Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2026: 29, Friday 5 June 2026

The copy of Michelangelo’s David in the he Piazza della Signoria in the centre of Florence (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We have returned to Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar. This week began with Trinity Sunday (31 May 2026), and yesterday was the Feast of Corpus Christi (4 June 2026) or the Day of Thanksgiving for the Institution of Holy Communion. The calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship today recalls Saint Boniface (Wynfrith) of Crediton (754), Bishop of Mainz, Apostle of Germany and Martyr.

After yesterday’s length return journey from Luton to Dublin, I got back last night, and am in back in Stony Stratford. 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.

King David in a stained glass window in Saint George’s Church, Belfast (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Mark 12: 35-37 (NRSVA):

35 While Jesus was teaching in the temple, he said, ‘How can the scribes say that the Messiah is the son of David? 36 David himself, by the Holy Spirit, declared,

“The Lord said to my Lord,
‘Sit at my right hand,
until I put your enemies under your feet’.”

37 David himself calls him Lord; so how can he be his son?’ And the large crowd was listening to him with delight.

‘David himself calls him Lord; so how can he be his son?’ (Mark 12: 37) … a forlorn statue in an abandoned workshop in Georgioupoli, Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflections:

The scribes and the Pharisees regarded themselves as the experts in Biblical interpretation. But Christ, who is teaching in the temple and responding to their questions, now asks them some questions (verses 35, 42), to the delight of the large crowd that is listening to him.

At the time, the general understanding and expectation among the people was for a political ‘Messiah’ who was descended from David, ‘the son of David’.

At the time it was also thought that David was inspired by the Spirit to write the Psalms. But Christ asks how it is that David refers to the Messiah as ‘Lord’ (overlord), in writing ‘The Lord’ God (Yahweh) ‘said to my Lord’ (in other words, David’s overlord, whom Christ presents in this dialogue as the Messiah) ‘sit ...’

So, how can the Messiah be both David’s son and his overlord?

While in English and Greek, the word ‘Lord’ (κύριος, kurios) occurs three times in this reading, Christ may have quoted Psalm 110: 1 in Hebrew; there the words are different. He was probably not unique in taking ‘my Lord’ there to be the Messiah, for a political Messiah would defeat his ‘enemies’.

And so the Pharisees too are shown not to understand the Scriptures.

Which leads me to think this morning of how often passages of scripture that are neither not fully understood or are apparently contradictory on the surface are still used by people who promote themselves as experts in Biblical interpretation to advance oppressive and bigoted teachings.

King David (right) in a stained glass window in Saint Editha’s Church, Tamworth (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Friday 5 June 2026):

A new edition of Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), was published last week, in time for the USPG conference in the High Leigh, Hertfordshire, which opened on Tuesday (2 June) and ended yesterday (4 June). The theme this week, from 31 May to 6 June 2026 (pp 6-7), is ‘Peacebuilding in the Gulf’. This theme was introduced on Sunday with a reflection from Saint Christopher’s Cathedral in Bahrain.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Friday 5 June 2026) invites us to pray:

Lord, we pray for an end to violence across the Gulf region, and for dialogue and diplomacy to bring a swift and just peace.

The Collect:

God our redeemer,
who called your servant Boniface
to preach the gospel among the German people
and to build up your Church in holiness:
grant that we may preserve in our hearts
that faith which he taught with his words
and sealed with his blood,
and profess it in lives dedicated to your Son
Jesus Christ our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

Eternal God,
who gave us this holy meal
in which we have celebrated the glory of the cross
and the victory of your martyr Boniface:
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

King David (left) and King Solomon in a stained glass window in Saint Brendan’s Cargedral, Clonfert, Co Galway. Tamworth (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: 28, Thursday 4 June 2026, Corpus Christi

The Communion vessels on a side altar after the Eucharist in Christ Church, Oxford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Patrick Comerford

We have returned to Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar. This week began with Trinity Sunday (31 May 2026), and in the calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship today is the Feast of Corpus Christi (4 June 2026) or the Day of Thanksgiving for the Institution of Holy Communion.

I have some long journeys ahead of me later today, and I am going to miss this evening's readings and rehearsals by the local playreading and drama group in the library in Stony Stratford. But before today begins, as I wait in Luton Airport, 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 present in the Eucharist … an icon in the central door of the iconostasis in the Church of Aghia Triada in Kalamitsi Alexandrou in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

John 6: 51-58 (NRSVA):

[Jesus said:] 51 ‘I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live for ever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.’

52 The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, ‘How can this man give us his flesh to eat?’ 53 So Jesus said to them, ‘Very truly, I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. 54 Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day; 55 for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink. 56 Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them. 57 Just as the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me will live because of me. 58 This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like that which your ancestors ate, and they died. But the one who eats this bread will live for ever.’

The emblem of the Guild of Corpus Christi in Leicester, the Host and Chalice, seen in 15th century glass fragments in the Mayor’s Parlour in the Guildhall in Leicester (Photographs: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s reflections:

The Cambridge priest-poet Malcolm Guite, in a posting on his blog two years ago (30 May 2024), recalled how the Feast of Corpus Christi was marked in mediaeval times with a processions in which the consecrated elements were taken out of the church and processed on the streets, ‘showing that the Word made flesh was not just in a box labelled ‘church’ but in our midst, just as he was on the streets of Nazareth and Jerusalem’.

The Feast of Corpus Christi is marked in the calendar of many Anglican churches on the Thursday after Trinity Sunday, and is being celebrated in many English churches and cathedrals today. For example, there is a Solemn Eucharist in Lichfield Cathedral at 7:30 this evening, when the setting is Benjamin Britten’s Missa Brevis. Saint Editha’s Church, Tamworth, is celebrating the Feast of Corpus Christi with the Sung Eucharist at 7:30 pm.

Traditionally, there has been a Corpus Christi procession in Cambridge each year, with the Sung Eucharist at St Bene’t’s Church at 7 p.m., then moving along Trumpington Street, passing Corpus Christi College, Fitzbillies and the Fitzwilliam Museum as it processes to Little Saint Mary’s for Benediction, followed by refreshments.

Pusey House in Oxford is celebrating Corpus Christi this week evening with High Mass at 6 pm and a Corpus Christi procession to Keble College Chapel, the preacher this evening is the Right Revd Dr John Hind, sometime Bishop of Chichester.

At All Saints’ Church, Margaret Street, London, the Corpus Christi celebrations include High Mass at 6.30 pm, when the preacher is Father David Houlding, who has chaired the Catholic Group on General Synod; the music includes: Missa Aeterna Christi Munera by Palestrina Mozart’s Ave Verum Corpus, and Tantum Ergo by Henschel.

In that blog posting marking the Feast of Corpus Christi in 2024, Malcolm Guite also offered a trio of sonnets about the experience of receiving Holy Communion, each from a slightly different angle.

His first two sonnets were published in Sounding the Seasons (2012), his cycle of 70 sonnets for the Church Year. The book is available on both Amazon UK and the USA, and is also out on Kindle:

1 Love’s Choice

This bread is light, dissolving, almost air,
A little visitation on my tongue,
A wafer-thin sensation, hardly there.
This taste of wine is brief in flavour, flung
A moment to the palate’s roof and fled,
Even its aftertaste a memory.
Yet this is how He comes. Through wine and bread
Love chooses to be emptied into me.
He does not come in unimagined light
Too bright to be denied, too absolute
For consciousness, too strong for sight,
Leaving the seer blind, the poet mute;
Chooses instead to seep into each sense,
To dye himself into experience.

2, Hide and Seek

Ready or not, you tell me, here I come!
And so I know I’m hiding, and I know
My hiding-place is useless. You will come
And find me. You are searching high and low.
Today I’m hiding low, down here, below,
Below the sunlit surface others see.
Oh find me quickly, quickly come to me.
And here you come and here I come to you.
I come to you because you come to me.
You know my hiding places. I know you,
I reach you through your hiding-places too;
Touching the slender thread, but now I see –
Even in darkness I can see you shine,
Risen in bread, and revelling in wine.

Malcolm Guite’s third sonnet for Corpus Christi is about the 16th century oak communion table in the Church of Saint Edward King and Martyr, Cambridge, and is from his book The Singing Bowl (2013), also published by Canterbury Press:

3, This Table

The centuries have settled on this table
Deepened the grain beneath a clean white cloth
Which bears afresh our changing elements.
Year after year of prayer, in hope and trouble,
Were poured out here and blessed and broken, both
In aching absence and in absent presence.
This table too the earth herself has given
And human hands have made. Where candle-flame
At corners burns and turns the air to light
The oak once held its branches up to heaven,
Blessing the elements which it became,
Rooting the dew and rain, branching the light.
Because another tree can bear, unbearable,
For us, the weight of Love, so can this table.

A recent Corpus Christi procession at Pusey House, Oxford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Thursday 4 June 2026, Corpus Christi):

A new edition of Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), was published last week, in time for the USPG conference in the High Leigh, Hertfordshire, which opened on Tuesday (2 June) and continues until today (4 June). The theme this week, from 31 May to 6 June 2026 (pp 6-7), is ‘Peacebuilding in the Gulf’. This theme was introduced on Sunday with a reflection from Saint Christopher’s Cathedral in Bahrain.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Thursday 4 June 2026, Corpus Christi) invites us to pray:

We give thanks for the gift of Holy Communion, in which Christ nourishes and sustains us. May it inspire us to love and serve one another with humility.

The Collect:

Lord Jesus Christ,
we thank you that in this wonderful sacrament
you have given us the memorial of your passion:
grant us so to reverence the sacred mysteries
of your body and blood
that we may know within ourselves
and show forth in our lives
the fruits of your redemption;
for you are alive and reign with the Father
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

All praise to you, our God and Father,
for you have fed us with the bread of heaven
and quenched our thirst from the true vine:
hear our prayer that, being grafted into Christ,
we may grow together in unity
and feast with him in his kingdom;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s Reflections

Continued Tomorrow

The emblem of the Guild of Corpus Christi in Leicester, the Host and Chalice, seen in 15th century glass fragments in the Guildhall 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: 27, Wednesday 3 June 2026

The Seven Brothers Taverna at a corner in the old Venetian harbour in Rethymnon in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

Since the 50-day season of Easter came to an end with the Day of Pentecost or Whit Sunday (24 May 2026), we have returned to Ordinary Time once again. This week began with Trinity Sunday (31 May 2026), and tomorrow is the Feast of Corpus Christi (4 June 2026). But the liturgical colour today remains the Green of Ordinary Time, and today the calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship recalls the Martyrs of Uganda (1885-1887, 1977).

Later today (3 June 2026), I hope to take part in the choir rehearsals in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford. But, before today begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, to reflect, to pray and to read in these ways:

1, reading today’s Gospel reading;

2, a short reflection;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

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

A sign at the Seven Brothers Taverna in the old Venetian harbour in Rethymnon, Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Mark 12: 18-27 (NRSVA):

18 Some Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to him and asked him a question, saying, 19 ‘Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies, leaving a wife but no child, the man shall marry the widow and raise up children for his brother. 20 There were seven brothers; the first married and, when he died, left no children; 21 and the second married her and died, leaving no children; and the third likewise; 22 none of the seven left children. Last of all the woman herself died. 23 In the resurrection whose wife will she be? For the seven had married her.’

24 Jesus said to them, ‘Is not this the reason you are wrong, that you know neither the scriptures nor the power of God? 25 For when they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven. 26 And as for the dead being raised, have you not read in the book of Moses, in the story about the bush, how God said to him, “I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob”? 27 He is God not of the dead, but of the living; you are quite wrong.’

The old Venetian harbour in Rethymnon, with the Seven Brothers Taverna to the left (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s reflections:

The Gospel reading at the Eucharist in the lectionary today (Mark 12: 18-27) offers an opportunity to reflect both on how we treat the marginalised today and how we how we imagine heavenly life.

This account is set in the Temple in Jerusalem in Holy Week, on the day after Christ has overturned the tables of the moneychangers. There, as were read yesterday (Mark 12: 13-17), Christ is challenged by both the Pharisees and the Herodians, the people who supported Herod, the Roman puppet king, when they put to him was one of great questions at the time: should religious and pious Jews pay taxes to Rome?

Next, along come the Sadducees, who said there is no resurrection, but come with contorted questions about the afterlife.

When I read this passage, I also think of an old Hollywood musical, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954), starring Jane Powell and Howard Keel, of the many superstitions about the seventh son of a seventh son, and even about a restaurant I know in the old Venetian harbour in Rethymnon in Crete called ‘The Seven Brothers’ (Τα Επτά Αδέρφια).

But this reading about seven brothers and one bride is primarily a story about questions about the resurrection (for parallel readings see also Matthew 22: 23-33; Luke 20: 27-40).

After his arrival in Jerusalem, Christ is in the Temple each day, teaching kingdom values. But his teaching is ignored by those who see him as a threat to their power and their privilege, by those who want to get rid of him at any cost … without realising that their choice, their actions, are part of the climax that ushers in Christ’s reign.

As an example of his kingdom values, his rejection of the either-or options, the black-or-white, the take-it-or-leave-it values of the world, Christ refuses to enter the debate about paying Temple taxes with imperial Roman coins (Mark 12: 13-17).

So another trap is set – this time by the Sadducees, the Temple priests. They held that only the first five books of the Bible, the Torah or the Pentateuch, were authoritative. They had very traditional views of the Law and rejected what they saw as the novel idea of life after death. They saw it as a dangerous innovation, an importation from the Babylonian exile, a Persian idea adapted by the Pharisees. The more traditional view accepted that people were rewarded or punished by God in this life.

So, seeking to trap Jesus into speaking against the Law, they pose this puzzle about a woman who ends up marrying seven brothers, each of whom dies in turn. In the new life, whose wife will she be?

The apostles later have a similar encounter with the Sadducees when they are preaching the Resurrection (see also Acts 4: 1-4), as does the Apostle Paul when he faces the council (Acts 23: 6-10).

This question about ‘levirate’ marriage is not about the marriage of Levites, but comes from the Latin word levir, meaning a brother-in-law. There was a sense in which a man was seen to live on in his son. So, if a man died without sons and heirs, his brother was required to marry his widow and give her a son, thus continuing the family line (see Deuteronomy 25: 5-10; see also Genesis 38: 8).

Saint Mark makes the same point that human relations in the home do not exist in the same way beyond death. Christ distinguishes two ages and kinds of existence. Mortals are part of this age by the very fact of our physical birth, and of the age to come by resurrection (see also Romans 1: 4).

Christ argues for life after death, and for the resurrection, from the Pentateuch, the very five books to which the Sadducees limited their understanding of what is Scripture. In the story of the Burning Bush, God tells Moses: ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’ (verse 26; see Exodus 3: 6). Because God says he is (not was), Abraham is alive now. He died, so he must have been brought back to life, resurrected. God is truly ‘God … of the living’ (verse 27). God is not frustrated by physical death.

What happens afterwards?

According to Saint Luke’s version, some scribes, who are believers in resurrection, are pleased with Jesus’ argument. The Sadducees ‘no longer dared to ask him [Christ] another question’. Christ has evaded the trap that was set for him. What does this say about how we should deal with those who question and challenge the Christian faith?

This reading also poses some pastoral questions for the practice of pastoral ministry in parish life. In all the discussion, no-one refers to the right of the woman to her own integrity, her own inherent or intrinsic value, her own right to eternal life with equality in the eyes of God.

The woman who was married off to seven brothers never made herself the victim, never chose her own misfortune. She is an object, a chattel, perhaps merely a trafficked sex slave, in the eyes of the interlocutors. But for Christ, she is to be seen as a child of God.

In those days it was never a woman’s choice to be a widow or, for that matter, to be divorced. At the time, women could often only acquiesce to what their husbands wanted to do.

What response to this reading might we expect from people in a parish who are widowed or divorced, or in difficult or broken marriages, or people who have never married?

A sign at the Seven Brothers Taverna in the old Venetian harbour in Rethymnon on Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Wednesday 3 June 2026):

A new edition of Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), was published last week, in time for the USPG conference in the High Leigh, Hertfordshire, which opened yesterday (2 June) and continues until tomorrow (4 June). The theme this week, from 31 May to 6 June 2026 (pp 6-7), is ‘Peacebuilding in the Gulf’. This theme was introduced on Sunday with a reflection from Saint Christopher’s Cathedral in Bahrain.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Wednesday 3 June 2026) invites us to pray:

God of hope, sustain Anglican churches across the Gulf, from the UAE to Bahrain, Kuwait, and Qatar and elsewhere, as they navigate daily anxieties and dangers. May the rhythms of prayer, the hope found in Scripture, and fellowship with one another anchor them in your presence.

The Collect of the Day:

Almighty and everlasting God,
you have given us your servants grace,
by the confession of a true faith,
to acknowledge the glory of the eternal Trinity
and in the power of the divine majesty to worship the Unity:
keep us steadfast in this faith,
that we may evermore be defended from all adversities;
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:

Gracious God, lover of all,
in this sacrament
we are one family in Christ your Son,
one in the sharing of his body and blood
and one in the communion of his Spirit:
help us to grow in love for one another
and come to the full maturity of the Body of Christ.
We make our prayer through your Son our Saviour.

Additional Collect:

Holy God,
faithful and unchanging:
enlarge our minds with the knowledge of your truth,
and draw us more deeply into the mystery of your love,
that we may truly worship you,
Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Collect on the Eve of Corpus Christi:

Lord Jesus Christ,
we thank you that in this wonderful sacrament
you have given us the memorial of your passion:
grant us so to reverence the sacred mysteries
of your body and blood
that we may know within ourselves
and show forth in our lives
the fruits of your redemption;
for you are alive and reign with the Father
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Yesterday’s Reflections

Continued Tomorrow

The sign at the Seven Brothers family taverna at the old Venetian harbour in Rethymnon (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: 26, Tuesday 2 June 2026

Christ Pantocrator … a fragment from a 13th century mural in a museum in Iraklion in Crete … where do we see the face of Christ? (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

Since the 50-day season of Easter came to an end with the Day of Pentecost or Whit Sunday (24 May 2026), we have returned to Ordinary Time once again. This week began with Trinity Sunday (31 May 2026) and the Feast of the Presentation (transferred this year from 31 May to 1 June yesterday), but the liturgical colours once return today to the Green of Ordinary Time today (2 June 2026). 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.

The denarius with the image of Caesar represented a day’s labour … Roman coins in a private collection in Callan, Co Kilkenny (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Mark 12: 13-17 (NSRVA):

13 Then they sent to him some Pharisees and some Herodians to trap him in what he said. 14 And they came and said to him, ‘Teacher, we know that you are sincere, and show deference to no one; for you do not regard people with partiality, but teach the way of God in accordance with truth. Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not? 15 Should we pay them, or should we not?’ But knowing their hypocrisy, he said to them, ‘Why are you putting me to the test? Bring me a denarius and let me see it.’ 16 And they brought one. Then he said to them, ‘Whose head is this, and whose title?’ They answered, ‘The emperor’s.’ 17 Jesus said to them, ‘Give to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.’ And they were utterly amazed at him.

Christ the Pantocrator depicted in church domes in Rethymnon, Panormos and Iraklion in Crete (Photographs: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Today’s Reflections:

This morning’s Gospel reading (Mark 12: 13-17 ) challenges us to ask where we see the face of God. When Christ asks whose face is on the coin presented to him, he may also be challenging us to consider where we too see the face of God, or which gods we see and fashion te replace the one and true God.

This account is set in the Temple in Jerusalem in Holy Week, on the day after Christ has overturned the tables of the moneychangers.

The moneychangers were in the Temple because Roman coins had images, such as the image of Caesar, who called himself ‘lord’ and ‘divine’ when those titles truly belong to God alone, and ‘priest’ when that title challenges the ritual purity of the Temple. Today's analogiy might be finding Donald Trump's image on a $250 banknote, realising how he has posted memes of himself in role of Christ and made golden statues of himself, and then asking whether it was appropriate or acceptable such a $250 banknote on the collection plate in a church on Sunday morning.

Images like those were forbidden in the Temple, and so coins had to be changed outside by the moneychangers. In the Temple, Christ is challenged by both the Pharisees and the Herodians, the people who supported Herod, the Roman puppet king.

The question they put to him was one of great debates at the time: should religious and pious Jews pay taxes to Rome?

Jewish opinion was divided on this question. But the question put to Christ is also loaded with presuppositions, with built-in fallacies and false dichotomies, like the sort of question all lawyers know not to ask in court: ‘When did you stop beating your wife?’

The question allows only one of two answers, ‘Yes’ or ‘No’. But it is only a question about law. It does not ask, for example, whether it is moral to pay those taxes, or, indeed, whether it is folly not to pay those taxes.

If Christ answers ‘Yes’, those who are hostile to Roman rule are going to turn against him. But if he says ‘No’, he risks arrest for inciting rebellion.

The coin they present is a denarius, a day’s pay for workers and Roman troops. It is the ‘D’ that gives us the ‘D’ in the old formulaic £SD for British coinages. The denarius was a silver coin and the most common Roman coin of the time, and it is mentioned in the Bible more often than any other coin.

Having looked at the head on the denarius, Christ then looks at the inscription.

The obverse of the denarius of Tiberius carries an image of Tiberius with a laurel crown and lettering around it that proclaims ‘Tiberius Caesar, the Divine Augustus, Son of Augustus’ (Ti Caesar Divi Avg F Avgvstvs).

The reverse side depicts a seated woman as Pax. This was Livia Drusilia, the mother of Tiberius. She died in AD 29 and was later deified by her grandson Claudius with the title Diva Augusta. On the coin, Diva Augusta holds a palm branch and an inverted spear in her hands, and the inscription on this side refers to Tiberius as Pontif[ex] Maxim[us] or the ‘High Priest’ of Rome.

Christ does not even get around to flipping over the coin to read the inscription referring to Caesar as the High Priest. But both inscriptions are affronts to people who worship the one true God. This coin should never have been in the hands of anyone who has entered the Temple.

Yet, when Christ asks his inquisitors to produce a denarius in the Temple, they do so immediately. In other words, they themselves have already carried an image of Caesar and Diva Augusta, with those blasphemous inscriptions, into the Temple.

It is the Passover, and Jerusalem is filled with pilgrims who have arrived to remember and celebrate God’s liberation of their ancestors from slavery under foreign rulers.

At Passover, parallels might have been drawn between Tiberius and Pharaoh. Tiberius was a tyrant in his own right. He was Roman Emperor from AD 14 to AD 37, and spent most of the latter years of his reign in the Villa Jovis on the island of Capri.

While he was in Capri, rumours abounded about his lifestyle. There were lurid tales and graphic depictions of sexual perversion, capricious cruelty, and most of all his paranoia. Those who challenged his power or divinity were often thrown off the cliffs at the Villa Jovis onto the rocks below and into the sea.

If Christ says paying taxes to Caesar is wrong, he risks provoking immediate arrest by the Romans. If he says paying taxes to Rome is right, those who question him are ready to accuse him of betraying their faith and beliefs as the people recall their liberation from slavery and oppression.

But Christ trips up those who question him by showing that they are bearing proclamations of Caesar’s lordship and high priesthood into the very Temple of the very God they claim to be serving with ritual purity.

The obvious questions here are not about what is lawful, or even what is moral or wise, but: who is the divine son, and who is the great high priest?

Christ has won the argument. He has unmasked his critics; there is no need for any further argument, there is no need to say anything more; there is no need to answer the question.

Yet, he answers the question anyway: ‘Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.’

So what in this world is God’s?

When it comes to any worldly power that demands to be our lord – whether it is a US president, a figurehead, or a flag that ought to be a sacred symbol but has been abused for political and racist purposes by the far-right up and down this land – the exclusive claims of some nation-state nationalism or some self-obsessed head of state demanding unquestioning loyalty, these are places reserved for the Lord God alone.

And if we seek to see the face of God, we should not be looking at the faces of the despots and rulers of the world who stir up fanaticism, or at ill-gotten accumulated wealth.

We simply need to look for the face of Christ. And we meet Christ face-to-face both in word and sacrament, and when we truly love God and love one another.

Beneath the Villa Jovis in Capri, where the Emperor Tiberius threw his enemies off the cliff-top into the sea (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Tuesday 2 June 2026):

A new edition of Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), was published last week, in time for the USPG conference in the High Leigh, Hertfordshire, which opens today (2 June) and continues until Thursday (4 June). The theme this week, from 31 May to 6 June 2026 (pp 6-7) is ‘Peacebuilding in the Gulf’. This theme was introduced on Sunday with a reflection from Saint Christopher’s Cathedral in Bahrain.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Tuesday 2 June 2026) invites us to pray:

Lord God, we thank you for your grace as the USPG Annual Conference takes place at High Leigh this week. May all taking part be guided by your Spirit as we reflect on the theme of the Church as an agent of peace.

The Collect of the Day:

Almighty and everlasting God,
you have given us your servants grace,
by the confession of a true faith,
to acknowledge the glory of the eternal Trinity
and in the power of the divine majesty to worship the Unity:
keep us steadfast in this faith,
that we may evermore be defended from all adversities;
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:

Gracious God, lover of all,
in this sacrament
we are one family in Christ your Son,
one in the sharing of his body and blood
and one in the communion of his Spirit:
help us to grow in love for one another
and come to the full maturity of the Body of Christ.
We make our prayer through your Son our Saviour.

Additional Collect:

Holy God,
faithful and unchanging:
enlarge our minds with the knowledge of your truth,
and draw us more deeply into the mystery of your love,
that we may truly worship you,
Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Yesterday’s Reflections

Continued Tomorrow

An icon of Christ the Great High Priest, in a shop window in Thessaloniki (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: 24, Sunday 31 May 2026, Trinity Sunday

An icon of the Trinity in Saint Nektarios Church in Tsesmes, near Rethymnon in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

Since the 50-day season of Easter came to an end last Sunday with the Day of Pentecost or Whit Sunday (24 May 2026), we are in Ordinary Time once again. Today is Trinity Sunday (31 June 2026), and on Trinity Sunday the liturgical colour returns from the Green of Ordinary Time to the white or gold of a festival.

Later this morning, I hope to sing with the choir at the Parish Eucharist in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford (9:30). Holy Trinity Church in Old Wolverton is celebrating its Patronal Festival at the Eucharist this morning (11 am), when the preacher is the Archdeacon of Buckingham, the Ven Cassa Messervey. But, before today begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, to reflect, to pray and to read in these ways:

1, reading today’s Gospel reading;

2, a short reflection;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

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

The symbol of the Holy Trinity in the outer circle of the East Window in Holy Trinity Church, Old Wolverton (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 mediaeval fresco of the Holy Trinity in the south choir aisle in Lichfield Cathedral was severely damaged by 17th century Puritans (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflections:

This is Trinity Sunday, and many clergy tell me they are afraid of preaching on Trinity Sunday, wondering how they can talk about the Trinity as a doctrine or dogmas, and yet relate it to the needs of today’s world, in its joys and its sufferings, in its beauty and with all its injustice.

Yet, the Orthodox theologian Thomas Hopko argues that if God were not Trinity, God could not have loved prior to creating other beings on whom to bestow God’s love. This love or communion of God as Trinity, extended to us in the communion of the Church, is the climax to Saint Paul’s message to the Church in Corinth in today’s Epistle reading (II Corinthians 13: 13). It is not just the Trinitarian faith into which we are baptised, but the love or fellowship of the Trinity (Matthew 28: 19-20).

I have preached often on Trinity Sunday, and I have prepared extensive preaching and liturgical resources for priests and readers in the Diocese of Limerick. But I still tried to avoid saying something that is ‘reheated’ and to say something that challenges me as well as challenging for people who may be thinking seriously about the meaning and significance of the Trinity on this morning.

As well as prayer and reading, I find it is helpful in preparing sermons to look at images that focus my attention on my sermon topic.

Some years ago, I took a photograph on the wall of the south choir aisle in Lichfield Cathedral depicting the Holy Trinity. This scene, showing the Trinity flanked by two censing angels, was probably painted in the mid-15th century, although it may even date earlier to the 14th century.

Although the painting has been damaged severely in the religious strife of later centuries, it is still possible to look closely and to see how it originally depicted the Holy Trinity. Look at it closely, it is possible to make out the representation of God the Father sitting on a yellow or golden throne, his knees clad in a red robe.

God the Father is holding his crucified Son, God the Son, Jesus Christ, before him. Originally, this mediaeval fresco would have shown a full depiction of the Crucifixion. However, all that can be seen today are the legs of Christ, with his feet nailed to the Cross.

The representation of God the Holy Spirit, traditionally depicted as a white dove, is now missing from this work. But comparisons with similar paintings from this period suggest that this representation was placed in this painting in Lichfield Cathedral between the head of God the Father and the head of Jesus Christ.

On either side of the Holy Trinity stands an angel, each holding and swinging a censer or incense burner, offering large amounts of incense before the throne of God.

The notice accompanying this mediaeval work in Lichfield Cathedral quotes a passage in the Book of Revelation: ‘Another angel with a golden censer came and stood at the altar; he was given a great quantity of incense to offer with the prayers of all the saints on the golden altar that is before the throne. And the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, rose before God from the hand of the angel’ (Revelation 8: 3-4).

In Christian thinking over the centuries there has always been an element of uneasiness about representing God pictorially. Sometimes this was completely forbidden in Judaism and Islam, because of fears that the images might become objects of worship instead of God.

In Christianity, a theologically unhealthy exaggeration of these reservations lead to the iconoclast heresy. This resurfaced among the English Puritans in the 16th and 17th century, and this fresco depicting the Holy Trinity was severely damaged when it was painted over by Puritans during the English Civil War.

Traces of this mediaeval wall painting were restored in 1979. Today, its condition remains a reminder not only of the cultural dangers of theological extremism and the aesthetic vandalism it encourages, but also that we can never see fully the mystical truth behind the truth of the Trinity – we cannot work it out ourselves, but we need to spend time in contemplation and prayer.

A second New Testament quotation on the accompanying notice in the south choir aisle in Lichfield Cathedral reminds me of the essential truths I need to keep before me on Trinity Sunday: ‘The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with all of you’ (II Corinthians 13: 13).

A ‘Father-only’ image of God is in danger of reflecting power-lust and a need to dominate on the right, reducing God to an idol or mere totem; or, on the left, of reducing God to a mere metaphor for goodness, however one decides to define ‘goodness.’

Similarly, ‘Jesus-only’ images lead to moralistic action by Christians on the theological left or individualistic pietism on the theological right.

A ‘Spirit-only’ emphasis brings real dangers of introspective escapism, charismatic excesses, or narcissist claims by manipulative leaders in evangelical and charismatic church groups.

Yet these images are real throughout the Church, because the concept of the Trinity often appears irrelevant, due to poor teaching in our churches and a prevailing anti-intellectual climate.

Those who do preach on the Trinity on Trinity Sunday are often reduced to explaining away the Trinity as a ‘mystery’ that they expect ‘mere’ lay people not to grapple with. Worship then becomes a transaction between an external deity and an autonomous worshipper. And it is not possible for a collection of separated and disconnected individuals to become the community of faith, to enter into the life of the Trinity.

We can only be human through our relationships. We can only have self-respect when we know what it is to respect others.

The Church is primarily communion, a set of relationships, exactly as we find in the Trinitarian God. Christianity is not a private religion for individuals; personal piety is only truly pious and personal when it relates to others and to creation.

In today’s Gospel reading (Matthew 28: 16-20), we are with Christ before the Ascension, when he sends out the disciples in mission, when he sends them out in the name of the Trinity, to baptise in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. But he sends them out to all nations – the words used here for all nations (πάντα τὰ ἔθνη, panta ta ethne, verse 19) means all ethnic groups.

In the love of the Holy Trinity, there can be no ethnic distinctions or differences. All are called, without discrimination, to obey everything that Christ has commanded. And what he commanded was to love God to love one another.

When we are created in the image of God, it is not just individually in the image of one God, but we are created collectively and communally in the image and likeness of God, who is one God in community as God in Trinity.

When we accept the old barriers of ethnic distinctions and discrimination, we are not only going against Christ’s great commission and commandments, but we become least like God, we deny being in God’s image and likeness.

When we remain silent in the face of one man’s death, when his breath is squeezed out of his life in an act of violence and racism as he cries out, ‘I can’t breathe,’ we deny God as Trinity:

• We deny the Father who has entrusted us with responsibility for justice throughout all this good creation

• We deny the Son who has commanded us in equal measure to love God and to love one another

• We deny the Spirit, the breath of God, which is the life and breath of all this good creation, and the breath and life of each individual person

Any President, any Governor, any politician, any human who tries to wriggle out of this is abdicating authority, and needs to be reminded of Christ’s words in this morning’s Gospel reading that ultimately ‘all authority in heaven and on earth has been given’ to Christ.

The Trinity means that as humanity is created in the image and likeness of God, then it is not just as individuals that we reflect God’s image, but that when we are a community we are most human and most God-like,

In the true community, each is valued, each takes account of the other, each has an equal place, contribution and voice. True community cannot concentrate sole authority, privilege and infallibility in one ethnic group, one gender alone, let alone one member.

All have received the breath of God, and all must be free to breathe.

An icon of the Holy Trinity in the style of Andrei Rublev’s icon of the Hospitality of Abraham by Hanna-Leena Ward in her recent exhibition in Lichfield Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Today’s Prayers (Sunday 31 May 2026, Trinity Sunday):

A new edition of Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), was published last week, in time for the USPG conference in the High Leigh, Hertfordshire, from Tuesday to Thursday, 2-4 June.

The theme this week, from 31 May to 6 June 2026 (pp 6-7) is ‘Peacebuilding in the Gulf’. This theme is introduced today with a reflection from Saint Christopher’s Cathedral in Bahrain:

‘At Saint George's Church, Baghdad, Iraq’s only Anglican church, the Revd Canon Faiz Jerjes, sees the courage of his congregation every day. It includes native Baghdadis alongside Christians displaced from northern Iraq in recent years. Despite the risks, they continue to gather faithfully.

‘Asked why they come, parishioners speak simply and powerfully: “When I attend church, I feel at peace.” Another says, “We feel rest and peace when we come into the church. God is with us.” In a city marked by instability, the church remains a place of refuge, prayer, and hope.

‘These challenges are echoed across the wider Diocese of Cyprus and the Gulf, where conflict affects communities across the region. Bishop Sean Semple notes that the impact is felt from Iraq to the Gulf states, including the UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait, and Qatar. Sirens, missile interceptions, and explosions bring fear, disrupt sleep, and heighten anxiety for many. Reflecting on the Diocese’s mission, Bishop Sean says, “We wait in hope and pray for dialogue and diplomatic solutions to bring this war to a swift and just end. As we wait, we carry on as best as we can with love.”
‘Whether meeting in person or online, congregations remain steadfast. Even in times of danger, the Church’s presence, prayer, and witness offer peace and hope.’

Join Saint Christopher’s Cathedral in Bahrain online for daily Evening Prayer at 16:00 BST, to pray for all affected by conflict in the Middle East. For the Zoom link, contact communications@uspg.org.uk.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Sunday 31 May 2026, Trinity Sunday) invites us to pray this way:

Read and meditate on Matthew 28: 16-20

We give thanks for the mystery of the Holy Trinity, one God in three Persons. May we live in the love and unity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

The Church of the Holy Trinity in Platanias, east of Rethymnon in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The Collect of the Day:

Almighty and everlasting God,
you have given us your servants grace,
by the confession of a true faith,
to acknowledge the glory of the eternal Trinity
and in the power of the divine majesty to worship the Unity:
keep us steadfast in this faith,
that we may evermore be defended from all adversities;
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:

Almighty and eternal God,
you have revealed yourself as Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
and live and reign in the perfect unity of love:
hold us firm in this faith,
that we may know you in all your ways
and evermore rejoice in your eternal glory,
who are three Persons yet one God,
now and for ever.

Additional Collect:

Holy God,
faithful and unchanging:
enlarge our minds with the knowledge of your truth,
and draw us more deeply into the mystery of your love,
that we may truly worship you,
Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Yesterday’s Reflections
Continued Tomorrow

An image of the Trinity presiding over Creation in Vatopedi Monastery on Mount Athos in Greece

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

USPG Conference next week explores what it is to follow Christ faithfully in a time of global uncertainty and division

The High Leigh Conference Centre in summer sunshine … the venue for USPG’s conference, ‘For Christ is our Peace’, next week (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

I am sorry that I am going to miss this year’s USPG Conference, which has the theme ‘For Christ is our Peace’ (Ephesians 2: 14), reflecting on the Church’s calling to be agents of peace in a world marked by conflict.

The conference takes place at the High Leigh Conference, near Hoddesdon in Hertfordshire, from Tuesday to Thursday next week (2-4 June 2026). Through Bible studies, workshops, keynote speakers and shared worship, the conference is looking at peace through the lens of Just Peace – not simply as the absence of conflict, but as God’s healing and reconciling presence.

USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel) is one of the oldest mission societies in the Anglican Communion. The USPG conference each year is a way of connecting with others who care deeply about faith, justice, and the Church’s role in the world today. This year’s conference, ‘For Christ is our Peace’ is an opportunity for people who want to explore what it means to follow Christ faithfully in a time of global uncertainty and division.

The fireside chats over three days next week year will also provide perfect spaces to build relationships, share perspectives, and be encouraged by others who are passionate about justice, reconciliation and transformation.

The speakers at the USPG Conference next week include:

• The Most Revd Alba Sally Sue Hernández García, Primate of La Iglesia Anglicana de México (Anglican Church of Mexico) and Bishop of the Diocese of Mexico

• Bishop Lusa Nsenga-Ngoy, Suffragan Bishop of Willesden in the Diocese of London, the Church of England’s lead bishop for interfaith engagement and a prominent advocate for an inclusive, courageous Church

• Dr Jude Lal Fernando, Associate Professor at the Irish School of Ecumenics, Trinity College Dublin, and Director of the Trinity Centre for Post-Conflict Justice

‘For Christ is our Peace’ is the theme of the USPG conference in High Leigh next week

As geopolitical tensions, regional conflicts, and deepening social divides shape our world, the conference will reflect on what it means to follow Christ faithfully today.

Through the lens of Just Peace, the conference will examine how Christian discipleship calls us not only to reconciliation but also to challenge and transform unjust systems that create division, deprivation, damage and destruction. It will consider how faith and hope in the risen Christ can reshape our understanding of peace – not as the absence of conflict, but as healing and reconciling presence in the midst of it.

I have attended the USPG annual conference most years, whether in High Leigh or at the Hayes Conference Centre in Swanwick, Derbyshire. I was a trustee of USPG for six years, a director of USPG in both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, and I include the ideas in USPG’s prayer diary, Pray with the World Churchn, in my prayer diary on this blog most mornings. So it is a personal disappointment not to be at the conference in High Leigh next week.

One of the things delegates often value most about USPG Conference is that it’s not only about what happens during the event itself: it’s about what we carry home afterwards – the questions we keep asking, the learning we keep sharing, the ways we continue to live out our faith with courage and compassion. As one person said after a recent conference: ‘The conversations do not end here – they’re encouraged to continue.’

Bookings for next week’s conference are still possible HERE. Day tickets are also available for the programme on Wednesday (3 June).

The High Leigh Conference Centre at Hoddesdon in Hertfordshire … the venue for the USPG 2026 Conference next week (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)