Praying at Home Today: Friday 7 August 2020
A warm welcome to PrayingAtHome.com, where you can find some worship resources for praying at home today or wherever you are.
We hope these readings, prayers, music and the short reflection will help you stay in touch with the Church and to sustain you on your journey through life.
If this is your first visit to this website, then you might like to read about the common elements and the suggested structure for each day’s prayer.
Everything is optional!
Please note that with effect from 29 June 2020, we have reverted to the Track 1 “semi-continuous” Old Testament readings (this also affects the psalm or equivalent response); the New Testament and Gospel readings remain unchanged.
Opening to the Word
You can spend a few moments in silence,
focussing on your breathing
to become more mindful of the present moment
and to open yourself more fully
to God’s presence within you.
In the name of the living God,
the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Short reading
The land where they were living could not support them.
Nec sustinebat eos terra peregrinationis eorum.
La région où ils séjournaient ne suffisait plus pour eux.
from Genesis 36:7
The Liturgy of the Word *
Here are today’s Bible readings.
You can read just one, or all of them if you have time.
Short Reflection
Esau and Jacob find their own land
Jacob has been the hero for such a long time now that it’s easy to forget his elder twin.
In today’s Old Testament reading we hear, for a change, about Esau’s family and how they settle in the hill country of Seir, “some distance from his brother Jacob”.
Just as Jacob was renamed Israel, Esau is given the new name Edom, as the ancestor of the Edomites.
I’m beginning to feel sorry for Esau. Deprived of his birthright and his blessing by his brother, his people are always going to be second to Jacob’s.
As one of the psalms says, expressing domination by Israel over their neighbours,
On Edom I shall plant my shoe.
The fragile earth
Our short reading refers to the land not being sufficient for the brothers, their families and their livestock.
This phrase has a different but connected significance for us today as we become ever more aware of the climate emergency.
In the beginning of the book of Genesis, we read of how God created the heavens and the earth,
“and it was very good”.
While human beings have been given the earth to use for food and for their cultural development, we have gradually and ever-so-slowly realised that we are also stewards of the earth, caring for creation.
This realisation requires a change of lifestyle, living sustainably, so that we can hand on the earth in a decent condition to our children and their children.
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Cartoon by Tom Toles
Prayer Suggestions
We pray for peoples treated as second-best by others
and all oppressed peoples.
In gratitude
we thank all those striving to remind us of the earth’s fragility.
For organisations
working to educate us on how to live sustainably.
For those we know who have asked for our prayers.
a moment of silence
Pray for us all.
Music for reflection *
The Lord’s Prayer
We can say the Lord’s Prayer in any language or version we choose.
Here it is, in English, Latin and French.
Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name.
Your Kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us our sins,
as we forgive those
who sin against us.
Lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
For the kingdom,
the power and the glory are yours.
Now and for ever. Amen.
Pater noster, qui es in cælis;
sanctificatur nomen tuum:
adveniat regnum tuum;
fiat voluntas tua,
sicut in cælo, et in terra.
Panem nostrum cotidianum da nobis hodie:
et dimitte nobis debita nostra,
sicut et nos dimittimus debitoribus nostris:
et ne nos inducas in tentationem:
sed libera nos a malo.
Quia tuum est regnum,
et potestas, et gloria, in saecula.
Amen.
Notre Père qui es aux cieux,
que ton nom soit sanctifié.
Que ton règne vienne.
Que ta volonté soit faite sur la terre comme au ciel.
Donne-nous aujourd’hui notre pain de ce jour.
Pardonne-nous nos offences
comme nous pardonnons aussi
à ceux qui nous ont offensés.
Et ne nous soumets pas à la tentation,
mais délivre-nous du mal.
Car c’est à toi qu’appartiennent le règne,
la puissance et la gloire
pour les siècles des siècles. Amen.
Concluding prayer
Living God,
you bless the earth and give it growth
to give us food and nourishment for our lives;
help us to care for your creation
for ourselves and generations yet to come.
Amen.
Let us bless the Lord.
Thanks be to God.
Benedicamus Domino.
Deo gratias.
Thank you for joining us in praying at home.
Oremus pro invicem.
* You can find more organ music from Holy Trinity Church, Stirling
on Alistair Warwick‘s website and on SoundCloud
There are several books by Brother Roger of the Taizé Community from many booksellers.
You can buy ‘The Complete Chronicles of Narnia’ at Amazon
In these strange times, we are called to trust
Other worship resources
Praying at Home Today: Acknowledgements
* Beginning with the week after Pentecost, the lectionary for weekdays is taken from the Vanderbilt Divinity Library. Currently, we’re following the semi-continuous readings (Track 1).
In that lectionary, the readings are in the following order: Old Testament reading, Psalm, New Testament reading; we have changed the order to the more usual OT, Psalm and NT.
English Bible texts are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Catholic Edition, copyright © 1989, 1993, 1995 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Latin Bible texts are from Biblia Sacra Vulgata, and are in the Public Domain.
French Bible texts are from Version Segond 21, copyright © 2007 Société Biblique de Genève by Société Biblique de Genève.
Images, unless otherwise stated, are from lockdown in Scotland, by Alistair Warwick.
Music engraved by The Art of Music.
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