Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2026: 141, Saturday 26 September 2026

A mask for the Carnival in Venice … do we hide our personae behind masks before other people … before God? (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar and tomorrow is the Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity XVII, 27 September). Wednesday, Friday and Saturday in this week in the Church Calendar have been known as Ember Days. The calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship today remembers Wilson Carlile (1847-1942), founder of the Church Army.

Today in the Jewish Calendar is Sukkot 5787, with Yom Tob Day 1 starting at sunset last night (25 September) and ending this evening (26 September), and Yom Tob Day 2 starting this evening and ending tomorrow evening (27 September).

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

1, today’s Gospel reading;

2, a reflection on the Gospel reading;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

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

Souvenir masks from a stall in Venice … do we hide our personae behind masks before other people … before God? (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Luke 9: 43b-45 (NRSVA):

43b While everyone was amazed at all that he was doing, he said to his disciples, 44 ‘Let these words sink into your ears: The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into human hands.’ 45 But they did not understand this saying; its meaning was concealed from them, so that they could not perceive it. And they were afraid to ask him about this saying.

Masks made of olive wood in a shop in Rethymnon … do we hide our personae behind masks before other people … before God? (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflections:

In Gospel reading at the Eucharist in the lectionary today (Luke 9: 43b-45), after Saint Peter’s profound confession of faith following the Transfiguration, and the stern order and command to the disciples not to tell anyone what has been seen and said, we hear how the disciples hear Jesus but do understand what he is saying, nor can they perceive what he means, and they are afraid to ask him to explain what he is saying.

When the disciples find that the meaning of what Jesus says is concealed from them, the word that is used, παρακαλύπτω (parakalýptō) is a rare word in the Bible. It does not refer to some sacred or religious mystery but to something that is hidden, covered alongside or front of someone, something that has a veil pulled over it, to cover it up, to cover over, to hide or conceal it, perhaps even to disguise it. In its use in classical Greek literature it can mean to cover by hanging, to disguise, to set aside, to ignore, or it can be used when talking about covering one’s face.

A similar word παρακάλυμμα (parakálymma) is used for anything that is hung up beside or hung up before something to cover it, a covering or curtain.

The Carnival of Venice (Carnevale di Venezia), which takes place in the days before Lent, is known for its elaborate masks. It grew in prestige and developed in its revelry in the 17th and 18th centuries, to the point that it became a symbol of licence and pleasure.

Mask-makers (mascherari) had a special position in Venetian society, with their own laws and their own guild. But the masks allowed many people to spend a large part of the year in disguise, hiding their secret lifestyles. When the Emperor Francis II occupied Venice, he outlawed the festival in 1797 and masks were strictly forbidden.

It was not until 1979 that the Carnival was revived in Venice. With it came the revival of the tradition of making carnival masks, and one of the most important events at the Carnival is the contest for la maschera più bella (‘the most beautiful mask’).

So often, we all have our own masks. We are afraid that others might see us or get to know us as we really are. We hide behind a persona, which is the Latin word for a theatrical mask. We are worried, ‘What if someone saw me for who I truly am?’ ‘What if they came face-to-face with what I am really like?’

But the Transfiguration invites us to a mutual face-to-face encounter with the living God. The inner circle of disciples, Peter, James and John, have ascended the mountain with Christ, and in the clouds they saw who he truly is: he is the God of Moses and Elijah, and the vision is so dazzling that they are dazzled and overshadowed by the cloud.

When they come back down the mountain, like Moses, there is a great crowd waiting for the healing that restores them to their place in the covenant with God.

The original Greek word for Transfiguration in the Gospels is μεταμόρφωσις (metamorphosis), which means ‘to progress from one state of being to another.’ Consider the metamorphosis of the chrysalis into the butterfly. Saint Paul uses this same word (μεταμόρφωσις) when he describes how the Christian is to be transfigured, transformed, into the image of Christ (II Corinthians 3: 18), he uses the word ‘icon’ of Christ.

The Transfiguration reveals not just who Christ should truly be in our eyes, but who we should be truly in God’s eyes. It is a reminder of our ultimate destiny, the ultimate destiny of all people and all creation – to be transformed and glorified by the majestic splendour of God himself. The Transfiguration points to the fulfilment of the Kingdom of God, when all of creation shall be transfigured and filled with light.

The Transfiguration is not just an Epiphany or Theophany moment for Christ, with Peter, James and John as onlookers. The Transfiguration is a story too of a miracle that reminds us of how God sees us in God’s own image and likeness, and how God sees us for who we are and who we are going to be, no matter how others see us, no matter how others dismiss us, not matter how others fail to understand us.

Throughout life, there is a temptation to accept our human nature as it appears now. But the Transfiguration of Christ offers the opportunity to look at ourselves not only as we are now, but take stock of what happened in the past that made us so, and to grasp the promise of what we can be in the future.

In the present and in the future, can we take ownership of who we have been as a child. Do we remember always that we are made in the image and likeness of God? As Saint Paul reminds us, we are icons of Christ.

We need no masks, no personae, in God’s presence. God sees us as we are: made in his own image and likeness, sees us for who we were, who we are and who we are going to be, no matter how others see us, no matter how others dismiss us.

No matter what others say about you, how others judge you, how others gossip or talk about you, how others treat you, God sees your potential, God sees in you God’s own image and likeness. God sees through all our masks and sees an icon of Christ. God knows you are beautiful inside and loves you, loves you for ever, as though you are God’s only child.

We are his beloved children in whom he is well pleased.

The Transfiguration depicted in the Church of the Transfiguration in Piskopianó, in the hills above Hersonissos in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford; click on image for full-screen viewing)

Today’s Prayers (Saturday 26 September 2026):

In Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), the theme this week, from 20 to 26 September 2026 (pp 40-41), has been ‘For God and Country’. This theme was introduced last Sunday with a reflection by Rosie Dawson, USPG Trustee and freelance journalist.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Saturday 26 September 2026) invites us to pray:

Father God, we pray for all who bear witness with perseverance such as human rights defenders, peacemakers, pastors, and communities at risk. Strengthen those who resist injustice, and sustain them with hope that does not disappoint.

The Collect of the Day:

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

Collect (for the ministry of all Christian people):

Almighty and everlasting God,
by whose Spirit the whole body of the Church
is governed and sanctified:
hear our prayer which we offer for all your faithful people,
that in their vocation and ministry
they may serve you in holiness and truth
to the glory of your name;
through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

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

The Post Communion Prayer (Ember Days):

Heavenly Father,
whose ascended Son gave gifts of leadership and service to the Church:
strengthen us who have received this holy food
to be good stewards of your manifold grace,
through him who came not to be served but to serve,
and give his life as a ransom for many,
Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

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

Collect on the Eve of Trinity XVII:

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

Yesterday’s Reflections

Continued Tomorrow

A mask from Venice in Carpe Diem café in Bray, Co Wicklow … do we hide our personae behind masks before other people … before God? (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: 140, Friday 25 September 2026

When is it appropriate to be silent? (see Luke 9: 21) … an icon of Christ the Blessed Silence

Patrick Comerford

We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar and this week began with the Sixteenth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity XIV, 21 September). Wednesday, Friday and Saturday in this week in the Church Calendar are also known as Ember Days.

The calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship today remembers Lancelot Andrewes (1555-1626), Bishop of Winchester and spiritual writer; and Saint Sergei of Radonezh (1314-1392), Russian monastic reformer, teacher of the faith.

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

1, today’s Gospel reading;

2, a reflection on the Gospel reading;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

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

When is it appropriate to be silent? (see Luke 9: 21) … an icon of Christ the Blessed Silence

Luke 9: 18-22 (NRSVA):

18 Once when Jesus was praying alone, with only the disciples near him, he asked them, ‘Who do the crowds say that I am?’ 19 They answered, ‘John the Baptist; but others, Elijah; and still others, that one of the ancient prophets has arisen.’ 20 He said to them, ‘But who do you say that I am?’ Peter answered, ‘The Messiah of God.’

21 He sternly ordered and commanded them not to tell anyone, 22 saying, ‘The Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.’

When is it appropriate to be silent? (see Luke 9: 21) … an icon of Christ the Blessed Silence

Today’s Reflection:

In today’s Gospel reading (Luke 9: 18-22), after his profound confession of faith, Saint Peter is ‘sternly ordered and commanded them not to tell anyone.’ This is in sharp contrast to the response to this confession of faith in Saint Matthew’s Gospel, when Christ tells Saint Peter: ‘I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church …’ (Matthew 16: 18, NRSVA).

When is it appropriate to be silent and not speak out?

In Saint Mark’s Gospel, when Bartimaeus the blind beggar realises he is in the presence of Christ outside the gates of Jericho, ‘many sternly ordered him to be quiet, but he cried out even more loudly’ (Mark 10: 48).

But are there times when words are not enough, when words are simply not appropriate?

In the midst of the unsettling and shocking turn events in the US in recent weeks, many people who speak out against racism, hatred and oppression, are being silenced by people who once claimed they defended free speech, while the name of Christianity is being misappropriated, hijacked and politically manipulated by people whose values and lifestyles show no commitment to living according to principles and values.

I am reminded of a saying attributed to Saint Francis of Assisi: ‘Preach the Gospel at all times, and when necessary use words.’

There are moments when actions speak louder than words, and when our lifestyle and discipleship offer far better sermons than anything we may say in a sermon.

There are moments to cry out loudly in the presence of God, and there are moments when silence is so appropriate.

So, in my prayers and silent reflections this morning, as the Church remembers Saint Sergei of Radonezh, regarded as the greatest of the Russian saints, my thoughts are turning to the icon of Christ the Blessed Silence, an icon found in some traditions in the Greek and Russian Orthodox Churches, but that is not so well known outside Orthodoxy.

In this icon, Christ is portrayed as a youthful figure looking like a winged angel, his hands crossed against his chest, sometimes wearing a bishop’s mitre and dressed in a sakkos (σάκκος), the vestment worn by Orthodox bishops. In most of these icons, Christ is shown with an eight-pointed, shining nimbus.

The icon of Christ the Blessed Silence represents his sacrifice, through his young face and crossed hands, and his ecclesiastic mission in his attire. His angel-like face and the wings point to his ministry. In some of these icons, Christ is bare-headed, in others he wears the crown of a bishop, to show that he is both the Great High Priest and the King of Kings. In some icons of Christ the Blessed Silence, Christ holds the cross, spear and sponge of the Crucifixion.

The tradition of icons of Christ the Blessed Silence developed in the 14th and 15th centuries on Mount Athos, in Greece and in the Balkans. In Greece it was associated in Greece with the tradition of Hesychia. This Blessed Silence of Christ associates this icon with the hesychasts in the Eastern Orthodox tradition – the Greek ἡσυχία (hesychia) is a word for silence or quiet.

This icon is known in Russian as Spas Blagoe Molchanie or the Saviour of the Blessed Silence, and even as the Angel of Great Counsel. The earliest icon in this tradition in mediaeval Rus dates from the late 15th century. Christ is portrayed on the iconostasis or icon screen in the Cathedral of the Dormition in the Kremlin in Moscow, above the entrance to the sanctuary and dates from ca 1482 or perhaps later (1514-1515).

This image was widespread in the 17th century, and it is found special reverence in the 18th and 19th centuries among the Old Believers in Russia. Many of these icons were confiscated from the Old Believers and kept in archives in St Petersburg.

The icon of Christ the Blessed Silence Saviour is one of the few types in which Christ is represented in the form of an angel. In these icons, Christ is young and without a beard, looking like an angel or messenger, the angel of the blessed silence.

The sacred silence of Christ in this icon is also associated with the Christ who was born in time to be the Suffering Servant who died in Silence. In the traditional interpretations of Isaiah, the Suffering Servant passages are associated with the crucifixion of Jesus:

He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,
yet he did not open his mouth;
like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,
and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent,
so he did not open his mouth. (Isaiah 53: 7)

So, the suffering Christ was silent, and Christ the Angel of Great Counsel is the Son of God begotten in the Silence of Eternity.

Isaiah also says:

He will not cry or lift up his voice,
or make it heard in the street (Isaiah 42: 2).

These icons often also bear inscriptions from another passage in Isaiah:

The spirit of the Lord shall rest on him,
the spirit of wisdom and understanding,
the spirit of counsel and might,
the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. (Isaiah 11: 2)

Sometimes Christ holds in his hand a scroll that reads: ‘You are the God of Peace, Father of Mercies, the Angel of Great Counsel.’ These words are in Irmos 5 in the Liturgy of the Nativity:

O God of peace and Father of mercies
Thou has sent to us the Angel of Great Counsel who grants us peace.
So we are guided to the light of the knowledge of God.
Waking early from the night we praise Thee, O Lover of men.

Traditionally, the words of Isaiah 9: 6 are associated with the birth of Christ and the Nativity narratives. They are best known in the English-speaking world because of their use in the libretto by Charles Jennens for Handel’s oratorio Messiah:

For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given:
and the government shall be upon his shoulder:
and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor,
The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.

Jennens was drawing on the text of the Authorised Version or King James Version of the Bible, which reflects the Hebrew text of the Bible as it was known in the 17th century. However, early Christians knew the Biblical texts not in Hebrew, but in the Greek of the Septuagint. In Greek, Isaiah 9: 6 reads somewhat differently:

The ‘Messenger of Great Counsel’ (Ο Μεγάλης Βουλής Άγγελος) in the Septuagint may also be understood as the ‘Angel of Great Counsel.’ Greek versions of the icon of the Angel of Great Counsel sometimes include the inscription:

ἐγὼ γὰρ ἐκ τοῦ θεοῦ ἐξῆλθον καὶ ἥκω:
οὐδὲ γὰρ ἀπ’ ἐμαυτοῦ ἐλήλυθα, ἀλλ’ ἐκεῖνός με ἀπέστειλεν.

For I came from God and now I am here.
I did not come on my own, but he sent me (John 8: 42).

As I think of the icon of Christ the Blessed Silence, I think too of the Logos begotten from God in Eternity and of the birth of the Christ Child in time. He is the one who was, who is and who is to come, the one to cry out loud to and the one in whose presence we should be silent too.

I have said with humour and full sincerity that when my coffin is being taken into the church at my funeral (later than sooner, I hope), that I want to hear Leonard Cohen’s ‘If it be your will’ … and when my coffin is being carried out I want to hear his ‘Dance me to the end of love.’

So often I want to be in control. I want to control the agenda, I want to control conversations, I want to control discussions. And I particularly want to control the words I use, the words others are going to hear me say.

And so, I am humbled at times when I listen to Leonard Cohen’s song, ‘If it be your will.’

Leonard Cohen ended many of those concerts singing this poem, which for me is about submission to God’s will, accepting God’s will, leaving God in control of my spirit:

Leonard Cohen sings of his nearly complete subjection to the divine will.

If he is told to be silent, he will be silent; if he is told to sing, he will sing.

If he is allowed to express his true voice (‘if a voice be true’), he will sing in praise of God from ‘this broken hill’ … from Calvary?

The mercy of God, the compassion of God, the love of God, redeems the burning hearts in hell … if it is God’s will.

Leonard Cohen’s great hope in this will leads to prayer, to the one who can ‘make us well’ if we devote ourselves to God, pray to God, sing to God. But he still prays to God to act on behalf of the suffering.

Cajoling God in song and poetry, Cohen says God has the power to ‘end this night’ of the darkness of the human condition, in which people are dressed in only dirty ‘rags of light’ that are fragmented, that are not fully whole and illuminated.

In this song, I imagine Christ on the cross as he speaks to God the Father as his agony comes to its close:

If it be your will
That I speak no more
And my voice be still
As it was before.

The broken hill is Golgotha where he has been crucified, the rugged and rocky Mount of Calvary.

‘Let the rivers fill’ may refer to the water of his thirst, the water of his sweat, the water that streams from his side, the waters of baptism, the Living Water that will never leave us to thirst.

If it be your will
To make us well
Let your mercy spill
On all these burning hearts in hell.

Lancelot Andrewes, who is remembered in the calendar of the Church of England today, repeatedly emphasises that the ultimate heights of Christian mystery – particularly Christ's incarnation and his suffering on the cross – transcend what human words can articulate. In his 1604 Good Friday Passion Sermon, based on Lamentations 1: 12, Andrewes contemplates the unmatched, incomparable sorrow (non sicut) of Christ: ‘It is a non sicut this, it cannot be expressed as it should, and as other things may; in silence we may admire it, but all our words will not reach it.’

For Andrewes, trying to stretch words to encapsulate the depth of divine suffering borders on hubris. Instead, true devotion requires us to halt our speech and allow adoring silence to take over where vocabulary fails. He echoes Saint Augustine in his writings, noting that ‘even they that are full of words are but dumb’ when attempting to fully describe God, concluding that the highest form of praise ‘hath rather silence than words.’

He routinely returns to the intense cosmic paradox of Christmas: the Verbum infans, the ‘infant Word’ or the ‘Word without a word’. He marvels that the eternal Word of God, who commands the vastness of the oceans and the cosmos, would enter the world wrapped in swaddling clothes, entirely unable to speak. In Andrewes’s theology, God’s own choice to embrace the silence of infancy demands a mirroring, humbled silence from humanity as we approach the manger.

The Dominican theologian Cardinal Timothy Radcliffe of Oxford says: ‘We must wait for the resurrection to break the silence of the tomb.’ We must speak up when it is necessary, and to have the courage to speak is ‘ultimately founded upon the courage to listen.’

Leonard Cohen, If it be your will:

If it be your will
That I speak no more
And my voice be still
As it was before
I will speak no more
I shall abide until
I am spoken for
If it be your will

If it be your will
That a voice be true
From this broken hill
I will sing to you
From this broken hill
All your praises they shall ring
If it be your will
To let me sing
From this broken hill
All your praises they shall ring
If it be your will
To let me sing

If it be your will
If there is a choice
Let the rivers fill
Let the hills rejoice
Let your mercy spill
On all these burning hearts in hell
If it be your will
To make us well

And draw us near
And bind us tight
All your children here
In their rags of light
In our rags of light
All dressed to kill
And end this night
If it be your will

If it be your will.

When is it appropriate to be silent? (see Luke 9: 21) … an icon of Christ the Blessed Silence

Today’s Prayers (Friday 25 September 2026):

In Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), the theme this week, from 20 to 26 September 2026 (pp 40-41), is ‘For God and Country’. This theme was introduced on Sunday with a reflection by Rosie Dawson, USPG Trustee and freelance journalist.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Friday 25 September 2026) invites us to pray:

Lord, we pray that the Gospel may be spoken, sung, and embodied in every tongue and context. Free us from silencing voices that we falsely claim do not belong.

The Collect of the Day:

Lord God, who gave to Lancelot Andrewes many gifts of your Holy Spirit,
making him a man of prayer and a pastor of your people:
perfect in us that which is lacking in your gifts,
of faith, to increase it,
of hope, to establish it,
of love, to kindle it,
that we may live in the light of your grace and glory;
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.

Collect (for the ministry of all Christian people):

Almighty and everlasting God,
by whose Spirit the whole body of the Church
is governed and sanctified:
hear our prayer which we offer for all your faithful people,
that in their vocation and ministry
they may serve you in holiness and truth
to the glory of your name;
through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post Communion Prayer:

God, shepherd of your people,
whose servant Lancelot Andrewes revealed the loving service of Christ
in his ministry as a pastor of your people:
by this eucharist in which we share
awaken within us the love of Christ
and keep us faithful to our Christian calling;
through him who laid down his life for us,
but is alive and reigns with you, now and for ever.

The Post Communion Prayer (Ember Days):

Heavenly Father,
whose ascended Son gave gifts of leadership and service to the Church:
strengthen us who have received this holy food
to be good stewards of your manifold grace,
through him who came not to be served but to serve,
and give his life as a ransom for many,
Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s Reflections

Continued Tomorrow


‘If It Be Your Will’ … Leonard Cohen and The Webb Sisters, Live in London

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: 138, Wednesday 23 September 2026

‘Then Jesus called the twelve together and … sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God’ (Luke 9: 1-2) … the Twelve Apostles, an icon in the church in Panormos, east of Rethymnon in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Patrick Comerford

We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar and the week began with the Sixteenth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity XVI, 21 September).

Wednesday, Friday and Saturday in this week in the Church Calendar are also known as Ember Days. Before today begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, and for reflection, prayer and reading in these ways:

1, today’s Gospel reading;

2, a reflection on the Gospel reading;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

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

Mosaic figures of the Twelve Apostles by Antonio Salviati on the tympanum of Saint Andrew’s Cathedral in Amalfi (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Luke 9: 1-6 (NRSVA):

1 Then Jesus called the twelve together and gave them power and authority over all demons and to cure diseases, 2 and he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal. 3 He said to them, ‘Take nothing for your journey, no staff, nor bag, nor bread, nor money – not even an extra tunic. 4 Whatever house you enter, stay there, and leave from there. 5 Wherever they do not welcome you, as you are leaving that town shake the dust off your feet as a testimony against them.’ 6 They departed and went through the villages, bringing the good news and curing diseases everywhere.

The 12 disciples in an icon of the True Vine in the church in Piskopianó in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflections:

The story of the Twelve being called and sent out in mission and ministry, ‘to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal,’ is an appropriate Gospel on the first of the Ember Days in September.

Ember Days are often been associated with prayer and fasting and Common Worship describes them ‘as days of prayer for those to be made deacon or priest.’ Traditionally they have been observed on the Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays within the weeks before the Third Sunday of Advent, the Second Sunday of Lent and the Sundays nearest to 29 June and 29 September.

Common Worship suggests: ‘Ember Days may also be kept even when there is no ordination in the diocese as more general days of prayer for those who serve the Church in its various ministries, both ordained and lay, and for vocations.’

This traditional association explains why the invitations sent out to ordinations are known as Ember Cards.

In sending out the Twelve, recalled in today’s Gospel reading at the Eucharist (Luke 9: 1-6), Jesus ‘gave them power and authority’. What is the nature of that ‘power and authority’, and where do we find that in ministry and discipleship?

This Gospel reading might be a good reading for an ordination or a commissioning service. This incident comes after a number of well-known stories in Saint Luke’s Gospel, including the calming of a storm on the lake, the healing of a demoniac, the raising of Jairus’s daughter and the healing of a woman with a haemorrhage.

Now we are moving into a turning point in Christ’s public life and in his relationship with his disciples.

This is, in fact, the third tour of Galilee by Jesus. On the first tour, he is accompanied just by the four fishermen he had called first – Peter, Andrew, James and John. On the second tour, all of the 12 are with him. Then, on this third tour of Galilee, we will find him left on his own after he sends the Twelve out on this on their own first mission.

In this reading, Christ sends out the 12 on their first mission, their first time on their own without his being with them.

They are not to be choosy about where they go or where they stay. They are to stay in the first house that accepts them. Wherever they find that they or their message is not welcome, they are to shake the dust from their feet – for it is not the disciples who are rejected, but the Good News of Kingdom of God, the Kingdom of God itself, and the one in whose name they have been sent them that are being rejected.

And so the 12 go out, from town to town, proclaiming the Gospel and restoring people to wholeness wherever they go.

This is the same mission each of those we pray for on Ember Days will be entrusted with. They are being called, individually and together, to proclaim the Gospel by word and by lifestyle, to be sources of healing and wholeness, to live lives that are witnesses to the Risen Lord.

Now, I wonder how many new ordinands would like to be sent out in ministry being told to cure, to preach and to heal, but being told to take nothing with them.

The limits imposed on the 12 are even more restrictive than those I experience travelling with Ryanair or EasyJet: they are to take no bag, no food, no money and no change of clothes.

And if you think budget airlines send you to airports in places you never heard of instead of sending you to places you plan to visit, imagine how perplexed the 12 must have been about their prospective destinations.

We are not told what happened to the 12. Instead, the narrative is interrupted by a discussion of some of Herod’s delusions (verses 7-9).

By the time Herod has finished his self-questioning, the 12 are back. Jesus takes them off to Bethsaida. They are followed by the crowds, and Jesus shows the 12 exactly what they should have been doing in mission: he welcomes the crowd, he speaks to them of the Kingdom of God, and he cures those who need healing (verse 11).

I imagine the story of the 12 being sent out is a bit like the first pastoral placement for students preparing for ordination. How many are left free to make a bags of it? And then, in the process of reflection and evaluation, they learn from those gaffes and those mistakes, from those times they went in with both feet first, when we found we were not welcome or said the wrong things, and were left to shake the dust from our feet.

When Jesus takes the 12 off to Bethsaida he tries to show them how to do it. But do they learn? It seems not. Instead, they ask him to send the crowd away, to go out also and look for places to stay (verse 12). They have not healed them, they have not cured them, they have not spoken to them of the Kingdom, and they are reluctant to feed them or to shelter them.

We can see this is an image of their refusal to allow the outsiders to become the insiders, to invite them to hear the Gospel and to join in fellowship at the sacred meal.

And so Christ puts the same questions to them that Herod has put to himself (verses 18-22), he challenges them to take up the Cross (verses 23-27), and offers some of them a vision of his glory (verses 28-36).

Perhaps it was because the disciples were aware of their weaknesses that they learned anew, that they did not resent the episode in the following chapter when the 70 are sent out, two-by-two.

There are times when those in ministry and mission feel not perhaps that we have failed but that we have only risen to second best.

But in our failures, in our weaknesses, in those moments when we rise up to being only at our second best, we must never be discouraged, for God does not call the equipped to ministry – instead, God equips the called.

A willingness to learn must include a willingness to learn by my mistakes – and, as I know only too well, I make many of them.

We know the disciples made many more mistakes – Peter went on to deny Christ three times at the most crucial moment; Thomas doubted Christ after his death and resurrection; Philip was admonished (see John 14: 8); the 12 are even caught squabbling among themselves.

We all have our weaknesses. But when we accept our vulnerability, we not only learn, but we also become humble before Christ, who accepted vulnerability and emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness … humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death – even death on a cross (Philippians 2: 7-8).

Those sent out in ministry and mission must seek to put confidence and trust not in our own skills and abilities, but be willing to learn from our mistakes, be accepting of our weaknesses, be open to our own vulnerability, and be confident that we will be continually equipped and continually strengthened by Christ who calls us and who sends us.

Christ sending the Apostles to preach the Gospel, depicted in the mosaic in the Triclinium of Pope Leo III on the north side of Piazza di Porta San Giovanni (Saint John Lateran) in Rome (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Wednesday 23 September 2026):

In Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), the theme this week, from 20 to 26 September 2026 (pp 40-41), is ‘For God and Country’. This theme was introduced on Sunday with a reflection by Rosie Dawson, USPG Trustee and freelance journalist.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Wednesday 23 September 2026) invites us to pray:

Lord God, strengthen the leaders and members of the Iglesia Filipina Independiente as they witness courageously, serve selflessly, and live out their mission of proclaiming God’s justice.

The Collect of the Day:

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

Collect (for the ministry of all Christian people):

Almighty and everlasting God,
by whose Spirit the whole body of the Church
is governed and sanctified:
hear our prayer which we offer for all your faithful people,
that in their vocation and ministry
they may serve you in holiness and truth
to the glory of your name;
through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post Communion Prayer:

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

The Post Communion Prayer (Ember Days):

Heavenly Father,
whose ascended Son gave gifts of leadership and service to the Church:
strengthen us who have received this holy food
to be good stewards of your manifold grace,
through him who came not to be served but to serve,
and give his life as a ransom for many,
Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

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

Yesterday’s reflections

Continued tomorrow

‘Wherever they do not welcome you, as you are leaving that town shake the dust off your feet’ (Luke 9: 6) … sandals on a stall outside a shop in Rethymnon (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: 133, Friday 18 September 2026

James Tissot (1836-1902), ‘The Holy Women’ (‘Les femmes saintes’), 1886-1896 (Brooklyn Museum)

Patrick Comerford

We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar and this week began with the Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity XV, 13 September 2026).

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.

The Revd Florence Li Tim-Oi, the first Anglican woman priest, was ordained priest in 1944

Luke 8: 1-3 (NRSVA)

1 Soon afterwards he went on through cities and villages, proclaiming and bringing the good news of the kingdom of God. The twelve were with him, 2 as well as some women who had been cured of evil spirits and infirmities: Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out, 3 and Joanna, the wife of Herod’s steward Chuza, and Susanna, and many others, who provided for them out of their resources.

Inside Saint John’s Cathedral, Hong Kong, where the Revd Florence Li Tim-Oi was ordained deacon in 1941 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflections:

In the three short verses in today’s Gospel reading at the Eucharist (Luke 8: 1-3), Saint Luke describes the team of men and women who travel with Jesus, accompanying him in his ministry. They are men and women: the Twelve (verse 1), and a group of women, including three named women, and ‘many others, who provided for them out of their resources’ (verses 2-3).

The women and men are referred to in a way that implies that their ministry is equal. The three named women are Mary Magdalene, Joanna the wife of Cuza, and Susanna. But, in addition, there are ‘many others.’

These women are women of independent means and are supporting Jesus ‘out of their resources’ or ‘out of their own means’ (Luke 8: 3b). The original text in Greek says αἵτινες διηκόνουν αὐτοῖς ἐκ τῶν ὑπαρχόντων αὐταῖς, meaning they served, provided or ministered using their own resources.

The Greek verb here is διακονέω (diakoneō), which throughout the New Testament means to minister to, to fill the office of διάκονος (diakonos, deacon), to perform the duties of deacon, to serve. In this verse, it is found in the imperfect tense, meaning continual and habitual activity in the past. They supply Jesus’ financial needs again and again.

These women are the first supporters of Jesus’ mission, and they generously met the needs of Jesus and his band out of their own personal wealth. The Greek word is the substantive of ὑπάρχω (hyparchō), ‘what belongs to someone, someone’s property, possession, means’.

If being a true disciple means putting everything that one has at the disposal of Jesus and his ministry, then these three women are, indeed, role models for ministry.

There were celebration two years ago (2024) marking the 80th anniversary of the ordination as priest of the Revd Florence Li Tim-Oi (1907-1992) in Hong Kong on 25 January 1944. She was the first woman to be ordained a priest in a Church in the Anglican Communion.

Florence Li Tim-Oi was born in a fishing village in Hong Kong on 5 May 1907. Her father, a doctor turned headmaster, called her ‘Much Beloved’ because he valued her as a daughter even if other parents preferred sons. When she was baptised as a student, Tim-Oi chose the name Florence after Florence Nightingale, the 19th century ‘Lady with the Lamp’ who felt she had a vocation that was ignored by the Church.

At the ordination of a deaconess in Hong Kong Cathedral in 1931, Florence heard and responded to the call to ministry. She took a four-year course at the theological college in Guangzhou (Canton), she was ordained deacon in 1941, and she was given charge of the Anglican congregation in the Portuguese colony of Macao, which was thronged with refugees from war-torn China.

When a priest could no longer travel from Japanese-occupied territory to preside at the Eucharist, for three years Florence Tim-Oi was licensed to preside as a deacon. Bishop Ronald Owen Hall of Hong Kong then asked her to meet him in Free China, where on 25 January 1944 he ordained her ‘a priest in the Church of God.’

Bishop Hall knew that this was as momentous a step as when the Apostle Peter baptised the Gentile Cornelius. As Saint Peter recognised that God had already given Cornelius the baptismal gift of the Spirit, so Bishop Hall thought he was merely confirming that God had already given Florence the gift of priestly ministry – although he resisted the temptation to rename her Cornelia.

Although Bishop Hall’s action was well received in his diocese, it caused a storm of protest throughout the wider Anglican Communion, and pressure was brought on the bishop to have her relinquish the title and role of a priest.

When she became aware of the concern of the wider Church and of the pressure on her bishop, Florence did not get angry and leave the Church. Instead, she decided in 1946 to surrender her priest’s licence, but not her Holy Orders. For the next 39 years, she served faithfully under very difficult circumstances, when the knowledge that she had been ordained priest later helped to carry her through the worst excesses of the Maoist era in China.

She moved to the far south of China, near the Vietnamese border, where she ran a maternity home to protect female babies. The Communist Government closed down all churches in China from 1958 to 1974 and Tim-Oi was designated as a counter-revolutionary, persecuted by the Red Guards. Forced to work on a chicken farm, and then in a factory, she was unable to openly practice her Christian faith or meet people she knew were Christians, lest she got them into trouble.

While she was officially recognised as a priest in the Diocese of Hong Kong and Macau in 1971, she was not allowed to retire from her factory work until 1974. At the end of the Cultural Revolution in 1979, she resumed her ministry in the Church in China.

Arrangements were made for her to move to Canada in 1983, and she was appointed an honorary assistant at Saint John’s Chinese congregation and Saint Matthew’s parish in Toronto. By then, the Anglican Church in Canada had approved the ordination of women to the priesthood and in 1984, and on the 40th anniversary of her ordination, with great joy and thanksgiving, she was reinstated as a priest.

The anniversary was also celebrated at Westminster Abbey and at Sheffield Cathedral, although the Church of England had not yet approved the ordination of women.

She was invited to Lambeth Palace that year to meet Archbishop Robert Runcie. Until then, he had not been convinced about women’s ordination, but their meeting changed his thinking: ‘Who am I to say whom God can or cannot call?’

She returned briefly to China in 1987, when Bob Brown made a film about her, Return to Hepu: Li Tim-Oi Goes Home.

Until she died in 1992, she exercised her priesthood with such faithfulness and quiet dignity that she won tremendous respect for herself and gathered increasing support for other women seeking ordination. The very quality of her ministry in China and in Canada and the grace with which she exercised her priesthood helped convince many throughout the Anglican Communion and beyond that the Holy Spirit was working in and through women priests. Her contribution to the Church far exceeded the expectations of those involved in her ordination in 1944.

She was awarded Doctorates of Divinity by the General Theological Seminary, New York, and Trinity College, Toronto. She died in her sleep on 26 February 1992, reportedly after phoning several elderly people who were confined to home, praying with them and offering them pastoral counsel. She is buried in Toronto.

The Anglican Church of Canada agreed in 2004 to include Florence Li Tim-Oi in the Calendar of Holy Persons in the Book of Alternative Services – on the anniversary of her death, 26 February. She was made a permanent part of the Episcopal Church’s calendar of saints in 2018.

Her name continues in the Li Tim-Oi Foundation, which helps women in the Two-Thirds World train for ministry and vocational work in their communities.

Her story is told by Ted Harrison in Much Beloved Daughter (1985) and in her own memoir, Raindrops of My Life (1996).

The Revd Li Tim-Oi, her mother, Bishop Mok Sau Tseng, her father, and Archdeacon Lee Kow Yan after her ordination as deacon in Saint John’s Cathedral, Hong Kong, on Ascension Day 22 May 1941

Today’s Prayers (Friday 18 September 2026):

The theme this week (13 -19 September 2026) in ‘Pray With the World Church,’ the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘Witness as With-ness’ (pp 38-39). This theme was introduced on Sunday with a reflection by the Revd Canon Dr Peniel Rajkumar, Director of Global Mission and Theologian, USPG.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Friday 18 September 2026) invites us to pray:

Holy God, unsettle my comfort when it keeps me distant from those who struggle. Make me an instrument of your presence in places of exclusion and hardship.

The Collect of the Day:

God, who in generous mercy sent the Holy Spirit
upon your Church in the burning fire of your love:
grant that your people may be fervent
in the fellowship of the gospel
that, always abiding in you,
they may be found steadfast in faith and active in service;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post Communion Prayer:

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

Additional Collect:

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

Yesterday’s reflections

Continued tomorrow


The story about Florence Li Tim-Oi, the first woman priest in the Anglican Communion, and how she drew her strength from her faith in God

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: 123, Tuesday 8 September 2026

The Synaxis of the Apostles … an icon in the Cathedral in Rethymnon in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar and the week began with the Festival of Creation in Christ or the Fourteenth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity XIV, 6 September 2026). Today the Church celebrates the Birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary (8 September).

I have yet another medical appointment later this morning, and a meeting of the Stony Stratford Town Centre Working Group, a working committee of the town council, later this evening. But, before today begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, for reflection, prayer and reading in these ways:

1, today’s Gospel reading;

2, a reflection on the Gospel reading;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

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

The Twelve Apostles … an icon in the church in Panormos, east of Rethymnon in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Luke 6: 12-19 (NRSVA):

12 Now during those days he went out to the mountain to pray; and he spent the night in prayer to God. 13 And when day came, he called his disciples and chose twelve of them, whom he also named apostles: 14 Simon, whom he named Peter, and his brother Andrew, and James, and John, and Philip, and Bartholomew, 15 and Matthew, and Thomas, and James son of Alphaeus, and Simon, who was called the Zealot, 16 and Judas son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.

17 He came down with them and stood on a level place, with a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea, Jerusalem, and the coast of Tyre and Sidon. 18 They had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases; and those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured. 19 And all in the crowd were trying to touch him, for power came out from him and healed all of them.

The Twelve Apostles depicted in the East Window in Saint Editha’s Church, Tamworth (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflections:

The Gospel reading for the Feast of the Birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary today, Matthew 1: (1-16,) 18-23, gives us Saint Matthew’s account of the genealogy of Jesus.

The lectionary provision today following the weekday readings this week from Saint Luke’s Gospel (Luke 6: 12-19) tells of the selection of the Twelve from among the disciples, and naming of the Twelve. Their selection comes not only after a night of prayer alone on the mountain top, but between the stories of two healing miracles: a man in the synagogue whose right hand was withered (Luke 6: 6-11), which we read about yesterday, and the large number of people who come to hear Jesus and to be healed of their diseases (Luke 6: 17-19), which is the second part of today’s Gospel reading.

The call and ministry of the Twelve seems to be grounded firmly in the need of ordinary, everyday people, from far and wide, for healing, wholeness, restoration and acceptance.

Cardinal Karl Lehmann (1936-2018) was described as the face and voice of Catholicism in Germany for over 35 years. He was the Bishop of Mainz and former Professor of Dogmatic Theology at the University of Mainz, and during the Second Vatican Council he had been an assistant to Karl Rahner, the Jesuit theologian.

Dr Johanna Rahner, who succeeded Hans Küng as Professor of Dogmatics, History of Dogma and Ecumenical Theology at the Catholic Theological Faculty of Tübingen University, told the German weekly Die Zeit some years ago that Cardinal Lehmann ‘interpreted the Church’s teaching as a seelsorger (a ‘carer of souls’ – the German word for priest) and not in the narrow, doctrinal, sense.’

I like the idea of seeing the priest or the pastor as the physician or doctor of souls. The German theological journal Seelsorger describes itself as a ‘Journal for the Contemporary Cure of Souls,’ and the topics on pastoral care it discusses range from sexuality to post-modernity, the conscience to the use of story, vice, virtue, and baptism and the dangers and blessings of a long-term pastorate.

The soul is the deepest centre of the psyche. Problems at the level of the soul radiate out to all levels of the psyche and even the body.

The priest, the soul doctor, traces the problem to its deepest point. A hurting person should be addressed at all of those levels, but it is the soul doctor who addresses the very deepest level.

Among the Patristic writers, Saint John Chrysostom says that every priest is, as it were, the father of the whole world, and therefore should have care of all the souls to whose salvation he can co-operate by his labours. Besides, priests are appointed by God as physicians to cure every soul that is infirm. Origen has called priests ‘physicians of souls,’ while Saint Jerome calls us ‘spiritual physicians.’ Later, Saint Bonaventure asks: ‘If the physician flees from the sick, who will cure them?’

Canon 21 of the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215 drew an analogy between the physicians of the body and the physicians of the soul. This analogy between medical or physical care and spiritual or pastoral care was enthusiastically developed in mediaeval sermons and penitential literature, opening the door to many further comparisons.

The English word curate refers to a person who is charged with the care or cure (cura) of souls in a parish. In this sense, ‘curate’ correctly means a parish priest. In France, the cure is the principal priest in a parish, as is the Italian curato and the Spanish cura. But in English-speaking places, the term curate is commonly used to describe priests who are assistants to the parish priest.

However, the word curate in the 1662 Book of Common Prayer means the incumbent of a benefice, who is licensed by the bishop to the ‘cure of souls.’ The shared cure of souls is made clear by the traditional wording of the bishop’s deed of institution to a new incumbent, ‘habere curam animarum, et accipe curam tuam et meam, receive the cure of souls which is both mine and thine.’

In other words, when a parish priest begins his or her new ministry, the bishop is sharing the care of the parish – described traditionally as ‘the cure of souls’ – with the priest, but the bishop does not give it away. In the Church of Ireland, the 43 Canons listed in Chapter IX of the Constitution refer specifically to cures rather than parishes.

The soul is just as complicated as the body, just as rich and strange and puzzling. And it needs just as much attention. That does not mean that any priest can necessarily address these soul problems. But the true soul doctor is the depth psychologist.

When we think about salvation, it is worth recalling that the English word ‘salve’ is derived from the Latin salvus, which means healing. The priest, as an alter Christus, is seen as one who mends broken hearts, heals hurting souls, and applies God’s soothing balm on pained and wounded lives.

The priest truly is the ‘doctor of souls.’ Perhaps theology is the technical language of soul doctoring. But the prescription is the word and the medicine is the Eucharist, regular confession and daily prayer. The proper exercise is found in prayer, regular good deeds and acts of kindness.

The popular German word for priest means ‘carer of souls’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Tuesday 8 September 2026):

In my prayers this morning, I am remembering my parents, who were married on this day 81 years ago, 8 September 1945, having waited until the end of World War II for their wedding.

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 6-12 September 2026 (pp 36-37), is ‘Turning Pain into Glory’. This theme was introduced on Sunday with a Reflection by Nolene Sheppard, Leader of a Women’s Empowerment Group, Magnificat, and Ukraine Aid Project Support Lead at Saint Thomas à Becket, Hamburg, Germany.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Tuesday 8 September 2026) invites us to pray:

Heavenly Father, thank you that you provide strength in times of loneliness and weakness. Grant wisdom to support those who feel like strangers in unfamiliar places.

The Collect of the Day:

Almighty God,
whose only Son has opened for us
a new and living way into your presence:
give us pure hearts and steadfast wills
to worship you in spirit and in truth;
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.

or:

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.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

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 of holiness;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

or:

Lord God, the source of truth and love,
keep us faithful to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship,
united in prayer and the breaking of bread,
and one in joy and simplicity of heart,
in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

Merciful God:
your Son came to save us
and bore our sins on the cross:
may we trust in your mercy
and know your love,
rejoicing in the righteousness
that is ours through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s reflections

Continued tomorrow

Saint John Chrysostom says priests are appointed by God as physicians to cure every soul that is infirm (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

A traditional Greek icon of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, celebrated on 8 September

Bishop Barry Rogerson, a former Vice-Principal of Lichfield Theological College, dies at 90

Bishop Barry Rogerson (1985-2002), who has died this week, was a former Vice-Principal of Lichfield Theological College

Patrick Comerford

The Diocese of Bristol and the Diocese of Lichfield shared the news late on Thursday that Bishop Barry Rogerson, Bishop of Bristol (1985-2002), had died at the age of 90 earlier in the day (20 August 2026) at the age of 90. Following his retirement, Bishop Barry had served as Assistant Bishop in the Diocese of Bath and Wells.

Bishop Barry was born on 25 July 1936. He began his working life at a bank before studying theology, biblical studies and philosophy at the University of Leeds, where he founded the university’s theological society.

Following a call to ministry, he began training at Wells Theological College and was ordained in 1962. He then held curacies at Saint Hilda, South Shields, and Saint Nicholas, Bishopwearmouth, from 1962 to 1967.

He became a lecturer at Lichfield Theological College in 1967, and he was the Vice-Principal from 1971 until the college closed in 1972.

Lichfield Theological College never acquired the same reputation as, say, Westcott House and Ridley Hall in Cambridge or Ripon Cuddesdon, Saint Stephen’s House and Wycliffe Hall in Oxford. But in its days it developed some pioneering and trail-blazing ‘sandwich’ courses, involving its students in parish as well as academic work, and it also catered for older ordination candidates.

At the time Barry Rogerson was vice-principal, the last Principal of Lichfield Theological College was Canon John Yates (1925-2008), who had been appointed in 1966 in succession to John Fenton. He continued as the principal for the next six years, and in 1971 he was appointed Prebendary of Flixton in Lichfield Cathedral.

One afternoon in 1971, after I had slipped into the cathedral stalls for Choral Evensong in Lichfield Cathedral, he introduced himself to me and asked me whether I was considering ordination. Little did he know that shortly beforehand I had a wonderful religious experience visiting the chapel in Saint John’s Hospital.

Jean and John had remarkable social consciences. They spoke out against discrimination and they were deeply concerned for the poor and the marginalised. They kept an open house in the Close, and in the brief time I knew them I was welcome to drop in. After Lichfield Theological College closed, John Yates became Bishop of Whitby (1972-1975), Bishop of Gloucester (1975-1992) and the Bishop at Lambeth (1992-1994).

Meanwhile, Barry Rogerson continued lecturing in theology for three more years at Salisbury and Wells College (now Sarum College) before returning to parish ministry as Vicar and then Team Rector of Saint Thomas’s, Wednesfield, Wolverhampton. During that time, he was seconded for six months to teach at Bishop Patteson Theological College in Kohimarama in the Solomon Islands.

He became a suffragan bishop in the Diocese of Lichfield in 1979 when he was appointed the first Suffragan Bishop of Wolverhampton. At the height of Margaret Thatcher’s time as Prime Minister, he joined the People’s March for Jobs as it passed through Wolverhampton in 1981. The march brought together people from across the country to highlight concerns over unemployment and its impact on communities.

He remained in Wolverhampton for six years and in 1985 he became Bishop of Bristol, where he remained until he retired 2002.

Bishop Barry was a passionate supporter of the ordination of women, a view he had held since before his own ordination. He was a consultant to the Movement for the Ordination of Women and, following approval of the ordination of women as priests by General Synod in 1992, he ordained the first 32 women priests in the Church of England in Bristol Cathedral on 12 March 1994, including Bishop Jan McFarlane, now Dean of Lichfield, and Bishop Sarah Bullock, now suffragan Bishop of Shrewsbury in the Diocese of Lichfield.

As Bishop of Bristol, Bishop Barry took part in many ecumenical initiatives: he served was a president of Churches Together in Britain and Ireland and was a member of the central and executive committee of the World Council of Churches. He was co-chair with the Revd Dr John B Taylor of the committee that produced the 2001report The Anglican-Methodist Conversations.

He chaired the Interfaith Consultancy Group (IFCOG) and also chaired the advisory board of ministry, on which he was instrumental in encouraging the Church of England to take the distinctive diaconate seriously, introducing the report For Such A Time as This to the General Synod in 2001.

He chaired the Melanesian Mission in England until he retired in 2002. In his retirement, he was an Assistant Bishop in the Diocese of Bath and Wells from 2003 to 2025.

Bishop Barry is survived by his wife Olga, their daughters Sue and Debbie, and their his extended family.

Bishop Michael Ipgrave of Lichfield said: ‘I was very sad to hear the news about Bishop Barry. He is remembered with great love and fondness by all who knew him, and with deep gratitude for the kindness, generosity and support he gave to our diocese. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family at this sad time. May they be comforted by the love and prayers of all who knew him. May he rest in peace and rise in glory.’

The people of the Diocese of Bristol are invited to give thanks for Bishop Barry at a special Evensong in Bristol Cathedral at 5:15 pm on Tuesday 13 October 2026.

The former Lichfield Theological College in the Cathedral Close, Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2026: 87, Sunday 2 August 2026, Ninth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity IX)

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

Patrick Comerford

We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar and today is the Ninth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity IX, 2 August 2026). Later this morning, I hope to take part in the Parish Eucharist in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford.

Meanwhile, 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.

Five loaves and two fish … ‘St Peter’s Harrogate Feeding Hungry People’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Matthew 14: 13-21 (NRSVA):

13 Now when Jesus heard this, he withdrew from there in a boat to a deserted place by himself. But when the crowds heard it, they followed him on foot from the towns. 14 When he went ashore, he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them and cured their sick. 15 When it was evening, the disciples came to him and said, ‘This is a deserted place, and the hour is now late; send the crowds away so that they may go into the villages and buy food for themselves.’ 16 Jesus said to them, ‘They need not go away; you give them something to eat.’ 17 They replied, ‘We have nothing here but five loaves and two fish.’ 18 And he said, ‘Bring them here to me.’ 19 Then he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven, and blessed and broke the loaves, and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. 20 And all ate and were filled; and they took up what was left over of the broken pieces, twelve baskets full. 21 And those who ate were about five thousand men, besides women and children.

The miracle of the loaves and fishes in a fresco in Analipsi Church in Georgioupoli, Crete … there are only two fish, but the loaves of bread have already been multiplied (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflections:

The feeding of the multitude is the only miracle recorded in all four Gospels (see Mark 6: 30-44; Luke 9: 12-17; John 6: 1-15), with only minor variations on the location, the timing and the circumstances.

In the verses immediately before this morning’s reading, Saint Matthew tells of the beheading of Saint John the Baptist, who was executed after he denounced Herod Antipas for marrying his brother Philip’s wife, while Philip was still alive (see Matthew 14: 1-11).

The disciples of Saint John the Baptist took his body and buried it – a foreshadowing of how his disciples are going to desert Christ at his own death and burial – and they then go to Christ to tell him the news (verse 12).

When Jesus hears this, he takes a boat and withdraws to a deserted place. But the crowds follow him on foot around the shore and find him, and when he comes ashore there is a great crowd waiting for him. He has compassion for them, and he cures the sick among them (verses 13-14).

But a greater miracle is about to unfold – perhaps even two greater miracles.

This is a story of a miracle, but which miracle?

The multiplication of the five loaves and two fish is a miracle in itself, of course. But we might consider how there is another miracle here too.

Saint Matthew places this story in a section in his Gospel about training the disciples for their mission. So, perhaps, Christ is teaching them about how they can do this.

Christ tells the people to sit down – well, not so much to sit down as to recline (ἀνακλίνω, anaklíno, verse 19). They are asked to recline on the grass as they would at a banquet or at a feast – just as Christ reclines with the disciples at the Last Supper.

In verse 19, we have a reminder of the feeding of the people in the Wilderness (see Exodus 16), but also a foretaste or anticipation of the Last Supper (see Matthew 26: 20-29), the Eucharistic feast, and of the Messianic banquet at the end of time.

Christ takes bread, looks up to heaven, blesses it, breaks it, and gives it to them to distribute it among the people

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 Christos Theou Huios, Sōtēr), ‘Jesus Christ, Son of God, Saviour.’

In verse 20, we are told all ate and were filled (see Exodus 16: 15-18, Numbers 11: 31-32; Elisha’s food miracles, II Kings 4:42-44; cf John 6: 31-33, Revelation 2: 17). 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.

There is yet another level to the story in verse 20. The disciples get everyone to work together with a common purpose. All are filled, and yet much is left over: a basket for each disciple. Each of them has a mission, telling the good news of the infinite abundance of God's love and the kingdom in which all can eat.

Whether they are birthdays, baptisms, weddings, anniversaries, graduations, retirements, end-of-term or parish celebrations, we all enjoy a good party. Parties affirm who we are, where we fit in, and mark the rhythm of life and the continuity of families and communities.

It is not only the eating or the drinking. It is very difficult to sit beside someone at the same table after a funeral, or to stand beside someone at the bar at a wedding, and not to end up getting to know them and – as is said in Ireland – getting to know ‘their seed, breed and generation.’

Families share names, share stories, share memories, share identities, share anniversaries. And that is not all in the past. These celebrations allow us to express and share our hopes for the future too … is that not what baptisms and weddings are about in every family – hope for the future, hope for life itself?

In this story, the disciples have failed to buy or produce enough bread for a meal. Christ responds not by sympathising but by demanding greater generosity (see verse 18).

The disciples gather up what is left over. Gathering is an act of reverential economy towards the gifts of God; but gathering also anticipates Christ gathering all to himself. The amount that is left over is a sign of the outpouring of God’s generosity. There are 12 baskets – one for each tribe of Israel and one for each of the 12 disciples. God’s party, the Eucharist, looks forward to the new Israel, not the sort of earthly kingdom that the people now want but the Kingdom of God.

Christ puts no questions of belief to the disciples or to the crowd when he feeds them on the mountainside. They do not believe in the Resurrection – it has yet to happen. But he feeds them, and he feeds them indiscriminately. The disciples wanted to send them away (verse 15), but Christ wants to count them in. Christ invites more people to the banquet than we can fit into our churches.

The Revd Albert Ogle, who was once a priest in Dublin and, like me, was a student at the Irish School of Ecumenics, now lives in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He recalled this story on Facebook the year before last:

‘One of the bishops who participated in the irregular ordination of the first 11 women priests in the Episcopal Church was Bishop Daniel Corrigan. I met him in Santa Barbara many years ago and he told me this amazing story about connections and memory.

‘The Episcopal Church has a long history to Scotland and Corrigan found himself as a 15 year old serving with the US Naval submarine unit, off the coast of a remote Scottish island where the locals lived in cave houses. Corrigan and the crew had been submerged for days and without food, decided to knock on one of these creaky wooden doors in the dead of night.

‘He recalls how a very tall gaunt figure appeared at the door in lamplight to greet the strangers who were covered in oil and grime from the submarine. They wanted something to eat. She turned away from them and the next thing he remembered was seeing her return to the door with a large round loaf, like a priest at the Eucharist.

‘This impression of priestly generosity and open invitation remained with Corrigan all his life and it was this seminal experience for him to agree to ordain the Philadelphia 11 …

‘I am sure the enigmatic generous Scottish woman had no idea what her kindness would release into the world. Keep loving and being generous. You never know who or what you might be feeding.’

We often describe this morning’s Gospel story as the Feeding of the Multitude, or the Feeding of the Five Thousand. But how many people are there?

Verse 21 tells us that there were ‘about five thousand men,’ but adds also, ‘besides women and children.’

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

Sir Colin Humphreys of Selwyn College, Cambridge, former Professor of Materials Science, in his analysis of the number of people in the Exodus story suggests the number of Israelite men over the age of 20 in the census following the Exodus was 5,000, and not 603,550. He attributes the apparent error to an error in interpreting or translating the Hebrew word ’lp (אלף), and he goes on to suggest the number of men, women and children at the Exodus was about 20,000. Both of his figures correlate with the figures for the feeding of the multitude in this Gospel reading.

When we invite people into the Church, we have so much to share – much more that the meagre amount people may think we have in our bags.

As we enjoy the feast, enjoy the banquet, enjoy the party, share the Eucharist, are we prepared to be open to more being brought in to enjoy the banquet and the party than our imagination allows us to imagine.

A basket of bread in Barron’s Bakery in Cappoquin, Co Waterford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Sunday 2 August 2026, Trinity IX):

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 (2-8 August 2026, pp 24-25), is ‘Faith Under Pressure in Nicaragua’. This theme is introduced today with a Reflection by the Most Revd Juan David Alvarado, Bishop of El Salvador and Primate of the Province of the Anglican Church in Central America:

‘In Nicaragua, the Church is under intense pressure, a reality many outside the region may not be aware of. Since 2018, persecution has been relentless.

‘The government has violated human rights, restricting freedom of worship and expression. It is not only Catholic churches that suffer; clergy, schools, universities, and religious organisations have been targeted. Nuns have been expelled, and the Episcopal Church of Nicaragua faces constant pressure simply for speaking truth to power.

‘Some clergy have been prevented from returning after travelling abroad. One priest left for the United States and was barred from returning. Last December, a reverend visiting family abroad could not re-enter and remains in the United States. Bishop Harold Dixon lives in fear, unable to speak openly. The Church has lost legal recognition and risks losing its properties. Even sending financial support is fraught with difficulty.

‘In the face of fear, the Church must speak out. Silence is not an option. Statements have been issued, letters sent to the United Nations, and attempts made to accompany the diocese in every possible way. I have personally attempted three times to visit Nicaragua to offer pastoral support, yet entry has been denied.

‘It is painful to witness people stripped of homes, lands, and even their identities. As members of the Anglican Communion, we cannot look away. Even small gestures like a letter or a prayer can strengthen those who cannot freely practise their faith. It remains true that the love of Christ reaches even the most fearful corners of our world.’

The USPG prayer diary today (Sunday 2 August 2026) invites us to pray as we read and meditate on today’s Gospel reading (Matthew 14: 13-21).

The Collect of the Day:

Almighty God,
who sent your Holy Spirit
to be the life and light of your Church:
open our hearts to the riches of your grace,
that we may bring forth the fruit of the Spirit
in love and joy and peace;
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 in the eternal banquet of Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

Gracious Father,
revive your Church in our day,
and make her holy, strong and faithful,
for your glory’s sake
in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s reflections

Continued tomorrow

Warm bread and a warm welcome in Pepi Studios on Tsouderon Street in Rethymnon in Crete

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