Praying at Home Today: Monday 15 March 2021
Praying at home today:
The gift of hope
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
Some wandered in desert wastes,
finding no way to an inhabited town;
hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted within them.
Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble,
and God delivered them from their distress.Erraverunt in solitudine, in inaquoso;
viam civitatis habitaculi non invenerunt.
Esurientes et sitientes, anima eorum in ipsis defecit.
Et clamaverunt ad Dominum cum tribularentur,
et de necessitatibus eorum eripuit eos.Ils erraient dans le désert, en chemin dans les lieux arides,
sans trouver de ville où ils puissent habiter.
Ils souffraient de la faim et de la soif; leur âme était abattue.
Dans leur détresse, ils ont crié à l’Eternel,
et il les a délivrés de leurs angoisses.
Psalm 106(107):4-6
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
There’s an interesting line at the end of our New Testament reading:
We are God’s house
if we hold firm
the confidence and the pride
that belong to hope.
This tells us that hope, like the other two theological virtues, faith and love, is something we must work on.
These are considered to be gifts of grace from God
—they are given to us freely, not through any action on our part,
and we are free, but not required,
to accept and use them.
These are the virtues by which [the human person] relates to God Himself
—they are faith, hope, and charity (or love).
Scott P. Richert,
Learn Religions.com
The conductor and pianist Daniel Barenboim tells us that when we listen to a piece of music, we must latch onto the first note (a sound that comes out of silence) and that holding on will help us to remain with the music as it progresses to its conclusion (and ultimate silence).
This holding on is vital; so it is with hope: we can’t just hope for something and then leave it at that; we have to work at it, tenaciously, perhaps stubbornly, holding it.
Then, we who wander in the desert,
faithfully calling on God to hear us,
will see that the faithful God
delivers us from our distress.
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Music for reflection
Wie nach einer Wasserquelle
ein Hirsch schreiet mit Begier,
also auch mein durst’ge Seele
ruft und schreit, Herr Gott, zu Dir;
nach Dir, o lebend’ger Gott,
sie Durst und Verlangen hat:
Ach, wann soll es denn geschehen,
dass Dein Antlitz ich mag sehen!
Ambrosius Lobwasser (c. 1515-85)
based on Psalm 42
As pants the hart for cooling streams,
When heated in the chase;
So longs my soul, O God, for thee,
And thy refreshing grace.
For thee, my God, the living God,
My thirsty soul doth pine;
O when shall I behold thy face,
Thou Majesty divine!
Nahum Tate and Nicholas Brady
An English paraphrase of Psalm 42
Prayer Suggestions
We pray at home today, bringing before God the needs of our world:
- for all who work in child care
- for nurses and doctors
- for those working in care homes.
(In Holy Trinity, Stirling, we invite you to pray today
for the continuing valuable fellowship of the “Tiny Tots Café”.)
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;
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.
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.
Concluding prayer
Almighty God,
grant that we, who are weighed down by our sins,
may be relieved and encouraged by your grace;
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
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 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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