Daily prayer in Lent 2026: 17, Friday 6 March 2026

‘Now when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do …’ (Matthew 21: 40) … vineyards, vines, groves and terraces near San Gimignano in Tuscany (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

Lent began more than two weeks ago on Ash Wednesday (18 February 2026), and this week began with was the Second Sunday in Lent (Lent II). I caught a flight on an Oman Air flight from Muscat that lands in London Heathrow at 5:55 this morning, but my travel plans were facing disruptions caused by the chaos and confusion in the Middle East since last weekend. In all the confusion, I caught this flight with just minutes to spare, and I hop to find a suitable place in Stony Stratford to see the match between Ireland and Wales in the Six Nations Championship this evening.

Before today begins, between flights, airports and the chaos that surrounds me, 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.

‘Now when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do?’ (Matthew 21: 40) … ripening grapes on the vines at the Hedgehog in Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Matthew 21: 33-43, 45-46 (NRSVA):

[Jesus said to them:] 33 ‘Listen to another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a wine press in it, and built a watch-tower. Then he leased it to tenants and went to another country. 34 When the harvest time had come, he sent his slaves to the tenants to collect his produce. 35 But the tenants seized his slaves and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. 36 Again he sent other slaves, more than the first; and they treated them in the same way. 37 Finally he sent his son to them, saying, “They will respect my son.” 38 But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, “This is the heir; come, let us kill him and get his inheritance.” 39 So they seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him. 40 Now when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?’ 41 They said to him, ‘He will put those wretches to a miserable death, and lease the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the produce at the harvest time.’

42 Jesus said to them, ‘Have you never read in the scriptures:
“The stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone;
this was the Lord’s doing,
and it is amazing in our eyes”?

43 Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that produces the fruits of the kingdom.’

45 When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they realized that he was speaking about them. 46 They wanted to arrest him, but they feared the crowds, because they regarded him as a prophet.

‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone’ (Matthew 21: 42) … a cross cut into a cornerstone in the main church in the Monastery of Vlatádon in Thessaloniki (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflection:

It is sometimes said that the parables are ways in which Christ makes truth more accessible, taking complicated theological ideas and rephrasing them in terms that anyone can understand. But sometimes he says he is telling his parables for the opposite reason, so that the crowds might not understand (see Matthew 13: 1-9, Mark 4: 1-9, and Luke 8: 9-10).

When confronted with these puzzling parables, we are sometimes tempted to resolve the ambiguities by interpreting them allegorically. We start out by deciding immediately the characters, the objects and the actions represent; we decide before we interpret or try to apply those parables which character or object represents God, which one is Christ, who represent the Disciples, and so on.

In other words, we try to harmonise difficult parables with our own already-formed views, rather than allowing those parables to challenge and reshape our views.

But Christ tries through his parables to get us to challenge what we already presume to be simply true.

In today’s Gospel reading (Matthew 21: 33-43), do we read the parable in the way we have learned to read it? We already presume the landowner is God. God sends messengers to people (in particular, to Israel). The people reject the messengers. God sends his son. The people kill the son. So God is going to reject Israel and choose another people. But how well does the parable really fit that interpretation? How well does that interpretation fit the weight of the canon regarding the role of Israel?

As a point of comparison, it might be useful to look at the theology of Israel in Saint Luke’s Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles, where we find a continuing and central role for Israel. There the invitation extended to Gentiles through Christ is to join Israel, God’s people.

At the apostolic council in Jerusalem (see Acts 15), the Christian leaders present include Pharisees (see verse 5) – not former Pharisees, but Pharisees. In the Acts of the Apostles (23: 6), Saint Paul continues to identify himself as a Pharisee – not as a former Pharisee.

For Saint Luke, the vineyard of Israel has not been taken away to be given to others. Instead, Christ has opened it to new workers called to gather in God’s abundant harvest.

The setting of the parable is the estate of a wealthy landowner. This landowner does not live on the land, and does not work at planting or harvesting. The hard work is carried out by the hired labourers, who must turn over most of what they grow to the landowner. The landowner in the parallel parable in Luke 19 is a harsh, demanding man, reaping what he does not sow (see Luke 19: 20).

This absentee landlord does not send messengers out of any great love for the people or the land, but to collect the profits from their labour that sustain his life of ease in the cosmopolitan city where he lives.

In Saint Matthew’s version of parable, the farmers have had enough. The next time the landowner sends one of his servants to collect the rent, the farmers send him packing. Forget how you have consistently read this parable for years. Those who listened to Christ telling this parable for the first time probably smiled at the demanding landlord getting a revolutionary response from the exploited tenants living on the edge and on the margins.

After all, Saint Paul tells us in the Pastoral Epistles: ‘for the scripture says, “You shall not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain,” and, “The labourer deserves to be paid”.’ (I Timothy 5: 18).

Then the landowner sends another agent to collect the rent. Again, the farmers get together to send him away empty-handed. More cause for rejoicing among the first listeners.

Then the son of the landowner arrives. He has a different standing than the messengers. He is the son, perhaps the ‘beloved son,’ probably the only son. If he is the heir and the landowner had died, then he has inherited the estate himself. If the son dies and he does not have an heir, the land goes to those who live on it, and the farmers will be free. The farmers have been resisting years of what they feel has been exploitation, and now they rise up and kill the son.

But the twist in the story is that the landowner is not dead. He does exactly what we expect him to do in the circumstances. He wreaks revenge, slaughters the farmers and replaces them with others. He does this so he can return to his life of ease in the city, living on the income provided by the labour of others.

However, no-one among those who hear this ending to the story for the first time would hardly regard it as comforting or good news.

The chief priests and the scribes who are listening the audience, and who come from the same social class as the rich landowner and his hirelings, must realise that they have just heard a scathing condemnation from Christ of how they exploit their fellow Jews.

The peasants or tenant farmers who hear the story are reminded that escalating the spiral of violence only results in more violence being visited upon them and their children.

Everyone who listens is challenged to rethink their prejudices and their judgmental values. In this, the parable is a challenge to us today.

In what ways are we like the absentee landlord, dependent on the exploitation of others to support our lives of relative ease?

How much do we consume without knowing or caring about where our clothes, our coffee, our computers, our gadgets and toys come from, or about the cost to poor people and the environments in which they live?

In what ways are we like the agents, willing to do wrong to achieve what we think is right, to escalate interpersonal and international conflict in ways that will be visited upon generations to come?

And in what ways are we responding to Christ’s challenge to care for those the world disregards and to disregard the world’s standards of strength and honour?

As Sarah Dylan writes, Christ challenges us to do the unthinkable, to turn the other cheek and let others think us weak, to care as much for God’s children who make our clothes and shoes, who mine the ore for our electronics and dispose of the toxic computer monitors we discard when want newer and better ones, as we do for our own children.

Christ challenges us to bless and honour the peacemakers rather than the mighty, to strive for justice and peace and the dignity of every human being above our own comfort.

<>iIn a vineyard in Rivesaltes in the south of France (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Friday 6 March 2026):

The theme this week (1-7 March 2026) in ‘Pray With the World Church,’ the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is: ‘Saint David’s Day’ (pp 34-35). This theme was introduced on Sunday with Reflections by the Revd Sarah Rosser, Team Vicar in the Netherwent Ministry Area, Diocese of Monmouth, Church in Wales.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Friday 6 March 2026) invites us to pray:

We remember those who showed us your love in word and deed. We give thanks for those who have died in faith, and we pray to share with them the joy of your presence for ever.

The Collect:

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.

The Post Communion Prayer:

Almighty God,
you see that we have no power of ourselves to help ourselves:
keep us both outwardly in our bodies,
and inwardly in our souls;
that we may be defended from all adversities
which may happen to the body,
and from all evil thoughts which may assault and hurt the soul;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

Almighty God,
by the prayer and discipline of Lent
may we enter into the mystery of Christ’s sufferings,
and by following in his Way
come to share in his glory;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s Reflections

Continued Tomorrow

Ripening grapes on a vine in Tsesmes, east of Rethymnon in Crete (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

23 million digits in numbers, 23 million metres fundraising, 23 million sq metres in Tuscany, and 23 million blog hits by today

‘Tuscany … a world of wine’ … Tuscany covers 23,000 sq km or 23 million sq metres (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

Once again, this blog continues to reach more and more readers as it reaches the milepost of 23 million readers this evening (12 February 2026). This follows soon after passing the landmarks of 22.5 million earlier this month (4 February), 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 about 2 million hits or visitors for 2026 by this evening. This means, this blog has passed the half million mark twice this month, twice last month, and five times in December.

I 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 the 12 months since then, another 11.5 million hits have been counted.

Throughout last year, the daily figures were overwhelming on many occasions. Seven of the 12 days of busiest traffic on this blog were last month alone, four were last January, and one was last month:

• 289,076 (11 January 2025)
• 285,366 (12 January 2025)
• 261,422 (13 January 2025)
• 166,155 (15 December 2025)
• 146,944 (14 December 2025)
• 140,417 (16 December 2025)

• 122,398 (17 December 2025)
• 116,911 (30 December 2025)
• 112,221 (13 December 2025)
• 106,475 (27 December 2025)
• 106,169 (16 January 2026)
• 100,291 (10 January 2025)

The latest figure of 23 million is all the more staggering as half of those hits (11.5 million) have been within less than a year, since 10 March 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 about 40-50,000.

With this latest landmark figure of 23 million readers, I once again find myself asking questions such as:

• What do 23 million people look like?

• Where do we find 23 million people?

• What does £23 million, €23 million or $23 million mean?

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

The Statue of Dante in the Piazza Santa Croce in Florence (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

A collaborative computational effort uncovered the longest known prime number, it was announced back in 2018, and it is over 23 million digits long. The new number was given the name M77232917 for short.

Prime numbers are divisible only by themselves and one, and the search for ever-larger primes has long occupied maths enthusiasts. However, the search requires complicated computer software and collaboration as the numbers get increasingly hard to find. M77232917 was discovered on a computer belonging to Jonathan Pace, an electrical engineer from Tennessee who had been searching for big primes for 14 years. It is nearly one million digits longer than the previous record holder, which was identified as part of the same project at the beginning of 2016.

The 23 enigma is a belief in the significance of the number 23. The concept of the 23 enigma has been popularized by various books, movies, and conspiracy theories, which suggest that the number 23 appears with unusual frequency in various contexts and may have a larger, hidden significance. Since the 1990s, the free techno and raver counterculture has adopted it as a symbol.

There are about 26 million Sikhs globally, of whom 23 million live in India where they are less than 2% of the 1.4 billion population. Sikhism is the world’s fifth-largest organised religion.

Taiwan and Sri Lanka each has a population of about 23 million people.

23 million metres is 23,000 km and 23 million sq metres is 23,000 sq km.

Tuscany in central Italy has an area of about 23,000 sq km. Tuscany is the birthplace of the Italian Renaissance, has many protected nature reserves and UNESCO World Heritage sites and is the second-most-popular Italian region for tourists in Italy, after Veneto.

The main tourist attractions are in Florence, Pisa, San Gimignano, Siena and Lucca. Tuscany was the home of Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio, Machiavelli, the Medicis and Michelangelo … and is the home of the Uffizi … and of Chianti and Montepulciano.

23,000 sq km is also the approximate size of Belize and of the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern in north-east Germany, also known by its anglicised name Mecklenburg–Western Pomerania.

Rob Goliah (36) from Nottingham has cycled 23,000 km ( million metres) from Melbourne in Derbyshire to Melbourne in Australia. He took six month to cycle 23,000 km and visited 22 countries along the route, setting out on 29 June and arriving on 26 December.

Then last weekend, large crowds gathered at Sydney Opera House on 7 February to celebrate the end of a Roscommon man’s two-year charity cycle across the world. Fergal Guihen’s mammoth ‘Rossie to Aussie’ 23,000 km challenge has taken him through 28 countries and three continents over the last two years since leaving Arigna, Co Roscommon, on 10 March 2024.

His journey aimed to raise awareness and funds for both the Mayo Roscommon Hospice Foundation and North West STOP. His fundraising cycle has raised more than €150,000 to date. He travelled the full length of three continents and 28 countries. ‘What I originally believed would take one year ultimately became a two-year adventure and, without question, the toughest thing I have ever done’.

In 2025 alone, the EU allocated a total of €23 million in humanitarian aid to UNRWA for the delivery of assistance in the Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank. The EU remains critical to UNRWA’s ability to provide Palestine refugees in the occupied West Bank access to urgent shelter support and essential services.

A very rare sketch of a foot by Michelangelo for the Sistine Chapel sold earlier this month for a record €23 million at a Christie’s auction in New York. The recently discovered drawing was part of a study for the Libyan Sibyl on the ceiling of the chapel in the Vatican.

I am one among more than 23 million adults in the UK who have not learnt the lifesaving skill of CPR. Almost half of UK adults (43 per cent) have never learnt CPR, according to new figures that suggest as many as 23 million are yet to learn the skills to save a life.

Schizophrenia affects approximately 23 million people or 1 in 345 people (0.29%) worldwide. The UN Population Fund states that a further 23 million girls risk being subjected to this violence over the next four years. An estimated 23 million miscarriages occur every year worldwide, meaning 44 pregnancy losses each minute.

In September 2025, Greek authorities estimated that at least €23 million in EU agricultural subsidies were fraudulently claimed, marking a major, ongoing scandal involving 1,036 cases of illegal payments. The fraud involved false declarations of land and livestock by non-farmers, and is being investigated by Greek police and the EPPO.

The Olympic freestyle skier, Eileen Gu has become one of the world’s highest-paid female athletes, earning $23.1 million last year, according to the Forbes rankings in 2025 of the highest-paid female athletes, listing her after tennis player Coco Gauff with around $33 million, followed by Aryna Sabalenka at $30 million and Iga Swiatek at $25.1 million.

Conor McGregor has been boasting this month Donald Trump is exploring a $23 million investment in McGregor’s business interests … I can only start to imagine how they deserve each other and how well matched they are.

And 23 million minutes is 43.8 years, or roughly 383,333 hours or 15,972 days. In other words, if this blog was getting one hit a minute, it would take almost 44 years to reach today’s 23 million mark.

So, yet again, this blog has reached another humbling statistic and a sobering figure, and once more I am left with a feeling of gratitude to all who read and support this blog and my writing.

Once again, a continuing and warming figure in the midst of all these statistics is the one that shows my morning prayer diary continues to reach up to 70-90 people each day.

It is almost four years now since I retired from active parish ministry, but I think many of my priest-colleagues be prayerfully thankful if the congregations in their churches totalled 500 to 600 people or more each week.

Today, I am very grateful to all the 23 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.

Vineyards, vines, groves and terraces near San Gimignano in Tuscany (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Daily prayer in Lent 2025: 17, Friday 21 March 2025

‘Now when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do …’ (Matthew 21: 40) … vineyards, vines, groves and terraces near San Gimignano in Tuscany (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

Lent began more than two weeks ago on Ash Wednesday (5 March 2025), and this week began with was the Second Sunday in Lent (Lent II). Today, the Calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship remembers Thomas Cranmer (1556), Archbishop of Canterbury and Reformation Martyr.

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.

‘Now when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do?’ (Matthew 21: 40) … ripening grapes on the vines at the Hedgehog in Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Matthew 21: 33-43, 45-46 (NRSVA):

[Jesus said to them:] 33 ‘Listen to another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a wine press in it, and built a watch-tower. Then he leased it to tenants and went to another country. 34 When the harvest time had come, he sent his slaves to the tenants to collect his produce. 35 But the tenants seized his slaves and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. 36 Again he sent other slaves, more than the first; and they treated them in the same way. 37 Finally he sent his son to them, saying, “They will respect my son.” 38 But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, “This is the heir; come, let us kill him and get his inheritance.” 39 So they seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him. 40 Now when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?’ 41 They said to him, ‘He will put those wretches to a miserable death, and lease the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the produce at the harvest time.’

42 Jesus said to them, ‘Have you never read in the scriptures:
“The stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone;
this was the Lord’s doing,
and it is amazing in our eyes”?

43 Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that produces the fruits of the kingdom.’

45 When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they realized that he was speaking about them. 46 They wanted to arrest him, but they feared the crowds, because they regarded him as a prophet.

‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone’ (Matthew 21: 42) … a cross cut into a cornerstone in the main church in the Monastery of Vlatádon in Thessaloniki (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflection:

It is sometimes said that the parables are ways in which Christ makes truth more accessible, taking complicated theological ideas and rephrasing them in terms that anyone can understand. But sometimes he says he is telling his parables for the opposite reason, so that the crowds might not understand (see Matthew 13: 1-9, Mark 4: 1-9, and Luke 8: 9-10).

When confronted with these puzzling parables, we are sometimes tempted to resolve the ambiguities by interpreting them allegorically. We start out by deciding immediately the characters, the objects and the actions represent; we decide before we interpret or try to apply those parables which character or object represents God, which one is Christ, who represent the Disciples, and so on.

In other words, we try to harmonise difficult parables with our own already-formed views, rather than allowing those parables to challenge and reshape our views.

But Christ tries through his parables to get us to challenge what we already presume to be simply true.

In today’s Gospel reading (Matthew 21: 33-43), do we read the parable in the way we have learned to read it? We already presume the landowner is God. God sends messengers to people (in particular, to Israel). The people reject the messengers. God sends his son. The people kill the son. So God is going to reject Israel and choose another people. But how well does the parable really fit that interpretation? How well does that interpretation fit the weight of the canon regarding the role of Israel?

As a point of comparison, it might be useful to look at the theology of Israel in Saint Luke’s Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles, where we find a continuing and central role for Israel. There the invitation extended to Gentiles through Christ is to join Israel, God’s people.

At the apostolic council in Jerusalem (see Acts 15), the Christian leaders present include Pharisees (see verse 5) – not former Pharisees, but Pharisees. In the Acts of the Apostles (23: 6), Saint Paul continues to identify himself as a Pharisee – not as a former Pharisee.

For Saint Luke, the vineyard of Israel has not been taken away to be given to others. Instead, Christ has opened it to new workers called to gather in God’s abundant harvest.

The setting of the parable is the estate of a wealthy landowner. This landowner does not live on the land, and does not work at planting or harvesting. The hard work is carried out by the hired labourers, who must turn over most of what they grow to the landowner. The landowner in the parallel parable in Luke 19 is a harsh, demanding man, reaping what he does not sow (see Luke 19: 20).

This absentee landlord does not send messengers out of any great love for the people or the land, but to collect the profits from their labour that sustain his life of ease in the cosmopolitan city where he lives.

In Saint Matthew’s version of parable, the farmers have had enough. The next time the landowner sends one of his servants to collect the rent, the farmers send him packing. Forget how you have consistently read this parable for years. Those who listened to Christ telling this parable for the first time probably smiled at the demanding landlord getting a revolutionary response from the exploited tenants living on the edge and on the margins.

After all, Saint Paul tells us in the Pastoral Epistles: ‘for the scripture says, “You shall not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain,” and, “The labourer deserves to be paid”.’ (I Timothy 5: 18).

Then the landowner sends another agent to collect the rent. Again, the farmers get together to send him away empty-handed. More cause for rejoicing among the first listeners.

Then the son of the landowner arrives. He has a different standing than the messengers. He is the son, perhaps the ‘beloved son,’ probably the only son. If he is the heir and the landowner had died, then he has inherited the estate himself. If the son dies and he does not have an heir, the land goes to those who live on it, and the farmers will be free. The farmers have been resisting years of what they feel has been exploitation, and now they rise up and kill the son.

But the twist in the story is that the landowner is not dead. He does exactly what we expect him to do in the circumstances. He wreaks revenge, slaughters the farmers and replaces them with others. He does this so he can return to his life of ease in the city, living on the income provided by the labour of others.

However, no-one among those who hear this ending to the story for the first time would hardly regard it as comforting or good news.

The chief priests and the scribes who are listening the audience, and who come from the same social class as the rich landowner and his hirelings, must realise that they have just heard a scathing condemnation from Christ of how they exploit their fellow Jews.

The peasants or tenant farmers who hear the story are reminded that escalating the spiral of violence only results in more violence being visited upon them and their children.

Everyone who listens is challenged to rethink their prejudices and their judgmental values. In this, the parable is a challenge to us today.

In what ways are we like the absentee landlord, dependent on the exploitation of others to support our lives of relative ease?

How much do we consume without knowing or caring about where our clothes, our coffee, our computers, our gadgets and toys come from, or about the cost to poor people and the environments in which they live?

In what ways are we like the agents, willing to do wrong to achieve what we think is right, to escalate interpersonal and international conflict in ways that will be visited upon generations to come?

And in what ways are we responding to Christ’s challenge to care for those the world disregards and to disregard the world’s standards of strength and honour?

As Sarah Dylan writes, Christ challenges us to do the unthinkable, to turn the other cheek and let others think us weak, to care as much for God’s children who make our clothes and shoes, who mine the ore for our electronics and dispose of the toxic computer monitors we discard when want newer and better ones, as we do for our own children.

Christ challenges us to bless and honour the peacemakers rather than the mighty, to strive for justice and peace and the dignity of every human being above our own comfort.

A lost vineyard in Platanias, east of Rethymnon in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Friday 21 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), is ‘Truth: The Path to Reconciliation’. This theme was introduced on Sunday with a programme update by Rachel Weller, Communications Officer, USPG.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Friday 21 March 2025, UN International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination) invites us to pray:

Lord, grant us a prophetic consciousness to stand against racial discrimination and injustice. Help us be bold advocates for truth and righteousness, promoting equality and unity among all people. May we create a world where every person is valued and treated with dignity.

The Collect:

Father of all mercies,
who through the work of your servant Thomas Cranmer
renewed the worship of your Church
and through his death revealed your strength in human weakness:
by your grace strengthen us to worship you
in spirit and in truth
and so to come to the joys of your everlasting kingdom;
through Jesus Christ our Mediator and Advocate,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post Communion Prayer:

God our redeemer,
whose Church was strengthened by the blood of your martyr Thomas Cranmer:
so bind us, in life and death, to Christ’s sacrifice
that our lives, broken and offered with his,
may carry his death and proclaim his resurrection in the world;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s Reflection

Continued Tomorrow

Ripening grapes on a vine in Tsesmes, east of Rethymnon in Crete (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 prayers in the Kingdom Season with USPG: (4) 8 November 2023

The Duomo di San Gimignano, formally the Collegiata di Santa Maria Assunta, is part of the Unesco World Heritage Site of the ‘Historic Centre of San Gimignano’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

In this time between All Saints’ Day and Advent Sunday, we are in the Kingdom Season in the Calendar of the Church of England, and the week began with the Fourth Sunday before Advent (5 November 2023).

But we are also in a time we might call ‘All Saints Tide’, and the Calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship today (8 November) remembers the Saints and Martyrs of England.

Before today begins, I am taking some time for prayer and reflection early this morning.

In recent prayer diaries on this blog, my reflections have already looked at a number of Italian cathedrals, including the cathedrals in Amalfi, Florence, Lucca, Noto, Pisa, Ravenna, Saint Peter’s Basilica and Saint John Lateran, Rome, Siena, Sorrento, Syracuse, Taormina, Torcello and Venice.

So, this week, my reflections look at some more Italian cathedrals, basilicas and churches in Bologna, San Marino, Pistoia, San Gimignano, Mestre, Sorrento and Ravello.

Throughout this week, my reflections each morning are following this pattern:

1, A reflection on an Italian cathedral or basilica;

2, the Gospel reading of the day in the Church of England lectionary;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary.

The campanile may be that of the earlier church, or it may have been one of the city’s many tower houses (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Collegiata di Santa Maria Assunta (Doumo), San Gimignano:

San Gimignano is a small walled mediaeval hill-top town in Tuscany, 40 km north-west of Siena and 60 km south-west of Florence. It is a Unesco World Heritage Site, known as the Town of Fine Towers, and celebrated for its mediaeval architecture, including more than a dozen tower houses that mark out the skyline.

The town changed its name from Silvia to San Gimignano in 450 AD after Bishop Geminianus, the Saint of Modena, intervened to spare the castle from destruction by Attila the Hun and his followers.

The city became so powerful that it asserted its autonomy from the Bishops of Volterra at the end of the 12th century. However, the peace of the town was disturbed for the next two centuries by conflict between the Guelphs and the Ghibellines, and family rivalries within San Gimignano.

Dante Alighieri came to San Gimignano in 1300 as the Ambassador of the Guelph League in Tuscany.

The city continued to flourish until it was struck by the Black Death in 1348, when about half the towns inhabitants died. The town later submitted to the rule of Florence.

The Duomo di San Gimignano, formally known as Collegiata di Santa Maria Assunta, is a collegiate church and minor basilica in San Gimignano. It stands on the west side of Piazza del Duomo. But, despite the name of the square and the unofficial name of the church, the church has never been a cathedral or the seat of a bishop.

The duomo is part of the Unesco World Heritage Site of the ‘Historic Centre of San Gimignano.’ The church is oriented liturgically on a west-east liturgical axis, rather than the traditional east-west alignment. It has an east-facing façade and the chancel is at the west end, as with Saint Peter’s Basilica in Rome. Unesco says the frescoes in the church are ‘works of outstanding beauty.’

The first church on the site was begun in the 10th century. San Gimignano was on the pilgrimage route to Rome, the Via Francigena, and so the importance of the town and the church grew steadily in the early 12th century.

The present church on this site was consecrated on 21 November 1148 and dedicated to Saint Geminianus (San Gimignano) in the presence of Pope Eugenius III and 14 bishops. The church holds the relics of Saint Geminianus, the patron saint of the city (feast 31 January).

The church was enriched in the 13th, 14th and 15th centuries with the addition of frescoes and sculpture. The west end of the building (liturgical east) was altered and extended by Giuliano da Maiano in 1466-1468, with the addition of vestries, the Chapel of the Conception and the Chapel of Saint Fina.

The church was given collegiate status in 1471. Girolamo Savonarola preached there in 1497.

The architecture of the church is 12th and 13th century Romanesque, with the exception of the two chapels in the Renaissance style. It has important cycles of Renaissance frescoes by Domenico Ghirlandaio, Benozzo Gozzoli, Taddeo di Bartolo, Lippo Memmi, Bartolo di Fredi and others.

The façade has little ornament and there is no entral portal. Instead, the church is approached from the square by a wide staircase, with a door leading into each of the side aisles. The doorways are surmounted by stone lintels with recessed arches above them, unusual in incorporating the stone Gabbro.

There is a central ocular window at the end of the nave and a smaller one giving light to each aisle. The stone façade was raised higher in brick in 1340, when the ribbed vaulting was constructed, and the two smaller ocular windows set in.

Matteo di Brunisend is generally credited as the main architect of the mediaeval period, with working ca 1239. However, his contribution may have been little more than the design of the central ocular window. Beneath this window is a slot that marks the place of a window that lit the chancel of the earlier church. It may indicate the church was reoriented during the 12th century rebuilding.

Inside, the church is in the shape of a Latin Cross, with a central nave and an aisle on either side, divided by arcades of seven semi-circular Romanesque arches resting on columns with simplified Corinthian-style capitals. The chancel is a simple rectangle with a single arched window at the end.

The church is famous for its largely intact scheme of fresco decorations, the greater part of which dates from the 14th century, and represents the work of painters of the Sienese school, influenced by the Byzantine traditions of Duccio and the Early Renaissance style of Giotto. The frescoes comprise a Poor Man’s Bible of an Old Testament cycle, a New Testament cycle, and the Last Judgement, as well as an Annunciation, Saint Sebastian, and the stories of a local saint, Saint Fina, with several other smaller works.

The fresco of the Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian, painted by Benozzo Gozzoli (1465), is on the rear wall of the nave, beneath the Last Judgement. It was commissioned by the people of San Gimignano after the saint’s intervention was believed to have brought relief from an outbreak of plague in 1464.

The crucifix in the chancel (1754) is by the Florentine sculptor, Giovanni Antonio Noferi, who also designed the marble pavement in the chancel.

This Chapel of Saint Fina has been described as ‘one of the jewels of Renaissance architecture, painting and sculpture.’ The Chapel of the Conception was built in 1477 and modified in the 17th century.

In the Baptistry Loggia to the south of the church are several small frescoes of saints, and a major work, The Annunciation (1482), previously attributed to Ghirlandaio but now believed to be the work of Sebastiano Mainardi.

To the north side of the church, in the corner of the transept and chancel, stands a plain campanile with a square plan and a single arched opening in each face. The campanile may be that of the earlier church, or it may have been one of the city’s many tower houses, adapted for use by the church.

The Loggia of the Baptistry on the south side of the church is a 14th-century arcaded cloister with stout octagonal columns and a groin vault.

The church was damaged during World War II, but was restored in 1951, when parts of the earlier church were discovered lying beneath the nave.

The church has no central portal, instead the wide staircase leads to two doors, one into each of the side aisles (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

John 17: 18-23 (NRSVA):

[Jesus said:] 18 As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. 19 And for their sakes I sanctify myself, so that they also may be sanctified in truth.

20 ‘I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, 21 that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one, 23 I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.’

The Palazzo Podesta with its huge arched loggia on Piazza del Duomo and the Torre Chigi and the Torre Rognosa (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)(Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Wednesday 8 November 2023):

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 ‘Community Health Programmes’. This theme was introduced on Sunday.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (8 November 2023) invites us to pray in these words:

We pray for the work of St Andrew’s Theological College, the Church of Bangladesh’s theological training centre. May they continue to nurture and educate prospective clergy.

Dante Alighieri came to San Gimignano in 1300 as the Ambassador of the Guelph League in Tuscany (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The Collect:

God, whom the glorious company of the redeemed adore,
assembled from all times and places of your dominion:
we praise you for the saints of our own land
and for the many lamps their holiness has lit;
and we pray that we also may be numbered at last
with those who have done your will
and declared your righteousness;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

God, the source of all holiness
and giver of all good things:
may we who have shared at this table
as strangers and pilgrims here on earth
be welcomed with all your saints
to the heavenly feast on the day of your kingdom;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s Reflection

Continued Tomorrow

The Piazza della Cisterna is the main square of the town … the well which was the main source of water for the town dates from 1346 (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

The vineyards and fields of Tuscany on the slopes beneath San Gimignano (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Daily prayers in the Kingdom Season with USPG: (3) 7 November 2023

The Cattedrale di San Zeno, or Cathedral of Saint John, in Pistoia with its Pisan-Romanesque façade (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

In this time between All Saints’ Day and Advent Sunday, we are in the Kingdom Season in the Calendar of the Church of England, and the week began with the Fourth Sunday before Advent (5 November 2023).

The Calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship today (7 November) remembers Saint Willibrord of York (739), Bishop, Apostle of Frisia.

Before today begins, I am taking some time for prayer and reflection early this morning.

In recent prayer diaries on this blog, my reflections have already looked at a number of Italian cathedrals, including the cathedrals in Amalfi, Florence, Lucca, Noto, Pisa, Ravenna, Saint Peter’s Basilica and Saint John Lateran, Rome, Siena, Sorrento, Syracuse, Taormina, Torcello and Venice.

So, this week, my reflections look at some more Italian cathedrals, basilicas and churches in Bologna, San Marino, Pistoia, San Gimignano, Mestre, Sorrento and Ravello.

Throughout this week, my reflections each morning are following this pattern:

1, A reflection on an Italian cathedral or basilica;

2, the Gospel reading of the day in the Church of England lectionary;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary.

The Piazza del Duomo or Cathedral Square in Pistoia (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The Cattedrale di San Zeno or Cathedral of Saint John, Pistoia:

One day, when I insisted in using my poor and limited Italian to buy train tickets in Tuscany, I ended up in Pistoia instead of Viareggio. But for this mistake, I might not have visited Pistoia and the Cattedrale di San Zeno, or Cathedral of Saint John, with its beautiful Pisan-Romanesque façade that is crowned with a lunette by Andrea della Robbia.

Pistoia is about 30 km west and north of Florence. In the centre of the city, the Duomo di Pistoia in the Piazza del Duomo is dedicated to Saint Zeno of Verona and is the seat of the Bishop of Pistoia.

There may have been a smaller cathedral in Pistoia as early as the fifth century, when Pistoia already had a bishop. A cathedral is first mentioned in the year 923. A document in the reign of Emperor Otto III refers in 998 to an old Christian building, so the cathedral was probably first built in the 10th century. The Pisan-Romanesque façade was inspired by other churches in Pistoia, including San Bartolomeo and San Jacopo.

The cathedral was damaged by fire in 1108 and was probably rebuilt over the next few decades, as an altar in the cathedral was dedicated to Saint James the Great by the bishop, Saint Atto, in 1145.

Another fire damaged the cathedral again in 1202. The aisles were covered with vaults in 1274-1275 and a new altar was begun in 1287. An earthquake in 1298 caused further damage. A statue of Saint Zeno by Jacopo di Mazzeo was placed in the west front in 1336.

The façade was rebuilt in 1379-1440 with the addition of three tiers of loggias and a portico. Andrea della Robbia, who was commissioned in 1504 to decorate the archivolt of the portico, created a festoon with plant themes and the coat of arms of the Opera di San Jacopo, as well as of the lunette with bas-reliefs over the central portal, depicting the Madonna with the Christ Child and Angels. He finished the works in 1505.

Inside, the cathedral has a nave and two side aisles, with a presbytery and crypt. Restoration work in 1952-1999 returned the church to its original lines. The mediaeval choir was demolished in 1598-1614, the side chapels were modified and the original apse was replaced by a Baroque tribune surmounted by a dome designed by Jacopo Lafri, while the main aisle was covered by new cross vaults. The ceiling was also decorated, and paintings were added there and in the main chapel.

A statue of Saint James the Great by Andrea Vaccà was added to the façade in 1721. The mediaeval mullioned windows, replaced by Baroque windows, were restored in 1952-1966, and the vaults over the aisle were removed.

The nave and the aisles are separated by columns, and have vaults and wooden truss covers respectively. The right aisle was once occupied by the Chapel of Saint James (San Jacopo), built by Bishop Atto in the mid-12th century to house the relics of Saint James brought from Santiago de Compostela.

The Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament is also known as the Chapel of San Donato from a painting of the Madonna enthroned between Saint John the Baptist and Saint Donatus (ca 1475-1486). The painting was commissioned from Andrea del Verrocchio by the heirs of Donato de’ Medici, but was completed by Lorenzo di Credi. The bishop next to the Madonna has been identified as Saint Zeno. In the middle is the Assumption of the Virgin by Giovan Battista Paggi (1590-1600). The tomb of Donato de’ Medici (1475), Bishop of Pistoia, is attributed to Antonio Rossellino.

The Crucifix Chapel has the silver altarpiece of Saint James. It was begun in 1287, took two centuries to erect, was completed by Brunelleschi, and was moved to its present place in 1953. Pace di Valentino, a Sienese goldsmith, created some of the figures surrounding Saint James. Giglio Pisano executed the large silver statue depicting Saint James Enthroned (1349-1353), commissioned as a thanksgiving after the Black Death in 1348.

The two side antependia, made by Leonardo di Ser Giovanni and Francesco Niccolai in 1361-1371, depict Old Testament stories and stories of Saint James,. Other works include the Apostles, Saint Eulalia, Bishop Atto, Saint John the Baptist and Salome by Piero d’Arrigo Tedesco (1380-1390), another Christ in Majesty with Saint Anthony the Abbot, Saint Stephen and the cusp by Nofri di Buto and Atto di Piero Braccini (1394-1398).

There are innumerable important works of art in the south and north aisles, the presbytery, apse and nave. The pulpit was designed by Giorgio Vasari (1560). The Chapel of the Last Judgment houses fragments of a fresco by Giovanni da Ponte (1420-1425), recently identified as a depiction of Dante’s Inferno. The counter-façade houses the Arch of Saint Atto. The baptismal font was designed by Benedetto da Maiano (1497).

The crypt holds the tombs of many past Bishops of Pistoia, and the side walls are decorated with monuments to many more past bishops, including Alessandro di Medici who became Pope Leo XI but had a short reign of only 26 days.

The former bishops’ palace beside the cathedral is now a museum. The 14th century octagonal Baptistry, facing the west door of the cathedral, has distinctive green-and-white marble stripes.

The 14th century octagonal Baptistry in Pistoia (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Matthew 28: 16-20 (NRSVA):

16 Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. 17 When they saw him, they worshipped him; but some doubted. 18 And Jesus came and said to them, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.’

The bell tower beside the west front of the cathedral in Pistoia (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Tuesday 7 November 2023):

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 ‘Community Health Programmes’. This theme was introduced on Sunday.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (7 November 2023) invites us to pray in these words:

Let us pray for the Church of Bangladesh, comprised of the Dioceses of Dhaka, Kushtia and Barisal.

The Palazzo dei Vescovi or Bishops’ Palace in Pistoia is now a museum (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The Collect:

God, the Saviour of all,
you sent your bishop Willibrord from this land
to proclaim the good news to many peoples
and confirm them in their faith:
help us also to witness to your steadfast love
by word and deed
so that your Church may increase
and grow strong in holiness;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

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

Yesterday’s Reflection

Continued Tomorrow

The façade of the cathedral was rebuilt in 1379-1440 (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

The Church of San Giovanni Fuoricivitas or San Giovanni Evangelista Fuorcivitas in Pistoia (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Praying in Ordinary Time 2021: 20, the Duomo, Siena

The Duomo in Siena … work stopped with the Black Death in 1348 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

During this time in the Church Calendar known as Ordinary Time, I am taking some time each morning to reflect in these ways:

1, photographs of a church or place of worship;

2, the day’s Gospel reading;

3, a prayer from the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel).

This week my photographs are of seven cathedrals in Italy. This morning (18 June 2021), my photographs are from the Duomo in Siena.

The bell tower of the Duomo in Siena has six bells (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Siena Cathedral (Duomo di Siena) is dedicated to the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, and is the episcopal seat of the Diocese of Siena, now the Archdiocese of Siena-Colle di Val d’Elsa-Montalcino.

Siena’s cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta was begun in the 12th century and is one of the great examples of Italian Romanesque-Gothic architecture. Its main façade was completed in 1380.

The duomo is unusual for a cathedral in that its axis runs north-south. The original plan was to build the largest cathedral in the world, with a north-south transept and an east-west nave. But the black death, architectural and design problems, and shortage of money put an end to grand plans when only the transept and the east wall were completed. The outer walls and abandoned remains of the Duomo Nuovo can be seen beside of the cathedral on the Piazza Jacopo della Quercia.

Today, the planned transepts serve as the cathedral, and the magnificent faced at the north or liturgical ‘west end’ is in white, green and red polychrome marble, designed by Giovanni Pisano.

Outside and inside, the cathedral is built of white and greenish-black marble in alternating stripes, with the addition of red marble on the façade. Black and white are the symbolic colours of Siena, linked to black and white horses of the city’s legendary founders, Senius and Aschius. The finest Italian artists completed works in the cathedral, including Nicola and Giovanni Pisano, Donatello, Pinturicchio, Lorenzo Ghiberti, and Bernini.

There was a church on the site in the ninth century with a bishop’s palace. A synod in this church in December 1058 elected of Pope Nicholas II and deposed the antipope Benedict X.

The cathedral masons’ guild, the Opera di Santa Maria, was commissioned in 1196 to build a new cathedral. Work began on the north and south transepts, and it was planned to add the main, larger body of the cathedral later, although this enlargement never took place.

The cathedral was designed and completed in 1215-1263 on the site of an earlier church. It is in the shape of a Latin cross with a slightly projecting transept, a dome and a bell tower. The dome was completed in 1264, and the lantern was added by Gian Lorenzo Bernini. The bell tower has six bells, the oldest cast in 1149.

A second major addition to the cathedral was planned in 1339. This would have more than doubled its size, with of an entirely new nave and two new aisles.

Building work began under the direction of Giovanni di Agostino, but came to a halt with the Black Death in 1348 and never resumed. The outer walls, remains of this extension, can now be seen to the south of the Duomo. The floor of the incomplete nave is now a parking lot and a museum. One unfinished wall can be climbed by a narrow stairs for a high view of the city.

The façade is one of the most fascinating in Italy. Each of the cardinal points – west, east, north, and south – has its own distinct work. The most impressive is the west façade, a beautiful example of Sienese workmanship, which serves as the main entrance to the Duomo.

This west façade was built in two stages and combines elements of French Gothic, Tuscan Romanesque and Classical architecture. Work on lower part of the west façade began ca 1284. It was built in polychrome marble, and the work was overseen by Giovanni Pisano.

The lower portion of the façade follows Pisano’s original plans. Built in Tuscan Romanesque style, it emphasises a horizontal unity of the area around the portals at the expense of the vertical bay divisions. The three portals, surmounted by lunettes, are based on Pisano’s original designs, as are much of the sculpture and orientation surrounding the entrances. The areas around and above the doors and the columns between the portals are richly decorated with acanthus scrolls, allegorical figures and biblical scenes.

Pisano left Siena abruptly in 1296, and his work on the lower façade was continued by Camaino di Crescentino, who made a number of changes to the original plan. These included the instillation of a larger rose window based on designs by Duccio di Buoninsegna. But work on the west façade came to an abrupt end in 1317 when all efforts were redirected to the east façade.

The upper part of the west façade may have been completed in 1360-1370, using Pisano’s plans with some adaptations by Giovanni di Cecco, who was heavily influenced by French Gothic architecture. The upper portion also features heavy Gothic decoration in marked contrast to the simple geometric designs common to Tuscan Romanesque architecture.

Three large mosaics on the gables of the façade were made in Venice in 1878. The large central mosaic, the Coronation of the Virgin, is the work of Luigi Mussini. The smaller mosaics on each side, the Nativity of Christ and the Presentation of Mary in the Temple, are the work of Alessandro Franchi. The bronze central door, known as the Porta della Riconoscenza, dates from 1946.

On the left corner pier of the façade, a 14th-century inscription marks the grave of Giovanni Pisano. A column next to the façade has a statue of the Contrade Lupa, a wolf breast-feeding Romulus and Remus. According to local legend, Senius and Aschius, sons of Remus and founders of Siena, left Rome with the statue which they had stolen from the Temple of Apollo.

The Basilica of San Domenico in Siena, also known as the Basilica Cateriniana, is one of the most important churches in the city. This Dominican church was begun in 1226-1265, and was enlarged in the 14th century, giving the church the Gothic appearance it has today.

The church has several relics of Saint Catherine of Siena, whose family house is nearby. The Cappella delle Volte is the former chapel of Dominican nuns and is associated with several events in life of Saint Catherine of Siena. An altar on the right side of the nave has a reliquary with the relics of Saint Catherine. Saint Catherine’s Chapel holds the saint’s head and thumb.

The Duomo of Siena seen from the Basilica Cateriniana (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. 21For 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!’

The cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta is one of the great examples of Italian Romanesque-Gothic architecture (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Prayer in the USPG Prayer Diary:

The Prayer in the USPG Prayer Diary today (18 June 2021, Bernard Mizeki) invites us to pray:

Let us give thanks for the life of Bernard Mizeki, African missionary and martyr. We pray for the institutions who continue to work in his name, such as Bernard Mizeki College in Zimbabwe and the St Bernard Mizeki Men’s Guild, which promotes Christian leadership across Southern Africa.

Yesterday’s reflection

Continued tomorrow

The Basilica of San Domenico in Siena is also known as the Basilica Cateriniana (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

Praying in Advent with USPG:17, Tuesday 15 December 2020

‘Son, go and work in the vineyard today’ (Matthew 21: 28) … vineyards on the hillsides in Tuscany (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

Throughout Advent and Christmas this year, I am using the Prayer Diary of the Anglican Mission Agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel) for my morning reflections each day, and the Advent and Christmas Devotional Calendar produced at Lichfield Cathedral for my prayers and reflections each evening.

I am one of the contributors to the current USPG Diary, Pray with the World Church, introducing the theme of peace and trust later this month.

Before the day gets busy, I am taking a little time this morning for my own personal prayer, reflection and Scripture reading.

The theme of the USPG Prayer Diary this week (13 to 19 December 2020) is ‘Reflections on Migration.’ This week’s theme is introduced in the diary by Richard Reddie, Director of Justice and Inclusion, Churches Together in Britain and Ireland.

Tuesday 15 December 2020:

Let us give thanks for the work of Mediterranean Hope, an Italian-based church organisation working to help refugees gain sanctuary in Italy.

The Collect of the Day (Advent III):

O Lord Jesus Christ,
who at your first coming sent your messenger
to prepare your way before you:
Grant that the ministers and stewards of your mysteries
may likewise so prepare and make ready your way
by turning the hearts of the disobedient to the wisdom of the just,
that at your second coming to judge the world
we may be found an acceptable people in your sight;
for you are alive and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit,
one God, world without end.

The Advent Collect:

Almighty God,
Give us grace to cast away the works of darkness
and to put on the armour of light
now in the time of this mortal life
in which your Son Jesus Christ came to us in great humility;
that on the last day
when he shall come again in his glorious majesty
to judge the living and the dead,
we may rise to the life immortal;
through him who is alive and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Read Saint Matthew 21: 28-32 (NRSVA):

[Jesus said,] 28 ‘What do you think? A man had two sons; he went to the first and said, “Son, go and work in the vineyard today.” 29 He answered, “I will not”; but later he changed his mind and went. 30 The father went to the second and said the same; and he answered, “I go, sir”; but he did not go. 31 Which of the two did the will of his father?’ They said, ‘The first.’ Jesus said to them, ‘Truly I tell you, the tax-collectors and the prostitutes are going into the kingdom of God ahead of you. 32 For John came to you in the way of righteousness and you did not believe him, but the tax-collectors and the prostitutes believed him; and even after you saw it, you did not change your minds and believe him.

Continued tomorrow

Yesterday’s morning reflection

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