Here is today’s Old Testament reading, from Isaiah: ‘For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and return not thither but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and prosper in the thing for which I sent it’.

St John, at the beginning of his account of the Footwashing of the disciples, says this: ‘Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going to God, rose from supper, laid aside his garments, and girded himself with a towel’. These words are dense with resonances of the Passion, but for now, the single course of the Word of God is our focus.

In these days, may we remain close to that Word as we move through this Lenten season, and may He bless us all this day.