Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2026: 128, Sunday 13 September 2026, Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity XV)

‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything’ (Matthew 18: 29) … coins in a large bowl in a café in Carpenter Street, Kuching (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Patrick Comerford

We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar and today is the Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity XV).

In the Jewish Calendar, Rosh Hashanah (ראש השנה) ends at nightfall this evening (13 September 2026), having started at sunset on Friday night (11 September). Rosh Hashanah, literally ‘head of the year’, is the Jewish New Year. According to Jewish tradition, the holiday commemorates the creation of humanity and serves as a day of divine judgment. This is the first of the High Holy Days and begins the Ten Days of Repentance, culminating in Yom Kippur, which begins at sunset next Sunday (20 September) and ends at nightfall on Monday 21 September.

Later today, I hope to sing with the choir and to be involved in the readings and the intercessions at the Parish Eucharist in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford. Meanwhile, before today begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, for reflection, prayer and reading in these ways:

1, today’s Gospel reading;

2, a reflection on the Gospel reading;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

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

‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything’ (Matthew 18: 26) … old, worthless banknotes heaped up outside an antiques shop in Rethymnon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Matthew 18: 21-35 (NRSVA):

21 Then Peter came and said to him, ‘Lord, if another member of the church sins against me, how often should I forgive? As many as seven times?’ 22 Jesus said to him, ‘Not seven times, but, I tell you, seventy-seven times.

23 ‘For this reason the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his slaves. 24 When he began the reckoning, one who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him; 25 and, as he could not pay, his lord ordered him to be sold, together with his wife and children and all his possessions, and payment to be made. 26 So the slave fell on his knees before him, saying, “Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.” 27 And out of pity for him, the lord of that slave released him and forgave him the debt. 28 But that same slave, as he went out, came upon one of his fellow-slaves who owed him a hundred denarii; and seizing him by the throat, he said, “Pay what you owe.” 29 Then his fellow-slave fell down and pleaded with him, “Have patience with me, and I will pay you.” 30 But he refused; then he went and threw him into prison until he should pay the debt. 31 When his fellow-slaves saw what had happened, they were greatly distressed, and they went and reported to their lord all that had taken place. 32 Then his lord summoned him and said to him, “You wicked slave! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. 33 Should you not have had mercy on your fellow-slave, as I had mercy on you?” 34 And in anger his lord handed him over to be tortured until he should pay his entire debt. 35 So my heavenly Father will also do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother or sister from your heart.’

‘You wicked slave! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. Should you not have had mercy on your fellow-slave, as I had mercy on you?’ (Matthew 18: 32-33) … a stained-glass window in Saint Michael’s Church, Limerick (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflections:

The Gospel reading at the Eucharist this morning (Matthew 18: 21-35) looks critically at the limits we place on forgiveness and the over-abundant generosity and universal scope of God’s forgiveness.

What are the limits to my capacity to understand and forgive others?

Are there limits to God’s willingness to forgive?

Forgiveness is so central to Christian faith and life, that it is emphasised throughout Saint Matthew’s Gospel.

In this reading, Saint Peter asks how many times he should forgive, and is told ‘not seven times but, I tell you, seventy-seven times,’ or, as some sources put it, seventy times seven.

In Biblical thinking, the number seven always indicates holiness, as in the seventh day, the seventh month, the seventh year or ‘year of release,’ and the Jubilee year that follows seven cycles of seven years.

As the former Chief Rabbi, the late Lord (Jonathan) Sacks, has said, seven is the symbol of the holy, that God exists beyond time and space.

But what about the number 70 when Christ says ‘seven times seventy’ or ‘seventy-seven times’?

Talmudic scholars approach the Torah as if it has ‘seventy faces’ (Numbers Rabbah 13: 15-16). The number 70 has sacred significance in Biblical Hebrew: 70 is the number of people who first went down to Egypt, the elders chosen by Moses, the years of King David, the Babylonian exile, the sages of the Sanhedrin, the translators of the Septuagint, the span of human life, the words of Kiddush, the nations of the world …

The French philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy points out in The Genius of Judaism that the number 70 is ‘no ordinary number.’ He calls it the ‘secret universal.’ It represents the fullness of humanity, the ‘other universal that escorts human beings on the path of their history and to the centre of their substance.’ It is ‘the number of infinity extended.’

So, Christ tells us in this Gospel reading that divine forgiveness is to be extended ‘seventy-seven times’ or ‘seventy times seven’ – in other words, God’s forgiveness in its abundance is holy in its giving and infinite in its reach.

In the second part of this reading, Christ explains what he is saying in a parable that is unique to Saint Matthew’s Gospel and that involves three distinct episodes:

1, A king decides to settle his accounts with his slaves or servants: the word δοῦλος (doulos) means either, so those who first heard this parable could imagine an end-of-year audit with court officials, financiers or tax collectors. One of these officials owes 10,000 talents, the equivalent to £3,358,735,524 (€3,877,551,979) today. No ordinary slave could accumulate such a debt. Of course, he is unable to clear a debt of such magnitude.

The king might have been reminded that Jewish law prohibits demanding payment from a debtor who is unable to pay (mitzvah 234; Exodus 22: 24). A lender may not embarrass a borrower by harassing him, and is forbidden to seize the debtor’s land or to sell him or his family into slavery.

When the servant seeks forgiveness, the king goes beyond the narrow constraints of rabbinical law, shows overflowing generosity, and agrees to clear off the loan.

2, Now, however, this senior official demands the repayment of a loan of three month’s wages, 100 denarii – about £6,473 (€7,473) today – from a lower-level servant. Imagine the senior official as the line manager for the official who asks for forgiveness. Once again, there is commandment not to take a pledge from a debtor by force (mitzvah 239; Deuteronomy 24: 10). The man already forgiven now refuses to forgive when it is his turn, even his obligation, and he compounds this with his use of force.

3, When the king hears about this, he retracts his original forgiveness.

After telling this parable, Christ identifies the king as God, the first servant as any Christian, and the second as anyone else.

Christ makes the point that God’s forgiveness in its abundance is holy in its giving and infinite in its reach. He calls us to forgive in a way that is so difficult that I am still wrestling with it.

Many of us grew up with language that chided us, so that when we did something wrong and said sorry, we were told, ‘Sorry is not enough’ or ‘Sorry doesn’t fix anything.’ Such phrases allow a hurt person to withhold forgiveness, to find comfort in their own hurt, to control us in a way that allows us to know mercilessly how much we are in need of mercy.

But we also live in a culture of half-hearted apologies that are difficult to forgive. Politicians and business leaders say they accept responsibility by resigning – so they never have to answer for their actions. Half-hearted apologies – ‘I am sorry if I have offended you’ – mean that those who are hurt feel they need to apologise for their response, their reaction, for being hurt.

There are times that I have no right to forgive, when it is not my place to forgive. I cannot forgive the perpetrators of the Holocaust, because, no matter how many times I have visited places that are an intimate part of the Holocaust story, I am not one of the victims.

I cannot forgive slaveholders or mass murderers in wars and killing fields, because I am not one of their victims. On the other hand, perhaps, because I am not a victim, I might find it is not so difficult.

The true difficulties arise in my own personal life: members of my own family, lost friends, near neighbours, former colleagues I think hurt me in the past. I walk around with perceived slights, insults and hurts, like some crutch that helps the wounded, broken me to walk through this broken and hurting world.

But then I am reminded, time and again, that God’s forgiveness in its abundance is holy in its giving and infinite in its reach.

‘And out of pity for him, the lord of that slave released him and forgave him the debt’ (Matthew 18: 27) … a stained-glass window in Saint Michael’s Church, Limerick (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Sunday 13 September 2026, Trinity XV):

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

Life has a habit of placing people in situations not of their own choosing. That is the story of Simon of Cyrene. In Jerusalem for the Passover, Simon finds himself pulled into the forced cross-bearing of Jesus.

Simon is from ‘the country’, the margins of the Roman Empire, and is often understood as a person of African descent. There are many Simons today who feel life presses on them because of who they are or where they come from, leaving them struggling to belong. They carry forced crosses through life, embodying daily struggle.

We can use the language of discipleship for Simon who carries the cross behind Jesus, echoing Luke’s call to take up the cross and follow Christ. Yet it is problematic to turn forced suffering into simple heroism, especially when it risks glossing over pain. Even Jesus prayed that his cup of suffering might pass.

I often wonder whether romanticising such suffering as ‘sainthood’ allows the comfort of remaining a spectator, avoiding the costly demands of Christian witness.

Christian witness in the face of forced cross-bearing may instead require what Augusto Boal calls ‘spect-actors’ – those who do not remain passive observers, but who intervene, participate, and seek to transform the story with justice and solidarity.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Sunday 13 September 2026, Trinity XV) invites us to pray as we read and meditate on Matthew 18: 21-35.

The Collect:

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

The Post Communion Prayer:

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

Additional Collect:

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

Collect on the Eve of Holy Cross Day:
Almighty God,
who in the passion of your blessed Son
made an instrument of painful death
to be for us the means of life and peace:
grant us so to glory in the cross of Christ
that we may gladly suffer for his sake;
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Yesterday’s Reflections

Continued Tomorrow

Forgiveness and love in the face of death and mass murder … a fading rose on the fence at Birkenau (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

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

Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2026: 127, Saturday 12 September 2026

‘No good tree bears bad fruit … Figs are not gathered from thorns’ (Luke 6: 43-44) … a fig tree near Pavlos Beach in Platanias, east of Rethymnon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar and tomorrow is the Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity XV).

In the Jewish Calendar, today is Rosh Hashanah (ראש השנה), which began at sunset last night (11 September 2026) and ends at nightfall tomorrow (13 September 2026). Rosh Hashanah, literally ‘head of the year’, is the Jewish New Year. In Jewish tradition, the day commemorates the creation of humanity and serves as a day of divine judgment. This is the first of the High Holy Days and begins the Ten Days of Repentance, culminating in Yom Kippur, which begins at sunset on Sunday 20 September and ends at nightfall on Monday 21 September.

Later today, I may take part in some of the ‘Come and Sing Choral Classics’ day in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford, from 12 noon to 7 pm. Singers are welcome to learn to sing some choral classics at this event. It is part of Heritage Open Days and the September Organ Festival, and includes an exhibition in the church on the Willis pipe organ. The day ends with an informal concert at 6:15 pm.

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

1, today’s Gospel reading;

2, a reflection on the Gospel reading;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

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

‘The one who hears and does not act is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation’ (Luke 6: 49) … a sandcastle on a beach in Barcelona in the shape of Gaudí’s Sacrada Familia (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Luke 6: 43-49 (NRSVA):

[Jesus said:] 43 ‘No good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit; 44 for each tree is known by its own fruit. Figs are not gathered from thorns, nor are grapes picked from a bramble bush. 45 The good person out of the good treasure of the heart produces good, and the evil person out of evil treasure produces evil; for it is out of the abundance of the heart that the mouth speaks.

46 ‘Why do you call me “Lord, Lord”, and do not do what I tell you? 47 I will show you what someone is like who comes to me, hears my words, and acts on them. 48 That one is like a man building a house, who dug deeply and laid the foundation on rock; when a flood arose, the river burst against that house but could not shake it, because it had been well built. 49 But the one who hears and does not act is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. When the river burst against it, immediately it fell, and great was the ruin of that house.’

‘Nor are grapes picked from a bramble bush’ (Luke 6: 44) … grapes on a vine at the Hedgehog Vintage Inn in Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflections:

Today’s Gospel reading (Luke 6: 43-49) is a reminder that our faith must always be reflected in your lifestyles, that there must be a connection between what we believe and what we do, that our faith must bear fruit, that if our faith does not have firm foundations it will disappear with the next challenges we face.

This reading brings to a close concludes Christ’s ‘Sermon on the Plain’, in which he speaks of the qualities of what it means to be a true disciple and challenges us to examine both our inner character and the foundational structural integrity of our spiritual lives.

In the first part of this reading (Luke 6: 43-45), Jesus refers to the tree and the fig, and he notes that ‘people do not gather figs from thorns’. A tree is recognised by its fruit, and so a good heart naturally yields good actions, words and thoughts.

The goodness of every disciple comes from within and is not to be measured merely by one’s external behaviour: ‘No good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit; for each tree is known by its own fruit’ (verses 43-44).

At the same time, consistently good behaviour is a sign of a healthy interior: ‘The good person out of the good treasure of the heart produces good, and the evil person out of evil treasure produces evil; for it is out of the abundance of the heart that the mouth speaks’ (verse 45).

In the second part of today’s reading (verses 46-49), he contrasts the wise builder, who builds with deep foundations and rock with the foolish builder, who builds a house on soil or sand, without secure foundations.

The person who hears Christ’s words and acts on them is like a builder who digs deeply and lays a foundation on solid rock. When the flash floods and torrents hit, the house stands firm.

Those who hear Christ’s words but fail to respond or to act on them have superficial faith and are like a builder who builds a house on soft soil or sand without a firm foundation. The moment the river bursts against it, the structure suffers complete collapse.

A measure of the good disciple is how one both listens and acts on Christ’s words. To ‘listen’ includes hearing, understanding, accepting and assimilating his teaching and vision. Discipleship follows naturally, almost effortlessly.

On the other hand, those who listen but do not take in and do not act on what has been heard are like the man who built his house on a poor foundation: when the floods came, the sands shift, and the whole edifice collapses.

We are living in a time when the foundations of Christian discipleship are shifting like sand, and in the torrent that is gushing in with far-right populism the foundations of Christian discipleship are being undermined.

Trying to live a life that follows God’s directives seems to grow harder as the world and its leaders change their value systems so frequently, and as the name of Christianity is hijacked, whether it is by the merchants of hate who carry crosses at far-right events on the streets in Britain or the so-called Christian fundamentalist leaders and Christian Nationalists who sell out on Christianity in return for access to Trump and the Oval Office.

Last weekend, Andrea Williams, chief executive of an organisation that calls itself Christian Concern, spoke at a fringe event at the Reform UK party conference organised by the self-styled Christian Fellowship for Reform. In her speech, she came close to blasphemy as she tried to interweave that party’s name with Christ’s name at least six times in three sentences: ‘I believe that Jesus Christ is the ultimate reformer. He reforms my heart, and when he reforms my heart, he reforms my family. He reforms my community, and it reforms our nation.’

She claimed atheistic secular ideology ‘has gripped our institutions’ and she spoke glibly of finding the ‘true answer’ not in ‘mere values’ but Jesus Christ himself.

When values are reduced to or even dismissed as ‘mere values’, when faith is separated from discipleship that is lived out on a daily basis, when listening fails to draw a response, when faith is devoid of hope and love, we have what Dietrich Bonhoeffer described as ‘cheap grace’, we have become unwilling to pay the Cost of Discipleship.

Christan Concern claims on its website, ‘We want to see Jesus Christ at the heart of society – we seek justice, speak truth and bring hope’. But this does not include, it seems, justice for asylum seekers and refugees, truth about the dangers of the rise of racism, Islamophobia and hatred on the streets of our town and cities, or hope for the poor, the marginalised, the outcast, the children in need, the very priorities in Christ’s ministry yet those who would the first victims of Reform UK’s state economic policies.

The sneering and laughing of Nigel Farage and Robert Jenrick in response to the violent treatment of women who stood up and protested at that Reform UK conference, as they were beaten and assaulted, is in sharp contrast to the treatment by Jesus of women who pushed their way through the men in the synagogue or the men in the crowds to seek healing, to seek to be restored to their place in society.

Christan Concern’s website includes regular postings by Tim Dieppe, head of public policy at Christian Concern, who pursued Dr Jason Arday throughout his short time at Cambridge University, right through to the sad and bitter end. Yet he is silent about Dr James Orr who teaches ethics as an associate professor at Cambridge while appearing on a recent Channel 4 documentary to condone and be complicit in unethical donations to Reform UK.

Dieppe says ‘the Jason Arday scandal shows Cambridge University needs to return to the Christian foundations which made it great in the first place’. Yet he has stood by Dr Nathan Cofnas, who also pursued Jason Arday, who advocates ‘eugenics’ and far-right politics, who was eventually forced to leave Emmanuel College Cambridge.

‘The capture of Cambridge is a direct result of the abandonment of Christianity at Cambridge and across our culture,’ Dieppe claims. ‘Christian values cannot be expected to last in a non-Christian culture. We are witnessing the decline and fall of a once great institution, which is paralleled by the cultural collapse we see all around us across the nation. The only real and lasting solution will be for Cambridge University to be recaptured for Christ.’

Rowan Williams, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, has warned strongly against such a co-option of Christianity into politics. ‘I worry … that the Christian ‘brand’ becomes compromised if it’s seen, as so often in the US, as allied to political agendas and ambitions,’ he said recently. ‘It concerns me greatly that bits of the British right reach for this transatlantic rhetoric and repertoire of Christian nationalist ideas so as to ally themselves with some sort of global movement, even if they don’t fully sign up to the American version.’

Archbishop Williams, who was master of Magdalene College, Cambridge, and has supervised theology students, has also expressed discomfort at politics infiltrating the academic environment. ‘I’m always concerned if vulnerable young scholars get the message that they need to line up with a specific ideological approach – of any kind – in order to secure their future.’

Fascism is on the rise in Britain, Bishop Arun Arora of Kirkstall in the Diocese of Leeds, warned last weekend. Speaking in Lambeth Palace, he condemned the ‘twisted theology’ of self-described ‘Christian patriots’ who demonstrated at ports on the south coast of England last weekend. The masked agitators were heard chanting ‘Christ is King.’

Bishop Arora identified ‘the tidal wave of nationalism’ as the ‘biggest threat to England’s fabric today’ and said the Church has to challenge the ‘sinful idolatry’ and ‘twisted theology’ of so-called Christian nationalists, saying they are using the Cross of Christ as a fashion accessory, with no understanding of Jesus’s message of love.

At the same event, Archbishop Sarah Mullalley said ‘there is an increasing responsibility on Christian leaders to speak up and not be silent, because silence itself encourages a society in which people think it’s all right to intimidate in this way.’ Bishop Rosemarie Mallett said: ‘The Church can tell the truth about history, protect the dignity of radicalised people, and offer a theological vision of belonging that lives out Jesus’s call to welcome the stranger.’

The challenge is immense today. We must pray for the encouragement to build on rock-like values rather than a sand-like foundation. Even the strongest building needs care and repair. The foundations of a building are often its least recognised feature, usually hidden and seemingly insignificant. My faith foundations may not be known to many but are cherished by God to whom I bring them now in prayer, that they may be blessed and strengthened, and may find expression in my response to those who are prioritised by Jesus in his teaching and his ministry.

‘A man building a house … dug deeply and laid the foundation on rock’ (Luke 6: 48) … the Monastery of Great Meteoron, the largest of the monasteries at Meteora in Greece (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Saturday 12 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), has been ‘Turning Pain into Glory’. This theme was introduced last Sunday with a Reflection by Nolene Sheppard, Leader of a Women’s Empowerment Group, Magnificat, and Ukraine Aid Project Support Lead at Saint Thomas à Becket, Hamburg, Germany.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Saturday 12 September 2026) invites us to pray:

Lord God, we pray for the Anglican Church in Hamburg, Germany today. For the growing witness of their community and disciples in the city, and for courage and humility for their church officers and council.

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.

Collect on the Eve of Trinity XV:

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

Yesterday’s reflections

Continued tomorrow

‘The one who hears and does not act is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation’ (Luke 6: 49) … sandcastles on the beach in Ballybunion, 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

Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2026: 126, Friday 11 September 2026

‘Why do you see the speck in your neighbour’s eye?’ (Luke 6: 41) … an image in the Talbot Inn in Loughton, Milton Keynes (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Patrick Comerford

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

In the Jewish Calendar, Rosh Hashanah (ראש השנה) begins at sunset tonight (Friday 11 September 2026) and ends at nightfall on Sunday (13 September 2026). Rosh Hashanah, literally ‘head of the year’, is the Jewish New Year. According to Jewish tradition, the holiday commemorates the creation of humanity and serves as a day of divine judgment. It is the first of the High Holy Days and begins the Ten Days of Repentance, culminating in Yom Kippur, which begins at sunset on Sunday 20 September and ends at nightfall on Monday 21 September.

Later today, many of us, I am sure, will be reflecting on the horrific events of ‘9/11’ 25 years ago on 11 September 2001. But, before today begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, for reflection, prayer and reading in these ways:

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.

‘Why do you see the speck in your neighbour’s eye?’ (Luke 6: 41) … street art in Plaza de Judería in Malaga (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Luke 6: 39-42 (NRSVA):

39 He also told them a parable: ‘Can a blind person guide a blind person? Will not both fall into a pit? 40 A disciple is not above the teacher, but everyone who is fully qualified will be like the teacher. 41 Why do you see the speck in your neighbour’s eye, but do not notice the log in your own eye? 42 Or how can you say to your neighbour, “Friend, let me take out the speck in your eye”, when you yourself do not see the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your neighbour’s eye.’

‘First take the log out of your own eye’ (Luke 6: 39) … autumn logs by the River Ouse in Stony Stratford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflections:

For some days, the Gospel readings have taken us through the ‘Sermon on the Level Place’, Saint Luke’s equivalent of the Sermon on the Mount, which we began reading yesterday with Saint Luke’s version of the Beatitudes (Luke 6: 20-38).

As we continue this sequence of readings from Saint Luke’s Gospel, we read sayings whose parallels in Saint Matthew’s Gospel (see Matthew 15) are addressed to the Pharisees, but here are addressed to the disciples.

In this reading, Christ makes two points.

Firstly, the blind cannot lead the blind. The disciple, left to himself or herself, does not know very much and depends on the teacher. But once the disciple is fully trained and has learnt everything it is possible to discern from the teacher, then the learner becomes an extension of the teacher. At that point, the disciple shares the teacher’s knowledge and wisdom and can, in turn, be a guide to others.

We ought to listen carefully to what Christ says to us and make it part of our own lives. Only then can we effectively lead others to him.

But, secondly, we need to be mindful about sitting in judgment on others. Christ uses a graphic image of someone trying to remove a speck of dust from another person’s eye while there is a large ‘log’ in their own. How can I see properly to correct the vision of my fellow disciple or Christian when my own vision is so distorted?

The faults I so easily see in others are often trivial in comparison with my own shortcomings. Of course, much of the energy I exert in gossip and in putting down others may be sub-conscious attempts to compensate for my own shortcomings. Instead of lifting myself up by changing my ways, I can try to drag others down.

But then, our judgments so often are based purely on external behaviour. We usually have no idea of the inner motives or intentions of other people, or an awareness of their inability to behave in way other than the way then do.

How often, when I am quick to criticism other people behind their backs am I equally quick to say those things to face-to-face. Yet, how often, when I am asked professionally to offer an objective evaluation of a person’s behaviour or their fitness for some responsibility, do I shy away from those responsibilities?

What is true sight and true light?

During a visit to Liverpool many years ago, I visited Hope Street, and there above the Hope Street entrance to the former Royal School for the Blind was the inscription: ‘Christ heals the blind, for who denies that in the mind dwell truer sight and clearer light than in the eyes?’

Both this morning’s reading and that inscription also find interesting parallels in Plato’s ‘Allegory of the Cave’ (The Republic, Book VII).

No one, of course, denies the idea that the mind possesses truer sight and clearer light than the eyes. In an account of Socrates in The Republic, Plato argues that our earthly senses can be misleading and that true understanding is found through the intellect and the forms, not the physical senses.

In Plato’s ‘Allegory of the Cave’, prisoners mistake shadows on a wall for reality. When one prisoner is freed and sees the true objects and the light of the sun, he finds the ‘reality’ of the cave far less clear than the true world, even though his eyes are pained by the light. This illustrates that physical sight can be deceptive, while the intellect understands a higher reality.

Plato believed that the intellect and reason, not the senses, provide true understanding and wisdom. The mind's perception is superior to the deceptive nature of physical vision.

He recalls Socrates’ allegory of the cave. Socrates has compared a philosophic education to leaving a dark cave and emerging into the light. He notes that, when you leave the dark and enter the light, it takes your eyes awhile to adjust; you cannot see at first.

Imagine leaving a dark cinema in the middle of a sunny day: it is hard to see outside at first.

So, the philosophers need to leave the cave and have their eyes adjust to the bright outside world. Once this happens, though, Socrates argues that they must be forced to go back into the dark cave, to rule.

The cave, it turns out, is an image of the city with its conventional opinions, as opposed to the truth. Socrates notes that, when the philosophers go back into the cave, it will also take some time for their eyes to adjust to the darkness.

Imagine, now, going back into that dark cinema in the middle of that sunny day; it is hard to see inside at first.

Socrates is comparing bodily vision to intellectual vision. There are two possible causes for someone who has bad bodily vision: they might be going from the dark to the light; or they might be going from the light to the dark. So too with intellectual vision: someone with bad intellectual vision may be going from the dark cave of opinions to the light of the truth, or they may be going from the light of the truth back to the dark cave of opinions.

Today’s Gospel sayings warn us against either form of blindness, but also warn us against leading others when we are not aware of suffering from one or other – or both – forms of blindness.

Blind Socrates … a statue by Pietro Magni (1817-1877) of Milan in the Botanic Gardens, Dublin, and previously in the gardens of Iveagh House (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Friday 11 September 2026):

In my prayers this morning, I am remembering the horrific events of 9/11 25 years ago, on 11 September 2001, the dead, the injured, the maimed and the traumatised, all who lost family members, friends, colleagues and livelihoods, the brave first responders, and journalists like my colleagues in The Irish Times who worked hard through that difficult day to make sure the world knew the truth and the facts.

In Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), the theme this week, from 6-12 September 2026 (pp 36-37), is ‘Turning Pain into Glory’. This theme was introduced on Sunday with a Reflection by Nolene Sheppard, Leader of a Women’s Empowerment Group, Magnificat, and Ukraine Aid Project Support Lead at Saint Thomas à Becket, Hamburg, Germany.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Friday 11 September 2026) invites us to pray:

Father in heaven, we pray that by your grace the work of the Magnificat group may be strengthened to bring guidance, stability, and hope to refugee women and children residing in Germany too.

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

An inscription above the Hope Street entrance of the former Royal School for the Blind, Liverpool (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

Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, is a time for reflection, repentance, renewal and reimagination

An Atlantic sunset seen near Milltown Malbay, Co Clare … Rosh Hashanah is a time for ‘Crossing the Bridge from the Particular to the Universal’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

Rosh Hashanah, the beginning of the Jewish New Year 5787, begins at sunset tomorrow evening (Friday 11 September 2026) and continues until nightfall on Sunday (13 September 2026).

Rosh Hashanah (ראש השנה‎) literally means ‘head of the year’. According to Jewish tradition, this holiday commemorates the creation of humanity and serves as a day of divine judgment. It is the first of the High Holy Days and begins the Ten Days of Repentance, culminating in Yom Kippur.

Rosh Hashanah is marked on the first two days of Tishrei, the seventh month in the Hebrew calendar. The central ritual is the sounding of the shofar or ram’s horn, and festive meals feature symbolic foods representing hopes for a sweet new year.

Rosh Hashanah is a time of introspection and atonement. The central theme and practice not only of Rosh Hashanah, but of the entire autumn holiday season, is teshuvah (תְּשׁוּבָה), a word commonly translated as ‘repentance’ but that more literally means ‘return’ or ‘turn around’.

Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, the holiday that follows 10 days later, are intensely focused on teshuvah. Yom Kippur, which follows, begins at sunset on Sunday 20 September 2026 and ends at nightfall on Monday 21 September 2026. Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, is the holiest and most solemn day in the Jewish calendar, and marks the peak of the High Holidays.

Many Jews see this as a time to make amends or apologise to those they have wronged in the past year and resolve to do better in the year about to begin. One of the common practices of Rosh Hashanah is attending synagogue services and hearing the blowing of the shofar, or ram’s horn, the central mitzvah of the holiday. Another well-known practice is the Tashlich (תשליך) service, in which sins are symbolically cast into a natural body of running water.

The foods most associated with Rosh Hashanah are apples and honey, eaten as an expression of hope for a sweet new year. There is also a tradition of eating other symbolic foods at Rosh Hashanah meals, including pomegranates, dates, leeks and a fish head – all symbolic of a wish for the year to come.

On the second night of Rosh Hashanah it is customary to eat a new fruit, a symbol of newness. It is also customary to have big feasts on both nights of Rosh Hashanah and the many customary dishes include honey cake, brisket and tzimmes.

The traditional greeting on Rosh HaShanah is ‘shanah tovah umtukah’ (שָׁנָה טוֹבָה וּמְתוּקָה‎) which means ‘may you have a good and sweet new year’. This greeting is often shortened to ‘shanah tovah’ (שָׁנָה טוֹבָה‎), ‘a good year’.

A more formal greeting is ‘L’shanah tovah tikateivu v’teichateimu’ (לְשָׁנָה טוֹבָה תִּכָּתְבוּ וְתֵחָתֵמוּ‎), which means ‘a good year, and may you be inscribed and sealed (for blessing in the Book of Life)’. Another greeting is ‘tizku l'shanim rabot’ (תזכו לשנים רבות‎), which means ‘may you merit many years’.

Some people say ‘chag sameach’ (חג שמח‎), but strictly speaking chag sameach should only be on the three pilgrimage festivals, Passover, Shavuot, and Sukkot.

Another traditional greeting for Ashkenazi Jews on both Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur is a Yiddish greeting, ‘gut yontif,’ ‘good holiday’. Sephardic Jews may offer a greeting in Ladino, ‘anyada bueno, dulse, i alegre’, ‘may you have a good, sweet, and happy new year.’

The foods associated with Rosh Hashanah, including apples, honey, pomegranates and dates, express hopes for a sweet new year

Yolanda Savage-Narva is the former vice president of Racial Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (REDI) for the Union for Reform Judaism in the US. For more than 20 years, she worked with Tribal governments to strengthen public health systems, promoted pedestrian safety and advocacy, coining the phrase ‘walking is a civil right’ and worked on health equity. More recently, she was the executive director with Operation Understanding DC, promoting understanding, cooperation, and respect while fighting to eradicate racism, antisemitism and discrimination.

In a reflection written last year for Rosh HaShanah, she talked about the period between Rosh HaShanah, the Jewish New Year, and Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, as a timely opportunity for renewal, reflection, and repentance: ‘It gives us a chance to repair ourselves through tikkun atzmi by embracing the particular, so that we can do our part of repairing the world, tikkun olam by embracing the universal.’

She wrote how, as a Jew, she found herself yearning for the opportunity for reflection, repentance, renewal, and reimagination. She continued: ‘There are so many injustices in the world that I cannot point to just one or create a hierarchy in my heart about which atrocity is more inhumane’.

As a resident of Washington DC, she said, she has a front row seat to an occupied territory: ‘People of Latinx descent are afraid to leave their homes for fear of being captured like wild animals and shipped off to a country they know nothing about. As a resident of the United States, I am witnessing with horror the dismantling of every system imaginable: public health access; environmental protections; transportation infrastructure; and so many other initiatives that serve to protect the most marginalised in our society; the continued daily scourge of racism; the rise of antisemitism and all forms of hatred; and the rule of law are all in question. As a global citizen, I am watching with hopelessness and despair the continued loss of life from Gaza to Haiti to Ukraine and places in between.’

She asked how Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur could be used to think about how we contribute to the universal idea of the Divine spark in every human being: ‘How do we ensure that every human being knows and understands that this soil (our Earth) belongs to all of us and is our rightful home?’

She went on to make four suggestions:

‘First, we REFLECT by going inward. We explore those places inside of ourselves that have gone unchallenged. We commit, as individuals, to being a part of the universe that will bring justice and liberation. We must look into the mirror, challenge our assumptions and our biases, and add tools to our toolbox that will help us understand that the choices we make as individuals impact the sum of us.

‘Second, we REPENT. We learn from our mistakes and account for any harm we have had a hand in. We don’t stay there, but we do acknowledge what we have done to be hurtful, to not be helpful, when we could or should have.

‘Third, we RENEW by embracing the darkness. Darkness does not mean bad or evil in the way we have been taught by those that teach things. I see darkness as an opportunity for true transformation, true growth, true nourishment. What truly happens in darkness – at night we sleep, replenishing our body and mind, we collect our memories and store them for a future time. The soil provides nutrients that make things grow, a black hole; objects are transformed in a way that, if they could come back out, they would be different.

‘Fourth, we REIMAGINE. In the words of Muhammad Ali, “If the heart can conceive it, the mind can achieve it.” We are building from the ground up. There are a few things that we will be able to rebuild and most certainly will not be the same. Embrace the opportunity to reimagine and rebuild.’

In preparation for the High Holy Days, she implored readers not merely to read or hear the words from ancient text, but to ‘allow the words to embody our spirits and awaken our souls to the fact that, although we act as individuals, we are inextricably bound together to serve and honour all of humanity.’

She concluded: ‘The core Jewish principle from the Talmud that calls Jews to realise that, if we save one person, it is as if we have saved the world is fundamental. If we are all doing our part to save one person, we are, in fact, saving the world. When we see each individual soul as being made in the Divine Image (b’tzelem Elohim), we are embracing and crossing the bridge from the individual (particular) and the universal (all of humanity).’

The late Chief Rabbi, Lord (Jonathan Sacks), writing about Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, said: ‘Those who fully engage in the spirit of Rosh Hashanah emerge into the new year charged, energised, focussed, renewed, knowing that to be a Jew is to live life in the Presence of God, to sanctify life for the sake of God, and to enhance the lives of others – for where we bring blessings into other lives, there God lives.’

Walking by the shore by Giudecca in Venice … Rosh Hashanah is an opportunity for reflection, repentance, renewal, and reimagination (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

‘Our grudges are no longer our grudges, Our silent resentments are no longer silent,Our eternal vows of vengeance are no more’

‘And we pray for those children whose nightmares occur in the daytime’ (Ina J Hughes) … street art seen in Buckingham this week (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Patrick Comerford

Thursday was a horrific day for the Jewish community in Britain, Britain at large, and the Jewish community throughout the world, with the frightening attack on Heaton Park synagogue in Manchester. May the memories of those who were killed be a blessing and may those who were injured recover quickly and fully.

Feelings of safety within the Jewish community in the UK have declined sharply in the last couple of years, according to the largest survey of British Jews since 7 October 2023. The Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said this morning that antisemitism has been rising in the UK.

The local synagogue in Milton Keynes has had several telephone calls and messages since the attack from local people wanting to express solidarity with the Jewish community, trying to reassure Jewish people that they are not alone. It was reassuring that the police were at the synagogue in Milton Keynes yesterday morning even before anyone there had heard of the attack in Manchester, and they continued to do regular patrols by the synagogue throughout the day.

Yom Kippur or the Day of Atonement is the most solemn day in the Jewish calendar, the climax of the Ten Days of Awe or the High Holy Days. I spent some of these days, including Rosh HaShanah, the Jewish New Year Day, and Kol Nidrei, the beginning of Yom Kippur, in my local synagogue in Milton Keynes, where the services were led by Rabbi Roberta Harris-Eckstein, who used the new Reform Judaism High Holy Days Machzor.

The revised and modernised prayer book has been 10 years in the making. It was produced by an editorial group of clergy – including Rabbi Mark Goldsmit, who chaired the group, and the joint editors Rabbi Paul Freedman and Rabbi Professor Jonathan Magonet – along with inputs from rabbinic and cantorial colleagues and local congregations.

As a companion to the renewed Reform Siddur for daily and Shabbat use, the High Holy Days Machzor incorporates changes and improvements that were needed to reflect today’s Progressive Jewish society and those of the next 30 to 40 years. These changes and improvement include gender neutral language, reflected in the introduction of the Matriarchs: Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel and Leah were missing on the High Holy Day. One key aim was to demystify the principles, customs and practices of the Yamim Noraim or Days of Awe.

In many places in this two-volume resource, the usual liturgy on the right-hand page is creatively complemented by readings and poetry in a blue typeface on the facing page, either for congregational use or to give permission to the individual to ‘wander’ and find new meaning during a service.

The hope is that the new Machzor allows everyone to take part in Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur in a way that addresses their personal needs and reflects today’s Reform and Progressive values and place in Jewish tradition.

The Torah scrolls in Milton Keynes and District Reform Synagogue (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The services for Rosh haShanah, Kol Nidrei and Yom Kippur in Milton Keynes this week and last were led by Rabbi Roberta Harris-Eckstein. She has been part-time rabbi of Eastbourne Liberal Jewish Community and has taught the Hebrew Bible, History of the Ancient Near East and Biblical History, as well as courses in Judaism for non-Jews.

The Torah readings for Rosh haShanah are a tapestry of stories about children – the rescue of Ishmael, the birth of Isaac, and the birth of Samuel. One engaging reading introduced by Rabbi Roberta is an adaptation of the poem ‘A Prayer for the Children’ by Ina J Hughes:

We pray for the children who put chocolate fingers on everything,
who love to be tickled,
who stomp in puddles and ruin their new pants,
who eat candy before supper,
and who can never find their shoes in the morning.

And we also pray for those who stare at photographers from behind barbed wire,
who never bound down the street in a new pair of shoes,
who never played ‘one potato, two potatoes’,
and who are born in places where we would not be caught dead in and they will be.

We pray for the children who give us sticky kisses and fistfuls of dandelions,
who sleep with their dog and bury their goldfish,
who hug us so tightly and who forget their lunch money,
who squeeze toothpaste all over the sink,
who watch their fathers shave,
and who slurp their soup.

And we also pray for those who will never get dessert,
who have no favourite blanket to drag behind them,
who watch their fathers suffer,
who cannot find any bread to steal,
who do not have rooms to clean up,
whose pictures are always on milk cartons instead of dressers,
and whose monsters are real.

We pray for the children who spend their allowance before Tuesday,
who pick at their food,
who love ghost stories,
who shove dirty clothes under the bed,
who never rinse out the bathtub,
who love visits from the Tooth Fairy, even when they find out who it really is,
who do not like to be kissed or hugged in front of the school bus,
and who squirm during services.

And we pray for those children
whose nightmares occur in the daytime,
who will eat anything,
who have never seen a dentist,
who are not spoiled by anybody,
who go to bed hungry and wake up hungry,
who live and move and have no address.

We pray for the children who like to be carried
and for those children who have to be carried,
for those who give up on and for those who never give up;
for those who will grab the hand of anyone kind enough to offer it
and for those who will find no hand to grab.

For all these children, Adonai, we pray today,
for they are all so precious. Amen.

‘We pray for the children … who live and move and have no address’ (Ina J Hughes) … street art in Waterford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

As I pored over the new Machzor in moments of silence and reflection, I was taken by many of the resources it offers ‘All Our Grudges’ by Trisha Arlin is described as an ‘Alternative Kol Nidrei’:

All grudges, resentments, and vows of vengeance and bitterness,
All undying hatreds or annoyances that we may hold onto
Or talk endlessly about, boring our friends,
Or lose sleep obsessing over
Or write bad poetry about
Or bring up at family dinners to the consternation of all present;

From the previous Day of Atonement until this Day of Atonement
For the benefit of our mental health
And the peace of mind of all who surround us;
Regarding all of this that we have refused to let go,
Despite the fact that they are long past
Or pointless
Or one-sided
Or ridiculous
Or destructive of the innocent
Or hurting ourselves more than anyone else;

Regarding all of them, these intrusions on the Holy Wholeness,
we repudiate them.
All of them, we let them go,
Give up
Wave away
Acknowledge as stupid
Declare null and void
Because we are done.

Our grudges are no longer our grudges,
Our silent resentments are no longer silent,
Our eternal vows of vengeance are no more.

The entire community acknowledges and takes action
So that everyone we have been angry at is forgiven,
Every hurt we did not speak about will be dealt with,
Every relative will be loved for who they are rather than who they are not,
Every change in the world that needs to be made will be made rather than contemplated.

Holy Wholeness!
We need help to step back into connection with the One.
We look for the compassion and mercy
That is always there
If we but pay attention.

‘Anyone who puts on a tallit when young will never forget’ (Yehuda Amichai)

Wearing a tallit at the evening service is a tradition associated with Kol Nidrei. Normally, a tallitis worn at services during daylight hours, and tradition says the tallitis not worn at night. The exception to this rule is the night of Yom Kippur or Kol Nidre, and it is customary for those who wear the tallitto wear it throughout Yom Kippur, for all prayer services, including Kol Nidrei.

‘A Tallit Poem’ by the late Israeli poet Yehuda Amichai depicts some of the symbolism, feelings and emotions captured by memories of the tallit:

Anyone who puts on a tallit when young
will never forget:
taking it out of the soft velvet bag,
opening the folded shawl,
spreading it out,
kissing the length of the neckband
(embroidered
or trimmed in gold).
Then
swinging it in a great swoop
overhead
like a sky,
a wedding canopy,
a parachute.
And then winding it
around your head
as in hide-and-seek,
then wrapping
your whole body in it, close and slow,
snuggling into it like the cocoon
of a butterfly,
then opening would-be wings to fly.

And why is the tallit striped
and not checkered black and white
like a chessboard?
Because squares are finite
and hopeless.
Stripes come from infinity
and to infinity they go
like
airport runways
where angels land and take off.

Whoever has put on a tallit
will never forget.
When stepping out of a swimming pool
or the sea,
wrapping yourself in a large towel,
and spreading it out again
over your head,
then you snuggle back into it
close and slow,
still shivering a little,
then you laugh
then you say a blessing.

The prayer Vidui Zuta, also known as the Short Confession or the Ashamnu, is recited during the High Holy Days, particularly on Yom Kippur, when it is recited ten times. It is a familiar acrostic in which the first letter of each sin named corresponds to a letter of the Hebrew alphabet, with the final letter of the alphabet repeated, for a total of 23 sins. Many people, as they confess these sins, beat their chests with their hands to signify the admission of their misdeeds.

But the new Machzor includes an interpretation of Vidui Zuta, with an English-language acrostic from A to Z:

We have abused and betrayed. We were cruel.
We have destroyed and embittered other people’s lives.
We were false to ourselves.
We have gossiped about others and hated them.
We have insulted and jeered. We have killed. We have lied.
We have misled others and neglected them.
We were obstinate. We have perverted and quarrelled.
We have robbed and stolen.
We have transgressed through unkindness.
We have been both violent and weak.
We have been xenophobic.
We have yielded to wrong desires, our zeal was misplaced.

Shabbat Shalom, שבת שלום‎

A selection of tallitot or prayer shawls in the Synagogue Kadoorie Mekor Haim in Porto (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2025: 138, Saturday 27 September 2025

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

Patrick Comerford

We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar and tomorrow is the Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity XV, 28 September). Wednesday, Friday and Saturday in this week in the Church Calendar have been known as Ember Days.

The calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship today remembers Saint Vincent de Paul (1581-1660), founder of the Congregation of the Mission (Lazarists).

These are the ‘Ten Days of Awe’ or the High Holy Days in the Jewish calendar, and this Sabbath between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur is known as Shabbat Shuvah (שבת שובה‎), Sabbath of Return, or Shabbat Teshuvah (שבת תשובה‎), Sabbath of Repentance. Its name derives from the special Haftorah reading, from the prophet Hosea, that begins with the words: ‘Shuvah Yisrael’ (‘Return, O Israel’).

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

1, today’s Gospel reading;

2, a reflection on the Gospel reading;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

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

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

Luke 9: 43b-45 (NRSVA):

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

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

Today’s Reflection:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Today’s Prayers (Saturday 27 September 2025):

The theme this week (21 to 27 September) in Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), has been ‘Malayiaha Jesus: The Co-Sufferer’ (pp 40-41). This theme was introduced last Sunday with Reflections from the Revd Rajendran Ruben Pradeep, Vicar of Holy Trinity Church, Nuwara Eliya, Diocese of Colombo, Church of Ceylon (Sri Lanka).

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Saturday 27 September 2025) invites us to pray:

Heavenly Father, thank you for giving The Revd Ruben a heart for ministry among plantation communities. Grant him strength, wisdom, and compassion as he serves your people.

The Collect:

Merciful God,
whose servant Vincent de Paul,
by his ministry of preaching and pastoral care,
brought your love to the sick and the poor:
give to all your people a heart of compassion
that by word and action they may serve you
in serving others in their need;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Collect (for the ministry of all Christian people):

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

The Post-Communion Prayer:

Merciful God,
who gave such grace to your servant Vincent de Paul
that he served you with singleness of heart
and loved you above all things:
help us, whose communion with you
has been renewed in this sacrament,
to forsake all that holds us back from following Christ
and to grow into his likeness from glory to glory;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

The Post Communion Prayer (Ember Days):

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

Collect on the Eve of Trinity XV:

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

Yesterday’s Reflections

Continued Tomorrow

Masks in a shop window in Venice … do we hide our personae behind masks before other people … before God? (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

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

A reminder on the Days of Awe how Repentance, Prayer and Charity avert the ‘severe decree’

‘Who in the sunshine, who in the night time’ (Leonard Cohen) … in the streets of Prague at night (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

These are the ‘Ten Days of Awe’ or the High Holy Days in the Jewish calendar. I was in the synagogue in Milton Keynes on Tuesday morning (23 September) for the Rosh Hashanah service, with the traditional blowing of the shofar or liturgical ram’s horn marking New Year’s Day.

Yom Kippur or the Day of Atonement begins with the Kol Nidre service on Wednesday night (1 October) and continues on Thursday.

The Sabbath between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, which begins this evening, is called Shabbat Shuvah (שבת שובה‎), Sabbath of Return, or Shabbat Teshuvah (שבת תשובה‎), Sabbath of Repentance. Its name derives from the special Haftorah reading, from the prophet Hosea, that begins with the words ‘Shuvah Yisrael’ (‘Return, O Israel’).

This special Sabbath during Ten Days of Repentance emphasises the themes of teshuvah (תשובה) or returning to God or repenting, as Yom Kippur approaches. Shabbat Shuvah provides a crucial pause to reflect on the past year and to plan for a better future.

Leonard Cphen’s song ‘Who By Fire,’ is deeply connected to the High Holy Days through its reinterpretation of the Jewish liturgical poem, Unetanneh Tokef (וּנְתַנֶּה תּוֹקֶף‎), recited on both Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. His inspiration from the Days of Awe is also found in his song ‘You Want It Darker’, which incorporates the Kaddish and the Hineni prayer from the story of the binding of Isaac, and his song ‘If It Be Your Will’.

‘Who by Fire’ by Leonard Cohen was released in 1974 on the B side of the album New Skin for the Old Ceremony, sung as a duet with Janis Ian.

The prayer Unetanneh Tokef (ונתנה תקף‎) on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur describes God reviewing the Book of Life and deciding the fate of each and every soul for the year to come – who will live, and who will die, and how.

Jewish tradition dates this prayer to the 11th century when, it is said, Rabbi Amnon of Mainz was punished for not converting to Christianity by having his hand and feet cut off on Rosh Hashanah.

As he was dying from his wounds, he had a vision of God sitting and writing in a book. In his dying hours, Rabbi Amnon wrote the prayer that begins with ‘Who by fire? And who by water?’ The prayer concludes:

Who will live and who will die;
Who in his due time and who not in his due time;
Who by water and who by fire,
Who by the sword and who by beasts,
Who by famine and who by thirst,
Who by earthquake and who by plague,
Who by strangling and who by stoning.
Who will rest and who will wander,
Who will be tranquil and who will be harassed,
Who will be at ease and who will be troubled,
Who will be rich and who will be poor,
Who will be brought down and who will be raised up?
But Repentance, Prayer and Charity avert the severe decree.

In Jewish tradition, the Book of Life lays open on these days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur

In Jewish tradition, the Book of Life lays open on these days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, and the greeting among Jews in those days is: ‘May your name be written in the Book of Life’ (Gmar Hatima Tova, וגמר חתימה טובה‎)

Leonard Cohen heard this traditional prayer as a child in the synagogue. In Montreal In his own words, he recalls the tradition: ‘On Rosh Hashanah will be inscribed and on Yom Kippur will be sealed how many will pass from the earth and how many will be created; who will live and who will die; who will die at his predestined time and who before his time; who by water and who by fire, who by sword, who by beast, who by famine, who by thirst, who by storm, who by plague, who by strangulation, and who by stoning.

‘Who will rest and who will wander, who will live in harmony and who will be harried, who will enjoy tranquillity and who will suffer, who will be impoverished and who will be enriched, who will be degraded and who will be exalted.’

At the age of 39, the poet and singer was famous but unhappy and imagined he had reached a creative dead end. In October 1973, he left his home on the Greek island of Hydra for the chaos and bloodshed of the Sinai desert during the Yom Kippur War.

Cohen travelled around the war front with of local musicians, entertaining the troops. In his book Who by Fire, the journalist Matti Friedman told the story of those weeks Cohen spent in the Sinai, with a kaleidoscopic depiction of a harrowing, formative moment for both a country at war and a singer at a crossroads.

The war transformed Cohen. Instead of abandoning his music career, he returned to Hydra in Greece and to his family, became the father of a second child, and released his album New Skin for the Old Ceremony. References to war can be heard in a number of the songs, including ‘Lover, Lover, Lover,’ written during fighting, and ‘Who by Fire,’ inspired by this prayer about human mortality.

The traditional catalogue or listing includes deaths that are natural, accidental, punishment, by decree, and that are unjust. Like the original, Cohen’s ‘Who by Fire’ tells of a litany of ways and reasons one might meet one’s death. To this list he adds avalanche, greed, hunger, suicide, drugs and the abuse of political power, to the original prayer, and even the cruelty of failures in love: ‘Who by his lady’s command.’

When Cohen introduced the song live in Melbourne, in March 1980, he explained the melody is based on the one he ‘first heard when I was four or five years old, in the synagogue, on the Day of Atonement, standing beside my tall uncles in their black suits.’

He continued: ‘It’s a liturgical prayer that talks about the way in which you can quit this vale of tears. It’s according to a tradition, an ancient tradition that on a certain day of the year, the Book of Life is opened, and in it is inscribed the names of all those who will live and all those who will die, who by fire, who by water.’

The line: ‘And who shall I say is calling?’ can be understood in the context of hearing the Shofar or liturgical horn being blown on Rosh Hashanah. It is a symbolic wake-up call, stirring those who hear it to mend their ways and to repent: ‘Sleepers, wake up from your slumber! Examine your ways and repent and remember your Creator.’ Who is calling? At one level, it is my own heart calling me to Repentance, Prayer and Charity. But, ultimately, it is God who is calling us to Repentance, Prayer and Charity.

It is not surprising that as families in Israel tried to come to terms with the Hamas massacres on two years ago on 7 October 2023, Leonard Cohen’s ‘Who By Fire’ was given new lyrics in memory of the 1,200 people murdered in southern Israel.

Meanwhile, Leonard Cohen’s 1973 visit to the frontlines of the Yom Kippur war was dramatised for a new limited TV series Who by Fire: Leonard Cohen in the Sinai, an adaptation of Matti Friedman’s book.

This year that is shrouded in hatred, war and death – from the increasing hatred here and across Europe towards refugees and migrants, and the wars in Ukraine, Russia, Gaza, Israel and the West Bank, to the hateful pronouncements that come almost daily from Donald Trump and the Oval Office.

This sad and depressing global political ey combine to give an urgency to the words of the Unetanneh Tokef (ונתנה תקף‎) in the liturgy for the Days of Awe, which conclude: ‘Through repentance, prayer, and charity [righteous giving], we can transcend the harshness of the decree.’

Teach us to number our days, O Lord, that we might apply our hearts unto wisdom.

‘And who shall I say is calling?’ (Leonard Cohen) … a shofar or ritual horn in the Casa de Sefarad or Sephardic Museum in Córdoba (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Leonard Cohen, Who By Fire:

And who by fire, who by water
Who in the sunshine, who in the night time
Who by high ordeal, who by common trial
Who in your merry merry month of May
Who by very slow decay
And who shall I say is calling?

And who in her lonely slip, who by barbiturate
Who in these realms of love, who by something blunt
And who by avalanche, who by powder
Who for his greed, who for his hunger
And who shall I say is calling?

And who by brave assent, who by accident
Who in solitude, who in this mirror
Who by his lady’s command, who by his own hand
Who in mortal chains, who in power
And who shall I say is calling?
And who shall I say is calling?

And who by fire who by water
Who in the sunshine, who in the night time
Who by high ordeal, who by common trial
Who in your merry merry month of May
Who by very slow decay
And who shall I say is calling?
And who shall I say is calling?

Shabbat Shalom, Gmar Hatima Tova!

!שבת שלום וגמר חתימה טובה‎

Leonard Cohen, ‘Who by Fire’ (Live in London)