Daily prayer in the Kingdom Season: 29, Saturday 29 November 2025

‘The cross is the only path to resurrection. There is no other path’ (Nikos Kazantzakis) … the grave of Kazantzakis on the Martinengo Bastion in Iraklion (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Patrick Comerford

We come to the end of this year’s Kingdom Season in the Church Calendar today, and Advent begins tomorrow is the First Sunday of Advent (Sunday 30 November 2025). In the Church of England, today is set aside as a ‘Day of Intercession and Thanksgiving for the Missionary Work of the Church’.

Today promises to be a funday in Stony Stratford, with street music, dancing, craft sales and the Lantern Parade, all leading up to switching on the Christmas lights in the town at a traditional gathering at the Christmas Tree in the Market Square.

Before the day begins, before breakfast, I am taking some quiet time early 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.

‘Praying that you may have the strength … to stand before the Son of Man’ (Luke 21: 34) … a damaged Byzantine fresco in the Museum of Christian Art in Iraklion, Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Luke 21: 34-36 (NRSVA):

34 [Jesus said:] ‘Be on guard so that your hearts are not weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of this life, and that day does not catch you unexpectedly, 35 like a trap. For it will come upon all who live on the face of the whole earth. 36 Be alert at all times, praying that you may have the strength to escape all these things that will take place, and to stand before the Son of Man.’

‘Be on guard so that your hearts are not weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness’ … flowers in a window at Peskesi restaurant in Iraklion (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflections:

The scene for the Gospel reading at the Eucharist today (Luke 21: 34-36) has been set in the verses that immediately precede this reading. Christ is sitting in the Temple precincts, where he speaks about the Temple, the Nation, and the looming future.

Today’s Gospel reading continues in this apocalyptic theme, urging us to be ‘alert at all times’, praying that we may have the strength to ‘to stand before the Son of Man’ – an appropriate admonition as we enter the season of Advent.

This morning, I find myself asking both ‘what is the divine mission of Christ?’ and, in our response, what does it mean to ‘stand before the Son of Man’?

In The Last Temptation of Christ (1955), the Greek writer Nikos Kazantzakis (1883-1957) presents a tragic Christ wrestling all his life with the conflicting claims of his divine mission and duty and his human desire to live a normal life, to love and be loved, and to have a family. In this book, Christ summarises his purpose and mission: ‘I said only one word, brought only one message: “Love. Love – nothing else”.’

Writing about this book, Kazantzakis said: ‘I am certain that every free man who reads this book, so filled as it is with love, will more than ever before, love Christ.’

When the Church of Greece condemned Kazantzakis in 1955 and anathematised him, his response was prompt and clear: ‘You gave me a curse, Holy fathers, I give you a blessing: may your conscience be as clear as mine and may you be as moral and religious as I.’ («Μου δώσατε μια κατάρα, Άγιοι πατέρες, σας δίνω κι εγώ μια ευχή: Σας εύχομαι να ‘ναι η συνείδηση σας τόσο καθαρή, όσο είναι η δική μου και να ‘στε τόσο ηθικοί και θρήσκοι όσο είμαι εγώ.»).

I have had lunch in the past with friends in Peskesi, a restored historical mansion in Iraklion. It was once the home of Captain Polyxigkis, a Cretan freedom fighter from the 1860s who features in Freedom and Death (Ο Καπετάν Μιχάλης, Captain Michalis), the 1953 semi-historical novel by Kazantzakis.

The name of Peskesi (Πεσκέσι, ‘Gift’) is inspired by his semi-autobiographical Report to Greco (Αναφορά στον Γκρέκο), where Kazantzakis addresses his Cretan ‘grandfather,’ Domenikos Theotokopoulos, El Greco:

«Μὰ εἶχες γίνει φλόγα. Ποῦ νὰ σὲ βρῶ, πῶς νὰ σὲ δῶ, τί πεσκέσι νὰ σοῦ φέρω νὰ θυμηθεῖς τὴν Κρήτη καὶ ν’ ἀνέβεις ἀπὸ τὰ μνήματα; Μονάχα ἡ φλόγα μπορεῖ νὰ βρεῖ μπροστά σου ἔλεος· ἄχ, νὰ μποροῦσα νὰ γίνω φλόγα νὰ σμίξω μαζί σου». ‘But you had turned into a flame. Where shall I find you, how shall I see you, what gift shall I bring you to make you remember Crete, to make you raise from the dead? Only the flame can be at your mercy; oh, if only I could become a flame to meet you.’

In his introduction to Report to Greco, Kazantzakis says ‘My entire soul is a cry, and all my work the commentary on that cry.’

He goes on to say: ‘Every man worthy of being called a son of man bears his cross and mounts his Golgotha. Many, indeed most, reach the first or second step, collapse pantingly in the middle of the journey, and do not attain the summit of Golgotha, in other words the summit of their duty: to be crucified, resurrected, and to save their souls. Afraid of crucifixion, they grow fainthearted; they do not know that the cross is the only path to resurrection. There is no other path.’

Later in that book, he writes: ‘Whoever climbed the Lord’s mountain had to possess clean hands and an innocent heart; otherwise the Summit would kill him. Today the doorway is deserted. Soiled hands and sinful hearts are able to pass by without fear, for the Summit kills no longer.’

And he paraphrases the Prophet Elijah: ‘Tomorrow, go forth and stand before the Lord. A great and strong wind will blow over you and rend the mountains and break in pieces the rocks, but the Lord will not be in the wind. And after the wind and earthquake, but the Lord will not be in the earthquake. And after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord will not be in the fire. And after the fire a gentle, cooling breeze. That is where the Lord will be. This is how the spirit comes. After the gale, the earthquake, and fire: a gentle, cooling breeze. This is how it will come in our own day as well. We are passing through the period of earthquake, the fire is approaching, and eventually (when? after how many generations?) the gentle, cool breeze will blow.’ (see I Kings 19: 11-13).

Doménikos Theotokópoulos or ‘El Greco’ … a marble bust by Nikos Sofialakis in the centre of Iraklion (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Today’s Prayers (Saturday 29 November 2025):

Saint Andrew is celebrated in the Church Calendar on 30 November. However, because tomorrow is the First Sunday in Advent, Saint Andrew’s Day has been transferred to Monday in the Church of England.

The Thronal Feast of the Apostle Andrew is being celebrated in the Ecumenical Patriarchate this weekend, and in my prayers this morning I am keeping in mind Pope Leo XIV’s visit to the Phanar this weekend. Patriarch Bartholomew will welcome the Pope this afternoon, and Patriarch Theodoros II of Alexandria will also be present. These celebrations and this visit are part of the continuing events marking the 1700th anniversary of the Nicene Creed and the Council of Nicaea in the year 325.

The theme this week (23 to 29 November) in Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), has been ‘Gender Justice’ (pp 58-59). This theme was introduced last Sunday with Reflections by Rachael Anderson, former Senior Communications and Engagement Manager, USPG.

The USPG Prayer Diary today invites us to pray:

We look forward to the age of peace, when violence is banished, both women and men can love and be loved, and the work and wealth of our world is justly shared.

The Collect:

Eternal Father,
whose Son Jesus Christ ascended to the throne of heaven
that he might rule over all things as Lord and King:
keep the Church in the unity of the Spirit
and in the bond of peace,
and bring the whole created order to worship at his feet;
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Post Communion Prayer:

Stir up, O Lord,
the wills of your faithful people;
that they, plenteously bringing forth the fruit of good works,
may by you be plenteously rewarded;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

God the Father,
help us to hear the call of Christ the King
and to follow in his service,
whose kingdom has no end;
for he reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, one glory.

Collect on the Eve of Advent I:

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

Yesterday’s Reflections

Continued Tomorrow

‘Be on guard so that your hearts are not weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness …’ (Luke 21: 34) … a sign behind the bar in a pub in Foynes, Co Limerick (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 the Kingdom Season: 28, Friday 28 November 2025

‘Look at the fig tree and all the trees; as soon as they sprout leaves you can see for yourselves and know that summer is already near’ (Luke 21: 29-30) … a fig tree in Platanias near Rethymnon in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Patrick Comerford

We are in the Kingdom Season, the time between All Saints’ Day and Advent, and this week began with the Sunday next before Advent and the Feast of Christ the King (23 November 2025).

Before the day begins, before breakfast, I am taking some quiet time early 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 fig tree coming into fruit in Stony Stratford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Luke 21: 29-33 (NRSVA):

29 Then he told them a parable: ‘Look at the fig tree and all the trees; 30 as soon as they sprout leaves you can see for yourselves and know that summer is already near. 31 So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that the kingdom of God is near. 32 Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all things have taken place. 33 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.’

Figs on sale in a supermarket near Rethymnon in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflections:

The scene for the Gospel reading at the Eucharist today (Luke 21: 29-33) has been set in the verses that immediately precede this reading. Christ is sitting in the Temple precincts, where he speaks about the Temple, the Nation, and the looming future.

Today’s Gospel reading continues in this apocalyptic theme with a comparison of the fig tree coming to fruit and the signs of the coming of the Kingdom of God.

The fig tree has more potential than just the figs and fruit it produces. 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.

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 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.

The observations by Jesus on the fruiting fig tree are in sharp contrast to a short parable earlier in this Gospel (Luke 13) where a man wanted to tear up a freshly-planted fig tree:

Then he told this parable: ‘A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came looking for fruit on it and found none. So he said to the gardener, “See here! For three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and still I find none. Cut it down! Why should it be wasting the soil?” He replied, “Sir, let it alone for one more year, until I dig round it and put manure on it. If it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down”.’ (Luke 13: 6-9).

If this tree had been chopped down, and another put its place, it would take longer still to get fruit that could be eaten or sold. In his hasty desire for a quick profit, 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 not only has compassion, but has deep-seated wisdom too.

Three years, and three more years, and then the fruit.

The fruit is only going to be profitable in its seventh year. Then, between Chapter 13 and Chapter 21, the fig tree becomes a sign ‘that the kingdom of God is near.’

What do we dismiss in life because it is too young and without fruit, or too old and gnarled, only to realise when it is too late that we are failing to see signs ‘that the kingdom of God is near’?

In the 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.

Figs for breakfast in the Garden Taverna in Platanias near Rethymnon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Friday 28 November 2025):

The theme this week (23 to 29 November) in Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘Gender Justice’ (pp 58-59). This theme was introduced on Sunday with Reflections by Rachael Anderson, former Senior Communications and Engagement Manager, USPG.

The USPG Prayer Diary today invites us to pray:

Give thanks for the lives of women throughout the world, many whose steady presence is often unacknowledged.

The Collect:

Eternal Father,
whose Son Jesus Christ ascended to the throne of heaven
that he might rule over all things as Lord and King:
keep the Church in the unity of the Spirit
and in the bond of peace,
and bring the whole created order to worship at his feet;
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Post Communion Prayer:

Stir up, O Lord,
the wills of your faithful people;
that they, plenteously bringing forth the fruit of good works,
may by you be plenteously rewarded;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

God the Father,
help us to hear the call of Christ the King
and to follow in his service,
whose kingdom has no end;
for he reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, one glory.

Yesterday’s Reflections

Continued Tomorrow

Figs ripening on a fig tree in Platanias, east of Rethymnon in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

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

Daily prayer in the Kingdom Season: 27, Thursday 27 November 2025

‘There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars, and distress … among nations confused by the roaring of the sea and the waves’ (Luke 21: 25) … sunset on the sea at Rethymnon in Crete (Photographs: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Patrick Comerford

We are in the Kingdom Season, the time between All Saints’ Day and Advent, and this week began with the Sunday next before Advent and the Feast of Christ the King (23 November 2025).

Later today I hope to be involved with rehearsals with a play-reading group in Stony Stratford. But, before the day begins, I am taking some quiet time early 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.

‘There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars’ (Luke 21: 25) … a broken piece of pottery in the Vandeleur Gardens in Kilrush, Co Clare (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Luke 21: 20-28 (NRSVA):

[Jesus said:] 20 ‘When you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation has come near. 21 Then those in Judea must flee to the mountains, and those inside the city must leave it, and those out in the country must not enter it; 22 for these are days of vengeance, as a fulfilment of all that is written. 23 Woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing infants in those days! For there will be great distress on the earth and wrath against this people; 24 they will fall by the edge of the sword and be taken away as captives among all nations; and Jerusalem will be trampled on by the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.

25 ‘There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars, and on the earth distress among nations confused by the roaring of the sea and the waves. 26 People will faint from fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the world, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. 27 Then they will see “the Son of Man coming in a cloud” with power and great glory. 28 Now when these things begin to take place, stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.’

A refugee child clambers to the rocks seeking safety

Today’s reflection:

The scene for the Gospel reading at the Eucharist this morning (Luke 21: 20-28) has been set in the verses that immediately precede today’s reading. Christ is sitting in the Temple precincts, where he speaks about the Temple, the Nation, and the looming future.

Today’s Gospel reading includes frightening, terrifying words from Jesus, who says: ‘There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars, and on the earth distress among nations confused by the roaring of the sea and the waves. People will faint from fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the world, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken’ (Luke 21: 25-26).

These are not the sort of comforting words that we might want to hear as we prepare for Advent Sunday and to begin the countdown to Christmas.

My generation is a generation that grew up with muffled sounds of apocalyptic fear, developed through listening to the whispered anxieties of parents and teachers. I was still only 10 when the Cuban Missile Crisis reached its height in October 1962, and I still remember asking, ‘Is this going to be the end of the world?’

The Cold War was at its height, and we were still less than two decades from the end of World War II. Of course, many people feared another world war was about to break out, with catastrophic consequences for the world.

The threat seemed to have abated for some time after the end of the Cold War. But it has come to the fore again this year with Donald Trump’s erratic decision -making and foreign policy Trump. Meanwhile, despite the end of the Cold War, the stockpiles of nuclear weapons continue to grow and accumulate, both the US and Russia are walking away from key arms limitation agreements, and war is continuing in Ukraine and Russia, the violence has not ended in Israel, Gaza, the West Bank and Syria, and all respect for the international legal conventions and rules on the conduct of war seem to have been discarded in Trump’s latest proposals for the war between Russia and Ukraine and the failure to make Netanyahu answerable for what has happened to Gaza.

A new generation also wonders whether the world is facing apocalyptic catastrophe because of climate change and the destruction of the planet, a crisis that was not properly tackled at the Cop30 convention in Brazil. And all of us must fret for the future when we hear that the inquiry into the Covid-19 crisis warns that we are not adequately prepared for future and inevitable pandemics , while we have let down our guards and think vaccinations have made our lives safer.

These fears accumulate and multiply and they become:

• short-term fears: are we going to have a normal Christmas this year?

• medium-term fears: what uncertainty and destruction can Trump unleash while he remains in office?

• long-term fears: what faces us all for the future?

In our fears and anxieties, we try to read the ‘signs of the times’ and wonder how to respond to ‘signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars, and on the earth distress among nations confused by the roaring of the sea and the waves.’

And yet, I realise how so self-obsessed I can be as I realise the immediate terror that continues to face people – families, fathers, mothers and children – who get caught in the precarious Channel crossing between France and England. How they must continue to be ‘confused by the roaring of the sea and the waves.’

All their hopes of a better life for themselves and their children, as they fled wars and persecutions in Iran, Syria, Afghanistan and North Africa, yet risk being drowned in one horrific, apocalyptic moment on the seas.

But even then, had they arrived on the shores of the land they hoped to reach, would they have been met with the compassion and care refugees ought to expect, not only in terms of Christian love, but under the terms of international law?

Have the recent riots and ugly street marches organised by the far right in both Britain and Ireland faded and gone away? Or is there worse yet to come?

The Christmas Gospel is a reminder that Mary and Joseph and the Child Jesus were refugees too: Mary and Joseph were forced to move from Nazareth to Bethlehem in the cold of winter, yet found no welcome at the inn; and then, when the Child Jesus was born, they were forced to flee Herod, and seek exile in Egypt.

Where do we find hope as we wait in Advent for Christ at Christmas?

Our Gospel reading ends not in doom and disaster, but with the promise that Christ is coming. Our Advent faith is that Christ is coming in glory, and that with him he is bringing the Kingdom of God, with its promises of justice and mercy, peace and love.

‘They will fall by the edge of the sword and be taken away as captives …’ (Luke 21: 24) … the Ceremonial Sword of the former Mayors of Youghal in Saint Mary’s Collegiate Church, Youghal, Co Cork (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Thursday 27 November 2025):

The theme this week (23 to 29 November) in Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘Gender Justice’ (pp 58-59). This theme was introduced on Sunday with Reflections by Rachael Anderson, former Senior Communications and Engagement Manager, USPG.

The USPG Prayer Diary today invites us to pray:

Lord, we pray that women might receive greater acknowledgement for their role in sustaining our churches and our communities.

The Collect:

Eternal Father,
whose Son Jesus Christ ascended to the throne of heaven
that he might rule over all things as Lord and King:
keep the Church in the unity of the Spirit
and in the bond of peace,
and bring the whole created order to worship at his feet;
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Post Communion Prayer:

Stir up, O Lord,
the wills of your faithful people;
that they, plenteously bringing forth the fruit of good works,
may by you be plenteously rewarded;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

God the Father,
help us to hear the call of Christ the King
and to follow in his service,
whose kingdom has no end;
for he reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, one glory.

Yesterday’s Reflection

Continued Tomorrow

‘There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars’ (Luke 21: 25) … a winter sunset at Cross in Hand Lane in Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

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

Daily prayer in the Kingdom Season: 26, Wednesday 26 November 2025

The ‘Travelling Family’ by Kurt Laurenz in the Departure Transit area at Terminal 4 in Changi Airport in Singapore … we cannot chose our families (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are in the Kingdom Season, the time between All Saints’ Day and Advent, and this week began with the Sunday next before Advent and the Feast of Christ the King (23 November 2025).

Later this evening, I hope to take part in the choir rehearsals in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford. But, before the day begins, before breakfast, I am taking some quiet time early 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.

‘Family’ by Jon Buck at the entrance to Milton Keynes University Hospital (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Luke 21: 12-19 (NRSVA):

[Jesus said:] 12 ‘But before all this occurs, they will arrest you and persecute you; they will hand you over to synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors because of my name. 13 This will give you an opportunity to testify. 14 So make up your minds not to prepare your defence in advance; 15 for I will give you words and a wisdom that none of your opponents will be able to withstand or contradict. 16 You will be betrayed even by parents and brothers, by relatives and friends; and they will put some of you to death. 17 You will be hated by all because of my name. 18 But not a hair of your head will perish. 19 By your endurance you will gain your souls.’

The Crucifixion on the rood beam in Saint Peter and Saint Paul Church, Buckingham … relationships and family are formed and shaped at the foot of the Cross (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Today’s reflection:

The scene for the Gospel reading at the Eucharist this morning (Luke 21: 12-19) has been set in the verses that immediately precede today’s reading. Christ is sitting by the Temple Treasury, as he speaks about the Temple, the Nation, and the looming future.

The hope to which Christ testifies in this passage is no trivial denial of the struggles, the pain and agony of human life, or the catastrophic forces of nature. These are real, and the prophets of old have interpreted such devastations as the context of God’s saving work. Christ joins this chorus, bringing it close to the concrete realities of early Christians, and warns of the possibilities of being betrayed by family, friends and neighbours.

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. They continue after separation, divorce, and death. They continue even when families are dysfunctional and brought to breaking point.

Even though my father and mother are dead 20 and 10 years respectively, they remain my parents.

Even though a couple may divorce, each former partner 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 our name and 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.

Nor can I choose my friends or 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 an ITV television documentary series some years ago described 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 this on the Cross when he entrusts his mother the Virgin Mary and the Beloved Disciple, Saint John, to one another as though they are mother and son.

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

Relationships are vulnerable, fragile, and always risk the potential for betrayal, as today’s Gospel reading reminds us. But relationships also 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.

The Holy Family by Giovanni Battista Pittoni … the Altar Piece in the Chapel of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Wednesday 26 November 2025):

The theme this week (23 to 29 November) in Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘Gender Justice’ (pp 58-59). This theme was introduced on Sunday with Reflections by Rachael Anderson, former Senior Communications and Engagement Manager, USPG.

The USPG Prayer Diary today invites us to pray:

Let us pray that churches around the world might become leaders in their communities for upholding the rights of women and girls.

The Collect:

Eternal Father,
whose Son Jesus Christ ascended to the throne of heaven
that he might rule over all things as Lord and King:
keep the Church in the unity of the Spirit
and in the bond of peace,
and bring the whole created order to worship at his feet;
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Post Communion Prayer:

Stir up, O Lord,
the wills of your faithful people;
that they, plenteously bringing forth the fruit of good works,
may by you be plenteously rewarded;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

God the Father,
help us to hear the call of Christ the King
and to follow in his service,
whose kingdom has no end;
for he reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, one glory.

Yesterday’s Reflections

Continued Tomorrow

A scene from life of the Holy Family in Nazareth in a window designed by Father Vincent Chin in Saint Peter’s Church, Kuching (Photographs: 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 the Kingdom Season: 25, Tuesday 25 November 2025

‘Many will come in my name and say … “The time is near!” Do not go after them’ (Luke 21: 8) … the clock at Donegal House and the Guildhall in Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are in the Kingdom Season, the time between All Saints’ Day and Advent, and this week began with the Sunday next before Advent and the Feast of Christ the King (23 November 2025). The calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship today remembers Saint Catherine of Alexandria, Martyr in the 4th century, and Isaac Watts (1674-1748), hymnwriter.

Saint Catherine of Alexandria is the Patron Saint of the Institute for Orthodox Christian Studies, where I have studied in Cambridge. IOCS is celebrating her Feast today at the Greek Orthodox Church of Saint Athanasios, Cambridge, today (25 November 2025), starting with Matins at 9 am, followed by the Divine Liturgy at 10 am, and with a Thanksgiving Service in the evening at 6 pm, followed by refreshments and fellowship in the parish hall.

Meanwhile, before the day begins, I am taking some quiet time early this morning, even before breakfast, 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.

‘When you hear of wars and insurrections, do not be terrified’ (Luke 21: 9) … the 1798 Rising recalled in street art in a laneway behind Anne Street and North Main Street in Wexford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Luke 21: 5-11 (NRSVA):

5 When some were speaking about the temple, how it was adorned with beautiful stones and gifts dedicated to God, he said, 6 ‘As for these things that you see, the days will come when not one stone will be left upon another; all will be thrown down.’

7 They asked him, ‘Teacher, when will this be, and what will be the sign that this is about to take place?’ 8 And he said, ‘Beware that you are not led astray; for many will come in my name and say, “I am he!” and, “The time is near!” Do not go after them.

9 ‘When you hear of wars and insurrections, do not be terrified; for these things must take place first, but the end will not follow immediately.’ 10 Then he said to them, ‘Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; 11 there will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and plagues; and there will be dreadful portents and great signs from heaven.’

‘Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom’ (Luke 21: 10) … ‘Fuascailt’, Eamonn O’Doherty’s sculpture of the 1798 Wexford pikemen on the N25 near Barntown and Taghmon, Co Wexford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s reflection:

The Gospel reading at the Eucharist this morning (Luke 21: 5-11) is part of Saint Luke’s ‘Little Apocalypse’, to which we were introduced on the Sunday before last (see Luke 21: 5-19, Sunday 16 November 2025, the Second Sunday before Advent).

On his arrival in Jerusalem, Christ weeps, invokes sayings from the Prophet Jeremiah against a city that ‘did not recognise the time of your visitation from God’ (Luke 19: 41-44), and then faces up to three attempts by the authorities to entrap him, each concluding with Christ silencing his opponents (Luke 20: 1-19; 20: 20-26; and 20: 27-38).

The scene has been set in the verses in this chapter that immediately precede today’s reading. Christ is sitting by the Temple Treasury, where he watches the poor widow offer the smallest of coins (verses 1-4), as we read yesterday.

The scene does not change as he goes on to speak about the Temple, the Nation, and the looming future. But, instead of questioning him about what he has just said about this widow, which might have offered a focus for how the politics of God work, those around him, probably a wider group than just his own disciples, cannot get past the physical presence and appearance of Herod’s Temple in Jerusalem, then revered as a sign of God’s presence, even as the dwelling place of God’s sheltering protection for Israel (see Luke 13:34-35).

Christ is no longer facing attacks from others. Instead, he alerts his followers to the hardships they face ahead, beyond the time of his journey. But as he approached Jerusalem, Christ had declared that God’s ‘visitation’ had come with his reign, that the very stones of the Temple would testify against those who rejected him (19: 41-44).

Now he again predicts that all the stones will be thrown down (21: 6), as one scene in the divine drama.

A web of prophetic citations is woven through these verses. These include words and phrases from Jeremiah 4, 7, 14, and 21; Isaiah 19; and Ezekiel 14 and 38. Maybe we might say that Christ, like the prophets before him, was not very original in what he said. But there is still the question: how faithfully did these prophetic words and warnings of destruction speak to the people of the time, to the people who heard Christ speak?

But Christ also differentiates his teaching from the teaching of the false prophets, who also quoted the ancient words of God. While announcing the coming judgment, Christ cautions against following prophets who claim to know God’s timetable, even invoking Christ’s own name.

The account in this chapter of Christ’s words could be compared with Mark 13, and its intensity of the coming ‘tribulation.’ Or we might go back to Luke 17: 22-37, which also reminds us that Christ’s death is an integral part of God’s timetable: ‘But first he must endure much suffering and be rejected by this generation’ (17: 25). Saint Luke’s longer account of Christ’s discourse (21: 5-36) assures his readers they are experiencing not ‘the end’ … but the period of ‘tribulations’ or ‘persecutions’ through which believers will enter the kingdom (see Acts 14: 22).

And so, Saint Luke’s account of Christ’s speech does not provide yet another programme or timetable to predict the working out of God’s plan, down to the last second. The prophets and Christ teach us that the struggles in history and in disturbances in nature are more than accidental. They remind us that God triumphed over chaos in creating the natural world, and yet both human and supra-historical forces are still contending for the earth. Christ’s followers are aware, therefore, that his death and resurrection is God’s ultimate act in a struggle of cosmic proportions. Only the final outcome is sure.

As the Apostle Paul writes: ‘We know that the whole creation has been groaning in labour pains until now; and not only the creation, be we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies’ (Romans 8: 22-23).

The hope to which Christ testifies in this passage, therefore, is no trivial denial of the struggles, the pain and agony of human life, or the catastrophic forces of nature. These are real, and the prophets of old have interpreted such devastations as the context of God’s saving work. Christ joins this chorus, bringing it close to the concrete realities of early Christians. But he says: ‘This will give you an opportunity to testify’ (verse 13) and ‘By your endurance you will gain your souls’ (verse 19).

The ‘opportunity to testify’ does not require Christ’s followers to know every answer to the question: ‘Why do bad things happen to good people.’

Christ is promising that he will give us ‘words and a wisdom that none of your opponents will be able to withstand or contradict.’ His earlier promise of the Holy Spirit’s wisdom in times of testimony (see Luke 12: 11-12) now becomes his own promise. When he commissions them as ‘my witnesses’ (Acts 1: 8), he assures them of the power and the presence of his Holy Spirit, and the stories in Acts will display the fulfilment of this promise of God’s ‘mouth and wisdom’ (see Acts 4: 13-14; 16: 6-7). And so, even these harsh prophecies in Luke 21 are filled with the confidence of Christ’s enduring presence.

And the ‘endurance’ that ‘will gain your soul’ (verse 19) is also not mere heroic persistence.

The early Christians knew all about endurance, and that endurance was often tested. Paul echoes that theme in Romans 5: 3-5, then transformed this endurance from reliance on human strength to trusting in God’s love: ‘… we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.’

Saving endurance is a gift of the presence of the Holy Spirit.

A problem that continues to dominate parish priorities is the emphasis on buildings rather than people. Are there ‘building blocks’ we need to knock down so we can start again and care for little people like the poor widow who was at the centre of yesterday’s reading?

Is it time to rebuild, to become the kind of temples God really wants?

Should we change church politics and priorities for God’s politics and priorities?

In pursuing God’s vision for the future of the Church and the Kingdom, are we relying on our own knowledge and strengths?

What risks are we willing to take for our core values?

How would you be prophetic and offer hope in the face of the rise of the far-right across Europe or Trump’s behaviour in office in the US?

How do you read the signs of the times when it comes to global events, such as the conflicts in Ukraine, Russia, Gaza, Israel, Palestine and Lebanon?

Have we a vision for a new heaven and a new earth (see Isaiah 65: 17-25)?

How do we balance concerns for the wider world with those for the widow and her small coin in our parishes?

‘When you hear of wars and insurrections, do not be terrified’ (Luke 21: 9) … a plaque recalling the executions and deaths on Wexford Bridge in 1798 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Tuesday 25 November 2025):

The theme this week (23 to 29 November) in Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘Gender Justice’ (pp 58-59). This theme was introduced on Sunday with Reflections by Rachael Anderson, former Senior Communications and Engagement Manager, USPG.

Today is International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women and Girls, and the day is being marked in Milton Keynes with a vigil at the Rose in Campbell Park from 6 pm to 6:45 ‘to raise Awareness, Reflection and Action’. The USPG Prayer Diary today invites us to pray:

We pray that this year’s 16 Days campaign might make governments, churches and communities around the world take notice and support an end to gender-based violence.

The Collect:

Eternal Father,
whose Son Jesus Christ ascended to the throne of heaven
that he might rule over all things as Lord and King:
keep the Church in the unity of the Spirit
and in the bond of peace,
and bring the whole created order to worship at his feet;
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Post Communion Prayer:

Stir up, O Lord,
the wills of your faithful people;
that they, plenteously bringing forth the fruit of good works,
may by you be plenteously rewarded;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

God the Father,
help us to hear the call of Christ the King
and to follow in his service,
whose kingdom has no end;
for he reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, one glory.

Yesterday’s Reflections

Continued Tomorrow

Saint Catherine of Alexandria (25 November) is patron of the IOCS in Cambridge … an icon in the Greek Orthodox Church in Stony Stratford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

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

Daily prayer in the Kingdom Season: 23, Sunday 23 November 2025, Christ the King

Christ enthroned in majesty in the centre of the Christ the King or Cooper Window in Saint Peter’s Church, Berkhamsted (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are in the Kingdom Season, the time between All Saints’ Day and Advent, and today is the Feast of Christ the King, the Sunday next before Advent. Later this morning, I hope to be part of the choir at the Parish Eucharist in the Church of Saint Mary and Saint Giles in Stony Stratford. The music this morning includes the motet Locus Ipse composed in 1869 by Anton Bruckner (1824-1896) and a version of Psalm 46 (Deus Noster Refugium, God is our hope and strength) by Martin Luther.

Before the day begins, before having breakfast, I am taking some quiet time early 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.

Three royal crowns for Christ the King … a window in Saint Mary’s Church, Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Luke 23: 33-43:

33 When they came to the place that is called The Skull, they crucified Jesus there with the criminals, one on his right and one on his left. [34 Then Jesus said, ‘Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.’] And they cast lots to divide his clothing. 35 And the people stood by, watching; but the leaders scoffed at him, saying, ‘He saved others; let him save himself if he is the Messiah of God, his chosen one!’ 36 The soldiers also mocked him, coming up and offering him sour wine, 37 and saying, ‘If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!’ 38 There was also an inscription over him, ‘This is the King of the Jews.’

39 One of the criminals who were hanged there kept deriding him and saying, ‘Are you not the Messiah? Save yourself and us!’ 40 But the other rebuked him, saying, ‘Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? 41 And we indeed have been condemned justly, for we are getting what we deserve for our deeds, but this man has done nothing wrong.’ 42 Then he said, ‘Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.’ 43 He replied, ‘Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise.’

Christ the King depicted in the East Window (1948) by Lilian Josephine Pocock in the Church of Christ the King in Gordon Square, Bloomsbury (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Today’s Reflections:

Today is the Feast of Christ the King and the Sunday next before Advent (23 November 2025). Our readings bring us to the end of the Church Year. The Gospel reading also marks the last Sunday at the end of our journey in the Lectionary with Christ on his journey to Jerusalem. We will begin it all again next Sunday, with a new cycle of readings, beginning with Advent Sunday (30 November 2025), and reading through Saint Matthew’s Gospel.

But this morning’s Gospel reading (Luke 23: 33-43) gives us time to pause and reflect on the fact that we have followed Christ for seven months or so through Saint Luke’s Gospel. We have seen Saint Luke’s distinctive emphases on the poor and their inclusion in the Kingdom, the inclusion of those not normally invited as guests to the great feasts.

In the Gospel reading, we are at the moment when Christ is crucified. The crucifixion is truly emphasised on Good Friday, but this morning the emphasis is on Christ the King and the request by one of the criminals to ‘remember me’ in the kingdom.

The Epistle reading (Colossians 1: 11-20) includes a hymn praising Christ as the king of this kingdom, listing his royal attributes in poetic form (verse 15-20):

‘In him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross.’

The Gospel reading may seem out of sequence as we approach Advent and prepare for Christmas. However, the Crucifixion is one of the ways in which we see Christ revealed to the world as King. The Crucifixion is his triumph rather than his defeat, and it leads not to our death but to his Resurrection and our promise of life in all its fullness, personalised in the way Christ assures the second criminal of the immediate promise of a place with him in Paradise.

This reading challenges to accept that today, this day (σήμερον, símeron), this very day, is the time to respond to the claims the kingdom makes on us (verse 43).

This reading may seem to be a little out of sequence on a Sunday morning. We are preparing for Christmas, you may think, not for Good Friday and Easter. But we forget that so easily. I hear on all the radio chat shows people already talking about this being the Christmas Season … before Advent has even started. In Britain, people are even talking about a Christmas election, rather than an Advent election.

But Advent is the season of preparation for Christmas, with the Lectionary readings telling us about the Coming of Christ.

We have made Christmas a far-too comfortable story. Christmas is a story about poverty and about people who are homeless and rejected and who can find no place to stay.

It is a messy story about a child born surrounded by the filth of animals and the dirt of squalor.

It is a story of shepherds who are involved in dangerous work, staying up all night, out in the winter cold, watching out for wolves and sheep stealers.

It is a story of trickery, deceit and the corruption of political power that eventually leads to a cruel dictator stooping to murder, even the murder of innocent children, to secure his own grip on power.

That is why in the weeks before Advent we have readings that remind us about what the coming of Christ into the world means, what the Kingdom of God is like, and how we should prepare for the coming of Christ and the coming of the Kingdom of God.

Marking the Sunday before Advent by crowning Christ as King helps us to focus on Advent from next Sunday (30 November), and Advent is supposed to be a time and a season of preparing for the coming of Christ.

Kingship may not be a good role model for people living in modern democratic societies where the heads of state are elected – although many of the elected heads of state in many countries good models for democratic leadership either. Nor are the models of kingship in history or in contemporary society so good. Let me share some examples:

• We are familiar with a model of monarchy that paradoxically appears to be benign on the one hand and appears aloof and remote on the other hand, at the very apex of a class system defined by birth, title and inherited privilege.

• In other northern European countries, the model of monarchy is portrayed in the media by figureheads who are slightly daft do-gooders, riding around on bicycles in parks and by canals in ways that threaten to rob kingship of majesty, dignity and grace.

• Or, take emperors deposed in my own lifetime: Halie Selassie sat back in luxury as his people starved to death; Emperor Bokassa, was a tyrant accused of eating his people and having them butchered at whim.

• In the United States, it seems Trump would rather be king than a President with the usual checks and balances of a democratic society. • Even in Britain and Ireland, we sometimes need to be reminded that the word minister, whether we use it for government ministers or church ministers, is supposed to convey the idea of service, serving the people and serving God. The petition in the Book of Common Prayer pleads: ‘Endue thy ministers with righteousness’; and the response is ‘And make thy chosen people joyful’.

This morning, this Sunday before Advent, gives us time to pause and reflect on why, as we were reading our way through Saint Luke’s Gospel, we have been following Christ on his journey to Jerusalem. For it is there that he will be revealed in glory as the Son of Man and the King.

Discussing how the Lectionary can at times provide readings that are incongruous or out of season, Canon Giles Fraser – who resigned as Canon Chancellor of Saint Paul’s because of the cathedral’s response to the Occupy protests – wrote in the Church Times many years ago [4 November 2011]:

‘For too long the Church has been obsessed with its own internal workings and with silly arguments about sex. Now is the time for a new debate and a new emphasis. For if we are not fully involved with complex discussions about the relationship between financial justice and the way our financial institutions work, then we might as well give up on being a proper Church and admit that we are the spiritual arm of the heritage industry.’

He recalls that the Evensong readings set for his last sermon in Saint Paul’s Cathedral included: ‘Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God… But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation’ (Luke 6: 20, 25).

This morning’s Gospel reading challenges us in a way that is uncomfortable, but with things that must stay on the agenda of the Church.

The genius of power is revealed in those who have it and can use it but only do so sparingly. Christ’s choice is not to gratify those who want a worldly king, whether he is benign or barmy. Instead, he displays supreme majesty in his priorities for those who are counted out when it comes to other kingdoms.

Christ rejects all the dysfunctional models of majesty and kingship. He is not coming again as a king who is haughty and aloof, daft and barmy, or despotic and tyrannical. Instead he shows a model of kingship that emphasises what majesty and graciousness should mean for us today – giving priority in the kingdom to the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the naked, the sick, the prisoner and the refugee.

In the current negative stormy debate about refugees, asylum seekers and migrants on small boats, a debate fuelled by racism, prejudice and extremism, I find comfort in the opening words of the Psalm this morning and its descrption of God as ‘our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble’ (Psalm 46: 1). The Psalmist goes on to say, ‘Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change, though the mountains shake in the heart of the sea; though its waters roar and foam’ (verses 2-3).

As we prepare for Christmas, we should be preparing to enjoy time with our families and friends, time for a good winter’s holiday. But we should also remember the reason we have Christmas, the reason Christ came into the world, and the reason he is coming again.

We can look forward to seeing the Christ Child in the crib and to singing about him in the carols. But let us also look forward to seeing him in glory.

Let us be prepared on this Feast of Christ the King to see him in the hungry, the thirsty, the unwelcome stranger, those who are naked and vulnerable, those who have no access to adequate health care, the refugees and asylum seekers facing endless taunts and bullying day-by-day, those who are prisoners, those who have no visitors and those who are lonely and marginalised.

A sculpture of Christ the King at the Church of Christ the King in Gordon Square, Bloomsbury (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Today’s Prayers (Sunday 23 November 2025):

The theme this week (23 to 29 November) in Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘Gender Justice’ (pp 58-59). This theme is introduced today with Reflections by Rachael Anderson, former Senior Communications and Engagement Manager, USPG, who writes:

Since its launch 30 years ago, the Global 16 Days Campaign has brought together over 6,000 organisations across 185 countries, reaching more than 300 million people in the fight against gender-based violence (GBV). I first encountered it when I worked for a grassroots women’s organisation and now, over eight years on, I am pleased that USPG also lend their voice to the campaign. The ‘16 Days’ initiative enables USPG to amplify our commitment to gender justice, raise awareness, and reflect on the progress that our church partners have made in ending gender-based violence.

However, the campaign lives on because there is still so much work to be done in the fight against gender-based violence. These 16 days provide us with an opportunity to reflect on the ongoing reality of GBV across the globe and to consider our responsibility, as Christians, to demand accountability and work towards an end to GBV and discrimination in all areas of life. As we are called to ‘mourn with those who mourn’ (Romans 12: 15), true activism cannot exist without empathy. Yet, mourning alone is not enough – our faith compels us to take action and make a tangible difference for the women and girls who endure injustice.

During these 16 days, I encourage you not only to reflect but also to look within your own communities for ways to practically support survivors of GBV and advocate for an end to discrimination.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Sunday 23 November 2025, Christ the King) invites us to pray as we read and meditate on Luke 23: 33-43.

Christ the King in the Selby-Lowndes family war memorial window in Saint Mary’s Church, Bletchley (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The Collect of the Day:

Eternal Father,
whose Son Jesus Christ ascended to the throne of heaven
that he might rule over all things as Lord and King:
keep the Church in the unity of the Spirit
and in the bond of peace,
and bring the whole created order to worship at his feet;
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post Communion Prayer:

Stir up, O Lord,
the wills of your faithful people;
that they, plenteously bringing forth the fruit of good works,
may by you be plenteously rewarded;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

This Post Communion prayer may be used as the Collect at Morning and Evening Prayer during this week.

Additional Collect:

God the Father,
help us to hear the call of Christ the King
and to follow in his service,
whose kingdom has no end;
for he reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, one glory.

Yesterday’s Reflections

Continued Tomorrow

Christ the King … an image in this weekend’s notices at the Anglican Church of Saint Thomas in Kefalas, Crete,

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

Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2025: 140, Monday 29 September 2025, Saint Michael and All Angels

‘Archangel Michael The Protector’ by Emily Young at Saint Pancras Church, London … today is the Feast of Saint Michael and All Angels (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar. This week began with the Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity XV, 28 September 2025) and today the Feast of Saint Michael and All Angels (29 September).

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

1, today’s Gospel reading;

2, a reflection on the Gospel reading;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

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

Angel I by Emily Young (2003), Paternoster Square, London (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

John 4: 47-51 (NRSVA):

47 When Jesus saw Nathanael coming towards him, he said of him, ‘Here is truly an Israelite in whom there is no deceit!’ 48 Nathanael asked him, ‘Where did you come to know me?’ Jesus answered, ‘I saw you under the fig tree before Philip called you.’ 49 Nathanael replied, ‘Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!’ 50 Jesus answered, ‘Do you believe because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than these.’ 51 And he said to him, ‘Very truly, I tell you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.’

Angel II by Emily Young (2003), Paternoster Square, London (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflections:

Like many people, I never cease to be fascinated by the Caryatids that make Saint Pancras Church facing Euston Station in London a unique and captivating church. But I wonder how many miss the opportunity to appreciate Emily Young’s ‘Archangel Michael The Protector’ in the church gardens.

‘Archangel Michael The Protector’ is in onyx and can be viewed in the church grounds from Upper Woburn Place, around the corner from Euston Road. An inscription on a plaque between the sculpture and the railings reads: ‘In memory of the victims of the 7th July 2005 bombings and all victims of violence. ‘I will lift up my eyes unto the hills’ Psalm 121.’

Nothing moves in this image, a silent reminder of what is being commemorated in the sculpture. Because Saint Michael’s face has only one eye, and this is closed, some critics have wondered whether the quotation is ill-chosen. But the full context is provided in Psalm 121: 1-2:

1 I lift up my eyes to the hills –
from where will my help come?
2 My help comes from the Lord,
who made heaven and earth.

The London bombings twenty years ago on 7 July 2005, often referred to as 7/7, were a series of four co-ordinated suicide attacks that targeted commuters on the public transport system in the morning rush hour.

Three homemade bombs packed into backpacks were detonated in quick succession on Underground trains on the Circle line near Aldgate and at Edgware Road, and on the Piccadilly line near Russell Square; later, a fourth bomb went off on a bus in Tavistock Square, near Upper Woburn Place and Saint Pancras Church.

Apart from the four bombers, 52 people of 18 different nationalities were killed and more than 700 people were injured in the attacks. It was Britain’s deadliest terrorist incident since the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 near Lockerbie, and the first Islamist suicide attack in the UK.

Emily Young has been described as ‘Britain’s foremost female stone sculptor’ and ‘Britain’s greatest living stone sculptor.’ On different occasions, as I have strolled through London, I stopped and taken time at an open-air exhibition at ENO Southbank of works by Emily Young.

A number of her works have formed a sculpture trail or garden at the NEO Bankside development on South Bank in ‘Emily Young: Sculptor Trail.’ The exhibition was both a continuation and a broadening of her presence on the South Bank, echoing three large-scale works on long-loan facing the Tate Modern from NEO Bankside.

Emily Young’s sculptures of five angel heads in stone stand on five columns in Saint Paul’s Churchyard, London. The sequence of heads are mounted on columns under the arcade of a new classical-inspired building to the north west side of Saint Paul's, redeveloped as part of the redesign of Paternoster Square at the top of Ludgate Hill.

Her five angels’ heads are placed dramatically on columns in the arcade of Juxon House and almost face the west front of Saint Paul’s Cathedral.

Emily Young’s works are instantly recognisable and accessible. She deals in spectacular lumps of stone – quartzite, onyx, marble, alabaster – to which she gives an identity by carving a face but leaving the remainder of the rock displayed in its raw, craggy intensity, as if the face had grown or evolved organically. The Financial Times says: ‘Her sculptures meditate on time, nature, memory, man’s relationship to the Earth.’

xxx Emily Young was born in London in 1951 into a family of writers, artists and politicians. Her grandmother, the sculptor Kathleen Scott (1878-1947), was a colleague of Auguste Rodin, and the widow of the Polar explorer, Captain Robert Falcon Scott, ‘Scott of the Antarctic’. Her works included a statue of Edward Smith, the captain of the Titanic, now in Beacon Park, Lichfield. She later married Emily Young’s paternal grandfather, the politician and writer Edward Hilton Young, 1st Lord Kennet.

Emily Young’s father, Wayland Hilton Young, 2nd Lord Kennet, was also a politician, conservationist and writer. Her mother was the writer and commentator Elizabeth Young; her uncle was the ornithologist, conservationist and painter, Sir Peter Scott.

She was still a student when she achieved fame (or notoriety) in 1971 as the inspiration for the Pink Floyd song See Emily Play written by Syd Barrett of Pink Floyd. But the song had earlier origins in the 1960s. She was 15 when she met Syd Barrett at the London Free School in 1965. ‘I used to go there because there were a lot of Beat philosophers and poets around,’ she said many years later. ‘There were fundraising concerts with The Pink Floyd Sound, as they were then called. I was more keen on poets than rockers. I was educating myself. I was a seeker. I wanted to meet everyone and take every drug.’

As a young woman, Emily Young worked primarily as a painter while she was studying at Chelsea School of Art in 1968 and later at Central Saint Martins. She travelled around the world in the late 1960s and 1970s, spending time in the US, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, France, Italy, Africa, South America, the Middle East and China, encountering a variety of cultures and developing her experiences of art.

In the early 1980s, she abandoned painting and turned to carving, sourcing stone from all over the world. Travelling from a London childhood, to a European education, to a life lived as an artist round the world, she began to interact with the timeless quality of stone to produce breath-taking sculptures of luminous intensity and great beauty.

As well as marble, she carves in semi-precious stone – agate, alabaster, lapis lazuli. These not only reflect and refract the light – but glow with a passionate intensity (as Winged Golden Onyx Head), revealing the hidden crystalline structure of the material and the subtle layers the time has laid down, showing the liquid qualities of hard rock.

The primary objective of her sculpture is to bring the natural beauty and energy of stone to the fore. Her sculptures have unique characters because each stone has an individual geological history and geographical source. Her approach allows the viewer to comprehend a deep grounding across time, land and cultures. She combines traditional carving skills with technology to produce work that is both contemporary and ancient, with a unique, serious and poetic presence.

Emily Young now divides her time between studios in London and Italy. Her permanent installations and public collections can be seen in many places, including Saint Paul’s Churchyard, Saint Pancras Church, NEO Bankside, and the Imperial War Museum in London; La Defense, Paris; Salisbury Cathedral, Wiltshire; the Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester; and the Cloister of Madonna Dell’Orto, Venice.

After years of being feted as ‘Britain’s foremost female stone sculptor,’ the art critic of the Financial Times called her ‘Britain’s greatest living stone sculptor.’ The Daily Telegraph has written: ‘Emily Young has inherited the mantle as Britain’s greatest female stone sculptor from Dame Barbara Hepworth.’

She recently explained: ‘So my work is a kind of temple activity now, devotional; when I work a piece of stone, the mineral occlusions of the past are revealed, the layers of sediment unpeeled; I may open in one knock something that took millions of years to form: dusts settling, water dripping, forces pushing, minerals growing – material and geological revelations: the story of time on Earth shows here, sometimes startling, always beautiful.’

She told an interviewer: ‘I carve in stone the fierce need in millions of us to retrieve some semblance of dignity for the human race in its place on Earth. We can show ourselves to posterity as a primitive and brutal life form – that what we are best at is rapacity, greed, and wilful ignorance, and we can also show that we are creatures of great love for our whole planet, that everyone of us is a worshipper in her temple of life.’

Angel III by Emily Young (2003), Paternoster Square, London (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Monday 29 September 2025, Saint Michael and All Angels):

The theme this week (28 September to 4 October) in Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘One Faith: Many Voices’ (pp 42-43). This theme was introduced yesterday with Reflections from Rachel Weller, Communications Officer, USPG.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Monday 29 September 2025, Saint Michael and All Angels) invites us to pray in these words:

O God, who has given us the feast of Saint Michael and All Angels, grant us your protection and guidance. May we, with the help of your heavenly hosts, stand firm in the faith and be strong in your service.

Angel IV by Emily Young (2003), Paternoster Square, London (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The Collect:

Everlasting God,
you have ordained and constituted
the ministries of angels and mortals in a wonderful order:
grant that as your holy angels always serve you in heaven,
so, at your command,
they may help and defend us on earth;
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 heaven,
in this eucharist you have brought us near
to an innumerable company of angels
and to the spirits of the saints made perfect:
as in this food of our earthly pilgrimage
we have shared their fellowship,
so may we come to share their joy in heaven;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s Reflections

Continued Tomorrow

Angel V by Emily Young (2003), Paternoster Square, London (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

‘Archangel Michael The Protector’ by Emily Young in the gardens of Saint Pancras Church near Euston Station (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)