Praying at Home Today: Tuesday 5 January 2021
Praying at home today
The Golden Rule:
Do to others as you would have them do to you
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’s optional!
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
But I say to you that listen,
Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you,
bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.Sed vobis dico, qui auditis:
diligite inimicos vestros, benefacite his qui oderunt vos.
Benedicite maledicentibus vobis, et orate pro calumniantibus vos.Mais je vous dis, à vous qui m’écoutez:
Aimez vos ennemis, faites du bien à ceux qui vous détestent,
bénissez ceux qui vous maudissent, priez pour ceux qui vous maltraitent.
Luke 6:27-28
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
More proverbs
The passage from Luke has Jesus speaking in proverbs, along the lines of Solomon in the first reading.
As priest, prophet and king, we understand theologically that he embraces all of humanity within himself.
But today we see him in the line of those who spoke wisdom, who gave encouragement by common sense.
(Indeed, Christoph referred to this a few weeks ago.)
We remember from the Advent antiphons that Jesus is described as “O Wisdom of the Most High”.
The Word of God, the Λογος, is also the Wisdom, the Σοφια of God.
The Golden Rule
In this wisdom, we learn how to treat our enemies, those who would harm us.
Rather than hitting back, we are called to love them, to pray for them, to do good to them.
Of course, this doesn’t mean that we have to like them. Some people are thoroughly obnoxious (and they may well find me/us so!).
Jesus, as have many other prophets and teachers, calls us to treat others as we would have them treat us.
Charles Kingsley: The Water Babies
Dr Len Fisher wrote an interesting article on The Ethics of Game Theory in 2017, in which he contrasts Kingsley’s Mrs Doasyouwouldbedoneby with Mrs Bedonebyasyoudid (Mrs D and Mrs B).
(For my liking, he draws rather too much of a distinction between “Jehovah” of the Old Testament and Jesus of the New.)
Dr Fisher draws our attention to the many people who have promoted reciprocal altruism as a worthwhile ethic (Mrs D), while the rather scary Mrs B offers the stick, rather than the carrot.
Both Mrs B and Mrs D’s approaches are valid and yet both approaches have problems:
- What happens if people don’t reciprocate Mrs D’s altruism?
- We run the risk of a spiral of violence if others aren’t put off by Mrs B’s approach.
That’s something to think about for the rest of the day!
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Music for reflection *
Prayer Suggestions
We pray at home today, bringing before God the needs of our world as we go into lockdown again:
- for our front-line workers
- for politicians who lead us (and those who fail to do so)
- for those who are worried sick
- for businesses and individuals struggling
- for hope.
(In Holy Trinity, Stirling, we invite you to pray today
for those testing & distributing Covid-19 vaccines across the world.)
For all who have asked for our prayers.
a moment of silence
Pray for us all
Amen.
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
O God,
whose blessed Son, Jesus Christ, was made human,
that we might become your children:
grant that we,
being made partakers of his divine nature,
may be shaped in his likeness;
who lives and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, world without end.
Amen.
Returning to the world
Verbum caro factum est.
Et habitavit in nobis. Alleluia!
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 Bookshop.org
Other worship resources
Praying at Home Today: Acknowledgements
The lectionary for weekdays is taken from the Vanderbilt Divinity Library.
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 usually 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 usually 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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