Praying at Home Today: Wednesday 3 February 2021
Praying at home today:
hope, like a candle in the darkness
calling us to seek God with all our heart
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
For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord,
plans for your welfare and not for harm,
to give you a future with hope.Ego enim scio cogitationes quas ego cogito super vos, ait Dominus,
cogitationes pacis et non afflictionis,
ut dem vobis finem et patientiam.En effet, moi, je connais les projets que je forme pour vous, déclare l’Eternel,
projets de paix et non de malheur,
afin de vous donner un avenir et de l’espérance.
Jeremiah 29:11
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
Seventy years of exile
Taken from Jerusalem into exile, for the Israelites, hope must have been elusive.
Yet Jeremiah, often seen as doleful, expresses a great hope in one of the most beautiful passages in the Hebrew Scriptures.
Although 70 years are to pass before they will see the fulfilment of that hope, the hope is put before them, like a candle in the darkness.
For thus says the Lord:
Only when Babylon’s seventy years
are completed will I visit you,
and I will fulfil to you my promise
and bring you back to this place.For surely I know
the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare
and not for harm,
to give you a future with hope.Then when you call upon me
and come and pray to me,
I will hear you.When you search for me,
you will find me;
if you seek me with all your heart,
I will let you find me, says the Lord,
and I will restore your fortunes
and gather you from all the nations
and all the places
where I have driven you, says the Lord,
and I will bring you back to the place
from which I sent you into exile.
Jeremiah 29:10-14
What is vital is that seeking God is an exercise of the whole heart, with the whole of our lives.
And even though life seems bleak at present, with extended lockdown into at least March (at least it’s not 70 years!), we can set our sight on the goal.
One of the great tenor arias in Mendelssohn’s Elijah has one of the verses above in a different translation:
If with all your heart ye truly seek me,
ye shall ever surely find me,
thus saith our God.Oh, that I knew where I might find him,
That I might even come before his presence.If with all your heart ye truly seek me,
ye shall ever surely find me,
thus saith our God.
Words of hope indeed!
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Music for reflection
Prayer Suggestions
As the Church celebrates the Saints and Martyrs in Europe,
we pray at home today, bringing before God the needs of our world:
- for peace and stability in Myanmar,
for Aung San Suu Kyi and the military leaders - for Eritrean refugees in Ethiopia
and all seeking safety - for the interview panel and candidates for the post of Digital Missioner in the Diocese of St Andrews, Dunkeld and Dunblane
- that we may be confident in bringing the Good News to others.
(In Holy Trinity, Stirling, we invite you to pray today
for Revd Christoph Wutscher, our Rector.)
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.
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 offenses,
comme nous pardonnons aussi à ceux qui nous ont offensés.
Et ne nous laisse pas entrer en 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.
Pater noster, qui es in cælis;
sanctificetur 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.
Concluding prayer
O God,
through our human frailty,
we cannot stand firm:
give us strength and protection,
that, with your help,
we may overcome all difficulties;
through Jesus Christ, our Lord,
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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