Praying at Home Today: Tuesday 9 February 2021
Praying at home today:
For reconciliation and healing
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
From heaven the Lord looked at the earth,
to hear the groans of the prisoners,
to set free those who were doomed to die.Dominus de caelo in terram aspexit:
ut audiret gemitus compeditorum;
ut solveret filios interemptorum.Du haut du ciel, l’Eternel observe la terre
pour écouter les gémissements des prisonniers,
pour délivrer ceux qui sont destinés à la mort.
Psalm 101(102):19b-20
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
Disagreement, separation and reconciliation
In the reading from Acts, we hear of a strong disagreement between Paul and Barnabas about the latter’s cousin, John Mark.
Although Barnabas insists on Mark accompanying them, Paul doesn’t trust him for the mission as he left him on the first missionary journey (we don’t know why – perhaps he disagreed with Paul or was unwell).
We hear that the arguments were vigorous (hot!) and, failing to reach an amicable outcome, Barnabas and Mark left together while Paul went off on his separate journey.
As we read in Colossians 4 and 2 Timothy 4, they were later reconciled, with Paul saying about him, “I find him a useful helper in my work”.
For us today, this story is encouraging. It is natural for humans to disagree and sometimes these disagreements seem unsurmountable. We have different outlooks on life, different priorities and “we’re right and they’re wrong”.
Nevertheless, in God’s good time, we can see other peoples’ viewpoints, we might modify our own and thereby reach the starting point for a possible agreement.
And it is in this process that the Holy Spirit is at work, bringing together divided and fallen humanity (“prisoners condemned to die”) so that together we may journey to the Kingdom.
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