Daily prayer in Lent 2026: 29, Wednesday 18 March 2026

‘The Father raises the dead and gives them life’ (John 5: 21) … ‘Traumatised People come out of the Caves’ and ‘Dead Men’s Bones Rise from their Graves’, two images in ‘The Pricke of Conscience’ window, All Saints’ Church, York (Photographs: Patrick Comerford; click on images for full-screen viewing)

Patrick Comerford

This week began with the Fourth Sunday in Lent (Lent IV) and Mothering Sunday, and the calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship today remembers Saint Cyril (315-386), Bishop of Jerusalem and Teacher of the Faith, who developed catechetical instruction and liturgical observances during Lent, Palm Sunday and Holy Week.

Later this evening, after four-week absence – with two weeks in Kuching and the best part of a week in Walsingham – I hope to return to the choir rehearsals in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford.

Today also marks the fourth anniversary of the stroke I had on 18 March 2022. So, before today begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, to reflect, to pray and to read in these ways:

1, reading today’s Gospel reading;

2, a short reflection;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

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

‘The hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live' (John 5: 25) … ‘Day in Truth shall Stars fall from The Heaven’ and ‘The Death of all Living Things’ … the ‘Pricke of Conscience’ window in York (Photographs: Patrick Comerford; click on images for full-screen viewing)

John 5: 17-30 (NRSVA):

17 But Jesus answered them, ‘My Father is still working, and I also am working.’ 18 For this reason the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because he was not only breaking the sabbath, but was also calling God his own Father, thereby making himself equal to God.

19 Jesus said to them, ‘Very truly, I tell you, the Son can do nothing on his own, but only what he sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, the Son does likewise. 20 The Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing; and he will show him greater works than these, so that you will be astonished. 21 Indeed, just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whomsoever he wishes. 22 The Father judges no one but has given all judgement to the Son, 23 so that all may honour the Son just as they honour the Father. Anyone who does not honour the Son does not honour the Father who sent him. 24 Very truly, I tell you, anyone who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life, and does not come under judgement, but has passed from death to life.

25 ‘Very truly, I tell you, the hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. 26 For just as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself; 27 and he has given him authority to execute judgement, because he is the Son of Man. 28 Do not be astonished at this; for the hour is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice 29 and will come out – those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation.

30 ‘I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge; and my judgement is just, because I seek to do not my own will but the will of him who sent me.’

‘The hour is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice 29 and will come out’ (John 5: 28-29) … ‘The End of the World, Consumed by Fire’ in ‘The Pricke of Conscience’ window in York (Photograph: Patrick Comerford; click on images for full-screen viewing)

Today’s Reflections:

In the Gospel reading at the Eucharist yesterday (John 5: 1-3, 5-16, 17 March 2026), we read about the Third Sign in Saint John’s Gospel. Jesus comes to Jerusalem, visits a pool know as Bethesda, where many sick people come to be healed. There he heals a man who cannot walk, and in doing so is accused of violating two laws: working on the Sabbath; and blasphemy by equating himself to God; both said to be punishable by death.

The third discourse in the Fourth Gospel (John 5:17-47) comes in response to that controversy and is essentially Christ’s response to his accusers. Jesus replies to his accusers that he is appropriating nothing to himself, for he only does what he sees his Father doing. He presents his case almost entirely in the third person. I can imagine those who were listening wondering and asking: ‘Who is this Son of God? Is he talking about himself?’ In the dramatic style of Johannine presentation, Jesus keeps them in suspense until the end, when he removes all doubt by switching to the first person (verse 30).

This passage is crucial in understanding the Fourth Gospel. Here, Jesus does not say ‘Yes, I am equal to God.’ Nor does he say, ‘No, I am not equal to God.’ But with accuracy and clarity, he describes the relationship between the Father and the Son, so that in the light of what he reveals, the word ‘equals’ disappears.

Jesus establishes his union with God and states that he can do nothing independently of God. The Son imitates the Father. And Jesus answers the charge of blasphemy by asserting that he is, in fact, the Son of God.

First, Christ argues that, as the Son of God, his actions are only imitating his Father (verse 19). Where he says ‘Very truly’, or ‘Truly, truly’ (ἀμὴν ἀμὴν, amēn amēn), the Hebrew amen is repeated for emphasis (see also verse 24). This phrase appears only in Saint John’s Gospel, yet in this Gospel it appears 25 times.

Christ solemnly tells his listeners that, as a good Son, he does not act independently, but acts as he sees the Father acting. This could be said of all the persons of the Trinity. The Son does not act independently of the Father; however, the Father does not act independently of the Son; neither does the Holy Spirit act independently of the Son or the Father. There is total harmony within the Trinity.

We see this at Christ’s baptism: And a voice from heaven said, ‘This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased’ (Matthew 3: 17). Later, at the Transfiguration, we are told, ‘a bright cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud a voice said, “This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!”’ (see John 1: 32-34; Matthew 17: 5; see also II Peter 1: 17).

The Greek word translated ‘beloved’ in these places is always a variation on ἀγάπη, agapē (see my additional note on the Four Loves below). However, the love that the Father has for the Son in John 5: 20 is the Greek φιλία, philia, which normally means to consider someone a friend, to have a special interest in someone or something.

In John 3: 35, we read: ‘The Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hand.’ The Greek word there is ἀγαπᾷ (agapa), which means ‘to have a warm regard for and interest in another, cherish, have affection for, love.’

The Father cherishes the Son in a loving relationship of the highest order. Therefore, he has given everything to him. Nonetheless, it is the close association that the Father has with the Son that is the foundation of their co-operative work.

Jesus added that greater works would be forthcoming, works that would amaze. Greater things than the signs that he has already performed are coming, such as his death and resurrection, and even the general resurrection and the final judgment. The Greek word translated as ‘astonished’ or ‘marvel’ (θαυμάζητε) means ‘to be extraordinarily impressed or disturbed by something’ (see also verse 28).

The Son is powerless; he cannot do anything out of himself and, as we shall see later, cannot say anything out of himself. He simply looks at the Father, and whatever he sees the Father doing he does himself. But, on the other hand, the Father so loves the Son that he gives everything to him and reserves no power to himself. He does not hold back anything, but reveals to the Son everything that he is doing, and gives him authority to do it.

The Father, who is the source of everything on heaven and on earth, loves and reveals. In him, there is no holding onto power. And, as the Son lets go of everything, he receives back from the Father his power, his authority and the light of his glory. The Father lets go, and receives back from the Son.

Christ explains that the Son imitates God the Father by giving life. God told Moses: ‘See now that I, even I, am he; there is no god besides me; I kill and I make alive’ (Deuteronomy 32: 39). John told us that in Christ ‘was life, and the life was the light of all people’ (John 1: 4). And Christ says: ‘I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live …’ (John 11: 25).

When Jesus speaks of the dead, he uses the word in two senses: at a physical level, those who are dead are corpses buried in graves; at a spiritual level, those who are dead appear to be alive outwardly, but are dead inwardly. But Christ has the power to raise the dead to life.

Similarly, the word judgment has a two-fold meaning: God did not send his son into the κόσμος (kosmos) to judge the κόσμος in the sense of condemning it (John 3: 17), yet judgment inevitably follows from his coming.

The Greek word for judgment, κρίσις (krisis), gives us English words such as crisis, critic, critical, criminal and discriminate. The Son does not condemn anyone, just as the Father does not condemn. But the Father has given him all judgment, in the sense of discrimination, for the coming of the Light in Christ discriminates or distinguishes one thing from another, showing each up for what it really is.

Jesus explains that the Son of God will be the judge at the final judgment. At the final judgment, it will be Christ seated upon the Great White Throne who is the judge (Revelation 20: 11-15). Jesus equates himself directly with God, clearly identifying who he is with the full knowledge that this will infuriate his accusers.

Honouring the Son is honouring the Father. Jesus explains that God the Father’s purpose in ordering things this way was to bring honour to the Son. The word translated ‘honour’ means ‘to show high regard for,’ while the word translated ‘even as’ means ‘just as’ and is used to indicate ‘of extent or degree to which, as, to the degree that.’ God the Father has decreed that the Son is to be revered in the same way and to the same degree as the Father.

Seeing and believing, hearing and believing, are key themes throughout the Fourth Gospel. Jesus implores his accusers to ‘hear’ his truth and that this is the key to salvation.

Jesus claims that judgment and life belong to the Son. Everyone who believes the Son does not come into judgment (verse 24). Then Christ defends his equality with God, claiming that judgment and life are his to give.

The word πιστεύων, translated ‘believes’, means to consider something true and worthy of one’s trust. Faith is not simply about both belief and trust. And so at Baptism, Conformation and at the renewal of baptismal vows, we ask: Do you believe and trust ...?

Verses 26-30 appear to be a variant form of the speech that went before in verses 19-25, with the emphasis on the future judgment and life given on the last day (parousia eschatology). Compare this with how Daniel prophesies about the Son of Man (see Daniel 7: 13-14).

Both eschatological views became a part of later Christian theology, for the life of grace we receive on earth is the beginning of the life of beatific vision to be possessed in heaven. The Son is the source of life, and will be the agent of divine judgment in the resurrection. The Son is the source of life in the resurrection.

Christ then announces solemnly that the Son of God will call the dead back to life in the resurrection. The Greek word θαυμάζητε, translated ‘astonished’ or ‘marvel’, means ‘to be extraordinarily impressed or disturbed by something’ (see also verse 20).

Jesus points to the evidence in the scriptures and of John the Baptist and Moses as proof of who he is. He says that if we do not believe this evidence we are not only denying him but also denying God.

A note on the ‘Four Loves’ by CS Lewis

In his book, The Four Loves, CS Lewis explores the nature of love from a Christian perspective dividing love into four categories, based on the four Greek words for love: affection, friendship, eros, and charity.

Affection (στοργή, storge) is fondness through familiarity, especially between family members or people who have otherwise found themselves together by chance.

Friendship (φιλία, philia) is a strong bond existing between people who share a common interest or activity. Lewis explicitly says that his definition of friendship is narrower than mere companionship; friendship in this sense exists only if there is something for the friendship to be ‘about.’

Eros (ἔρως) is love in the sense of ‘being in love.’ But this love is distinct from sexuality, which Lewis calls Venus, although he does spend time discussing sexual activity and its spiritual significance in a pagan or a Christian sense. He identifies eros as indifferent.

Lewis identifies charity (ἀγάπη, agapē) as the love that brings forth caring regardless of circumstance. This he recognises as the greatest of loves, and this he sees as a specifically Christian virtue. His chapter on agape in The Four Loves focuses on the need of subordinating the natural loves to the love of God, who is full of charitable love.

What can we learn from Jesus response to his accusers and how can we apply this in our own spiritual walk?

Christ does not act independently from the other persons in the Trinity; there is total harmony and co-operation within the Trinity. How do we revere and honour the Son in the same manner and to the same degree as the Father?

Christ is the source of eternal life, both now and in the resurrection. How do you relate that to issues such as death and devastation in Myanmar and Thailand following the recent earthquake, or to the continuing wars and conflicts in Russia and Ukraine, or throughout the Middle East today?

How do we distinguish between different feelings of love?

Christ will be the judge at the final judgment. How do we relate that to corporate and social sin?

‘The Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing’ (John 5: 20) … an icon of the Holy Trinity in the Church of Saint Nektarios in Tsesmes, near Rethymnon in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Wednesday 18 March 2026):

The theme this week (15-21 March 2026) in ‘Pray With the World Church,’ the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘Lament and Hope’ (pp 38-39). This theme was introduced on Sunday with a programme update by Kennedy Jones, Church Engagement and Fundraising Officer, USPG.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Wednesday 18 March 2026) invites us to pray:

We pray for courage to speak out against injustice. May our words and actions reflect Christ’s compassion and commitment to truth, mercy, and equality.

The Collect:

Merciful Lord,
absolve your people from their offences,
that through your bountiful goodness
we may all be delivered from the chains of those sins
which by our frailty we have committed;
grant this, heavenly Father,
for Jesus Christ’s sake, our blessed Lord and Saviour,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post Communion Prayer:

Lord God,
whose blessed Son our Saviour
gave his back to the smiters
and did not hide his face from shame:
give us grace to endure the sufferings of this present time
with sure confidence in the glory that shall be revealed;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

Merciful Lord,
you know our struggle to serve you:
when sin spoils our lives
and overshadows our hearts,
come to our aid
and turn us back to you again;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Collect on the Eve of Saint Joseph of Nazareth:

God our Father,
who from the family of your servant David
raised up Joseph the carpenter
to be the guardian of your incarnate Son
and husband of the Blessed Virgin Mary:
give us grace to follow him
in faithful obedience to your commands;
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 Reflections

Continued Tomorrow

Saint Cyril of Jerusalem (18 March) … developed our liturgical observances of Lent, Palm Sunday and Holy Week

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

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

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

Patrick Comerford

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

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

1, today’s Gospel reading;

2, a short reflection;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

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

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

Matthew 3: 13-17 (NRSVA):

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

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

Today’s Reflections:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

My first set of questions begins by asking:

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

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

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

And my second set of questions begins:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Collect of the Day:

Eternal Father,
who at the baptism of Jesus
revealed him to be your Son,
anointing him with the Holy Spirit:
Grant to us, who are born of water and the Spirit,
that we may be faithful to our calling as your adopted children;
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

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

Additional Collect:

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

Yesterday’s Reflections

Continued Tomorrow

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

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

Daily prayer in the Kingdom Season: 20, Thursday 20 November 2025

‘As he came near and saw the city, he wept over it’ (Luke 19: 42) … the city of Jerusalem depicted on a tile in a restaurant in Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are in the Kingdom Season, the time between All Saints’ Day and Advent, and this week began with the Second Sunday before Advent. The calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship today remembers Saint Edmund (870), King of the East Angles, Martyr, and Priscilla Lydia Sellon (1821-1876), a Restorer of the Religious Life in the Church of England.

I hope to join some rehearsals with a playreading group in the Library in Stony Stratford later today. But, before the day begins, before having breakfast, I am taking some quiet time early this morning to give thanks, to reflect, to pray and to read in these ways:

1, today’s Gospel reading;

2, a short reflection;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

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

‘As he came near and saw the city, he wept over it’ (Luke 19: 41) … ‘The Holy City,’ a batik by Thetis Blacker in the Royal Foundation of Saint Katharine in London (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Luke 19: 41-44 (NRSVA):

41 As he came near and saw the city, he wept over it, 42 saying, ‘If you, even you, had only recognized on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. 43 Indeed, the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up ramparts around you and surround you, and hem you in on every side. 44 They will crush you to the ground, you and your children within you, and they will not leave within you one stone upon another; because you did not recognize the time of your visitation from God.’

‘As he came near and saw the city, he wept over it’ (Luke 1941: 11) … Jerusalem in bright lights in Jerusalem Restaurant in Camden Street, Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s reflection:

The Gospel reading at the Eucharist this morning (Luke 19: 41-44) continues the apocalyptic themes found in our readings as we prepare for the coming of Christ as Christ the King and as the Word made Flesh.

In the Gospel reading on Sunday (Luke 21: 5-19), as Jesus was hears some people talking about the Temple in Jerusalem and how it was adorned with beautiful stones and gifts dedicated to God, Jesus responded, ‘As for these things that you see, the days will come when not one stone will be left upon another; all will be thrown down’ (Luke 21: 6).

Luke 21 – and the parallels in Matthew 24-25 and Mark 13 – are known as the ‘Little Apocalypse’, with prophecies about the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem and the end times. There are warnings about tribulation, persecution, and the coming of the Son of Man, but the passage also encourages vigilance and faith in the face of these events.

In advance of the ‘Little Apocalypse’, in the Gospel reading at the Eucharist this morning (Luke 19: 41-44), Jesus looks over Jerusalem and he weeps over the city, saying, ‘If you, even you, had only recognized on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. Indeed, the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up ramparts around you and surround you, and hem you in on every side. They will crush you to the ground, you and your children within you, and they will not leave within you one stone upon another; because you did not recognize the time of your visitation from God.’

Like Sunday’s readings, we seem to be living in days when, in the wake of Trump’s election, we ‘hear of wars and rumours of wars’. It is so very easy to alarmed, worrying about the days are to come, and the potential for nation to rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. Doubtless, in the months to come, there will be the equivalent of earthquakes in many places, and the equivalent of famines: a dearth or famine of public compassion, political decency, honesty and morality and diplomatic sense and wisdom.

It is even more disheartening that whole segments of American society that call themselves evangelical Christians have voted for the apocalyptic gloom that is facing the world in the four years to come.

The former Moderator of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, the Very Revd Dr Trevor Morrow, reposted on Facebook last year a response to the thinking of many Evangelical Christians, particularly in the US, by his Palestinian friend, the Revd Dr Munther Isaac of the Evangelical Lutheran Christmas Church in Bethlehem and the Lutheran Church in Beit Sahour, the Academic Dean of Bethlehem Bible College:

‘The irony for us Palestinian Christians is that evangelicals, with their emphasis on prophecy, have lost the capacity of being prophetic. You want to prove that the Bible is right? You don’t do this by pointing to self-fulfilling prophecy or by pointing to world events as prophecy fulfilment. That is not how you prove that the Bible is right.

‘We prove that the Bible is right by radical obedience to the teachings of Jesus – by proving that Jesus’ teachings actually work and that they can make the world a better place. Let us love our enemies. Forgive those who sin against us. Let us feed the poor. Care for the oppressed. Walk the extra mile. Be inclusive, not exclusive. Turn the other cheek. And maybe, and only maybe then, the world will start to take us seriously and believing in the Bible.’

The Revd Dr Munther Isaac of the Evangelical Lutheran Christmas Church in Bethlehem and the Lutheran Church in Beit Sahour is also the Academic Dean of Bethlehem Bible College

Today’s Prayers (Thursday 20 November 2025):

The theme this week (16 to 22 November) in Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘In the Shadow of the Carneddau’ (pp 56-57). This theme was introduced on Sunday with Reflections from Bishop Andrew John, who stepped down as Archbishop of Wales and Bishop of Bangor on 27 June.

The USPG Prayer Diary today invites us to pray:

Pray for one another and for good stewardship of our precious resources.

The Collect:

Eternal God,
whose servant Edmund kept faith to the end,
both with you and with his people,
and glorified you by his death:
grant us such steadfastness of faith
that, with the noble army of martyrs,
we may come to enjoy the fullness of the resurrection life;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Post Communion Prayer:

God our redeemer,
whose Church was strengthened by the blood of your martyr Edmund:
so bind us, in life and death, to Christ’s sacrifice
that our lives, broken and offered with his,
may carry his death and proclaim his resurrection in the world;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s Reflections

Continued Tomorrow

A modern portrait of Saint Edmund, king and martyr, in Saint Edmund’s Church, Maids Moreton, Buckinghamshire (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 the Kingdom Season: 12, Wednesday 12 November 2025

As he entered a village, ten lepers approached him … they called out, saying, ‘Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!’ (Luke 17: 12-13)

Patrick Comerford

We are in the Kingdom Season, the time between All Saints and Advent. This week began with the Third Sunday before Advent, which was also Remembrance Sunday.

I hope to attend a meeting of local clergy in the Milton Keynes area at lunchtimes, and later this evening I hope to be part of the choir rehearsals in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford. But, before today begins, before having breakfast, I am taking some quiet time early this morning to give thanks, and for reflection, prayer and reading in these ways:

1, today’s Gospel reading;

2, a short reflection;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

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

James Tissot (1836-1902), ‘The Healing of Ten Lepers’ (‘Guérison de dix lépreux’), 1886-1896, Brooklyn Museum

Luke 17: 11-19 (NRSVA):

11 On the way to Jerusalem Jesus was going through the region between Samaria and Galilee. 12 As he entered a village, ten lepers approached him. Keeping their distance, 13 they called out, saying, ‘Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!’ 14 When he saw them, he said to them, ‘Go and show yourselves to the priests.’ And as they went, they were made clean. 15 Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice. 16 He prostrated himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him. And he was a Samaritan. 17 Then Jesus asked, ‘Were not ten made clean? But the other nine, where are they? 18 Was none of them found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?’ 19 Then he said to him, ‘Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well.’

‘Was none of them found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?’ (Luke 17: 18) … thank you in Greek in a restaurant in Aghios Georgios in Corfu (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflections:

In the Sunday and daily lectionary readings these weeks, we are reading from Saint Luke’s Gospel, and in recent weeks, we have had a number of readings that refer to the Samaritans, including:

• the Parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10: 25-37, Sunday 13 July 2025 and again on Monday 6 October 2025);

• the disciples’ suggestion of bringing down fire to consume a Samaritan village (Luke 9: 51-56, Tuesday 30 September 2025);

• the Samaritan among the ten people with leprosy who are healed (Luke 17: 11-19, Sunday 12 October 2025, and again today).

There are other Gospel stories about Samaritans, most noticeably the story of the Samaritan woman at the well in Sychar (see John 4: 5-42), and there is one moment when Jesus is asked whether he is, in fact a Samaritan (see John 8: 48).

We celebrated Saint Luke in the church calendar a few week ago (18 October 2025), and it could be said that as a Gospel writer Saint Luke has a distinctive interest in Jewish-Samaritan relationships.

This morning’s Gospel reading at the Eucharist (Luke 17: 11-19) once again provides opportunities to reflect on faith and healing, inclusion and exclusion, how Christ meets our every need, how we need conversion, on the connection between healing of the body and healing of the soul, perhaps even on the value of good manners and learning to say thank you.

Many people may be drawn to the one Samaritan who returns and says thank you. Others may think the about nine others who did exactly as they are told, go and show themselves to the priests, received a clean bill of health and are restored to their rightful place in the community of faith and within their families.

But which is the greatest miracle for you: the healing of these 10 people?

Or their restoration to their rightful places in the community of faith?

Perhaps it is worth noting that it is the 10 men, not Christ, who keep their distance on the outskirts of the village, because they are forced to behave this way, to be marginalised and to live on the margins.

Christ keeps his distance, as might be expected. Yet, from that distance, he sees. Many Bibles have verse 14 to say that ‘he saw them.’ But the Greek says simply, καὶ ἰδὼν (kai idon), ‘and having seen,’ without any object, there is no ‘them.’

For Christ, we are not mere objects; and for Christ there is no ‘us’ and ‘them.’ He sees the future without the limits of the present.

This is a story about trusting in God’s plans for the future, rather than living in the past, living with the fears of the present, living without hope for the future … precisely the context for the urgings and exhortations to the exiles by the Prophet Jeremiah in the Old Testament reading (Jeremiah 29: 1, 4-7), precisely the hope the Apostle Paul has for Saint Timothy in the epistle reading (II Timothy 2: 8-15).

But we foil those plans, we quench those hopes, we continue to live in the past, when we continue to limit Christ’s saving powers with our own limitations, continue to look at him with our own limited vision.

Christ sees … sees it as it is in the present, and as it could be in the future.

Perhaps this is why Saint Luke has placed this story in a location that is an in-between place, the region between Galilee and Samaria. The place between Galilee and Samaria is neither one nor the other, neither this earthly existence nor what the future holds, but still on the way to Jerusalem.

Even the village here is not named.

We should not forget that not one but 10 were healed. Christ does good – even to those who will not be thankful.

And even then, we do not know why the other nine did not return to say thanks. It took an eight-day waiting process for a person with leprosy to be declared clean by the priests.

After those eight days, did they then go and give thanks to God in their local synagogues?

Did they first breathe sighs of relief and return to the families they loved but had been isolated from for so long?

Did they return to that unnamed village, and find that 10 days later Jesus had moved on … the next named place we find him in is Jericho (see Luke 19: 1-10, the Fourth Sunday before Advent, 3 November 2025)?

Christ is not passively aggressive in this story. He is not seeking to control. He sends the 10 on their way … and they go. If he had expected them to return, he would not have been surprised that one returned; he would have waited around in that unnamed village until the other nine had time to make their humble ways back there to thank him.

Instead, it is more important what Christ frees them for, and where he frees them.

He frees them to regain their place in the community, in the social, economic and religious community that is their rightful place.

For the Samaritan, his ‘faith has made him well’: ἡπίστις σου σέσωκέν σε, or, more accurately, your faith has saved you, rescued you, restored you. The word σῴζω is all about being saved, rescued, restored, ransomed, and not just about regaining health and physical well-being.

That land between Samaria and Galilee is where we find Christ today. The in-between place, the nowhere land, the place where people need to be saved, ransomed, rescued, restored.

We all find ourselves in the in-between place, the nowhere land … to borrow a phrase from TS Eliot, wandering in the ‘Waste Land.’

Perhaps, just for one moment, it is possible to imagine that Christ has arrived in that particular in-between place for a reason. For the land between Samaria and Galilee is neither one place nor the other.

And that in-between place is a place where I might find myself unsure of who belongs and who does not, where I might be uncertain, untrusting, even frightened and afraid. It is a place where the usual rules may not apply, where I do not know my place, where I do not fit in, where I appear not as the person God see as the true me, but as others want to see me.

This is the place where Christ is travelling through in this Gospel story this morning. It seems to me that I am often travelling in that place every day, today.

It is difficult travelling in this in-between land. When we realise we are there, then it may be easier to identify with the 10 Lepers, cast out into the in-between land, not knowing where to go, rather than with those who appear certain about where they are going.

When we get to where you are going, we should remember how we feel about the present unknown, whether it is fear – ‘I will show you fear in a handful of dust’ – whether it is trepidation, anticipation, or joy that is tinged with all of these, in this in-between time, this nowhere place.

When we move from an in-between place and a nowhere land, we should not hold back from the call to join the task of cleansing, healing, restoration. We do it not for ‘Thank Yous’ and plaudits. It is not about you, it is not all about me.

Indeed, it is not this one man’s thanks that is important, but that his thanks is expressed in turning around, conversion, and praising God, bowing down before Christ as his Master and as the Lord God.

Some ideas shared in a sermon on this reading in Saint Mary and Saint Giles last month (12 October) caused me to think again this passage.

In the Gospels and in the New Testament, the Greek words for foreigner often include:

• ξένος (xenos), stranger, guest. This term is used when there is an emphasis on hospitality and the welcoming of outsiders. It is the words that gives us the modern words philoxenia and xenophobia.

• πάροικος (paroikos), sojourner, alien resident, resident foreigner. This term refers to a temporary resident who is not a native-born citizen. br />
Both words highlight the New Testament's expanded concept of community to include all believers, regardless of origin, moving beyond a strictly national or ethnic identity (see Ephesians 2: 19).

The New Testament emphasises that in Christ, ethnic and national barriers are broken down. Believers become fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, they are no longer strangers and foreigners to one another (Ephesians 2:19).

The only word connected with the ‘foreigner’ category of the Old Testament that the New Testament uses with any regularity is ‘foreigner’ (ξένος, xenos). Even though it appears only nine times in the Greek Old Testament, it becomes a more common word for outsiders in the Second Temple period and is the main word for them in the New Testament, although it is still used only 14 times.

The New Testament chooses the word foreigner (ξένος, xenos) to recall the Old Testament command to love the immigrant, even though the Greek Old Testament only uses the word ξένος to translate גֵּר one time.

The most direct reference to loving the immigrant (גֵּר) in the New Testament is in the parable of the sheep and the goats, when Christ designates the person helped as a foreigner (ξένος, Matthew 25: 35, 38, 43, 44). Since the foreigners are also described as ‘brothers’ (Matthew 25: 40), it seems most likely that they are fellow Christians.

The Hebrew Scriptures talk about non-Israelites with two different word groups: foreigners who remain different (the Hebrew words נָכְרִי and נֵכָר) and immigrants who assimilate into Israelite culture and are generally poorer (גֵּר).

However, the line between the two words is often blurred, even undefined, and people may appear on a spectrum in terms of their relation to Israel, from those who remain opposed to God and worship other gods, to those immigrants who assimilate into Israel. To complicate matters even further, the category of foreign-worker (תושב) does not exactly overlap with either category, landing somewhere between the two.

The New Testament continues the theme of loving the immigrant, but due to linguistic changes speaks of the command using the broader word foreigner (ξένος).

Interestingly, the story of the Good Samaritan does not use any of the words for foreigner or immigrant, and instead it focuses on the word ‘neighbour’, and Jesus expands the category of neighbour to include even a Samaritan. Here he follows the similar expansion in Leviticus 19 from love your neighbour as yourself (Leviticus 19: 18) to love the immigrant as yourself (Leviticus 19: 34).

In the New Testament, the Greek word ἔθνος (ethnos) is used to mean ‘gentile,’ which refers to people who are not Jewish. The term denotes nations or ethnic groups in general, and its meaning evolved to specifically identify non-Jews.

The English word gentile derives from the Latin word gentilis, meaning of or belonging to the same people or nation, and in turn from the Latin gēns, a clan, tribe, people or family.

Two other Greek words for foreigner also appear in the Bible: ἀλλότριος (allotrios) and ἀλλόφυλος, allophilos, but they appear rarely in the New Testament.

Yet the word used in today’s reading (Luke 17: 11-19) to refer to the healed Samaritan as a ‘foreigner’ (verse 18) is the very rare word ἀλλογενής, (allogenes): ‘Was none of them found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?’

The word ἀλλογενής (allogenes) identifies someone who does not belong to the covenant people of Israel – an outsider by birth and by nation. This word does not appear anywhere in classical Greek writings, and the only other known contemporary use of it is in the inscription on the Temple barrier in Jerusalem warning:

Μηθένα ἀλλογενῆ εἰσπορεύεσθαι ἐντὸς τοῦ περὶ τὸ ἱερὸν τρυφάκτου καὶ περιβόλου
Ὃς δ᾽ἂν ληφθῇ, ἑαυτῶι αἴτιος ἔσαι διὰ τὸ ἐξακολουθεῖν θάνατον

Let no foreigner enter within the screen and enclosure surrounding the sanctuary.
Anyone who is caught will be held accountable for his ensuing death.

The tablet with this inscription was discovered in 1871 outside the al-Atim Gate to the Temple Mount, and was published by CS Clermont-Ganneauthe of the Palestine Exploration Fund. It was taken by the Ottoman authorities, and it is now in the Istanbul Archaeology Museums.

The Samaritan among the ten healed from leprosy may have well known that taking the advice from Jesus to go and show himself to the priests in the Temple would have resulted in a sure and certain death for daring to seek to enter the Temple.

Instead, he turns back, praises God, prostrates himself at the feet of Jesus and thanks him. It is an act of acknowledging that he is in the presence of God, that the discovery of new life has replaced the threat of death, and he gives thanks with an expression of gratitude (εὐχαριστέω, eucharisteō) that speaks too of being included in the community and communion of the Eucharist.

This is the sole and only use of the word ἀλλογενής (allogenes) in the New Testament, yet its theological weight is profound. The appearance of this word in this context is a deliberate theological signal, illuminating how God’s gracious kingdom reaches beyond ethnic borders, and challenges us to continually push out the boundaries, so that instead of excluding we include the foreigner, the disabled, the marginalised, the outcast, the different, those who are threatened that should they challenge the grounds on which they are excluded they face punishment and even death.

Have we got words for foreigners in our vocabulary today that are part some type of insider language, understood by only the few, yet used to keep them on the margins of social life and economic activity, that tell them that no what they do or believe they are going to be kept on the margins, on the outside, that imply they may as well be dead, that threaten.

The inscription on the Temple barrier in Jerusalem warned the intruding foreigner (αλλογενῆ) of impending death (Istanbul Archaeology Museums)

Today’s Prayers (Wednesday 12 November 2025):

The theme this week (9 to 15 November) in Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘Hope for the Future’ (pp 54-55). This theme was introduced on Sunday with Reflections from Laura D’Henin-Ivers, Chief Executive Officer at Hope for the Future, to mark COP30 in Brazil this week.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Wednesday 12 November 2025) invites us to pray:

Merciful God, we remember our brothers and sisters suffering the consequences of environmental destruction. Comfort the displaced, sustain those who have lost their livelihoods, and move our hearts to stand in solidarity.

The Collect:

Almighty Father,
whose will is to restore all things
in your beloved Son, the King of all:
govern the hearts and minds of those in authority,
and bring the families of the nations,
divided and torn apart by the ravages of sin,
to be subject to his just and gentle rule;
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Post Communion Prayer:

God of peace,
whose Son Jesus Christ proclaimed the kingdom
and restored the broken to wholeness of life:
look with compassion on the anguish of the world,
and by your healing power
make whole both people and nations;
through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

Additional Collect:

God, our refuge and strength,
bring near the day when wars shall cease
and poverty and pain shall end,
that earth may know the peace of heaven
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s Reflections

Continued Tomorrow

The ‘Leper’s Squint’ and the Arthur Memorial behind the organ in Saint Mary’s Cathedral, Limerick (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: 171, Thursday 30 October 2025

‘How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings’ (Luke 13: 34) … a painting of Grey’s Guest House on Achill Island, Co Mayo (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar, and this week leads us into Kingdom-time or the Kingdom Season. This week began with the Last Sunday after Trinity (26 October 2025).

Later this morning, I have an interesting bus journey to take. But, before the day begins, before having breakfast, I am taking some quiet time early this morning to give thanks, and for reflection, prayer and reading in these ways:

1, today’s Gospel reading;

2, a short reflection;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

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

‘How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings’ (Luke 13: 34) … farmyard hens in Co Wicklow (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Luke 13: 31-35 (NRSVA):

31 At that very hour some Pharisees came and said to him, ‘Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you.’ 32 He said to them, ‘Go and tell that fox for me, “Listen, I am casting out demons and performing cures today and tomorrow, and on the third day I finish my work. 33 Yet today, tomorrow, and the next day I must be on my way, because it is impossible for a prophet to be killed away from Jerusalem.” 34 Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! 35 See, your house is left to you. And I tell you, you will not see me until the time comes when you say, “Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord”.’

‘Jerusalem, Jerusalem … How often have I desired to gather your children together’ (Luke 13: 34) … the city of Jerusalem depicted on a tile in a restaurant in Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflection:

In my private meditations and prayers, I often reflect on words from Samuel Johnson from Lichfield, who compiled the first English-language dictionary but who is also often regarded as one of the great Anglican saints of the 18th century. Thinking about the stars at night, the great tragedies in the world and the unbounded love of God, Dr Johnson once wrote:

‘The pensive man at one time walks ‘unseen’ to muse at midnight, and at another hears the sullen curfew. If the weather drives him home he sits in a room lighted only by ‘glowing embers’; or by a lonely lamp outwatches the North Star to discover the habitation of separate souls, and varies the shades of meditation by contemplating the magnificent or pathetick scenes of tragick and epick poetry.’

Sometimes, I have found as I stood presiding at or celebrating the Holy Communion or the Eucharist that I am taken aback by intense feelings of the love of God.

On one memorable occasion, this happened to me as I was using the ‘Prayer of Humble Access’ at the fraction, when we were breaking the Bread of Communion at the invitation.

It is a prayer that has gone out of fashion in many parishes, but it is a reminder that we come to the Table or the Altar not because of our own goodness, not in spite of our own sinfulness, but because of the overflowing mercy and grace that God gives us freely and with unlimited bounty:

We do not presume to come to this your table,
merciful Lord,
trusting in our own righteousness
but in your manifold and great mercies.
We are not worthy so much as to gather up the crumbs under your table.
But you art the same Lord,
whose nature is always to have mercy.
Grant us, therefore, gracious Lord,
so to eat the flesh of your dear Son Jesus Christ,
and to drink his blood,
that our sinful bodies may be made clean by his body,
and our souls washed through his most precious blood,
and that we may evermore dwell in him, and he in us. Amen.

I was taken aback and was conscious of the love of God unexpectedly as I came to those words: ‘We are not worthy so much as to gather up the crumbs under your table.’

What flashed across my mind was a video clip that had gone viral at that time on YouTube and social media, of two small, frail abandoned children caught up in Syria’s bloody civil war, fending for themselves by picking up crumbs of bread from the street to eat.

These two homeless mites, braver than any groups fighting or waging war in Syria, told the camera crew: ‘We go to sleep hungry, we wake up hungry.’

They had been separated from their parents. At the time, the Anglican mission agency, USPG, was working with the plight of Syrian refugees in Lesvos and Athens and other parts of Greece.

In that video clip, the 10-year-old girl said she had been collecting bread crumbs off the street with her brother because their area of Damascus, al-Hajar, has been under siege for more than 15 months.

‘If we had food, you wouldn’t have seen us here,’ she said.

But their final message to the world that had abandoned them was: ‘May you be happy and blessed with what God has given you!’

Europe takes pity on children like this when we see them on YouTube or on the 9 o’clock news. But when they land on our shores in the Aegean Islands in Greece, or make their way up through central Europe and cross the Channel into England, we deem them not worthy to gather up the crumbs under our table.

I have looked at this video clip again and again since then. And I think of the image of Christ in our Gospel reading this morning: ‘How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!’ (Luke 13: 34)

The children of the world are the future of the world. It does not matter whose children they are. It does not matter how many of them there are: whether they are two children searching for crumbs that I am not worthy to gather up, or small enough to be gathered in by a loving parent, or are countless in numbers like the stars, they are all embraced in the love of the loving and living God. They are all heirs to God’s promises.

And how we respond to them, how I respond to them, shows them what I think, what we think, of God and how much we believe in his promises.



Today’s Prayers (Thursday 30 October 2025):

The theme this week (26 October to 1 November) in Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘Bonds of Affection (pp 50-51). This theme was introduced on Sunday with reflections from Rachel Weller, Communications Officer, USPG.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Thursday 30 October 2025) invites us to pray:

We pray for your wisdom and discernment as the group navigates the challenges of working across cultures and contexts, seeking to reflect your love and truth.

The Collect:

Blessed Lord,
who caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning:
help us so to hear them,
to read, mark, learn and inwardly digest them
that, through patience, and the comfort of your holy word,
we may embrace and for ever hold fast
the hope of everlasting life,
which you have given us in our Saviour Jesus Christ,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post Communion Prayer:

God of all grace,
your Son Jesus Christ fed the hungry
with the bread of his life
and the word of his kingdom:
renew your people with your heavenly grace,
and in all our weakness
sustain us by your true and living bread;
who is alive and reigns, now and for ever.

Additional Collect:

Merciful God,
teach us to be faithful in change and uncertainty,
that trusting in your word
and obeying your will
we may enter the unfailing joy of Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s Reflections

Continued Tomorrow

‘We are not worthy so much as to gather up the crumbs under your table’ (the Prayer of Humble Access) … preparing bread for the Eucharist early on a Sunday morning (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 single and sole use of of a rare Greek word for a Samaritan challenges prejudice against foreigners

The inscription on the Temple barrier in Jerusalem warned the intruding foreigner (αλλογενῆ) of impending death (Istanbul Archaeology Museums)

Patrick Comerford

In the Sunday and daily lectionary readings these weeks, we are reading from Saint Luke’s Gospel, and in recent weeks, we have had a number of readings that refer to the Samaritans, including:

• the Parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10: 25-37, Sunday 13 July 2025 and again on Monday 6 October 2025);

• the disciples’ suggestion of bringing down fire to consume a Samaritan village (Luke 9: 51-56, Tuesday 30 September 2025);

• the Samaritan among the ten people with leprosy who are healed (Luke 17: 11-19, Sunday 12 October 2025).

There are other Gospel stories about Samaritans, most noticeably the story of the Samaritan woman at the well in Sychar (see John 4: 5-42), and there is one moment when Jesus is asked whether he is, in fact a Samaritan (see John 8: 48). But it could be said that as a Gospel writer Saint Luke has a distinctive interest in Jewish-Samaritan relationships.

We are about to celebrate Saint Luke in the church calendar on Saturday next (18 October 2025), and some ideas shared in the sermon in Saint Mary and Saint Giles on Sunday (12 October) caused me to return in the days since to the Gospel reading about the Samaritan who was in the group of ten who are healed of leprosy.

In the Gospels and in the New Testament, the Greek words for foreigner often include:

• ξένος (xenos), stranger, guest. This term is used when there is an emphasis on hospitality and the welcoming of outsiders. It is the words that gives us the modern words philoxenia and xenophobia.

• πάροικος (paroikos), sojourner, alien resident, resident foreigner. This term refers to a temporary resident who is not a native-born citizen. br />
Both words highlight the New Testament's expanded concept of community to include all believers, regardless of origin, moving beyond a strictly national or ethnic identity (see Ephesians 2: 19).

The New Testament emphasises that in Christ, ethnic and national barriers are broken down. Believers become fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, they are no longer strangers and foreigners to one another (Ephesians 2:19).

The only word connected with the ‘foreigner’ category of the Old Testament that the New Testament uses with any regularity is ‘foreigner’ (ξένος, xenos). Even though it appears only nine times in the Greek Old Testament, it becomes a more common word for outsiders in the Second Temple period and is the main word for them in the New Testament, although it is still used only 14 times.

The New Testament chooses the word foreigner (ξένος) to recall the Old Testament’s command to love the immigrant, even though the Greek Old Testament only uses the word ξένος to translate גֵּר one time.

The most direct reference to loving the immigrant (גֵּר) in the New Testament is in the parable of the sheep and the goats, when Christ designates the person helped as a foreigner (ξένος, Matthew 25: 35, 38, 43, 44). Since the foreigners are also described as ‘brothers’ (Matthew 25: 40), it seems most likely that they are fellow Christians.

The Hebrew Scriptures talk about non-Israelites with two different word groups: foreigners who remain different (the Hebrew words נָכְרִי and נֵכָר) and immigrants who assimilate into Israelite culture and are generally poorer (גֵּר).

However, the line between the two words is often blurred, even undefined, and people may appear on a spectrum in terms of their relation to Israel, from those who remain opposed to God and worship other gods, to those immigrants who assimilate into Israel. To complicate matters even further, the category of foreign-worker (תושב) does not exactly overlap with either category, landing somewhere between the two.

The New Testament continues the theme of loving the immigrant, but due to linguistic changes speaks of the command using the broader word foreigner (ξένος).

Interestingly, the story of the Good Samaritan does not use any of the words for foreigner or immigrant, and instead it focuses on the word ‘neighbour’, and Jesus expands the category of neighbour to include even a Samaritan. Here he follows the similar expansion in Leviticus 19 from love your neighbour as yourself (Leviticus 19: 18) to love the immigrant as yourself (Leviticus 19: 34).

In the New Testament, the Greek word ἔθνος (ethnos) is used to mean ‘gentile,’ which refers to people who are not Jewish. The term denotes nations or ethnic groups in general, and its meaning evolved to specifically identify non-Jews.

The English word gentile derives from the Latin word gentilis, meaning of or belonging to the same people or nation, and in turn from the Latin gēns, a clan, tribe, people or family.

Two other Greek words for foreigner also appear in the Bible: ἀλλότριος (allotrios) and ἀλλόφυλος, allophilos, but they appear rarely in the New Testament.

‘Was none of them found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?’ … thank you in Greek in a restaurant in Aghios Georgios in Corfu (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Yet the word used in Sunday’s reading (Luke 17: 11-19) to refer to the healed Samaritan as a ‘foreigner’ (verse 18) is the very rare word ἀλλογενής, (allogenes): ‘Was none of them found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?’

The word ἀλλογενής (allogenes) identifies someone who does not belong to the covenant people of Israel – an outsider by birth and by nation. This word does not appear anywhere in classical Greek writings, and the only other known contemporary use of it is in the inscription on the Temple barrier in Jerusalem warning:

Μηθένα ἀλλογενῆ εἰσπορεύεσθαι ἐντὸς τοῦ περὶ τὸ ἱερὸν τρυφάκτου καὶ περιβόλου
Ὃς δ᾽ἂν ληφθῇ, ἑαυτῶι αἴτιος ἔσαι διὰ τὸ ἐξακολουθεῖν θάνατον

Let no foreigner enter within the screen and enclosure surrounding the sanctuary.
Anyone who is caught will be held accountable for his ensuing death.

The tablet with this inscription was discovered in 1871 outside the al-Atim Gate to the Temple Mount, and published by CS Clermont-Ganneauthe of the Palestine Exploration Fund. It was taken by the Ottoman authorities, and it is now in the Istanbul Archaeology Museums.

The Samaritan among the ten healed from leprosy may have well known that taking the advice from Jesus to go and show himself to the priests in the Temple would have resulted in a sure and certain death for daring to seek to enter the Temple.

Instead, he turns back, praises God, prostrates himself at the feet of Jesus and thanks him. It is an act of acknowledging that he is in the presence of God, that the discovery of new life has replaced the threat of death, and he gives thanks with an expression of gratitude (εὐχαριστέω, eucharisteō) that speaks too of being included in the community and communion of the Eucharist.

This is the sole and only use of the word ἀλλογενής (allogenes) in the New Testament, yet its theological weight is profound. The appearance of this word in this context is a deliberate theological signal, illuminating how God’s gracious kingdom reaches beyond ethnic borders, and challenges us to continually push out the boundaries, so that instead of excluding we include the foreigner, the disabled, the marginalised, the outcast, the different, those who are threatened that should they challenge the grounds on which they are excluded they face punishment and even death.

Have we got words for foreigners in our vocabulary today that are part some type of insider language, understood by only the few, yet used to keep them on the margins of social life and economic activity, that tell them that no what they do or believe they are going to be kept on the margins, on the outside, that imply they may as well be dead, that threaten their very life, and that suggest all this has religious and divine sanction?

The healed Samaritan’s thankfulness implies inclusion in the Eucharistic community (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Daily prayer in Lent 2025: 12, Sunday 16 March 2025, Second Sunday in Lent (Lent II)

‘How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings’ (Luke 13: 34) … a painting of Grey’s Guest House on Achill Island, Co Mayo (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are now well into Lent, which began on Ash Wednesday, and today is the Second Sunday in Lent (Lent II, 16 March 2025).

The Six Nations championship came to a climax yesterday with the last three fixtures, and each successive match yesterday was a nail-biting decider in its own way. Tomorrow is Saint Patrick’s Day (17 March 2025).

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

1, reading today’s Gospel reading;

2, a short reflection;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

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

‘How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings’ (Luke 13: 34) … farmyard hens in Co Wicklow (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Luke 13: 31-35 (NRSVA):

31 At that very hour some Pharisees came and said to him, ‘Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you.’ 32 He said to them, ‘Go and tell that fox for me, “Listen, I am casting out demons and performing cures today and tomorrow, and on the third day I finish my work. 33 Yet today, tomorrow, and the next day I must be on my way, because it is impossible for a prophet to be killed away from Jerusalem.” 34 Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! 35 See, your house is left to you. And I tell you, you will not see me until the time comes when you say, “Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord”.’

‘Jerusalem, Jerusalem … How often have I desired to gather your children together’ (Luke 13: 34) … the city of Jerusalem depicted on a tile in a restaurant in Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflection:

In my private meditations and prayers, I often reflect on words from Samuel Johnson from Lichfield, who compiled the first English-language dictionary but who is also often regarded as one of the great Anglican saints of the 18th century. Thinking about the stars at night, the great tragedies in the world and the unbounded love of God, Dr Johnson once wrote:

‘The pensive man at one time walks ‘unseen’ to muse at midnight, and at another hears the sullen curfew. If the weather drives him home he sits in a room lighted only by ‘glowing embers’; or by a lonely lamp outwatches the North Star to discover the habitation of separate souls, and varies the shades of meditation by contemplating the magnificent or pathetick scenes of tragick and epick poetry.’

I sometimes found as I stood presiding at or celebrating the Holy Communion or the Eucharist that I am taken aback by intense feelings of the love of God.

On one memorable occasion, this happened to me as I was using the ‘Prayer of Humble Access’ at the fraction, when we were breaking the Bread of Communion at the invitation.

It is a prayer that has gone out of fashion in many parishes, but it is a reminder that we come to the Table or the Altar not because of our own goodness, not in spite of our own sinfulness, but because of the overflowing mercy and grace that God gives us freely and with unlimited bounty:

We do not presume to come to this your table,
merciful Lord,
trusting in our own righteousness
but in your manifold and great mercies.
We are not worthy so much as to gather up the crumbs under your table.
But you art the same Lord,
whose nature is always to have mercy.
Grant us, therefore, gracious Lord,
so to eat the flesh of your dear Son Jesus Christ,
and to drink his blood,
that our sinful bodies may be made clean by his body,
and our souls washed through his most precious blood,
and that we may evermore dwell in him, and he in us. Amen.

I was taken aback and was conscious of the love of God unexpectedly as I came to those words: ‘We are not worthy so much as to gather up the crumbs under your table.’

What flashed across my mind was a video clip that had gone viral at that time on YouTube and social media, of two small, frail abandoned children caught up in the bloody civil war in Syria, fending for themselves by picking up crumbs of bread from the street to eat.

These two homeless mites, who were braver than any groups fighting or waging war in Syria, told the camera crew: ‘We go to sleep hungry, we wake up hungry.’

They had been separated from their parents. At the time, the Anglican mission agency, USPG, was working with the plight of Syrian refugees in Lesvos and Athens and other parts of Greece.

In that video clip, the 10-year-old girl said she had been collecting bread crumbs off the street with her brother because their area of Damascus, al-Hajar, has been under siege for more than 15 months.

‘If we had food, you wouldn’t have seen us here,’ she said.

But their final message to the world that had abandoned them was: ‘May you be happy and blessed with what God has given you!’

Europe takes pity on children like this when we see them on YouTube or on the 10 o’clock news. But when they land on the shores of the Aegean Islands in Greece, or make their way up through central Europe and cross the Channel into England, we deem them not worthy to gather up the crumbs under our table.

I have looked at this video clip again and again since then. And I think of the image of Christ in the Gospel reading this morning:

‘How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!’ (Luke 13: 34)

The children of the world are the future of the world. It does not matter whose children they are. It does not matter how many of them there are: whether they are two children searching for crumbs that I am not worthy to gather up, or small enough to be gathered in by a loving parent, or are countless in numbers like the stars, they are all embraced in the love of the loving and living God. They are all heirs to God’s promises.

And how we respond to them, how I respond to them, shows them what I think, what we think, of God and how much we believe in his promises.



Today’s Prayers (Sunday 16 March 2025):

The theme this week in ‘Pray With the World Church’, the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘Truth: The Path to Reconciliation’. This theme is introduced today with a programme update by Rachel Weller, Communications Officer, USPG:

‘We each have the power to change our world. We’re not all going to be Nobel Peace Prize winners and we’re not all going to have books written about our lives. But we all can impact someone’s life in a positive way.’

This is just some of the wisdom shared by the Revd Nontombi Tutu, Episcopal priest and human rights activist, as she led our inaugural Desmond Tutu Memorial Lecture on ‘Truth, the Path to Reconciliation’ held at York Minster.

She shared about the importance of being truthful; about our history, our own roles in societal ills and the power that we each must make change. To this end, she referenced a particular testimony that stood out to her during a hearing of Truth and Reconciliation Commission – a legal body tasked with exposing human rights abuses and promoting reconciliation after apartheid.

The letter, written by a young, white South African, read: ‘I didn’t know about policing in black classrooms. I didn’t know what my government was doing to my black compatriots. I didn’t know … and I recognise that part of me chose not to know’. So often, we stop at what we don’t know and brush things aside. How much more powerful is it, therefore, to courageously listen and speak the truth in love.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Sunday 16 March 2025) invites us to pray, reflecting on these words:

‘Finally, brothers and sisters, we ask and urge you in the Lord Jesus that, as you learned from us how you ought to live and to please God (as, in fact, you are doing), you should do so more and more’ (I Thessalonians 4: 1).

The Collect:

Almighty God,
you show to those who are in error the light of your truth,
that they may return to the way of righteousness:
grant to all those who are admitted
into the fellowship of Christ’s religion,
that they may reject those things
that are contrary to their profession,
and follow all such things as are agreeable to the same;
through our Lord Jesus Christ,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post Communion Prayer:

Almighty God,
you see that we have no power of ourselves to help ourselves:
keep us both outwardly in our bodies,
and inwardly in our souls;
that we may be defended from all adversities
which may happen to the body,
and from all evil thoughts which may assault and hurt the soul;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

Almighty God,
by the prayer and discipline of Lent
may we enter into the mystery of Christ’s sufferings,
and by following in his Way
come to share in his glory;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s Reflection

Continued Tomorrow

‘We are not worthy so much as to gather up the crumbs under your table’ (the Prayer of Humble Access) … preparing bread for the Eucharist early on a Sunday morning (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