Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2026: 122, Monday 7 September 2026

‘On another sabbath he entered the synagogue and taught, and there was a man there whose right hand was withered’ (Luke 6: 6) … ‘Healing Hands’, a sculpture by Shane Gilmore in Ennis, Co Clare (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).

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.

A Hamsa Hand from the Old Jewish Quarter in Prague with a prayer attributed to Rabbi Yehuda ben Bezalel Lewa ‘Maharal’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Luke 6: 6-11 (NRSVA):

6 On another sabbath he entered the synagogue and taught, and there was a man there whose right hand was withered. 7 The scribes and the Pharisees watched him to see whether he would cure on the sabbath, so that they might find an accusation against him. 8 Even though he knew what they were thinking, he said to the man who had the withered hand, ‘Come and stand here.’ He got up and stood there. 9 Then Jesus said to them, ‘I ask you, is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the sabbath, to save life or to destroy it?’ 10 After looking around at all of them, he said to him, ‘Stretch out your hand.’ He did so, and his hand was restored. 11 But they were filled with fury and discussed with one another what they might do to Jesus.

Father Michael Lapsley standing at the altar and presiding at the Eucharist in Saint George the Martyr, Silvertown, Cape Town, last month

Today’s Reflections:

This morning’s Gospel reading (Luke 6: 6-11) tells another story of healing in a synagogue and on the Sabbath.

At one time, not having two functioning hands was an impediment to ordination to the priesthood in the Roman Catholic Church. A priest without hands was regarded as unable to take the bread and wine in his hands at the words of institution, to raise them at the elevation, to distribute them at the Eucharist, to pronounce absolution, or to give a blessing.

In a similar way, not being able to stand on one’s own two legs was also an impediment, seen as stopping a priest from standing at the altar and presiding at the Eucharist.

Father Michael Lapsley, a Facebook friend, is a New Zealand-born Anglican priest in South Africa. At the height of apartheid, he was a university chaplain in Durban. At the time of the Soweto uprising and killings 50 years ago in 1976, he began to speak out on behalf of schoolchildren who were being shot, detained and tortured. His activism resulted in his expulsion from South Africa. He continued his studies in exile in in Lesotho, and became a chaplain to the African National Congress.

He moved to Zimbabwe in 1982, and there in 1990, three months after Nelson Mandela’s release from prison, he was sent a letter bomb. He lost both hands and the sight in one eye in the blast, and was seriously burnt. He was about to become a parish priest in Bulawayo. Instead, he spent months on end in hospitals first in Harare and then in Australia.

When he returned to Zimbabwe, his bishop had given the parish to someone else. ‘He looked at me and said, But you are disabled now. What can you do?’ He replied: ‘I think I can be more of a priest with no hands than I ever was with two hands.’

Archbishop Desmond Tutu invited him to work in his diocese, telling him, ‘I have a priest who’s deaf, one who’s blind, now one with no hands, come and work in my diocese.’

Father Michael has continued as a priest, working with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, helping to set up the Institute for Healing of Memories in Cape Town, and creating the International Network for Peace to promote effective and nonviolent solutions to terrorism.

He has been a canon of the cathedral in both Cape Town and Edmonton, Canada, vice-president of the South African Council of Churches (2014-2017), and has been honoured with honorary doctorates and medals. Nelson Mandela said of him, ‘Michael’s life … is part of the tapestry of the many long journeys and struggles of our people.’

‘I can’t shake hands,’ he once told Chris Chivers of The Tablet, ‘but I do love hugs.’

I have a Hamsa Hand from Josefov, the Old Jewish Quarter in Prague, hanging above the kitchen door in Stony Stratford. The small Hamsa Hand points down and is decorated with an eye and some fish.

Some years ago, in Hamsa, a kosher and Middle Eastern restaurant in Kraków, I learned how the Hamsa is a popular talisman throughout the Middle East, a sign of protection and blessing. An introductory leaflet said the Hamsa hand ‘helps you make the right choices, find friends and in times of doubt gives us hope that everything will work out.’

The Hamsa Hand is used as a symbol throughout the Middle East, among Jews, Muslims and some Christians as a protective sign. The Hamsa Hand, particularly the open right hand, also represents blessings, power and strength. It is a common symbol in jewellery in the Middle East and is also painted on the walls of houses or on the doorways of rooms.

The Hamsa Hand has a wide variety of names and variant spellings, including hamesh, hamsa, chamsa, and khamsa. Different Jewish traditions identify it as the ‘Hand of Miriam,’ the sister of Aaron and Moses, while many Muslims refer to it as the ‘Hand of Fatima.’

The Hamsa Hand has two main styles. One is shaped like a regular hand, the other has two symmetrical thumbs. The second style is the most popular, and the hamsa can be worn facing up or down.

It is difficult to pinpoint when the Hamsa Hand emerged in Jewish culture, although it is clearly a symbol that is Sephardic in nature. Jews might have used the hamsa to invoke the hand of God, or to counteract the Evil Eye with the eye embedded in the palm of the hand. It is often worn as a pendant on a necklace but also is found on key chains, house decorations, baby carriages, and other jewellery items.

Some hamsa hands contain images of fish, referring to a saying in the Talmud by Rabbi Yose son of Hanina that the descendants of Joseph, who received Jacob’s blessing of multiplying like fish in Genesis 48: 16, are protected from the Evil Eye like fish. He explains: ‘the water covers the fish of the sea so the eye has no power over them’ (Berakhot 55b).

Other images that have found their way into the hamsa include the Star of David, prayers for travellers, the Shema, the blessing over the house, and the colours red and blue.

The meaning of the Hamsa Hand has a variety of interpretations, but the name hamsa seems to come from the five fingers of the hand. In Hebrew, the number five is hamesh and the fifth letter of the Hebrew alphabet, Hē (ה), is one of God’s holy names, an abbreviation for Hashem, which means ‘The Name’ and is a way of saying God without actually saying the name of God.

It can also represent the five books of the Torah or the five senses used to praise God.

The symbol of the hand appears in Kabbalistic manuscripts and amulets, doubling also as the Hebrew letter Shin (ש), the first letter of Shaddai, one of the names referring to God. In these variations of the hamsa, the index and middle fingers, and the ring and small finger, are joined, giving three upward strokes and the shape of the letter shin (ש). This calls on the all-sufficiency of Shaddai, ‘the Almighty,’ a name for God, to impart the blessing.

Some writers say the Hamsa has been present in Judaism since Biblical times, and cite Deuteronomy 5: 15, where it refers to the ‘strong hand’ of God who led the people out of slavery in Egypt.

Later, in late antiquity, the Byzantine period, and even in mediaeval Europe, including mediaeval Spain, the Hamsa Hand is seen in Jewish art as God’s hand reaching down from heaven.

In the Middle Ages, the Hamsa Hand became associated particularly with the medical arts, and was displayed by Maimonides as a token of the healings he sought to obtain from God and the orderly Creation. It has also been traditionally combined with the eye symbol, but this does not add any potency to either symbol used separately.

One of the most prominent early appearances of the Hamsa Hand is the image of a large open hand that appears on the Puerta Judiciaria (Gate of Judgment) of the Alhambra in southern Spain.

Some historians, including Shalom Sabar, argue that after the Jewish expulsion from Spain in 1492, exiled Jews used the hamsa as a sign of protection and ‘as a distinctive sign of the priesthood, especially when they wished to show that a person was of priestly descent ...’

The use of the hamsa in Jewish culture has been intermittent. It was often used by Sephardic Jews in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, but it was used less and less over time into the mid-20th century.

Among Jewish people, the hamsa has become a respected, holy and common symbol. It is used in the ketubot or marriage contracts, as well as items that dress the Torah such as pointers, and the Passover Haggadah.

In the kabbalah, the hamsa is the symbol of an extended hand and literally means ‘fivefold,’ from chamesh, five. It is usually depicted in an artificially stylised form, with the thumb and the small finger at identical lengths and the hand in a symmetrical shape rather than a left or right or right.

The first meaning is extending one’s hand towards another in a gesture of peace, blessing and fellowship. From this meaning is derived its symbolism for communal prayer, one for another, and particularly the two prayers of initiation and restoration.

From these meanings are derived its use as a symbol of welcome and of healing, including physical healing. It is said, therefore, that anyone who displays the Hamsa Hand has a responsibility to pray continually for those who may view it.

However, the power of the universal gesture is that the universal energy field, which works through order rather than force, is most easily transmitted through the hands. From this fact is derived the principle that smikhah (the ‘laying on of hands’) can physically confer benefits. It takes from what belongs to the giver, including status, authority, and leadership among others, health, vitality, and peace within oneself, and gives it to the receiver.

Some interpretations say the hands are depicted with the fingers spread apart to ward off evil, or closed together to bring good luck, that fingers point up to ward off evil and down to bestow blessings.

The left hand is often regarded as unclean in Middle Eastern cultures because of its function in personal cleanliness. The man in this morning’s Gospel reading is not merely ‘down on his luck’ but he is constantly forced into a state of ritual uncleanliness because of his withered right hand.

In his gestures to this man in the synagogue, Jesus uses his hand as a symbol of welcome and of healing, including physical healing.In his invitation to this man, ‘Come and stand here,’ Jesus calls him from the margins into a full place in the heart of the community of faith. Jesus has status, authority, and leadership among others, health, vitality, and peace within himself, and he gives these to those he heals and restore. Through taking his full place, the man finds healing and restoration.

A hand as a decorative door knocker on Souliou Street in Rethymnon, Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Monday 7 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 6-12 September 2026 (pp 36-37), is ‘Turning Pain into Glory’. This theme was introduced yesterday 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 (Monday 7 September 2026) invites us to pray:

Father in heaven, giver of life, I thank you for my breath and for making me in your image and likeness. Walk with me today and help me to live in the strength and wisdom you give.

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.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

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

He said to him, ‘Stretch out your hand.’ He did so, and his hand was restored (Luke 6: 10) … the ‘Wishing Hand’ sculpture by Linda Brunker at the Department of Education on Marlborough Street, Dublin (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 Hamsa Hand used to serve food in the Hamsa restaurant in Kraków (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Peering through the keyhole, but is the Order of Malta Europe’s smallest microstate or an anomalous leftover?

The Aventine Keyhole is said to allow the curious to peer through three sovereign territories at once: the Order of Malta’s property, Italy, and Vatican City (Photograph: Order of Malta)

Patrick Comerford

I have been to some of the smallest states in Europe over the years. Both the Vatican and San Marino are completely landlocked within Italian territory, yet are sovereign entities themselves, with all the international rights and obligations that entails.

Malta is off the coast of Italy, but it too is a sovereign, independent, internationally recognised state and, unlike San Marino and the Vatican, it is a full member of the European Union.

I have missed out on visiting Monaco, Lichtenstein and Andorra, which are also counted as European microstates, although on one occasion I came close to standing on former Andorran sovereign territory when I stood on the steps of the court building in Perpignan, once the supreme court of Andorra although it is in French territory.

Cyprus, where I have worked and been on holiday, and Luxembourg, are too large, both in land territory and population numbers, to be bring the six European microstates up to eight in number. The Isle of Man, which I visited in my teens, and the many Channel Islands, such as Guernsey, Jersey, Alderney and Sark, are not fully sovereign as they are crown dependencies of the United Kingdom and they do not represent themselves in international bodies such as the UN.

The former Supreme Court of Andorra was once in the French city of Perpignan (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

While the microstates have sovereignty over their own territory, there are small autonomous territories in Europe that, despite having more or less own independent government, executive branch, legislature, judiciary, police, and other trappings of independence, are nonetheless under the sovereignty of another state. Some of those anomalous places I have visited include Gibraltar, which is a British overseas territory surrounded by Spain, but not a separate independent state.

And I have been to places that are unusual, such as Mount Athos, the autonomous monastic community in Greece, often described as a monastic state and under the direct jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople.

In Cyprus, I have passed though Akrotiri and Dhekelia, which is a British overseas territory, and I have crossed the ‘Green Line’ in Nicosia into the so-called ‘Turkish Republic of Norther Cyprus’, hardly a microstate as it remains essentially the Turkish-occupied part of the divided island and its statehood is not recognised by the UN, the EU, any EU member state or in international law.

The border crossing between San Marino and Italy … the mountain republic is totally surrounded by Italian territory (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

At times, counting these places is like counting sheep in restless or sleepless moments in the night, and reminiscent of the 99 Ealing comedy Passport to Pimlico, which I was writing about the week before last (7 August 2026). But over the weekend, I found myself asking whether I had missed out on listing one European microstate that I may also have visited in the past.

The Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, of Rhodes and of Malta, to give the order its formal and legal name, is a sovereign entity in its title and in international law and it has diplomatic relations with many sovereign states and nations. It no longer has territory, and certainly not in Jerusalem, Rhodes, or Malta, all of which I have visited in the past. On the other hand, some of the order’s buildings in Rome, including its headquarters at the Magistral Palace, have special autonomous privileges in Italian law.

Although not a state, the Order of Malta or the Knights of Malta is a sovereign entity under international law. It has permanent non-state observer status at the UN, it has full diplomatic relations, including embassies, with 115 states, it issues its own stamps, coins, passports and license plates, and it has its own army medical corps.

The Grand Master, who is elected for ten years, is known as the Prince and Grand Master, and is both the religious superior and the Sovereign of the Order of Malta, and also holds the title of Most Eminent Highness.

The biometric passports issued by the Order of Malta are diplomatic and service passports and are said to be among the rarest in the world, with only about 500 in total. They are reserved strictly for members of the government (Sovereign Council), diplomatic corps, and select humanitarian officials, and they are recognised in over 100 countries.

The Battle of Lepanto (1571) by Karel Škréta above the altar in the Church of Our Lady Beneath the Chain, a church linked to the Knights of Malta in Prague (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Two friends on Facebook were having a discussion the weekend before last about the international status of the Order of Malta. One suggested that the Order of Malta, rather than the Vatican, is technically the pedantic correct answer to the question, ‘What is the world’s smallest state?’

Unlike the Holy See, which is sovereign over the Vatican City, the Order of Malta has no territory. However, its headquarters in the Palazzo Malta on Via dei Condotti and the Villa Malta on the Aventine Hill are granted extraterritoriality by Italy, and Malta extends the same status to the order’s historical headquarters in Fort St Angelo.

The Aventine Keyhole is a famous peephole in the green door of the Villa del Priorato di Malta in Rome. Looking through the keyhole gives sight of a perfectly manicured garden hedge framing the dome of Saint Peter’s Basilica. This unique spot is said to allow the curious to peer through three sovereign territories at once: the order’s property, Italy, and Vatican City.

The Aventine Hill is one of the Seven Hills on which ancient Rome was built. I stayed once in Sant’Anselmo, the Benedictine Abbey on the Aventine Hill, as a guest during a conference on the Church in China. The campus includes Sant’Anselmo Abbey, the offices of the Benedictine Confederation, the residence of the Abbot Primate, the College of Sant’Anselmo, as well as the Church of Sant’Anselmo.

The campus faces onto the Piazza dei Cavalieri di Malta, the square on the Aventine Hill created in 1764 by the architect Giovanni Battista Piranesi. Outside, on the square, tourists queue up in long lines to peer through the keyhole of the ‘Buco della Serratura’ as they are told that are standing in one state (Italy), looking through another one (Order of Malta), and seeing a third (Vatican).

The former Palace of the Grand Masters in Valletta is now the office of the President of Malta (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

I have visited the former Palace of the Grand Masters in Rhodes. The Knights of Rhodes were expelled from the island by the Ottoman Turks in 1522, and the surviving knights sailed first to Crete, then under Venetian rule, as a staging and regrouping point before moving on to Sicily and eventually Malta, becoming the Knights of Malta. They lost their last footholds in Crete in 1669. The knights were expelled from Malta by Napoleon in 1798, and the former Palace of the Grand Masters in Valletta is now the office of the President of Malta.

Ever since, the Magistral Villa has been at the heart of the Order of Malta’s institutional life, welcoming heads of state, ambassadors and visitors from around the world. It is home to Piranesi’s Church of Santa Maria in Aventino and to the keyhole framing the dome of Saint Peter’s Basilica.

No passport checks are needed for this experience – but then I’ve never been asked for a passport going in or out of the Vatican or San Marino either. Unlike Monaco, San Marino or Andorra, neither the Vatican nor the Order of Malta has an international football team or football league. Monaco has own international team, but AS Monaco plays in Ligue 1, the top tier of French football, and very successfully too. San Marino is currently the lowest-ranked FIFA-affiliated national football team, having won only three matches since their inception. Its chances might improve dramatically if either the Vatican or San Marino decided to sign up, and perhaps signing up the Order of Malta might even increase the moral tone of the pressure on Gianno Infantino to stand down.

As for the knights’ former territories, Rhodes is a part of Greece and Malta is a sovereign, independent EU-member state. And Air Malta is not the air force of the Knights of Malta – its a wholly-owned subsidiary of Ryanair, and it operates scheduled flights on behalf of Ryanair. It’s more like the ‘Nights of Malta’ and the nearest you get to an order, I suppose, is the orderly queueing for ‘Priority’ and ‘Non-Priority’ boarding.

Malta Air … more like the ‘Nights of Malta’ than the ‘Knights of Malta’, flies the flag for Ryanair (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2026: 115, Monday 31 August 2026

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 end of the month, and this is the August bank holiday weekend here. We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar and the week began with the Thirteenth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity XIII, 30 August 2026). The calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship today remembers Saint Aidan (651), Bishop of Lindisfarne, Missionary.

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 31 August 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 30 August to 5 September 2026 (pp 34-35), is ‘Anglican Youth Tackle Waste in Madagascar’. This theme was introduced yesterday with a Programme Update by Ialy Tongasoa, Community Development Lead, Diocese of Toliara, Madagascar.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Monday 31 August 2026) invites us to pray:

Dear God, bless the Anglican youth of Madagascar as they learn about protecting and restoring the environment. Give them courage and energy to inspire their communities too.

The Collect:

Everlasting God,
you sent the gentle bishop Aidan
to proclaim the gospel in this land:
grant us to live as he taught
in simplicity, humility and love for the poor;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post Communion Prayer:

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

Yesterday’s reflections

Continued tomorrow

Saint Aidan depicted in a panel on the altar in Saint Chad’s Church, Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

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

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

Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2026: 102, Monday 17 August 2026

‘He went away grieving, for he had many possessions’ (Matthew 19: 22) … inside an antiques shop in the old town in Rethymnon in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar and this week began with the Eleventh Sunday after Trinity (Trinity XI, 16 August 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.

‘Give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven’ (Matthew 19: 21) … old coins in a tin box outside an antiques shop in Rethymnon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Matthew 19: 16-22 (NRSVA):

16 Then someone came to him and said, ‘Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?’ 17 And he said to him, ‘Why do you ask me about what is good? There is only one who is good. If you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments.’ 18 He said to him, ‘Which ones?’ And Jesus said, ‘You shall not murder; You shall not commit adultery; You shall not steal; You shall not bear false witness; 19 Honour your father and mother; also, You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’ 20 The young man said to him, ‘I have kept all these; what do I still lack?’ 21 Jesus said to him, ‘If you wish to be perfect, go, sell your possessions, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.’ 22 When the young man heard this word, he went away grieving, for he had many possessions.

‘Sell your possessions, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven’ (Matthew 19: 21) … a market stall in Blackrock, Co Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflection:

The man who comes to Jesus for advice in this morning’s Gospel reading is first of all described as ‘someone’ or merely ‘one’ (εἷς). Later, in verses 20 and 22, he is a νεανίσκος (neanískos), a young man, a man in the early stages of adult life, even a young lad.

Earlier in this chapter, in Saturday’s reading (Matthew 19: 13-15), we came across the word παιδία (padía), a term of endearment, ‘my dear children,’ that is also used alongside a similar word τεκνία (teknía) in I John as a term of familiar address or endearment for adult members of the church – our equivalent today of men addressing their friends as ‘lads’, ‘boys’ or ‘guys’. The word is still used in this way in modern Greek, as found in the song Τα Παιδιά του Πειραιά (Ta Pediá tou Pireá, ‘The Children of Piraeus’), sung by Melina Mercouri in the film Never on Sunday (1960).

But, somehow, tradition has raised the young man in this morning’s Gospel reading to the status of the ‘rich young man’ or even a ‘rich young ruler’. The word ‘rich’ is used nowhere in the original text, although we are told ‘he had many possessions’ (verse 22).

He has many possessions, but he knows this is not enough. He wants to possess eternal life, and comes to Jesus for advice.

Jesus advises him to keep the commandments, and then cites just five of the Ten Commandments, and in an apparently random order: you shall not murder; you shall not commit adultery; you shall not steal; you shall not bear false witness; honour your father and mother.’ These are the social commandments, omitting the commandment not to covet, and none of the commandments about our relationship with God are cited.

Jesus then adds a commandment that is not in the Ten Commandments: ‘also, you shall love your neighbour as yourself.’

This too is the summation of Leviticus 19, the chapter that instructs the people on how to ‘be holy.’ Leviticus 19 begins with the commandment, ‘You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy’ (19: 2), and then offers a list of laws that mainly have to do with relationships, from honouring parents (19: 3) to caring for the foreigners who live in the land (19: 33-34).

To ‘be holy,’ then, has to do with treating other people with justice and mercy, caring for the poor (19: 9-10), being honest (19: 11-13, 35-36), having respect for elders (19: 32), and, in general, acting with moral and ethical integrity.

At the heart of these laws is the commandment, ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself’ (19: 18). It is part of a passage (19: 17-18) that instructs the people not to hate one another, not to take revenge or bear a grudge against one another, but to love one another. This verse and 14 other verses in this chapter in Leviticus end with the refrain of the Holiness Code: ‘I am the Lord.’

The point of the chapter seems to be that because the Lord is holy, and because humans are made in the image of God, those who are called to emulate God’s holiness are to do so by acting with mercy and love toward our fellow humans.

A very similar commandment is at the end of the chapter, in 19: 34: ‘The alien who resides with you shall be to you as the citizen among you; you shall love the alien as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.’

The commandment to ‘love your neighbour as yourself’ is not to be understood, then, as applying only to those we see as being like us. We are also commanded to love the ‘alien,’ that is, the foreigner or outsider in our midst.

The parable of the Good Samaritan – which begins by quoting Leviticus 19: 18 and the lawyer’s question, ‘Who is my neighbour?’ – makes much the same point (see Luke 10: 25-37).

Leviticus 19: 18 is, of course, the verse Jesus cites when he advises the ‘rich young man’ and he cites it again later as the second part of the greatest commandment.

A lawyer asks Jesus, ‘Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?’ And Jesus replies: ‘“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.” This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: “You shall love your neighbour as yourself.” On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets’ (Matthew 22: 34-40).

In this morning’s reading, the young man says he has kept all these commandments. Jesus then says to him, ‘If you wish to be perfect, go, sell your possessions, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.’ When the young man heard this word, ‘he went away grieving, for he had many possessions.’

Saint John of the Cross has written: ‘In the twilight of life, God will not judge us on our earthly possessions and human success, but rather on how much we have loved.’

Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote in a similar vein in The Cost of Discipleship: ‘Earthly possessions dazzle our eyes and delude us into thinking that they can provide security and freedom from anxiety. Yet all the time they are the very source of anxiety.’

‘In the twilight of life, God will not judge us on our earthly possessions and human success, but rather on how much we have loved’ (Saint John of the Cross)

Today’s Prayers (Monday 17 August 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 16 to 22 August 2026 (pp 30-31), is ‘Hope in the Making’. This theme was introduced yesterday with a reflection by Grace Murray, a USPG volunteer. The prayers this week come courtesy of passersby at Greenbelt Festival 2025.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Monday 17 August 2026) invites us to pray:

God of all creation, bless the Earth and all its creatures, that they may thrive in safety and abundance. May your Spirit guide us to care for this world with love and attentiveness.

The Collect of the Day:

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 Ten Commandments represnted on the facade of the Spanish Synagogue in Prague (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

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

Daily prayer in Easter 2026: 37, Monday 11 May 2026

‘And the fire and the rose are one’ (TS Eliot) … a candle and a rose on a dinner table in Minares on Vernardou Street, Rethymnon, in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

Easter is a 50-day season that beginning on Easter Day (4 April 2026) and that continues until the Day of Pentecost (24 May 2026), or Whit Sunday. This week began with the Sixth Sunday of Easter (Easter VI, 10 May 2026).

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

1, reading today’s Gospel reading;

2, a short reflection;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

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

‘The Advocate … whom I will send to you from the Father’ (John 15: 26) … Christ with the Holy Spirit depicted above as a dove on a gravestone in Calverton Road Cemetery, Stony Stratford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

John 15: 26 to 16: 4 (NRSVA):

[Jesus said:] 26 ‘When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who comes from the Father, he will testify on my behalf. 27 You also are to testify because you have been with me from the beginning.

1 ‘I have said these things to you to keep you from stumbling. 2 They will put you out of the synagogues. Indeed, an hour is coming when those who kill you will think that by doing so they are offering worship to God. 3 And they will do this because they have not known the Father or me. 4 But I have said these things to you so that when their hour comes you may remember that I told you about them.’

‘The Absinthe Drinker’ by Viktor Oliva in the Café Slavia in Prague (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflections:

The Café Slavia in Prague was once the traditional hangout of Czech writers, artists, intellectuals, and political dissidents. Although those days are long gone, the Café Slavia – or Kavarna Slavia – opposite the National Theatre and overlooking the Vltava River has been a national institution since it first opened in August 1884.

The café has changed in appearances over the years – from Art Nouveau to Social Realism – leaving us with the Functionalist interior with Art Deco wall decorations of today. The walls café are lined with photographs of the writers, artists, revolutionaries and intellectuals who once came here.

The café became a cultural place where writers, poets and intellectuals met to talk and debate. The original regular clientele included the composer Bedřich Smetana, the actor Jindřich Mošna, the poet Jaroslav Seifert, and the writer Vítězslav Nezval, Josef Čapek and many others. The list of guests and visitors has been described as ‘a who’s who of Bohemian culture at the time.’

The interior was changed to the popular style Art Deco style but has remained unchanged since then, with Tonet chairs, dark wood tables and green marble walls that evoke the 1920s. During the communist era, the café became state property, but continued to draw artists, writers and intellectuals, even after the Prague Spring and the invasion by Warsaw Pact troops in 1968, and it became the meeting place for dissidents.

Regular guests during the Velvet Revolution in 1989 included the poet, playwright and human rights activist Václav Havel, who later became the Czech president, and the poet and artist Jiří Kolář. More recent guests have included Hillary Clinton and the writer Arnošt Lustig. The café closed in 1992, but re-opened in 1997 with a glittering ceremony that also marked the eighth anniversary of the Velvet Revolution.

President Havel sent a message saying the re-opening of Cafe Slavia was a victory of ‘reason over stupidity.’ He said its reopening was a step towards renewing the natural structure of Czech spiritual life, stressing the café’s role as a meeting place for different artistic streams and currents of opinion.

The owners of the Café Slavia have tried to recapture the atmosphere of the 1930s, when the café was in its hey-day, and in the evenings, a live piano player helps to create a romantic atmosphere in the evening.

The café is also known for ‘The Absinthe Drinker,’ a copy of the large painting by Viktor Oliva (1861-1928). The original hangs in the Zlata Husa Gallery in Prague, but this copy has been on the wall of the artist’s favourite café since 1920. Viktor Oliva was part of the ‘Parisian Bohemians’, a group of Czech artists who lived in Paris in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and it was there that he discovered the comforts of the absinthe, the anise-flavoured, green, highly alcoholic spirit often known in literature as la fée verte ‘the green fairy’. It has often been portrayed as a dangerously addictive psychoactive drug and hallucinogen, giving rise to the term ‘absinthism’.

In among the chairs and tables of Café Slavia, a man sits alone sipping a glass of absinthe, with an open newspaper to one side. In the background, a waiter is approaching to serve him. But the man’s eyes are fixed on the figure of an alluring but transparent young green woman perched on his table.

Is she his muse?

Is he reminiscing about a past or lost love?

Or, has he fallen in love with the ‘green fairy’ – another name for the strong hallucinating drink?

What is your comforting spirit? Where do you seek or find inspiration? Is any talk of the Holy Spirit as irrelevant to you as talk about green fairies’?

The Gospel reading at the Eucharist today (John 15: 26 to 16: 4) continues our readings from the ‘Farewell Discourse’ at the Last Supper in Saint John’s Gospel. Christ continues to prepare his followers for his departure, and repeats once again his promise of the gift of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost: ‘When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who comes from the Father, he will testify on my behalf’ (verse 26).

Our thinking about the Holy Spirit is often made difficult by traditional images of a dove that looks more like a homing pigeon; or tongues of fire dancing around meekly-bowed heads of people cowering and hiding in the upper room in Jerusalem, rather than a room that is bursting at the seams and ready to overflow.

But the Holy Spirit is not something added on as an extra course, as an after-thought after the Resurrection and the Ascension.

Last year we marked the 1,700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea and the agreement on the Nicene Creed, in which we say: ‘We believe in the Holy Spirit’. Do we really believe in the Holy Spirit as ‘the Lord, the giver of life,’ in the Holy Spirit as the way in which God ‘has spoken through the prophets’?

The gift of the Holy Spirit does not stop being effective the day after confirmation, the day after ordination, the day after hearing someone speaking in tongues, or the day after the Day of Pentecost.

God never leaves us alone. This is what Christ promises the disciples, the whole Church, in today’s Gospel reading. We need have no fears, for the Resurrection breaks through all the barriers of time and space, of gender and race, of language and colour.

If the Holy Spirit is the Advocate and is living in me and you, then who am I an advocate for? Who do I speak up for when there is no-one else to speak up for them?

Pentecost includes all – even those we do not like. Who do you not want in the Kingdom of God? Who do I find it easy to think of excluding from the demands the Holy Spirit makes on me and on the Church?

Pentecost promises hope. But hope is not certainty, manipulating the future for our own ends, it is trusting in God’s purpose.

‘Little Gidding,’ the fourth and final poem in the Four Quartets, is TS Eliot’s own Pentecost poem. ‘Little Gidding’ begins in ‘the dark time of the year’, when a brief and glowing afternoon sun ‘flames the ice, on pond and ditches’ as it ‘stirs the dumb spirit’, not with wind but with ‘pentecostal fire.’

At the end of the poem, Eliot describes how the eternal is contained within the present and how history exists in a pattern, and repeating the words of Julian of Norwich, he is assured:

And all shall be well and
All manner of thing shall be well
When the tongues of flame are in-folded
Into the crowned knot of fire
And the fire and the rose are one.

I have no doubts that the Holy Spirit works in so many ways that we cannot understand. And no doubts that the Holy Spirit works best and works most often in the quiet small ways that bring hope rather than in the big dramatic ways that seek to control.

Sometimes, even when it seems foolish, sometimes, even when it seems extravagant, it is worth being led by the Holy Spirit. Because the Holy Spirit may be leading us to surprising places, and, surprisingly, leading others there too, counting them in when we thought they were counted out.

Whether they are persecuted minorities in the Middle East, immigrants threatened with deportation to a third country, cowering asylum seekers isolated in hotels and subjected to barracking baying from flag-waving activists, or people who are marginalised at home, or those we are uncomfortable with because of how they sound, seem, look or smell, God’s generosity counts them in and offers them hope.

And if God counts them in, so should the Church. And so should I.

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

‘… all shall be well and / All manner of thing shall be well’ … sunset seen from the Sunset Taverna in Rethymnon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Monday 11 May 2026):

The theme this week (10-16 May 2026) in ‘Pray With the World Church’, the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel) is ‘Parenting with Purpose’ (pp 54-55). This theme was introduced yesterday with a Programme Update from Ella Sibley, former Regional Manager for Europe and Oceania.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Monday 11 May 2026) invites us to pray:

Lord, we pray for the Positive Parenting Programme and all its facilitators. May each parent, child, and community leader experience guidance, trust, and understanding that builds stronger, safer families.

The Collect:

God our redeemer,
you have delivered us from the power of darkness
and brought us into the kingdom of your Son:
grant, that as by his death he has recalled us to life,
so by his continual presence in us he may raise us
to eternal joy;
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 our Father,
whose Son Jesus Christ gives the water of eternal life:
may we thirst for you,
the spring of life and source of goodness,
through him who is alive and reigns, now and for ever.

Additional Collect:

Risen Christ,
by the lakeside you renewed your call to your disciples:
help your Church to obey your command
and draw the nations to the fire of your love,
to the glory of God the Father.

Yesterday’s Reflections

Continued Tomorrow

The Café Slavia was once a place where Prague’s writers, poets and intellectuals met to talk and debate (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 book launch in Prague links the Comerford family with Walter Devereux and the murder of Wallenstein

The Czech artist Josef Ryzec has spent decades seeking to prove a 400-year tradition in his family that they are descended from Walter Devereux

Patrick Comerford

This two-week visit to Kuching means I never even began to consider going to Prague for the launch of a new book that mentions several times for my genealogical research on the Comerford family and that includes several photographs of me.

My Irish-Norman Ancestor is a new book by Josef Ryzec, that has been adapted to English by Sean O’Sullivan from Dublin, edited by Louise Kelleher and published by the Wild Geese Historical Society of Czechia. It is being launched in the Irish Embassy in Prague this evening (25 February 2025) by Alan Gibbons, who has been the Irish ambassador to Prague for the past three years

The Irish embassy in the Wratislaw Palace in Prague is close to Charles Bridge, at the heart of the city’s historic Malá Strana (Lesser Town). This evening’s launch of Josef Ryzec’s book also marks the anniversary of the assassination of Albrecht von Wallenstein on 25 February 1634, a pivotal moment in the Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648).

The Thirty Years War, ostensibly beginning as a religious one, engaged nearly every European country in one way or another. The major forces involved were Sweden, supported by France, and the Hapsburg Empire, and the brunt was borne mainly by the German provinces and the Czech lands.

Wallenstein wasthe successful commander of the Austrian army, with several significant military victories. By December 1633, however, he was hoping to link up with the Swedes under Prince Bernhard. Colonel Walter Butler (1600-1634) of Ballinakill Castle, Roscrea, a direct descendant of James Butler, 3rd Earl of Ormond, was the commander of a regiment of Irish dragoons, remained loyal to the Habsburg Emperor. At the imperial command, Butler and two Scots colonels, Walter Leslie and John Gordon, plotted to get rid of Wallenstein.

Wallenstein’s trusted inner circle were invited to a feast at Eger Castle, where Butler’s kinsman, Captain Walter Devereux (1615) from Co Wexford, killed the traitorous general. The room were Devereux disposed of Wallenstein remains in the castle, now the Cheb Museum.

Butler died the following year and Devereux succeeded him as colonel of the regiment. He was rewarded for his deed with a confiscated estate and remained in the Czech lands. His brother had inherited the Devereux family castle at Balmagyr in Co Wexford and there was nothing to return to in Ireland.

The murder is described in a contemporary account by an Irish priest, FatherThomas Carew, who was a chaplain to both Butler and Devereux in the imperial army. It is also the subject of Schiller’s The Death of Wallenstein, one of a trilogy of plays about the general that holds a place in German culture akin to that of Shakespeare’s history plays.

Many historians of central Europe is regard Walter Devereux as a murderous mercenary, a drunk and a gambler. His son, or grandson, changed his family name to Ryzec, which is the name of a red-coloured Czech mushroom, suggesting that Walter was red-haired. He was reputedly buried in the Irish Franciscan church in Prague, to which he had contributed generously. The church is Malá Strana in Prague, beside the Charles Bridge and close to the Irish Embassy in the Wratislaw Palace.

The Thirty Years’ War had devastated Europe, killing millions through violence, famine or disease. It came to an end with the Peace of Westphalia in 1648 which united Europe for the first time in a treaty of peace – perhaps a foretaste of the European Union, as some suggest.

The religious differences, however, remained for much longer, and influenced markedly historians of the period. The end of the war left in the Austrian Empire to dominate the Czechs for hundreds of years, whereas Wallenstein’s reward, had he succeeded in his treachery, would have been to become king of the Czech lands.

Walter Butler is said to have been buried in the Irish Franciscan church beside the Charles Bridge in Prague (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The Czech artist Josef Ryzec has endeavoured for decades to prove a 400-year tradition in his family that they are descended from Walter Devereux. In the course of his research, he says, a DNA test proved that his family tradition is correct. The book being launched in Prague this evening tells of his driving obsession to establish his family’s tradition and the many obstacles he faced and overcame.

He is confident he has now traced his ancestry back to the assassin Walter Devereux from Co Wexford. Walter’s parents were Philip Devereux (1583-1635) of Ballymagir Castle, Co Wexford, and Joan Walsh (1587-1660); Joan’s sister, Ellinor Walsh, married the Revd Thomas Comerford (1596-1635), Vicar of The Rower from 1630 until his death. They were daughters of Walter Walsh of The Mountains, Co Kilkenny, and Courthoyle, near Carrigbyrne, Co Wexford, and his wife, Ellinor Butler of New Ross, Co Wexford, daughter of Richard Butler, 1st Viscount Mountgarret.

This connection with the Conerford family led artist Josef Ryzec to contact me, and eventually three photographs of me, and references to my genealogical research are part of his book being launched this evening.

He believes there is no verifiable evidence that Walter Butler was buried in the Irish Franciscan church beside the Charles Bridge in Prague. It has been presumed by many that Walter Devereux died in December 1639, but Josef suggests that at the age of 55 he fathered a son Matej Ryzec who was born in 1670, and that he may have lived on for many more years after.

Sean O’Sullivan, who has been a generous publisher and supporter of this research, is originally from Dublin, and first came to Prague as a Pre-Accession Adviser to the Czech Ministry of Finance in 2002, advising the Czech government on meeting the requirements for EU membership. He loved Prague so much and felt so at home there that he decided to stay on after retirement, and devotes much his time to the Wild Geese Society of Bohemia.

A former Ambassador, Alison Kelly, introduced him to Josef Ryzec and he helped Josef research his family legend that he is descended from Walter Devereux who was only 19 at the time of the assassination.

As for Ballymagyr Castle it is now part of Richfield House and Cottages in Duncormick, near Kilmore Quay, Co Wexford.

The Charles Bridge in Prague at dawn … close to the Irish Embassy and the Irish Franciscan Church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Daily prayer in Lent 2026: 8, Wednesday 25 February 2026

‘The shoe is … a sign that we must gather shoes together in abundance’ (Monty Python, ‘The Life of Brian’) … sandals provide street numbers at Antika Irish Bar on Arampatzoglou street in Rethymnon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

Lent began a week ago on Ash Wednesday, and this week began with the First Sunday in Lent (Lent I). This visit to Kuching coincides not only with Lent but also with Ramadan and the continuing celebrations of Chinese New Year.

Later this evening, a new book by the Czech artist Josef Ryzecis, My Irish-Norman Ancestor, is being launched in the Irish embassy in Prague, and it includes a number of photographs of me in the context of my genealogical research and the history of the Comerford family. However, this visit to Kuching means there was never a possibility of travelling to Prague for the event. Meanwhile, before this day 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, today’s Gospel reading;

2, a short reflection;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

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

‘The people of Nineveh … repented at the proclamation of Jonah’ (Luke 11: 32) … a reconstruction of the gates of an Assyrian palace in the Pergamon Museum, Berlin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Luke 11: 29-32 (NRSVA):

29 When the crowds were increasing, he began to say, ‘This generation is an evil generation; it asks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah. 30 For just as Jonah became a sign to the people of Nineveh, so the Son of Man will be to this generation. 31 The queen of the South will rise at the judgement with the people of this generation and condemn them, because she came from the ends of the earth to listen to the wisdom of Solomon, and see, something greater than Solomon is here! 32 The people of Nineveh will rise up at the judgement with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the proclamation of Jonah, and see, something greater than Jonah is here!’

‘Hold up the sandal, as he has commanded us!’ (Monty Python, ‘The Life of Brian’) … sandals outside a shop in Rethymnon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflection:

Signs are part of the humour throughout Monty Python’s Life of Brian, also known as Life of Brian, a controversial 1979 film by the Monty Python team, including Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Michael Palin.

Scene 18, ‘The Holy Gourd of Jerusalem’, includes this dialogue:

FOLLOWERS: … Look! Ah! Oh! Oh!

ARTHUR: He has given us a sign!

FOLLOWER: Oh!

SHOE FOLLOWER: He has given us … His shoe!

ARTHUR: The shoe is the sign. Let us follow His example.

SPIKE: What?

ARTHUR: Let us, like Him, hold up one shoe and let the other be upon our foot, for this is His sign, that all who follow Him shall do likewise.

EDDIE: Yes.

SHOE FOLLOWER: No, no, no. The shoe is …

YOUTH: No.

SHOE FOLLOWER: … a sign that we must gather shoes together in abundance.

GIRL: Cast off …

SPIKE: Aye. What?

GIRL: … the shoes! Follow the Gourd!

SHOE FOLLOWER: No! Let us gather shoes together!

FRANK: Yes.

SHOE FOLLOWER: Let me!

ELSIE: Oh, get off!

YOUTH: No, no! It is a sign that, like Him, we must think not of the things of the body, but of the face and head!

SHOE FOLLOWER: Give me your shoe!

YOUTH: Get off!

GIRL: Follow the Gourd! The Holy Gourd of Jerusalem!

FOLLOWER: The Gourd!

HARRY: Hold up the sandal, as He has commanded us!

ARTHUR: It is a shoe! It is a shoe!

HARRY: It's a sandal!

ARTHUR: No, it isn't!

GIRL: Cast it away!

ARTHUR: Put it on!

YOUTH: And clear off!

How often do we pray unusual signs as indications of God’s blessing, favour, approval or intervention, or even God’s judgment?

In today’s Gospel reading (Luke 11: 29-32), Jesus faces this sort of request too. with that in his own day. People wanted some spectacular sign from him to establish beyond doubt that he was who he said he was.

In this reading, he addresses the crowds who gather around him as a wicked generation because they are asking for a sign. Today people can be very impressed by visionaries who claim to have visions that are denied to the rest of believers.

The church has traditionally been very wary of all such claims. In the Gospel reading, Jesus accuses his contemporaries of failing to see what is there before them. They want signs and yet all they need already stands in front of them in the person of Jesus, someone greater than Solomon, greater than Jonah, greater than all the prophets and kings.

If the people of Nineveh responded to Jonah and if the Queen of the South responded to Solomon, how much more should Jesus’ contemporaries respond to him?

Jonah serves 40 days’ notice on the city. These are the years of wandering in the wilderness after the Exodus, the days and nights Moses spends on Mount Sinai, the days the spies spend in the land of Canaan, the days Ezekiel spends repenting for the sins of Judah, the days Elijah spends without food or water on his way to Mount Horeb, the days Jesus spends fasting in the wilderness, the days between the Resurrection and the Ascension …

To Jonah’s dismay, the people of Nineveh take his words to heart; even the king puts on sackcloth and ashes and prays for God’s redemption. They turn from their evil ways, and God changes his mind about the calamity they had faced. They are 40 days that are comparable to our observance of Lent, and at the end the promise of mew life is fulfilled.

But, instead of being pleased with a mission accomplished, Jonah is not only displeased but is angry. He is convinced that the king and the city are not sincere about their repentance. Is he fearful that, having survived, they are now going to turn their attention to his people? This is the Jonah who, only some time earlier, had faced drowning and being devoured, but now he is so angry he would prefer to be dead. And when he survives, he goes away, separating himself from God and people, and sulks.

Even then, when he might have been saved from the harsh weather and climate only to find his shelters destroyed, he is angry with God yet again.

The story of Jonah ends not with an answer to Jonah’s complaints, or a solution to Israel’s conflict with Assyria, or even an indication of whether the king and people of Nineveh remain faithful, but with a question from God: should God not be concerned for the lives of people – even their animals – no matter how immoral or sinful I may see them as being, not knowing their right hand from their left?

It is a salutary lesson for the Church when we think at times that we have heard God’s word, think we are following God’s ways, but are reluctant to share with others – whether they are outside our parish, outside our society or culture, outside our country.

Are there times when I limit God’s salvation to those I want to be counted in?

Are there times when I resent calls to recognise that God loves others beyond my circle or circles of faith, family or friends?

No matter how threatening I see outsiders to be, does this justify putting limits on reaching out to them, on my compassion for them?

‘The people of Nineveh … repented at the proclamation of Jonah’ (Luke 11: 32) … a whale depicted in the Saint Brendan window in Saint Michael’s Church, Sneem, Co Kerry (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Wednesday 25 February 2026):

The theme this week (22-28 February 2026) in ‘Pray With the World Church,’ the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is: ‘Behold, I make all things new!’ (pp 30-31). This theme was introduced on Sunday with Reflections by the Right Revd Jorge Pina Cabral Jorge, Diocesan Bishop of the Lusitanian Church (Portugal).

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Wednesday 25 February 2026) invites us to pray:

God of wisdom, guide cooperation in theological training and Christian education across Portugal and Spain. Raise up faithful leaders who will serve with integrity, courage, and truth.

The Collect:

Almighty God,
whose Son Jesus Christ fasted forty days in the wilderness,
and was tempted as we are, yet without sin:
give us grace to discipline ourselves in obedience to your Spirit;
and, as you know our weakness,
so may we know your power to save;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

Lord God,
you have renewed us with the living bread from heaven;
by it you nourish our faith,
increase our hope,
and strengthen our love:
teach us always to hunger for him who is the true and living bread,
and enable us to live by every word
that proceeds from out of your mouth;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

Heavenly Father,
your Son battled with the powers of darkness,
and grew closer to you in the desert:
help us to use these days to grow in wisdom and prayer
that we may witness to your saving love
in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s Reflections

Continued Tomorrow

Saint Michael with the whales in a window depicting the stories of Jonah and Saint Brendan in Saint Michael’s Church, Sneem, Co Kerry (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