Friday 20 February 2026
Isaiah 58:1-9. A broken, humbled heart, O God, you will not spurn – Ps 50(51):3-6, 18-19. Matthew 9:14-15.
Time for reflection
When the music stops at wedding receptions and the lights come up, there’s an immediate change. Even at reception venues, the bride and groom barely gone, the family moves into a kind of pack-down mode. Floral arrangements, gifts, various accoutrements are loaded up. It’s not feasting to fasting, but it is suggestive.
We live in the days of feasting and of fasting. For the bridegroom has been taken away, and yet through the Resurrection and the sending of the Holy Spirit, Christ’s own Spirit, we remain in that time when Christ is present among us. We are invited to the celebration, but we are aware of the world’s, and not least our own, failure to respond to the invitation to this banquet. It is in recognising how much we have to celebrate that we realise the need for some time of reflection away from the party.
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