Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2026: 88, Monday 3 August 2026

‘He made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead to the other side’ (Matthew 14: 22) … a fishing boat on the Sarawak River in Kuching (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Patrick Comerford

We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar and the week began with the Ninth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity IX, 2 August 2026).

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

1, today’s Gospel reading;

2, a reflection on the Gospel reading;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

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

Punters on the Backs and the River Cam behind King’s College, Cambridge (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Matthew 14: 22-36 (NRSVA):

22 Immediately he made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds. 23 And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone, 24 but by this time the boat, battered by the waves, was far from the land, for the wind was against them. 25 And early in the morning he came walking towards them on the lake. 26 But when the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified, saying, ‘It is a ghost!’ And they cried out in fear. 27 But immediately Jesus spoke to them and said, ‘Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid.’

28 Peter answered him, ‘Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.’ 29 He said, ‘Come.’ So Peter got out of the boat, started walking on the water, and came towards Jesus. 30 But when he noticed the strong wind, he became frightened, and beginning to sink, he cried out, ‘Lord, save me!’ 31 Jesus immediately reached out his hand and caught him, saying to him, ‘You of little faith, why did you doubt?’ 32 When they got into the boat, the wind ceased. 33 And those in the boat worshipped him, saying, ‘Truly you are the Son of God.’

34 When they had crossed over, they came to land at Gennesaret. 35 After the people of that place recognized him, they sent word throughout the region and brought all who were sick to him, 36 and begged him that they might touch even the fringe of his cloak; and all who touched it were healed.

Boats at Salter’s by Folly Bridge in Oxford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Today’s Reflections

In last year or two, I have enjoyed being on boats in Sarawak and Singapore, barge trips on the Grand Union Canal, and watching rowers and boats in York, on the Backs in Cambridge, on the river in Oxford and in York. I even had the pleasure many years ago of one college boat club in Cambridge asking to use one of my photographs in a fundraising drive.

It is almost 60 years since I first went rowing as a teenager on Lough Ramor in Virginia. But I had long thought that I would be left regretting that I had taken up courses in Cambridge when I was too late in life to learn, or to re-learn, how to row.

I had come to enjoy rowing as a sport and an activity, but in a very passive way.

Then, shortly after I arrived in Askeaton in 2017, one evening, as I was standing at a slipway by the banks of the Rover Deel, I was invited suddenly and unexpectedly to get into a boat and to row.

I was fearless. It was a pleasure I had often hoped for and wished for. And for almost an hour, we rowed upstream, under the bridge at Askeaton, and as far as the castle, and then downstream past the factory, although not as far as the estuary. When I suggested that I might be too old to learn, or re-learn, how to row, I was told brusquely and with humour that once I stopped learning I had stopped living.

Later that same week, I watched children and teenagers hop in and out of boats, freely and fearlessly, confident of their own ability and the ability of those who were training them.

Fearlessly. But as I was messing about on boats in Crete some weeks earlier, hopping on and off them in the sun as I visited smaller islands and lagoons, I thought of how this was a pleasure that I was paying for and wondered but how many refugees were full of fear as they boarded boats in the dark trying to arrive on Greek islands, having paid exorbitantly for the risk and the dangers.

Fearlessly. What are your worst fears?

I know, at present, many of us have fears arising out of the wars between Russia and Ukraine, the wars involving the US in Iran and the Gulf, Israel in Gaza and Lebanon, and the global insecurity created by the mercurial decision-making by the Trump regime.

As we grow up and mature, we tend to have fewer fears of the outside world, and as adults we begin to cope with the fears we once had as children, by turning threats into opportunities.

The fears I had as a child – of snakes, of the wind, of storms at sea, of lightning – are no longer the stuff of recurring nightmares they were as a child. I have learned to be cautious, to be sensible and to keep my distance, and to be in awe of God’s creation.

But most of us have recurring dreams that are vivid and that have themes that keep repeating themselves. They fall into a number of genres, and most psychotherapists identify a number of these types of dreams that most of us deal with in our sleep at various stages in adult life.

They include dreams about:

• Drowning.

• Finding myself unprepared for a major function or event, whether it is social or work-related.

• Flying or floating in the air, but then falling suddenly.

• Being caught naked in public.

• Missing a train, a bus or a plane.

• Caught in loos or lifts that do not work, or that overwork themselves.

• Calling out in a crowd but failing to vocalise my scream or not being heard in the crowd or recognised.

• Falling, falling into an abyss.

There are others. But in sleep the brain can act as a filter or filing cabinet, helping us to process, deal with and put aside what we have found difficult to understand in our waking hours, or to try to find ways of dealing with our lack of confidence, feelings of inadequacy, with the ways we confuse gaining attention with receiving love, or with our needs to be accepted, affirmed and loved.

There are two choices in the lectionary for Gospel readings at the Eucharist today: Matthew 14: 13-21, or Matthew 14: 22-36. The first choice was also the Gospel reading yesterday.

In this second, alternative Gospel reading (Matthew 14: 22-36), Saint Peter’s plight seems to be a working out of a constant, recurring, vivid dream of the type that many of us experience at some stage: the feelings of drowning, floating and falling suddenly, being in a crowd and yet alone, calling out and not being heard, or not being recognised for who we are.

Peter sees Christ walking on the lake or floating effortlessly above the water. At first, he thinks he is seeing a ghost. But then Christ calls to him, and Saint Peter responds.

Once he recognises Christ, Saint Peter gets out of the boat, starts walking on the water, and comes towards Christ. But he loses his confidence when he notices the strong wind, he is frightened, and he begins to sink.

He cries out: ‘Lord, save me.’ Christ immediately reaches out his hand and catches him, saying to him, ‘You of little faith, why did you doubt?’

They get back into the boat, the wind ceases. And those in the boat worship him, saying, ‘Truly you are the Son of God.’

Was the sight of Christ walking on the water an illusion?

Was Peter’s idea that he could walk on the water the product of an over-worked mind while he was sleeping?

Did he realise he was unprepared for the great encounter?

Did the wind cease when he woke from the dream?

All of these questions are over-analytical and fail to deal with the real encounter that takes place.

Even before the Resurrection, in his frailty, in his weakness, in his humble humanity, Saint Peter calls out to Christ: ‘Lord, save me’ (verse 30).

Do the others in the boat fall down at Christ’s feet and worship him because he can walk on water? Because he can lift a drowning man out of the depths? Or because they recognise that in Christ they can find the end to all their worst dreams and nightmares?

Despite the heatwaves we have been experiencing this summer, we know too, as they say, to expect the unexpected when we are on water, whether it is a river or a canal, a lake or at sea. Everyone needs to know that the weather can turn, the waters can become choppy, and this can be a frightening experience, even on rivers, close to the river bank and close to firm land.

As seasoned boat-handlers, the Disciples know not to try walking on water. They know the risk of sudden storms and swells, and they know the safety of a good boat, as long as it has a good crew.

But since the early history of the Church, the boat has symbolised the Church.

The bark (barque or barchetta) symbolises the Church tossed on the sea of disbelief, worldliness, and persecution but finally reaching safe harbour. Part of the imagery comes from the ark saving Noah’s family during the Flood (I Peter 3: 20-21). Christ protects Peter’s boat and the Disciples on the stormy Sea of Galilee (see also Mark 6: 45-52; John 6 16-21). The mast forms the shape of the Cross.

It is an image that appears in Apostolic Constitutions and the writings of Tertullian and Clement of Alexandria. We still retain the word nave for the main part of the church, which, architecturally often looks like an up-turned boat.

So, I do would not want any of us to risk walking on water, or to play stupidly in boats on the river or on a lake, and certainly not off the coast or out to see.

But if we are to dream dreams for our parishes, for the Church, for the Kingdom of God, we need to be aware that it comes at the risk of feeling our dreams may be the nightmares of others.

If we are going to dream dreams for our parishes, for the Church, for the Kingdom of God, we may need to step out of our safety zones, our comfort zones, and know that this comes with a risk warning.

And if we are going to dream dreams for our parishes, for the Church, for the Kingdom of God, we need to keep our eyes focussed on Christ, and to know that the Church is there to bring us on that journey.

Let us dream dreams, take risks for the Kingdom of God, step outside the box. But let us keep our eyes on Christ and remember that the boat, the Church, is essential for our journey, and let us continue to worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness.

An icon of the Church as a boat, including Christ, the Apostles and the Church Fathers (Icon: Deacon Matthew Garrett, www.holy-icons.com)

Today’s Prayers (Monday 3 August 2026):

In Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), the theme this week (2-8 August 2026, pp 24-25), is ‘Faith Under Pressure in Nicaragua’. This theme was introduced yesterday with a Reflection by the Most Revd Juan David Alvarado, Bishop of El Salvador and Primate of the Province of the Anglican Church in Central America.

The USPG prayer diary today (Monday 3 August 2026) invites us to pray:

Lord, strengthen your Church in Nicaragua as it faces fear and persecution. Grant courage and protection to all who continue to witness to your truth.

The Collect of the Day:

Almighty God,
who sent your Holy Spirit
to be the life and light of your Church:
open our hearts to the riches of your grace,
that we may bring forth the fruit of the Spirit
in love and joy and peace;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post Communion Prayer:

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

Additional Collect:

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

Yesterday’s reflections

Continued tomorrow

Learning, or re-learning, how to row on the River Deel at Askeaton, Co Limerick

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

Daily prayer in Easter 2026: 14, Saturday 18 April 2026

‘His disciples went down to the lake, got into a boat, and started across the lake’ (John 6: 16-17) … boats on the Trent and Mersey Canal in Rugeley this week (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Patrick Comerford

Our Easter celebrations continue in the Church Calendar, and tomorrow is the Third Sunday of Easter (Easter III). Easter is a 50-day season that continues until the Day of Pentecost.

As a prelude to the new Cricket season, Stony Stratford Cricket Club is blowing off the cobwebs with an interclub training game in Ostler’s Lane today. This an opportunity for players to shake off the winter rust and for everyone else to catch up as the club marks the start of the season, which begins officially next Saturday (25 April). But, 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.

‘When they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the lake’ (John 6: 19) … a lone rower at the Sidney Sussex Boat Club on the Backs in Cambridge (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

John 6: 16-21 (NRSVA):

16 When evening came, his disciples went down to the lake, 17 got into a boat, and started across the lake to Capernaum. It was now dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them. 18 The lake became rough because a strong wind was blowing. 19 When they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the lake and coming near the boat, and they were terrified. 20 But he said to them, ‘It is I; do not be afraid.’ 21 Then they wanted to take him into the boat, and immediately the boat reached the land towards which they were going.

‘His disciples went down to the lake, got into a boat, and started across the lake’ (John 6: 16-17) … an old fishing boat on the Sarawak River in Kuching (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Today’s Reflections:

This morning’s Gospel reading at the Eucharist follows immediately after the account of the feeding of the 5,000 (John 6: 1-15), which we read about yesterday.

These are two of the seven signs in Saint John’s Gospel:

• Turning water into wine in Cana (John 2: 1-11)
• Healing with a word (John 4: 46-51)
• Healing a crippled man at Bethesda (John 5: 1-9)
• The feeding of 5,000 (John 6: 1-14)
• Walking on water (John 6: 16-21)
• The healing of the man born blind (John 9: 1-7)
• The Raising of Lazarus from the dead (John 11: 1-46).

The Dominican author and theologian, Cardinal Timothy Radcliffe, points out that that in the Bible, seven is the number of perfection. We know of the six days of creation and how God rested on the seventh. In Saint John’s Gospel, we have seven signs and seven ‘I AM’ sayings disclosing for us who Christ truly is.

The feeding with the bread and fish is also a prelude to, looks forward to, another meal by the shores of Lake Tiberias. We read tomorrow about that breakfast with the disciples when Jesus feeds them with bread and fish (John 21: 1-19).

Immediately after he hears and responds to the cry of the poor, Christ hears the cry of creation. He calms the waves and the waters and brings his light into the darkest fears of the disciples.

‘It is I; do not be afraid.’

We can be transfixed by fear or paralysed into inaction.’ But poverty, the wars in the Middle East and Ukraine, and the assault on the earth challenge us to hear the groaning of creation, and we need to be reminded that there can be no salvation for humanity that does not include creation.

Let the breaking of the bread and the sharing of the cup take us to the heart of creation.

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

An icon of the Church as a boat, including Christ, the Apostles and the Church Fathers (Icon: Deacon Matthew Garrett, www.holy-icons.com)

Today’s Prayers (Saturday 18 April 2026):

‘Stocked with Hope’ has been the theme this week in ‘Pray With the World Church’, the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), pp 46-47. This theme was introduced last Sunday with a Programme Update by Mayank Thomas, Programme Manager, the Synodical Board of Social Services, Church of North India.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Saturday 18 April 2026) invites us to pray:

Heavenly Father, we lift up the wider Church of North India. May it flourish as a beacon of hope, justice, and equality, reaching people across every village and town it serves with the love of Christ.

The Collect:

Almighty Father,
you have given your only Son to die for our sins
and to rise again for our justification:
grant us so to put away the leaven of malice and wickedness
that we may always serve you
in pureness of living and truth;
through the merits of your Son Jesus Christ our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

Lord God our Father,
through our Saviour Jesus Christ
you have assured your children of eternal life
and in baptism have made us one with him:
deliver us from the death of sin
and raise us to new life in your love, in the fellowship of the Holy Spirit,
by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Additional Collect:

Risen Christ,
for whom no door is locked, no entrance barred:
open the doors of our hearts,
that we may seek the good of others
and walk the joyful road of sacrifice and peace,
to the praise of God the Father.

Collect on the Eve of Easter III:

Almighty Father,
who in your great mercy gladdened the disciples
with the sight of the risen Lord:
give us such knowledge of his presence with us,
that we may be strengthened and sustained by his risen life
and serve you continually in righteousness and 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.

Yesterday’s Reflections

Continued Tomorrow


Canal boats on the Trent and Mersey Canal by the Hawkesyard Estate in Armitage, Staffordshire, this week (Patrick Comerford, 2026)

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 $24.5 million Elvis mansion, a $24.5 million payout to Trump, 24.5 million in the Philippines, and 24.5 million blog readers

Malaysia welcomed 24.5 million visitors in the first seven months of last year … walking along the waterfront in Kuching last night (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Patrick Comerford

This blog is reaching more and more readers at a phenomenal rate this month, and passed a new milepost of 24.5 million readers late last night Irish time or early this morning Sarawak time today (22/23 February 2026). This comes only three days after it passed the milepost of 24 million readers last Friday (20 February 2026), having reached the 23.5 million mark three days before that (17 February 2026), 23 million readers only five days before that (12 February 2026), and 22.5 million earlier this month (4 February).

These figures follow passing the landmarks of 22 million hits late last month (20 January) and 21.5 million hits a week before that (13 January). At the end of 2025, this blog had 21 million hits by New Year’s Eve (31 December 2025), with almost 2.5 million visitors throughout December (2,423,018).

So far this year, there have been more than 3.5 million hits or visitors for 2026. This means, this blog has passed the half million mark five times this month alone, compared to twice last month, and five times in December.

I first began blogging in 2010, and it took almost two years until July 2012 to reach half a million readers – a number reached within the past week alone. It then took more than another year before this figure rose to 1 million by September 2013. This blog reached the 10 million mark a year ago (12 January 2025), almost 15 years later. In little more than 13 months since then, another 14.5 million hits have been counted.

Throughout last year and into this year, the daily figures were overwhelming on many occasions. Seven of the 12 days of busiest traffic on this blog have been in this month so far, one was last month, two were in December last and two were in January 2025:

• 289,076 (11 January 2025)
• 285,366 (12 January 2025)
• 261,422 (13 January 2026)
• 195,391 (20 February 2026)
• 190,467 (21 February 2026)
• 188,376 (19 February 2026)

• 183,317 (22 February 2026)
• 166,155 (15 December 2025)
• 156,311 (18 February 2026)
• 146,944 (14 December 2025)
• 145,259 (17 February 2026)
• 144,935 (16 February 2026)

The latest figure of 24.5 million is all the more staggering as more half of those hits have been within the past nine months, since May 2025. The rise in the number of readers seems to have been phenomenal throughout last year, and the daily figures are overwhelming at times, currently running at almost 80,000 a day. Ten years ago, the daily average was around 1,000.

With this latest landmark figure of 24.5 million readers, I once again find myself asking questions such as:

• What do 24.5 million people look like?

• Where do we find 24.5 million people?

• What does £24.5 million, €24.5 million or $24.5 million mean?

• What would it buy? How far would it stretch? How much of a difference would that much make to people’s lives?

YouTube agreed to pay $24.5 million to settle a lawsuit filed by Donald Trump after he was suspended from the platform

The population of the Philippines is estimated at 24.5 million, the Red River Delta region of Vietnam has a population of 24.5 million people, Shanghai has 24.5 million permanent residents along with another 5 million people regarded as a floating population, and the immigrant population in the US includes 24.5 million naturalised citizens and 21.6 million non-citizens.

The number of refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the Horn of Africa is said to be about 24.5 million people.

There are 24.5 million voters in Iraq, 24.5 million voters took part in the first-round of voting in presidential election in Iran in 2024, and there were 24.5 million registered voters in Algeria’s presidential election in 2024.

Here in Malaysia, the country welcomed 24.5 million visitors in the first seven months of last year, between January and July 2025. Turkish Airlines carried 24.5 million passengers in the third quarter of 2024, while 24.5 million people visited Moscow in 2023.

Malaysia generates 24.5 million units of e-waste annually. Many of these discarded gadgets end up mishandled by unregulated recyclers, exposing workers to hazardous chemicals; illegally dumped, polluting the air and harming communities; or worsening Malaysia’s waste crisis, as landfills near capacity, risking an environmental emergency.

Soccer is said to have 24.5 million fans in Italy.

British pubs expect to sell a total of 24.5 million pints during the entire Six Nations Rugby matches.

24.5 million sq metres is 24,500 sq km, and that’s roughly the same size of Rwanda.

Elvis Presley’s former home in Los Angeles was put on the market last year with an asking price of $24.5 million. Elvis lived for six years in the part-modern, part-French Regency home in Beverly Hills designed by the architect Rex Lotery after he bought the house in 1967 for $400,000.

Some 24.5 million viewers watched Donald Trump’s inauguration in January 2025 on 15 networks, according to Nielsen Media Research. Perhaps not surprisingly, Fox News led the viewership figures.

It emerged last September that YouTube agreed to pay $24.5 million to settle a lawsuit filed by Donald Trump after he was suspended from the platform in 2021 – and that would pay for a lot of bling in the Oval Office, or the equivalent of the largest-ever medical malpractice settlement in the State of California.

And 24.5 million minutes is 46 years, 7 months, and 12 days, or almost 17,014 days, or more than 408,333 hours. In other words, if this blog was getting only one hit a minute, it would take more than 46½ years to reach today’s 24.5 million mark.

It is almost four years now since I retired from active parish ministry. These days, though, about 100 people on average are reading my daily prayer blog posted on this blog each morning. I imagine many of my priest-colleagues be prayerfully thankful if the congregations in their churches totalled 700 people or more each week.

Today, I am very grateful to all the 24.5 million readers of this blog to date, and in particular I am grateful for the faithful core group among you who join me in prayer, reading and reflection each morning.

British pubs expect to sell a total of 24.5 million pints during the entire Six Nations Rugby matches (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2025: 163, Wednesday 22 October 2025

More comfortable than most seats in life … quiet seats by a beach in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

Patrick Comerford

We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar, and the week began with the Eighteenth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity XVIII, 19 October 2025).

Later this evening, I hope to join the choir rehearsals in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford. But, before the day 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 short reflection;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

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

‘From one to whom much has been entrusted, even more will be demanded’ (Luke 12: 48) … watching the sunset near the Bus Station in Rethymnon in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Luke 12: 39-48 (NRSVA):

[Jesus said:] 39 ‘But know this: if the owner of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into. 40 You also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour.’

41 Peter said, ‘Lord, are you telling this parable for us or for everyone?’ 42 And the Lord said, ‘Who then is the faithful and prudent manager whom his master will put in charge of his slaves, to give them their allowance of food at the proper time? 43 Blessed is that slave whom his master will find at work when he arrives. 44 Truly I tell you, he will put that one in charge of all his possessions. 45 But if that slave says to himself, “My master is delayed in coming”, and if he begins to beat the other slaves, men and women, and to eat and drink and get drunk, 46 the master of that slave will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour that he does not know, and will cut him in pieces, and put him with the unfaithful. 47 That slave who knew what his master wanted, but did not prepare himself or do what was wanted, will receive a severe beating. 48 But one who did not know and did what deserved a beating will receive a light beating. From everyone to whom much has been given, much will be required; and from one to whom much has been entrusted, even more will be demanded.’

Sunset on the Sarawak River in Kuching (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Today’s Reflections:

This Gospel reading (Luke 12: 39-48) is a difficult one this morning, not just because this and similar passages were used in the past to defend slave-owning and claim it had a Biblical mandate, but because it has also been used to portray God as a harsh and punitive taskmaster who must be obeyed out of fear.

But it ends with words that are at the heart of the reading: ‘From everyone to whom much has been given, much will be required; and from one to whom much has been entrusted, even more will be demanded’ (Luke 12: 48).

Later in Saint Luke’s Gospel, in the parable of the unjust steward (Luke 16: 1-13), we are told that whoever is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much; and whoever is dishonest in a very little is dishonest also in much. If then you have not been faithful with the dishonest wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches?’

Being faithful with what is given to me is a familiar Gospel theme: it is found too in the parable of the talents. But being faithful with dishonest wealth and with wealth created by slaves treated cruelly are puzzling concepts, even if they remind us of the recent economic dilemmas in Ireland. Is it still possible to manage wealth in ways that are appropriate to, that witness to, that are signs of the Kingdom of God, and that seek the greater good of all?

On the other hand, do I think I am one of those people who has been given much in life, and how much is required of me in return, as a matter of social, communal responsibility?

We were travelling much this time last year, with delays and rerouted flights and cancelled and rebooked overnight hotel stays, on our way to Singapore and Kuching. I found yet again – as though I could ever forget – how there is little comfort on an overnight long-haul flight when you are trying to sleep in your small allocated space and the passenger in front insists on pushing back that seat as far it goes.

At times like that, comfort might seem like a first-class seat on a flight. But, when it comes to choices, I would much prefer happiness over time-limited comfort, and an ordinary seat watching the sunset on the river or the waves on the beach always gives me the feeling of having received much in life.

A comfortable first-class seat on a flight is purely functional, and is only for so many hours. Sitting on a cheap chair by the sea watching the sunrise or the sunset brings me close to nature and reminds me of God’s eternal promises.

In Kuching and in England, we live in one-bedroom flats overlooking busy streets, and life below reminds me each day how I have been given much in my own life.

I can read, so I am better educated than over one billion people who cannot read at all.

I woke up this morning knowing I have more health than illness, unlike the million people who will not live through this week.

I have never lived through war, known the loneliness of imprisonment, suffered the agony of torture, or endured the pangs of starvation, unlike 500 million people in the world.

I can go to any meeting I want – political, religious or social – unlike more than 3 billion people in an increasingly oppressive world today.

I have food in the kitchen, clothes in the wardrobe, a roof over my head and a place to sleep, making me richer than 75 per cent of people in the world.

I have money in the bank and in my wallet, and spare change in my pocket, which puts me among the top eight per cent of the world’s wealthy.

I can write this and you are reading this, which means you and I are more educated than one billion people in the world today who cannot read.

‘From everyone to whom much has been given, much will be required; and from one to whom much has been entrusted, even more will be demanded’ (Luke 12: 48).

Rummaging in the Last Bookshop, a second-hand bookshop in Dublin … one billion people in the world today cannot read or write (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Today’s Prayers (Wednesday 22 October 2025):

The theme this week (19 to 25 October) in Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘Advancing Theological Education for Young Women in Africa’ (pp 48-49). This theme was introduced on Sunday with reflections from Esmeralda (Essie) Pato, Chair of the Communion-Wide Advisory Group for USPG; she is based in Johannesburg, South Africa.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Wednesday 22 October 2025) invites us to pray:

Heavenly Father, thank you for the gift of women in theology. May their voices and leadership shape the future of your Church and inspire others to follow in their footsteps.

The Collect:

Almighty and everlasting God,
increase in us your gift of faith
that, forsaking what lies behind
and reaching out to that which is before,
we may run the way of your commandments
and win the crown of everlasting joy;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post Communion Prayer:

We praise and thank you, O Christ, for this sacred feast:
for here we receive you,
here the memory of your passion is renewed,
here our minds are filled with grace,
and here a pledge of future glory is given,
when we shall feast at that table where you reign
with all your saints for ever.

Additional Collect:

God, our judge and saviour,
teach us to be open to your truth
and to trust in your love,
that we may live each day
with confidence in the salvation which is given
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s Reflections

Continued Tomorrow

Old Greek coins on a stall in Rethymnon … the spare change in our pockets put you and me among the top eight per cent of the world’s wealthy (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

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

Daily prayer in Lent 2025: 11, Saturday 15 March 2025

‘For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good …’ (Matthew 5: 45) … sunset on Cross in Hand Lane in Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Patrick Comerford

Lent began last week on Ash Wednesday, and tomorrow is the Second Sunday in Lent (Lent II).

The Six Nations championship comes to a climax this weekend, and I hope to find somewhere appropriate in Stony Stratford this afternoon and this evening to watch the matches between Ireland and Italy (14:15), Wales and England (16:15) and France and Scotland (20:00), each promising to be nail-biting decider in its own way.

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

1, today’s Gospel reading;

2, a short reflection;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

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

‘But I say to you, Love your enemies … so that you may be children of your Father in heaven’ (Matthew 5: 44-45) (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Matthew 5: 43-48 (NRSVA):

[Jesus said:] 43 ‘You have heard that it was said, “You shall love your neighbour and hate your enemy.” 44 But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous. 46 For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax-collectors do the same? 47 And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? 48 Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.’

‘Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you’ (Matthew 5: 44) … the Good Samaritan in a stained glass window in Saint Mary’s Cathedral, Limerick (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflection:

The Gospel reading at the Eucharist today (Matthew 5: 43-48) continues our readings from the Sermon on the Mount. This is one of the passages chosen by the Revd Bonnie Evans-Hills, now a priest in the Scottish Episcopal Church, for a Bible study at the annual residential conference of USPG conference in High Leigh back in 2018.

In an earlier Bible study that week, she had brought us through the Beatitudes (Matthew 5: 1-12) with reflections on her own experiences in international peace work and interfaith dialogue. Having challenged us with the significance of the Beatitudes, her reflections on the closing day of the conference were based on two passages in the Sermon on the Mount: Matthew 5: 17-19 and 43-48.

Bonnie reminded us that the command to love is the summary of the law and the prophets and that not one tiny little bit of that commandment will be lost. The law and the prophets are summed up in that one tiny word, Love. Every other commandment depends on this.

She pointed out that other than verse 43 here there is nowhere in the Bible that it is said to ‘hate your enemy’.

Returning to her idea the previous day that peace-making needs to engage both the perpetrators and the victims, she recalled a story told by Ruth Scott of a US soldier in Vietnam who came across an ‘enemy soldier’ in a hammock. The other soldier smiled, reached into his pocket, and the American shot him immediately, only to find the Vietnamese soldier had not been reaching into his pocket for a gun but was gripping a photograph of his family that he wished to share.

There is nothing that cannot be forgiven, and there is no-one who is not worth forgiving, she said, commenting on The Book of Forgiving by Archbishop Desmond Tutu and his daughter, the Revd Mpho Tutu.

There are times when each and every one of us has needed to forgive, and when we have needed to be forgiven, and there will be many times like these in the future too. We are all broken and in need of being on the path to wholeness.

She told of a young Israeli who was a peace activist but who accepted conscription believing he could make a difference. But he was killed almost immediately. His mother’s immediate response was to tell his fellow soldiers: ‘Do not take revenge in the name of my son.’ His death was a test of the family’s commitment to building peace. ‘The worst has happened to us. The only thing we have left is to reach our hand out to offer to help build peace.’

‘Forgiveness is the radical act of a freedom fighter,’ she said. And she urged us to let go of the pain and the need to punish, and to hate, and to have revenge.


‘For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good …’ (Matthew 5: 45) … five minutes at sunset on the Sarawak River in Kuching (Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Saturday 15 March 2025):

The theme this week in ‘Pray With the World Church’, the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), has been ‘The Church and Unity.’ This theme was introduced last Sunday with reflections by the Right Revd Dr Royce M Victor, Bishop in the Diocese of Malabar, Church of South India.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Saturday 15 March 2025) invites us to pray:

I will lean in, retreat from the pressures I face, and move closer and deeper into your love. I will breathe out, refrain from the distractions I seek, and become open and receiving of your grace. I will linger, encircled by the depth of your care, and receive the endless nature of your mercy.

The Collect:

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

The Post-Communion Prayer:

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

Additional Collect:

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

Collect on the Eve of Lent II:

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

Yesterday’s Reflection

Continued Tomorrow


‘For he … sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous’ (Matthew 5: 45) … three minutes watching tropical rain on the rooftops of Kuching (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

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

Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2025: 21, Sunday 23 February 2025, the Second Sunday before Lent

February afternoon lights at Cross in Hand Lane, Lichfield … our responsibility for creation is at the heart of the mission of the Church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Patrick Comerford

We are in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar. Today is the Second Sunday before Lent (24 February 2025), and Lent begins next week on Ash Wednesday (5 March 2025). This Sunday was known in the past as Sexagesima, one of those odd-sounding Latin names once used in the Book of Common Prayer for the Sundays between Candlemas and Lent: Septuagesima, Sexagesima and Quinquagesima. In many parts of the Church, today is also Creation Sunday.

Later this morning, I hope to be at the Parish Eucharist in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford, where I reading when one of the lessons. This is also a weekend of wall-to-wall rugby, and having enjoyed watching Ireland’s Triple Crown victory over Wales and England’s Calcutta defeat of Scotland, yesterday, I hope to find an appropriate place to watch France and Italy playing this afternoon.

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

1, today’s Gospel reading;

2, a short reflection;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

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

‘He got into a boat with his disciples, and he said to them, ‘Let us go across to the other side of the lake’ (Luke 8: 22) … fishing boats on the Sarawak River in Kuching (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Luke 8: 22-25 (NRSVA):

22 One day he got into a boat with his disciples, and he said to them, ‘Let us go across to the other side of the lake.’ So they put out, 23 and while they were sailing he fell asleep. A gale swept down on the lake, and the boat was filling with water, and they were in danger. 24 They went to him and woke him up, shouting, ‘Master, Master, we are perishing!’ And he woke up and rebuked the wind and the raging waves; they ceased, and there was a calm. 25 He said to them, ‘Where is your faith?’ They were afraid and amazed, and said to one another, ‘Who then is this, that he commands even the winds and the water, and they obey him?’

‘He woke up and rebuked the wind and the raging waves; they ceased, and there was a calm’ (Luke 8: 24) … a window in a church in Rush, Co Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflection:

It is very easy to be misunderstood, for someone else to understand our motivations and the reason behind what we do. It is natural, for it is easier to judge than to understand, it is easy to ask questions without waiting for and listening to answers.

And usually answers are not simple and they do not come easily.

So, when it comes to the environment, we all know we as humans are responsible for what is happening. We want someone to do something about carbon emissions – as long as it does not make demands on me that I feel are too demanding.

‘Not in my backyard.’

The workers in factories blame the farmers, the farmers say the people in the towns do not understand their dilemma. Everyone blames the politicians, and Donald Trump, Elon Musk and their acolytes continue to deny the scientific evidence for climate change. Meanwhile, I continue to add to my carbon footprint when I book yet another cheap flight.

‘Not in my backyard.’

The blame sharing that goes on between industry and agriculture ought to be turned around to sharing not just responsibility but developing our vision for a better and brighter future – a better and brighter future that may be a symbol, a sign, a sacrament of what the Kingdom of God is like.

Working together, industry and agriculture, town and country, in sharing our responsibility for the creation and the environment might be a very good way to introduce the partnership that we are supposed to share in – between God and humanity – when it comes to responsibility for the environment and the creation.

God’s creation is good, we are told in the first reading provided in the Lectionary this morning (Genesis 2: 4b-9, 15-25). This is the second account of the Creation narrative in the Book Genesis.

Forget, for a moment, about the mythological ways of telling stories about creation, and think for a moment about the purpose of telling the story, and what lessons it tries to teach. This story tells us that without God’s gift of rain and without human presence ‘to till the ground,’ there would be no growth in the soil.

This second account of creation therefore presents humanity as co-creators with God, or partners with God in God’s plan for bringing creation to full fruition and growth.

Humanity is given responsibility for creation, but there are limits on the use of creation. We are not to see everything as ours, to do with it what we decide. We are created from the soil of the earth – the Hebrew name adam means ‘from the dust of the ground’ – and we are to cultivate and care for the earth (verse 15). Being God’s partners in the creation brings responsibilities for caring for that creation.

The Psalm provided for today (Psalm 65) is a song of thanks for the Earth’s bounty.

All flesh, all people, all humanity, praise God for the harvest of the earth. He answers prayers and he forgives us our transgressions. The place to thank God for the goodness of creation is in prayer and in worship, for God is ‘the hope of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest seas’ (verse 5).

This psalm praises him for creation, for the earth and the seas, for soil and the rain, for the pastures and the hills, for the meadows and the valleys.

The Gospel reading (Luke 8: 22-25) introduces a miracle of a very different kind. It shows that Christ is the Lord of Creation, that he has authority over chaos in nature as he calms the stormy seas. He will then go on to calm of a stormy personality, bringing together the calming of the waves and the calming of the mind, showing he is the Lord of Creation and the Lord of humanity, of the cosmos and of human order.

Christ and the disciples have left the crowd behind them (see Luke 8: 19), they get into the boat, and Jesus sends them to the other side of the lake crowd away. The act of sending is at the heart of mission. Mission begins with God so loving the world that he sends his only Son so that we may know that love. And Christ then sends those with him on a journey that is fraught with danger to a strange place where they expect to find disturbing realities and disturbing people.

Sending is the foundation of mission – and the sending of the disciples is a sending on mission, just as our dismissal at the end of the Eucharist marks, not so much the end of the liturgy, but the beginning of mission.

Christ invites the disciples get into the boat and sends them to a strange place. But, instead of finding that the boat or the church empowers them for mission, the disciples treat it as a place to take them away from the crowds and the world. They see it as their own cocoon, their safe territory.

How wrong they are. When the storm comes, when the waves batter them, when the wind rises up against them, they find that we cannot be in the church and be without Christ and without the crowd.

Christ falls asleep on the boat and seems unaware of the peril at sea as they sail towards the other side of the lake.

When Christ shows his power over the stormy reality of creation, he challenges the disciples and asks, ‘Where is your faith?’

They are afraid and amazed. Are they more afraid and amazed when it comes to Christ’s command of the wind and the waves than they are of the wind and the waves themselves?

Their faith has been tested, and it has been found to be weak, in the deep waters it is found to be shallow.

So, Christ is the Lord of Creation, and the mission of the Church is only going to work in harmony when God and humanity work in partnership in creation.

If we do this well, then, the reading from the Book of Revelation (Revelation 4) tells us, the whole of creation is invited into the Kingdom of God.

In his exile on the island of Patmos, Saint John the Divine has an ecstatic vision of the heavenly throne.

Around the throne of God are 24 thrones with 24 elders who are wearing white robes and golden crowns. The number 24 could be read as symbolising a new or perfect creation, doubling the number of disciples, who double the number of the days of creation.

Around the throne too are four living creatures – a lion, an ox, a human person and an eagle – who came later to represent the four evangelists.

God is worshipped by these 24 elders or priests and by these four living creatures or evangelists as the Lord God who has created all things and by whose will all things exist and are created.

Later, as this vision continues, we are told that this is Lamb on the throne (see Revelation 5: 6-8).

In our liturgy and worship, the Church invites the whole of Creation into the Kingdom of God. Indeed, at the heart of the liturgy, our worship, is our concern for the whole of God’s creation.

There are five marks of mission that we agree on in the Anglican Communion. The fifth mark is, ‘To strive to safeguard the integrity of creation and sustain and renew the life of the earth.’

Our co-responsibility for creation is not peripheral to mission, it is at the heart of mission, and underpins it.

At the General Synod of the Church of England some years ago (2019), the Revd Andrew Lightbown expressed concern that the material prepared for a debate on mission and evangelism was ‘a bit thin — I worry that mission and evangelism is reducible to conversion.’

If we reduce mission to evangelism, and miss out on the centrality of the liturgy of the Church and on our responsibility for creation, then the Church misses out on the opportunity to invite all creation, through the Church, into the Kingdom of God.

The Church of the Resurrection, the Anglican church in the centre of Bucharest … the reflections in the USPG prayer this week are introduced by the Revd Dr Nevsky Everett of Bucharest (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Sunday 23 February 2025, the Second Sunday before Lent):

The theme this week in ‘Pray With the World Church’, the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘A Grain of Wheat.’ This theme is introduced today with a Programme Update by the Revd Dr Nevsky Everett, chaplain of the Church of the Resurrection, Bucharest, Romania, and the Archbishop of Canterbury’s representative to the Romanian Orthodox Patriarchate:

On 1 March, Romanians celebrate an ancient Spring festival by wearing intertwined red and white threads. The colours are of blood and snow, recalling a legend in which the hero dies fighting to free the captured sun. Where his warm blood dissolved the snow, the first snowdrop appeared. The story’s themes are profoundly Christian, echoing Jesus’ words about life coming out of death in John 12: 24.

This week also marks the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. In the face of war, it’s hard to believe in the triumph of life over death. On our news screens and in the stories of refugees, we encounter so much suffering and heartache. But Jesus knows the depth of our pain and the cost of the world’s evil. By his death, Jesus brings us the hope of eternal life. That hope doesn’t lessen the grief and tragedy of war, but it points us to a new future where the victory of love is final. In that hope, we can discern the signs of God’s future breaking into our present moment; the radical generosity and hospitality that people have shown to those whose lives are affected by war, the many acts of love and service shown by individuals, institutions and communities.

In our broken and fallen world, we cannot escape our own suffering or the suffering of our neighbours. But Jesus promises us that life will spring from death, like a grain of wheat in the earth.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Sunday 23 February 2025, the Second Sunday before Lent) invites us to pray reflecting on these words:

‘Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit’ (John 12: 24).

The Collect:

Almighty God,
you have created the heavens and the earth
and made us in your own image:
teach us to discern your hand in all your works
and your likeness in all your children;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who with you and the Holy Spirit reigns supreme over all things,
now and for ever.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

God our creator,
by your gift
the tree of life was set at the heart of the earthly paradise,
and the bread of life at the heart of your Church:
may we who have been nourished at your table on earth
be transformed by the glory of the Saviour’s cross
and enjoy the delights of eternity;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

Almighty God,
give us reverence for all creation
and respect for every person,
that we may mirror your likeness
in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s Reflection

Continued Tomorrow

Inside the Church of the Resurrection … the reflections in the USPG prayer this week are introduced by the Revd Dr Nevsky Everett of Bucharest (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

73 is a prime number, or a lucky prime, or even a star number, rather than the fading sunset or twilight

No 73 Emerald Hill, Singapore … a prime number that is also a star number (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Patrick Comerford

We RE on our way to the Holocaust Remembrance Day commemorations in Milton Keynes, which may not be the most joyful way to mark or celebrate my birthday this afternoon. Perhaps we shall go for a meal out later in the day, and have a drink in Stony Stratford on the way home to mark the evening.

Shakespeare talks in Sonnet 73 of

… … the twilight of such day
As after sunset fadeth in the west

But I have a lot to be thankful for on this birthday as I look back over the last 73 years.

In those 73 years, I have lived through the reign, rule or time in office of three British monarchs, seven Popes, seven (soon to be eight) Archbishops of Canterbury, eight Irish Presidents, eight Church of Ireland Archbishops of Armagh, 14 (or 15) US Presidents (depending on how you count Trum), 16 Greek heads of state, 17 Taoisigh, 18 British Prime Ministers … it almost sounds like singing out the 12 days of Christmas.

Despite Shakespeare’s words, I still feel as though I am in the prime of my life, as befits reaching yet another prime number, rather than in ‘the twilight of such day’ or even ‘after sunset fadeth in the west’.

The number 73 is a natural number, a prime number, and is what is known in mathematics as a star number, a twin prime, a lucky prime and a sexy prime. It also the number of books in the Catholic Bible, and another way of saying ‘best regards’ when signing off some conversations.

73 as a star number (up to blue dots) … 37, its dual permutable prime, is the preceding consecutive star number (up to green dots)

In mathematics, 73 is the 21st prime number, and an emirp – a prime number that results in a different prime when its decimal digits are reversed – with 37, the 12th prime number. It is also the eighth twin prime, with 71 – a twin prime is a prime number that is either 2 less or 2 more than another prime number, such as either member of the twin prime pair 17 and 19, 41 and 43, or 71 and 73.

The number 73 is the fourth star number. In mathematics, a star number is a centred figurate number, a centred hexagram (six-pointed star), such as the Star of David, or the board Chinese checkers is played on. The numbers 73 and 37 are also consecutive star numbers or equivalently consecutive centred dodecagonal (12-gonal) numbers, respectively the fourth and the third.

The numbers 73 and 37 are successive lucky primes and sexy primes, both twice over. In number theory, a lucky number is a natural number in a set that is generated by a certain ‘sieve’, similar to the sieve of Eratosthenes that generates the primes, but eliminating numbers based on their position in the remaining set, instead of their value. And, in number theory, sexy primes are prime numbers that differ from each other by 6. For example, the numbers 5 and 11 are a pair of sexy primes, because both are prime and 11 – 5 = 6. In the same way, 73 - 67 = 6, and 79 - 73 = 6.

73 at a front door in Stony Stratford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Amateur radio operators and other morse code users commonly use the number 73 as a ‘92 Code’ abbreviation for ‘best regards’, typically when ending a QSO or a conversation with another operator.

No 73 was a 1980s children's television programme on the ITV network that ran from 1982 to 1988.

In 1982, the TV Times summed up the show: ‘From the outside No. 73 looks like a tumbledown house, but once inside it’s a different world. The house, in the south of England, is rented by an eccentric old lady called Ethel, who is like a fairy godmother to the children in the area.

‘Each week she opens her door and is visited by superstars and famous personalities who provide a madcap spectacle of music, competitions and fun. Ethel is assisted in looking after her guests by her nephew Harry and her boyfriend Percy.’

73, paired with 75, on a front door in York (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

In Sonnet 73, William Shakespeare focuses on the theme of old age and uses autumn, twilight and a dying fire as extended metaphors for growing older.

The poet invokes a series of metaphors to characterise the nature of what he sees as his old age. Each of the three quatrains contains a metaphor: Autumn, the passing of a day, and the dying out of a fire. Each metaphor proposes a way the younger person may see the poet.

Sonnet 73, ‘That time of year thou mayst in me behold’, by William Shakespeare:

That time of year thou mayst in me behold
When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang
Upon those boughs which shake against the cold,
Bare ruin’d choirs, where late the sweet birds sang.

In me thou see’st the twilight of such day
As after sunset fadeth in the west,
Which by and by black night doth take away,
Death’s second self, that seals up all in rest.

In me thou see’st the glowing of such fire
That on the ashes of his youth doth lie,
As the death-bed whereon it must expire,
Consum’d with that which it was nourish’d by.

This thou perceiv’st, which makes thy love more strong,
To love that well which thou must leave ere long.

‘As after sunset fadeth in the west’ … sunset on the Sarawak River in Kuching (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Daily prayer in Christmas 2024-2025: 12, Sunday 5 January 2025

‘Twelve drummer drumming’ … drummers in a religious parade in Rethymnon in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

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

We are still in the season of Christmas, which is a 40-day season and lasts not until Epiphany tomorrow (6 January), but until Candlemas or the Feast of the Presentation (2 February).

Today is the Second Sunday of Christmas (Christmas II), although many parishes and churches may transfer their celebrations of Epiphany to today. I hope to be singing with the choir at the Epiphany Eucharist in Saint Mary and Giles Church, Stony Stratford, later this morning. The celebrations include the traditional Epiphany ‘chalking’ of the church doors.

The Twelfth Day of Christmas is 5 January, and our celebrations of Christmas traditionally end tonight, on the Twelfth Night, which is then followed by the Feast of the Epiphany on 6 January. The Twelve Days of Christmas are a festive period linking together these two Great Feasts of the Nativity and Theophany, so that one celebration leads into another.

Nowadays, the Twelfth Day is the last day for decorations to be taken down. Some folklore holds that it is bad luck to take decorations down after this date. But in Elizabethan England, the decorations were left up until Candelmas, and this remains the tradition in Germany and many other European countries.

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

1, today’s Gospel reading;

2, a short reflection;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

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

‘Twelve drummers drumming’ … drummers waiting for a religious procession to begin in Thessaloniki (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

John 1: [1-9,] 10-18 (NRSVA):

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

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

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

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

‘Twelve drummer drumming’ … folk dancers and drummers on the streets of Stony Stratford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflection:

The Christian interpretation of the song ‘The 12 Days of Christmas’ often sees the twelve drummers drumming as figurative representations of the twelve points of the Apostles’ Creed.

The Gospel reading this morning (John 1: [1-9,] 10-18) should be familiar reading for most of us during these weeks: the third and principal option for the Eucharist on Christmas morning was John 1: 1-14; and on New Year’s Eve (31 December 2024), the Gospel reading was John 1: 1-18.

The first chapter of Saint John’s Gospel can be divided in two parts: the Prologue (verses 1-18) and a second part (verses 19-50) that shows that John the Baptist was preparing for the coming of the Messiah.

The Prologue is an introduction to the Gospel as a whole. It tells us that the Logos is God and acts as the mouthpiece (Word) of God ‘made flesh’, sent to the world in order to be able to intercede for humanity and to forgive human sins.

The Prologue is of central significance to the doctrine of the Incarnation. The Prologue can be compared with Genesis 1, where the same phrase, ‘In the beginning …’, first occurs along with the emphasis on the difference between the darkness and the light.

The opening phrase, Ἐν ἀρχῇ ἦν ὁ λόγος (En arche en ho logos, ‘In the beginning was the Word’, is one of the most dramatic opening lines in any great work of literature. And for many, the Fourth Gospel, Saint John’s Gospel, is one of the great works of literature, as well as being my favourite book in the Bible.

The author of this Gospel was identified by Saint Irenaeus as Saint John the beloved, Saint John the Divine, or Saint John the Theologian, who lived in Ephesus until the imperial reign of Trajan (ca 98 CE).

As a boy, Irenaeus had known Saint Polycarp, who was Bishop of Smyrna, near Ephesus, and who is said to have been a disciple of John. Ever since then, the tradition of the Church has identified this John as the author of the Fourth Gospel.

The narrative translations with which we are so familiar often miss the poetic and dramatic presentations of this Gospel. We are all familiar with the dramatic presentation of the Prologue to this Gospel as the Gospel reading on Christmas Day. But the Prologue is first and foremost poetry. It is a hymn – a poetic summary – of the whole theology of this Gospel, as well as an introduction to it.

Raymond Brown has presented a translation from the Greek of the Prologue in poetic format:

1 In the beginning was the Word;
the Word was in God’s presence,
and the Word was God.
2 He was present with God in the beginning.
3 Through him all things came into being,
and apart from him not a thing came to be.
4 That which came to be found life in him,
and this life was the light of the human race.
5 The light shines on in the darkness,
for the darkness did not overcome it.

(6 Now there was a man sent by God, named John 7 who came as a witness to testify to the light, so that through him all might believe – 8 but only to testify to the light, for he himself was not the light.)

9 He was the real light
that gives light to everyone;
he was coming into the world.
10 He was in the world,
and the world was made by him;
yet the world did not recognise him.
11 To his own he came;
yet his own people did not accept him.
12 But all those who did accept him,
he empowered to become God’s children –
those who believe in his name,
13 those who were begotten,
not by blood,
nor the flesh,
nor human desire,
but by God.
14 And the Word became flesh
and made his dwelling among us.
And we have seen his glory,
the glory as of an only Son coming from the Father,
rich in kindness and fidelity.

The Prologue lays the foundation for the development of the ‘realised eschatology’ of the Fourth Gospel. When Saint John speaks later of life in the sense of ‘eternal’ life, the Prologue has already established that from the beginning in Christ the eternal God and source of life is present and is among men and women for that purpose. In Christ, God enters into all the ambiguities, difficulties, and trials of human life. He comes to live among his people as one of them, revealing God at first hand, and offering new life as the source of life from the beginning.

The writer relates the Logos in turn to God (verses 1, 2); creation (verses 3-5); the world and its response (verses 6-9); his own people (verses 10, 11); his children (verses 12-13); a specific circle of disciples and witnesses (verse 14); and later in the Prologue to a particular historical person, Jesus Christ (verse 17). Finally, in verse 18, the intimacy of the relationship of the Logos to the Father is re-emphasised in language similar to that used in John 13: 23-25 to describe the intimacy between ‘the beloved disciple’ and Christ himself.

The Prologue is a model and a summons to us to think carefully and deeply about the implications of the Incarnation and to apply this concept in all its comprehensiveness to our life and our world. For all its broad, cosmic scope, the Prologue presents a direct and personal question to readers of all times: will the one who reads believe, and share in the fullness of grace given by the One who has come from the Father to dwell among us?

Pages from The Saint John’s Gospel, the first complete hand-written and illuminated Bible since the Renaissance, in the Holy Writ exhibition in Lichfield Cathedral in 2014 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Sunday 5 January 2025, Christmas II):

The theme this week in ‘Pray With the World Church’, the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘The Melanesian Brotherhood Centenary’. This theme is introduced today with a Programme Update from Ella Sibley, Regional Manager for Europe and Oceania, USPG:

This year marks the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Melanesian Brotherhood by Ini Kopuria, an Indigenous Solomon Islander and former police officer. His vision was for an order of Indigenous brothers who would share the gospel in Melanesia.

The Melanesian Brotherhood is now the largest Anglican religious order in the world, with brothers living in the Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, Australia, the Philippines, and across the Pacific Islands. They are known for their work in evangelism, choir singing, and peace-making.

We remember particularly the seven martyrs of the Melanesian Brotherhood. During the conflict in the Solomon Islands in the early 2000s, the brotherhood followed God’s call to peace-making, helping mediate between opposing groups, negotiating the release of hostages, and coordinating a weapons amnesty. In 2003, seven brothers were murdered whilst working for peace: Brother Patteson Gatu, Brother Alfred Hill, Brother Robin Lindsay, Brother Ini Paratabatu, Brother Nathaniel Sado, Brother Tony Sirhi, and Brother Francis Tofi. They are commemorated as martyrs and Christian peacemakers.

In this, their centenary year, we give thanks for Ini Kopuria and his vision, for the life and sacrifice of the martyrs of the brotherhood, and for the one hundred years of faithful witness and service offered by the Melanesian Brotherhood to people across the region.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Sunday 5 January 2025, Christmas II) invites us to reflect on these words as pray:

‘For in him every one of God’s promises is a “Yes.” For this reason it is through him that we say the ‘Amen’, to the glory of God’ (II Corinthians 1:20).

The Collect:

Almighty God,
in the birth of your Son
you have poured on us the new light of your incarnate Word,
and shown us the fullness of your love:
help us to walk in his light and dwell in his love
that we may know the fullness of his joy;
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

All praise to you,
almighty God and heavenly king,
who sent your Son into the world
to take our nature upon him
and to be born of a pure virgin:
grant that, as we are born again in him,
so he may continually dwell in us
and reign on earth as he reigns in heaven,
now and for ever.

Additional Collect:

God our Father,
in love you sent your Son
that the world may have life:
lead us to seek him among the outcast
and to find him in those in need,
for Jesus Christ’s sake.

Collect on the Eve of the Epiphany:

O God,
who by the leading of a star
manifested your only Son to the peoples of the earth:
mercifully grant that we,
who know you now by faith,
may at last behold your glory face to face;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Yesterday’s Reflection

Continued Tomorrow

‘The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it’ (John 1: 5) … sunset on the Sarawak River in Kuching (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