Praying at Home Today: Saturday 5 September 2020
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A warm welcome to PrayingAtHome.com, where you can find 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!
We follow the Track 2 “related” Old Testament reading and psalm (or equivalent response).
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
Lead me in the path of your commandments,
for I delight in it.
Deduc me in semitam mandatorum tuorum,
quia ipsam volui.
Conduis-moi dans le sentier de tes commandements,
car je l’aime.
Psalm 118 (119):35
The Liturgy of the Word *
Here are today’s Bible readings.
You can read just one, or all three if you have time.
One link to all three readings
Separate links to each reading
Short Reflection
We’re all connected
Today’s reading from Ezekiel reminds that we’re all connected.
If we see danger, then we must warn others;
if we don’t do so, then we’re responsible for what happens to them.
If they respond, then fine;
if they don’t, then they have to bear responsibility since they’ve been warned.
A simple example of this might be witnessing a fire: naturally, we would want to warn those in danger.
Other possibilities also suggest themselves.
Jesus condemns hypocrisy
Jesus is condemning the hypocrisy of the scribes and Pharisees who raise monuments to the prophets, telling themselves that they would have been on the side of the prophets, rather than among those who persecuted them.
No, Jesus tells them, you are testifying against yourselves as you are descendants of those persecutors.
Indeed, when God sends modern-day prophets, still they persecute and hound and kill them.
And just as their ancestors were taken into exile, so Jerusalem will fall again and the Temple be destroyed (in 70AD).
What about us?
Our psalm reminds us to keep God’s commandments, indeed not only to keep the commandments but to seek them out and to love them.
How can we do this?
First and foremost is a love for the word of God,
(which is what we are doing as we pray at home!).
As we meditate during the day on the Short Reading, another short extract from our readings or indeed anything else that has taken hold of our imagination, we are already doing Lectio Divina.
And so, day by day, we conform our hearts and minds to Christ, the Way, the Truth and the Life.
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Prayer Suggestions
We entrust our world, our nation,
our local neighbourhood and those we love to God.
We bring before the Lord our fragile world,
the divisions in our nation,
the troubles in our neighbourhood,
and the challenges we face in our relationships.
We pray for justice and peace and the healing of relationships:
between Greece and Turkey,
in Belarus,
and in other parts of the world.
And we pray for those for whom this “new normal” is proving more than challenging.
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
With faith in our loving Father,
in the hope of the Son
and the love of the Holy Spirit
we commend this day (night) to God.
Amen.
Returning to the world
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.
In these strange times, we are called to trust
* 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
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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