Saint Savvas Chapel, a small, peaceful chapel on the beach that was part of the Battle of Crete

The small Chapel of Saint Savvas (Agios Savvas) is a 130-year-old monastic chapel below Preveli Monastery (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

This year marks the 85th anniversary of the Battle of Crete, which began on the morning of 20 May 1941, with multiple German airborne landings on Crete, and lasted for 12 days.

During the German occupation of Crete in World War II, 5,000 stranded Greek, Australian, New Zealand and British troops who fought in the Battle of Crete in 1941, found shelter in Preveli until the Abbot, Agathangelos Lagouvardos, aided their escape to Egypt on two submarines on the nights of 31 May and 1 June 1941 and 20 and 21 August 1941.

As I was looking back in recent days on old photographs of churches, chapels and monasteries in Greece that I had not written about, poducing a new guide to church buildings in Crete yesterday (24 May 2026), I came across photographs of two chapels I had visited but not yet written about: the small Chapel of Saint Savvas near the beach below Preveli Monastery, and the Chapel of Aghia Kyriaki in the Kourtaliotiko Gorge.

The Chapel of Saint Savvas is on the east bank of the Preveli Gorge in southern Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The small Chapel of Saint Savvas (Agios Savvas) is a peaceful, picturesque 130-year-old monastic chapel below Preveli Monastery, which I have visited two or three times, near the mouth of the Megapotamos River and a famous palm forest.

The chapel is on the east bank of the Preveli Gorge in southern Crete, at the point where the river meets the Libyan Sea, close to the sandy shores of Preveli Beach and near the Kourtaliotiko Gorge. The chapel is framed by the lush Cretan palm trees that line the riverbank, offering a striking contrast against the dramatic canyon walls.

Tourists usually reach the chapel and the beach on the tour boats that leave from nearby coastal villages such as Plakias, or by taking the hiking trail from the Preveli Beach parking area and crossing the riverbed.

This is the beach where allied forces who were hiding in Preveli Monastery were rescued dramatically in 1941 as the Nazi occupation forces tightened their grip on Crete. At one time there had been a Byzantine church or chapel on the site.

The beach at Preveli is lined with the Cretan palms or Phoenix Theophrasti (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The chapel of Agios Savvas is close to Lake Preveli, south of Rethymno, on the east bank at the mouth of Kourtalioti Gorge.

The chapel owes its origins to Meletios Tziritakis a monk from the village of Kerame. Before coming to the Monastery of Prevelis, he was a monk in the Monastery of Aghios Savvas in Palestine. Because of this association, he gave the name Saint Savvas to the chapel he built in 1884 on the ruins of an earlier Byzantine chapel dedicated to Saint George. Beside the chapel, he built a cell to live in.

Around and to the left of the church there are traces of ancient, mediaeval and Byzanitne buildings. While the monk was digging the foundations for his chapel, he discovered old tombs, confirming the presence of an ancient settlement and a pottery at Lake Preveli. The chapel was completed and dedicated in 1898.

The chapel’s white stone walls and terracotta roof, picked out against the green palms and deep blue sea make it one of the most photographed spots along that part of the southern coast of Crete.

The small chapel is usually guarded by a family of geese, and after a number of incidents involving campers who tried to sleep in the chapel overnight, the chapel is now usually locked and closed to visitors.

The beach is lined with the Cretan palms, Phoenix theophrasti, and its surroundings are protected by nature reserves. This protection means the beach is not spoiled by sunbeds or sun umbrellas at Preveli beach, although there is a small taverna at the mouth of the river, under shady trees, offering drinks and snacks during the tourist season.

A heart-shaped rock near the chapel and just off the beach is often called the ‘Love Rock’ or the ‘stone of lovers’ because of its shape.

A heart-shaped rock near the Chapel of Saint Savvas is often called the ‘Love Rock’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Saint Sabbas (439-532), or Saint Savvas the Sanctified (Σάββας ὁ Ἡγιασμένος), was a Greek monk and priest who was born at Moutalaske near Caesarea in Cappadocia and lived mainly in Palaestina Prima. He was the founder of several convents, most notably Mar Saba in Palestine.

At the age of eight, he entered the monastery of Bishop Flavian of Antioch, and became a monk at 17. For many years he lived alone and in isolation in a cave before founding a monastery in the Kidron Valley, south of Jerusalem, in the year 484.

As an advocate of the Chalcedonian creed and strenuous opponent of the Monophysites and the followers of Origen, he tried to influence the emperors against them and he called personally on Emperor Anastasios I at Constantinople in 511 and on Justinian I in 531.

Saint Sabbas founded several more monasteries and is said to have wrought many miracles. He composed the first monastic rule of church services, the so-called Jerusalem Typikon, for use in all the Byzantine monasteries. He died in the year 532.

Crusaders took is relics in the 12th century and they remained in the Church of Saint Anthony in Venice until Pope Paul VI returned them to the monastery in 1965 as a gesture of good will towards the Orthodox Church. His Great Lavra is now known as the monastery of Mar Saba.

Local people near Preveli in southern Crete celebrate the feast day of the chapel on 5 December, with a number of commemorative events in the area.

Local people near Preveli celebrate the feast day of the Chapel of Saint Savvas on 5 December (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Daily prayer in Easter 2026: 48, Friday 22 May 2026

‘Feed my lambs … Tend my sheep … Feed my sheep’ (John 21: 15-17) … sheep in a field on farm at Comberford, east of Lichfield and north of Tamworth in Staffordshire (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Patrick Comerford

Easter is a 50-day season, beginning on Easter Day (5 April 2026) and continuing through Ascension Day until the Day of Pentecost or Whit Sunday next Sunday (24 June 2026).

This week began with the Seventh Sunday of Easter (Easter VII, 17 May 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.

‘Feed my lambs … Tend my sheep … Feed my sheep’ (John 21: 15-17) … sheep feeding on a small farm at Platanias in Rethymnon, Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

John 21: 15-19 (NRSVA):

15 When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, ‘Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?’ He said to him, ‘Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Feed my lambs.’ 16 A second time he said to him, ‘Simon son of John, do you love me?’ He said to him, ‘Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Tend my sheep.’ 17 He said to him the third time, ‘Simon son of John, do you love me?’ Peter felt hurt because he said to him the third time, ‘Do you love me?’ And he said to him, ‘Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Feed my sheep. 18 Very truly, I tell you, when you were younger, you used to fasten your own belt and to go wherever you wished. But when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will fasten a belt around you and take you where you do not wish to go.’ 19 (He said this to indicate the kind of death by which he would glorify God.) After this he said to him, ‘Follow me.’

The Risen Christ by the shore of Tiberias with the disciples and their catch of fish (John 21: 1-14) … a fresco in Saint Constantine and Saint Helen Church, Rethymnon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflection:

The Gospel reading at the Eucharist today (John 21: 15-19) moves forward from our recent readings from Christ’s ‘Farewell Discourse’ at the Last Supper (John 14: 1 to 16: 33) and his prayer to the Father as the High Priestly Prayer (John 17: 1-26) to the post-Resurrection appearances.

This morning’s reading is set by the shore of Tiberias, where the Risen Christ is with the disciples as they catch water in the lake. We read the preceding verses in this chapter (1-14) on the Friday of Easter Week (10 April 2026); the following verses, which we read today (verses 15-19). provided the Gospel reading at the funeral Mass of Pope Francis last year (26 April 2025).

In today’s reading, the Risen Christ has three questions that he puts to Peter after breakfast by the shore. They appear a little confused or repetitive in most English translations, but the difference is clear in the original Greek.

In his first two questions to Peter, Christ uses the verb ἀγαπάω (agapáo).

CS Lewis talks in one of his books of The Four Loves:

• The first, στοργή (storgé), is the affection of familiarity;

• the second is φιλία (philia), the strong bond between close friends;

• the third, ἔρως (eros), Lewis identifies not with eroticism but with the word we use when we say we are in love with someone;

• the fourth love is ἀγάπη (agape), the love that takes no account of my own interests, that loves no matter what happens – it is the greatest of loves, it reflects the love of God.

Perhaps, the first time, Christ asks: ‘Simon son of John, do you love me more than you and your friends love one another but in the way God loves you?’ (John 21: 15).

But Peter is either evasive or misses the point, and answers with a different verb: φιλέω (phileo): ‘I’m fond of you, I like you like a brother, I agree with you. I’m OK, you’re OK’ (verse 15).

‘OK,’ says Christ, ‘feed the little ones the Good Shepherd welcomes into the fold’ (verse 15).

Then a second time, we can imagine him asking more simply: ‘Simon son of John, do you love me the way God loves you?’ (verse 16).

But Peter once again misses the point, and answers with the verb φιλέω (phileo): ‘I’m fond of you, I like you like a brother, I agree with you. I’m OK, you’re OK’ (verse 16).

‘OK,’ says Christ, ‘look after those in the flock the Good Shepherd tends’ (verse 16).

But then he asks a third question: ‘Simon, son of John, do you love me?’ (verse 17).

Many English-language translations say Peter was upset, felt hurt, when Christ asked him a third time. We might be tempted to think this is because he was asked the same question repetitively, three times, that his answer was not listened to the first or second time round.

But this third time, Christ asks a different question, using Peter’s verb φιλέω (phileo), as if to ask: ‘OK Peter, do you love me as your brother?’ (verse 17).

This time around, Peter replies using the same word Christ uses in his third question. But, more importantly, he confesses Jesus as Lord (verse 17), as Lord of everything. This confession of faith comes the third time round from the disciple who earlier denied Christ three times (see John 18). And Christ then asks him to feed the whole flock, all the sheep of the Good Shepherd, lambs, ewes, lost ones, found ones, white sheep, black sheep, fluffy sheep, bedraggled and dirt-covered sheep – the whole lot (21: 17).

The disciples do not recognise Jesus as he stands on the beach just after daybreak (verse 4). But despite their initial blindness, their initial failings, their initial denials, God continues to call them.

And so too with us. God calls us in all our unworthiness to feed his lambs, to tend his sheep, to feed his sheep, not just the little ones, not just the big ones.

Do you love him enough, as he loves you, to see this as enough fame to bask in?

Do you love him enough to feed his little ones when others want to ignore them, despise them, call them racist names, see their children as extra added burdens, want to send them back?

Do you love him enough to see this as the benchmark against which you and I, society, the Church, priests and people together, all we are involved in, mark how we relate to the myriad, the thousands and thousands, to all living life?

Christ is risen!
The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia!

‘Feed my lambs … Tend my sheep … Feed my sheep’ (John 21: 15-17) … sheep and lambs near the River Great Ouse, between Calverton and Stony Stratford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Friday 22 May 2026):

The theme this week (17-23 May 2026) in ‘Pray With the World Church’, the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel) has been ‘Breaking Barriers: Gender Justice in Malawi’ (pp 56-57). This theme was introduced on Sunday with Reflections from Tamara Khismisi, Projects Coordinator, Anglican Church in Malawi.

The USPG prayer diary invites us to pray today (Friday 22 May 2026):

Father God, guide local leaders to create safe, inclusive schools where every girl can learn and thrive without fear or stigma.

The Collect:

O God the King of glory,
you have exalted your only Son Jesus Christ
with great triumph to your kingdom in heaven:
we beseech you, leave us not comfortless,
but send your Holy Spirit to strengthen us
and exalt us to the place where our Saviour Christ is gone before,
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, giver of love and power,
your Son Jesus Christ has sent us into all the world
to preach the gospel of his kingdom:
confirm us in this mission,
and help us to live the good news we proclaim;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

Risen, ascended Lord,
as we rejoice at your triumph,
fill your Church on earth with power and compassion,
that all who are estranged by sin
may find forgiveness and know your peace,
to the glory of God the Father.

Yesterday’s Reflections

Continued Tomorrow


Today’s Gospel reading is set by the shore after daybreak … an early morning on the town beach in Rethymnon after Easter (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: 33, Thursday 7 May 2026

‘God is Love, God is Light, God is with us’ … a panel in the north ambulatory in Southwark Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

Easter is a 50-day season, beginning on Easter Day (5 April 2026) and continuing until the Day of Pentecost (24 May 2026), or Whit Sunday. This week began with the Fifth Sunday of Easter (Easter V, 3 May 2026).

Today is election local day in many parts of this island. Although there are no elections for Stony Stratford Town Council, there are elections in Stony Stratford ward in the Milton Keynes local election, with 15 candidates standing for three seats, so that each voter has three votes as they choose from 15 candidates. My local polling station is is in Stony Stratford Library and is open from 7 am to 10 pm. Before today begins, and before I go out to vote, 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.

A side aisle in Southwark Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

John 15: 9-11 (NRSVA):

[Jesus said:] 9 ‘As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. 10 If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. 11 I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.’

Southwark Cathedral was at the heart of the movement known as ‘South Bank Religion’ in the late 20th century (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflections:

While Mervyn Stockwood (1913-1995) was Bishop of Southwark (1959-1980), the term ‘South Bank Religion’ came into vogue in the 1960s and was associated with the Bishop and the Diocese and those in his theological circle.

Mervyn Stockwood was known for making unusual, radical, but successful appointments, including John Robinson, David Sheppard and Michael Marshall as his suffragan Bishops of Woolwich, and Hugh Montefiore and Keith Sutton as Bishops of Kingston.

Bishop Stockwood memorably appeared with Malcolm Muggeridge on the BBC’s Friday Night, Saturday Morning in 1979, arguing that the film Monty Python’s Life of Brian was blasphemous and telling John Cleese and Michael Palin they would ‘get [their] thirty pieces of silver.’

Bishop Stockwood was born in Wales, and became an Anglo-Catholic at All Saints’ Church, Clifton. He then studied theology at Christ’s College, Cambridge, and Westcott House, where he became a socialist. As the Vicar of Great Saint Mary’s, Cambridge, his sermons drew large numbers of undergraduates and earned him a national reputation.

The term ‘South Bank Religion’ was particularly associated with John Robinson’s Honest to God and Layman’s Church, a collection of essays introduced by Timothy (later Lord) Beaumont, and including essays from several of the figures associated with ‘South Bank Religion’, including John Robinson. Its cover features ‘Christ in Majesty’, made for Llandaff Cathedral in 1954-1955 by Jacob Epstein, who also sculpted ‘Saint Michael and the Devil’ (1956-1958) for the exterior of Coventry Cathedral.

I had a memorable taste of another brand of ‘South Bank Religion’ once at a day-long meeting of the trustees of the Anglican mission agency USPG in the offices in Southwark.

The offices are just a short walk from Southwark Cathedral, the Tate Modern and the Globe Theatre on the South Bank. As the meeting opened, we were led in a Bible study of the same Gospel reading provided in the Lectionary today at the Eucharist (John 15: 9-11) and that continues our readings from the ‘Farewell Discourse’ in Saint John’s Gospel:

9 As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. 10 If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. 11 I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.

I was then invited to introduce a reading about the life of Peter Chanel (1803-1841), a 19th century French missionary and martyr in the South Pacific, who was clubbed to death on 28 April 1841.

One of his catechumens said of him: ‘He loves us; he does what he teaches; he forgives his enemies. His teaching is good.’

And that seems a perfect summary of what Christianity is about – whether it is branded as ‘South Bank Religion’, or Woke, or anything else. And it seems a perfect summary of what mission is about too.

Christ is risen!
The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia!

A taste of ‘South Bank Religion’? … Saint Paul’s Cathedral and the Millennium Bridge seen from the South Bank (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Thursday 7 May 2026):

In my prayers this morning, I am thinking of the candidates and the voters in today’s elections. Would that we could say of all the candidates, to paraphrase what that catechumen said of him of Peter Chanel, ‘They love us; they do what they should teach; they forgive their enemies. Their teaching is good.’ Sadly, that is not true of many of them.

‘Following God’s Lead’ provides the theme this week (3-9 May 2026) in ‘Pray With the World Church’, the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), pp 52-53. This theme was introduced on Sunday with a programme update from Father Thanduxolo Noketshe, Vicar of Saint Mary’s and Christ Church in Cayon, St Kitts & Nevis.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Thursday 6 May 2025) invites us to pray:

Heavenly Father, we thank you for the young people of Saint Mary’s and Christ Church. Guide each one with the love and support of family, of all generations.

The Collect:

Almighty God,
who through your only-begotten Son Jesus Christ
have overcome death and opened to us the gate of everlasting life:
grant that, as by your grace going before us
you put into our minds good desires,
so by your continual help
we may bring them to good effect;
through Jesus Christ our risen 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:

Eternal God,
whose Son Jesus Christ is the way, the truth, and the life:
grant us to walk in his way,
to rejoice in his truth,
and to share his risen life;
who is alive and reigns, now and for ever.

Additional Collect:

Risen Christ,
your wounds declare your love for the world
and the wonder of your risen life:
give us compassion and courage
to risk ourselves for those we serve,
to the glory of God the Father.

Yesterday’s Reflections

Continued Tomorrow

The polling station for today's local elections in Stony Stratford is in the library on Church Street (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: 29, Wednesday 18 March 2026

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

Patrick Comerford

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

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

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

1, reading today’s Gospel reading;

2, a short reflection;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

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

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

John 5: 17-30 (NRSVA):

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

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

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

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

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

Today’s Reflections:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A note on the ‘Four Loves’ by CS Lewis

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

How do we distinguish between different feelings of love?

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

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

Today’s Prayers (Wednesday 18 March 2026):

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

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

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

The Collect:

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

The Post Communion Prayer:

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

Additional Collect:

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

Collect on the Eve of Saint Joseph of Nazareth:

God our Father,
who from the family of your servant David
raised up Joseph the carpenter
to be the guardian of your incarnate Son
and husband of the Blessed Virgin Mary:
give us grace to follow him
in faithful obedience to your commands;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Yesterday’s Reflections

Continued Tomorrow

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

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

Sidney Sussex College celebratesSaint Valentine’s Day in Cambridge as the ‘College of Love’ for 430 years

A wedding party waiting to go into the chapel in Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

Sidney Sussex College, according to one Facebook group, is known in Cambridge as the 'College of Love' – after all, the college was founded on Saint Valentine’s Day 430 years ago today, on 14 February 1596.

This weekend (14-15 February 2026), Sidney Sussex College is celebrating both the 430th anniversary of the Foundress’s Day and 50 years of women at Sidney with a special two-day conference today and tomorrow marking this milestone in academic inclusion, ‘Forward Together: 50 Years of Women at Sidney Sussex College’.

This special weekend as Sidney proudly commemorates five decades of women’s contribution to academic life and community and is also timed to honour Lady Frances Sidney and the 430th anniversary of the Foundress's Day.

All alumni, students and friends, regardless of gender or identity, received an open invitation to take part in weekend of inspiring conversations, to listen to engaging panels, to hear a ‘Fireside Chat’ between Carol Vorderman and Dame Kelly Holmes, and to join a celebratory dinner.

In addition, there is a new exhibition in the College Library, ‘The Female Pen’, that features works by authors ranging from Sappho to Christina Rossetti, alongside a selection of publications by female Fellows of Sidney.

The programme also includes three thought-provoking discussions:

• ‘Cognitive diversity, brain health, and social equity: How science can empower communities, challenge bias, and support inclusive policy and practice’, with Dr Maura Malpetti, Fellow and Director of Studies, specialising in dementia, neurology, brain imaging and biomarkers.

• ‘Authentic Leadership: Making your voice heard without compromise – a fresh take on what it means to lead without losing yourself’, with Jess Tayenjam (2007, MML), chair of CURUFC and Innovation and Cultural Transformation Consultant.

• ‘Educating Generation Alpha: A dynamic conversation exploring how today’s youngest learners are reshaping education’ with Mary Davies MBE (1986, MML), Education Consultant and former CEO of the Maiden Erlegh Trust, Victoria Penty, former primary school headteacher, Dr Catherine Sumnall (2002, Geography), Fellow, Admissions Director and Director of Studies for Geography, and Danni Elliot, Bye-Fellow and Head of Student Wellbeing.

In their ‘fireside chat’, Carol Vorderman and the Olympic medallist Kelly Holmes are talking about ‘Breaking Barriers: Women, Power, and Public Voice in a Changing Britain.’

Other parts of the programme this weekend include a choir recital in Chapel, a drinks reception in the Master’s Lodge and Old Library, and a celebration dinner in Hall and the Mong Hall.

The open sports sessions include rowing, organised by the Boat Club with the option of fielding up to two boats, and football, either joining an open training session or taking part in a friendly match at the new Mumford Pitch at Grange Road.

In the closing conversation tomorrow, students share their vision for the future of Sidney Sussex.

Choral Evensong at 6 pm tomorrow features an all-female composers lineup, including Sidney’s previous Composer in Residence, Joanna Marsh. Bishop Dagmar Winter, Bishop of Huntingdon and acting Bishop of Ely, is preaching.

Snow in Cloister Court, Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge … some students label L staircase in Cloister Court the ‘staircase of Love’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Sadly, Sidney Sussex has become the first college in Cambridge to cancel its May Ball this year, following a slew of May Ball cancellations in 2025. In an email sent to all college students in November, the Domestic Bursar, Kathryn Smart, said: ‘We understand that this will be disappointing but hope that you will have ample time to make alternative plans for May week.’

Reports say May Balls across Cambridge are facing growing legal, financial and logistical challenges. While the college held a May Ball last in 2024, this year’s cancellation comes after Sidney’s 2025 May Event was cancelled due to ‘low ticket demand’. The college has said it will organise an event in June 2027.

The cancellation follows major challenges for May Week events last academic year. Clare May Ball and Emmanuel June Event were cancelled, while Robinson’s May Ball was down-sized to a ‘mega bop’. Despite having cancelled its May Week event twice in a row, the committee said that it did not ‘see this as the end of the Sidney May Ball, but as a chance to come back stronger’.

It is said by some Sidney students that many of them have fallen in love with their prospective partners there, and have even married in the college itself. This college has a reputation for science, but can science explain why love matches are made there?

Could it have anything to do with the fact that Sidney’s bar is the only student-run bar left in Cambridge? Or is it because Sidney also has an awesome wine cellar, and some of the best formal Hall nosh? Sidney also has a rather beautiful walled garden. Does this enhance lovers’ privacy?

Sidney is quite small by Cambridge college standards, and it is not well-known on the tourist trail. Perhaps this means students know they can relax in their natural environment … away from the pressures of camcorders and cameras.

One year ‘Love’ was the very appropriate topic for a summer school at Sidney Sussex College organised by the Institute for Orthodox Studies. Dr Marcus Plested spoke of ‘A many-splendoured thing’; Dr Alexander Lingas looked at ‘Music, Psalmody and the Love of God: ancient traditions and modern challenges’; Dr Christine Mangala Frost asked ‘Who’s afraid of the Song of Songs’ as she looked at ‘Love in Christian and other traditions.’

Other speakers that year included Professor David Frost, Father Michael Harper, Metropolitan Kallistos Ware, the Revd Professor Andrew Louth, Dr Sebastian Brock, Father Alexander Tefft, and Archimandrite Zacaharias. During a visit to the Monastery of Saint John the Baptist in Tolleshunt Knights, Sister Magdelen spoke about ‘The monastery as a school of universal love.’

Some students romanticise the claims of Sidney Sussex as the ‘College of Love’, even claiming the source of the love power emanates from L staircase – the staircase of Love – in Cloister Court.

During that summer school in July 2009 with ‘Love’ as its theme, I was staying on Staircase H in Chapel Court. I looked out my window as I settled in to see in the court below a bride waiting with her wedding party for the photographer before going into chapel for the wedding. That evening the reception took place in the gardens … Sidney Sussex truly was the College of Love that year.

Wedding flowers bedecking the door into the chapel at Sidney Sussex College … the view from my bedroom window in Chapel Court in 2009 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2026: 12, Saturday 14 February 2026

Hearts in the window of Damn Fine Café on Bird Street, Lichfield … today is Saint Valetine’s Day (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Patrick Comerford

We are in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar. Tomorrow is the Sunday before Lent (15 February 2026) and Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent are four days away (18 February 2026). The Calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship today remembers Saint Cyril (869) and Saint Methodius (885), Missionaries to the Slavs, and Saint Valentine (ca 269), Martyr at Rome.

It looks like an afternoon of wall-to-wall rugby later today and I hope to find an appropriate place to watch Ireland’s match against Italy in the Six Nations Championship (2:10 pm) and England’s games against Scotland (4:40 pm). But, before today begins, before an afternoon of rugby, before any romantic thoughts for Saint Valentine’s Day begin, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, to reflect, to pray and to read in these ways:

1, today’s Gospel reading;

2, a short reflection;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

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

A variety of bread on the Isla Jane Bakery stall in Buckingham (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Mark 8: 1-10 (NRSVA):

1 In those days when there was again a great crowd without anything to eat, he called his disciples and said to them, 2 ‘I have compassion for the crowd, because they have been with me now for three days and have nothing to eat. 3 If I send them away hungry to their homes, they will faint on the way – and some of them have come from a great distance.’ 4 His disciples replied, ‘How can one feed these people with bread here in the desert?’ 5 He asked them, ‘How many loaves do you have?’ They said, ‘Seven.’ 6 Then he ordered the crowd to sit down on the ground; and he took the seven loaves, and after giving thanks he broke them and gave them to his disciples to distribute; and they distributed them to the crowd. 7 They had also a few small fish; and after blessing them, he ordered that these too should be distributed. 8 They ate and were filled; and they took up the broken pieces left over, seven baskets full. 9 Now there were about four thousand people. And he sent them away. 10 And immediately he got into the boat with his disciples and went to the district of Dalmanutha.

Five loaves and two fish in a motif on the railings of Saint Joseph’s Cathedral in Kuching (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflection:

There are six different accounts of two miracle stories associated with the Feeding of the Multitude. The first story, the feeding of 5,000, is found in all four Gospels (see Matthew 14: 13-21; Mark 6: 31-44; Luke 9:10-17; and John 6: 5-15). This is the only miracle – apart from the Resurrection – that is found in all three Synoptic Gospels and in Saint John’s Gospel. The second story, the feeding of 4,000, is told by both Mark in today’s reading (Mark 8: 1-10) and by Matthew (Matthew 15: 32-38), but not by either Luke or John.

In the Feeding of the 5,000, Jesus feed the multitude with five loaves and two fish shared by a boy. When Jesus hears that John the Baptist had been killed, he take a boat to a solitary place, near Bethsaida. The crowds follow him on foot from the towns, and when Jesus lands he sees a large crowd. He had compassion for them and heals their sick. As evening approaches, the disciples tell him it is a remote place, it is late, and urge him to send the crowds away, so they can go to the villages and buy food.

Jesus says they do not need to go away, and asks the disciples to give them something to eat. They find five loaves and two fish, Jesus asks the people to sit on the grass in groups of 50 and 100, takes the five loaves and two fish, looks up to heaven, gives thanks, breaks them. Then he gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the people. Taking, blessing, breaking and giving are the four essential liturgical actions at the Eucharist identified by Dom Gregory Dix in The Shape of the Liturgy.

All eat and are satisfied, and the disciples pick up 12 baskets full of broken pieces that are left over. The number of those who ate was about 5,000 men, as well as women and children.

If there were 5,000 men there that day, one woman with each man and two children with each couple, then we are talking about the feeding of 20,000 people, or the population of a town like Wexford, Carlow or Sligo in Ireland, Berkhamsted, Brownhills, Truro or Wednesbury in England, Ierapetra or Agios Nikolaos in Crete.

The physicist Professor Sir Colin Humphreys of Selwyn College, Cambridge, challenges many early calculations and instead suggests the number of men, women and children at the Exodus was about 20,000. So, in feeding the multitude, Christ is bringing all our wanderings, all our journeys, all our searches for God, to their fulfilment when we meet him in sharing the good news and break bread together.

In Apocryphal writings, II Baruch 29: 8, a Jewish pseudepigraphical text thought to date from the late 1st century CE or early 2nd century CE, also connects the feeding in the wilderness in Exodus 16 with the Messianic age.

The feeding with the fish also looks forward to the Resurrection. The fish is an early symbol of faith in the Risen Christ: Ichthus (ἰχθύς, ΙΧΘΥC) is the Greek word for fish, and can be read as an acrostic, a word formed from the first letters of words, spelling out ἰησοῦς Χριστός, Θεοῦ Υἱός, Σωτήρ (Iēsous Khristos Theou Huios, Sōtēr), ‘Jesus Christ, Son of God, Saviour.’

The story of the feeding of the 4,000 is told only by Matthew and Mark. A large crowd gathers and follows Jesus. He calls his disciples and tells them he has compassion for the people, who have followed him for three days and now have nothing to eat. He does not want to send them away hungry, for fear they may collapse on the way.

The disciples say they are in a remote place and ask where they could find enough bread to feed such a crowd. All they have is seven loaves and a few small fish.

Jesus tells the people to sit down on the ground, he takes the loaves and fish, gives thanks, breaks them and gives them to the disciples, who then give them to the people. All ate and were satisfied. Afterwards, the disciples collect seven basketfuls of broken pieces that are leftover. The number of those who eat is 4,000 men, with the number of women and children not counted. Jesus then sends the crowd away, gets into the boat and goes to the area of the district of Dalmanutha (Matthew names it as Magadan or Magdala).

There are differences in the details of the two feeding stories. Are they two distinct miracles?

The baskets used to collect the food that remains are 12 κόφινοι (kófinoi, hand baskets) in Matthew (14: 20) and Mark (6: 43). But they are seven σπυρίδες (spyrídes, large baskets) in Matthew 15: 37 and Mark 8: 8. A σπυρίς (spyrís) or large basket was double the size of a κόφινος (kófinos). An indication of the size of a spyrís is that the Apostle Paul was let out in one through a gap in the city wall in Damascus to escape a plot to kill him (Acts 9: 25).

The two feeding miracles – the feeding of the 5,000 and the feeding of the 4,000 – show that Christ cares for all seek him and listen to his teaching, both Jew and Gentile.

At the feeding of the 5,000, the people were certainly almost all Jews. They came from the surrounding towns and were familiar with where Jesus was going with his apostles to get some time alone. Then, after he fed them, they were about to come and make him king (see John 6:15).

When Jesus makes the people sit in groups of hundreds and fifties (Mark 6: 40; Luke 9: 14), the numbers may recall the place in the Exodus story where the people had rulers over fifties and hundreds (Exodus 18: 25). When the 12 have fed the multitude, each gets a full basket back. Perhaps the 12 baskets of leftovers represent the 12 tribes of Israel.

The feeding of the 4,000, on the other hand, may take place in a Gentile setting. It takes place after Jesus goes to the region of Tyre and Sidon. This is Gentile territory, although there would have been some Jews that lived there, which is why he was able to stay in a house there (Mark 7: 24).

This is the area where Christ heals the daughter of the Greek-speaking Syro-Phoenician or Canaanite woman (see Matthew 15: 22, Mark 7: 26), the only miracle of Jesus recorded in that region, and which we read about on Thursday. Both may be seen as clear signs that the Messianic blessing now extends to all people through the Messiah, and a fulfilment of the prophecy that the Messiah is to be a ‘light to the Gentiles’ (Isaiah 42: 6, 49: 6), which is one of the Christmas promises at Candlemas two weeks ago (see Luke 2: 29-32, 2 February).

When Christ leaves the area, Saint Mark says, he goes to the Sea of Galilee and then to its east coast, ‘the region of the Decapolis’, populated by Gentiles (Mark 7: 31). There he heals a deaf man who has a speech impediment, and the people spread the word about him (Mark 7: 31-37, which we read yesterday, Friday 13 February 2026).

By now, a large number of Gentiles from the region of Tyre and Sidon and from the Decapolis are following Jesus. He goes up a mountain and does many healings (Matthew 15: 29-31), and ‘they praised the God of Israel’. This last phrase indicates that these people are not primarily Jews, for when Jesus does miracles among Jews, they ‘praised God’ (see Matthew 9: 8; Mark 2: 12; Luke 13: 13; 18: 43; etc.).

What is the significance in Mark 8: 8 of saying that there are seven large baskets of leftover bread? In the Gentile context of the feeding of the 4,000, perhaps the seven full baskets harken back to the seven Gentile nations in Canaan that had once been driven out God but that are now counted in by Christ.

All are invited to be healed and fed at the Eucharist. As were reminded at Candlemas two weeks ago,

‘Master, now you are dismissing your servant in peace,
according to your word;
for my eyes have seen your salvation,
which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples,
a light for revelation to the Gentiles
and for glory to your people Israel.’ (Luke 2: 29-32).

FBread in a shop window in London (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Saturday 14 February 2026):

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), has been: ‘Safe Routes’ (pp 26-27). This theme was introduced last Sunday with a Programme Update by Bradon Muilenburg, Anglican Refugee Support Lead.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Saturday 14 February 2026) invites us to pray:

Pour your love on the exiled in supported accommodation. Let them feel the acceptance and care of the Church, even amid suffering.

The Collect of the Day:

Lord of all,
who gave to your servants Cyril and Methodius
the gift of tongues to proclaim the gospel to the Slavs:
make your whole Church one as you are one
that all Christians may honour one another,
and east and west acknowledge
one Lord, one faith, one baptism,
and you, the God and Father of all;
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:

Holy Father,
who gathered us here around the table of your Son
to share this meal with the whole household of God:
in that new world where you reveal
the fullness of your peace,
gather people of every race and language
to share with Cyril, Methodius and all your saints
in the eternal banquet of Jesus Christ our Lord.

The Collect on the Eve of the Sunday before Lent:

Almighty Father,
whose Son was revealed in majesty
before he suffered death upon the cross:
give us grace to perceive his glory,
that we may be strengthened to suffer with him
and be changed into his likeness, from glory to glory;
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

Hearts for Saint Valentine’s Day in the window of Ivision’s florists shop on Bird Street, Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

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

At 74, I have become a semiprime, the sum of two perfect squares, both discrete and distinct, but hopefully not a creaking gate

A creaking gate at 74? … No 74 on a garden gate in Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

John Banville was interivewed by Marin Doyle in The Irish Times some weeks ago following the publication his latest novel, Venetian Vespers, and when asked about reaching the age of 80 he declared: ‘I expected to be dead, or at least gaga, by now’.

I’ve not quite reached 80 today, but I am glad to be alive at 74 and glad to find that I am not ‘at least gaga by now’. But, unless I am going to live to be 148, I have to concede something is wrong about still feeling middle-aged today. I’m up and about, enjoying life, feeling deeply loved, thinking too far ahead, and revelling in all the loving birthday greetings I have been receiving during the day.

According to Trainline, 74 trains run daily on the busiest and most popular train route in the UK, between London and Manchester, with an average journey time of 2½ hours. At 74, I am neither popular nor busy, nor am I running daily for 2½ hours.

But at this stage in my life, is 74 just another number along the road or on the pilgrimage of life, a number on a front door or a creaking gate, a mumber for the bus from Putney Exchange to Baker Street Station, Birmingham to Dudley, or Eden Quay to Dundrum Luas, or perhaps merely a broken speed limit?

Old and weary at 74? … No 74 Neofitou Patelarou, Rethymnon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

In maths, 74 is a positive composite number, a semiprime or subprime (2 x 37), with factors 1, 2, 37, and 74, and it is the sum of two perfect squares (5² + 7² = 25 + 49 = 74).

A semiprime, or biprime or a pq number, is a natural number that is the product of exactly two prime numbers, which can be the same or different, like 6 (2×3) or 9 (3×3), or, for that matter 74 (2x37). They are important in number theory and cryptography, as they are difficult to factor, making them useful for security, and they include prime squares like 4, 25, and 49. Semiprimes that are not square numbers are called discrete, distinct, or squarefree semiprimes

The number 74 is represented as LXXIV in Roman numerals and 1001010 in binary, it is a palindromic number in base 6 (202) and base 36 (22).

In science, 74 is the atomic number of tungsten, a strong and dense metal. It has the highest melting point of all metals, which means it needs great heat to turn into a liquid. Because of this, tungsten is often used to make the filaments or tiny wires that glow inside old-fashioned light bulbs. It is also used in tools that need to be very hard, like drills.

I am aware a little more than usual today that the poet Seamus Heaney was 74 when he died in 2013.

When he reached the age of 74, the poet Michael Blumenthal, a former Director of Creative Writing at Harvard and retired Professor of Law at West Virginia University, said he had felt like 38 ‘’ever since I turned 38’: ‘Now that I am a limping 74-year-old, I am just trying to keep up with my peers and not feel jealous about the ones who can still walk without pain. Inside, I still feel like 38, outside like 74.’

He reflected wisely: ‘I am calmer, slower, more patient. I am no longer plagued, or motivated, by terribly much by way of ambition. I have a sense of being able to sit back and watch the world and its events go by … Life has its own plans for us, often not the ones we made.’

Perhaps, at 74, I am less of creaking gate or a dense metal and more like the sum of two perfect squares, a positive composite number, a semiprime, difficult to factor and useful for security, yet discrete and distinct. Outside I may look 74; inside, in my mind and in my heart, I still feel like I am 37, in my prime, or somewhere between 25 and 49, two prime squares.

Red berries at 74 …walking along Moreton Road in Buckingham (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

For poets and lovers and lovers of poetry, it is worth remending ourselves how in Sonnet 74, Shakespeare says only the poet’s body will die, but the spirit of the poet will continue to live in his poetry and in the love he gave and shared:

But be contented when that fell arrest
Without all bail shall carry me away,
My life hath in this line some interest,
Which for memorial still with thee shall stay.

When thou reviewest this, thou dost review
The very part was consecrate to thee.
The earth can have but earth, which is his due;
My spirit is thine, the better part of me.

So then thou hast but lost the dregs of life,
The prey of worms, my body being dead,
The coward conquest of a wretch’s knife,
Too base of thee to be rememberèd.

The worth of that is that which it contains,
And that is this, and this with thee remains.

74 is more than a number on a door or a figure for counting the years (Photographs: Patrick Comerford)

Daily prayer in Advent 2025: 9, Monday 8 December 2025

The healing of the paralytic man … a fresco in Analipsi Church in Georgioupoli in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are a third of the way through the Season of Advent and yesterday was the Second Sunday of Advent. Today, the Calendar of the Church of England marks the Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary (8 December).

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

1, today’s Gospel reading;

2, a short reflection;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

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

A blessing in the Chapel of the John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Luke 5: 17-26 (NRSVA):

17 One day, while he was teaching, Pharisees and teachers of the law were sitting nearby (they had come from every village of Galilee and Judea and from Jerusalem); and the power of the Lord was with him to heal. 18 Just then some men came, carrying a paralysed man on a bed. They were trying to bring him in and lay him before Jesus; 19 but finding no way to bring him in because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and let him down with his bed through the tiles into the middle of the crowd in front of Jesus. 20 When he saw their faith, he said, ‘Friend, your sins are forgiven you.’ 21 Then the scribes and the Pharisees began to question, ‘Who is this who is speaking blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God alone?’ 22 When Jesus perceived their questionings, he answered them, ‘Why do you raise such questions in your hearts? 23 Which is easier, to say, “Your sins are forgiven you”, or to say, “Stand up and walk”? 24 But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins’ – he said to the one who was paralysed—‘I say to you, stand up and take your bed and go to your home.’ 25 Immediately he stood up before them, took what he had been lying on, and went to his home, glorifying God. 26 Amazement seized all of them, and they glorified God and were filled with awe, saying, ‘We have seen strange things today.’

Inside the Chapel in Milton Keynes University Hospital (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Today’s Reflections:

I have had a number of hospital and clinic visits during this past year, including the John Radcliffe Hospital and the Churchill Hospital in Oxford, Milton Keynes University Hospital, and University College Hospital, London. Almost all these visits have been part of the follow-up care and attention I continue to receive following my stroke almost four years ago in March 2022.

I remain truly grateful for the caring and attentive treatment I received in Milton Keynes University Hospital and in the John Radcliffe Hospital after that stroke. And I am even more grateful for the way Charlotte Hunter recognised I was having a stroke, brought me to hospital, ensured I received the attention I needed, visited me every day, and brought me back to Stony Stratford.

Some years ago, at an event in Saint Martin-in-the-Fields Church, Trafalgar Square, when people were asked to bring along their favourite poems, Charlotte brought Seamus Heaney’s poem ‘Miracle’, from his collection Human Chain (2010).

In these poems, written after his stroke in 2005, Seamus Heaney speaks of suffering and mortality. This poem ‘Miracle’ retells the story of the miraculous healing of the man variously described as a paralytic man and a man with palsy. The story is told in all three synoptic Gospels, including this morning’s Gospel reading (Luke 5: 17-26), and – like Seamus Heaney, I suppose – my situation makes me wonder whether this man was also suffering after a stroke.

It is interesting how Heaney tells the story of healing and this man from the perspective of the man’s friends. In this way, his poem becomes an expression of gratitude by the poet to all who helped his recovery after his stroke.

When Jesus looks at the paralysed man brought to him by his friends, he sees not just the faith of the man, but the faith of his friends too. In other words, this is a story of the blessing of friendship and the miracle of community as much as it is a story of miraculous healing.

Heaney’s focus is on neither Christ as the healer nor the invalid, but on the friends who helped this sick man to reach Jesus by lowering him through a skylight in the roof. The title of the poem refers to the miracle in the Gospel story, but for the poet the miracle is found in the opening lines:

Not the one who takes up his bed and walks
But the ones who have known him all along
And carry him in.

The friends of this man love him and seek his healing, no matter what it takes for them to do, and so they become the true miracle at this moment. They are there when no one else is, they care for their friend, and they give him the priceless gift of friendship.

When they hear in Capernaum that Jesus is healing the sick, they give their friend one more gift. They carry him to Jesus. And when they cannot get him through the door, they then lower him through the roof.

What persistent love they show their friend, like the persistent love of one who calls a taxi, packs all my bags, brings me to the A&E unit, stays with me while I am admitted, transferred to the emergency unit, and then, late at night, when I am moved to a ward.

This poem sees the Gospel story through the eyes of this man’s faithful friends. So often, I read this story through the eyes of the paralysed man, through the eyes of the crowd, or even through the eyes of the Pharisees and teachers. But Seamus Heaney invites me to join the man’s friends, who stand with

their shoulders numb, the ache and stoop deeplocked
In their backs, the stretcher handles
Slippery with sweat.

We are invited to stand with those friends, with the hope and the faith and the love that brings them there, to stand with them on behalf of all who hurt, to feel the burn in their hands from the paid-out rope, the ache in their backs from the burden they have carried, to see the gift of this miracle, this grace, that was all gift, but that required something extra of them.

There are many miracles in this story and many lessons. This poem reminds us how sometimes we need to be carried by our friends, while at other times we are the ones who need to help ‘bear one another’s burdens’ (Galatians 6: 2).

Miracle, by Seamus Heaney (1939-2013)

Not the one who takes up his bed and walks
But the ones who have known him all along
And carry him in —

Their shoulders numb, the ache and stoop deeplocked
In their backs, the stretcher handles
Slippery with sweat. And no let up

Until he’s strapped on tight, made tiltable
and raised to the tiled roof, then lowered for healing.
Be mindful of them as they stand and wait

For the burn of the paid out ropes to cool,
Their slight lightheadedness and incredulity
To pass, those who had known him all along.

A sign of hope in the Chapel in Milton Keynes University Hospital (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Today’s Prayers (Monday 8 December 2025):

The theme this week (7 to 13 December 2025) in Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘Divine Sufficiency’ (pp 8-9). This theme was introduced yesterday with Reflections from the Revd Neli Miranda, Vicar at Saint James the Apostle in Guatemala City and Professor of Theology at the University Mariano Gálvez of Guatemala.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Monday 8 December 2025) invites us to pray:

Lord, as your word says, ‘He defends the cause of the poor and needy’ (Psalm 140: 12), comfort and strengthen each person, and let your justice and love bring hope and renewal to all communities who experience poverty in Guatemala.

Collect:

Almighty and everlasting God,
who stooped to raise fallen humanity
through the child–bearing of blessed Mary:
grant that we, who have seen your glory
revealed in our human nature
and your love made perfect in our weakness,
may daily be renewed in your image
and conformed to the pattern 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.

Post Communion:

God most high,
whose handmaid bore the Word made flesh:
we thank you that in this sacrament of our redemption
you visit us with your Holy Spirit
and overshadow us by your power;
strengthen us to walk with Mary the joyful path of obedience
and so to bring forth the fruits.

Yesterday’s Reflections

Continued Tomorrow

The magnolia tree in a courtyard in the hospital in Milton Keynes was a sign of hope throughout my stay after a stroke in 2022 (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