The Feast of St Bartholomew | Thursday 24 August 2023

Today is Thursday the 24th of August, the feast of St Bartholomew.

Steffany Gretzinger sings, ‘Come Let Us Worship And Bow Down’.

Come let us worship and bow down
Let us kneel before the Lord, our God, our Maker
Come let us worship and bow down
Let us kneel before the Lord, our God, our Maker
For He is our God
And we are the people of his pasture
I'm a sheep of his hand
Just a sheep of his hand
Come let us worship and bow down
Let us kneel before the Lord, our God, our Maker
Come let us worship and bow down
Let us kneel before the Lord, our God, our Maker
For He is our God
And we are the people of his pasture
I'm a sheep of his hand
Just a sheep of his hand
For He is our God
And we are the people of his pasture
I'm a sheep of his hand
Just a sheep of his hand

Today’s reading is from the Book of the Apocalypse.

Apocalypse 21:9-14

Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came and said to me, ‘Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.’ And in the spirit he carried me away to a great, high mountain and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God. It has the glory of God and a radiance like a very rare jewel, like jasper, clear as crystal. It has a great, high wall with twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and on the gates are inscribed the names of the twelve tribes of the Israelites; on the east three gates, on the north three gates, on the south three gates, and on the west three gates. And the wall of the city has twelve foundations, and on them are the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.

Today is the feast of St Bartholomew, named as one of the Twelve. Some scholars believe him to be Nathanael, who was introduced to Jesus by Philip. Nathanael had been the one who had first responded, “Can anything good come from Nazareth?”

Disdain or prejudice? Are there times when you have been so quick to judge?

There was still something about him that Jesus ‘knew’. When Jesus says that he saw Nathanael under the fig tree, perhaps there was a side to Nathanael that had been kept secret from many. Perhaps healed or forgiven, acknowledgement of who Jesus is, often brought about a change of name. Together with the promise that he would see ‘even greater things’.

Perhaps the mystery of Nathanael, maybe Bartholomew, is a reminder that we are seen by God in a unique way. How do you respond to this sense of ‘being seen’?

The vision of the New Jerusalem reminds us of those ‘greater things’. It is the bride of Christ, described in exuberant and brilliant wonder.

As you listen to the reading again, how do you experience this place of wonder?

“The wall of the city has twelve foundations, and on them are the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb”. The foundations of what we recognise will become the Christian community. Among them, of course, was Bartholomew.

In a time of prayer, share your feelings with the Lord, whose open heart will always see and respond to what we truly need.


Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.