Daily prayer in Lent 2026: 14, Tuesday 3 March 2026

‘They love to have the place of honour at banquets’ (Matthew 23: 6) … in Tai Tai Restaurant in Kuching, Sarawak (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Patrick Comerford

Lent began almost two weeks ago on Ash Wednesday (18 February 2026), and this week began with the Second Sunday in Lent (Lent II). In the Jewish calendar, today is the holiday of Purim, and the Chinese New Year celebrations here in Kuching come to a dramatic finale today with Chap Goh Mei.

Before today begins, I am taking some quiet time in Kuching 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.

‘They love to have the place of honour at banquets’ (Matthew 23: 6) … tables waiting for diners in the old town in Rethymnon, Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Matthew 23: 1-12 (NRSVA):

23 Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples, 2 ‘The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat; 3 therefore, do whatever they teach you and follow it; but do not do as they do, for they do not practise what they teach. 4 They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on the shoulders of others; but they themselves are unwilling to lift a finger to move them. 5 They do all their deeds to be seen by others; for they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long. 6 They love to have the place of honour at banquets and the best seats in the synagogues, 7 and to be greeted with respect in the market-places, and to have people call them rabbi. 8 But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all students. 9 And call no one your father on earth, for you have one Father – the one in heaven. 10 Nor are you to be called instructors, for you have one instructor, the Messiah. 11 The greatest among you will be your servant. 12 All who exalt themselves will be humbled, and all who humble themselves will be exalted.’

‘They love to have the place of honour at banquets’ (Matthew 23: 6) … in Le Procope in Paris, one of the oldest cafés in the world (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflection:

In the Gospel reading in the lectionary at the Eucharist today (Matthew 23: 1-12), we are in the Temple with Christ in Holy Week, the week leading up to his Passion, Death and Resurrection. There in the Temple, Christ has silenced his critics among the Sadducees and the Pharisees, showing their lack of understanding of the core messages of the Prophets and the Law in the Bible.

In today’s Gospel reading, Christ turns to speak ‘to the crowds and to his disciples’ about the scribes and the Pharisees, and their attitude to and teaching of the Law and the Bible.

Christ tells the people in the Temple that the Pharisees have authority to teach the Law, and he concedes that they are in an unbroken chain that goes back to Moses, for they ‘sit on Moses’ seat’ (verse 2).

But while honouring their teachings, the people should be wary of their practices. In their interpretation of the Law, they impose heavy burdens on others, yet do not follow the Law themselves.

Externally, they appear pious. They wear teffelin or phylacteries, small, black, leather boxes, on their left arms and foreheads with four Biblical passages as a ‘sign’ and ‘remembrance’ that God liberated their ancestors from slavery in Egypt (see Exodus 13: 1-10; Exodus 13: 11-16; Deuteronomy 6: 4-9; and Deuteronomy 11: 13-21). They also have lengthy fringes or tassels on their prayer shawls (tallitot, singular talit), as visible reminders of the 613 commandments in the Law (see Numbers 15: 38, Deuteronomy 22: 12).

Christ gives four examples of vanity (verse 6-7): they love places of honour at banquets, the best seats in the synagogues, being greeted with respect publicly, and being called ‘Rabbi,’ which means master and later becomes a title for the leaders in the synagogues.

We are warned about the dangers built into loving honorific titles, such as ‘teacher,’ ‘father’ and instructor (see verses 8-10) – perhaps for me that means canon and professor – because, of course, we are all students, we are all brothers and sisters, we are all disciples and children of God.

Yet I too am a father and have been a teacher and a tutor. Is Christ warning against the position? Or is he warning against seeking honours that have not been earned? I think immediately of Donald Trump’s petulant that he ought to receive the Nobel Peace Prize and have the Kennedy Centre named after him, without ever ending an actual war or having any gravitas or earned respect in the arts world.

It is a truism that politicians must earn the trust of their voters and that parents must earn the respect of their children, not seek or demand it. Most parents have, at one time or another, said to their children: ‘Do what I tell you, not what I do.’ Needless to say, children never listen to parents when we say something so silly.

All parents know, on the other hand, that actions speak louder than words.

Perhaps this reading reflects later tensions between the Jewish synagogue and the new Christian community. But, in Christ’s own days, people expected a Pharisee to be a careful observer of the Law.

Unlike the Temple priests and village elders, the Pharisees did not have a high social status. Before the destruction of the Temple in 70 CE, the Pharisees were a relatively modest group of people without political power and they tried to live out Jewish tradition and the Torah seriously and conscientiously in their daily lives. The Pharisees saw the Law as applying not only to every aspect of public life, but to every aspect of private, domestic, daily life too.

There is another well-worn statement: ‘It’s not where you start out but where you end up.’ The Pharisees started out with good intentions, but some of them ended by seeking to be great, seeking to be exalted (verses 11-12). They started out being concerned for holiness, but some ended at exclusion. They started out seeking to recognise God in all aspects of life, but some of them ended by seeking recognition at banquets and in the synagogue (verses 6-7).

Christ calls us to live in such a way that we can say to the world: ‘Do as we say and do as we do.’

The problem here may not so much be a conflict between words and actions, but the need to make the connection between words and actions. Words must mean what they point to, and the actions must be capable of being described in words.

Most of us, as children, learned by watching how adults behave, we learn as members of the human community. As a child, when I needed to learn how to use a fork, I did not need a lecture on the hygienic and sanitary contributions that forks have made to the benefit of European lifestyles since the introduction of the fork through Byzantium and Venice to mediaeval Europe; I did not need an engineering lecture on the practicalities and difficulties of balancing the prongs and the handle; I would have been too young to read a delightful chapter by Judith Herrin in one of her books on how the fork-using Byzantines were much more sophisticated than their western allies or rivals who ate with their hands (Judith Herrin, Byzantium – the Surprising Life of a Mediaeval Empire, London: Allen Lane, 2007, Chapter 19).

The same principle applies to everything else, as is pointed out by Andrew Davison, now Regius Professor of Divinity at the University of Oxford. In Imaginative Apologetics (London: SCM Press, 2011), he points out how the same principle applies to how we learn about everything else in life – cups, books, bicycles and so on. He might have added love – the love of God and the love of one another.

Over the years, I have often visited the National Botanic Gardens in Glasnevin, Dublin. There, in the Great Palm House, are the steps on which the great German philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein regularly sat in contemplation and thought while he was living in Dublin in the late 1940s.

Even if we find Wittgenstein difficult to read, we can find useful insights in his writings.

Wittgenstein teaches us that thinking and language must be inter-connected. ‘Words have meaning only in the stream of life,’ he says. Thinking requires language, language is a communal experience, and, as Davison points out, we learn language as members of a human community and through induction into common human practices.

We can talk to others about prayer, forgiveness, and most of all about love itself. But if it only remains talk and has no application, then the words have no meaning.

In the verses before this reading (Matthew 22: 34-46), Christ tells the lawyer sent by the Pharisees and the Sadducees that the greatest commandments are to ‘love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind’ and to ‘love your neighbour as yourself.’ And, he adds: ‘On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.’

If the Pharisees, the Sadducees and the young lawyer were teaching and acting in conformity with these laws, if their words and actions were inter-connected, then there would have been an unassailable ring of authenticity to their teaching.

We may say we believe in the two great commandments, but we only show we believe in them with credibility when we live them out in our lives. There must be no gap that separates what we teach and how we live out what we teach in our lives.

Ludwig Wittgenstein’s steps in the Great Palm House in the National Botanic Gardens, Glasnevin, Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Tuesday 3 March 2026):

The theme this week (1-7 March 2026) in ‘Pray With the World Church,’ the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is: ‘Saint David’s Day’ (pp 34-35). This theme was introduced on Sunday with Reflections by the Revd Sarah Rosser, Team Vicar in the Netherwent Ministry Area, Diocese of Monmouth, Church in Wales.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Tuesday 3 March 2026) invites us to pray:

We pray for the people of Wales and the Church in Wales. May the Church serve local communities with compassion. Lord, open our eyes to the needs around us and fill us with love for all your children.

The Collect:

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

The Post Communion Prayer:

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

Additional Collect:

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

Yesterday’s Reflections

Continued Tomorrow

The table remains bare if our words and our actions are not inter-connected … the Long Gallery or Dining Hall in the Moat House, the former Comberford family home on Lichfield Street, Tamworth (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 balcony view at night in Kuching gives insights into Chinese religious and cultural traditions

The Hin Ho Bio temple, seen from our kitchen window in Kuching, has been lit up throughout the night each night during the Chinese New Year celebrations (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Patrick Comerford

The Chinese New Year celebrations in Kuching began last week (18 February), and this is the Year of the Horse. The Chinese New Year, also known as the Spring Festival, marks the new year and the arrival of spring, and is the most important festival for Chinese communities everywhere.

While most Chinese-owned businesses reopened this week, the celebrations of the 15-day lunar festival continue, with lion dancers visiting restaurants and shops as they reopen, people exchanging traditional gifts or red-wrapped packets and mandarin oranges and visiting homes and temples. The celebrations here focus on family reunions, and there are red decorations everywhere and fireworks and firecrackers late into the night to welcome prosperity,and it all comes to a dramatic finale with Chap Goh Mei next week (Tuesday 3 March), when the Lunar New Year celebrations end with spectacular Lion Dances, fireworks and firecrackers, and colourful performances on the streets and in the temples.

This year, the celebrations of Chinese New Year coincide with Muslim observances of Ramadan and Christian observances of Lent, all part of the religious, cultural and ethnic diversity found throughout Kuching. From our flat we hear the bells of Saint Thomas’s Anglican Cathedral, the call to prayer from the neighbouring mosques, and the drumbeats from a variety of pageants and rituals in the four Chinese temples nearby.

The Hin Ho Bio temple is easy to miss on Carpenter Street, with its hidden rooftop location (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

From our kitchen area, we look out onto the Tien Hou Temple, also known as the Hin Ho Bio temple, which has been lit up throughout the night each night during the Chinese New Year celebrations. The other three Chinese temples in the neighbourhood are the Hiang Thian Siang Ti Temple, a 19th century temple around the corner in Carpenter Street, the Hong San Si Temple on the corner of Ewe Hai Street and Wayang Street, and Tua Pek Kong Temple on a small mound overlooking the Kuching Waterfront and the Sarawak River.

Kuching in the 1800s had two major Chinese dialect groups: the Hokkien from southern Fujian and the Teochew from Guandong province. Both are mostly merchants and tradesmen compared to the rural-based Hakka who are mostly farmers and miners.

The Teochews built the Hiang Thian Siang Ti Temple in 1863 on Carpenter Street, sandwiched between commercial shophouses, and the Hin Ho Bio temple is the main Hainan temple in Kuching.

A rooftop view from the Hin Ho Bio temple, looking down on Carpenter Street below (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Although we see it from our kitchen window, it is probably unknown to visitors and tourists because it is tucked away far above the street, sitting on the top floor of the Kuching Hainan Association building.

The ground floor has a hair salon and a traditional Chinese restaurant, and I had to climb the stairs to the top floor to see this small Chinese shrine with its rooftop views of Carpenter Street below.

The temple is dedicated to Mazu, the goddess of the sea or ‘Heavenly Sage Mother’, recalling the maritime traditions of the Hainan community.

There was a small number of Hainanese people in the area that is now Carpenter Street and China Street from ca 1840, and the first Hin Ho Bio Temple was on Carpenter Street by 1878. The temple was renovated following the Kuching Great Fire in 1884. In the early years, new Hainanese migrants lived in the temple while looking for permanent places and jobs. The temple also served as a martial art hall and a social gathering place for the Hainanese, and was used as a school too.

The temple had a major uplift in 1987-1991, and the Kuching Kheng Chew Association changed its name to the Kuching Hainan Association in 1992.

Inside the Hin Ho Bio temple in its hidden rooftop location (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

The Kuching Hainan Association marked its 140th anniversary last year (2025) with major events, including a visit from a grand Mazu statue from Meizhou Island in Fujian in China in November. A 14-member delegation from the Kuching Hainan Association travelled to the Mazu Temple on Meizhou Island to formally receive the statue.

The statue was escorted from Kuching Airport in a vibrant procession with a lion dance troupe through several key cultural sites, including Wisma Kuching Hing Ann Thien Hoe Kong, Tua Pek Kong Temple, Hong San Si Temple and Hiang Thian Siang Ti Temple, before arriving at the Tien Hou Temple on Carpenter Street, where a special enshrinement ceremony was attended by the Deputy Premier Datuk Amar Dr Sim Kui Hian and community leaders.

The association chair, Teo Kwang Hock, said the initiative for the visit of the statue came from the Fujian Federation of Returned Overseas Chinese, which is presenting 100 Mazu statues to Tien Hou temples worldwide.

There are plans for a Mazu Park in the grounds behind the temple. The project is waiting for official approval and will provide easier access to the temple, marking a significant new chapter in Kuching’s cultural and religious heritage. It may even may make for a more colourful view from our kitchen window.

Catching a glimpse of the Hin Ho Bio temple from below on Carpenter Street (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

‘The rain falls down on last year’s man, … And all the rain falls down Amen On the works of last year’s man’

‘Last Year’s Man’ is the second track on Leonard Cohen’s album, ‘Songs of Love and Hate,’ released in 1971

Patrick Comerford

New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day have come and gone. But on these days, two poems I turn to unfailingly at this time are TS Eliot’s ‘Little Gidding’ , and one of the songs of Leonard Cohen, ‘Last Year’s Man’.

‘Little Gidding’ is the last poem in TS Eliot’s Four Quartets. Moving from last year’s words and language to the voice of this new year provides an opportunity to reflect on the meaning of time, the past, the present and the future. In ‘Little Gidding’, he writes:

For last year’s words belong to last year’s language
And next year’s words await another voice.
…

We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.
Through the unknown, unremembered gate
When the last of earth left to discover
Is that which was the beginning;
At the source of the longest river
The voice of the hidden waterfall
And the children in the apple-tree

Not known, because not looked for
But heard, half-heard, in the stillness
Between two waves of the sea.

‘… in the stillness / Between two waves of the sea’ (TS Eliot, Little Gidding’) … by the waves at Pavlos Beach in Platanias, east of Rethymnon in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Leonard Cohen’s ‘Last Year’s Man’ is a poem and a song that is a reminder that whatever we did last year, good or bad, is already in the past. That was then and this is now.

Leonard Cohen released his third studio album, Songs of Love and Hate, 55 years ago on 19 March 1971. He recorded the album the previous September, and all eight songs are written by Cohen: Avalanche, Last Year’s Man, Dress Rehearsal Rag, Diamonds in the Mine, Love Calls You by Your Name, Famous Blue Raincoat, Sing Another Song, Boys, and Joan of Arc. There is a bonus track on the 2007 remastered edition: Dress Rehearsal Rag.

I had already become an avid reader of Leonard Cohen’s poems by my late teens, and I listened to this album throughout the summer of 1971. It was a summer that became nothing less than life-changing in terms of my spiritual growth and maturity.

In my Friday evening reflections this evening, I find myself listening once again to the album Songs of Love and Hate, especially the second track, ‘Last Year’s Man.’

This song has remained on the periphery of Cohen’s classic songs, and is often interpreted as a song about an obsessive love that Cohen has experienced, still seeking this unrequited love.

But the song is filled with Biblical images, and like many of Cohen’s songs it can has its parallels with the songs of many of the Biblical prophets, who see God as faithful to the people, keeps on loving them, and yearns for their return, and see the people as a wayward, unfaithful spouse or lover.

‘Last Year’s Man’ is no-one less than God, who is the great architect, the Creator, who is dismissed too easily in today’s, modern culture as no longer relevant or credible.

In our wars, violence and lifestyles today, that spill over from one year into the next, year after year, we frustrate God’s plans, we spoil and sully his plans for humanity, and we dismiss him as ‘last year’s man.’

We make new gods of power, wealth and war, we invent our own new superstitions. But God still has plans and hopes for his wayward people, and waits like a faithful husband for the return of the lover who has turned away.

There is an echo here of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Micah and other prophets in the promise:

And we read from pleasant Bibles that are bound in blood and skin
that the wilderness is gathering
all its children back again.

The relevant passages include Isaiah 64 and 65, Jeremiah 31, Hosea 1 and 2, and Micah 7.

At first hearing, there may be a Jewish reference in the description of ‘a Jew’s harp on the table.’ But a Jew’s harp is not Jewish at all, and we have to search deeper in this song to draw water from the well of Jewish mysticism in which Cohen so often found refreshment.

In Jewish mysticism, it is God the Creator who breaks through the cracks – whether they are in skylights or in unmended drums – to pour his light into the world. ‘There is a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in,’ as Leonard Cohen sings in his song ‘Anthem’ (The Future, 1992).

Through their writings, both Leonard Cohen and the late Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks have introduced me to the writings of the 16th century Jewish mystic, Rabbi Isaac Luria (1534-1572), whose teachings are known as Lurianic Kabbalah.

According to Isaac Luria, God created vessels into which he poured his holy light. These vessels were not strong enough to contain such a powerful force and they shattered. The sparks of divine light were carried down to earth along with the broken shards.

The Kabbalah of Rav Yitzhak Luria had a notably strong effect on Cohen, and his key ideas are reflected in that line, ‘There is a crack in everything, it’s how the light gets in.’

This divine brokenness is a key to many of Cohen’s poems and songs, according to his rabbi, Mordecai Finley, who says Lurianic Kabbalah gives voice to the impossible brokenness of the human condition. ‘The pain of the Divine breakage permeates reality. We inherit it; it inhabits us. We can deny it. Or we can study and teach it, write it and sing its mournful songs.’

Cohen hints in his songs that redemption – the tikkun olam (תִּיקּוּן עוֹלָם‎) that will repair the broken world – remains possible.

He returns to the Judaism of his childhood and youth, wraps the tefillin around his upper arm, and finds new insights in the Torah: ‘And we read from pleasant Bibles that are bound in blood and skin.’

Cohen regularly ended his concerts with the Priestly Blessing (ברכת כהנים‎; birkat Cohanim). It is also known in rabbinic literature as raising the hands or rising to the platform because the blessing is given from a raised rostrum.

The Jewish Sages stressed that although the Cohanim or priests pronounce the blessing, it is not them or the ceremonial practice of raising their hands that results in the blessing, but rather it is God’s desire that his blessing should be symbolised by the hands of the Cohanim.

Lord Sacks says the Torah explicitly says that though the Cohanim say the words, it is God who sends the blessing: ‘When the Cohanim bless the people, they are not doing anything in and of themselves. Instead, they are acting as channels through which God’s blessing flows into the world and into our lives.’

In many communities, it is customary for men in the congregation to spread their tallitot or prayer shawls over their own heads during the blessing and not look at the Cohanim. If a man has children, they come under his tallit to be blessed.

A tradition among Ashkenazim says that during this blessing, the Shekhinah becomes present where the Cohanim have their hands in the shin (ש) gesture, so that gazing there would be harmful.

An understanding of how the God’s light is thought to be present through the outstretched fingers of the Cohanim may lie behind Leonard Cohen’s lines in ‘Anthem’:

There is a crack in everything
That’s how the light gets in.

The light of God breaks through in the crack in the skylight, and the rains fall like a blessing on all God’s creation.

Shabbat Shalom, שבת שלום‎

Last Year’s Man by Leonard Cohen:

The rain falls down on last year’s man,
That’s a Jew’s harp on the table,
That’s a crayon in his hand.
And the corners of the blueprint are ruined since they rolled
Far past the stems of thumbtacks
That still throw shadows on the wood.
And the skylight is like skin for a drum I’ll never mend
And all the rain falls down Amen
On the works of last year’s man.

I met a lady, she was playing with her soldiers in the dark
Oh one by one she had to tell them
That her name was Joan of Arc.
I was in that army, yes I stayed a little while;
I want to thank you, Joan of Arc,
For treating me so well.

And though I wear a uniform I was not born to fight;
All these wounded boys you lie beside,
Goodnight, my friends, goodnight.

I came upon a wedding that old families had contrived;
Bethlehem the bridegroom,
Babylon the bride.
Great Babylon was naked, oh she stood there trembling for me,
And Bethlehem inflamed us both
Like the shy one at some orgy.
And when we fell together all our flesh was like a veil
That I had to draw aside to see
The serpent eat its tail.

Some women wait for Jesus, and some women wait for Cain,
So I hang upon my altar
And I hoist my axe again.
And I take the one who finds me back to where it all began,
When Jesus was the honeymoon
And Cain was just the man.
And we read from pleasant Bibles that are bound in blood and skin
That the wilderness is gathering
All its children back again.

The rain falls down on last year’s man,
An hour has gone by
And he has not moved his hand.
But everything will happen if he only gives the word;
The lovers will rise up
And the mountains touch the ground.
But the skylight is like skin for a drum I’ll never mend
And all the rain falls down Amen
On the works of last year’s man.



‘Last Year’s Man’ by Leonard Cohen, Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC

Daily prayer in Christmas 2025-2026: 9, Friday 2 January 2026

‘Nine Ladies (and men) Dancing’ in Uçhisar in the Nevşehir District in Cappadocia … traditionally the nine ladies dancing in the Christmas song represent the nine fruits of the Holy Spirit (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

On the ninth day of Christmas my true love sent to me … ‘nine ladies dancing, eight maids a-milking, seven swans a-swimming, six geese a-laying, five golden rings, four colly birds, three French hens, two turtle doves, and a partridge in a pear tree’.

I recently heard these days after Christmas as ‘Betwixtmas’, but we are still in the season of Christmas. The Calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship today (2 January) remembers Saint Basil the Great (379) and Saint Gregory of Nazianzus (389), Bishops and Teachers of the Faith; Saint Seraphim (1833), Monk of Sarov and Spiritual Guide; and Vedanayagam Samuel Azariah (1945), Bishop in South India and Evangelist.

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

1, today’s Gospel reading;

2, a short reflection;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

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

‘On the Ninth Day of Christmas … Nine Ladies Dancing’… traditionally they represent the nine fruits of the Holy Spirit

John 1: 19-28 (NRSVA):

19 This is the testimony given by John when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, ‘Who are you?’ 20 He confessed and did not deny it, but confessed, ‘I am not the Messiah.’ 21 And they asked him, ‘What then? Are you Elijah?’ He said, ‘I am not.’ ‘Are you the prophet?’ He answered, ‘No.’ 22 Then they said to him, ‘Who are you? Let us have an answer for those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?’ 23 He said,

‘I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness,
“Make straight the way of the Lord”,’

as the prophet Isaiah said.

24 Now they had been sent from the Pharisees. 25 They asked him, ‘Why then are you baptizing if you are neither the Messiah, nor Elijah, nor the prophet?’ 26 John answered them, ‘I baptize with water. Among you stands one whom you do not know, 27 the one who is coming after me; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandal.’ 28 This took place in Bethany across the Jordan where John was baptizing.

The nine fruits of the Holy Spirit … traditionally represented by the ‘nine ladies dancing’

Today’s Reflections:

The Christian interpretation of the song ‘The 12 Days of Christmas’ often sees the nine ladies dancing as figurative representations of the nine fruits of the Holy Spirit:

• Love,
• Joy,
• Peace,
• Patience,
• Kindness,
• Goodness,
• Faithfulness,
• Gentleness,
• Self-control
(see Galatians 5: 19-23).

In a sermon in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, many years ago, my late friend the Revd Robert Lawson listed the ten most popular New Year’s resolutions as:

1, Stop smoking.
2, Get fit.
3, Lose weight.
4, Enjoy life more.
5, Quit drinking.
6, Organise myself.
7, Learn something new.
8, Get out of debt.
9, Spend more time with family.
10, Help people.

Which of these gifts of the Holy Spirit do you value most? Which of these gifts of the Holy Spirit do I feel most lacking in me at this stage in my life? Which of these New Year’s resolutions did you make this year?

And how many of these New Year’s resolutions have I made in the past and never managed to keep – even beyond this first week in January?

If you were a speech writer for Saint John the Baptist, what words would you like to hear from ‘the voice of one crying out in the wilderness’ in the face of the many, complex problems the world faces in the coming year?

In the opening verses of his Gospel, Saint John tells us, that the Word, the logos – in other words, what God says, God in action, creating, revealing and redeeming – exists before all time. He is the force behind all that exists; he causes physical and spiritual life to be; life, goodness, light, overcomes all evil. Jesus, the ‘light’ (John 1: 7), took on being human through God, and is the force for goodness, light, godliness, for all people.

He tells too of John the Baptist, who is sent or commissioned by God to point to Christ, to ‘testify to the light’ (verse 7). John is the lamp that illumines the way, but Christ is the light (verse 8). When the religious authorities (verse 19) send their representatives, priests and Levites, to assess John’s authenticity as a religious figure, John tells them that he is neither of the two figures they are expecting to come to earth: he is neither ‘the Messiah’ (verse 20) nor the returned ‘Elijah’ (verse 21). At the time, pious Jews believed that one or both would establish a kingdom on earth that would be free of Roman domination.

Neither is John the prophet some expected would be instrumental in establishing the Messiah’s kingdom. Saint John says simply that he is the one who prepares ‘the way of the Lord’ (verse 23), who announces the Messiah’s coming, fulfilling the promise in Isaiah 40: 3.

The representatives of the Pharisees ask John (verse 25) why he is performing an official rite without official status. John tells them that the one to whom he points is already on earth. He is so great that for his part John protests he is not even worthy to be his slave.

Have you noticed the interesting setting for all this story?

It all takes place outside Israel (see verse 28).

Many years ago, when I was recording a television programme for Joe Duffy’s Spirit Level for RTÉ in 2014, I was part of a panel of four, and in the test run beforehand, each of us was asked how to be addressed, and for titles for the on-screen captions.

We can become very precious about our titles in the Church … ‘Reverend’ … ‘Very Reverend’ … ‘Right Revd’ … Canon … Professor … Dr … Dean … Archdeacon … Your Grace … My Lord … and so on.

I suppose, in terms of respect for the office, or in terms of shorthand descriptions of someone’s function in the Church, they serve a purpose. But respect is not a right, it must be earned, and when we start standing on our dignity, taking ourselves too seriously, something has gone wrong.

I figure if I am known to God by the name I was baptised with, Patrick, then all Christians should feel perfectly comfortable in calling me that.

And in terms of office, I should never forget that I too am one of the laos, the People of God, by virtue of my baptism, and that I remain a deacon, someone who was first ordained to serve.

Meanwhile, as the Orthodox Church commemorated Saint Basil yesterday (1 January) and the Church of England remembers him today, I am reminded that Saint Basil the Great was one of the three Great Cappadocian Fathers, alongside his brother Saint Gregory of Nyssa and the their close friend Gregory of Nazianzus.

And as I think of both Saint Basil and of those nine dancers in Cappadocia who illustrate this posting, and of the nine fruits of the Holy Spirit, I am reminded of how the values of Saint Basil challenge the priorities expressed in any of the New Year’s resolutions we may make: ‘The bread which you do not use is the bread of the hungry; the garment hanging in your wardrobe is the garment of him who is naked; the shoes that you do not wear are the shoes of the one who is barefoot; the money that you keep locked away is the money of the poor; the acts of charity that you do not perform are so many injustices that you commit.’

Would I be recognised as a Christian not for the titles, honours and names the church and society give me but for living showing the fruits of the Spirit by living out values such as these?

The bell above the Church of Aghios Vassilios (Saint Basil) in Koutouloufári, a mountain village in Crete … Saint Basil the Great is remembered in church calendars yesterday and today (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Friday 2 January 2026):

The theme this week (28 December 2025 to 3 January 2026) in Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘Mother and Child’ (pp 14-15). This theme was introduced last Sunday with a Programme Update by Imran Englefield, Individual Giving Manager, USPG.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Friday 2 January 2026) invites us to pray:

Merciful God, we pray for those who are struggling with loss, illness, or fear. Surround them with your comfort, and help them look forward with hope, trusting in your care.

The Collect:

Lord God, whose servants Basil and Gregory
proclaimed the mystery of your Word made flesh,
to build up your Church in wisdom and strength:
grant that we may rejoice in his presence among us,
and so be brought with them to know the power
of your unending love;
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:

God of truth,
whose Wisdom set her table
and invited us to eat the bread and drink the wine
of the kingdom:
help us to lay aside all foolishness
and to live and walk in the way of insight,
that we may come with Basil and Gregory to the eternal feast of heaven;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s Reflections

Continued Tomorrow

Aghios Vassilios (Saint Basil) in traditional icon-style on a studio door in Koutouloufári in Crete … ‘Common Worship’ today remembers Saint Basil the Great (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

Christmas Cards from Patrick Comerford: 8, 1 January 2026

A crib in the front window of a family home on the High Street in Stony Stratford … (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Patrick Comerford

I sent out very few Christmas cards this year. Instead, at noon each day throughout the Twelve Days of Christmas, I am offering an image or two as my virtual Christmas cards, without comment.

My images for my Christmas Card at noon today this New Year’s Day (1 January 2026), are of a crib in the front window of a family home on the High Street in Stony Stratford … with the three Wise Men or Magi waiting to arrive at the crib at Epiphany.

Happy New Year

… and the three Wise Men waiting to visit the crib in the front window of a family home on the High Street in Stony Stratford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Daily prayer in Christmas 2025-2026: 8, Thursday 1 January 2026, New Year’s Day

‘Eight maids a-milking’ … milking maids among the decorations on the pillars and columns in Cahermoyle House, Co Limerick (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

On the eighth day of Christmas my true love sent to me … ‘eight maids a-milking, seven swans a-swimming, six geese a-laying, five golden rings, four colly birds, three French hens, two turtle doves, and a partridge in a pear tree’.

We have come to the beginning of January, the beginning of a New Year, the beginning of 2025. This is New Year’s Day, the eighth day of Christmas today the Calendar of the Church of England remembers the Naming and Circumcision of Jesus.

In many parts of the Roman Catholic tradition, 1 January is marked as the Feast of the Holy Family. In the Orthodox tradition, 1 January is the Feast of the Circumcision of the Lord. But this day is also the feast day of Saint Basil the Great, and so the Divine Liturgy of Saint Basil is served on this day, and in Greece it is customary to bake a bread or cake called Vassilopita (βασιλόπιτα).

The Vintage Stony Car and Motorcycle Festival takes place on the streets of Stony Stratford today, including High Street, Market Square and Cofferidge Close. But, before today begins, before I even begin to look forward to this New Year or to start thinking of those New Year’s resolutions I have yet to make, 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.

Elijah’s Chair, used at the circumcision of a Jewish boy when he is eight days old (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Luke 2: 15-21 (NRSVA):

15 When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, ‘Let us go now to Bethlehem and see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us.’ 16 So they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the child lying in the manger. 17 When they saw this, they made known what had been told them about this child; 18 and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them. 19 But Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart. 20 The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.

21 After eight days had passed, it was time to circumcise the child; and he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb.

The instruments used by a mohel at circumcision … an exhibit in the Jewish Museum in Bratislava (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflections:

The Christian interpretation of the song ‘The 12 Days of Christmas’ often sees the eight maids a-milking as figurative representations of the eight Beatitudes:

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven (see Matthew 5: 2-10).

The eighth day of Christmas is also the day we remember the Naming and Circumcision of Jesus as an eight-day old boy.

This feast has been observed in the Church since at least the sixth century, and the circumcision of Christ has been a common subject in Christian art since the tenth century. A popular 14th century work, the Golden Legend, explains the Circumcision as the first time the Blood of Christ is shed, and so the beginning of the process of the redemption, and a demonstration too that Christ is fully human.

This feast day is also a reminder that the Christ Child is born into a family of faith. He is truly God and truly human, and in his humanity he is also born a Jew, into a faithful and observant Jewish family.

Saint Luke does not say where the Christ Child was circumcised, although great artists – Rembrandt in particular – often place the ritual in the Temple, linking the Circumcision and the Presentation, so that Christ’s suffering begins and ends in Jerusalem.

A display in the Jewish Museum in Bratislava includes a typical example of Elijah’s Chair, used during the Circumcision of a new-born Jewish boy. The godfather (sandek) sits on the chair and holds the child on his knees.

Typically, the Hebrew text on the right-hand upper backrest reads: ‘This is the chair of Elijah, angel of the Covenant.’

The Hebrew text on the left-hand upper backrest reads: ‘Remembering the good (that he did), let him bring salvation quickly in our time.’

In a prayer that has been used at circumcisions since the 14th century but that may be much earlier, God is asked to ‘sustain this child, and let him be known in the house of Israel as … As he has entered into the Covenant of Abraham, so may he enter into the study of Torah, the blessing of marriage, and the practice of goodness.’

The prayer continues: ‘May he who blessed our fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, bless this child who has been circumcised, and grant him a perfect healing. May his parents rear him to have a heart receptive to Torah, to learn and to teach, to keep and to observe your laws.’

The service concludes with the priestly blessing:

The Lord bless you and keep you;
the Lord make his face to shine upon you, and be gracious to you;
the Lord lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace. (see Numbers 6: 23-26)

The festival of the Naming and Circumcision of Jesus provides a much-needed opportunity to challenge antisemitism in the world today, remembering that Christ was born into a practicing, pious Jewish family, and that Holocaust Memorial Day later in January also marks the anniversary of the liberation of the concentration camps, including Auschwitz and Birkenau.

The railway tracks at Auschwitz-Birkenau … the Circumcision and Naming of Christ is a challenge to antisemitism (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Thursday 1 January 2026, New Year’s Day, the Naming and Circumcision of Jesus):

The theme this week (28 December 2025 to 3 January 2026) in Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘Mother and Child’ (pp 14-15). This theme was introduced on Sunday with a Programme Update by Imran Englefield, Individual Giving Manager, USPG.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Thursday 1 January 2026) invites us to pray:

Gracious God, as we begin this new year, we place it in your hands. Guide our steps, bless our work, and fill every day with the hope and promise of new life.

The Collect:

Almighty God,
whose blessed Son was circumcised
in obedience to the law for our sake
and given the Name that is above every name:
give us grace faithfully to bear his Name,
to worship him in the freedom of the Spirit,
and to proclaim him as the Saviour of the world;
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 incarnate Son was given the Name of Saviour:
grant that we who have shared
in this sacrament of our salvation
may live out our years in the power
of the Name above all other names,
Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s Reflections

Continued Tomorrow

Happy New Year

‘Circoncision’ (1740) … a painting by Marco Marcuola depicting Jewish life in Venice now in the Jewish Museum of Art and History (mahJ) in Paris (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

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

An icon of Saint Basil the Great on a door in the hillside village of Koutouloufari in Crete … he is celebrated in the Greek Orthodox calendar on 1 January (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Christmas Cards from Patrick Comerford: 7, 31 December 2025

The children’s crib in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Patrick Comerford

I sent out very few Christmas cards this year. Instead, at noon each day throughout the Twelve Days of Christmas, I am offering an image or two as my virtual Christmas cards, without comment.

My image for my Christmas Card at noon today on New Year’s Eve (31 December 2025), is of the Children’s Christmas Crib which was brought to Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford, last week, on Christmas Eve (25 December 2025).

Daily prayer in Christmas 2025-2026: 7, Wednesday 31 December 2025, New Year’s Eve

‘On the Seventh Day of Christmas … seven swans-a-swimming’ on the Grand Canal at Inchicore, Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

On the seventh day of Christmas my true love sent to me … ‘seven swans a-swimming, six geese a-laying, five golden rings, four colly birds, three French hens, two turtle doves, and a partridge in a pear tree’.

We have come to the end of December, the end of the year, the end of 2025. This is New Year’s Eve, the seventh day of Christmas and tomorrow is New Year’s Day.

Today, the Calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship remembers John Wyclif (1384), an early, pre-Reformation reformer. Before today begins, before I even begin to look back on the past year or to start thinking of any New Year’s resolutions, 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.

‘Christ in Majesty’ by Sir Ninian Comper in Southwark Cathedral, surrounded by seven doves, symbolising the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

John 1: 1-18 (NRSVA):

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being 4 in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.

6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. 8 He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. 9 The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.

10 He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. 11 He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. 12 But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.

14 And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth. 15 (John testified to him and cried out, ‘This was he of whom I said, “He who comes after me ranks ahead of me because he was before me”.’) 16 From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. 17 The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known.

The Four Cardinal Virtues and the Three Theological Virtues … windows in the Church of Sant Jaume in Barcelona (Photographs: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflections:

‘To begin at the beginning’ – these are the opening lines of Under Milk Wood by Dylan Thomas (1954).

Or I might begin with words from Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carrol. In Chapter 12, the White Rabbit puts on his spectacles.

‘Where shall I begin, please your Majesty?’ he asked.

‘Begin at the beginning,’ the King said gravely, ‘and go on till you come to the end: then stop.’

TS Eliot’s ‘East Coker,’ the second of his Four Quartets, is set at the end of the year and opens:

In my beginning is my end.

It is December, and he goes on to say:

In my beginning is my end. Now the light falls
Across the open field, leaving the deep lane
Shuttered with branches, dark in the afternoon …

The opening words at the beginning of a play, a novel or a poem – or for that matter, a sermon – can be important for holding the reader’s or the listener’s attention and telling me what to expect. Begin as you mean to go on.

So it is surprising to some that Charles Dickens waits until the second sentence in David Copperfieldto say: ‘To begin my life with the beginning of my life …’

At the very end of the year, the Gospel reading at the Eucharist is the beginning of Saint John’s Gospel: ‘In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God …’

The Christian interpretation of the song ‘The 12 Days of Christmas’ often sees the seven swans a-swimming on this day as figurative representations of the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit or the seven virtues – Wisdom, Understanding, Counsel, Fortitude, Knowledge, Piety and Fear of the Lord – or they might even represent the seven churches of the Book of Revelation.

Sir Ninian Comper’s East Window in Southwark Cathedral shows Christ in Majesty in the centre light, with the Virgin Mary on the left and Saint John the Evangelist on the right. Christ sits enthroned above the world surrounded by seven doves, symbolising the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit: Wisdom, Understanding, Counsel, Fortitude, Knowledge, Piety and Fear of the Lord.

Christ is depicted in the window as a youthful figure, with a globe or the world below his feet bearing seven stars representing the seven churches in the Book of Revelation:

• Ephesus (Revelation 2: 1-7): known for toil and not patient endurance, and separating themselves from the wicked; admonished for having abandoned their first love (2: 4).

• Smyrna (Revelation 2: 8-11): admired for its affliction and poverty; about to suffer persecution (2: 10).

• Pergamum (Revelation 2: 12-17): living where ‘Satan’s throne is; needs to repent of allowing heretics to teach (2: 16).

• Thyatira (Revelation 2: 18-29): known for its love, faith, service, and patient endurance; tolerates the teachings of a beguiling and prophet who refuses to repent (2: 20).

• Sardis (Revelation 3: 1-6): admonished for being spiritually dead, despite its reputation; told to wake up and repent (3: 2-3).

• Philadelphia (Revelation 3: 7-13): known for its patient endurance and keeping God’s word (3: 10).

• Laodicea (Revelation 3: 14-22): is neither cold nor hot, but lukewarm, called on to be earnest and repent (3: 19).

The cardinal virtues comprise a set of four virtues recognised in Classical writings and are usually paired with the three theological virtues.

The cardinal virtues are the four principal moral virtues on which all other virtues hinge: prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance. The three theological virtues are: faith, hope and love. Together, the cardinal virtues and the theological virtues comprise what are known as the seven virtues.

Plato is the first philosopher to discuss the cardinal virtues when he discusses them in the Republic. In his Rhetoric, Aristotle writes: ‘The forms of Virtue are justice, courage, temperance, magnificence, magnanimity, liberality, gentleness, prudence, wisdom.’ Cicero, like Plato, limits the list to four virtues.

Saint Ambrose, Saint Augustine of Hippo and Saint Thomas Aquinas adapted them, and Saint Ambrose was the first to use the term ‘cardinal virtues.’

The three Theological Virtues are: Faith, Hope and Love (see I Corinthians 13).

In his King’s Speech on Christmas Day this year, King Charles pondered the state of the world today and referred to the ways of living that ‘are treasured by all the great faiths and provide us with deep wells of hope: of resilience in the face of adversity; peace through forgiveness; simply getting to know our neighbours and, by showing respect to one another, creating new friendships.

‘Indeed, as our world seems to spin ever faster, our journeying may pause, to quieten our minds – in TS Eliot’s words “At the still point of the turning world” – and allow our souls to renew.

‘In this, with the great diversity of our communities, we can find the strength to ensure that right triumphs over wrong.’

As we step into the New Year, we know that our world is a deeply uncertain place. Few of us predicted the events of the last few years – the return of Covid-19 in many new strains, a major land war in Europe, the conflicts on many fronts in the Middle East, the unresolved refugee crises, the rise of the far-right across Europe, the return of Donald Trump to a second term of office … Where shall I begin to imagine what lies ahead in 2025?

King Charles was quoting from TS Eliot’s Burnt Norton. But once again I call to mind East Coker:

O dark dark dark. They all go into the dark …
I said to my soul, be still, and let the dark come upon you
Which shall be the darkness of God …

Yet, in this apocalyptic, visionary, poem, Eliot is neither all doom nor all gloom. He talks about Faith

… pointing to the agony
Of death and birth.

And he concludes East Coker:

Old men ought to be explorers
Here and there does not matter
We must be still and still moving
Into another intensity
For a further union, a deeper communion
Through the dark cold and empty desolation,
The wave cry, the wind cry, the vast waters
Of the petrel and the porpoise. In my end is my beginning.

‘On the Seventh Day of Christmas … seven swans-a-swimming’ on the Grand Canal at Harold’s Cross, Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Wednesday 31 December 2025):

The theme this week (28 December 2025 to 3 January 2026) in Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘Mother and Child’ (pp 14-15). This theme was introduced on Sunday with a Programme Update by Imran Englefield, Individual Giving Manager, USPG.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Wednesday 31 December 2025) invites us to pray:

Gracious God, we give thanks for the work of USPG over the past year. For every life touched, every family supported, and every community strengthened, we give thanks and pray that your love continues to shine throughout the world.

The Collect:

Almighty God,
who wonderfully created us in your own image
and yet more wonderfully restored us
through your Son Jesus Christ:
grant that, as he came to share in our humanity,
so we may share the life of his divinity;
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

Heavenly Father,
whose blessed Son shared at Nazareth the life of an earthly home:
help your Church to live as one family,
united in love and obedience,
and bring us all at last to our home in heaven;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

God in Trinity,
eternal unity of perfect love:
gather the nations to be one family,
and draw us into your holy life
through the birth of Emmanuel,
our Lord Jesus Christ.

Collect on the Eve of the Naming and Circumcision of Jesus:

Almighty God,
whose blessed Son was circumcised
in obedience to the law for our sake
and given the Name that is above every name:
give us grace faithfully to bear his Name,
to worship him in the freedom of the Spirit,
and to proclaim him as the Saviour of the world;
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Happy New Year

Yesterday’s Reflections

Continued Tomorrow

The Swan … once claimed to be the oldest pub in Lichfield, but has since been turned into a restaurant and apartments (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

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

Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2025: 114, Monday 1 September 2025

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

Patrick Comerford

We have arrived at the beginning of a new month, the beginning of September. We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar, and yesterday was the Eleventh Sunday after Trinity (Trinity XI, 31 August 2025). We are celebrating the 1700th anniversary this year of the Council of Nicaea in the year 325 CE. One of the decisions at Nicaea was that the New Church Year begins on 1 September, a tradition still observed by the Eastern Orthodox Church and Eastern Rite Catholics.

Today is also the first day of Autumn, Creationtide begins today, the beginning of the Church year in the Orthodox calendar, and continues until 4 October, the feast of Saint Francis of Assisi. The Calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship today remembers Saint Giles of Provence, Hermit, who died ca 710. Saint Giles is the co-patron of Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford. There is an organ rectital by Jacob Collins in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church at 12:45 today. 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.

‘He stood up to read and … he unrolled the scroll’ (Luke 4: 18-19) … a scroll in the Jewish Museum in the Ghetto in Venice (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Luke 4: 16-30 (NRSVA):

16 When he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the sabbath day, as was his custom. He stood up to read, 17 and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written:

18 ‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to let the oppressed go free,
19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.’

20 And he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. 21 Then he began to say to them, ‘Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.’ 22 All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth. They said, ‘Is not this Joseph’s son?’ 23 He said to them, ‘Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, “Doctor, cure yourself!” And you will say, “Do here also in your home town the things that we have heard you did at Capernaum”.’ 24 And he said, ‘Truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in the prophet’s home town. 25 But the truth is, there were many widows in Israel in the time of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up for three years and six months, and there was a severe famine over all the land; 26 yet Elijah was sent to none of them except to a widow at Zarephath in Sidon. 27 There were also many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian.’ 28 When they heard this, all in the synagogue were filled with rage. 29 They got up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they might hurl him off the cliff. 30 But he passed through the midst of them and went on his way.

‘He went to the synagogue on the sabbath day, as was his custom’ (Luke 4: 16) … inside the Etz Hayyim Synagogue in Chania, Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflection:

This morning we begin a series of readings in Saint Luke’s Gospel that bring us to the end of the Church year.

In this morning’s Gospel reading, we find ourselves at the beginning of Jesus’ public life. After his baptism by Saint John the Baptist (see Luke 3), he returns to Galilee and his home towns of Capernaum and Nazareth, the small towns where he has spent his early years.

In this reading, Jesus not only returns to his home region, but he also lays out the agenda or reads the manifesto for his ministry for the coming years, yet sets the scene for his rejection by his own people.

The reading opens with Jesus in the synagogue on the Sabbath day, as is his custom. He is called up to read the Scripture and comments on it. The synagogue was controlled by a board of elders and by the chazzan or attendant. On Saturdays, the sabbath service began with the shema, ‘Hear O Israel …’, a simple declaration of faith (see Deuteronomy 6: 4-9), and included prayers, fixed readings from the Torah or the first five books of the Bible, a reading from the Prophets, a sermon, and a blessing.

The two readings were in Hebrew, with a running translation into the vernacular, that was normally Aramaic but might have been Greek in some places. It would have been normal for literate adult male Jews to be called in turn to read the Scriptures in the synagogue: first those who were of priestly descent, the Cohanim, then the Levites, and then the other Israelites. So, on this particular Saturday, Jesus may have been the third person called on to read, or he may even have been further down the list.

The scroll of Isaiah is given to him by the chazzan or attendant, who combines the functions that we might associate with a sexton, verger, churchwarden and Sunday school teacher. And it is to him that Christ returns the scroll when he is finished reading from it (verse 20).

The portion Christ reads from (verse 18-19) is actually three verses, and they do not come in sequence: Isaiah 61: 1, part only of verse 2, and a portion of Isaiah 58: 6. So, even if Christ had been handed a pre-selected portion of Scripture to read, he makes a deliberate choice to roll back the scroll and to insert a portion of an extra verse, Isaiah 58: 6.

Having read while standing, Christ then sits down, the normal posture at the time for someone who is about to teach. When he sits down, all eyes are on him (verse 20), so it is he and he alone who is expected to preach and teach that morning. The reading may need explaining and interpretation before the people who hear it realise they have just heard good news.

Christ tells the people in the synagogue that the Scripture is fulfilled in their hearing. Scripture has not been read that morning just to comply with part of the ritual; it actually has immediate meaning, significance and relevance that day. Christ is not merely reading the words, he is promising to see them put into action, to transform hope into reality.

His reading from Isaiah amounts to his manifesto or mission statement:

• to bring good news to the poor
• to proclaim release to the captives
• recovery of sight to the blind
• to set free those who are oppressed
• to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.

The ‘year of the Lord’s favour’ is the Messianic age when salvation would be proclaimed. Isaiah, in the original text, is describing the Year of Jubilee, when every 50 years slaves were set free, debts were cancelled and ancestral lands were returned to the original family.

As he finished the reading, Jesus put down the scroll and said: ‘Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing’ (verse 21).

At first, those who hear him are overawed by his words and his wisdom. But there is an unexpected turn of events as the people wondering why he is not doing in Nazareth what he has been doing in Capernaum and other places.

Jesus reminds them that prophets are seldom accepted in their own place, and gives two provocative examples: Elijah, who was sent to a poor widow in Zarephath, near Sidon, a Phoenician city beyond Tyre; and Elisha, who healed Naaman, a gentile general from Syria.

His remarks so anger the people of Nazareth that they think of killing Jesus.

Driven out of that synagogue and out of town, I think of Christ having three options:

1, To allow himself to be silenced.

2, To keep on preaching in other synagogues, but to never put into practice what he says, so that those who are worried have their fears allayed and realise he is no threat.

3, To preach and to put his teachings into practice, to show that he means what he says, that his faith is reflected in his priorities, to point to what the Kingdom of God is truly like.

Christ takes the third option, as we see as the readings in Saint Luke’s Gospel continue. He brings good news to the poor, he releases this poor captive, he can now see things as they are and as they ought to be, the oppressed may go free, and all are amazed.

This morning’s Gospel reading is good news, and not just to the poor and oppressed in Nazareth in the past. Who are the poor, the captives, the blind and the oppressed among us today?

How do we respond to them and their needs?

Do we remain others take to the streets of our town and cities, outside hotels and in our public spaces, to further oppress them, even using the law and misusing the symbolism of the cross to further their violent actions?

And what do we do so that the poor, the captives, the blind and the oppressed among us know that we believe compassion for them is at the heart of Christ’s ministry, message and mission?

‘He stood up to read and … he unrolled the scroll’ (Luke 4: 18-19) … a scroll in the Klausen Synagogue in Prague (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Monday 1 September 2025):

The theme this week (31 August to 6 September) in Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘A Faith that Listens and Grows’ (pp 34-35). This theme was introduced yesterday with reflections from Soshi Kawashima, Seminarian, Diocese of Chubu, Nippon Sei Ko Kai (Anglican Church in Japan). Soshi took part in the Emerging Leaders Academy (ELA), a cross-cultural learning opportunity for young people across the Anglican Communion.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Monday 1 September 2025) invites us to pray:

Lord, heal the wounds of division and bring reconciliation to those experiencing pain and separation. May your love unite us all, regardless of our differences.

In my prayers this morning, I am also including the members of the PCC of Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford, who are meeting the Bishop of Buckingham and the Archdeacon of Buckingham this afternoon.

The Collect:

O God, you declare your almighty power
most chiefly in showing mercy and pity:
mercifully grant to us such a measure of your grace,
that we, running the way of your commandments,
may receive your gracious promises,
and be made partakers of your heavenly treasure; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post Communion Prayer:

Lord of all mercy,
we your faithful people have celebrated that one true sacrifice
which takes away our sins and brings pardon and peace:
by our communion
keep us firm on the foundation of the gospel
and preserve us from all sin;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

God of glory,
the end of our searching,
help us to lay aside
all that prevents us from seeking your kingdom,
and to give all that we have
to gain the pearl beyond all price,
through our Saviour Jesus Christ.

Yesterday’s reflections

Continued tomorrow

The icon of Saint Giles by Brother Leon Lidderment of Walsingham in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford (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

‘Adoration of the Torah’ by Artur Markiowicz (1872-1934) in the Jewish Museum in the Old Synagogue, Kraków (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)