Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2026: 22, Friday 29 May 2026

‘He overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold doves’ (Mark 11: 15) … abandoned tables and furniture at an abandoned house in Rethymnon in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

The 50-day season of Easter, which began on Easter Day (5 April 2026), came to an end on Sunday with the Day of Pentecost or Whit Sunday (24 May 2026), and in the Church Calendar we have been back in Ordinary Time since Monday.

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 Cleansing of the Temple, Giotto, the Scrovegni Chapel, Padua (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Mark 11: 11-25 (NRSVA):

11 Then he entered Jerusalem and went into the temple; and when he had looked around at everything, as it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the twelve.

12 On the following day, when they came from Bethany, he was hungry. 13 Seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to see whether perhaps he would find anything on it. When he came to it, he found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs. 14 He said to it, ‘May no one ever eat fruit from you again.’ And his disciples heard it.

15 Then they came to Jerusalem. And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who were selling and those who were buying in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold doves; 16 and he would not allow anyone to carry anything through the temple. 17 He was teaching and saying, ‘Is it not written,

“My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations”?
But you have made it a den of robbers.’

18 And when the chief priests and the scribes heard it, they kept looking for a way to kill him; for they were afraid of him, because the whole crowd was spellbound by his teaching. 19 And when evening came, Jesus and his disciples went out of the city.

20 In the morning as they passed by, they saw the fig tree withered away to its roots. 21 Then Peter remembered and said to him, ‘Rabbi, look! The fig tree that you cursed has withered.’ 22 Jesus answered them, ‘Have faith in God. 23 Truly I tell you, if you say to this mountain, “Be taken up and thrown into the sea”, and if you do not doubt in your heart, but believe that what you say will come to pass, it will be done for you. 24 So I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.

25 ‘Whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone; so that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses.’

‘Seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to see whether perhaps he would find anything on it’ (Mark 11: 13) … a fig tree in Platanias near Rethymnon in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflections:

If I had the space and the soil, the patience and the time, the two trees I would like to try to grow are an olive tree and a fig tree.

They are signs of life and God’s blessings in creation, of life and of continuity in life. There is a very large fig tree off the High Street in Stony Stratford and small potted olive trees outside some of the restaurants in Milton Keynes. Fig trees and olive trees at any time of the year also bring back warm memories of Greece.

But during a visit to Saint Mary’s Church, Watford, last year I heard the story of one of the most unusual fig trees in an English churchyard.

The churchyard has 13 prominent tombs, including the Fig Tree Tomb, once a popular tourist attraction in Victorian Watford. Local lore says the person buried there was an atheist who had asked that something be buried in the tomb that could germinate if there was life after death. If there was a God, this would grow and burst the tomb to prove to his family that his soul was alive. If not, then nothing would happen and he would be proved correct.

The existence of God was said to have been proven when a fig tree sprouted up from the tomb and dislodged the lid. The strange sight drew visitors to the graveyard in large numbers, who came to hear the story and left taking a twig from the tree as a souvenir.

Whoever was buried in the tomb must have come from a wealthy family as the tomb is of Portland stone with an elaborate design, and the slate panel once had crisp carving with the name and details of the dead person. It is unlikely though that an atheist would have been given such an impressive tomb so close to the church. But, the slate panel is eroded, the inscription is no longer legible, and the details of the legend are impossible to verify.

Yet details in the story were embellished as the story of the Fig Tree grew, attracting visitors in ever-increasing numbers. Henry Williams, in his History of Watford (1884), described the fig tree growing through the tomb and how each year it ‘exhibits considerable luxuriance and sometimes produces figs.’ He said the fig tree had ‘probably grown there for close upon 100 years’, dating it to the 1790s or even the 1780s.

Williams described hundreds of people visiting the churchyard, many making long excursions to see the fig tree and taking home a leaf or small branch. However, he said that when the tomb was opened it was found that the root of the tree was four or five feet above where the dead man’s head must have been. Some tendrils had become attached to the bottom of the vault and this was said to explain the luxuriant growth of the fig tree.

Yet another theory suggests the seed of the fig tree could have been accidentally thrown into the tomb by the Revd the Hon William Robert Capel (1775-1854), Vicar of Saint Mary’s (1799-1855) and a son of William Anne Capell (1743-1799), 4th Earl of Essex. The vicar grew fig trees and had a taste for eating figs as he walked to church, spitting out the pips along his way from the vicarage.

Sadly, the Fig Tree itself died in 1963 after a long and cold winter, though some writers suggest it was helped on its way by local officials who thought it was in the way. The fig tree may be long gone, but the legend and the tomb remain with several versions of the story.

In this morning’s Gospel reading, Saint Mark uses an intentional ‘sandwich’ technique, wrapping the story of the cleansing of the Temple within the narrative of the withering fig tree (Mark 11: 12-14, 20-21).

The fig tree represents the religious leadership of the day: it has the appearance of bearing fruit, but upon closer inspection, it is barren. The cleansing of the Temple serves as an acted-out parable. The Temple has become a place of exclusion, extortion, and superficiality rather than a house of prayer for all nations.

The fate of the fig tree in this morning’s reading is in sharp contrast to the fate of the fig tree in a parable in Saint Luke’s Gospel (Luke 13: 6-9). In that parable, it seems to make logical, economic and financial sense for the owner to want to chop down the fig tree that is bearing no fruit – after all, not only is it taking up space, but it also costs in terms of time, tending, feeding, caring and nurturing. The owner knows what it is to make a quick profit, and if the quick profit is not coming soon enough he wants to cut his losses.

It takes much tender care and many years – at least three years – for a fig tree to bear fruit. Fig trees are planted in vineyards to shelter the weaker vines. An old and elegant fig tree is a common site in many Mediterranean vineyards and has its own intrinsic value. It may even have vines wrapped around it, bearing their own fruit, which are a generous bonus, beyond the purpose of planting the tree.

Even if a fig tree bears early fruit, the Mosaic Law said it could not be harvested for three years, and the fruit gathered in the fourth year was going to offered as the first fruits. Only in the fifth year, then, could the fruit be eaten. So, if Saint Luke’s fig tree was chopped down, and another put its place, it would take longer still to get fruit that could be eaten or sold. In his quest for a ‘quick buck’, the owner of the vineyard shows little knowledge about the reality of economics.

The gardener, who has nothing at stake, turns out to be the one who not only has compassion, but has deep-seated wisdom too. The gardener, who is never going to benefit from the owner’s profits, can see the tree’s potential, is willing to let be and wait, knowing what the fig tree is today and what it can do in the future.

It takes much tender care and many years – at least three years – for a fig tree to bear fruit. And even then, in a vineyard, the figs are not a profit – they are a sweet bonus.

When a tree bears fruit, the Mosaic Law said it could not be harvested for three years, and the fruit gathered in the fourth year was to be offered as the first fruits. Only in the fifth year, then, could the fruit be eaten.

In Saint Luke’s parable of the fig tree, we are called on to wait, we are urged not to be too hasty to pass judgment on those who seem in our eyes to do nothing to improve their lot.

But I can decide where I place my trust – in the values that I think serve me but serve the rich, the powerful and the oppressor, or in the God who sees our plight, who hears our cry, and who comes in Christ to deliver us.

The destruction of the Temple’s corrupt system offers hope of the birth of a new way of accessing God. Christ connects the effectiveness of prayer directly to our capacity to forgive others. Right worship of God and right relationships with our neighbours are intrinsically intertwined. This passage is a challenge to us to ensure our own spiritual lives are bearing real fruit and that our churches and communities are places of grace and mercy rather than exclusion.

In the latter part of today’s reading (Mark 11: 22-26), our focus shifts to the nature of faith, prayer, and forgiveness. We are called on to wait, to not be too hasty in our judgment on others, and to be forgiving: ‘Whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone; so that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses’ (verse 25).

The ‘Fig Tree Tomb’ at Saint Mary’s Church, Watford … the fig tree – and the inscription – have long disappeared (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Friday 29 May 2026):

This week in Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), from 24 to 30 May 2026 (pp 58-59), the theme is ‘Carriers of the Flame’ and was introduced on Sunday with reflections by Carol Miller, Church Engagement Manager, USPG.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Friday 29 May 2026) invites us to pray:

Bring justice and dignity to the oppressed and the forgotten, and guide USPG and its partners in our mission to uphold the worth of every person.

The Collect:

O Lord, from whom all good things come:
grant to us your humble servants,
that by your holy inspiration
we may think those things that are good,
and by your merciful guiding may perform 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:

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.

Yesterday’s Reflections

Continued Tomorrow

A fig tree in full bloom close to the ruins of Saint Mary Magdalene Church in Stony Stratford (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 Easter 2026: 44, Monday 18 May 2026

‘But take courage; I have conquered the world!’ (John 16: 13) … Christ in Majesty depicted by Sir Ninian Comper in a window in the Shrine Chapel in Walsingham (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Patrick Comerford

Easter is a 50-day season, beginning on Easter Day (5 April 2026) and continuing through Ascension Day (14 May 2026) until the Day of Pentecost or Whit Sunday next Sunday (24 May 2026). Yesterday was the Seventh Sunday of Easter (Easter VII).

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.

‘But take courage; I have conquered the world!’ (John 16: 33) … the Crucifixion and the Resurrection in a windows in Saint Editha’s Church, Tamworth (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

John 16: 29-33 (NRSVA):

29 His disciples said, ‘Yes, now you are speaking plainly, not in any figure of speech! 30 Now we know that you know all things, and do not need to have anyone question you; by this we believe that you came from God.’ 31 Jesus answered them, ‘Do you now believe? 32 The hour is coming, indeed it has come, when you will be scattered, each one to his home, and you will leave me alone. Yet I am not alone because the Father is with me. 33 I have said this to you, so that in me you may have peace. In the world you face persecution. But take courage; I have conquered the world!’

‘But take courage; I have conquered the world!’ (John 16: 13) … the Risen Christ above Sir Ninian Comper’s baldacchino in the Chapel in Pusey House, Oxford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflection:

As I was saying in my reflections yesterday, we are, in some ways, caught in the church calendar in an in-between time, between Ascension Day, last Thursday [14 May 2026], and the Day of Pentecost next Sunday [24 May 2026].

In the Gospel reading at the Eucharist today (John 16: 29-33), we continue reading from the ‘Farewell Discourse’ when Jesus talks with the Disciples at the Last Supper about their future and the future of the Church after he leaves them.

The disciples now claim to understand exactly what Jesus is talking about, although it seems they really do not. It is not until later that they grasp the meaning of his words fully.

In the coming days, they will be scattered in all directions and leave Jesus alone as he faces death. In the years ahead, they will be scattered abroad, and they too will face persecution and death. But they are to take courage, for Christ has conquered the world and overcome evil in the world. The disciples and we can share in his peace and in his victory: ‘I have said this to you, so that in me you may have peace. In the world you face persecution. But take courage; I have conquered the world!’ (verse 33).

The term ‘Christus Victor’ has become an influential phrase through Christus Victor by the Swedish bishop and theologian Gustaf Aulén (1879-1977), first published in Swedish as Den kristna försoningstanken (The Christian Idea of the Atonement) in 1930, and in English as Christus Victor in 1931.

Aulén reinterpreted the classic ransom theory of atonement, which says that Christ’s death is a ransom to the powers of evil that had held humankind in captivity. It is an understanding of the atonement until the time of Anselm of Canterbury. What became the satisfaction theory of atonement or penal substitutionary atonement sees Christ’s suffering as paying the penalty for human sin, and continues to dominate western theological thinking, particularly among ‘conservative’ evangelicals.

The concept of Christus Victor (‘Christ the Victor’) as a description of Christ’s triumph over evil and death through his death and resurrection, emphasises God’s victory over the forces of sin and darkness and highlights Christ’s role as the cosmic liberator, rescuing humanity from the bondage of evil and restoring a relationship with God.

The Christus Victor view has its roots in early Patristic teachings, and the Eastern Orthodox Church still holds to the view of the atonement put forward by Irenaeus and that is called ‘recapitulation’, in which Jesus became what we are so that we could become what he is.

For Irenaeus, the ultimate goal of Christ’s work of solidarity with humanity is to make humankind divine. Of Jesus he says, he ‘became what we are, that he might bring us to be even what he is himself.’ These ideas were shared by many other Church Fathers, including Sainr Athanasius, Saint Gregory of Nazianzus, Saint Augustine and Saint Maximus the Confessor. They have been most influential within the Eastern Orthodox Church, and this Eastern Orthodox theological development out of the recapitulation view of the atonement is called theosis (‘deification’).

Aulén argues that theologians have incorrectly concluded that the early Church Fathers held a ransom theory of atonement. Aulén argues that the Church Fathers’ theory was not that the crucifixion is the payment of a ransom to the devil, but rather that it represents the liberation of humanity from the bondage of sin, death and the devil. As the term Christus Victor (Christ the Victor) indicates, the idea of ‘ransom’ should not be seen as some sort of business transaction, but more in the terms of a rescue or liberation of humanity from the slavery of sin.

He sees the concept of Christus Victor as uniting Christ and his Father at the Crucifixion in a subversive condemnation of the unjust powers of darkness, a drama and a passion story in which God conquers the Powers and liberates humanity from the bondage of sin: ‘The work of Christ is first and foremost a victory over the powers which hold mankind in bondage: sin, death, and the devil.’

The Christus Victor theory is becoming increasingly popular with both paleo-orthodox evangelicals because of its connection to the early Church Fathers, and with liberal Christians and peace churches because of its subversive nature, seeing the death of Jesus as an exposure of the cruelty and evil present in the worldly powers, and the resurrection as a triumph over these powers.

The Christus Victor theory has also influenced liberation theology in Latin South America, as well as feminist and black theologies of liberation.

‘I have said this to you, so that in me you may have peace. In the world you face persecution. But take courage; I have conquered the world!’ (John 16: 33).

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

‘But take courage; I have conquered the world!’ (John 16: 33) … a window in the funeral chapel in Saint Joseph’s Church, Singapore (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Monday 18 May 2026):

The theme this week (17-23 May 2026) in ‘Pray With the World Church’, the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel) has been ‘Breaking Barriers: Gender Justice in Malawi’ (pp 56-57). This theme was introduced yesterday with Reflections from Tamara Khismisi, Projects Coordinator, Anglican Church in Malawi.

The USPG prayer diary invites us to pray today (Monday 18 May 2026):

Lord, we pray for girls in Malawi, that each one may take hold of courage, be granted protection and the support needed to stay in school. May education open doors for every girl’s future and dreams.

The Collect:

O God the King of glory,
you have exalted your only Son Jesus Christ
with great triumph to your kingdom in heaven:
we beseech you, leave us not comfortless,
but send your Holy Spirit to strengthen us
and exalt us to the place where our Saviour Christ is gone before,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Post Communion Prayer:

Eternal God, giver of love and power,
your Son Jesus Christ has sent us into all the world
to preach the gospel of his kingdom:
confirm us in this mission,
and help us to live the good news we proclaim;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

Risen, ascended Lord,
as we rejoice at your triumph,
fill your Church on earth with power and compassion,
that all who are estranged by sin
may find forgiveness and know your peace,
to the glory of God the Father.

Yesterday’s Reflections

Continued Tomorrow

‘But take courage; I have conquered the world!’ (John 16: 33) … a window in Saint Peter and Saint Church, Watford, Northamptonshire (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 Lent 2026: 44, Thursday 2 April 2026, Maundy Thursday

An icon depicting the Last Supper or Mystical Supper seen in a shop on Ethnikis Antistaseos street in Rethymnon in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are reaching the climax of Holy Week, the last week in Lent. Today is Maundy Thursday (2 April 2026), and we preparing for Good Friday tomorrow and Easter Day.

Later this morning, I hope to be present at the Chrism Eucharist in Christ Church, Oxford, when the bishops, priest and deacons in the diocese opportunity to renew our ordination vows. I missed this moving service last year, when I spent much of Holy Week and Easter in Rethymnon in Crete.

Later this evening, I hope to take part in the Maundy Eucharist at 7 pm in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford, followed by the Watch of the Passion from 8 to 9 pm. The music this evening includes Byrd’s Ave Verum and Vidi Aquam. But, before this day begins, before we catch the bus to Oxford, 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.

An icon depicting the Last Supper or Mystical Supper seen in Rethymnon in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

John 13: 1-17, 31b-35 (NRSVA):

1 Now before the festival of the Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart from this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. 2 The devil had already put it into the heart of Judas son of Simon Iscariot to betray him. And during supper 3 Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going to God, 4 got up from the table, took off his outer robe, and tied a towel around himself. 5 Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was tied around him. 6 He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, ‘Lord, are you going to wash my feet?’ 7 Jesus answered, ‘You do not know now what I am doing, but later you will understand.’ 8 Peter said to him, ‘You will never wash my feet.’ Jesus answered, ‘Unless I wash you, you have no share with me.’ 9 Simon Peter said to him, ‘Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!’ 10 Jesus said to him, ‘One who has bathed does not need to wash, except for the feet, but is entirely clean. And you are clean, though not all of you.’ 11 For he knew who was to betray him; for this reason he said, ‘Not all of you are clean.’

12 After he had washed their feet, had put on his robe, and had returned to the table, he said to them, ‘Do you know what I have done to you? 13 You call me Teacher and Lord—and you are right, for that is what I am. 14 So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. 15 For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you. 16 Very truly, I tell you, servants[d] are not greater than their master, nor are messengers greater than the one who sent them. 17 If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them.

31b ‘Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him. 32 If God has been glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself and will glorify him at once. 33 Little children, I am with you only a little longer. You will look for me; and as I said to the Jews so now I say to you, “Where I am going, you cannot come.” 34 I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.’

The Last Supper depicted in a window in Saint Mary’s Church, Watford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflections:

During Holy Week, we have a series of readings from Saint John’s Gospel, in which Jesus has a very different set of encounters or exchanges each evening.

This evening, the Water for Washing the Disciples feet continues a theme we find throughout Saint John’s Gospel:

• The waters of the River Jordan, at the Baptism of Christ (see John 1: 19-34);

• The water that is turned into wine at the wedding in Cana (John 2: 1-11);

• The Water of Life that the Samaritan Woman asks for at Jacob’s well in Sychar (John 4: 5-42);

• The water of the pool in Jerusalem where the paralysed man is healed after 38 years (John 5: 1-18);

• The water of the Sea of Galilee by which the 5,000 are fed (John 6: 1-14);

• The water by Capernaum where Jesus calms the storm (John 6: 16-21);

• The Rivers of Living Water (John 7: 37-39);

• The healing waters of the Pool of Siloam (John 9: 1-12);

• The water Christ cries out for on the Cross when he says: ‘I am thirsty’ (John 19: 28);

• The water that mingles with the blood from Christ’s side when it is pierced after his death (John 19: 32-35);

• The waters of the Sea of Tiberias, where the Risen Christ appears for a third time, after daybreak, and from which the disciples haul in 153 fish (John 21: 1-14).

Why then, in Saint John’s Gospel, does Pilate not wash his hands when he denies all responsibility on his part for the events that are to unfold that Good Friday (see John 18: 38)?

The Russian writer Mikhail Bulgakov (1891-1940) is best known for his posthumous novel The Master and Margarita, a masterpiece of the 20th century. Here Bulgakov portrays Pilate as a man who is ruthless, yet complex in his humanity. When Pilate meets Christ, he is reluctant but resigned and passively hands him over to those who wanted to kill him.

In this novel, Pilate exemplifies the statement ‘Cowardice is the worst of vices,’ and so he serves as a model of all the people who have washed their hands by silently or actively taking part in the Stalin’s crimes.

The actor Richard Boone plays a calm and stern, though, slightly guilt-ridden Pilate in the 1953 film The Robe (1953). There is an interesting touch when Pilate asks again for water to wash his hands, forgetting he has already washed those hands at the conclusion of the trial of Jesus.

When do we forget that we are complicit in the sufferings of others, and when do we deny we are complicit in the sufferings of others?

As Christ washes the feet of his disciples this evening, he calls us out from our complacency and our cosy forgetfulness, and challenges us once again to renew the promises made in the waters of our Baptism, to come again with forgiveness to living and healing waters, to dine and drink with him at the banquet, to have him calm the waters in the storms in our lives, to accept the miracle, to be cleansed by the waters from his side, to walk with him afresh and to join the Disciples in the new promises of the Resurrection.

Christ washes the feet of the Disciples … a fresco on a pillar in a church in Thessaloniki (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Thursday 2 April 2026, Maundy Thursday):

The theme this week (29 March-4 April 2026) in ‘Pray With the World Church’, the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is a ‘Holy Week’ reflection’ (pp 42-43). This theme was introduced on Sunday with reflections by the Revd Kenson Li, Assistant Curate of Manchester Cathedral and a Trustee of USPG.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Thursday 2 April 2026, Maundy Thursday) invites us to pray:

My Lord and my God, who for love of the world gave us the eucharistic mystery, teach us to see you in broken bread and outpoured wine, and so to recognise you in the faces of those neglected by society.

The Collect:

God our Father,
you have invited us to share in the supper
which your Son gave to his Church
to proclaim his death until he comes:
may he nourish us by his presence,
and unite us in his love;
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

Lord 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 fruit of your redemption,
for you are alive and reign, now and for ever.

Additional Collect:

God our Father,
your Son Jesus Christ was obedient to the end
and drank the cup prepared for him:
may we who share his table
watch with him through the night of suffering
and be faithful.

Yesterday’s Reflections

Continued Tomorrow

Inside Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford, the venue for today’s Maundy Thursday Chrism Eucharist (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 Lent 2026: 26, Sunday 15 March 2026, Fourth Sunday in Lent, Lent IV

‘Mother and Child’ by Anna Raynoch-Brzozowska … a sculpture in Auschwitz (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are more than half way through Lent, and today is the Fourth Sunday in Lent (Lent IV, 15 March 2026) and Mothering Sunday or Mothers’ Day, and is also known in some places as Laetare Sunday.

Later this morning, I hope to sing with the choir at the Parish Eucharist 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.

‘Woman, here is your son … Here is your mother’ (John 19: 26, 27) … the Rood Screen in Holy Rood Church, Watford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

John 19: 25-27 (NRSVA):

25 Meanwhile, standing near the cross of Jesus were his mother, and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. 26 When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing beside her, he said to his mother, ‘Woman, here is your son.’ 27 Then he said to the disciple, ‘Here is your mother.’ And from that hour the disciple took her into his own home.

‘Woman, here is your son … Here is your mother’ (John 19: 26, 27) … a Pieta image in the Chapel in Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflections:

The Fourth Sunday in Lent is also known as Laetare Sunday because of a traditional Introit or prayer sung on this Sunday, Laetare Jerusalem, ‘O be joyful, Jerusalem’ (Isaiah 66: 10).

Mothering Sunday is a Sunday when we probably hear little about the main option for the Gospel reading (John 9: 1-41), the story of the man who is born blind but who is healed, at the expense of a lot of repeat sermons on the benefits of motherhood or the stellar qualities of ‘Mother Church’, of cathedrals as the ‘mother churches’ of dioceses, or, in these days of global conflict and uncertainty, the supposed virtues of the ‘motherland’.

But I wonder and worry at times how many women feel isolated and marginalised by some of those sermons on Mothering Sunday – women who have had miscarriages or seen their children suffer and die; women who would love to but have never given birth to children; people who have grown up in families where the mother figure was absent or ill, died early, or was abusive or violent, women who put under family or social pressures to be mothers?

Many grieving and suffering mothers hearing this Gospel reading on Mothering Sunday may wonder why their children are suffering and how or where their sufferings and the sufferings of their children fit into God’s plans for the fullness of creation.

The blindness of the young man in that reading could not possibly be due to his sins or the sins of his ancestors. But how many of us blame other people for their plight, and how many of us still believe that those in poverty and deprivation simply need to ‘pull themselves up’?

The two Gospel readings offered as choices for Mothering Sunday are not easy reading either. Motherhood is difficult, and brings pain and grief for mothers and children. But motherhood also brings pain and grief to men and women who whose desire to be parents is never fulfilled. These two choices offer a view of motherhood that is challenging and asks us to question what it is to be a parent, to parent and to be parented.

The first option (John 9: 1-41), Christ meets a young man who has been blind since birth. The disciples ask Jesus: ‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?’ (verse 2) He answers them: ‘Neither this man nor his parents sinned; he was born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in him. We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world’ (John 9: 3-5).

Many grieving and suffering mothers hearing this Gospel reading on Mothering Sunday may wonder why their children are suffering and how or where their sufferings and the sufferings of their children fit into God’s plans for the fullness of creation.

We must agree the blindness of this young man could not possibly be due to his sins or the sins of his ancestors. But how many of us blame other people for their plight, and how many of us still believe that those in poverty and deprivation simply need to ‘pull themselves up’?.

The second option is a much shorter Gospel reading (John 19: 25-27), where we hear the tender words, ‘Woman, here is your son,’ as the dying Christ on the Cross entrusts his weeping mother Mary to the care of the Beloved Disciple. But Christ is not creating a one-way relationship. He immediately follows this by creating a new relationship for the Beloved Disciple: ‘Here is your mother.’

He entrusts her to him – and him to her. Relationships always have at least two dimensions. But the best of relationships are three dimensional – one to another, and each other to God.

There are some relationships we cannot create, there are others we cannot control, and others still that we have no choice about.

We cannot create our family. Our families are already given, even before we are born or adopted.

And those relationships survive though all adversities. They are fixed. They are given. Even though my father and mother are dead, they remain my parents. Even though a couple may divorce, each one in the old relationship remains a sister-in-law or a daughter-in-law, a brother-in-law or a son-in-law – albeit qualified by the word ‘former.’ In time, they may find they have new relationships: when their children have children, they share grandchildren they never expected. They may want to forget their past relationship, but it remains on the family tree for some future genealogist to tell everyone about.

I like to imagine that one of the untold stories in the aftermath of the Wedding at Cana is the new network or web of family relationships that have been created. After the wedding feast, the first of the Seven Signs in Saint John’s Gospel, Christ ‘went down to Capernaum with his mother, his brothers, and his disciples; and they remained there for a few days’ (John 2: 12).

On the way, or back in Capernaum, one finds he is now a brother-in-law, another that she is a sister-in-law, some, perhaps, realise they have a new aunt or uncle, or perhaps a new niece or nephew by marriage.

We cannot create family, yet family often creates us, shapes us, gives us identity and allows others to decide where we fit socially.

There are relationships we cannot control.

Most of us cannot control who we work with. That is the choice of our employers, and even for employers there is legislation to make sure they are not discriminating. Clergy cannot, and should not try to, control who are their parishioners.

If we try to control who is and who is not a member of the Church, depending on the relationships we like to have and the relationships we do not like to have, we will find we have a Church that has an ever-decreasing number of members, so that eventually we become a dwindling sect, wanting to make God in our own image and likeness, rather than accepting that we are all made in God’s image and likeness. And that eventually becomes a sect of one, where there is no place for the One who matters.

There are relationships we have no choice about. I cannot choose my friends and I cannot choose my neighbours.

Have you ever noticed that when a house is on the market, both the vendors and the estate agents tell you the neighbours are wonderful? It is only after you move in that you are likely to find out if you have, as the recent ITV television documentary series describes them, ‘the neighbours from hell.’

I cannot choose my friends. No matter how much I want to be friends with someone, if they do not want to be my friend, that’s it. I cannot force friendship. When I have a friendship, I can work on it, nurture it, help it to grow and blossom. But I cannot force a friendship. If you don’t want to be my friend, that is your choice, and if you do, and I don’t nurture that friendship, then you are going to change your mind.

Christ knows all about relationships, and he shows that on the Cross.

Relationships define us as human. Without relating to others, how can I possibly know what it is to be human? From the very beginning, God, who creates us in God’s own image and likeness, knows that it is not good for us to be alone. And in the Trinity, we find that God is relationship.

Relationship is at the heart of the cross. And there, on the cross, even as he is hanging in agony, the dying Jesus is compassionately thinking of others and of relationships.

His mother Mary is the only person throughout the Gospel narratives who has been with Christ from the beginning to the end, from his birth to his death. She has been with Christ throughout his whole life.

Saint John, the Beloved Disciple, is the disciple whom Jesus loved. We are blessed if we have a very best friend, a person to whom I am closer than any other. John is such a best friend for Jesus throughout the Gospel narrative. In the Fourth Gospel, we hear that John was ‘the beloved.’ John was the person to whom Christ was the closest. John was the best friend of Jesus.

In the midst of his dying, pain-filled moments before his death, Christ is heard thinking of the needs of the two people who love him most during his life: his mother and his best friend.

As the soldiers are gambling over his clothes and casting lots to divide them among themselves, Jesus sees three women – his mother Mary, Mary the wife of Cleopas, and Mary Magdalene, standing near the cross, and his mother is standing with the Beloved Disciple.

He turns to his mother and he says to her: ‘Woman, here is your son.’

He then turns to the Beloved Disciple and says: ‘Here is your mother.’

It is not a command, it is not a directive, it is not an instruction. It is a giving in love, just as his own death on the cross is self-giving. And, in giving, there is love and there is life.

Christ teaches us to love, even when he is dying, even when we are dying. That is what relationships are about, and that is what the Cross is all about.

The cross broadens the concept of family – the family of God. Jesus changes the basis of relationships. No longer are relationships to be formed on the basis of natural descent, on shared ethic identity, on agreeing that others are ‘like us.’

Our shared place beneath the cross is the only foundational space for relationships from now on.

Mary gained another son. And the Beloved Disciple gained a new mother.

Beneath the cross of Christ, Christian fellowship is born not just for Mary and John, but also for you and me, and for everyone else who believes, for all who believe.

Beneath the cross of Christ, we become a new family.

Beneath the cross of Christ, we become brothers and sisters in Christ.

Beneath the cross of Christ, we realise that we are now part of the family of God.

On the cross, Christ entrusts us as his children to one another, to love one another.

‘Standing near the cross of Jesus were his mother, and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene (John 19: 5) … ‘Crucifixion with figures’ (1952-1958) by Graham Sutherland (1903-1980), chalk, ink and wash, in an exhibition in Lichfield Cathedral in 2018 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (15 March 2026, Lent IV):

The theme this week (15-21 March 2026) in ‘Pray With the World Church,’ the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘Lament and Hope’ (pp 38-39). This theme is introduced today with a programme update by Kennedy Jones, Church Engagement and Fundraising Officer, USPG:

‘At a recent workshop run by USPG, I was surprised and horrified to learn that the Church was deeply entangled in slavery, with scripture misused to justify oppression and racial hierarchies. These histories continue to shape how race is understood within Christian communities. During discussions, participants shared the ongoing struggles of living in contexts shaped by racial and religious histories. One reflected, “It is really challenging being an Irish Catholic in this country,” while another admitted, “We are tired. I feel like I’m just surviving … we are just tired.”

‘The Revd Dr Carlton Turner, Caribbean theologian and guest speaker, shared a powerful story of a woman discovering her family’s book listing enslaved people once owned by her ancestors. He spoke about the weight of inherited trauma and the Church’s struggle to lament, reminding us that “the Church doesn’t know how to lament … but Jesus does – he weeps, overturns tables, and is moved with compassion.”

‘As an African American woman, I have attended numerous conferences on racial justice, and I’ve grown up in classrooms where the history of slavery was often taught in ways that left Black students feeling deeply uncomfortable. These conversations are always heavy. Every Black person I know tries to stay engaged, but at the same time, we must protect our emotional wellbeing. There’s a constant tension between bearing witness and guarding ourselves from becoming numb.

‘Ultimately, I came away feeling this: we are desperately in need of Jesus. No amount of striving or strategising on our own will bring the healing we long for. He must be at the centre if we’re to make any real progress.’

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Sunday 15 March 2026, Lent IV) invites us to read and meditate on John 9: 1-41.

‘Woman, here is your son … Here is your mother’ (John 19: 26, 27) … the Crucifixion on the rood screen in Saint Ia’s Church in Saint Ives, Cornwall (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The Collect of the Day (Lent IV):

Merciful Lord,
absolve your people from their offences,
that through your bountiful goodness
we may all be delivered from the chains of those sins
which by our frailty we have committed;
grant this, heavenly Father,
for Jesus Christ’s sake, our blessed Lord and Saviour,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Collect of the Day (Mothering Sunday):

God of compassion,
whose Son Jesus Christ, the child of Mary,
shared the life of a home in Nazareth,
and on the cross drew the whole human family to himself:
strengthen us in our daily living
that in joy and in sorrow
we may know the power of your presence
to bind together and to heal;
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 (Lent IV):

Lord God,
whose blessed Son our Saviour
gave his back to the smiters
and did not hide his face from shame:
give us grace to endure the sufferings of this present time
with sure confidence in the glory that shall be revealed;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

Merciful Lord,
you know our struggle to serve you:
when sin spoils our lives
and overshadows our hearts,
come to our aid
and turn us back to you again;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

The Post-Communion Prayer (Mothering Sunday):

Loving God,
as a mother feeds her children at the breast
you feed us in this sacrament with the food and drink of eternal life:
help us who have tasted your goodness
to grow in grace within the household of faith;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

God of love,
passionate and strong,
tender and careful:
watch over us and hold us
all the days of our life;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s Reflections

Continued Tomorrow

‘Woman, here is your son’ … ‘Here is your mother’ (John 19: 26, 27) … a stained glass window in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin (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 Christmas 2025-2026: 23, Friday 16 January 2026

The healing of the paralytic man … a fresco in Analipsi Church in Georgioupoli in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

The 40-day season of Christmas continues until Candlemas or the Feast of the Presentation (2 February). This week began with the First Sunday of Epiphany (Epiphany I, 11 January 2026), with readings that focus on the Baptism of Christ.

We got back to Stony Stratford late last night after two funerals over two days, in Seer Freen in the Chilterns on Wednesday, in Lingwood in Norfolk yesterday. It was an odyssey that involved going through London each time on the train, back and forth, an overnight stay in Norwich that also allowed visits to Norwich Cathedral, but a major delay on the train in Watford last night because of a serious incident on the line between Watford and Milton Keynes, and that eventually necessesitated a late night taxi from Watford to Stony Stratford.

Stony Words 2026, a local festival of drama and literature, begins in Stony Stratford this evening. But, before the day begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, to reflect, to pray and to read in these ways:

1, 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 blessing in the Chapel of the John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Mark 2: 1-12 (NRSVA):

1 When he returned to Capernaum after some days, it was reported that he was at home. 2 So many gathered around that there was no longer room for them, not even in front of the door; and he was speaking the word to them. 3 Then some people came, bringing to him a paralysed man, carried by four of them. 4 And when they could not bring him to Jesus because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him; and after having dug through it, they let down the mat on which the paralytic lay. 5 When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, ‘Son, your sins are forgiven.’ 6 Now some of the scribes were sitting there, questioning in their hearts, 7 ‘Why does this fellow speak in this way? It is blasphemy! Who can forgive sins but God alone?’ 8 At once Jesus perceived in his spirit that they were discussing these questions among themselves; and he said to them, ‘Why do you raise such questions in your hearts? 9 Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, “Your sins are forgiven”, or to say, “Stand up and take your mat and walk”? 10 But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins’ – he said to the paralytic – 11 ‘I say to you, stand up, take your mat and go to your home.’ 12 And he stood up, and immediately took the mat and went out before all of them; so that they were all amazed and glorified God, saying, ‘We have never seen anything like this!’

Inside the Chapel in the John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflections:

This morning’s Gospel reading at the Eucharist (Mark 2: 1-12) is another healing story that follows yesterday’s story of Christ healing a man with leprosy (Mark 1: 40-45) and the story the day before of Jesus healing Simon Peter’s mother-in-law (Mark 1: 29-39).

Today’s Gospel reading has its synoptic parallels in Matthew 9: 2-8 and Luke 5: 18-26.

I have an appointment next week for one of my regular injections for my B12 deficiency. Meanwhile, I continue to have regular hospital appointments monitoring my pulmonary sarcoidosis and as part of the care and attention I continue to receive as a follow-up to my stroke almost four years ago in March 2022.

I remain truly grateful for the caring and attentive treatment I receive in hospitals in Milton Keynes, Oxford and Sheffield, and I am even more grateful for the way Charlotte Hunter recognised I was having a stroke, brought me to hospital, ensured I received the attention I needed, visited me every day, and brought me back to Stony Stratford.

Some years ago, at an event in Saint Martin-in-the-Fields Church, Trafalgar Square, when people were asked to bring along their favourite poems, Charlotte brought Seamus Heaney’s poem ‘Miracle’, from his collection Human Chain (2010).

In these poems, written after his stroke in 2005, Seamus Heaney speaks of suffering and mortality. This poem ‘Miracle’ retells the story of the miraculous healing of the man variously described as a paralytic man and a man with palsy. The story is told in all three synoptic Gospels, including this morning’s Gospel reading (Mark 2: 1-12), and – like Seamus Heaney, I suppose – my situation makes me wonder whether this man was also suffering after a stroke.

It is interesting how Seamus Heaney tells the story of this man’s healing from the perspective of the man’s friends. In this way, his poem becomes an expression of gratitude by the poet to all who helped his recovery after his stroke.

When Jesus looks at the paralysed man brought to him by his friends, he sees not just the faith of the man, but the faith of his friends too. In other words, this is a story of the blessing of friendship and the miracle of community as much as it is a story of miraculous healing.

The poet’s focus is on neither Christ as the healer nor the invalid, but on the friends who helped this sick man to reach Jesus by lowering him through a skylight in the roof. The title of the poem refers to the miracle in the Gospel story, but for the poet the miracle is found in the opening lines:

Not the one who takes up his bed and walks
But the ones who have known him all along
And carry him in.

The friends of this man love him and seek his healing, no matter what it takes for them to do, and so they become the true miracle in this moment. They are there when no one else is, they care for their friend, and they give him the priceless gift of friendship.

When they hear in Capernaum that Jesus is healing the sick, they give their friend one more gift. They carry him to Jesus. And when they cannot get him through the door, they then lower him through the roof.

What persistent love they show their friend, like the persistent love of one who calls a taxi, packs all my bags, brings me to the A&E unit, stays with me while I am admitted, as I am transferred to the emergency unit, and then, late at night, when I am moved to a ward.

This poem sees the Gospel story through the eyes of this man’s faithful friends. So often, I read this story through the eyes of the paralysed man, through the eyes of the crowd, or even through the eyes of the Pharisees and teachers. But Seamus Heaney invites me to join the man’s friends, who stand with

their shoulders numb, the ache and stoop deeplocked
In their backs, the stretcher handles
Slippery with sweat.

We are invited to stand with those friends, with the hope and the faith and the love that brings them there, to stand with them on behalf of all who hurt, to feel the burns in their hands from the paid-out rope, the ache in their backs from the burden they have carried, to see the gift of this miracle, this grace, that was all gift, but that required something extra of them.

There are many miracles in this story and many lessons. This poem reminds us how sometimes we need to be carried by our friends, while at other times we are the ones who need to help ‘bear one another’s burdens’ (Galatians 6: 2).

Miracle, by Seamus Heaney (1939-2013)

Not the one who takes up his bed and walks
But the ones who have known him all along
And carry him in —

Their shoulders numb, the ache and stoop deeplocked
In their backs, the stretcher handles
Slippery with sweat. And no let up

Until he’s strapped on tight, made tiltable
and raised to the tiled roof, then lowered for healing.
Be mindful of them as they stand and wait

For the burn of the paid out ropes to cool,
Their slight lightheadedness and incredulity
To pass, those who had known him all along.

‘The Gift of Life’ … art and music in the outpatients reception area in Milton Keynes University Hospital (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Friday 16 January 2025):

The theme this week (11-17 January 2026) in Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘Gaza Crisis Response’ (pp 18-19). This theme was introduced on Sunday with a Programme Update from the Diocese of Jerusalem.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Friday 16 January 2026) invites us to pray:

Heavenly Father, we thank you for the coalition of international partners with the Anglican Alliance. Give wisdom, provision, and perseverance, so that together we may meet urgent needs and demonstrate your mercy in action.

The Collect:

Eternal Father,
who at the baptism of Jesus
revealed him to be your Son,
anointing him with the Holy Spirit:
grant to us, who are born again by water and the Spirit,
that we may be faithful to our calling as your adopted children;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

Lord of all time and eternity,
you opened the heavens and revealed yourself as Father
in the baptism of Jesus your beloved Son:
by the power of your Spirit
complete the heavenly work of our rebirth
through the waters of the new creation;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

Heavenly Father,
at the Jordan you revealed Jesus as your Son:
may we recognize him as our Lord
and know ourselves to be your beloved children;
through Jesus Christ our Saviour.

Yesterday’s Reflections

Continued Tomorrow

The magnolia tree in a courtyard in the hospital in Milton Keynes (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 Christmas 2025-2026: 3, Saturday 27 December 2025, Saint John the Apostle and Evangelist

Saint John depicted in a statue on the Great Gate of Saint John’s College, Cambridge (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

On the third day of Christmas my true love sent to me … ‘three French hens, two turtle doves, and a partridge in a pear tree’.

This is the third day of Christmas and today the church calendar celebrates Saint John the Apostle and Evangelist. Before today begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, to reflect, to pray and to read in these ways:

1, today’s Gospel reading;

2, a short reflection;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

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

Saint John (right) and the Virgin Mary (left) at the Crucifixion … the rood beam in Holy Rood Church, Watford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

John 21: 19b-25 (NRSVA):

19 After this he said to him, ‘Follow me.’

20 Peter turned and saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following them; he was the one who had reclined next to Jesus at the supper and had said, ‘Lord, who is it that is going to betray you?’ 21 When Peter saw him, he said to Jesus, ‘Lord, what about him?’ 22 Jesus said to him, ‘If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? Follow me!’ 23 So the rumour spread in the community that this disciple would not die. Yet Jesus did not say to him that he would not die, but, ‘If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you?’

24 This is the disciple who is testifying to these things and has written them, and we know that his testimony is true. 25 But there are also many other things that Jesus did; if every one of them were written down, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.

The symbol of the serpent and the chalice, a carving by Eric Gill in the capstone at Saint John’s College, Cambridge (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflections:

The Christian interpretation of the song ‘The 12 Days of Christmas’ often sees the three French hens as figurative representations of the three theological virtues – faith, hope and love: ‘And now faith, hope, and love remain, these three, and the greatest of these is love.’ (I Corinthians 13: 13).

Other interpretations say the three French hens represent the three persons of the Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, or the three gifts of the Wise Men, gold, frankincense and myrrh.

There is a custom in some places of blessing wine on this day and drinking a toast to the love of God and to Saint John. The theological virtue of love is intimately associated with the story of Saint John, the disciple Jesus loved.

It seems appropriate in the days immediately after Christmas that we should be jolted out of our comforts, in case we begin to atrophy, and to be reminded of what the great German martyr Dietrich Bonhoeffer called the ‘Cost of Discipleship.’

Following Christ is not all about Christmas shopping, feasts, decorations and falling asleep in front of the television – comforting, enjoyable and pleasant as they are, particularly in family settings.

Yesterday was the feast of Saint Stephen [26 December], often referred to as the first Christian martyr; and 28 December usually recalls the Holy Innocents, the first – albeit unwitting – martyrs according to Saint Matthew’s Gospel.

In The Ariel Poems TS Eliot puts wise words into the mouth of the Wise Man who recalls the cold coming of it experienced in the ‘Journey of the Magi’. There he makes the connection between birth and death:

All this was a long time ago, I remember,
And I would do it again, but set down
This set down
This: were we led all that way for
Birth or Death? There was a Birth, certainly,
We had evidence and no doubt. I had seen birth and death,
But had thought they were different; this Birth was
Hard and bitter agony for us, like Death, our death.
We returned to our places, these Kingdoms,
But no longer at ease here, in the old dispensation,
With an alien people clutching their gods.
I should be glad of another death.

Between those two commemorations of martyrdom, we find ourselves today [27 December] marking the Feast of Saint John the Evangelist.

At first, this too may not seem an appropriate feast day to celebrate in the days immediately after Christmas Day. Even chronologically it creates difficulties, for tradition says Saint John was the last of the disciples to die, making his death the one that is separated most in terms of length of time from the birth of Christ.

In art, Saint John the Evangelist is frequently represented as an Eagle, symbolising the heights to which he rises in the first chapter of his Gospel.

For Saint John, there is no annunciation, no nativity, no crib in Bethlehem, no shepherds or wise men, no little stories to allow us to be sentimental and to be amused. He is sharp, direct and gets to the point: ‘In the beginning …’

But the Prologue to Saint John’s Gospel is one of the traditional readings on Christmas Day, so many of us immediately associate his writings with this time of the year.

Saint John the Evangelist is unnamed in the Fourth Gospel. Yet tradition identifies him with the John who is:

• one of the three at the Transfiguration,
• one of the disciples sent to prepare a place for the Last Supper,
• one of the three present in the Garden of Gethsemane,
• the only disciple present at the Crucifixion,
• the disciple to whom Christ entrusts his mother from the Cross,
• the first disciple to arrive at Christ’s tomb after the Resurrection,
• the disciple who first recognises Christ standing on the lake shore following the Resurrection.

The Beloved Disciple, alone among the Twelve, remains with Christ at the foot of the Cross with the Mother of Christ and the women and he is asked by the dying Christ to take Mary into his care (John 19: 25-27). After Mary Magdalene’s report of the Resurrection, Peter and the ‘other disciple’ are the first to go to the grave, and the ‘other disciple’ is the first to believe that Christ is truly risen (John 20: 2-10).

When the Risen Christ appears at the Lake of Genesareth, ‘that disciple whom Jesus loved’ is the first of the seven disciples present who recognises Christ standing on the shore (John 21: 7).

Saint Paul names John as one of the pillars of the Church in Jerusalem (see Galatians 2: 9). Later, tradition says, he takes over the position of leadership Paul once had in the Church in Ephesus and is said to have lived there and to have been buried there.

According to a tradition mentioned by Saint Jerome, in the second general persecution, in the year 95, Saint John was arrested and sent to Rome, where he was thrown into a vat or cauldron of boiling oil but miraculously was preserved from death.

According to ancient tradition, during the reign of the Emperor Domitian, Saint John was once given a cup of poisoned wine, but he blessed the cup and the poison rose out of the cup in the form of a serpent. Saint John then drank the wine with no ill effect. A chalice with a serpent signifying the powerless poison has become one of his symbols.

Domitian then banished Saint John to the island of Patmos. It was there in the year 96 he had those heavenly visions recorded in the Book of Revelation. After the death of Domitian, it is said, he returned to Ephesus in the year 97, and there tradition says he wrote his gospel about the year 98. He is also identified with the author of the three Johannine letters.

The tradition of the Church says Saint John lived to old age in Ephesus. Jerome, in his commentary on Chapter 6 of the Epistle to the Galatians (Jerome, Comm. in ep. ad. Gal., 6, 10), tells the well-loved story that Saint John continued preaching in Ephesus even when he was in his 90s.

He was so enfeebled with old age that the people carried him into the Church in Ephesus on a stretcher. When he was no longer able to preach or deliver a long discourse, his custom was to lean up on one elbow on each occasion and to say simply: ‘Little children, love one another.’ This continued on, even when the ageing John was on his deathbed.

Then he would lie back down and his friends would carry him back out. Every week in Ephesus, the same thing happened, again and again. And every week it was the same short sermon, exactly the same message: ‘Little children, love one another.’

One day, the story goes, someone asked him about it: ‘John, why is it that every week you say exactly the same thing, ‘little children, love one another’?’ And John replied: ‘Because it is enough.’ If you want to know the basics of living as a Christian, there it is in a nutshell. All you need to know is. ‘Little children, love one another.’

According to Eusebius, Saint John died in peace at Ephesus, in the third year of Trajan, that is, the year 100, when he was about 94 years old. According to Saint Epiphanius, he was buried on a mountain outside the town. The Basilica of Saint John the Theologian gave the later name of Aysoluk to the hill above the town of Selçuk, beside Ephesus.

I am constantly overwhelmed and in awe of the emphasis on love and light throughout the Johannine letters. That emphasis on love, which informs the story of Saint John’s last days, is brought through in the first of the Johannine letters (I John 1: 1-9) which we read this morning.

This emphasis constantly informs all aspects of my ministry.

I was once doing Sunday duty during a vacancy in a parish that has three churches. A student asked me at the time how many sermons I preached. I replied: ‘Three.’

‘You preach three sermons every Sunday?’ she asked with an air of incredulity.

I explained: ‘I preach three sermons all the time. The first is ‘Love God,’ the second is ‘Love one another,’ and the third, in case someone missed the first and second sermons, is ‘Love God and love one another’.’

That is the heart of the Christmas story, that is the heart of the Gospel, that is the heart of the Johannine writings, and that, to put it simply, is why we celebrate Saint John in the days immediately after Christmas. ‘Little children, love one another.’

The site of Saint John’s tomb in Ephesus is marked by a marble plaque and four Byzantine pillars (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Saturday 27 December 2025, Saint John the Apostle and Evangelist):

The theme this week (21 to 27 December 2025) in Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), has been ‘Love Brings Life in Tanzania’ (pp 12-13). This theme was introduced last Sunday with a Programme Update by Imran Englefield, Individual Giving Manager, USPG.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Saturday 27 December 2025, Saint John the Apostle and Evangelist) invites us to pray:

Lord, bless the health projects of the Anglican Church of Tanzania. Grant wisdom, strengthen partnerships, and help the work bring healing and hope to many.

The Collect:

Merciful Lord,
cast your bright beams of light upon the Church:
that, being enlightened by the teaching
of your blessed apostle and evangelist Saint John,
we may so walk in the light of your truth
that we may at last attain to the light of everlasting life;
through Jesus Christ your incarnate 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:

Grant, O Lord, we pray,
that the Word made flesh
proclaimed by your apostle John
may, by the celebration of these holy mysteries,
ever abide and live within us;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Collect on the Eve of Christmas I:

Almighty God,
who wonderfully created us in your own image
and yet more wonderfully restored us
through your Son Jesus Christ:
grant that, as he came to share in our humanity,
so we may share the life of his divinity;
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Yesterday’s Reflections

Continued Tomorrow

A relief sculpture of Saint John … one of a series in Pugin’s font in Saint Chad’s Roman Catholic Cathedral in Birmingham with the symbols of the four evangelists (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