Praying at Home Today: Saturday 10 October 2020
Praying at home today: a day of reckoning, of justice and mercy
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
You prepare a table before me
in the presence of my enemies.Parasti in conspectu meo mensam
adversus eos qui tribulant me.Tu dresses une table devant moi,
en face de mes adversaires.
Psalm 22 (23):5
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
A day of reckoning
The Requiem Mass (in its traditional form) has a movement entitled ‘Dies irae’. The many compositions by composers, famous or otherwise, set this text in different ways. An alternative version also appears in non-traditional settings such as those by Fauré and Duruflé.
It speaks of that day of calamity when the world is brought to judgment and there is a certainly a hint of this in today’s first reading from Isaiah 24.
It may also speak to us today of our current predicament, with all-too-genuine fears about the terror that is the pandemic encircling the world at this time (not to mention fears also about where we’re being led politically and economically).
Perhaps all too real for us is the imagery of lockdown with all its ramifications.
“That day” in the Gospel
“That day” also appears in our reading from Mark’s Gospel. Despite its early appearance in the text – in the second chapter – it’s an eschatological text (relating to the last times).
Jesus tells his critics that while the bridegroom is still with them, they must party; only when he is gone (on “that day”) will they be unable to do so.
A table spread for us
The wedding feast relates to the coming Kingdom when God will reign, having conquered evil and death.
We believe that this was achieved in Jesus’ death and resurrection; however, the making present of that achievement is still unfolding in our lives and by our prayers.
Having travelled the valley of the shadow of death, within which God is always with us, we reach God’s holy mountain and the eschatalogical banquet portrayed in the 23rd Psalm:
You prepare a table before me
in the presence of my enemies;
you anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
all the days of my life,
and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord
my whole life long.
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