather trying to help people to understand the complexity of the transatlantic slave trade and its entanglement with the Church. In spite of the gun, the sword, and the Bible travelling together in the same chest on the same ship, there were people who have done a great work. There are men and women who made great sacrifices, as did Jesus. I can’t figure out why he allowed the Bible to be in that chest, but I’m consoled by Scripture that says everything works together for good.

That’s why I think the Church must rediscover its unique role in shaping history and humanity. The Church has to recognise that we are agents of the gospel. And I say this to those who are Black, white, or of any other colour. I say, listen, God hasn’t called one culture to deal with His Kingdom. He’s called all people. We ought to come together because we value the fact that we are sisters and brothers in the Kingdom of God.

I see this potential in the resilience of young African and Caribbean people: their gifts, abilities, and zeal excites me. Partnering with them, we can bring the gospel to life in unity and hope across communities, nations, and the world.

Watch the full recording at: www.youtube.com/@uspg6204

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Sunday 4 October 2026, Trinity XVIII) invites us to pray as we read and meditate on Matthew 21: 33-46.

The Collect of the Day:

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

A vineyard on the slopes at Fattoria il Poggia outside Montecarlo, near Lucca in Tuscany (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

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

The sculptures of Thessaloniki: 7, the Monument of the Jewish Holocaust by Nandor Glid, Eleftherias Square

The Jewish Holocaust Memorial in Eleftherias Square (Liberty Square), Thessaloniki … a bronze sculpture by Nandor Glid of a menorah whose flames are wrapped around human bodies (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

I was recalling last week how I came across a collection of photographs of modern sculptures in the streets and parks of Thessaloniki and how I realised that I had written little about these sculptures over the years.

Rather than leave the photographs and memories in forgotten files on my laptop or in the cloud, I started an occasional series of blog postings on some of those modern sculptures I have rediscovered in Thessaloniki. Over the next few weeks, I am inviting you to join me in a minor odyssey of recovery and discovery as my mind wanders through Thessaloniki, looking at these sculptures again.

The sculptures I looked at last week include the monumental statues of Aristotle, Alexander the Great and Eleftherios Venizelos, the Jewish Memorial by Konstantinos Lentaris in the campus of the Aristotele University of Thessaloniki, and the bust of Admiral Nikolaos Votsis in front of the White Tower.

The Monument for the Jewish Holocaust on the edge of Eleftherias Square is a sculpture in bronze with faltering human figures in the shape of a seven-light lamp or menorah, a flame that symbolises destruction, a cloud representing the angels who witnessed the slaughter, and a tree symbolising rebirth and hope. All these figures are represented by intertwined human forms and shapes.

By 1940, Thessaloniki had a Jewish population of about 56,000 in a city that had grown to about 250,000 residents. The community had survived fires, political upheaval, and demographic transformation, they kept open their synagogues, schools and cultural institutions, and they remained a vital part of the city’s fabric. But nothing prepared them for what came next.

On 9 April 1941, German forces occupied Thessaloniki. Within a week, Nazi authorities arrested Jewish community leaders, confiscated Jewish homes and hospitals, and began the systematic looting of Jewish cultural property. Tens of thousands of books, religious artifacts, and artworks were shipped to Germany.

On 11 July 1942 – a date remembered to this day as ‘Black Saturday’ or as the ‘Black Shabbat’ – the Nazis forcibly rounded up 9,000 Jewish men aged between 18 and 45 in Plateia Eleftherias (Πλατεία Ελευθερίας, Liberty Square). For hours in the blazing summer heat, German soldiers beat and humiliated them before the crowds. About 2,000 were sent to forced labour. The rest were eventually ransomed by the community, which sold its ancient cemetery to raise the demanded sum.

The Jewish cemetery, with 20 generations and over 500 years of burials, was destroyed. The tombstones were purloined as building materials for footpaths, university stairs, and barrack latrines. Aristotle University now stands where the Jewish dead had been buried rested.

In February 1943, Adolf Eichmann sent Dieter Wisliceny and Alois Brunner to Thessaloniki. They were specialists in Jewish deportation and they implemented the Nuremberg Laws immediately, imposing yellow stars, movement restrictions, property confiscation. Within days, Jews were forced into three ghettos. The largest, the Baron Hirsch transit camp, was beside the railway station.

The tracks to Auschwitz … old railway tracks at the port where the convoys left for the death camps (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The first train left Thessaloniki on 15 March 1943. Between March and August 1943, 19 trains took as many as 46,000 Jews from Thessaloniki to Auschwitz-Birkenau. Each train held 1,000 to 4,000 people crammed into cattle cars. The seven-day journey across Macedonia, Serbia, Hungary, Austria, and Czechoslovakia was torture itself, with no food, no water and no sanitation, bodies crushed together in suffocating heat or freezing cold.

When the trains arrived at Auschwitz, SS doctors carried out ‘selections’ on the platform. Most were sent directly to gas chambers. Of the 46,000 deported, about 1,950 or 4 per cent survived. The Jewish population that had comprised 68 per cent of Thessaloniki in 1613; 96 per cent of the city’s Jewish population was exterminated in 1943. In five months, the Nazis accomplished what four centuries of disasters – plagues, fires, wars, and economic transformations – had failed to do: they destroyed the Jerusalem of the Balkans.

The survivors who returned found a ghost community. Fewer than 2,000 Jews remained in Thessaloniki. Their synagogues were destroyed or vandalised, their homes had become the homes of others, their cemetery was razed, their archives were burned, their commercial networks were shattered. Many survivors could not bear to stay and emigrated to Palestine, the USA or other diaspora communities. Others rebuilt what they could, establishing small institutions to preserve memory.

About 1,000 Jews live in Thessaloniki today – less than 0.2 per cent of the city’s population of over 800,000. Three synagogues remain of the original 42. The Monastir Synagogue survived only because Nazis used it as a Red Cross warehouse. The Jewish Museum of Thessaloniki, which attracts about 30,000 visitors a year 2023, documents the community’s history.

The Jewish Museum in Thessaloniki … the city was known to Jews as ‘la Madre de Israel’ or ‘the Mother of Israel,’ and to non-Jews as ‘the Jerusalem of the Balkans’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The Holocaust memorial by Nandor Glid was erected in 2008 at Eleftherias Square (Liberty Square), where Jewish men were beaten on Black Saturday. Nandor Glid was a Serbian Jewish sculptor whose father and family members were murdered in Auschwitz. However, Glid did not manage to finish the work, and it was completed by his son. There is a similar sculpture by the artist in Dachau concentration camp.

There are two inscriptions at the base of the monument, one with the dedication and the date of the unveiling, and the second commemorating the visit of President Katsav Israeli.

The monument has been vandalised several times by antisemites, but it has always been restored. It is the starting point of the annual memorial procession, which ends at the old train station from which thousands of Jews were forced to leave the city for the death camps.

One of Thessaloniki’s last Holocaust survivors, Heinz Kounio, died earlier this year (April 2026) at the age of 98. The Holocaust Museum of Greece (Μουσείο Ολοκαυτώματος Ελλάδος) in Thessaloniki is due to soon. It will be the first museum dedicated specifically to telling the story of Sephardic Jews in the Holocaust.

May their memories be a blessing, זצ״ל

Shabbat Shalom, שבת שלום‎

In this series:

1, Introduction (21 September 2026)

2, Aristotle by Giorgos Georgiadis, Aristotelous Square (22 September 2026)

3, Alexander the Great by Evangelos Moustakas, Alexander’s Garden (23 September 2026)

4, Eleftherios Venizelos by Giannis Pappas, Plateia Dikastirion (24 September 2026)

5, The Jewish Monument by Konstantinos Lentaris, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (25 September 2026)

6, Admiral Nikolaos Votsis by Georgios Dimitriadis, in front of the White Tower (1 October 2026)

7, The Monument of the Jewish Holocaust by Nandor Glid, Eleftherias Square (2 October 2026)

Next: ‘The Woman of Pindos’ by Kostas Domboulas, Fanarioton Square

The old railway station in Thessaloniki … more than 46,000 Jews were sent by rail to Auschwitz and Belsen in 19 convoys in 1943 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The sculptures of Thessaloniki: 6, Admiral Nikolaos Votsis by Georgios Dimitriadis, in front of the White Tower

The bust of Admiral Nikolaos Votsis by Georgios Dimitriadis in front of the White Tower in Thessaloniki (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

I was recalling last week how I came across a collection of photographs of modern sculptures in the streets and parks of Thessaloniki and how I realised that I had written little about these sculptures over the years.

Rather than leave the photographs and memories in forgotten files on my laptop or in the cloud, I started an occasional series of blog postings on some of those modern sculptures I have rediscovered in Thessaloniki. Over the next few weeks, I am inviting you to join me in a minor odyssey of recovery and discovery as my mind wanders through Thessaloniki, looking at these sculptures again.

The sculptures I looked at last week include the monumental statues of Aristotle, Alexander the Great and Eleftherios Venizelos, and the Jewish Memorial by Konstantinos Lentaris in the campus of the Aristotele University of Thessaloniki.

The bust of Admiral Nikolaos Votsis (1877-1934) in front of the White Tower on the waterfront is a fine example of monumental sculpture in the city. The sculpture by Georgios Dimitriadis (1880-1941) is one of the oldest in the city and it depicts Votsis as both strict and imposing.

Admiral Nikolaos Votsis (Νικόλαος Βότσης) was a senior naval officer from Hydra. The sinking of the Feth-i Bülend may not have had much military significance, but it was a great morale boost to the Greeks. It was the first of a series of naval successes in the war, and a week later, the city was surrendered to the Greek army. The mast of the Turkish ship was placed on the White Tower, and the Greek flag was flown from it.

The bust of Admiral Votsis became a symbol of the liberation of Thessaloniki and of resistance to the occupation during World War II (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Votsis became a national hero and has been compared with the legendary fireship captains of the Greek Revolution. While he was a student at the Naval Academy, he took part in the naval blockade of Crete in 1896-1897, in the run-up to the Greco-Turkish War in 1897.

Votsis rose to the rank of Rear Admiral, commanded two more battleships and then became Greece’s High Commissioner to the Allied mission in Constantinople (Istanbul). Later, he was captain of the battleship Limnos, which supported Greek landings in Turkey and took part in the final Greek sea-borne withdrawal in 1922. He died in exile in Paris in 1931.

The sculptor of this bust, Georgios Dimitriadis (Γεώργιος Δημητριάδης), was born in Athens. He specialised in monumental public sculpture and was one of the most productive sculptors of his time. In an eclectic way, he drew on neoclassic and academic aesthetic styles, often brightened with naturalistic and allegoric elements.

The bust of Admiral Nikolaos Votsis is on a marble pyramidal pedestal inscribed with verses in his honour written by the Greek satirical poet Giorgos Souris (1853-1919), who has been described as a ‘modern Aristophanes.’

The side of the plinth is inscribed with the names of the torpedo boat crew that Votsis commanded when he sank the Ottoman battleship Feth-i Bülend in the harbour of Thessaloniki 18 October 1912, during the First Balkan War.

The poet Giorgos Souris published celebratory and satirical verse dedicated to the liberation of Thessaloniki from Ottoman rule and the entry of the Greek army in November 1912 in his weekly verse newspaper O Romios (The Greek) on 10 November 1912. He used sharp, rhythmic, and popular rhyming verse to capture national enthusiasm, political commentary and the historic significance of the city’s liberation.

The verses in honour of Admiral Votsis written by the Greek satirical poet Giorgos Souris in 1912 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The bust of Votsis became a symbol of the liberation of Thessaloniki. During the German occupation and World War II, the sculpture became the final point of resistance rallies, when young people laid a wreath and sang the national anthem, while the Nazis pointed guns at them.

Three ships of the Hellenic Navy have borne the name Lemnos or Limnos (Λήμνος), named after the island of Lemnos and the First Balkan War Battle of Lemnos. The first was the battleship Lemnos (1914-1932), commanded by Votsis, and the name and its traditions have been held since 1982 by the Greek frigate Limnos.

I was on board the frigate Limnos 30 years ago in 1996 as part of a flotilla that took about two dozen journalists from Kalymnos to see the islets of Imia at the height of tensions that year between Greece and Turkey, and then brought us back to Rhodes.

There was a continuity between that trip in the Aegean in 1996, and the career of Votsis that began with the naval blockade of Crete 100 years earlier in 1896-1897. The frigate Limnos continues to be present in Greek-Turkish tensions in the Aegean, which have been reignited with a retired Turkish admiral threatening the Greek presence on five Greek islands: Lesvos, Chios, Samos, Kos and Kastellorizo. Recent Turkish assertion at the highest level have extended claims to several other Greek islands, including Crete, Rhodes and Lemnos.

In this series:

1, Introduction (21 September 2026)

2, Aristotle by Giorgos Georgiadis, Aristotelous Square (22 September 2026)

3, Alexander the Great by Evangelos Moustakas, Alexander’s Garden (23 September 2026)

4, Eleftherios Venizelos by Giannis Pappas, Plateia Dikastirion (24 September 2026)

5, The Jewish Monument by Konstantinos Lentaris, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (25 September 2026)

6, Admiral Nikolaos Votsis by Georgios Dimitriadis, in front of the White Tower (1 October 2026)

Next: The Monument of the Jewish Holocaust by Nandor Glid, Eleftherias Square (2 October 2026)

The bust of Admiral Nikolaos Votsis by Georgios Dimitriadis, in front of the White Tower at night (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2026: 145, Wednesday 30 September 2026

‘Disturb us, Lord … when we arrived safely because we sailed too close to the shore’ … after sunset on the shore below the Fortezza in Rethymnon in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We have arrived at the end of September and we are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar. The week began with Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity XVII, 27 September 2026), and the calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship today remembers Saint Jerome (420), Translator of the Scriptures, Teacher of the Faith.

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

1, today’s Gospel reading;

2, a reflection on the Gospel reading;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

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

‘Disturb us, Lord … when we arrived safely because we sailed too close to the shore’ … sails and boats in the harbour in Rethymnon at sunset (Photograph: Patrick Comerford; click on image for full-screen viewing)

Luke 9: 57-62 (NRSVA):

57 As they were going along the road, someone said to him, ‘I will follow you wherever you go.’ 58 And Jesus said to him, ‘Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.’ 59 To another he said, ‘Follow me.’ But he said, ‘Lord, first let me go and bury my father.’ 60 But Jesus said to him, ‘Let the dead bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.’ 61 Another said, ‘I will follow you, Lord; but let me first say farewell to those at my home.’ 62 Jesus said to him, ‘No one who puts a hand to the plough and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.’

Sir Francis Drake … ‘it is not the beginning, but the continuing of the same unto the end, until it be thoroughly finished, which yieldeth the true glory’

Today’s Reflections:

Saint Luke is a great story-teller, and we are all captivated by his stories of healing and his parables: the Good Samaritan, the Prodigal Son, the unjust steward, and so on.

So this morning’s Gospel reading at the Eucharist (Luke 9: 57-62) comes as a little surprise. The first impression is that there is no story here, no drama, no healing, no showing how society’s perceived underdog is really a model for our own behaviour, for my behaviour – indeed a model of how God behaves, and behaves towards us.

Instead, what we have what reads like a series of pithy statements from Jesus: like a collection of sayings from the Desert Fathers or even a collection of popular sayings from Zen masters.

Good stories about wayward sons and muggings on the roadside make for good drama, and healing stories are great soap opera. But they only remain stories and they only remain mini-stage-plays if all we want is good entertainment and forget all about what the main storyline is, what the underlying plot in Saint Luke’s Gospel is.

The context of today’s reading is provided a few verses earlier, when Saint Luke says the days are drawing near and Jesus is setting his face to go to Jerusalem (Luke 9: 51).

It is a challenge to us all. We are called to live not for the pleasure of a dramatic moment, but to live in the one great drama that is taking place: to set our faces on the heavenly Jerusalem; to live as if we really believe in the New Heaven and the New Earth.

We are called not to be conditional disciples – being a Christian when I look after everything else, sometime in the future. We are called to be committed disciples – to live as Christians in the here-and-now.

There is the man who wants to follow Jesus, but only if he can hold on to his wealth and property (Luke 9: 57-58). There is the man who wants to follow Jesus, but not until he has looked after burying his father (Luke 9: 59-60). There is the man who wants to follow Jesus, but who thinks first he must consider what his friends and those at home would think before he leaves them (Luke 10: 61-62).

Of course, it is good to have a home of my own and not to live in a foxhole. Of course, it is good that each of us should take responsibility for ageing parents and to bury them when they die. Of course, it is good that we should not walk out on our families, our friends and our responsibilities.

Of course, domestic security, filial duty and loyal affection are high ideals. But they are conditional, while the call of the kingdom is compelling, urgent and imperative. And it demands commitment in such a way that it puts all other loyalties in second place.

Christ is not saying that these men had the wrong values. But he sees how we can use values so that we can end up with the wrong priorities.

As GB Caird pointed out in his commentary on Saint Luke’s Gospel, sometimes the most difficult choices in life for most of us are not between good and evil, but between the good and the best. I am sure these three ‘wannabe’ disciples presented good excuses. But discipleship on my own terms is not what Christ asks of me. It can only be on his terms. There is no conditional discipleship, there is only committed discipleship.

As advertisers remind us constantly, there are terms and conditions attached to most things in life. But there can be no terms and conditions attached when it comes to being a disciple, to being a follower of Jesus.

As his ship, the Elizabeth Bonaventure, lay at anchor at Cape Sakar on 17 May 1587 after the sacking of Sagress, Sir Francis Drake wrote to Elizabeth I’s secretary of state, Sir Francis Walsingham: ‘There must be a begynnyng of any great matter, but the contenewing unto the end untyll it be thoroughly ffynyshed yeldes the trew glory.’

These words were later adapted by Eric Milner-White (1884-1963), who is credited with introducing the Service of Nine Lessons and Carols when he was the Dean of King’s College, Cambridge (1918-1941). In a collection of prayers he compiled and published in 1941 as he was moving from King’s to become Dean of York, he adapted Drake’s words in what has become a well-known prayer:

O Lord God,
when thou givest to thy servants
to endeavour any great matter,
grant us also to know that it is not the beginning,
but the continuing of the same unto the end,
until it be thoroughly finished, which yieldeth the true glory;
through him who for the finishing of thy work
laid down his life, our Redeemer, Jesus Christ.

— after Francis Drake (c. 1540-1596)

But there is another prayer that is also attributed to Francis Drake. After the Golden Hinde sailed from Portsmouth to raid Spanish Gold before sailing on to California, he is said to have written:

Disturb us, Lord,
when we are too well pleased with ourselves;
when our dreams have come true
because we have dreamed too little,
when we arrived safely
because we sailed too close to the shore.

Disturb us, Lord, when
with the abundance of things we possess
we have lost our thirst
for the waters of life;
having fallen in love with life,
we have ceased to dream of eternity
and in our efforts to build a new earth,
we have allowed our vision
of the new Heaven to dim.

Disturb us, Lord, to dare more boldly –
to venture on wider seas
where storms will show your mastery;
where losing sight of land,
We shall find the stars.

We ask you to push back
the horizons of our hopes;
and to push back the future
in strength, courage, hope, and love.

This we ask in the name of our Captain,
who is Jesus Christ.

This prayer exists in different versions, and many of these versions include lines that sound too modern to be Drake’s own words. Indeed, it is difficult to be certain whether any of this prayer was written or prayed by Drake himself, although, as the first person to circumnavigate the globe, he would certainly have understood its sentiment.

There is a well-known saying: ‘A ship in the harbour is safe, but that’s not what ships are built for.’ Food, shelter, and warmth are not enough on their own. In order to flourish, we need a dream – a sense of purpose. A dream come true is, by definition, not a dream any more. And when our dreams come true, we need to dream new dreams, for: ‘Where there is no vision, the people perish’ (Proverbs 28.19).

So often, it is true, church life is a tussle between young people who want to try new things and older people who so want to keep things as they are. But young adventurers also need older people with wisdom and perspective who can still retain and nurture a healthy sense of adventure.

Drake’s prayer expresses the excitement of faith. It is so easy for some to dismiss faith as a crutch for the weak and prayer as a sign of weakness. But if all our prayers were prayers for help, then would there be nothing more to life than merely coping with it and whatever it brings us?

‘No one who puts a hand to the plough and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God’ (Luke 9: 62) … sculpture in Kanturk, Co Cork, of Thady Kelleher (1935-2004), World and All-Ireland Ploughing Champion (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Wednesday 30 September 2026):

In Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), the theme this week, from 27 September to 3 October 2026 (pp 42-43), is ‘Power of Language’. This theme was introduced on Sunday with a reflection by Rachel Weller, Communications Officer, USPG.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (30 September 2026, International Translation Day) invites us to pray:

Gracious God, bless those who translate and interpret, making knowledge, scripture, and worship accessible to all.

The Collect of the Day:

Almighty God,
you have made us for yourself,
and our hearts are restless till they find their rest in you:
pour your love into our hearts and draw us to yourself,
and so bring us at last to your heavenly city
where we shall see you face to face;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

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

Additional Collect:

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

Yesterday’s Reflections

Continued Tomorrow

‘Foxes have holes … but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head’ (Luke 9: 57) … a fox in street art in Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

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

Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2026: 142, Sunday 27 September 2026 Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity XVII)

He said to his sons, ‘Son, go and work in the vineyard today’ (see Matthew 21: 28) … in a vineyard Perpignan in the south of France (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar and today is the Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity XVII, 27 September). Later this morning, I hope to be at the Parish Eucharist in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford. I also plan to visit the Greek Orthodox Church in Stony Stratford later this morning.

Today in the Jewish Calendar is the second day od Sukkot 5787. Yom Tob Day 1 started at sunset on Friday night (25 September) and ended last night (26 September), and Yom Tob Day 2 started yedsterday evening and ends this evening (27 September).

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

1, today’s Gospel reading;

2, a reflection on the Gospel reading;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

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

‘Did the baptism of John come from heaven, or was it of human origin?’ (Matthew 21: 25) … the baptism of John in a window in Saint Mary’s Church, St Neots, Cambridgeshire (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Matthew 21: 23-32 (NRSVA):

23 When he entered the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came to him as he was teaching, and said, ‘By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?’ 24 Jesus said to them, ‘I will also ask you one question; if you tell me the answer, then I will also tell you by what authority I do these things. 25 Did the baptism of John come from heaven, or was it of human origin?’ And they argued with one another, ‘If we say, “From heaven”, he will say to us, “Why then did you not believe him?” 26 But if we say, “Of human origin”, we are afraid of the crowd; for all regard John as a prophet.’ 27 So they answered Jesus, ‘We do not know.’ And he said to them, ‘Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things.

28 ‘What do you think? A man had two sons; he went to the first and said, “Son, go and work in the vineyard today.” 29 He answered, “I will not”; but later he changed his mind and went. 30 The father went to the second and said the same; and he answered, “I go, sir”; but he did not go. 31 Which of the two did the will of his father?’ They said, ‘The first.’ Jesus said to them, ‘Truly I tell you, the tax-collectors and the prostitutes are going into the kingdom of God ahead of you. 32 For John came to you in the way of righteousness and you did not believe him, but the tax-collectors and the prostitutes believed him; and even after you saw it, you did not change your minds and believe him.

Rome or Paris? Black or White? … are all decisions a clear choice between conflicting contrasts? … wallpaper in a restaurant in Templeogue, Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflections:

Black or White?

Dog or Cat?

Land or Sea?

Wet Bob or Dry Bob?

Paris or Rome?

Wine or Beer?

It’s the sort of game we all play in our families at one time or another. I loved playing ‘Matching Pairs’ with my sons when they were at the early learning stage.

For adults, there are similar jokes about two kinds of people we compare or contrast: ‘There are two types of people: those who divide people into two categories, and those who don’t.’ For the mathematicians: ‘There are only 10 types of people in the world: those who understand binary, and those who don’t.’ And for those with a more subtle sense of humour: ‘There are two types of people in this world: Those who can extrapolate from incomplete data.’

The readings in the lectionary today give us contrasting pairs. In the first reading (Exodus 17: 1-7), we see contrasts between adults and children; water and wilderness; testing and thirsting; obeying and quarrelling; responsible freedom and slavery without responsibility. The Psalm (Psalm 78) contrasts images of ancestors and children, day and night, rock and river, and so on. In the Epistle reading (Philippians 2: 1-13), the Apostle Paul presents the stark contrasts offered in Christ of slavery and freedom, deity and humanity, fear and trembling, heaven and earth.

These images prepare for the matching pairs or clashing contrasts in today’s Gospel reading (Matthew 21: 23-32).

In the week before his Crucifixion, Christ has just shown the importance of faith in understanding God’s ways. Now, as he teaches in the Temple, representatives of the Sanhedrin, the chief priests and the elders, ask who has given him the power and authority to say and do all that he has said and done in his ministry.

However, Christ declines to answer them until they first answer his question, one that will show whether they have the faith needed to understand his answer.

Those who come to question Christ are skilled in the Law. But this is of little help when it comes to deciding whether a prophet is genuinely from God, in this case Saint John the Baptist.

If they say that Saint John the Baptist was from God, they ought to have repented as he urged them. If they say John was not from God, they risk losing face and credibility with the crowd who are now following Christ. The Sanhedrin judged such issues, but their answer shows their incompetence.

In the second part of this reading (verses 28-30), Christ tells a parable about admission to the kingdom. Like the first son in this parable, people once regarded as disobedient and having lived evil lives, such as tax collectors and prostitutes, have turned to God. But people like the second son, who have given lip-service to the law of God, have not lived out what they say they believe. The second son in the parable addresses the father as κύριος (kyrios), not merely Lord, but in the Septuagint a way of addressing God, yet remains disobedient. br />
However, there is still time.

The Gospel reading is set in the immediate aftermath of Christ’s entry in triumph into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday and his cleansing of the Temple. When he returns to the Temple the following day, he is confronted by the religious and civic leaders, the guardians of belief and tradition, who challenge and question him about his power and authority.

The ‘chief priests and the elders of the people’ are the leaders in the Temple hierarchy, and also at the apex of society in Jerusalem – questioning Jesus about what gives him authority. In particular, they ask what gives him the right to behave as he does, and especially the right to claim he is acting in God’s name when he is behaving like that.

It is a question that Christ might have expected, under the circumstances. The exchange takes place when he enters the Temple. The day before had been an eventful day: when Christ enters Jerusalem and the crowds hail him as king. He next goes into the Temple courts, he overturns the tables and the seats of the money changers and the dove sellers, and he speaks about the destruction of the Temple.

The Temple authorities have been offended. Quite naturally, they have to confront him.

Who does he think he is?

What gives him the right to force his way in and stir things up?

What authority has he to behave like this?

But, in a clever manoeuvre, Christ answers their questions by asking his own question. It was acceptable then, but every bar room lawyer knows now that you are not allowed to ask questions that allow only a choice between two convicting answers, loaded questions like: ‘When did you stop beating your wife?’

Loaded questions are loaded with presuppositions, often with built-in fallacies and false dichotomies. And the chief priests and the elders fall into a trap that every sixth-form debater would know how to set and how to escape.

There is a great deal of humour here. Those who are skilled in the Law failed to see the flawed legal trap. And in doing this they display their innate inabilities, their incomparable incompetence, their own failures in judgment.

In this reading, Christ answers with a two-part question. And once again, he turns the tables on those who confront him. They are taken aback; they are caught in a dilemma: if they answer one way, they are caught out; if they answer the other, they are still caught out. It is a dichotomy, a nd either way they cannot win.

As they are left mulling this over, Christ tells the parable of two sons and a father. The second dichotomy, the second comparison, the second either/or choice, is posed when Christ tells this parable about a father who sends his two sons, a willing son and an unwilling son, to work in the family vineyard.

It is a sharp contrast between being and doing. The two sons remind me once again of the T-shirt I have joked about for years and that eventually I bought in the Plaka in Athens with the words:

‘To do is to be’ – Socrates

‘To be is to do’ – Plato

‘Do be do be do be do’ – Sinatra

The American publisher Cyrus Curtis (1850-1933) once said: ‘There are two kinds of people who never amount to much: those who cannot do what they are told, and those who can do nothing else.’

But the two sons illustrate a serious dilemma: Those who respond negatively to what they are asked to do, may eventually do it … and recognise their initial wilfulness. Those who say they are going to do something they are tasked with, but then refuse to follow-up, to deliver, to do, refuse to recognise their own wilfulness yet persist in their sinfulness.

How often have we responded to people because of their words rather than their deeds and found we have completely misjudged them?

The two sons are asked to go to work in the family vineyard. One son says: ‘I will not.’ In a Mediterranean village culture, in which there is no such thing as personal privacy, this son’s reaction to his father shames the father publicly. The other son says: ‘I go, sir.’ In public, he appears to be what a good son should be.

But the tables are turned when we learn that the son who mouths off actually goes to work in the vineyard, while the son who seems at first to be good and dutiful turns out to be disobedient.

So, those who say they are compliant and say they are doing the right thing have headed off to do things their own way, while claiming they are doing what God wants.

On the other hand, Christ tells all present that even prostitutes and tax collectors who appear to be disobedient might actually end up with a true place in the vineyard. In today’s context, who are the people I keep excluding from the kingdom yet are being called in by God?

Paradoxes aside, most of us are not like one son or the other … most of us are like both sons, and wrestle with their responses and their approaches throughout our lives.

nvitation to a party, a book launch, a wedding, often have four little letters at the end: ‘RSVP’? Have you ever been one of those people who, anxious not to offend, sends back a reply saying yes, I’ll be there, and then something else crops up, and I fail to turn up?

I admit that at time I have been invited to events, ignored the RSVP line in the bottom corner, and then, at the last moment, turned up. And, I have to confess, I have, at least one or twice, accepted … and not turned up. On which evening do you think I was most appreciated, most welcomed? It is more forgivable to be socially awkward than to be wilfully rude.

When we strive with the demands of Christian living, with Christian discipleship, it is easy to be like one of these sons. There are times when we may find it difficult to do what God is asking you to do. We wait, we think, we ponder, but eventually we answer that RSVP and seek to do God’s will. We say ‘No’ countless times, and then realise how worthwhile it all is: labouring in the vineyard should be hard work, but it leads to a good harvest and good wine.

I have to be careful to distinguish between God’s will and my own will. When they coincide, there are countless blessings. But when they are in conflict, I need to beware of pretending that one is the other, that I am answering the Father’s call and doing his work, when in reality I am doing what I want to do myself, and telling others what I want rather than what God wants.

In The Great Divorce, CS Lewis claims: ‘There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, “Thy will be done,” and those to whom God says, in the end, “Thy will be done”.’

Doing and Being … advice on a T-shirt in the Plaka in Athens (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Sunday 27 September 2026, Trinity XVII):

In Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), the theme this week, from 27 September to 3 October 2026 (pp 42-43), is ‘Power of Language’. This theme is introduced today with a reflection by Rachel Weller, Communications Officer, USPG:

‘Language is more than words; it carries culture, identity, and connection. It preserves memory, shapes community understanding, and gives voice to what matters most. At the USPG International Consultation 2026, the Right Revd Dushantha Rodrigo and the Right Revd Sally Hernández García shared examples of how language can both divide and heal communities.

‘In Sri Lanka, Tamil and Sinhala communities have long histories and rich cultural traditions. After independence, political decisions once excluded Tamil speakers from official recognition, leading to unrest, lost opportunity, and deep division. In short, “Two languages, one country; one language, two countries.” The Church responded by using language as a bridge, offering services, hymns, and liturgy in Tamil, Sinhala, and English so communities could worship together. “Presenting the gospel in different languages gives us credibility in a multi-lingual nation. No message means no hope at all,” explained Bishop Dushantha. Language here becomes access to the gospel and a pathway to reconciliation.

‘In Mexico, Indigenous languages continue alongside Spanish, allowing communities to express faith in ways that honour local culture. Translating the Book of Common Prayer and other liturgical materials is not only technical work but an act of inclusion and respect.

‘As a linguist myself, it was amazing to worship in many different languages. It offered a tangible reminder that God is not bound by language or culture, and that when every voice is honoured, worship and mission are enriched and made more complete.’

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Sunday 27 September 2026, Trinity XVII) invites us to pray as we read and mediate on Matthew 21: 23-32:

He said to his sons, ‘Son, go and work in the vineyard today’ (see Matthew 21: 28) … in a vineyard in Platanias, near Rethymnon in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The Collect of the Day:

Almighty God,
you have made us for yourself,
and our hearts are restless till they find their rest in you:
pour your love into our hearts and draw us to yourself,
and so bring us at last to your heavenly city
where we shall see you face to face;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

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

Additional Collect:

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

Yesterday’s Reflections

Continued Tomorrow

‘John came to you in the way of righteousness’ (Matthew 21: 32) … Saint John the Baptist in a fresco in the Church of the Transfiguration in Piskopianó, near Iraklion in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

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