Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2025: 57, Saturday 5 July 2025

‘Neither is new wine put into old wineskins’ (Matthew 9: 17) … old wine in old barrels in a winery in Vryses in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar and tomorrow is the Third Sunday after Trinity (Trinity III, 6 July 2025).

Later today, the Greek community in Stony Stratford is opening its pop-up café at Swinfen Harris Church Hall, London Road. Το Στεκι Μας, Our Place, takes place every first Saturday of the month from 10:30 to 5 pm.

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.

‘No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old cloak’ (Matthew 9: 16) … an exhibit in the Patch Work Collective exhibition in Liberty, London (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Matthew 9: 14-17 (NRSVA):

14 Then the disciples of John came to him, saying, ‘Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but your disciples do not fast?’ 15 And Jesus said to them, ‘The wedding-guests cannot mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them, can they? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast. 16 No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old cloak, for the patch pulls away from the cloak, and a worse tear is made. 17 Neither is new wine put into old wineskins; otherwise, the skins burst, and the wine is spilled, and the skins are destroyed; but new wine is put into fresh wineskins, and so both are preserved.’

‘Neither is new wine put into old wineskins’ (Matthew 9: 17) … an old wine at sunset at the Sunset Taverna in Rethymnon in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflection:

The Gospel reading in the Lectionary for the celebration of the Eucharist today (Matthew 9: 14-17) follows yesterday’s account of the calling of Saint Matthew, and is set at the banquet in Matthew’s house, to which Jesus goes, despite the criticism of local religious leaders (see Matthew 9: 9-13).

Quite often in the Gospels we find Jesus facing criticism from the Pharisees, the Scribes or both groups working together. But we seldom find Jesus facing criticism from the disciples of John the Baptist, still less from the disciples of John seemingly on the same side of the Pharisees.

The critics yesterday asked why Jesus was eating with sinners and outcasts. Today they go one step further and ask why he is eating at all. They point to the example of John the Baptist and his disciples who fasted regularly.

In Jewish practice, the only day of the year when fasting is expected is Yom Kippur or the Day of Atonement. However, John’s disciples and perhaps also some Pharisees, may have observed additional fasts that were not prescribed by the Law in the hope that their extra piety would help hasten an early coming of the Kingdom.

Jesus answers their question in two ways. First, he says that people do not fast when they are in the company of the bridegroom. That is a time for celebration. By implication, of course, Jesus is the groom. As long as he is around, it would be inappropriate for his disciples to fast. However, he says a time will come when the groom is no longer with them, and then there will be reason enough then to fast.

His second answer is more profound and it takes the form of two examples.

In the first example, Jesus says It does not make sense to repair an old piece of clothing with a patch of new cloth. The new cloth, being much tougher, will, under stress, only cause the older cloth to tear.

In the second example, Jesus says it is not wise to put new wine into old wineskins. Wine was kept in containers made of leather. Because new wine was still fermenting and expanding, it was put in new leather bags that could expand with the wine. The old bags would be stretched already, and new wine would only cause them to burst. Then both the wine would be lost and the bags ruined.

What does Jesus mean by these images?

What message is Jesus giving to his critics?

Are his ideas like new wine or new cloth to you?

People like the Pharisees tried to fit Jesus’ teaching and his ideas into their ways of thinking, but that did not seem to work.

The new cloth and the new wine, then, are the spirit of the Kingdom as proclaimed by Jesus, a radically new understanding of how God is to be loved, and how God loves us.

Jesus does not measure religion by external actions like fasting or other demands and expectation such as washing hands before eating. Instead, religion is a matter of the inner spirit and how we reflect that in the way we live our lives, as he teaches in the Sermon on the Mount.

How do I try to squeeze new wine into old wineskins?

What prejudices and hang-ups that were external and extraneous expressions of Church life in the past am I still clinging onto in my interior life, and that hinder my acceptance of other people today?

Who are today’s equivalent of Matthew, an outsider called to be part of the inner circle with Jesus yet I am uncomfortable to find beside me in Church and at the Eucharist?

‘No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old cloak’ (Matthew 9: 16) … a patchwork hanging in Wade Street Church, Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Saturday 5 July 2025):

I was sorry to miss the USPG Annual Conference which took place at the Hayes Conference Centre in Swanwick, Derbyshire, this week. The theme of the conference this year was ‘We Believe, We Belong?’ and centred around the 1,700th anniversary of the Nicene Creed (AD 325).

‘We Believe, We Belong?’ was also the theme this week (29 June to 5 July) in Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel). This theme was introduced last Sunday with reflections by Rachael Anderson, former Senior Communications and Engagement Manager, USPG.

The USPG prayer diary today (Saturday 5 July 2025) invites us to pray:

We give thanks for the dedication and hard work of the USPG staff in planning, preparing, and running the conference. Grant them rest and strength, to support USPG’s mission throughout the year.

The Collect:

Lord, you have taught us
that all our doings without love are nothing worth:
send your Holy Spirit
and pour into our hearts that most excellent gift of love,
the true bond of peace and of all virtues,
without which whoever lives is counted dead before you.
Grant this for your only Son Jesus Christ’s sake,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

Loving Father,
we thank you for feeding us at the supper of your Son:
sustain us with your Spirit,
that we may serve you here on earth
until our joy is complete in heaven,
and we share in the eternal banquet
with Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

Faithful Creator,
whose mercy never fails:
deepen our faithfulness to you
and to your living Word,
Jesus Christ our Lord.

Collect on the Eve of Trinity III:

Almighty God,
you have broken the tyranny of sin
and have sent the Spirit of your Son into our hearts
whereby we call you Father:
give us grace to dedicate our freedom to your service,
that we and all creation may be brought
to the glorious liberty of the children of God;
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

‘Neither is new wine put into old wineskins’ (Matthew 9: 17) … new wine at lunchtime in the Captain’s House in Panormos, near Rethymnon in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version, Anglicised Edition copyright © 2021, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2025: 56, Friday 4 July 2025

Saint Matthew … a sculpture on the west façade of Lichfield Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar and the week began with the Second Sunday after Trinity (Trinity II, 29 June 2025) and the Feast of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, while yesterday the Church Calendar celebrated Saint Thomas the Apostle.

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.

Saint Matthew depicted in a window in Saint Peter’s Church, Kuching … the church was officially opened last Sunday, on the Feast of Saint Peter (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Matthew 9: 9-13 (NRSVA):

9 As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth; and he said to him, ‘Follow me.’ And he got up and followed him.

10 And as he sat at dinner in the house, many tax-collectors and sinners came and were sitting with him and his disciples. 11 When the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, ‘Why does your teacher eat with tax-collectors and sinners?’ 12 But when he heard this, he said, ‘Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. 13 Go and learn what this means, “I desire mercy, not sacrifice.” For I have come to call not the righteous but sinners.’

‘Scenes from the Life of the Apostle Matthew’, an icon by Georgios Kastrophylakas (1742) in old Saint Minas Church, Iraklion (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Today’s Reflection:

The Gospel reading in the Lectionary for the celebration of the Eucharist today tells of the calling of Saint Matthew, a tax-collector or publican who is called to be one of the Twelve, and the response of the religious leaders of the day, who air their criticism of this decision to the other disciples of Jesus.

Saint Matthew the Evangelist (מתי/מתתיהו, Gift of Yahweh; Ματθαίος) is one of the Twelve and is identified with both the author of the first of the four gospels and with Levi the publican or tax collector in the Gospels according to Saint Mark and Saint Luke.

According to tradition, Saint Matthew was the son of Alpheus, a publican or a tax collector by profession. He was the Levi in the Gospels according to Saint Mark and Saint Luke, and was called to be a disciple while he was sitting in the tax collectors’ place at Capernaum.

We know little about Saint Matthew’s subsequent career – what we do know is little more than speculation and legend. Saint Irenaeus says Matthew preached the Gospel among the Hebrews, Saint Clement of Alexandria claimed that he did this for 15 years, and Eusebius maintains that, before going into other countries, he gave them his Gospel in his mother tongue.

Some ancient writers say Matthew later worked in Ethiopia to the south of the Caspian Sea – not Ethiopia in Africa; others say he worked in Persia, Parthia, Macedonia or Syria. According to Heracleon, who is quoted by Clement of Alexandria, Matthew did not die a martyr, but other accounts, including the Roman Martyrology, say he died a martyr’s death in Ethiopia.

Like the other evangelists, Matthew is often depicted in Christian art as one of the four living creatures of Revelation (4: 7) – in Matthew’s case the winged man, carrying a lance in his hand. There are three paintings of Matthew by Carravagio in the church of San Luigi del Francesci in Rome. Those three paintings, which are among the landmarks of Western art, depict Saint Matthew and the Angel, Matthew being called by Christ, and the Martyrdom of Matthew.

Caravaggio, in depicting the calling of Matthew, shows Levi the tax collector sitting at a table with four assistants, counting the day’s proceeds. This group is lighted from a source at the upper right of the painting. Christ, his eyes veiled, with his halo the only indication of his divinity, enters with Saint Peter. A gesture of Christ’s right hand – all the more powerful and compelling because of its languor – summons Levi.

Surprised by the intrusion and perhaps dazzled by the sudden light from the just-opened door, Levi draws back and gestures toward himself with his left hand as if to say: ‘Who, me?’ His right hand is still on the coin he had been counting before Christ’s entrance.

Today, Saint Matthew is regarded as the patron saint of accountants and bankers. Given the unsaintly performance of many bankers in recent years, I do not know that I would be particularly happy with the prospect of being the patron saint of bankers being put to me as a good career move in heaven. But then Christ came not to call the righteous but sinners to salvation.

Perhaps Matthew should be the patron saint of those who answer the call to ministry. I hope none of us will be worried about how we are remembered, whether people get it right about where we worked in ministry and mission, or whether they even get my name right. As long as I answered that call when it came, and abandoned everything else, including career prospects and the possibility of wealth, to answer that call faithfully and fully.

Saint Matthew depicted in a spandrel beneath the dome of the Analipsi Church in Georgioupoli in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Friday 4 July 2025):

I was sorry to miss the USPG Annual Conference which took place over three days this week at the Hayes Conference Centre in Swanwick, Derbyshire. The theme of the conference this year was ‘We Believe, We Belong?’ and centred around the 1,700th anniversary of the Nicene Creed (AD 325).

‘We Believe, We Belong?’ is also the theme this week (29 June to 5 July) in Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel). This theme was introduced on Sunday with reflections by Rachael Anderson, former Senior Communications and Engagement Manager, USPG.

The USPG prayer diary today (Friday 4 July 2025) invites us to pray:

Lord, may the profound words of the Nicene Creed continue to uplift and guide us, reminding us that, despite our differences, we are united as one in the sacred communion of faith.

The Collect:

Lord, you have taught us
that all our doings without love are nothing worth:
send your Holy Spirit
and pour into our hearts that most excellent gift of love,
the true bond of peace and of all virtues,
without which whoever lives is counted dead before you.
Grant this for your only Son Jesus Christ’s sake,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

Loving Father,
we thank you for feeding us at the supper of your Son:
sustain us with your Spirit,
that we may serve you here on earth
until our joy is complete in heaven,
and we share in the eternal banquet
with Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

Faithful Creator,
whose mercy never fails:
deepen our faithfulness to you
and to your living Word,
Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s reflections

Continued tomorrow

Saint Matthew depicted in the iconostasis in the Greek Orthodoc Church in Stony Stratford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version, Anglicised Edition copyright © 2021, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

The Byzantine Church of Saint Matthew of the Sinaites in Iraklion and a unique collection of icons in Crete

The Byzantine Church of Saint Matthew of the Sinaites in the old city in Iraklion (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Patrick Comerford

On a sunny afternoon, as I was making my way from the Cathedral of Saint Minas in the heart of Iraklion to the Martinengo Bastion above the city to see the grave of Nikos Kazantzakis, I stopped to visit the mediaeval Byzantine Church of Saint Matthew of the Sinaites in the maze of streets in the old city.

This church with an unusual name is a monastic foundation linked to Saint Catharine’s Monastery on Mount Sinai, the oldest continuously inhabited Christian monastery, and it holds one of the most important collections of icons in Crete today, dating from the 16th to the 18th century.

The church is also intimately linked to events at the end of the 19th century that led to the end of Ottoman rule and the incorporation of Crete into modern Greece.

The main (south) aisle in the church … the first church on the site dated back to the second Byzantine period (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

I had last visited this church in September 2013. The church, on Taxiarchou Markopoulou street, is near the bustling city centre of Iraklion and Saint Minas Cathedral. But it is a quiet residential area, with traditional white-washed houses, cobbled streets, and cosy tavernas and cafés.

The two-aisled church is set in a shaded courtyard about 500 metres south of the cathedral of Saint Minas. The present building dates back to just after the earthquake of 1508.

The earliest references in the lists of churches in Candia say the first church on the site dated back to the second Byzantine period (961 to1204 CE), a significant period of cultural and economic revival for the island after its reconquest from Arab rule. Saint Matthew’s was regarded as ‘Great and Unique’ and was inextricably connected with life in the city.

The north aisle in the church … the church became a dependency of the Monastery of Saint Catherine on Mount Sinai in 1669 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

The Byzantine church of Saint Matthew Sinaitón or Saint Matthew of the Sinaites (Ναός Αγίου Ματθαίου Σιναϊτών) was rebuilt after the earthquake of 1508. The new church of Agios Matthaios (Saint Matthew) was probably built, as a family chapel in the early 17th century on the site of the older Byzantine church that had been destroyed in the earthquake. The founding inscription says it was built in 1600.

After the Ottomans captured Crete and Iraklion in 1669, the Church of Saint Catherine was turned into a mosque. Through the intervention of the Sultan’s interpreter, Nikosios Panagiotakis, Saint Matthew’s Church was then given by way of compensation as a metochion or small monastic establishment to the Monastery of Saint Catherine on Mount Sinai and its monks.

The seat of the Archbishop of Crete, and the icons, paintings and pulpits that had once adorned Saint Catherine were transferred to the church, and it has been known ever since as Saint Matthew of the Sinaites.

The carved pulpit in the south aisle is highly decorated with icons (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

However, it cannot be said with certainty whether the school of iconography at Saint Catherine’s operated on the church grounds during this period, although it was located there later, and was moved to the small Church of Agios Minas around 1750. The school continued to function through the work of Georgios Kastrophylakas and loannis Kastrophylakas, father and son, and Ioannis Kornaros, who had attended the school.

The church is known for its striking architecture and serene ambiance. It has an elegant façade, and the interior is equally captivating, with its frescoes and icons. This is a two-aisled, vaulted church with a transverse narthex. The complex also includes two neoclassical buildings and a newer building.

A relief marble slab above the north entrance of the church depicts Saint Matthew the Apostle. The church was expanded at the end of the 17th century, and the south aisle was added and dedicated to Saint Paraskevi. The flat-roofed narthex was rebuilt in the 18th century, and a chapel was added at the north-east end and dedicated to Saint Charalambos.

The church holds a rare collection of icons with important works of the Cretan School of Iconography (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Today the church holds a rare collection of icons with important works of the Cretan School of Iconography in the Venetian Era.

The icons include the Crucifixion by Georgios Kastrophylakas (1752); Saint Catherine and Saint Symeon the God-Receiver by Jeremiah Palladas; the Crucifixion (1772) and Saint Titus and Scenes of the Lives of the 10 Martyrs of Crete by Ioannis Kornaros (1773); the Crucifixion, attributed to Palaiokappa; and two unsigned icons by Michael Damaskinos, Saint Symeon Theodochos and Saint John the Baptist (16th century).

Other notable icons in the church include: Saint Phanourios by John, priest of Kolyva (1688); Saint Paraskevi (17th century); the Prophet Elias with scenes of his life, by Georgios Kydoniates (1752); the Lament (1753); Saint Charalampos and the martyrdom of the saint, by Ioannis Kornaros, (1773); and the Virgin Mary or Panaghia by Victor (1780).

The iconostasis in the main south aisle of the church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

For many decades, Saint Matthew and Saint Minas long remained the two principal Orthodox churches in Iraklion, and many influential members of the Christian community in the city were buried in the churchyard.

Many of the people slaughtered by the Turks in the massacre in Iraklion on 25 August 1898 are also buried in the churchyard. They include Lysimachos Kalokairinos (1840-1898), who had been the British Vice Consul in Iraklion from 1859 and a British subject since 1871.

Kalokairinos was killed when his home was burnt down during the violence in 1898, and most of his archaeological collection and that of his brother, Minos Kalokairinos (1843-1907), dragoman at the consulate, were destroyed. Minos Kalokairinos was an amateur archaeologist known for the first excavations at the Minoan palace of Knossos, and his excavations were continued later by Arthur Evans.

Many of the people slaughtered in the massacre in Iraklion on 25 August 1898 are buried in the churchyard (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

During the violence, known the ‘Candia Massacre’, it is estimated 500-800 Christians were massacred in Iraklion, 14 British military personnel were murdered, and Lysimachos Kalokairinos and his family were burnt alive in their home. A significant part of Candia was burned down and the massacre, which continued for four hours, ended only after British warships began bombarding the city.

The massacre on 6 September 1898 (Old Style 25 August) accelerated the end of Ottoman rule: the last Ottoman soldier left Crete two months later, on 28 November 1898, ending the 253-year Ottoman rule on the island. Crete became an autonomous state in 1899 and was incorporated into the modern Greek state in 1913.

The Church of Saint Matthew of the Sinaites remains a ‘Great and Unique’ church. It is an important part of the spiritual heritage of Crete and it is cherished as a landmark that has played a key role in the religious, political and cultural history of Iraklion.

The Church of Saint Matthew of the Sinaites is a ‘Great and Unique’ church in Iraklion (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)