Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2026: 77, Thursday 23 July 2026

‘You will indeed listen, but never understand, and you will indeed look, but never perceive’ (Matthew 13: 14) … street art in the Bishopgate area off Carpenter Street in Kuching (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Patrick Comerford

We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church and this week began with the Seventh Sunday after Trinity (Trinity VII, 19 July 2026). Yesterday was the feast of Saint Mary Magdalene, and today the Church Calendar in the Church of England in Common Worship remembers Saint Bridget of Sweden (1373), Abbess of Vadstena.

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.

‘Seeing they do not perceive, and hearing they do not listen, nor do they understand’ (Matthew 13: 8) … street art in Iraklion (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Matthew 13: 10-17 (NRSVA):

10 Then the disciples came and asked him, ‘Why do you speak to them in parables?’ 11 He answered, ‘To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. 12 For to those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abundance; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away. 13 The reason I speak to them in parables is that “seeing they do not perceive, and hearing they do not listen, nor do they understand.” 14 With them indeed is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah that says:

“You will indeed listen, but never understand,
and you will indeed look, but never perceive.
15 For this people’s heart has grown dull,
and their ears are hard of hearing,
and they have shut their eyes;
so that they might not look with their eyes,
and listen with their ears,
and understand with their heart and turn –
and I would heal them.”

16 But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear. 17 Truly I tell you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see, but did not see it, and to hear what you hear, but did not hear it.’

Looking with eyes and listening with ears … street art in Rathmines, Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflections:

In the Gospel reading at the Eucharist today (Matthew 13: 10-17), Jesus speaks about those who seeing but do not perceive, who hearing but do not listen or understand.

Today’s reading continues from the Parables of the Kingdom and forms an interlude between the parable of the sower and its interpretation. Jesus is asked by the disciples why he speaks to the people in parables.

There seems to be an implication that Jesus is speaking clearly to his disciples, who are insiders, but in riddles to the people because they are outsiders. But this also seem to contradict the purpose of speaking in parables, which is to use helpful and familiar images to lead people to a better understanding of a deeper message. Indeed, the parable of the sower is a good example.

Perhaps once again we are dealing with the difference between ‘insiders’ and ‘outsiders’. The ‘insiders’ are those who give Jesus a ready hearing. Naturally, they are more open to hearing about the ‘mysteries’ of the Kingdom and to assimilating what they hear. The ‘outsiders’, on the other hand, are precisely so because they have closed minds and are not ready to listen.

Speaking of the ‘insiders’, Jesus says: ‘For to those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abundance, but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away’ (verse 12). Those who have opened themselves to the Word of God will find themselves evermore enriched.

But those who have not even begun to accept the Word will end up in an even worse predicament than the one they are in now, for they look but do not see, they listen but do not hear or understand (verse 13).

This happens, not because the parables are difficult, but because the hearers are not prepared to listen.

Jesus then quotes from the Prophet Isaiah (9: 13), who might better understood as speaking in an audibly sarcastic tone:

“You will indeed listen, but never understand,
and you will indeed look, but never perceive.
15 For this people’s heart has grown dull,
and their ears are hard of hearing,
and they have shut their eyes;
so that they might not look with their eyes,
and listen with their ears,
and understand with their heart and turn –
and I would heal them.”

I find it disturbing when I realise someone is talking at me rather than to me, and certainly not talking with me. In a similar way it is disturbing to realise someone hears me, but is not actually listening to me.

At one stage during tense trade union negotiations many years ago, the employer’s representative responded to my presentation, saying: ‘I hear what you are saying.’

I retorted: ‘Yes, but does it just go in one ear and out the other?’

I asked for an adjournment, and from the union side we said we would return to the talks when he indicated he would not only listen to us, but engage with us and commit his side to meaningful discussions. We waited outside for 10 or 15 minutes, and felt we truly were outsiders. We were about to leave the building when we were called back inside. He had heard, and he had listened, and instead of talking to and at us, he began to talk with us. Confidence was restored, and we soon reached a settlement.

If we are prepared to see and to listen actively and to be fully engaged, both actions, seeing and listening, can make radical changes in our lives, in our attitudes, in our values and priorities, in our relationships. But too many people remain effectively blind and deaf to others.

‘They … listen with their ears, and understand with their heart and turn’ (Matthew 13: 15) … ‘Reflections of Bedford’, a sculpture by Rick Kirby on Silver Street (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Thursday 23 July 2026):

In Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), the theme this week, from 19 to 25 July 2026 (pp 20-21), is ‘Flood Relief in Mozambique’. This theme was introduced on Sunday with a programme update from the Revd Mauricio S Mugunhe, Executive Director Anglican Social Action, Igreja Anglicana de Moçambique e Angola (the Anglican Church of Mozambique and Angola).

The USPG prayer diary today (Thursday 23 July 2026) invites us to pray:

Lord, bring hope to the people of Iene in Mozambique, renewing homes, roads, and lives after the floods. Protect those displaced and isolated, and raise up healing, strength, and swift restoration.

The Collect of the Day:

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

The Post Communion Prayer:

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

Additional Collect

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

Yesterday’s reflections

Continued tomorrow

‘Their ears are hard of hearing, and they have shut their’ (Matthew 13: 15) … street art near De Montfort University in Leicester (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

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

Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2026: 28, Thursday 4 June 2026, Corpus Christi

The Communion vessels on a side altar after the Eucharist in Christ Church, Oxford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Patrick Comerford

We have returned to Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar. This week began with Trinity Sunday (31 May 2026), and in the calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship today is the Feast of Corpus Christi (4 June 2026) or the Day of Thanksgiving for the Institution of Holy Communion.

I have some long journeys ahead of me later today, and I am going to miss this evening's readings and rehearsals by the local playreading and drama group in the library in Stony Stratford. But before today begins, as I wait in Luton Airport, 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.

Christ present in the Eucharist … an icon in the central door of the iconostasis in the Church of Aghia Triada in Kalamitsi Alexandrou in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

John 6: 51-58 (NRSVA):

[Jesus said:] 51 ‘I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live for ever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.’

52 The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, ‘How can this man give us his flesh to eat?’ 53 So Jesus said to them, ‘Very truly, I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. 54 Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day; 55 for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink. 56 Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them. 57 Just as the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me will live because of me. 58 This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like that which your ancestors ate, and they died. But the one who eats this bread will live for ever.’

The emblem of the Guild of Corpus Christi in Leicester, the Host and Chalice, seen in 15th century glass fragments in the Mayor’s Parlour in the Guildhall in Leicester (Photographs: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s reflections:

The Cambridge priest-poet Malcolm Guite, in a posting on his blog two years ago (30 May 2024), recalled how the Feast of Corpus Christi was marked in mediaeval times with a processions in which the consecrated elements were taken out of the church and processed on the streets, ‘showing that the Word made flesh was not just in a box labelled ‘church’ but in our midst, just as he was on the streets of Nazareth and Jerusalem’.

The Feast of Corpus Christi is marked in the calendar of many Anglican churches on the Thursday after Trinity Sunday, and is being celebrated in many English churches and cathedrals today. For example, there is a Solemn Eucharist in Lichfield Cathedral at 7:30 this evening, when the setting is Benjamin Britten’s Missa Brevis. Saint Editha’s Church, Tamworth, is celebrating the Feast of Corpus Christi with the Sung Eucharist at 7:30 pm.

Traditionally, there has been a Corpus Christi procession in Cambridge each year, with the Sung Eucharist at St Bene’t’s Church at 7 p.m., then moving along Trumpington Street, passing Corpus Christi College, Fitzbillies and the Fitzwilliam Museum as it processes to Little Saint Mary’s for Benediction, followed by refreshments.

Pusey House in Oxford is celebrating Corpus Christi this week evening with High Mass at 6 pm and a Corpus Christi procession to Keble College Chapel, the preacher this evening is the Right Revd Dr John Hind, sometime Bishop of Chichester.

At All Saints’ Church, Margaret Street, London, the Corpus Christi celebrations include High Mass at 6.30 pm, when the preacher is Father David Houlding, who has chaired the Catholic Group on General Synod; the music includes: Missa Aeterna Christi Munera by Palestrina Mozart’s Ave Verum Corpus, and Tantum Ergo by Henschel.

In that blog posting marking the Feast of Corpus Christi in 2024, Malcolm Guite also offered a trio of sonnets about the experience of receiving Holy Communion, each from a slightly different angle.

His first two sonnets were published in Sounding the Seasons (2012), his cycle of 70 sonnets for the Church Year. The book is available on both Amazon UK and the USA, and is also out on Kindle:

1 Love’s Choice

This bread is light, dissolving, almost air,
A little visitation on my tongue,
A wafer-thin sensation, hardly there.
This taste of wine is brief in flavour, flung
A moment to the palate’s roof and fled,
Even its aftertaste a memory.
Yet this is how He comes. Through wine and bread
Love chooses to be emptied into me.
He does not come in unimagined light
Too bright to be denied, too absolute
For consciousness, too strong for sight,
Leaving the seer blind, the poet mute;
Chooses instead to seep into each sense,
To dye himself into experience.

2, Hide and Seek

Ready or not, you tell me, here I come!
And so I know I’m hiding, and I know
My hiding-place is useless. You will come
And find me. You are searching high and low.
Today I’m hiding low, down here, below,
Below the sunlit surface others see.
Oh find me quickly, quickly come to me.
And here you come and here I come to you.
I come to you because you come to me.
You know my hiding places. I know you,
I reach you through your hiding-places too;
Touching the slender thread, but now I see –
Even in darkness I can see you shine,
Risen in bread, and revelling in wine.

Malcolm Guite’s third sonnet for Corpus Christi is about the 16th century oak communion table in the Church of Saint Edward King and Martyr, Cambridge, and is from his book The Singing Bowl (2013), also published by Canterbury Press:

3, This Table

The centuries have settled on this table
Deepened the grain beneath a clean white cloth
Which bears afresh our changing elements.
Year after year of prayer, in hope and trouble,
Were poured out here and blessed and broken, both
In aching absence and in absent presence.
This table too the earth herself has given
And human hands have made. Where candle-flame
At corners burns and turns the air to light
The oak once held its branches up to heaven,
Blessing the elements which it became,
Rooting the dew and rain, branching the light.
Because another tree can bear, unbearable,
For us, the weight of Love, so can this table.

A recent Corpus Christi procession at Pusey House, Oxford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Thursday 4 June 2026, Corpus Christi):

A new edition of Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), was published last week, in time for the USPG conference in the High Leigh, Hertfordshire, which opened on Tuesday (2 June) and continues until today (4 June). The theme this week, from 31 May to 6 June 2026 (pp 6-7), is ‘Peacebuilding in the Gulf’. This theme was introduced on Sunday with a reflection from Saint Christopher’s Cathedral in Bahrain.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Thursday 4 June 2026, Corpus Christi) invites us to pray:

We give thanks for the gift of Holy Communion, in which Christ nourishes and sustains us. May it inspire us to love and serve one another with humility.

The Collect:

Lord Jesus Christ,
we thank you that in this wonderful sacrament
you have given us the memorial of your passion:
grant us so to reverence the sacred mysteries
of your body and blood
that we may know within ourselves
and show forth in our lives
the fruits of your redemption;
for you are alive and reign with the Father
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

All praise to you, our God and Father,
for you have fed us with the bread of heaven
and quenched our thirst from the true vine:
hear our prayer that, being grafted into Christ,
we may grow together in unity
and feast with him in his kingdom;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s Reflections

Continued Tomorrow

The emblem of the Guild of Corpus Christi in Leicester, the Host and Chalice, seen in 15th century glass fragments in the Guildhall in Leicester (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 Easter 2026: 9, Monday 13 April 2026

‘Christ Instructing Nicodemus,’ attributed to Crijn Hendricksz Volmarijn (ca 1604-1645), oil on panel, 87.5 x 111.4 cm, sold by Sotheby’s, London, 1994

Patrick Comerford

Our Easter celebrations continue in the Church Calendar, and yesterday was the Second Sunday of Easter (Easter II), while in the calendar of the Greek Orthodox Church it was Easter Day.

Later today, we are having a small family celebration. 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.

Christ and Nicodemus depicted in a window in Saint Mary de Castro Church, Leicester (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

John 3: 1-8 (NRSVA):

1 Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews. 2 He came to Jesus by night and said to him, ‘Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God.’ 3 Jesus answered him, ‘Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.’ 4 Nicodemus said to him, ‘How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother’s womb and be born?’ 5 Jesus answered, ‘Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. 6 What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Do not be astonished that I said to you, “You must be born from above.” 8 The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.’

Jesus is laid in the tomb … Nicodemus is included in the tableau by Vincenzo Onofri in the Basilica of San Petronio in Bologna (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflections:

In the readings for three days this week, from Monday to Wednesday, we meet Nicodemus, a prominent Pharisee, a rabbi, a teacher and a member of the Sanhedrin. He has a Greek name – Νικοδημος (Nikodemos) means ‘victory of the people’ – and this Greek name probably indicates he is an urbane and sophisticated man.

Nicodemus appears three times in Saint John’s Gospel:

1, He visits Christ at night to discuss Christ’s teachings (John 3: 1-21)
2, He reminds his colleagues in the Sanhedrin that the law requires that a person should be heard before being judged (John 7: 50-51)
3, At the Crucifixion, he provides the embalming spices and helps Joseph of Arimathea to prepare the body of Christ for burial (John 19: 39-42)

In this first encounter, Nicodemus comes to Christ by night. Perhaps he did not want to be seen consulting Jesus, who is newly-arrived in Jerusalem and is already causing a stir. But we should remember too that Saint John’s Gospel uses poetic and dramatic contrasts: heaven and earth, water and wine, seeing and believing, faith and doubt, truth and falseness. Here too we have the contrast between darkness and light, the world that is in darkness is being brought into the light of Christ.

Nicodemus is a good and pious Pharisee and member of the Sanhedrin, the highest Jewish religious court. But, despite his positive attitudes to the Mosaic Law, what is the foundation of his faith?

Nicodemus acknowledges Christ is a teacher sent by God. But is this enough – is it simply an understanding of Christ without faith? At this point, Nicodemus sees but does not believe; he has insight but does not have faith.

Christ’s reply puts the emphasis back on faith rather than on law, on believing more than seeing. But does Nicodemus understand this?

Nicodemus seems to misunderstand what he hears. He thinks Christ is speaking about a second physical, natural birth from a mother’s womb.

The dialogue that follows includes two of the most quoted passages in Saint John’s Gospel:

• ‘Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above’ or ‘born again’ (verse 5)

• ‘For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life’ (verse 16)

Nicodemus finds it difficult to understand what Christ is saying, and that first saying, the phrase, ‘being born from above’ or ‘being born again’?

The key word (ἄνωθεν) here has the double meaning of ‘from above’ and ‘again.’ A new birth, a second birth, getting a whole new take on life, a new beginning, a fresh, refreshing start … what does it mean here?

The way we hear the phrase ‘born-again’ being used today may be derived from this event in Saint John’s Gospel. But that understanding is not available to Nicodemus, because it can only be traced to American evangelicalism in the second half of the 20th century.

Until the 20th century, most discussions about this phrase focussed on questions about baptismal regeneration. The key references are in Article 15 and Article 27 in in the 39 Articles. Article 15 seems to imply that all who are baptised are ‘born again in Christ’ – which is not the phrase used in this reading. Article 27 says, ‘Baptism is not only a sign of profession and mark of difference … but it is also a sign of Regeneration or new Birth …’

Despite its present-day use, the term ‘born again’ has been widely associated with evangelical Christians only since the late 1960s, beginning in the US. The phrase ‘born again’ now refers to a particular type of individual conversion experience – although the plural is used grammatically in verse 7 in this Gospel story.

The phrase gained popularity 50 years ago, after the Watergate conspirator Chuck Colson published his book Born Again in 1976. The term was so prevalent within a few years that in an interview during his presidential campaign Jimmy Carter described himself as ‘born again’.

But Nicodemus could not have anticipated late 20th century, evangelical, American uses of this phrase, let alone decide to answer the words of Jesus in an individual way that is promoted by the modern ‘born again’ movement.

So, what could a pious Jew and rabbi like Nicodemus have understood Jesus to mean in his own time?

According to the Mishnah, the duty of loving God ‘with all your soul’ (see Deuteronomy 6: 5) means ‘even if he takes your soul.’ Love of God is a total commitment – unto death. In commenting on this insight in the Mishnah, the rabbis quoted the psalms, ‘Because of you we are being killed all day long, and accounted as sheep for the slaughter’ (Psalm 44: 22, NRSVA).

One rabbi, Rabbi Simeon ben Menasya, asked what it could possibly mean for a righteous person to die many times throughout the day. He answered: ‘It is not possible for one to be killed every day; but God reckons the life of the pious as though they died a martyr’s death daily’ (Sifre Deuteronomy, 32).

Tradition said that when the people in the wilderness heard the words of the Ten Commandments revealed to Moses on Mount Sinai, the revelation struck death into their hearts. But Rabbi Joshua ben Levi said they were brought back to new life ‘by God’s power. Rabbi Joshua ben Levi here quotes Songs 5: 6 and Psalm 68: 10.

In this way, the Ten Commandments were given to the people through a succession of deaths and rebirths. In other versions, death and rebirth come with direct encounters with God’s glory, with the miraculous rebirth of each of the 600,000 people present as they continuously encounter God face-to-face.

In this way, an encounter with the living God brings death and rebirth, a rabbinic tradition that a pious rabbi like Nicodemus would be familiar with.

It was believed that longing for spiritual transcendence is expressed through overcoming material desire. In this way, a life imprisoned by desire is a living death, but dying into God by total self-giving brings true life.

This tradition of interpretation continued into the Middle Ages. Rabbi Yehuda Halevi (1075/1086-1141), in his poems, says he would gladly die, for life without God ‘is death’.

In other words, in the rabbinic tradition, life without God is like death, but life committed to loving God with the whole heart is lived as though I had died and had been given back my life as a new life by God.

In line with this rabbinic tradition, Nicodemus would have left Jesus that night challenged to ask whether he needed to move beyond the Law to an encounter with the living God, an encounter that brings death and rebirth.

This is his first of three appearances in this Gospel. We meet him again when he states the law concerning the arrest of Jesus during the Feast of Tabernacles (John 7: 45-51).

The third time follows the Crucifixion, when he helps Joseph of Arimathea in taking the body of Christ down from the cross before dark, and preparing the body for burial (John 19: 39-42).

So, in this Gospel reading, in the story of Nicodemus, birth is linked with death, new birth is linked with new life, and before darkness falls Nicodemus really comes to possess the Body of Christ, to hold the Body of Christ in his hands.

In the Anglican tradition, as we are invited to receive the Body of Christ in our hands at the Eucharist, the Prayer of Humble Access invites us again and again into that new life where ‘we may evermore dwell in him, and he in us’:

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 are 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.

Χριστὸς ἀνέστη!
Christ is Risen!

The Communion vessels on a side altar after a celebration of the Eucharist in Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Today’s Prayers (Monday 13 April 2026):

‘Stocked with Hope’ provides 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), pp 46-47. This theme was introduced yesterday with a Programme Update by Mayank Thomas, Programme Manager, the Synodical Board of Social Services, Church of North India.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Monday 13 April 2026) invites us to pray:

Lord, we give thanks for USPG and its partnership with the Church of North India (CNI). May this collaboration continue to support women with skills, income opportunities, and confidence.

The Collect:

Almighty Father,
you have given your only Son to die for our sins
and to rise again for our justification:
grant us so to put away the leaven of malice and wickedness
that we may always serve you
in pureness of living and truth;
through the merits of your Son 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 God our Father,
through our Saviour Jesus Christ
you have assured your children of eternal life
and in baptism have made us one with him:
deliver us from the death of sin
and raise us to new life in your love, in the fellowship of the Holy Spirit,
by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Additional Collect:

Risen Christ,
for whom no door is locked, no entrance barred:
open the doors of our hearts,
that we may seek the good of others
and walk the joyful road of sacrifice and peace,
to the praise of God the Father.

Yesterday’s Reflections

Continued Tomorrow

‘Entombed’ … Christ is laid in the tomb by Nicodemus, Station XIV in the Stations of the Cross in the Chapel of Saint John’s Hospital, Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

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

Daily prayer in Lent 2026: 42, Tuesday 31 March 2026, Tuesday of Holy Week

‘Some Greeks … came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee’ (see John 12: 20-21) … a carving of Saint Philip on the pulpit in Saint Philip’s Church, Leicester (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are in Holy Week, the last week in Lent, as we prepare for Good Friday and Easter, and today is the Tuesday of Holy Week (31 March 2026). In addition, Passover begins tomorrow evening (1 April 2026) and continues until Thursday 9 April 2026.

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.

‘Some Greeks … came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee’ (see John 12: 20-21) … Saint Philip (left) in a stained glass window in the Chapel of Saint John’s Hospital, Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

John 12: 20-36 (NRSVA):

20 Now among those who went up to worship at the festival were some Greeks. 21 They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and said to him, ‘Sir, we wish to see Jesus.’ 22 Philip went and told Andrew; then Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus. 23 Jesus answered them, ‘The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. 24 Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. 25 Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. 26 Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also. Whoever serves me, the Father will honour.

27 ‘Now my soul is troubled. And what should I say – “Father, save me from this hour”? No, it is for this reason that I have come to this hour. 28 Father, glorify your name.’ Then a voice came from heaven, ‘I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.’ 29 The crowd standing there heard it and said that it was thunder. Others said, ‘An angel has spoken to him.’ 30 Jesus answered, ‘This voice has come for your sake, not for mine. 31 Now is the judgement of this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out. 32 And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.’ 33 He said this to indicate the kind of death he was to die. 34 The crowd answered him, ‘We have heard from the law that the Messiah remains for ever. How can you say that the Son of Man must be lifted up? Who is this Son of Man?’ 35 Jesus said to them, ‘The light is with you for a little longer. Walk while you have the light, so that the darkness may not overtake you. If you walk in the darkness, you do not know where you are going. 36 While you have the light, believe in the light, so that you may become children of light.’

After Jesus had said this, he departed and hid from them.

Inside the Church of Aghios Philippos off Adrianou Street in Athens … for a Jewish family to give their son the Greek name Philip at the time may have been risqué (Photograph: Patrick Comerford) (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflection:

In today’s Gospel reading at the Eucharist today (John 12: 20-36), it is Palm Sunday and some Greeks are in Jerusalem for the festival of Passover. This year, Passover begins tomorrow evening [1 April 2026], so that Passover this year overlaps with Holy Week and Easter.

These visiting Greeks in Jerusalem are trying to find Jesus. They approach Philip, whose Greek name indicates he probably understands them, and they say to him, ‘Sir, we wish to see Jesus.’

For a Jewish family to call their son Philip in those days might have been risqué – if not scandalous. The Greek name Philip (Φίλιππος) means ‘one who loves horses.’ But it is not as simple as that. The name represents much more.

Philip of Macedon, who died in 336 BCE, was the father of Alexander the Great. A century later, Philip V (Φίλιππος Ε) of Macedon (221-179 BCE) was an attractive and charismatic young man and a dashing and courageous warrior, and the inevitable comparisons with Alexander the Great gave him the nickname ‘beloved of all Greece’ (ἐρώμενος τῶν Ἑλλήνων).

Philip was also a common name in the Seleucid dynasty, which inherited the Eastern portion of Alexander’s Empire. The Seleucid Empire, based in Babylon and then in Antioch, was a major centre of Hellenistic culture that maintained the dominance of Greek culture, customs and politics.

Antiochus IV Epiphanes imposed aggressive Hellenising (or forcible de-Judaising) policies that provoked the Maccabean Revolt in Judea. A century later, two of the last four Seleucid rulers, before their kingdom fell to the Romans, were Philip I and his son Philip II.

So the name Philip would be associated with a family that had been fully Hellenised and that was opposed to the Maccabees and the Hasmoneans.

At the time of Christ, we find the confusing figure of Herod I or Herod Philip I, the husband of Herodias and father of Salome; and Herod the Great’s son, Philip the Tetrarch or Herod Philip II, who married Salome and who gave his name to Caesarea Philippi (Καισαρεία Φιλίππεια), in the Golan Heights.

Philip the Apostle is very much a Hellenised Jew, perhaps from a non-practising Jewish family in Bethsaida, which was part of the territory of the Tetrarch Philip II. He may represent the very antithesis of Nathanael, the guileless Jews waiting for the expected Messiah.

Yet Philip the Greek seeks out Nathanael the Jew (see John 1: 43-46), just as Andrew, with a Greek name, seeks out Simon, his brother with the Hebrew name (see John 1: 40-42). At the very beginning of Christ’s mission, the barriers between Hebrew and Greek, Jew and Gentile, are already broken down. And their calling, Andrew and Simon, Philip and Nathanael, shows how we are called both individually and in community.

Did Philip join Jesus at the wedding in Cana (see John 2: 1-11)? Probably, although we cannot know with certainty.

Philip figures most prominently in Saint John’s Gospel. Christ asks Philip about feeding the 5,000. Later, Philip is a link to Greek speakers when they approach Philip and say: ‘Sir, we wish to see Jesus.’ Philip advises Andrew and together these two tell Jesus of this request (see John 12: 21-26), which we read about today. At the Last Supper, Philip’s question (John 14: 8) leads to the great Farwell Discourse (John 14: 9 to John 17: 26).

In the second part of this Gospel story, we are pointed not just to the Cross, but to the resurrection. This is not just a story for Lent, but a story filled with the Easter promise of the Resurrection.

In the long run, the conclusion to this story is found in the experience of Greeks visiting Jerusalem after the Resurrection, just 50 days later, at Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit is poured out on devout people of every nation, and the disciples find they are heard by each one present in their own language. It becomes a foundational experience for the Church.

Saint Paul finds it so transforming that he reminds his readers that in Christ: ‘There is no longer Jew or Greek (οὐκ ἔνι Ἰουδαῖος οὐδὲ Ἕλλην), there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus’ (Galatians 3: 28).

Am I like Philip and Andrew, too comfortable with a Christ who fits my own cultural comforts, my own demands and expectations?

Do I all too easily lock Christ away in my own ‘churchiness,’ to the point that the stone might never have been rolled away from the tomb on Easter morning?

What prejudices from the past do I use to dress up my image of Christ today?

If Saint Paul is right, then Christ reaches out too to those who are marginalised in our society because of their gender, sexuality, marital status, colour, language or religious background.

In Christ there is no Catholic nor Protestant, no male and female, no black and white, no gay and straight, no distinction between those born on these islands and those who arrive here as immigrants, migrants, asylum seekers or refugees.

And every time I reduce Christ to my own comfortable categories I keep him behind that stone rolled across the tomb.

‘Some Greeks came to Philip … and said to him, ‘Sir, we wish to see Jesus’ (John 12: 20-21) … the monument of Alexander the Great in Thessaloniki, looking out towards Mount Olympus (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Tuesday 31 March 2026, Tuesday of Holy Week):

The theme this week (29 March-4 April 2026) in ‘Pray With the World Church’, the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is a ‘Holy Week’ reflection’ (pp 42-43). This theme was introduced on Sunday with reflections by the Revd Kenson Li, Assistant Curate of Manchester Cathedral and a Trustee of USPG.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Tuesday 31 March 2026, Tuesday of Holy Week) invites us to pray:

Lord of the Sabbath, help us to trust in you, cast our burdens upon you, and know you sustain us in life’s pilgrimage. When darkness falls or the road is hard, send your Spirit to comfort us and assure us of your presence.

The Collect:

Almighty and everlasting God,
who in your tender love towards the human race
sent your Son our Saviour Jesus Christ
to take upon him our flesh
and to suffer death upon the cross:
grant that we may follow the example of his patience and humility,
and also be made partakers of his resurrection;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post Communion Prayer:

Lord Jesus Christ,
you humbled yourself in taking the form of a servant,
and in obedience died on the cross for our salvation:
give us the mind to follow you
and to proclaim you as Lord and King,
to the glory of God the Father.

Additional Collect:

True and humble king,
hailed by the crowd as Messiah:
grant us the faith to know you and love you,
that we may be found beside you
on the way of the cross,
which is the path of glory.

Yesterday’s Reflections

Continued Tomorrow

‘Some Greeks … came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee’ (see John 12: 20-21) … Saint Philip depicted in a stained-glass window in Saint Andrew’s Church, Rugby (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 Lent 2026: 32, Saturday 21 March 2026

Christ and Nicodemus depicted in a window in Saint Mary de Castro Church, Leicester (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are about to enter the last two weeks of Lent, and tomorrow is the Fifth Sunday in Lent (Lent V), sometimes still known as Passion Sunday. The calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship today recalls Thomas Cranmer (1489-1556), Archbishop of Canterbury and Reformation Martyr.

During the day, there is an open invitation to a ‘Come and Sing’ workshop and an informal performance of Fauré’s Requiem, conducted by Jacob Collins in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford, with Laurence Caldecote playing the Willis pipe organ. Singers aged 8 and above are welcome, and registration begins at 9:30 am. There are rehearsals at 10 am, 11:15 am 1:15 pm, with coffee and lunch breaks, and the performance is from 4:30 to 5. Singers of all parts – Trebles, Sopranos, Altos, Tenors and Basses – are welcome: adult singers £16, job seekers and students £8, children 8-16 free.

Meanwhile, 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.

Christ is laid in the tomb by Nicodemus, from the Stations of the Cross in the Chapel of Saint John’s Hospital, Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

John 7: 40-52 (NRSVA):

40 When they heard these words, some in the crowd said, ‘This is really the prophet.’ 41 Others said, ‘This is the Messiah.’ But some asked, ‘Surely the Messiah does not come from Galilee, does he? 42 Has not the scripture said that the Messiah is descended from David and comes from Bethlehem, the village where David lived?’ 43 So there was a division in the crowd because of him. 44 Some of them wanted to arrest him, but no one laid hands on him.

45 Then the temple police went back to the chief priests and Pharisees, who asked them, ‘Why did you not arrest him?’ 46 The police answered, ‘Never has anyone spoken like this!’ 47 Then the Pharisees replied, ‘Surely you have not been deceived too, have you? 48 Has any one of the authorities or of the Pharisees believed in him? 49 But this crowd, which does not know the law – they are accursed.’ 50 Nicodemus, who had gone to Jesus before, and who was one of them, asked, 51 ‘Our law does not judge people without first giving them a hearing to find out what they are doing, does it?’ 52 They replied, ‘Surely you are not also from Galilee, are you? Search and you will see that no prophet is to arise from Galilee.’

Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea, watched by the Virgin Mary, lay the Body of Christ in the tomb … Station XIV in the Stations of the Cross in Saint Mel’s Cathedral, Longford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflections:

Holy Week begins in just over a week, when we remember the events leading up to the passion, death and resurrection of Christ. The Gospel readings have started to have a more ominous tone, and in the Gospel at the Eucharist today (John 7: 40-52), we continue to hear how he was opposed and rejected by people who wanted to arrest him.

In today’s reading, we hear how Nicodemus challenged the ways in which the religious leaders of the day were plotting pursuing Jesus and seeking to arrest him. Nicodemus only appears in Saint John’s Gospel, and this is the second of his three appearances.

Earlier in this Gospel, Nicodemus had lengthy conversations with Jesus in the dark (see John 3: 14-21). He is a leading Jew of the day, a Pharisee and a rabbi, a doctor of the law, a member of the ruling Sandhedrin. He comes to visit Jesus at night, and he comes with a bundle of questions.

But, despite his erudite learning, he finds it difficult to understand the answers Christ gives to his questions. Yet, it is all so simple: ‘God so loved the world …’ (John 3: 16).

In fact, what Jesus says is deeply profound. The Greek mathematician and philosopher Pythagoras was born on the island of Samos, the neighbouring island of Patmos, the island where Saint John spent his time in exile.

Pythagoras is best known for his calculations about right-angle triangles. But he also provides an insight into one of the key concepts in Saint John’s writings. His understanding of the cosmos (κόσμος) includes the earth, the planets, the stars, the whole created order – ideas derived from Pythageros of Samos.

It is as though everything is wrapped into and lives within God’s skin. To put it more simply, we live in God’s womb, and it is there that God loves us. It is not that God so loved the saved, or men, or humanity, or even the world. What Christ says is that God so loved the cosmos, the whole created order, that he gave, or rather sent, his only-begotten Son.

Nicodemus is a little nonplussed, but he comes back again and again, a second time (John 7: 45-51) and a third time (John 19: 39-42), and his third encounter is on Good Friday. From someone who was questioning first of all, and was so afraid that he comes to talk to Christ in the dark, Nicodemus moves on in Chapter 7 to become someone brave enough to speak up against the plot to arrest Jesus.

Then later, in Chapter 19, Nicodemus comes to anoint the body of Christ after he has been taken down from the Cross. When Christ dies on the Cross, and the women come to bury him, Joseph of Arimathea provides the grave (Matthew 27: 57; Mark 15: 43; Luke 23: 50-56; John 19: 39-40). Nicodemus steps forward to provide the customary embalming spices, and he assists the women in preparing the body of Christ for burial (John 19: 39-42).

Nicodemus brings a mixture of myrrh and aloes, estimated at about 33 kg, to embalm Christ’s body. In his book Jesus of Nazareth: Holy Week, the former Pope Benedict XVI observes that ‘the quantity of the balm is extraordinary and exceeds all normal proportions. This is a royal burial.’

So, in the story of Nicodemus, we find birth is linked with death, new birth is linked with new life, and before darkness falls Nicodemus really comes to possess the Body of Christ, to hold the Body of Christ in his hands, and in anointing him to recognise him as priest, prophet and king.

The faith and discipleship of Nicodemus develop slowly over the passage of time in Saint John’s Gospel – from fear and questioning, to bravery and speaking up, to acting and wanting to hold for himself the Body of Christ.

If being a priest is about presenting God through Christ to the world in word and sacrament, and presenting the world through Christ to God in word and sacrament, then Nicodemus both receives and presents the Body of Christ, in a very Eucharistic way, and is a model for priesthood.

Sometimes, when I have taken hold of the Holy Communion, both presiding and as a recipient, I find myself kissing my hands afterwards. To hold the Body of Christ, as Nicodemus does, is, paradoxically, both an awesome and a liberating experience, not just tinged but filled with love.

Has Christ taken hold of you?

Have you taken hold of Christ?

The statue of Pythagoras by Nikolaos Ikaris (1989) on the harbour front in Pythagóreio on the Greek island of Samos (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Saturday 21 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), has been ‘Lament and Hope’ (pp 38-39). This theme was introduced last Sunday with a programme update by Kennedy Jones, Church Engagement and Fundraising Officer, USPG.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Saturday 21 March 2026, International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination) invites us to pray:

We pray for racial justice worldwide. May we be moved to act with love and courage, confronting inequality and standing alongside those whose dignity has been denied.

The Collect:

Father of all mercies,
who through the work of your servant Thomas Cranmer
renewed the worship of your Church
and through his death revealed your strength in human weakness:
by your grace strengthen us to worship you
in spirit and in truth
and so to come to the joys of your everlasting kingdom;
through Jesus Christ our Mediator and Advocate,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post Communion Prayer:

Eternal God,
who gave us this holy meal
in which we have celebrated the glory of the cross
and the victory of your martyr Thomas Cranmer:
by our communion with Christ
in his saving death and resurrection,
give us with all your saints the courage to conquer evil
and so to share the fruit of the tree of life;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Collect on the Eve of Lent V:

Most merciful God,
who by the death and resurrection of your Son Jesus Christ
delivered and saved the world:
grant that by faith in him who suffered on the cross
we may triumph in the power of his victory;
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

Jesus is laid in the tomb … Nicodemus is included in the tableau by Vincenzo Onofri in the Basilica of San Petronio in Bologna (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

Charles Gutch, the visionary ‘slum priest’ in Marylebone who was a life-long fellow of Sidney Sussex in Cambridge

Father Charles Gutch was the priest at Saint Cyprian’s in Marylebone from 1866 until he died in 1896

Patrick Comerford

In a blog posting yesterday, I was discussing five churches within five minutes’ walk of Marylebone station that have five different stories and traditions. As I looked at the story of Saint Cyprian’s Church on Glentworth Street, I realised not only that its founding priest, Father Charles Gutch, had been a Fellow of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, for more than half a century, but the controversies involving his Anglo-Catholic style echo many of the experience of another Sidney Sussex fellow, his contemporary the Revd Thomas Pelham Dale (1821-1892), who was jailed for his high church practices.

The Revd Charles Gutch (1822-1896) was a Fellow of Sidney Sussex from 1844 until he died in 1896 and was the Perpetual Curate or priest-in-charge of Saint Cyprian’s Church, Marylebone, for three decades, from 1866 until his death.

Charles Gutch was born in Seagrave, Leicestershire, on 12 January 1822. He was the fourth son of the Revd Robert Gutch the Revd Robert Gutch (1777-1851), the Rector of Seagrave and a Fellow of Queens’ College, Cambridge; his mother, Mary Ann James, was a daughter of the Revd John James and Elizabeth Hodgson; the couple were married at Saint Giles’s, Marylebone, on 18 June 1810.

Charles Gutch went to school at Christ’s Hospital School, Sussex, and King’s College School, London. He matriculated in 1840 and was admitted a sizar at Saint John’s College, Cambridge, on 23 March 1840. He moved to Sidney Sussex College on 29 January 1842, where he became Prizeman in Classics and Divinity that year. He graduated BA in 1844 and as the 19th Wrangler.

The Wranglers are those students at Cambridge who gain first-class degrees in mathematics. The Cambridge undergraduate mathematics course, or Mathematical Tripos, is famously difficult. The Senior Wrangler is the top mathematics undergraduate at Cambridge, a position that has been described as ‘the greatest intellectual achievement attainable in Britain.’

Gutch was immediately elected a Fellow of Sidney Sussex College in 1844, and he later proceeded MA (1847) and BD (1854). He remained a senior fellow of Sidney Sussex for more than 50 years, until he died in 1896.

His contemporaries at Sidney Sussex included the Revd Thomas Pelham Dale (1821-1892), who was nine months older. Dale was admitted as a ‘pensioner’ on 30 June 1841 and matriculated in Michaelmas term. He graduated BA in 1845 and was the 25th Wrangler, and he too was immediately elected a Fellow of Sidney Sussex College in 1845.

The Chapel and Chapel Court in Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge … Charles Gutch was a senior fellow from 1844 until he died in 1896 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

As for Gutch, a year after graduating he was ordained deacon by Thomas Turton, Bishop of Ely, in 1845 and priest in 1847. He served two successive curacies in Leicestershire, in Kilworth (1845-1847) and Saint Margaret’s, Leicester (1848-1851).

Edward Bouveries Pusey asked Gutch to take charge of Saint Saviour’s, Leeds, in 1849. Pusey was Regius Professor of Hebrew at Oxford and a leading figure of the Oxford Movement. Saint Saviour’s was built in 1842-1845 to designs by the Irish-born architect John Macduff Derick (1815-1849), and Pusey had funded the church.

Gutch refused the offer of the living although he remained at Saint Saviour’s until 1854, when he moved to Norton Saint Philip, near Bath, Somerset (1854-1857), and then to All Saints’ Church, Margaret Street, London (1859-1864), where the Revd William Upton Richards (1811-1873) was the vicar.

Gutch was anxious to minister in a church of his own in London where he could pursue his own expression of Anglo-Catholicism. At the time, many large London parishes were being divided to create more workable parochial conditions. He approached the Revd IL Davies, the Rector of Christ Church, Cosway Street, about building a church in that part Marylebone that bordered the neighbouring parishes of Saint Marylebone and Saint Paul’s, Rossmore Road.

Davies reacted favourably to a plan that would relieve him of his responsibility for 3,000 people, about a tenth of his whole parish. He suggested that portions of Saint Paul’s and St Marylebone parishes should be handed over to Gutch too. But neither the Rector of St Marylebone nor the Vicar of Saint Paul’s approved of Gutch’s churchmanship, and that part of the plan foundered.

Many of the parishioners of Christ Church were living comfortably. But the north-east part of the parish was described as ‘a neglected and heathen part of London’. The 3,000 inhabitants of the proposed new district were mostly poor, and had no church and no school. A mission church was needed, but land was scarce and the wealthy landowner was unwilling to help.

Saint Cyprian’s Church owes its origins to the work of Father Charles Gutch (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Eventually, two houses backing each other and joined by a coal shed in what are now Glentworth Street and Baker Street were rented for use as a temporary chapel. Once the leases were signed, the conversion was entrusted to George Edmund Street (1824-1881), the architect of the Law Courts on the Strand and Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, a churchwarden of All Saints’, Margaret Street, and a personal friend of Gutch.

Gutch faced further difficulties when he proposed dedicating his mission church to Saint Cyprian of Carthage. He explained he was especially struck by Saint Cyprian’s ‘tender loving care for his people, the considerateness with which he treated them, explaining to them why he did this or that, leading them on, not driving them.’

A few weeks before the mission church was due to be opened, the Bishop of London, Archibald Campbell Tait, said that in line with ruling he and his predecessors had made, the district should be named after one of the apostles. Gutch pointed out that Tait had recently dedicated a number of churches in his diocese with the names of saints other than apostles, and he won the day.

The Eucharist was celebrated in Saint Cyprian’s for the first time on Maundy Thursday, 29 March 1866. During the following week, a sisterhood moved in next door to the church. When Queen Victoria formally approved the mission district, Saint Cyprian’s became a distinct parochial charge administered by Gutch with two assistant priests.

Gutch’s curates included the Revd John Witherston Rickards (1844-1921), who later became an SPG (USPG) missionary priest in South Africa, where he founded Saint Cyprian’s Parish at New Rush, Kimberley, on the Diamond Fields in 1871.

Saint Cyprian’s Mission flourished and expanded over the next 30 years. But the mission church was small and could seat only 180 people. It was often overcrowded and extra services were held to accommodate the numbers.

Meanwhile, the landlord, Lord Portman, persistently refused to make available a site for building a larger permanent church. Portman disliked for the churchmanship of Gutch. One of the trustees of Saint Cyprian’s described Portman’s attitude as ‘weak, frivolous, vexatious and unreal.’

Gutch never married. He died at 39 Upper Park Place, Dorset Square, London, at the age of 74 on 1 October 1896. When he died, he had not yet realised his vision of a permanent church.

Saint Cyprian’s Church was modelled on the wool churches of East Anglia (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

The Bishop of London, Mandell Creighton, appointed the Revd George Forbes, Vicar of Saint Paul’s, Truro, as his successor. Negotiations were opened with the Portman Estate for a site, and Lord Portman finally agreed to sell a site for £1,000 in 1901. But among the rigorous conditions he imposed, he insisted the new church should be built and ready for consecration by 1 June 1904.

Sir Ninian Comper (1864-1960) was the architect of the new church, and it was the first new church completed to his designs. The Bishop of Kensington blessed the Corner Stone, which was laid by Lady Wilfreda Biddulph on 7 July 1902.

Almost a year before Portman’s terms were due to expire, Saint Cyprian’s was dedicated to the memory of Charles Gutch by the new Bishop of London, Arthur Foley Winnington-Ingram, on 30 June 1903. At the service, the bishop wore a magnificent cope of Russian cloth of gold and a richly jewelled mitre.

By then, the altars were fully furnished but when the church was consecrated in 1904 the interior was sparsely decorated, and the task of completing the interior was to be left to succeeding generations.

Comper designed Saint Cyprian’s in a Perpendicular Gothic style. The church is built of red brick with stone dressings and has a nave with clerestory and two aisles. There is no tower, but a small bellcote on Chagford Street. Comper modelled the church on the ‘wool churches’ of East Anglia. It includes large Perpendicular windows but the stained glass, also designed by Comper, is confined to the east end. The nave is modelled on the parish church in Attleborough, Norfolk.

Saint Cyprian’s is seen by many as one of London’s most beautiful church interiors

Saint Cyprian’s reflects Comper’s emphasis on the Eucharist and the influence of the Oxford Movement. He wanted his church to resemble ‘a lantern, and the altar is the flame within it’. The unadorned whitened walls in the nave emphasise the contrasting richness of painted and gilded furnishings in the sanctuary.

The sanctuary fittings include a delicate carved and painted rood screen and parclose screens around an ‘English Altar’ surrounded on three sides by hangings and a painted dossal, riddel posts with angels and a painted and gilded reredos.

The central screen below the rood was completed in stages up to 1938. The gilded square tester over the high altar was completed in 1948 and shows Christ holding an open book with a Greek inscription: ‘I am the Light of the World’.

The left-hand screen leads to what was originally called the All Souls’ Chapel, later re-dedicated as the Chapel of the Holy Name. The right-hand screen separates the liturgical south aisle from the Lady Chapel.

Parclose were added and the stone font, vaulted narthex and gallery above in 1930. The decoration of the screens progressed in stages and the tester above the high altar was installed in 1948. The west doors followed in 1952.

Saint Cyprian’s is seen by many as one of London’s most beautiful church interiors. The poet Sir John Betjeman once described Saint Cyprian’s as ‘Comper’s superb church … a Norfolk dream of gold and light within.’ The architectural historian Sir Nikolaus Pevsner also praised Comper’s work at Saint Cyprian’s: ‘If there must be medieval imitation in the twentieth century, it is here unquestionably done with joy and care.’

• The Parish Mass in Saint Cyprian’s Church on Sundays is at 10:30 am, and Choral Evensong is sung on the second Sunday of each month at 6 pm. Canon Clare Dowding is the Priest in Charge.

Sir John Betjeman described Saint Cyprian’s as ‘Comper’s superb church … a Norfolk dream of gold and light within’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2025: 41, Thursday 19 June 2025, Corpus Christi

The emblem of the Guild of Corpus Christi in Leicester, the Host and Chalice, seen in 15th century glass fragments in the Guildhall in Leicester (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Patrick Comerford

We are in Ordinary Time: this week began with Trinity Sunday (15 June 2025), and today is the Day of Thanksgiving for the Institution of Holy Communion or the Feast of Corpus Christi (19 June 2025).

Later this morning, I plan to attend the mid-week Eucharist in All Saints’ Church, Calverton. 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.

Christ present in the Eucharist … an icon in the central door of the iconostasis in the Church of Aghia Triada in Kalamitsi Alexandrou in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

John 6: 51-58 (NRSVA):

[Jesus said:] 51 ‘I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live for ever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.’

52 The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, ‘How can this man give us his flesh to eat?’ 53 So Jesus said to them, ‘Very truly, I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. 54 Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day; 55 for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink. 56 Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them. 57 Just as the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me will live because of me. 58 This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like that which your ancestors ate, and they died. But the one who eats this bread will live for ever.’

The emblem of the Guild of Corpus Christi in Leicester, the Host and Chalice, seen in 15th century glass fragments in the Mayor’s Parlour in the Guildhall in Leicester (Photographs: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Today’s Reflection:

The Feast of Corpus Christi is marked in the calendar of many Anglican churches on the Thursday after Trinity Sunday, and is being celebrated in many English churches and cathedrals today. For example, there is a Solemn Eucharist in Lichfield Cathedral at 5.30 this evening. Saint Editha’s Church, Tamworth, is celebrating the Feast of Corpus Christi with the Sung Eucharist at 7:30 pm, followed by a sherry and shortbread reception.

Traditionally, there has been a Corpus Christi procession in Cambridge each year, with the Sung Eucharist at St Bene’t’s Church at 7 p.m., then moving along Trumpington Street, passing Corpus Christi College, Fitzbillies and the Fitzwilliam Museum as it processes to Little Saint Mary’s for Benediction, followed by refreshments. The guest preacher this evening is Mother Alice Goodman, Rector of Fulbourn.

Pusey House in Oxford is celebrating Corpus Christi this week evening with High Mass at 6:30 pm with Procession and Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament. The preacher is Bishop Norman Banks, sometime Bishop of Richborough.

At All Saints’ Church, Margaret Street, London, the Corpus Christi celebrations include High Mass at 6.30 pm, the Procession down Oxford Street and Benediction. The preacher is Father Grant Naylor, Vicar of Saint Matthew’s, Carver Street, Sheffield, who preached at the Corpus Christi Celebrations in Pusey House last year.

In Rose Macaulay’s The Towers of Trebizond, Father Hugh Chantry-Pigg says Mass in a corner of the public gardens in Trebizond to mark the Feast of Corpus Christi. After Mass, he holds a procession round the gardens, chanting Ave Verum, stops, preaches a short sermon in English, and says that Corpus Christi is a great Christian festival and holy day, ‘always kept in the Church of England.’

The survival of Corpus Christi in the Anglican tradition is also illustrated in the history of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. Formally known as the College of Corpus Christi and the Blessed Virgin Mary, this is the only Cambridge college founded by the townspeople of Cambridge: it was established in 1352 by the Guilds of Corpus Christi and the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Today, Corpus Christi is best known to visitors to Cambridge for its clock, the Chronophage or ‘Time Eater,’ which is accurate only once every five minutes. But the Old Court in Corpus is the oldest court in any Oxbridge college.

The new college acquired all the guild’s lands, ceremonies and revenues, including the annual Corpus Christi procession through the streets of Cambridge to Magdalene Bridge, during which the Eucharistic host was carried by a priest and several of the college’s treasures were carried by the Master and fellows, before returning to the college for an extravagant dinner.

The procession in Cambridge continued until the Reformation, but in 1535 William Sowode, who was Parker’s predecessor as Master (1523-1544), stopped this tradition. However, the college retains its pre-Reformation name and continues to have a grand dinner on the feast of Corpus Christi.

In the calendar of the Church of England, Corpus Christi is known as The Day of Thanksgiving for the Institution of Holy Communion (Corpus Christi) and has the status of a Festival. But in many parts of the Roman Catholic Church, it has now been moved from the Thursday after Trinity Sunday to the following Sunday. Yet, in the Roman Catholic Church, the feast of Corpus Christi is one of the five occasions in a year when a bishop must not to be away from his diocese unless for a grave and urgent reason.

Corpus Christi does not commemorate any one particular event in the life of Christ or in the history of the Church – but the same can be said too of Trinity Sunday (last Sunday, 15 June 2025) or the Feast of Christ the King (the Sunday before Advent). Instead, this day celebrates the presence of Christ in the Eucharist.

Corpus Christi first made an appearance in the Church Calendar at the suggestion of Saint Juliana of Liège, a 13th century Augustinian nun, when she suggested the feastday to her local bishop, Bishop Robert de Thorete of Liège and the Archdeacon of Liège, Jacques Pantaléon.

The bishop introduced the feastday to the calendar of his diocese in 1246, and the archdeacon subsequently introduced it to the calendar of the Western Church when he became Pope Urban IV in 1264, when he issued a papal bull, Transiturus de hoc mundo.

A liturgy for the feast was composed by the great Dominican theologian, Saint Thomas Aquinas, who also wrote the hymns Verbum Supernum Prodiens for Lauds and Pange Lingua for Vespers of Corpus Christi.

The last two verses of Pange Lingua are often sung as a separate Latin hymn, Tantum Ergo, while the last two verses of Verbum Supernum Prodiens are sometimes sung separately as O Salutaris Hostia.

This was the very first universal feast ever sanctioned by a Pope. Corpus Christi was retained in Lutheran calendars until about 1600, and continues to be celebrated in some Lutheran churches.

Anglicans generally and officially believe in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist – is there any ‘presence’ that is not ‘real’? But the specifics of that belief range from transubstantiation, to something akin to a belief in a ‘pneumatic’ presence, from objective reality to pious silence.

Anglican teaching thinking about the Eucharist is best summarised in the Prayer of Humble Access:

We do not presume to come to this thy Table, O merciful Lord, trusting in our own righteousness, but in thy manifold and great mercies. We are not worthy so much as to gather up the crumbs under thy Table. But thou art the same Lord, whose property is always to have mercy: Grant us therefore, gracious Lord, so to eat the flesh of thy 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. – (Book of Common Prayer, 1662)

The classic Anglican aphorism with regard to this debate is found in a poem by John Donne that is often attributed to Queen Elizabeth I:

His was the Word that spake it;
He took the bread and brake it;
and what that Word did make it;
I do believe and take it.

This, in many ways, also reflects Orthodox theology, which does not use the term ‘transubstantiation’ to systematically describe how the Gifts become the Body and Blood of Christ. Instead, the Orthodox speak of the Eucharist as a ‘Sacred Mystery’ use only the word ‘change.’ That moment of transformation of change does not take place at one particular moment during the Liturgy, but is completed at the Epiclesis.

And that completion is affirmed by our ‘Amen’ at the distribution and reception.

But when we say ‘Amen’ to those words, ‘The Body of Christ,’ at the distribution we are also saying ‘Amen’ to the Church as the Body of Christ, as Corpus Christi: ‘He [Christ] is the head of the body, the church’ (Colossians 1: 18), ‘which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all’ (Ephesians 1: 23).

In the act of communion, the entire Church – past, present, and even future – is united in eternity. In Orthodox Eucharistic theology, although many separate Divine Liturgies may be celebrated, there is only one Bread and one Cup throughout all the world and throughout all time.

Corpus Christi is not just a celebration for Roman Catholics and Anglo-Catholics. It is part of the shared pre-Reformation heritage of the Church, and long pre-dates Tridentine teachings on the Eucharist and transubstantiation.

It is a reminder too that the Eucharist is supposed to be a regular celebration for the Church, and not just once a month, once a quarter or once a year. As someone reminded me recently, if Christ had meant us to celebrate the Eucharist only on special occasions, he would have used cake and champagne at the last Supper. But he used ordinary everyday bread and table wine.

The Corpus Christi procession at Pusey House in Oxford last year (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Today’s Prayers (Thursday 19 June 2025, Corpus Christi):

‘Crossing the Channel’ is the theme this week (15-21 June) in Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel). This theme was introduced on Sunday with reflections by Bradon Muilenburg, Anglican Refugee Support Lead.

The USPG prayer diary today (Thursday 19 June 2025, Corpus Christi) invites us to pray:

Lord Jesus, we thank you for the gift of Holy Communion, a symbol of your love and sacrifice. May we be strengthened in faith, united in your body, and empowered to share your love with the world.

The Collect:

Lord Jesus Christ,
we thank you that in this wonderful sacrament
you have given us the memorial of your passion:
grant us so to reverence the sacred mysteries
of your body and blood
that we may know within ourselves
and show forth in our lives
the fruits of your redemption;
for you are alive and reign with the Father
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

All praise to you, our God and Father,
for you have fed us with the bread of heaven
and quenched our thirst from the true vine:
hear our prayer that, being grafted into Christ,
we may grow together in unity
and feast with him in his kingdom;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s Reflection

Continued Tomorrow

Posters on the street in Oxford for today’s Corpus Christi celebrations in Pusey House (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

Corpus Christi is being celebrated in many cathedrals, churches and college chapels throughout the Church of England today