Eighteenth Sunday after Trinity AD 2026

In today’s Collect, we ask the Lord to grant us grace to withstand the temptations of the world, the flesh, and the devil, and with pure hearts and minds to follow the one true God.

The temptations that bind us to this godless world—and threaten to destroy us with it—are the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. Those who surrender to them cannot fulfil the greatest commandment: to love God with all our heart, and soul, and mind, and our neighbour as ourselves.

The lust of the flesh means more than sensual or sexual temptation. It is the tendency of our fallen nature to take God’s good gifts and use them contrary to His will. The lust of the eyes is the desire to possess and control, and to decide for ourselves what is good and evil: to place ourselves alongside God, or even above Him. The pride of life is the desire to measure our worth by what we possess, how well we prosper, the impression we make upon others, and what we have achieved—or appear to have achieved.

All these things pass away. God alone is eternal. And since God is love, the only thing to which we may anchor our hearts and thereby abide for ever is love. Yet true love requires us to let go of selfishness and surrender ourselves wholly to God, who loved us so greatly that He gave His only begotten Son for our salvation.