Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2026: 135, Sunday 20 September 2026, Sixteenth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity XVI)

‘For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire labourers for his vineyard’ (Matthew 20: 1) … at work in a vineyard in Platanias near Rethymnon in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar and today is the Sixteenth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity XVI, 20 August 2026). Later this morning I hope to be part at the Parish Eucharist in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford.

Yom Kippur begins at Kol Nidre at sunset this evening (Sunday 20 September 2026) and ends at nightfall tomorrow evening (Monday 21 September 2026). Yom Kippur or the Day of Atonement is the peak of the High Holidays and the holiest day in the Jewish calendar, when people fast, pray, seek forgiveness from God and from others.

I plan to spend Kol Nidre this evening with at the local synagogue with the locl Jewish community. 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.

‘You also go into the vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right’ (Matthew 20: 4) … neglected vines and a lost harvest of grapes at an abandoned house in Platanias, east of Rethymnon in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Matthew 20: 1-16 (NRSVA):

[Jesus said:] 20 ‘For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire labourers for his vineyard. 2 After agreeing with the labourers for the usual daily wage, he sent them into his vineyard. 3 When he went out about nine o’clock, he saw others standing idle in the market-place; 4 and he said to them, “You also go into the vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.” So they went. 5 When he went out again about noon and about three o’clock, he did the same. 6 And about five o’clock he went out and found others standing around; and he said to them, “Why are you standing here idle all day?” 7 They said to him, “Because no one has hired us.” He said to them, “You also go into the vineyard.”

8 ‘When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his manager, “Call the labourers and give them their pay, beginning with the last and then going to the first.” 9 When those hired about five o’clock came, each of them received the usual daily wage. 10 Now when the first came, they thought they would receive more; but each of them also received the usual daily wage. 11 And when they received it, they grumbled against the landowner, 12 saying, “These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.” 13 But he replied to one of them, “Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for the usual daily wage? 14 Take what belongs to you and go; I choose to give to this last the same as I give to you. 15 Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous?” 16 So the last will be first, and the first will be last.’

‘I will pay you whatever is right … Call the labourers and give them their pay …’ (see Matthew 20: 4, 8) … ‘Permanent jobs for all contract workers’ … a trade union march in Thessaloniki (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflections:

Covid, a stroke and personal problems meant that times I have missed out on my regular visits to Greece. I missed not just the blue skies and blue seas, but also the vineyards and the olive groves, and especially my friends there. So, after an absence of some years, it was good to be back to Crete last year and the year before.

Of course, it was sad to see how a small vineyard I had known for almost 10 years in Platanias, east of Rethymnon, was uprooted and turned into a site for a development close to the beach. On the other hand, it was good to meet old friends in Rethymnon, Platanias, Panormos and Iraklion last year.

The year before, I went back to Piskopianó to meet Manoli and other friends I have known for over 30 years. When my sons were small children, he was like an uncle to them. Early one summer in the 1990s, he was excited when he rang me and realised I was returning to his village in the hills above Hersonissos, to the east of Iraklion. Gushing with enthusiasm and delight, he told me how I must come and see what he had done with the ‘graveyard’ in Piskopianó.

‘The graveyard?’

Now, I am interested in visiting churches and churchyards, and graveyards and gravestones provide rich material for social, local and family history. But a graveyard is not the first place you think your friends want you to visit on a holiday in the Mediterranean.

I asked again: ‘The graveyard?’

‘Yes, you’re going to be delighted to see how the vines are growing with new life. You remember how I trimmed back the vines and the branches and how I built new trellises. Now there is a rich crop in the grapeyard this year.’

The grapeyard! Of course. Now it makes sense.

I had shown an interest in his vines and his grapes … and a healthy interest in wine.

Now a new lesson awaited me on how to grow grapes, how to trim the vines, and how vines, like people, only make sense in clusters.

We are all workers in the vineyard, and Christ even refers to himself as the true vine. But unless we have worked in a vineyard, some of the illustrations in today’s Gospel reading (Matthew 20: 1-16) may not fully resonate with us. And this helps to understand how some of the people who are depicted in today’s parable, and many of the people who first heard it, may have missed some of the subtle points Jesus was making as he told this story.

This Parable of the Labourers in the Vineyard, despite being well-known, is found only in Saint Matthew’s Gospel.

As the story unfolds, the landowner (οἰκοδεσπότης, oikodespotés), the head of the household or the owner of the land, is revealed to be not merely the owner of the vineyard, but as the Lord (ὁ κύριος, ho kyrios).

The labourers (εργάτες, ergates) are called at five different times in the day: early in the morning, at 9 o’clock, at noon, at 3 and at 5.

There are different tasks in the grapeyard, in the vineyard. Those who come early in the morning, at sunrise, can suffer from literal burnout later in the day as the heat of the sun becomes intense.

A variety of skills is needed: those who look after the soil; those who look after other plants such as the olive trees or lemon trees that help to protect the vines; those who watch the roses for the first signs of any disease that might hit the vines; those who prune the vines; those who pick the grapes and sort them out; those who tidy up in the vineyard at the end of the day – each and everyone plays a role in producing that bottle of wine as it makes its way to the shelves of shops and to our tables.

To some of the workers – and to us, at our first reading – the landowner appears to be unfair in the way he rewards those who work on his behalf. But did you notice how this passage begins ‘… the kingdom of heaven is like …’ and that the wages stand for God’s grace?

God chooses to give the same to all: the landowner pays ‘whatever is right’ – there is no social discrimination or class distinction in the Kingdom of Heaven.

I lived in Askeaton, Co Limerick, for five years. For those five years, I was a late arrival and I was a ‘blow-in’, although the term was used with me affectionately, and I knew I was welcome. People understood I had arrived there late in the day, in my 60s, and I understood the parishioners had been there far longer than I ever knew.

Good partnership means mutual understanding, and can produce good fruit, not just in the vineyard, but in every aspect of life.

As people are more mobile these days, moving from city to countryside, and from provincial towns to the city, the term ‘blow-in’ may be beginning to die a slow death in many smaller towns and communities in Ireland. But I wonder whether the attitude it encapsulates is still prevalent in other aspects of Irish life.

Are newcomers to the Church equally as welcome as long-standing members of the Church, whose parents were regular parishioners before them?

How difficult is it for new churchgoers to find an invitation onto church committees, to read lessons, to be counted in, and to be seen to be counted in?

Sorcha Pollak’s column in The Irish Times, ‘New to the Parish,’ later a book, has shown how new arrivals are regularly treated rudely, from the moment they show their passports at the airport, to taking up jobs, constantly being asked, ‘But where are you really from?’

Over the past few years, there have been far-right riots and protests across England, in Belfast, Ballymena and Dublin in Ireland, fear that has been created in the minority communities, there have been shocking attacks on places housing and sheltering asylum seekers and refugees, and there are deeply disturbing reports of racist abuse suffered by people throughout these islands.

How early do you have to have arrived in the vineyard before your labour is valued fully?

God is generous to all. This is God’s free choice. As the Lord of the vineyard asks in this morning’s Gospel reading, ‘Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous?’

Jesus begins this morning’s parable saying, ‘For the kingdom of heaven is like …’

The kingdom of God is like a place where all are welcome, where no-one is treated rudely or abusively because they are new arrivals or treated favourably because they have been here since the early days.

In the Kingdom of God, there is no discrimination, no racism; in the kingdom of God, there are no late arrivals or blow-ins.

Grapes near their harvesting time at the Hedgehog Vintage Inn in Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Sunday 20 September 2026, Trinity XVI):

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 20 to 26 September 2026 (pp 40-41), is ‘For God and Country’. This theme is introduced today with a reflection by Rosie Dawson, USPG Trustee and freelance journalist:

There was a lot to take in when I arrived at the Church of Saint Nino (Holy Child) in Manila, but the most arresting moment was when – as happens every week – the Filipino flag was brought to the altar and the national anthem played. True, the British anthem sometimes features in Church of England services, but I still felt uncomfortable. As a journalist, I cover too many stories in which Christianity is used to justify state narratives of domination – in Putin’s Russia, Trump’s America, and, yes, even in Britain.

Bishop Dindo Ranojo put me straight. The Iglesia Filipina Independiente (IFI) was born out of the struggle for independence at the end of the nineteenth century. “Singing the anthem reminds us that we are free from foreign domination,” he said. It doesn’t mean the IFI is uncritical of whichever government is in power. Indeed, IFI leaders have frequently been harassed, imprisoned or worse.

The Ramento Human Rights Project was set up in memory of Bishop Alberto Ramento, murdered in 2006 for his support for landless people. It is helping people like Amalia whose son was among 32,000 victims of the extrajudicial killings carried out as part of former President Duterte’s so-called war on drugs.

Before I left the Philippines, I visited the IFI’s national cathedral. “Father give us our independence”, said a banner to my left. To my right, the words of Micah; “The Lord requires you to do justice, to love kindness and to walk humbly with your God.” The National Anthem was sung again. I didn’t feel uneasy this time.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Sunday 20 September 2026, Trinity XVI) invites us to pray as we read and meditate on Matthew 20: 1-16.

The Collect of the Day:

O Lord, we beseech you mercifully to hear the prayers
of your people who call upon you;
and grant that they may both perceive and know
what things they ought to do,
and also may have grace and power faithfully to fulfil them;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post Communion Prayer:

Almighty God,
you have taught us through your Son
that love is the fulfilling of the law:
grant that we may love you with our whole heart
and our neighbours as ourselves;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

Lord of creation,
whose glory is around and within us:
open our eyes to your wonders,
that we may serve you with reverence
and know your peace at our lives’ end,
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Collect on the Eve of Saint Matthew:

O Almighty God,
whose blessed Son called Matthew the tax collector
to be an apostle and evangelist:
give us grace to forsake the selfish pursuit of gain
and the possessive love of riches
that we may follow in the way of your Son Jesus Christ,
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

Grapes on a vine in Aghios Georgios in Corfu (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

Grapes ripe for harvesting in Panormos, east of Rethymnon in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

A prayer for peace from Rabbi Nachman of Breslov on a day that focuses on repentance and returning

The Shabbat before Yom Kippur, Shabbat Shuvah or Shabbat Teshuvah, focuses on repentance, forgiveness and charity

Patrick Comerford

In the Jewish calendar, these are the High Holy Days or the Days of Awe. Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, began last Friday evening (11 September 2026), beginning the year 5787 in the Jewish calendar, and ended at nightfall on Sunday (13 September). Yom Kippur or the Day of Atonement begins with Kol Nidre at sunset on Sunday evening (20 September) and ends at nightfall on Monday (21 September). It is the peak of the High Holidays and the holiest day in the Jewish calendar, when people fast, pray, seek forgiveness from God and one another, and seek to come closer to God.

The Shabbat before Yom Kippur is called Shabbat Shuvah (the Sabbath of Return) or Shabbat Teshuvah. This Shabbat during the Ten Days of Repentance, between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, in the middle of the solemn days of judgment and soul-searching, acts like a bridge between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.

These Days of Awe (ימים נוראים‎, Yamim Noraim) provide the opportunity to ask for forgiveness from others, to reflect on the previous year and to pray for a sweet year to come. The name of this Shabbat comes from the special prophetic reading (haftarah) from the Book of Hosea, beginning with the word Shuvah (‘Return, O Israel …’), focusing on repentance and turning back to God.

The themes of this Shabbat combine the peace and joy of Shabbat with the inner reflection of the High Holidays. Rabbis traditionally reflect on this day with a special sermon that focuses on repentance, charity and better deeds. Shabbat Shuva, the Shabbat of Return, is a gift of time, returning to what truly matters and taking time for meaningful self-reflection and inner peace.

A prayer or reading that has become popular in many Jewish communities in recent years is ‘May it be your will,’ a poem by the Chasidic master, Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav (1772-1810). The words of the popular song, Gesher Tzar Me’od, ‘The Whole World is but a Narrow Bridge’, are also ascribed to Rabbi Nachman.

Rabbi Nachman of Breslov, a great-grandson of the Baal Shem Tov and a lineal descendant of Rabbi Judah Loew ben Bezalel, known popularly as the Maharal of Prague. He was born on 4 April 1772 in Międzybóż in Poland–Lithuania, now Medzhybizh in Ukraine. Rabbi Nachman revived the Hasidic movement by combining the Kabbalah with in-depth Torah scholarship, and was the founder of the Breslov Hasidic movement.

He attracted thousands of followers in his lifetime and was particularly known for his creative parables, drawing on Eastern European folktales. His philosophy revolved around closeness to God, speaking to God in normal conversation ‘as you would with a best friend’, and being happy. He died in Uman in Ukraine on 17 October 1810.

Through Martin Buber’s translations, his teaching influenced many 20th century writers, including Franz Kafka. In Fiddler on the Roof, Tevye’s informal habitual talking out loud to God mirrors Rabbi Nachman’s spiritual practice of hitbodedut or personal, spontaneous prayer or heart-to-heart talking to God in one’s own words.

Rabbi Nachman’s prayers were preserved in a collection published after his death by his disciple, Rabbi Nathan, including the petition for peace. Its opening passage appears in English in Lev Chadash (לֵב חָדָשׁ‎), the siddur or prayer book of British Liberal Judaism, now the Movement for Progressive Judaism.

This version of Rabbi Nachman’s prayer was translated by the British rabbi, Rabbi Deborah Silver, now based in Los Angeles, received wider, world-wide circulation thanks to the Masorti movement and the response to the violence in Israel and Gaza that began three years ago with the attacks on 7 October 2023.

The translator Rabbi Deborah Silver is an associate rabbi at the IKAR synagogue in Los Angeles and also an adjunct professor at the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies at the American Jewish University in Los Angeles. She was born in London, studied at Gonville and Caius College, and has degrees from Cambridge and the University of Essex.

With wars being waged around the world, this poem with its themes of peace seems appropriate at this solemn time in the Jewish year.

Rabbi Nachman’s prayer asks God to ‘erase war and bloodshed from the world and in its place draw down a great and glorious peace’, and for the inhabitants of the Earth to recognise that ‘we have not come into the world for division and strife’.

The opening petition appeals for the removal of war and bloodshed, replacing them with a profound peace where nations no longer learn or engage in war. It affirms that humanity was not created for division, hatred, or rage, but to encounter the divine.

It draws on Biblical passages asking for compassion, safety, and for banishing evil and war from the earth, and concludes with a vision of justice and righteousness flowing like water, filling the earth with the knowledge of the Holy One.

May it be Your will,
Holy One, our God, our ancestors’ God,
that you erase war and bloodshed from the world
and in its place draw down
a great and glorious peace
so that nation shall not lift up sword against nation
neither shall they learn war any more.

Rather, may all the inhabitants of the earth
recognise and deeply know
this great truth:
that we have not come into this world
for strife and division
nor for hatred and rage,
nor provocation and bloodshed.

We have come here only
to encounter You,
eternally blessed One.

And so,
we ask your compassion upon us;
raise up, by us, what is written:

I shall place peace upon the earth
and you shall lie down safe and undisturbed
and I shall banish evil beasts from the earth
and the sword shall not pass through your land.
but let justice come in waves like water
and righteousness flow like a river,
for the earth shall be full
of the knowledge of the Holy One
as the waters cover the sea.

So may it be.
And we say:
Amen.

(Translation © Rabbi Deborah Silver. The quotations are: Leviticus 26: 6, Amos 5: 24 and Isaiah 11: 9)

G’mar chatimah tovah (גמר חתימה טובה‎), A good final sealing.

Shabbat Shalom, שבת שלום‎

‘Our grudges are no longer our grudges, Our silent resentments are no longer silent,Our eternal vows of vengeance are no more’

‘And we pray for those children whose nightmares occur in the daytime’ (Ina J Hughes) … street art seen in Buckingham this week (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Patrick Comerford

Thursday was a horrific day for the Jewish community in Britain, Britain at large, and the Jewish community throughout the world, with the frightening attack on Heaton Park synagogue in Manchester. May the memories of those who were killed be a blessing and may those who were injured recover quickly and fully.

Feelings of safety within the Jewish community in the UK have declined sharply in the last couple of years, according to the largest survey of British Jews since 7 October 2023. The Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said this morning that antisemitism has been rising in the UK.

The local synagogue in Milton Keynes has had several telephone calls and messages since the attack from local people wanting to express solidarity with the Jewish community, trying to reassure Jewish people that they are not alone. It was reassuring that the police were at the synagogue in Milton Keynes yesterday morning even before anyone there had heard of the attack in Manchester, and they continued to do regular patrols by the synagogue throughout the day.

Yom Kippur or the Day of Atonement is the most solemn day in the Jewish calendar, the climax of the Ten Days of Awe or the High Holy Days. I spent some of these days, including Rosh HaShanah, the Jewish New Year Day, and Kol Nidrei, the beginning of Yom Kippur, in my local synagogue in Milton Keynes, where the services were led by Rabbi Roberta Harris-Eckstein, who used the new Reform Judaism High Holy Days Machzor.

The revised and modernised prayer book has been 10 years in the making. It was produced by an editorial group of clergy – including Rabbi Mark Goldsmit, who chaired the group, and the joint editors Rabbi Paul Freedman and Rabbi Professor Jonathan Magonet – along with inputs from rabbinic and cantorial colleagues and local congregations.

As a companion to the renewed Reform Siddur for daily and Shabbat use, the High Holy Days Machzor incorporates changes and improvements that were needed to reflect today’s Progressive Jewish society and those of the next 30 to 40 years. These changes and improvement include gender neutral language, reflected in the introduction of the Matriarchs: Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel and Leah were missing on the High Holy Day. One key aim was to demystify the principles, customs and practices of the Yamim Noraim or Days of Awe.

In many places in this two-volume resource, the usual liturgy on the right-hand page is creatively complemented by readings and poetry in a blue typeface on the facing page, either for congregational use or to give permission to the individual to ‘wander’ and find new meaning during a service.

The hope is that the new Machzor allows everyone to take part in Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur in a way that addresses their personal needs and reflects today’s Reform and Progressive values and place in Jewish tradition.

The Torah scrolls in Milton Keynes and District Reform Synagogue (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The services for Rosh haShanah, Kol Nidrei and Yom Kippur in Milton Keynes this week and last were led by Rabbi Roberta Harris-Eckstein. She has been part-time rabbi of Eastbourne Liberal Jewish Community and has taught the Hebrew Bible, History of the Ancient Near East and Biblical History, as well as courses in Judaism for non-Jews.

The Torah readings for Rosh haShanah are a tapestry of stories about children – the rescue of Ishmael, the birth of Isaac, and the birth of Samuel. One engaging reading introduced by Rabbi Roberta is an adaptation of the poem ‘A Prayer for the Children’ by Ina J Hughes:

We pray for the children who put chocolate fingers on everything,
who love to be tickled,
who stomp in puddles and ruin their new pants,
who eat candy before supper,
and who can never find their shoes in the morning.

And we also pray for those who stare at photographers from behind barbed wire,
who never bound down the street in a new pair of shoes,
who never played ‘one potato, two potatoes’,
and who are born in places where we would not be caught dead in and they will be.

We pray for the children who give us sticky kisses and fistfuls of dandelions,
who sleep with their dog and bury their goldfish,
who hug us so tightly and who forget their lunch money,
who squeeze toothpaste all over the sink,
who watch their fathers shave,
and who slurp their soup.

And we also pray for those who will never get dessert,
who have no favourite blanket to drag behind them,
who watch their fathers suffer,
who cannot find any bread to steal,
who do not have rooms to clean up,
whose pictures are always on milk cartons instead of dressers,
and whose monsters are real.

We pray for the children who spend their allowance before Tuesday,
who pick at their food,
who love ghost stories,
who shove dirty clothes under the bed,
who never rinse out the bathtub,
who love visits from the Tooth Fairy, even when they find out who it really is,
who do not like to be kissed or hugged in front of the school bus,
and who squirm during services.

And we pray for those children
whose nightmares occur in the daytime,
who will eat anything,
who have never seen a dentist,
who are not spoiled by anybody,
who go to bed hungry and wake up hungry,
who live and move and have no address.

We pray for the children who like to be carried
and for those children who have to be carried,
for those who give up on and for those who never give up;
for those who will grab the hand of anyone kind enough to offer it
and for those who will find no hand to grab.

For all these children, Adonai, we pray today,
for they are all so precious. Amen.

‘We pray for the children … who live and move and have no address’ (Ina J Hughes) … street art in Waterford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

As I pored over the new Machzor in moments of silence and reflection, I was taken by many of the resources it offers ‘All Our Grudges’ by Trisha Arlin is described as an ‘Alternative Kol Nidrei’:

All grudges, resentments, and vows of vengeance and bitterness,
All undying hatreds or annoyances that we may hold onto
Or talk endlessly about, boring our friends,
Or lose sleep obsessing over
Or write bad poetry about
Or bring up at family dinners to the consternation of all present;

From the previous Day of Atonement until this Day of Atonement
For the benefit of our mental health
And the peace of mind of all who surround us;
Regarding all of this that we have refused to let go,
Despite the fact that they are long past
Or pointless
Or one-sided
Or ridiculous
Or destructive of the innocent
Or hurting ourselves more than anyone else;

Regarding all of them, these intrusions on the Holy Wholeness,
we repudiate them.
All of them, we let them go,
Give up
Wave away
Acknowledge as stupid
Declare null and void
Because we are done.

Our grudges are no longer our grudges,
Our silent resentments are no longer silent,
Our eternal vows of vengeance are no more.

The entire community acknowledges and takes action
So that everyone we have been angry at is forgiven,
Every hurt we did not speak about will be dealt with,
Every relative will be loved for who they are rather than who they are not,
Every change in the world that needs to be made will be made rather than contemplated.

Holy Wholeness!
We need help to step back into connection with the One.
We look for the compassion and mercy
That is always there
If we but pay attention.

‘Anyone who puts on a tallit when young will never forget’ (Yehuda Amichai)

Wearing a tallit at the evening service is a tradition associated with Kol Nidrei. Normally, a tallitis worn at services during daylight hours, and tradition says the tallitis not worn at night. The exception to this rule is the night of Yom Kippur or Kol Nidre, and it is customary for those who wear the tallitto wear it throughout Yom Kippur, for all prayer services, including Kol Nidrei.

‘A Tallit Poem’ by the late Israeli poet Yehuda Amichai depicts some of the symbolism, feelings and emotions captured by memories of the tallit:

Anyone who puts on a tallit when young
will never forget:
taking it out of the soft velvet bag,
opening the folded shawl,
spreading it out,
kissing the length of the neckband
(embroidered
or trimmed in gold).
Then
swinging it in a great swoop
overhead
like a sky,
a wedding canopy,
a parachute.
And then winding it
around your head
as in hide-and-seek,
then wrapping
your whole body in it, close and slow,
snuggling into it like the cocoon
of a butterfly,
then opening would-be wings to fly.

And why is the tallit striped
and not checkered black and white
like a chessboard?
Because squares are finite
and hopeless.
Stripes come from infinity
and to infinity they go
like
airport runways
where angels land and take off.

Whoever has put on a tallit
will never forget.
When stepping out of a swimming pool
or the sea,
wrapping yourself in a large towel,
and spreading it out again
over your head,
then you snuggle back into it
close and slow,
still shivering a little,
then you laugh
then you say a blessing.

The prayer Vidui Zuta, also known as the Short Confession or the Ashamnu, is recited during the High Holy Days, particularly on Yom Kippur, when it is recited ten times. It is a familiar acrostic in which the first letter of each sin named corresponds to a letter of the Hebrew alphabet, with the final letter of the alphabet repeated, for a total of 23 sins. Many people, as they confess these sins, beat their chests with their hands to signify the admission of their misdeeds.

But the new Machzor includes an interpretation of Vidui Zuta, with an English-language acrostic from A to Z:

We have abused and betrayed. We were cruel.
We have destroyed and embittered other people’s lives.
We were false to ourselves.
We have gossiped about others and hated them.
We have insulted and jeered. We have killed. We have lied.
We have misled others and neglected them.
We were obstinate. We have perverted and quarrelled.
We have robbed and stolen.
We have transgressed through unkindness.
We have been both violent and weak.
We have been xenophobic.
We have yielded to wrong desires, our zeal was misplaced.

Shabbat Shalom, שבת שלום‎

A selection of tallitot or prayer shawls in the Synagogue Kadoorie Mekor Haim in Porto (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2025: 143, Thursday 2 October 2025

‘After this the Lord appointed seventy others and sent them on ahead of him in pairs’ (Luke 10: 1) … 70 on a front door in Cambridge (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We began a new month yesterday (1 October) and we are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar. The week began with the Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity XV, 28 September).

These are the Days of Awe, or the High Holy Days in the Jewish calendar. The Kol Nidre service was last night and today is Yom Kippur, the last of the Ten Days of Awe or High Holy Days, the Day of Atonement and the holiest and most solemn day for Jews. The fast of Yom Kippur, which began with Kol Nidre last night, continues today and concludes this evening (Thursday 2 October).

I am involved with an amateur dramatic group in Stony Stratford later this evening. But, 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.

Tradition says the degrees of Jacob’s Ladder were 72 in number

Luke 10: 1-12 (NRSVA):

1 After this the Lord appointed seventy others and sent them on ahead of him in pairs to every town and place where he himself intended to go. 2 He said to them, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into his harvest. 3 Go on your way. See, I am sending you out like lambs into the midst of wolves. 4 Carry no purse, no bag, no sandals; and greet no one on the road. 5 Whatever house you enter, first say, “Peace to this house!” 6 And if anyone is there who shares in peace, your peace will rest on that person; but if not, it will return to you. 7 Remain in the same house, eating and drinking whatever they provide, for the labourer deserves to be paid. Do not move about from house to house. 8 Whenever you enter a town and its people welcome you, eat what is set before you; 9 cure the sick who are there, and say to them, “The kingdom of God has come near to you.” 10 But whenever you enter a town and they do not welcome you, go out into its streets and say, 11 “Even the dust of your town that clings to our feet, we wipe off in protest against you. Yet know this: the kingdom of God has come near.” 12 I tell you, on that day it will be more tolerable for Sodom than for that town.’

The Number 72 on a garden fence in the Coffee Hall estate in Milton Keynes (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflections:

The Gospel reading at the Eucharist today (Luke 10: 1-12) tells of the sending out of the 72, or the 70, depending on which translation we are reading and which manuscripts the translations give greater weight to. In the Eastern Christian traditions, they are known as the 70 or 72 apostles, while in Western Christianity they are usually described as disciples.

The number 70 may derive from the 70 nations in Genesis 10, but the number 72 may represent the 12 tribes, as in the significance of the number of translators of the Septuagint, the symbolism of three days (24 x 3), and understanding the meaning of 144 (12 x 12), to appear again in the 144,000 in the Book of Revelation.

In translating the Vulgate, Jerome selected the reading of 72. In modern translations, the number 72 is preferred in the NRSV, NIV, ESV and the New Catholic Bible, for example, but 70 figures in the NRSV Anglicised (NRSVA) and the Authorised or King James Version.

In number theory, 72 is the natural number after 71 and before 73, prime numbers. It is a pronic number, as it is the product of 8 and 9, it is the smallest Achilles number, as it is a powerful number that is not itself a power.

The number 72 is an abundant number. With exactly 12 positive divisors, including 12 (one of only two sublime numbers), 72 is also the twelfth member in the sequence of refactorable numbers. It has a Euler totient of 24, which makes it a highly totient number, as there are 17 solutions to the equation φ(x) = 72, more than any integer below 72. It is equal to the sum of its preceding smaller highly totient numbers, 24 and 48, and contains the first six highly totient numbers 1, 2, 4, 8, 12 and 24 as a subset of its proper divisors.

The number 144, or twice 72, is also highly totient, as is 576, the square of 24. While 17 different integers have a totient value of 72, the sum of Euler’s totient function φ(x) over the first 15 integers is 72. It also is a perfect indexed Harshad number in decimal (28th), as it is divisible by the sum of its digits (9).

In addition, 72 is the second multiple of 12, after 48, that is not a sum of twin primes. It is, however, the sum of four consecutive primes (13 + 17 + 19 + 23), as well as the sum of six consecutive primes (5 + 7 + 11 + 13 + 17 + 19). Also, 72 is the first number that can be expressed as the difference of the squares of primes in just two distinct ways: 112 − 72 = 192 − 172.

In science, 72 is the atomic number of hafnium, and in degrees Fahrenheit 72 is 22.22 Celsius and is considered to be room temperature.

Biblically, tradition says 72 is the number of languages spoken at the Tower of Babylon. The degrees of Jacob’s Ladder (Genesis 28:10-19) were 72 in number, according to the Zohar, a foundational work of Kabbalistic literature.

The conventional number of scholars involved in translating the Septuagint was 72, not 70, with six Hebrew scholars drawn from each of the 12 tribes. According to tradition, Ptolemy II Philadelphus sent 72 Hebrew scholars and translators from Jerusalem to Alexandria to translate the Tanakh from Biblical Hebrew into Koine Greek, for inclusion in his library.

According to Kabbalah, 72 is the number of names of God. In Kaballah, the Shem HaMephorash (שֵׁם הַמְּפֹרָשׁ) or ‘the explicit name’ of God is composed of 72 letters. The 72-fold name is derived from a reading of Exodus 14:19-21. Kabbalist legend says the 72-fold name was used by Moses to cross the Red Sea, and that it could grant later holy men the power to cast out demons, heal the sick, prevent natural disasters, and even kill enemies. This, of course, relates directly to the commission of the 72 in Saint Luke’s Gospel.

So, when I turned 72 last year, I wondered whether I had arrived at my prime – or, at least, between two prime numbers – perhaps I am best served at room temperature. I was then a powerful number, suited to translation, ready to be sent out.

I once stayed at the Tamworth Arms at 71-72 Lichfield Street, almost directly across the street from the Moat House, the former Comberford family home. where The choir of Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford, which resumes its rehearsals tomorrow evening, regularly adjourns after rehearsals to the Cock Hotel, which is at 72 High Street.

But what is there to look forward to after 70 or even 72?

When the long-serving Labour MP for Rochdale Sir Tony Lloyd died last year, the Guardian reported him as saying some years ago: ‘There’s this recognition that you only have a certain time left … I’m 70, and as such you think, “Well, I’m probably not going to be around in X years’ time, so use these years wisely. Use these days wisely.” That’s good advice for us all.’

Of course that’s good advice for us all. But surely, whether we are counting beyond 70 or 72, no matter how we translate or count numbers, there is more to look forward to than merely counting the X number of years ahead, to something that has more meaning than what is left of my mere temporal existence.

‘After this the Lord appointed seventy others and sent them on ahead of him in pairs’ (Luke10: 1) … No 70 Bridge Street, Cambridge (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Thursday 2 October 2025):

The theme this week (28 September to 4 October) in Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘One Faith: Many Voices’ (pp 42-43). This theme was introduced on Sunday with Reflections from Rachel Weller, Communications Officer, USPG.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Thursday 2 October 2025) invites us to pray:

Gracious God, thank you for the presence of Christians in the Middle East who trust in the powerful work of your Holy Spirit.

The Collect:

God, who in generous mercy sent the Holy Spirit
upon your Church in the burning fire of your love:
grant that your people may be fervent
in the fellowship of the gospel
that, always abiding in you,
they may be found steadfast in faith and active in service;
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:

Keep, O Lord, your Church, with your perpetual mercy;
and, because without you our human frailty cannot but fall,
keep us ever by your help from all things hurtful,
and lead us to all things profitable to our salvation;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

Lord God,
defend your Church from all false teaching
and give to your people knowledge of your truth,
that we may enjoy eternal life
in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s Reflections

Continued Tomorrow

The Cock Hotel at 72 High Street, Stony Stratford … the choir of Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church regularly adjourns there after rehearsals (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

Releasing the vows of the past and praying for a year of happiness and redemption

‘Jews Praying in the Synagogue on Yom Kippur,’ Maurycy Gottlieb (1856-1879), Vienna, 1878, Tel Aviv Museum of Art

Patrick Comerford

During these High Holy Days, the most solemn and sacred time of the year in the Jewish calendar, I have been drawing inspiration from a study guide produced by Voices for Prophetic Judaism, which is providing a platform for prophetic voices and prophetic action, and is championing justice, peace, equality, human rights and the planet.

The group published 10 readings for the 10 days, a booklet with 10 readings for the Aseret Y’mei T’shuvah, the Ten Days of Return, between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur 5786/2025.

In their introduction to this new booklet, published last month, Rabbi Gabriel Kanter-Webber and Rabbi Elli Tikvah Sarah explain that Voices for Prophetic Judaism is an initiative led by Progressive Jewish clergy in Britain and aims to reclaim the Jewish legacy of ethical teachings by establishing a platform for prophetic voices and prophetic action, championing justice, peace, equality, human rights, and tikkun olam (repair of the world).

The new booklet offers prophetic perspectives rooted in the themes and teachings of the yamim nora’im, the ‘awed days’. It has offers a day-by-day guide for a journey through the ten days, and could also be used to focus on particular readings. It offers spiritual nourishment and inspiration while grappling with the ethical challenges of our age.

Rabbi Dr Michael Hilton is Emeritus Rabbi of Kol Chai Reform Synagogue, Harrow, and scholar-in-residence at the Liberal Jewish Synagogue. He writes the concluding reflection, ‘Turning repentance into action’ (pp 43-45), and offers this prayer for Yom Kippur:

For the fear of change and renewal, and our unbelief.
For saying prayers aloud, but refusing to listen.
For being our own worst enemy.
For keeping the poor in the chains of poverty;
and turning a deaf ear to the cry of the oppressed ...
and for the sin of silence and indifference.
For all these, O God of mercy, forgive us, pardon us, grant us atonement.

This evening marks the end of the High Holy Days or the Days of Awe (יָמִים נוֹרָאִים‎, Yamim Noraim), a 10-day period in Judaism that began with Rosh Hashanah (ראש השנה‎) and ends tonight and tomorrow ing with Kold Nidre (כָּל נִדְרֵי‎) and Yom Kippur (יום כפור‎).

These ten days are a solemn time of self-reflection, introspection, repentance and seeking forgiveness from others and for God. These days are opportunities to admit to wrongdoings, make amends, and commit to a better future before the fate for the coming year is sealed.

Yom Kippur, also known as the Day of Atonement, the holiest day of the Jewish year, begins at sundown this evening [1 October 2025] and ends at sunset tomorrow [2 October 2025]. This is the holiest and most solemn of the High Holy Days in the Jewish year.

The central themes of this holy day are atonement and repentance, and it is observed with a 25-hour period of fasting and intensive prayer, and many Jews spend most of the day at synagogue services.

According to Jewish tradition, God writes each person’s fate for the coming year into the Book of Life on Rosh Hashanah or New Year and waits until Yom Kippur to seal the verdict. During the intervening Days of Awe, Jews seek to amend personal behaviour and seek forgiveness for wrongs done against God and against other people.

The evening and day of Yom Kippur are set aside for public and private prayer and confessions of guilt.

Tonight is known as Kol Nidrei night because of this evening’s Kol Nidre prayer which is charged with so many emotions and so many memories for Jews everywhere. The words are in Aramaic, not Hebrew, and it is sung to a haunting, traditional melody that has inspired many composers and singers.

There is a tradition that during the Spanish Inquisition, when the conversos or Jews who were forced to convert to Christianity under the threat of death, they remained faithful to Judaism at heart, and tried to observe Jewish practices in their homes.

These conversos would gather in the evening shortly before Yom Kippur began in their secret synagogues. Before beginning the Yom Kippur services, they would tearfully and emotionally pray to God, asking for forgiveness for all the public statements they made in the previous year which were contrary to Jewish doctrine.

This is supposedly also the reason why Kol Nidre is prefaced with the statement: ‘… by the authority of the heavenly tribunal and by the authority of the earthly tribunal, we hereby grant permission to pray with those who have transgressed.’

However, the Kol Nidre prayer predates the Inquisition by at least 500 years. It is said with great devotion as the opening prayer of the holiest day of the year and not because of its content.

Kol Nidre is an Aramaic declaration recited in the synagogue before the beginning of the evening service on every Yom Kippur. Although, strictly speaking, Kol Nidre is not a prayer, it has many emotional undertones and creates a dramatic introduction to Yom Kippur. The term Kol Nidrei refers not only to the actual declaration but is also used as the name for the entire Yom Kippur service on this evening.

The name ‘Kol Nidre’ comes from the opening words, meaning ‘all vows.’ It is a pledge that annuls any personal or religious oaths or prohibitions made to God by the person for the next year, so as to avoid the sin of breaking vows made to God that cannot be or are not upheld.

Kol Nidrei was introduced into the synagogue liturgy despite the opposition of some rabbis, although it was expunged from the prayer book by many communities in western Europe in the 19th century.



Before sunset on the eve of Yom Kippur, the congregation gathers in the synagogue, the Ark is opened and two people take out two or three Torah scrolls. They then take their places, one on each side of the cantor, and the three, forming a symbolic beth din or rabbinical court, recite:

By the authority of the Court on High
and by authority of the court down here,
by the permission of One Who Is Everywhere
and by the permission of this congregation,
we hold it lawful to pray with sinners.

The last word, usually translated as sinners or transgressors, is used in the Talmud (Niddah 13b; Shabbat 40a) for apostates or renegades and in the Talmud of Jerusalem (Ketubot 7,31c) for someone whose offences are of such magnitude that he is no longer recognised by the Jewish community.

The cantor then chants the passage beginning with the words ‘Kol Nidre’ with its touching melodic phrases, and, in varying intensities, repeats twice, giving a total of three declarations, these words:

All vows we are likely to make,
all oaths and pledges we are likely to take
between this Yom Kippur and the next Yom Kippur,
we publicly renounce.
Let them all be relinquished and abandoned,
null and void,
neither firm nor established.
Let our vows, pledges and oaths
be considered neither vows nor pledges nor oaths.

The leader and the congregation then say together three times:

May all the people of Israel be forgiven,
including all the strangers who live in their midst,
for all the people are in fault. (Numbers 15: 26)

The leader then says:

O pardon the iniquities of this people,
according to thy abundant mercy,
just as thou forgave this people
ever since they left Egypt.

The leader and the congregation say together three times:

The Lord said,
‘I pardon them according to your words.’ (Numbers 14: 20)

The Torah scrolls are then placed back in the Ark, and the customary evening service begins.

Kol Nidrei is not a prayer – indeed, it makes no requests and is not even addressed to God. Instead, it is a declaration before the Yom Kippur prayers begin. It follows the juridical practice of requiring three men as a tribunal, the procedure begins before sundown, and the proclamation is announced three times.

It is believed that Kol Nidrei was added to the liturgy of Yom Kippur 10 days after Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year, because that service is much more solemn, because the Day of Atonement is attuned to the theme of repentance and remorse, and because Yom Kippur services are better attended. Kol Nidre also includes an emotional expression of penitence that sets the theme for the Day of Atonement.

Rabbi Meir ben Samuel made an important change to the wording of the Kol Nidre in the early 12th century, changing the original phrase ‘from the last Day of Atonement until this one’ to ‘from this Day of Atonement until the next.’

The older text is usually called the Sephardic version, but the two versions are sometimes found side by side. Because it is traditional to recite Kol Nidrei three times, some Sephardic communities and a small number of Ashkenazic communities recite both versions.

In the Yom Kippur Machzor of the Spanish and Portuguese Jews, Western Sephardim, a prayer is said immediately after Kol Nidre, for A todos nossos Irmaos, prezos pela Inquisicao, a prayer ‘for all our brothers and sisters imprisoned by the Inquisition’:

‘May he who blessed our fathers, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses and Aaron, David and Solomon, bless, preserve, guard and assist all our brothers and sisters imprisoned by the Inquisition. May the King of kings bless and make them worthy of his grace, hearken to the voice of their supplication and bring them forth from darkness to light. May such be the Divine will and let us say, Amen.’

Some may ask why this prayer is said even today, almost 200 years after the end of the Inquisition. It is possible that this prayer is still said because while the Inquisition may not be active today, its effect continues today, with millions of people still cut off from their people.

The suffering under the Inquisition cannot be reversed, nor can those murdered by it be brought back. But we can campaign and work to free all who are still psychologically imprisoned or oppressed because of the experiences of their ancestors.

Kol Nidrei is performed before Yom Kippur begins, and should be recited before sunset, since dispensation from a vow may not be granted on the Sabbath or on a feast-day, unless the vow refers to one of these days. However, Sephardic communities wait until nightfall, when Yom Kippur officially begins, before reciting Kol Nidre.

There is a tradition that makes Kol Nidre more than a technical vow-annulment procedure. Instead, by releasing these vows God is being asked to reciprocate in kind. In the event that he has pledged not to bring the redemption just yet, in the event that he made an oath to bring harsh judgments on his people in the following year, God is asked to release these vows and instead grant a year of happiness and redemption.

Avinu Malkeinu is the traditional prayer considered by many as the pinnacle of the Yom Kippur service. The ark is still open and will soon close. As the service is reaching its end, there is a feeling that the gates of heaven are closing. The emotions that have been built up throughout the day are expressed as the entire congregation sings this traditional tune together.

It is an important reminder of how to cherish the past, and allow it to help shape and focus the days ahead. The old and the new are side by side, blessed by renewed energy year after year.

לְשָׁנָה טוֹבָה תִכָּתֵבוּ וְתֵּחָתֵמוּ‎

May your name be sealed for good in the Book of Life

Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2025: 142, Wednesday 1 October 2025

‘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, 2025)

Patrick Comerford

We begin a new month today and we are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar. The week began with the Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity XV, 28 September), and the calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship today remembers Remigius (533), Bishop of Rheims, Apostle of the Franks, and Anthony Ashley Cooper (1801-1885), Earl of Shaftesbury, Social Reformer.

These are the Days of Awe, or the High Holy Days in the Jewish calendar. The Kol Nidre service begins at sunset this evening, marking the start of Yom Kippur. This solemn service is a prayer for annulling vows made over the past year, allowing individuals to approach the Day of Atonement with a clean conscience. The fast of Yom Kippur concludes tomorrow evening (Thursday 2 October).

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 comes as a little surprise. The first impression is that there’s 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 this 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 during his time as 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 1 October 2025):

The theme this week (28 September to 4 October) in Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘One Faith: Many Voices’ (pp 42-43). This theme was introduced on Sunday with Reflections from Rachel Weller, Communications Officer, USPG.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Wednesday 1 October 2025) invites us to pray:

Lord, we give thanks for those who have passed down the faith and your faithfulness through the generations.

The Collect of the Day:

God, who in generous mercy sent the Holy Spirit
upon your Church in the burning fire of your love:
grant that your people may be fervent
in the fellowship of the gospel
that, always abiding in you,
they may be found steadfast in faith and active in service;
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:

Keep, O Lord, your Church, with your perpetual mercy;
and, because without you our human frailty cannot but fall,
keep us ever by your help from all things hurtful,
and lead us to all things profitable to our salvation;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

Lord God,
defend your Church from all false teaching
and give to your people knowledge of your truth,
that we may enjoy eternal life
in 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, 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

‘May your name be written in the Book of Life’

‘Yom Kippur’ by Vyacheslav Braginsky

Patrick Comerford

Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Republican member of Congress for Georgia, embodies and typifies everything that is frightening and ugly about the Trump campaign. She is a far-right conspiracy theorist who promotes antisemitic and white supremacist views, such as white genocide conspiracy theories, QAnon, and Pizzagate and conspiracy theories that allege government involvement in mass shootings in the US, implicate the Clinton family in murder, and claim the 9/11 attacks were a hoax.

She blames weather forecasters and metereologists for the latest hurriacnes in the US but deines climate change, has supported calls to execute Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, equated the Democratic Party with Nazis, compared Covid-19 safety measures to the persecution of Jews during the Holocaust, repeated Russian propaganda about the invasion of Ukraine and praised Vladimir Putin.

Greene, who identifies as a ‘Christian nationalist’, supported Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election and has promoted Trump’s false claims of a stolen election.

She is an embarrassment even to her own Republicans. The House of Representatives voted to remove her from all committee roles in 2021 in response to her endorsements of political violence, and in 2023 she was expelled from the conservative House Freedom Caucus.

Last Sunday, in a now deleted message to X (formerly Twitter), Marjorie Taylor Greene, sent out a Yom Kippur greeting using images linked to an entirely different Jewish holiday. In her original message, she wrote, ‘To all those preparing for the solemn day of Yom Kippur, I wish you a meaningful fast. Gamar Chasima Tova!’ Along with it was an image of a shofar in front of a Chanukah menorah.

Although she caught her error and tried to correct it, her initial message reminded many people that this is not the first time she has insulted the Jewish community. Back in March, she was similarly called out for writing, ‘Happy Purim! May it bring light, happiness, joy, and honour!’

Greene is long known for wild antisemitic statements. She claims ‘Zionist supremacists’ are secretly masterminding Muslim immigration to Europe in a scheme to outbreed white people. She once claimed wildfires in California had been started by the Rothschilds and other Jewish conspirators using space lasers to clear room for a high-speed rail project.

With those antisemitic images of space lasers in mind, I wonder why she ever thought of sending out greetings to mark Yom Kippur.

And by what right does she think she can decide who will live, and who will die, and how?

‘Who in the sunshine, who in the night time’ (Leonard Cohen) … in the streets of Prague at night (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Today is Yom Kippur or the Day of Repentance, the most solemn day in the Jewish calendar, and I attended the Kol Nidre service last in Milton Keynes and District Reform Synagogue last night.

I spent much of this morning in Milton Keynes University Hospital at a consultation following my ECG earlier this week. But it gave me some time to reflect on, and to think about the significance of this most solemn day in the Jewish calendar.

Leonard Cohen’s song ‘Who by Fire’ was released 50 years ago in 1974 on the B side of his album New Skin for the Old Ceremony, sung as a duet with Janis Ian.

‘Who by fire’ is inspired by the Hebrew prayer Unetanneh Tokef (ונתנה תקף‎) chanted in the synagogue on Rosh Hashanah, the first day of the Jewish New Year, and especially on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. The prayer describes God reviewing the Book of Life and deciding the fate of each and every soul for the year to come – who will live, and who will die, and how.

Jewish tradition dates this prayer to the 11th century when, it is said, Rabbi Amnon of Mainz was punished for not converting to Christianity by having his hand and feet cut off on Rosh Hashanah.

As he was dying from his wounds, he had a vision of God sitting and writing in a book. In his dying hours, Rabbi Amnon wrote the prayer that begins with ‘Who by fire? And who by water?’ The prayer concludes:

Who will live and who will die;
Who in his due time and who not in his due time;
Who by water and who by fire,
Who by the sword and who by beasts,
Who by famine and who by thirst,
Who by earthquake and who by plague,
Who by strangling and who by stoning.
Who will rest and who will wander,
Who will be tranquil and who will be harassed,
Who will be at ease and who will be troubled,
Who will be rich and who will be poor,
Who will be brought down and who will be raised up?
But Repentance, Prayer and Charity avert the severe decree.

In Jewish tradition, the Book of Life lays open between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, and the greeting among Jews in those days is: ‘May your name be written in the Book of Life.’

Leonard Cohen heard this traditional prayer as a child in the synagogue. In Montreal In his own words, he recalls the tradition: ‘On Rosh Hashanah will be inscribed and on Yom Kippur will be sealed how many will pass from the earth and how many will be created; who will live and who will die; who will die at his predestined time and who before his time; who by water and who by fire, who by sword, who by beast, who by famine, who by thirst, who by storm, who by plague, who by strangulation, and who by stoning.

‘Who will rest and who will wander, who will live in harmony and who will be harried, who will enjoy tranquillity and who will suffer, who will be impoverished and who will be enriched, who will be degraded and who will be exalted.’

At the age of 39, the poet and singer was famous but unhappy and imagined he had reached a creative dead end. In October 1973, he left his home on the Greek island of Hydra for the chaos and bloodshed of the Sinai desert during the Yom Kippur War.

Cohen travelled around the war front with of local musicians, entertaining the troops. In his book Who by Fire, the journalist Matti Friedman told the story of those weeks Cohen spent in the Sinai, with a kaleidoscopic depiction of a harrowing, formative moment for both a country at war and a singer at a crossroads.

The war transformed Cohen. Instead of abandoning his music career, he returned to Hydra and to his family, had a second child, and released his album New Skin for the Old Ceremony. References to war can be heard in a number of the songs, including ‘Lover, Lover, Lover,’ written during fighting, and ‘Who by Fire,’ inspired by the Yom Kippur prayer about human mortality.

The traditional catalogue or listing includes deaths that are natural, accidental, punishment, by decree, and that are unjust. Like the original, Cohen’s Who by Fire,’ tells of a litany of ways and reasons one might meet their death: to this he adds avalanche, greed, hunger, suicide, drugs and the abuse of political power, to the original prayer, and even the cruelty of failures in love: ‘Who by his lady’s command.’

When Cohen introduced the song live in Melbourne, in March 1980, he explained the melody is based on the one he ‘first heard when I was four or five years old, in the synagogue, on the Day of Atonement, standing beside my tall uncles in their black suits.’

He continued: ‘It’s a liturgical prayer that talks about the way in which you can quit this vale of tears. It’s according to a tradition, an ancient tradition that on a certain day of the year, the Book of Life is opened, and in it is inscribed the names of all those who will live and all those who will die, who by fire, who by water.’

The line: ‘And who shall I say is calling?’ can be understood in the context of hearing the Shofar or liturgical horn being blown on Rosh Hashanah. It is a symbolic wake-up call, stirring those who hear it to mend their ways and to repent: ‘Sleepers, wake up from your slumber! Examine your ways and repent and remember your Creator.’ Who is calling? At one level, it is my own heart calling me to Repentance, Prayer and Charity. But, ultimately, it is God who is calling us to Repentance, Prayer and Charity.

It is not surprising that as families in Israel tried to come to terms with the Hamas massacres a year ago on 7 October 2023, Leonard Cohen’s ‘Who By Fire’ was given new lyrics in memory of the 1,200 people murdered in southern Israel.

Meanwhile, his visit to the frontlines of the Yom Kippur war in 1973 was dramatised for a new limited TV series from Keshet International and Sixty-Six Media. Who by Fire: Leonard Cohen in the Sinai is an adaptation of Matti Friedman’s book.

As we come to the end of a year that has been shrouded in hatred, war and death – from the increasing hatred here and across Europe towards refugees and migrants, to the wars in Ukraine, Russia, Gaza, Israel, the West Bank, Lebanon, Yemen and Iran – there is an urgency to the words of the prayer from the Yom Kippur afternoon service and in Leonard Cohen’s song.

Teach us to number our days, O Lord, that we might apply our hearts unto wisdom.

‘And who shall I say is calling?’ (Leonard Cohen) … a shofar or ritual horn in the Casa de Sefarad or Sephardic Museum in Córdoba (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Leonard Cohen, Who By Fire:

And who by fire, who by water
Who in the sunshine, who in the night time
Who by high ordeal, who by common trial
Who in your merry merry month of May
Who by very slow decay
And who shall I say is calling?

And who in her lonely slip, who by barbiturate
Who in these realms of love, who by something blunt
And who by avalanche, who by powder
Who for his greed, who for his hunger
And who shall I say is calling?

And who by brave assent, who by accident
Who in solitude, who in this mirror
Who by his lady’s command, who by his own hand
Who in mortal chains, who in power
And who shall I say is calling?
And who shall I say is calling?

And who by fire who by water
Who in the sunshine, who in the night time
Who by high ordeal, who by common trial
Who in your merry merry month of May
Who by very slow decay
And who shall I say is calling?
And who shall I say is calling?

Leonard Cohen, ‘Who by Fire’ (Live in London)