Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2026: 89, Tuesday 4 August 2026

Looking out from Preveli Monastery in Crete towards the island of Gavdos, said to be the Ogygia of Calypso where Odysseus stayed for seven years (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

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). The calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship today recalls Jean-Baptiste Vianney (1786-1859), Curé d’Ars and Spiritual Guide.

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.

‘And if one blind person guides another, both will fall into a pit’ (Matthew 15: 14) … looking into the crater at the top of Mount Vesuvius (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Matthew 15: 1-2,10-14 (NRSVA):

1 Then Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem and said, 2 ‘Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands before they eat.’

10 Then he called the crowd to him and said to them, ‘Listen and understand: 11 it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but it is what comes out of the mouth that defiles.’ 12 Then the disciples approached and said to him, ‘Do you know that the Pharisees took offence when they heard what you said?’ 13 He answered, ‘Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted. 14 Let them alone; they are blind guides of the blind. And if one blind person guides another, both will fall into a pit.’

Homer, who is traditionally said to have been blind, tells of the 10-year return journey of Odysseus to his home in Ithaka (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflections:

‘Let them alone; they are blind guides of the blind. And if one blind person guides another, both will fall into a pit’ (Matthew 15: 14).

There were two choices in the lectionary for Gospel readings at the Eucharist yesterday (Monday 3 August): Matthew 14: 13-21, or Matthew 14: 22-36. The first choice was also the Gospel reading on Sunday, and so in my reflections yesterday I looked at the second choice (Matthew 14: 22-36).

Once again, the lectionary offers two choices in the Gospel readings at the Eucharist today (Tuesday 4 August): Matthew 14: 22-36, which I read and reflected on yesterday, or Matthew 15: 1-2, 10-14, which I am reading and reflecting on this morning.

At a surface level, today’s Gospel passage is about religious rituals, purification rites and liturgical niceties. However, the challenge in this reading is a question of pure religious rather than ritual purification: What defiles a person? Is this a liturgical nicety or a moral problem?

It is far too easy for me to want to be seen to do the right thing, rather than doing the right thing, whether or not anyone sees what I am doing, or even when those nearby are blind to what I am doing … or even to what I am not doing.

What leads me to do the right thing? Am I too easily led by others? Do I blindly follow the demands of others and allow their expectations to lead me into a pit, into a moral abyss, dragging others down with me in the process? And once I am there, how can I get out of that dark cave?

Plato’s ‘Allegory of the Cave’ (The Republic, Book VII) imagines a deep, dark cave in which some chained prisoners are forced to look at a wall. Behind them flickers the pale light of a fire, and between the fire and the prisoners, various objects cast a shadow onto the wall.

The prisoners, born into this condition, know only the shadows and think that they are all there is to the world. And so, they become shadow experts, and spend all of their days classifying, studying and examining them closely.

One day, a prisoner breaks free. He rushes from the cave and finds himself out in the dazzling sun. After savouring all of the marvels of the world, she is overcome with pity, and drags herself back into the cave to save her friends. But since her eyes are still dazzled from the bright sun, she cannot see so well in the dark cave. When she tells the prisoners of the wonders to be seen outside, they mock her inability to see shadows, tell her she is a fool, and threaten to kill her.

Plato’s story is a metaphor, telling us how we need to look behind the first impressions and what appears to be the case to see the truth of the matter. We need to exercise introspection and to examine our thoughts with reasoning and the bright glare of truth. We cannot let the blind lead the blind.

Those particular Pharisees and scribes seem to be more worried about what they have not seen the disciples doing on occasion rather than commending the good they may actually be doing, noticed or unnoticed, day-by-day.

Moral leadership often comes not in the form of great tomes or well-argued books on ethics and philosophy, but in the form of the expectations that are laid on us or projected onto us from within our own peer group, from our contemporaries, from those we do not want to let down, from those we seldom question yet often follow blindly.

It is easier to follow those pressures blindly than risk finding ourselves in the dark and alone simply for doing the right thing for no other reason than it is the right thing to do.

I was talking recently with someone about Chrisopher Nolan’s new film Odyssey, which is continuing to take cinemas everywhere by storm. In a witty response, that person joked: ‘It’s no wonder it took him 10 years to get home. Homer was blind. If I was following his directions I’d be straying take 10 years to get home too.’

In his reflections on ‘Thought for the Day’ on Radio 4 about two weeks ago (24 July 2026), the Revd Dr Giles Fraser talked about some of those blind alleys and diversions that delay Odysseus and frustrate his epic journey home.

On the island of Ogygia, the beautiful nymph Calypso tries to entice him to stay with her, promising he would never age, never die. She offers eternal life, youth and freedom from pain, danger and death if he stays with her on Ogygia. And yet, after seven years, Odysseus eventually refuses the temptation to achieve immortality, preferring risk and death over immortality and agelessness, refuses the goddess and chooses to leave, fully aware that his mortal home of Ithaca is exposed to risk, decay, and death.

Giles Fraser refers to an essay on why Odysseus is right to refuse this, in which the American philosopher Professor Martha Nussbaum of the University of Chicago argues that there are some things that the immortal gods are not able to do that mortal human beings are: not least amongst them is to show courage. If I cannot risk everything because I cannot die, then how could I possibly be courageous?

What sort of life would Odysseus have if he stays with Calypso on her perfect deathless island, and gave up any need for all his craft and resourcefulness?

‘And what would love mean’, he asks ‘if you could never put anything on the line for others? That’s why we cheer Odysseus on as he decides to refuse Calypso her seemingly unrefusable offer.’

Martha Nussbaum, who is Jewish, suggests that there is something about this refusal of invulnerability that explains one of the key features of Christian theology: of God becoming human, of God who is prepared to suffer and die in the name of love.

‘What is attractive about both Odysseus and Jesus is that they are prepared to have skin in the game, which is pretty much the very definition of incarnation’, Giles Fraser says.

He suggests that to live beyond the realm of suffering and death would be to live in a way that is no longer human – without the possibility of heroism, without the possibility of risking all for love. ‘Why is it, for instance, that so often in Greek mythology, perfect gods fall in love with imperfect human beings rather than their own kind? Because fragile humanity can exhibit exciting virtues, risky love-soaked heroism in the way that the gods just cannot.’

Of course, he agrees, none of us wants those we love to be taken from us. Yet also, death is what makes life valuable and precious. As the late Queen Elizabeth put it: ‘Grief is the price we pay for love’.

What Odysseus discovers on Calypso’s Island – often identified by Greeks with the small island of Gavdos, off Preveli and the south coast of Crete – is that without death, life will be drained of its meaning.

Allowing those who are morally blind to lead us because it seems to be the safe thing to do, allowing our priorities in life to be dictated by appearances and being seen to do what is acceptable so that we live risk-free lives, our lives will be drained of meaning and of love too.

‘It is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but it is what comes out of the mouth that defiles’(Matthew 15: 11) … street art in Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Tuesday 4 August 2026):

In my prayers this morning, I am praying for the people of Preveli, Aghia Galini, and other areas south of Rethymnon, who hve seen their natural surroundings destroyed in the recent wildfires that have swept acorss their parts of Crete over the past week or so. In difficult circumstances, may they find wisdom, resilience and hope. And I give thanks too for the two firefighters who died risking their lives so that other people might live.

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 on Sunday 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 (Tuesday 4 August 2026) invites us to pray:

Gracious God, uphold Bishop Harold Dixon and all clergy serving in difficult circumstances. Give them wisdom, resilience, and hope in their ministry.

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

Plato’s ‘Allegory of the Cave’ tells of the difficulty of the blind agreeing to be led by the once-blind (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

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

Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2026: 77, Thursday 23 July 2026

‘You will indeed listen, but never understand, and you will indeed look, but never perceive’ (Matthew 13: 14) … street art in the Bishopgate area off Carpenter Street in Kuching (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Patrick Comerford

We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church and this week began with the Seventh Sunday after Trinity (Trinity VII, 19 July 2026). Yesterday was the feast of Saint Mary Magdalene, and today the Church Calendar in the Church of England in Common Worship remembers Saint Bridget of Sweden (1373), Abbess of Vadstena.

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.

‘Seeing they do not perceive, and hearing they do not listen, nor do they understand’ (Matthew 13: 8) … street art in Iraklion (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Matthew 13: 10-17 (NRSVA):

10 Then the disciples came and asked him, ‘Why do you speak to them in parables?’ 11 He answered, ‘To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. 12 For to those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abundance; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away. 13 The reason I speak to them in parables is that “seeing they do not perceive, and hearing they do not listen, nor do they understand.” 14 With them indeed is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah that says:

“You will indeed listen, but never understand,
and you will indeed look, but never perceive.
15 For this people’s heart has grown dull,
and their ears are hard of hearing,
and they have shut their eyes;
so that they might not look with their eyes,
and listen with their ears,
and understand with their heart and turn –
and I would heal them.”

16 But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear. 17 Truly I tell you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see, but did not see it, and to hear what you hear, but did not hear it.’

Looking with eyes and listening with ears … street art in Rathmines, Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflections:

In the Gospel reading at the Eucharist today (Matthew 13: 10-17), Jesus speaks about those who seeing but do not perceive, who hearing but do not listen or understand.

Today’s reading continues from the Parables of the Kingdom and forms an interlude between the parable of the sower and its interpretation. Jesus is asked by the disciples why he speaks to the people in parables.

There seems to be an implication that Jesus is speaking clearly to his disciples, who are insiders, but in riddles to the people because they are outsiders. But this also seem to contradict the purpose of speaking in parables, which is to use helpful and familiar images to lead people to a better understanding of a deeper message. Indeed, the parable of the sower is a good example.

Perhaps once again we are dealing with the difference between ‘insiders’ and ‘outsiders’. The ‘insiders’ are those who give Jesus a ready hearing. Naturally, they are more open to hearing about the ‘mysteries’ of the Kingdom and to assimilating what they hear. The ‘outsiders’, on the other hand, are precisely so because they have closed minds and are not ready to listen.

Speaking of the ‘insiders’, Jesus says: ‘For to those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abundance, but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away’ (verse 12). Those who have opened themselves to the Word of God will find themselves evermore enriched.

But those who have not even begun to accept the Word will end up in an even worse predicament than the one they are in now, for they look but do not see, they listen but do not hear or understand (verse 13).

This happens, not because the parables are difficult, but because the hearers are not prepared to listen.

Jesus then quotes from the Prophet Isaiah (9: 13), who might better understood as speaking in an audibly sarcastic tone:

“You will indeed listen, but never understand,
and you will indeed look, but never perceive.
15 For this people’s heart has grown dull,
and their ears are hard of hearing,
and they have shut their eyes;
so that they might not look with their eyes,
and listen with their ears,
and understand with their heart and turn –
and I would heal them.”

I find it disturbing when I realise someone is talking at me rather than to me, and certainly not talking with me. In a similar way it is disturbing to realise someone hears me, but is not actually listening to me.

At one stage during tense trade union negotiations many years ago, the employer’s representative responded to my presentation, saying: ‘I hear what you are saying.’

I retorted: ‘Yes, but does it just go in one ear and out the other?’

I asked for an adjournment, and from the union side we said we would return to the talks when he indicated he would not only listen to us, but engage with us and commit his side to meaningful discussions. We waited outside for 10 or 15 minutes, and felt we truly were outsiders. We were about to leave the building when we were called back inside. He had heard, and he had listened, and instead of talking to and at us, he began to talk with us. Confidence was restored, and we soon reached a settlement.

If we are prepared to see and to listen actively and to be fully engaged, both actions, seeing and listening, can make radical changes in our lives, in our attitudes, in our values and priorities, in our relationships. But too many people remain effectively blind and deaf to others.

‘They … listen with their ears, and understand with their heart and turn’ (Matthew 13: 15) … ‘Reflections of Bedford’, a sculpture by Rick Kirby on Silver Street (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Thursday 23 July 2026):

In Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), the theme this week, from 19 to 25 July 2026 (pp 20-21), is ‘Flood Relief in Mozambique’. This theme was introduced on Sunday with a programme update from the Revd Mauricio S Mugunhe, Executive Director Anglican Social Action, Igreja Anglicana de Moçambique e Angola (the Anglican Church of Mozambique and Angola).

The USPG prayer diary today (Thursday 23 July 2026) invites us to pray:

Lord, bring hope to the people of Iene in Mozambique, renewing homes, roads, and lives after the floods. Protect those displaced and isolated, and raise up healing, strength, and swift restoration.

The Collect of the Day:

Lord of all power and might,
the author and giver of all good things:
graft in our hearts the love of your name,
increase in us true religion,
nourish us with all goodness,
and of your great mercy keep us in the same;
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, whose Son is the true vine and the source of life,
ever giving himself that the world may live:
may we so receive within ourselves
the power of his death and passion
that, in his saving cup,
we may share his glory and be made perfect in his love;
for he is alive and reigns, now and for ever.

Additional Collect

Generous God,
you give us gifts and make them grow:
though our faith is small as mustard seed,
make it grow to your glory
and the flourishing of your kingdom;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s reflections

Continued tomorrow

‘Their ears are hard of hearing, and they have shut their’ (Matthew 13: 15) … street art near De Montfort University in Leicester (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

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

Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2026: 60, Monday 6 July 2026

‘The Daughter of Jairus’ by James Tissot (1836-1902)

Patrick Comerford

We are in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar and this week began with the Fifth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity V, 5 July 2026).

I stayed up until the early hours of this morning, long past 4 am, watching England’s 3-2 win over Mexico on television, including thee two goals from Jude Bellongham, Harry Kane’s penalty, and those nail-biting 11 minutes 11 minutes that were added on. The High Street below is now quiet, and 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.

Christ healing the woman in the crowd … a modern Orthodox icon

Matthew 9: 18-26 (NRSVA):

18 While he was saying these things to them, suddenly a leader of the synagogue came in and knelt before him, saying, ‘My daughter has just died; but come and lay your hand on her, and she will live.’ 19 And Jesus got up and followed him, with his disciples. 20 Then suddenly a woman who had been suffering from haemorrhages for twelve years came up behind him and touched the fringe of his cloak, 21 for she said to herself, ‘If I only touch his cloak, I will be made well.’ 22 Jesus turned, and seeing her he said, ‘Take heart, daughter; your faith has made you well.’ And instantly the woman was made well. 23 When Jesus came to the leader’s house and saw the flute-players and the crowd making a commotion, 24 he said, ‘Go away; for the girl is not dead but sleeping.’ And they laughed at him. 25 But when the crowd had been put outside, he went in and took her by the hand, and the girl got up. 26 And the report of this spread throughout that district.

‘My daughter has just died; but come and lay your hand on her, and she will live’ (Matthew 9: 18) … ‘Spectral Child’ on Thomas Street, Limerick, by Dermot McConaghy (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflection:

The Gospel reading at the Eucharist today (Matthew 9: 18-26) tells the stories of how Christ responds to the plight of two very different people: a young girl who is on her deathbed, and a woman who has been suffering for the previous 12 years, as long as the young girl has lived.

The women in this reading remain unnamed, like so many women in the New Testament: three women in all, the dying girl, the older woman, and the girl’s mother.

The young girl who is on her deathbed and her mother are from a religious family; the older woman who interrupts this story, and who disrupts Jesus and intrudes on the crowd, has endured a lifetime of suffering. The two principal women in this story both suffer and are marginalised, are seen as not worth bothering about, because of their gender and because of their age.

This reading reminds us that Christ calls the unnamed, the marginalised, and the long-suffering from the outside into the community. They call out, just as the psalmist cries out, ‘Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord’ (Psalm 130: 1).

God is attentive to our pleas, despite everything that has gone wrong, God forgives, God is merciful, God offers unfailing love and freedom, God’s love for us surpasses the love of any father or mother for their children.

In this Gospel reading, one of the key people is the daughter of a leading member of the local synagogue. We know him as Jairus because of the accounts in the other synoptic Gospels (see Mark 5: 21-43; Luke 8: 40-56), although he is not named in Matthew 9. Mark describes him as ‘one of the rulers of the synagogue’ (εἷς τῶν ἀρχισυναγώγων), Luke says he is ‘a leader of the synagogue (ἄρχων τῆς συναγωγῆς), while Matthew describes him simply as an ἄρχων (archon), and omits any reference to a synagogue, a word that has come to be inserted by convention in the English translations.

Matthew does not give the girl’s age, she has already ‘just died’ (ἄρτι ἐτελεύτησεν), and her father’s request is that Jesus lay his hand upon her ‘and she will live [again]’ (Matthew: καὶ ζήσεται). In other words, in Matthew he asks Jesus to reverse her death rather than prevent it, in contrast with the accounts of Mark and Luke.

The timings and settings differ in the Gospels: in Mark and Luke, the story follows the exorcism at Gerasa; Jairus comes up to Jesus as soon as he gets out of the boat.  In Matthew, this event is first preceded by three others, healing the paralytic, the calling of Matthew, and the New Wine in Old Wineskins. In Matthew’s version, Jesus is in Matthew’s house, eating and drinking with tax collectors and sinners and debating about fasting with Pharisees and disciples of John the Baptist, when the distraught father arrives.

Mark and Luke report a large crowd (ὄχλος) following Jesus around and pressing against him (συνέθλιβον/συνέπνιγον αὐτόν) as he follows Jairus to his house. Matthew does not mention this, and it is only Jesus and his disciples (μαθηταὶ) who follow the ruler back to his house.

The narrative is interrupted with the arrival on the scene of a woman who had a haemorrhage (Matthew: αἱμορροοῦσα haimorroousa, having had a flow of blood that is vaginal or uterine. Mark and Luke say she has been οὖσα ἐν ῥύσει αἵματος (ousa en rhysei haimatos, being with a flow of blood), for 12 years. Mark and Luke tell us that during all this time nobody could heal her, with Mark dramatically adding she had spent all she had on physicians to no avail.

The woman touches the fringe of his cloak. Each tassel of the tallit or prayer shawl worn by pious Jews has eight threads (when doubled over) and five sets of knots, totalling 13; the sum of these numbers is 613. The 613 tzizit or knotted fringes are reminders of the 613 commandments, precepts or mitzvot in Jewish tradition. They include positive commandments, to perform an act (mitzvot aseh), and negative commandments, to abstain from certain acts (mitzvot lo taaseh). The negative commandments number 365, which coincides with the number of days in the solar year, and the positive commandments number 248, said to be the number of bones and main organs in the human body (Babylonian Talmud, Makkot 23b–24a). This reflects the idea that donning a tallit or prayer shawl with tzitzit reminds its wearer of all 613 Torah commandments.

When this woman touches Jesus’ cloak, her bleeding stops immediately, according to Mark and Luke, but in Matthew she is not healed until after Jesus tells her: ‘Take heart, daughter; your faith has made you well’ (verse 22).

Matthew’s account of the bleeding woman also ends there (Matthew 9:20–22). But for Mark and Luke, her act of touching his cloak appears to disturb Jesus, who seems agitated or even angry, and we are told that the woman came with φοβηθεῖσα καὶ τρέμουσα (phobētheisa kai tremousa, ‘in fear and trembling’) as he feels that power had gone out of him.

Jesus asks around the crowd who touched him or touched his clothes. Luke says all in the crowd deny doing this, and Peter says that crowds are pressing against Jesus; Mark has the disciples giving this explanation.

Jesus is not satisfied, and he keeps inspecting the crowd until the woman, trembling in fear, falls at Jesus' feet and admits that it was her. The accounts in Mark and Luke conclude with Jesus telling her ‘Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace and be healed of your disease’, or ‘Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace’ (see Mark 5: 25-34; Luke 8: 43-48).

In Mark’s and Luke’s narrative, people come (Mark: ἔρχονται, plural) or someone comes (Luke: ἔρχεταί τις, singular) with the news that that the daughter of Jairus had died, and Jairus is advised not to trouble Jesus any further. However, Jesus responds: ‘Do not fear, only believe’, with Luke extending the quote with ‘and she will be saved’ (σωθήσεται).

When he arrives at the house, Jesus does not let anyone follow him inside, ‘except Peter, James and John, the brother of James’ (Mark 5: 37), with Luke adding ‘and the father of the child and the mother’, later also added by Mark (Mark 5: 40; Luke 8: 49-50). For Matthew, the daughter is already dead from the start, so this part of the event does not unfold.

At the house, Mark and Luke report that Jesus ‘saw a commotion, people weeping and wailing loudly’ (Mark 5: 38; Luke 8: 52); according to Matthew, he ‘saw the flute-players and the crowd making a commotion’ (Matthew 9: 23). He tells all present that the girl is not dead but asleep; in Matthew, Jesus even tells the crowd ‘Go away’. But the crowd laughs at Jesus. Mark says Jesus puts the crowd outside; Matthew says they were put outside, but witout mentioning who does it (verse 25); Luke does not report this, but instead emphasises that the crowd ‘knew she had died’.

Jesus then goes back inside the house (Mark, Matthew). He takes the girl by the hand, and she gets up. In Mark’s account, the Aramaic phrase Talitha koum – transliterated into Greek as ταλιθα κουμ and reportedly meaning, ‘Little girl, I say to you, get up!’ – is attributed to Jesus (Mark 5: 41). In Luke, Jesus says ‘My child, get up!’ For Matthew, Jesus says nothing and is silent verse 25).

The accounts in Mark and Luke end with Jesus commanding that the girl should be fed and that Jairus and his wife should tell no-one what had happened. On the other hand, Matthew concludes by saying: ‘And the report of this spread throughout that district’ (verse 26).

Does it matter that Matthew’s account, which we are reading today, does not name Jairus, nor that it does not relate his status to the synagogue? Religious position and social status are of little value when a small child is struck with a death-threatening illness or disease.

In both cases these women are ritually unclean … a bleeding woman, a dying or dead women. Jesus should not touch them. Yet their plight touches his heart, and he reaches out to them with a healing touch.

One young woman is restored to her place in her family and in her community. One older woman, who has lost everything, who is at risk of being marginalised, even by the Disciples, is offered the hope of her proper place.

The crowd who gather around Jesus by the lake becomes a large crowd pressing in on him.

Too often in a crowd, it is those who get to the front first, who have the loudest voices, who are heard, whose demands are met.

But in this case, it is not the loud and the proud, the rich or the famous, who grab the attention of Christ – it is a weak, timid, neglected impoverished, exploited and sick woman. All her money has gone on quacks, and she has no man to speak up for her.

But look at what Christ does for her. Without knowing it, he heals her. And when he realises what has happened, he calls her ‘Daughter.’

In a society where men had the only voices, where to have a full place in society was to be known as a Son of Israel, she is called ‘Daughter.’ She too has a full and equal place in society, in the world, and before God.

It is shocking that when the unnamed girl dies the first reaction of some key local figures is to upbraid her father for seeking help, and not to offer him comfort and sympathy.

Their lack of compassion and sympathy contrasts sharply with the compassion Christ shows for both the older and the younger woman.

We were challenged each day to ask ourselves: how is the Gospel good news for those on the margins? The Gospel is Good News for those on the margins as we read in today’s Gospel story. But … only if we read it and if we put it into practice.

‘And the report of this spread throughout that district’ (Matthew 9: 26) … when and how is the Gospel good news for people on the margins? … newspapers at a kiosk near the Marina in Rethymnon in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Monday 6 July 2026):

In Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), the theme this week, from 5 to 11 July 2026 (pp 16-17), is ‘Faith in the Midst of Fractures’. This theme was introduced yesterday with a reflection by the Revd Godfrey Owino Adera, Anglican priest, theologian, and lecturer at Saint Paul’s University, Limuru, Kenya.

The USPG prayer diary today (Monday 6 July 2026) invites us to pray:

Gracious God, move theologians, church leaders, and all followers of you to be perceptive of the needs in our communities and how we can respond in your justice, truth, and wisdom.

The Collect of the Day:

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

The Post-Communion Prayer:

Grant, O Lord, we beseech you,
that the course of this world may be so peaceably ordered
by your governance,
that your Church may joyfully serve you in all godly quietness;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

Almighty God,
send down upon your Church
the riches of your Spirit,
and kindle in all who minister the gospel
your countless gifts of grace;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s reflections

Continued tomorrow

‘Christ raises the daughter of Jairus’ (left), in the Hardman window by JH Powell at the west end of the nave in Saint Nicholas Church, Adare, Co Limerick (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

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 2026: 46, Monday 22 June 2026

‘First take the log out of your own eye’ (Matthew 7: 5) … the remains of a felled tree by Saint Anne's Boat Club and the River Isis in Oxford last week (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Patrick Comerford

We are in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar, and the week began with the Third Sunday after Trinity (Trinity III, 21 June 2025), which was also Fathers’ Day and the Summer Solstice. The calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship today remembers Saint Alban (ca 250), first Martyr of Britain.

Before today begins, however, 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.

‘Why do you see the speck in your neighbour’s eye, but do not notice the log in your own eye?’ (Matthew 7: 3) (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Matthew 7: 1-5 (NRSVA):

[Jesus said to his disciples:] 1 ‘Do not judge, so that you may not be judged. 2 For with the judgement you make you will be judged, and the measure you give will be the measure you get. 3 Why do you see the speck in your neighbour’s eye, but do not notice the log in your own eye? 4 Or how can you say to your neighbour, “Let me take the speck out of your eye”, while the log is in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your neighbour’s eye.’

‘Why do you see the speck in your neighbour’s eye?’ (Mattew 7: 4) … street art in Plaza de Judería in Malaga (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflections:

Our Gospel story (Matthew 7: 1-5) returns to our readings from the Sermon on the Mount. Today’s reading prompts me once again to reflect on my own actions with the sort of introspection I find in the prayers of Saint John Chrysostom:

1. O Lord, deprive me not of your heavenly blessings.
2. O Lord, deliver me from eternal torment.
3. O Lord, if I have sinned in my mind or thought, in word or deed, forgive me.
4. O Lord, deliver me from every ignorance and heedlessness, from pettiness of the soul and stony hardness of heart.
5. O Lord, deliver me from every temptation.
6. O Lord, enlighten my heart darkened by evil desires.
7. O Lord, I, being a human being, have sinned; I ask you, being God, to forgive me in your loving kindness, for you know the weakness of my soul.
8. O Lord, send down your grace to help me, that I may glorify your holy Name.
9. O Lord Jesus Christ, inscribe me, your servant, in the Book of Life, and grant me a blessed end.
10. O Lord my God, even if I have done nothing good in your sight, yet grant me, according to your grace, that I may make a start in doing good.
11. O Lord, sprinkle on my heart the dew of your grace.
12. O Lord of heaven and earth, remember me, your sinful servant, cold of heart and impure, in your Kingdom.
13. O Lord, receive me in repentance.
14. O Lord, leave me not.
15. O Lord, save me from temptation.
16. O Lord, grant me pure thoughts.
17. O Lord, grant me tears of repentance, remembrance of death, and the sense of peace.
18. O Lord, grant me mindfulness to confess my sins.
19. O Lord, grant me humility, charity, and obedience.
20. O Lord, grant me tolerance, magnanimity, and gentleness.
21. O Lord, implant in me the root of all blessings: the fear of you in my heart.
22. O Lord, grant that I may love you with all my heart and soul, and that in all things I may obey your will.
23. O Lord, shield me from evil persons and devils and passions and all other lawless matters.
24. O Lord, who knows your creation and what you have willed for it; may your will also be fulfilled in me, a sinner, for you art blessed for evermore. Amen.

These are prayers that I handed out each year to students taking the elective on Patristics I offered on the MTh course in the Church of Ireland Theological Institute (CITI) and Trinity College Dublin (TCD).

The rediscovery of Patristic texts and writings in the 15th and 16th centuries, following the exodus of Greek scholars with the fall of Byzantium is a major factor in understanding the Reformations, in particular the Anglican Reformation. Thomas Cranmer introduced the ‘Prayer of Saint Chrysostom’ to Anglicanism:

‘Almighty God, you have given us grace at this time with one accord to make our common supplication to you; and you have promised through your well-beloved Son that when two or three are gathered together in his Name you will be in the midst of them: Fulfil now, O Lord, our desires and petitions as may be best for us; granting us in this world knowledge of your truth, and in the age to come life everlasting. Amen.’

‘Do not judge, so that you may not be judged’ (Matthew 7: 1) … the museum in the old courthouse in Adare, Co Limerick (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Monday 22 June 2026):

In Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), the theme this week, from 21 to 27 June 2026 (pp 12-13), is ‘Land Taken, Land Remembered’. This theme was introduced yesterday with a reflection by the Venerable Rosalyn Kantlaht’ant Elm, Director of Indigenous Ministries, Anglican Church of Canada.

The USPG prayer diary today (Monday 22 June 2026, Windrush Day) invites us to pray:

God of welcome, we thank you for the faith, courage, and contributions of the Windrush generation. Help us to honour their legacy by building a more just and hospitable society.

The Collect:

Eternal Father,
when the gospel of Christ first came to our land
you gloriously confirmed the faith of Alban
by making him the first to win a martyr’s crown:
grant that, following his example,
in the fellowship of the saints
we may worship you, the living God,
and give true witness to 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:

Eternal God,
who gave us this holy meal
in which we have celebrated the glory of the cross
and the victory of your martyr Alban:
by our communion with Christ
in his saving death and resurrection,
give us with all your saints the courage to conquer evil
and so to share the fruit of the tree of life;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s Reflections

Continued Tomorrow

The calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship today remembers Saint Alban … an icon in St Albans Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

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

Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2026: 44, Saturday 20 June 2026

Therefore do not worry, saying, “What will we eat?” or “What will we drink?” (Matthew 6: 31) … James Joyce and Patrick Kavanagh at Toner’s in Baggot Street, Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar, and tomorrow is the Third Sunday after Trinity (21 June 2026) and the Summer Solstice, although next Wednesday (24 June) is officially Midsummer’s Day.

If this warm summer and sunshine continues today, I hope to go to watch and enjoy some cricket in Stony Stratford this afternoon. But, before the day 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.

‘Do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink’ (Matthew 6: 25) … tables at Tai Tai restaurant in Kuching (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Matthew 6: 24-34 (NRSVA):

[Jesus said:] 24 ‘No one can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.

25 ‘Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27 And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? 28 And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, 29 yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. 30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you – you of little faith? 31 Therefore do not worry, saying, “What will we eat?” or “What will we drink?” or “What will we wear?” 32 For it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things; and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 33 But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

34 ‘So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today.’

‘But if God so clothes the grass of the field … will he not much more clothe you?’ … walking through the fields in Comberford, between Lichfield and Tamworth in Staffordshire (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Today’s Reflections:

The Gospel reading at the Eucharist today (Matthew 6: 24-34) continues the series of readings from the Sermon on the Mount. In a world where I wake up each morning worrying whether the large regional conflicts are going to unravel and draw us all into a global conflagration, how do I respond to the advice not to worry about tomorrow?

Imagine two different ways of reading this Gospel passage.

The first is if you have a respectable and well-paying job, a good house in the suburbs, a decent car, adult children who have good prospects too, you have regular holidays, and you can change your car every two or three years.

The second way to read it is to imagine yourself living in a deprived urban area, a single parent with a mortgaged house in negative equity, unemployed, noisy and unsocial neighbours, facing severe cuts in your welfare payments, an adult child with special needs, and an ageing parent who needs residential care you cannot afford.

How then do you then receive the message, do not worry about what you will eat or drink or wear (verse 25), because God will take care of you? Today’s trouble is certainly more than enough for today.

For the first group, this is irrelevant, meaningless. You may be worried about higher taxes, winding down and preparing for retirement, that your children marry the right sort of people. If you have worries, they are hidden from the neighbours, perhaps even hidden from yourself.

For the second group, it verges on the absurd. If you have spent the last few years worrying about the roof your head, unable to afford and prepare adequate meals, worried about the friends and dangers your children meet, the future they face, then this is no easy message to hear. What does Christ mean, ‘do not worry’? Life is full of worries, every single waking day.

But is Christ really saying that the basic necessities of life do not matter? Is he really saying that the basic necessities of life will appear miraculously if only we believe in him correctly?

Let us first put this reading in context – Christ is talking to people who have enough, it seems. Otherwise, his encouragement not to worry would simply be cruel.

But, what about those who truly do not have enough?

How are they going to hear good news in this Gospel reading?

Though the message is going to be heard differently by those who have enough and those who do not, the message is really the same: do not fret.

If you have enough, be thankful, but beware of making an idol of having what you want, rather than merely what you need.

If you do not have enough, it is not because God does not love you. Christ is working to break the connection that was commonly made in his day: those who please God are rewarded with plenty, while those who suffer have earned God’s displeasure.

We still make that connection. How often we have an inner feeling of glee when we think people get what they deserve? How often we think people have brought about their own downfall? How often we think people could improve their lot if only they were not indolent, if only they pulled themselves up by their bootstraps?

Christ encourages us to look beyond the narrow perspectives that attach virtue to success and vice to failure.

That challenge is expressed by Frederick Faber in the words of his hymn, ‘There’s a wideness in God’s mercy’:

For the love of God is broader
than the measure of our mind;
and the heart of the Eternal
is most wonderfully kind.

But we make his love too narrow
by false limits of our own;
and we magnify his strictness
with a zeal he will not own.

If our love were but more simple,
we should take him at his word,
and our lives would be gladness
in the presence of the Lord.

God’s desire for us is that we all have enough, rather than calculating the degree to which each of us should be blessed or cursed.

That does not change the circumstances today for the single mother or the unemployed father. But neither do present circumstances justify making political, economic and social decisions based on self-interest and selfishness.

Perhaps it is comforting this morning to recall the Collect for Peace, the Second Collect at Morning Prayer. This collect originated in the Sacramentary of Gelasius and was incorporated in the Sarum Breviary, from which Thomas Cranmer translated it in 1549:

O God, who art the author of peace and lover of concord, in knowledge of whom standeth our eternal life, whose service is perfect freedom; Defend us thy humble servants in all assaults of our enemies; that we, surely trusting in thy defence, may not fear the power of any adversaries; through the might of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Kingdom of God has different values from life in the empire, or life in a profit-based society. The Kingdom of God includes the poor, the merciful, those who mourn. The Kingdom of God calls us to bring light to the darkest parts of the world, to be salt in the world, to be signs and sacraments of mercy and justice.

God is not promising to meet all our needs, like some shopping list brought to the Kingdom-value-supermarket, if we pay up with the right kind of prayers. Tomorrow is going to bring its worries: ‘for tomorrow will bring worries of its own’ (verse 34). But God does not bargain with us. God expects us to serve God through living out the kingdom values, and in that we find perfect freedom.

As we seek first the Kingdom of God we come to accept with joy those things God adds to us. Our trials and troubles remain real, but that reality can be transformed and made glorious as we serve God and seek to do God’s will.

‘Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns …’ (Matthew 6: 26) … an empty barn near Comberford Hall in Staffordshire (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Today’s Prayers (Saturday 20 June 2026):

In Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), the theme this week, from 14 to 20 June 2026 (pp 10-11), has been ‘Rooted in Compassion’. This theme was introduced last Sunday by the Ven Titus Oluwalusi, the Anglican Chaplain at Saint John’s Church in Casablanca, Morocco.

The USPG prayer diary today (Saturday 20 June 2026, World Refugee Day) invites us to pray:

Almighty God, we pray for refugees and displaced communities across the world. We lament the ways that many are often treated with disdain and a lack of compassion. Just as you accompanied your people in exile and brought them hope and restoration, may every person experience protection, provision, and your sustaining love.

The Collect of the Day:

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. 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

‘Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them’ (Matthew 6: 26) … a mother bird feeds her chick at Pavlos Beach in Platanias, near Rethymnon (Patrick Comerford)

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

A late tutorial in Latin in Oxford with Brian and a new mural under Donnington Bridge

An unexpected but humorous tutorial in Latin in Oxford this week (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Patrick Comerford

Some of the best street art in Oxford is actually not visible from the streets but is found under the bridges. I came across one work this week that is inspired by a scene in Monty Python’s Life of Brian, the 1979 film, but that also appeals to everyone with an interest in Latin and the classics or in the history of radical movements and agrarian agitation.

It was a bright sunny afternoon, with clear blue skies, and I went for a long walk through Christ Church Meadow in Oxford, by the banks of the river, before crossing the small footbridge to continue walking along on the north bank at Boathouses Walk, where most of the college boathouses are.

The most famous stretch of river in Oxford is probably the section between Folly Bridge and Iffley Lock. It is part of the River Thames, but at this section it is popularly known as the Isis. The college rowing crews train there and there are two major events each year: Torpids in late February and Eights in mid-May. Scullers and rowers were out on the river, training earnestly, with small tour boats making their way along through them, and there were geese, ducks and a family of swans too.

Donnington Bridge crosses the River Thames or Isis and the Thames Path towpath, between Iffley Lock to the south and Osney to the north (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

But my walk came to an abrupt end where the Isis meets the Cherwell, and I decided to retrace my steps, crossed Folly Bridge and returned to the river to walk along the towpath on the south bank, which runs for 1.5 miles past a couple of boathouses, moorings with houseboats, narrowboats and barges, the secluded Longbridges Nature Park and on towards Iffley Lock.

I never got as far as Iffley Lock or Isis Farmhouse, this time, because I was stopped in my tracks along the Thames Path by the goose art under Donnington Bridge. The Oxford Canal Mural Project has organised a series of artworks under bridges along the waterways around Oxfordshire, and the space under Donnington Bridge is frequently updated by street artists, with vibrant nature and animal motifs painted on the concrete pillars.

Donnington Bridge crosses the River Thames or Isis and the Thames Path towpath, between Iffley Lock to the south and Osney to the north, and connects Abingdon Road and Iffley Road. The bridge was opened on 22 October 1962, but there may have been a river crossing at or near this point in Roman times, before Oxford existed, linking to the Roman road from Dorchester to Alchester. There was nothing there after Roman times, and until the mid-20th century it was only possible to cross the river at this point by ferry.

The new mural under Donnington Bridge is said to have been started to poke fun at an Oxford scholar across the river (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026; click on image for full-screen viewing)

Previous images under the bridge have included one depicting an evil-looking Tony Blair war-mongering and greedy for money and oil in Iraq. A new graffiti mural appeared under Donnington Bridge within the past two or three month and is the creation of a local artist Mani (the Big Orange M). It includes geese and references to the Roman presence here with allusions to The Life of Brian.

The street art there is said to have been started to poke fun at an Oxford scholar from across the river who disliked The Life of Brian, which has inspired a long list of ‘silly goose’ puns. The mural also includes the fourth stanza from a song about agrarian agitation that developed as a response to the Enclosure Acts:

The crime is great, in man or woman,
Who steals a goose from a common;
But surely ’tis a worse abuse,
To steal the common from the goose.

The song or poem is a powerful critique of the Enclosure Acts that privatised shared public lands. It lampoons the hypocrisy of the law and how it severely punishes the poor for stealing a goose, while allowing wealthy landowners to steal the common land itself.

From the 1700s on, wealthy landlords used legislation to fence off traditional, shared village pastures and forests to turn them into private property. Rural people relied on these commons to graze their livestock, to gather firewood, and to survive, but were stripped of their livelihoods while landed families were protected by the law while claiming communal resources for themselves.

John Clare’s verse is a critique of the Enclosure Acts that privatised shared public lands (Photographs: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

The poem about the goose and the common has many variations, and these lines first appeared in the Monthly Magazine in 1810, and later in the London Express in 1848. But the original version is attributed to the Northamptonshire poet John Clare (1793-1864). Today, the poem has evolved into a famous anti-capitalist folk song and a rallying cry for activists protecting public spaces.

Other lettering on the mural hint at grievances about mooring rights along this stretch of the river – ‘Honk, Honk, Honk’ and ‘No Moorings’ with its ending crossed out to read ‘No Moor Hens’.

At the north end of the mural, the Latin saying Romanes eunt domus CCCXC BC has been altered purposefully or corrected to read Romani ite domum CCCXC BC.

‘Romanes eunt domus’ is an intentionally incorrect Latin phrase that translates as ‘People called 'Romanes' they go the house?’ It is the famous, grammatically butchered graffiti from Monty Python’s Life of Brian.

The sketch draws on John Cleese’s time as a teacher, when he taught Latin to 10-year-olds at Saint Peter’s, a preparatory school in Weston-super-Mare. He said the sketch was inspired by an occasion when he wrote on the blackboard a number of times a word that he as a teacher had misspelled, demonstrating his even-handedness.

The centurion is concerned not with Brian’s act of vandalism, but with his inept Latin grammar. Once Brian has arrived at the correct answer, the centurion imposes a grammar school punishment – writing lines – instead of the punishment a vandal or rebel might expect. Instead of punishing Brian for writing the graffito, the centurion instructs him to repeat the act 100 times, using good grammar.

In the film, Brian is an anti-Roman agitator who is caught painting ‘Romans go home’ on the palace walls. Instead of punishing him, a pedantic Roman centurion forces him to conjugate his verbs and decline his nouns – treating a public execution like a strict classroom lesson in Latin.

Romani ite domum is the corrected Latin phrase for the graffito Romanes eunt domus. The scene features John Cleese as a centurion and Graham Chapman as Brian, at that point a would-be member of the revolutionary People’s Front of Judea. To prove himself a worthy candidate for membership, Brian has to daub the anti-Roman slogan ‘Romans go home’ on the walls of Pontius Pilate’s palace in Jerusalem, under cover of darkness, written in Latin for the Romans to read.

He completes the phrase Romanes eunt domus when he is caught by the centurion. Brian is terrified and expects to be killed on the spot. Instead, the centurion corrects Brian’s grammatical errors like traditional Latin teacher, for he has written ‘People called Romanes they go the house’.

John Cleese’s centurion forces Brian to use the proper imperative verb form and accusative case and to write the correct phrase, Romani ite domum, 100 times, threatening to ‘cut [his] balls off’ if he has not done so by sunrise.

Brian does so, covering nearly every surface of the plaza with the graffiti while he is supervised by two guards. When he finishes the task the following morning, one soldier says ‘don’t do it again’ and leaves with his comrade. Just as they leave, three other soldiers come round the corner and see the graffiti. Brian realises his position and races off, chased by the soldiers. In subsequent scenes, various Roman soldiers can be seen erasing the seditious graffiti.


A tutorial in Latin in onty Python’s Life of Brian (1979)

The exchange on the case of domus is worth repeating:

Centurion: ‘Domus’? Nominative? ‘Go home’? This is motion towards. Isn’t it, boy?

Brian: Dative, sir!

[The centurion draws his sword and holds it to Brian’s throat]

Brian: Ahh! No, not dative! Not the dative, sir! Oh, the ... accusative! Accusative! ‘Domum’, sir! ‘Ad domum’!

Centurion: Except that ‘domus’ takes the ...?

Brian: The locative, sir!

Centurion: Which is ...?!

Brian: ‘Domum’.

Some Latin scholars may point out that the centurion is mistaken in accepting Brian’s answer of the locative case, although the result was correct. The locative case indicates presence at or in a particular place, such as a city, town, or small island. The locative of domus, meaning a house or home, would be domi. But motion toward a place or thing was indicated using the accusative of motion towards, domum being the allative construction correctly used in the final formulation of the graffito.

This confusion over the use of the locative case is an example of how even people who are well-educated in Latin occasionally err when it comes to grammatical details. But the sketch may be incomprehensible to many today, as Latin is no longer taught in schools in the way my generation learned it.

Beneath the Latin ‘homework’, tucked into a discreet corner of the assemblage is the date ‘CCCXC BC’. Not that the Romans would have used the date ‘CCCXC BC’ for the year 390 BC, but what happened that year? What did the Romans do for us then? 390 BC is four centuries or more before the supposed setting for The Life of Brian, and the Romans certainly did not have their eyes set on Jerusalem – nor were they contemplating the road from Dorchester to Alchester almost 2,500 years.

In the year 390 BC, the Roman Republic suffered a devastating defeat at the Battle of the Allia against the Senones, a Gallic tribe led by chieftain Brennus. The Gauls subsequently captured and sacked Rome, profoundly shaping the trajectory of the Roman military and state.

A houseboat on the River Thmas near Donnington Bridge (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Winston Churchill once said, ‘I would make them all learn English: and then I would let the clever ones learn Latin as an honour, and Greek as a treat.’ I did Latin at school from 12 to 17 in my secondary schools, sat an honours paper in Latin at the Leaving Certificate (the Irish equivalent of A Levels) in 1969, and I still remember reading Caesar, Ovid, Pliny and Horace, as well as the difficulty of wrestling with the finer points of Latin grammar.

Many, many years later, I went on to do some post-graduate work in liturgical Latin in the Institutum Liturgicum at Ealing Abbey in 2012 in association with the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies at KU Leuven.

But I never thought I would have my most amusing tutorial in Latin in Oxford, under a bridge, on the town path along the Isis, surrounded by geese, house boats, rowers and sculls, thanks to John Cleese and Monty Python’s Life of Brian.

A summer stroll along the towpath and under the bridges (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2026: 43, Friday 19 June 2026

‘Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth’ (Matthew 6: 19) … ‘S. Laurence with the treasures of the Church’ … an illustration in Enid M Chadwick’s ‘My Book of the Church’s Year’

Patrick Comerford

We are in Ordinary Time: this week began with Trinity Sunday (14 June 2026), and the Calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship today recalls Sundar Singh (1929) of India, Sadhu (holy man), Evangelist, Teacher of the Faith (19 June). I stayed up late in the early hoursnight, waiting for the Makerfield byelection result to come in. Now, 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 Laurence with his gridiron above the south porch of Saint Laurence’s Church in Winslow, Buckinghamshire (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Matthew 6: 19-23 (NRSVA):

[Jesus said:] 19 ‘Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; 20 but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

22 ‘The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light; 23 but if your eye is unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!’

Saint Lawrence with the gridiron depicted on the Saint Lawrence and Saint Mary Magdalene Fountain, Carter Lane Gardens near Saint Paul’s Cathedral, London (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflections

The Gospel reading at the Eucharist today (Matthew 6: 19-23) continues the series of readings from the Sermon on the Mount. In today’s reading, we are challenged to consider once again to think about the things we treasure, to keep our eyes open to all around us, to the needs of the world, and to step out of the darkness.

In these dark days – dark days for the world politically and socially, and dark days for refugees, the poor, the marginalised and those who suffer – what do I treasure most? What should the Church treasure?

Saint Lawrence the Martyr, who lived in the third century, was one of seven deacons in charge of helping the poor and the needy in Rome. He was martyred during the persecution of Christians in the reign of the Emperor Valerian in the year 258.

When Pope Sixtus II became Pope in 257, he ordained Lawrence deacon and appointed him Archdeacon of Rome. Sixtus II was celebrating the liturgy on 6 August when he taken captive and was taken away to be beheaded, Lawrence followed him weeping: ‘Father, where are you going without your deacon?’ Pope Sixtus answered, ‘I am not leaving you, my son, in three days you will follow me.’

Lawrence proceeded to give to the poor the rest of the money he had with him, and sold treasured church vessels so he would have more money to give away.

The prefect of Rome searched for the hidden treasures of the Church, and ordered Lawrence to bring them to him. The deacon said he would, in three days. Then he went through the streets of Rome and gathered together all the poor and sick people supported by the Church. He showed them to the prefect and said: ‘Here are the treasures of the church. You see, the church is truly rich, far richer than your emperor!’

Ambrose of Milan says Lawrence told the prefect: ‘Behold in these poor persons the treasures which I promised to show you; to which I will add pearls and precious stones, those widows and consecrated virgins, which are the Church’s crown.’

The prefect was furious. In his anger he asked them to kill Lawrence slowly so he would suffer more. He was tied to an iron grill over a slow fire that roasted him. As he was dying on the grill, Lawrence is said to have said: ‘Turn me over’. Before he died, he prayed that the city of Rome might be converted and that Christianity would spread throughout the world.

Lawrence died on 10 August 258. His feast on 10 August spread throughout Italy and northern Africa. The Emperor Constantine built a basilica in his honour, and his name is among the saints named in the First Eucharistic Prayer at the Mass.

Where do we find the treasures of the Church? … a window ledge in the chapel in Dr Miley’s Hospital, Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Friday 19 June 2026):

In Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), the theme this week, from 14 to 20 June 2026 (pp 10-11), is ‘Rooted in Compassion’. This theme was introduced on Sunday by the Ven Titus Oluwalusi, the Anglican Chaplain at Saint John’s Church in Casablanca, Morocco.

The USPG prayer diary today (Friday 19 June 2026) invites us to pray:

Loving God, open our hearts and minds to understand the experiences and emotions of others. Grant us empathy and compassion, that we may respond with care, patience, and love in all our relationships.

The Collect of the Day:

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. 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

‘The eye is the lamp of the body’ (Matthew 6: 22) … the Tae Yang mural, street art on Lorong Kai Joo 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