Praying at Home Today: Thursday 23 September 2021
Praying at home today:
The Season of Creation: The human roots of the ecological crisis
Thinking about the human condition: The need to protect employment
For four weeks, following the first Sunday in September until the day before Harvest Sunday, we will be focussing on the season of creation, in preparation for the COP26 Climate Conference in Glasgow.
Although we will follow our usual form of prayer, our readings and some other material will follow those given in Daily Prayer of the Scottish Episcopal Church for this Season of Creation.
This is a good time to be grateful for our beautiful, yet fragile world, and to dedicate ourselves anew as faithful stewards to its protection.
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.
O the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God!
From whom and through whom and to whom are all things.
To God be the glory for ever. Amen.
Romans 11:33,36
The earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it,
the world, and those who live in it;
For God has founded it on the seas,
and established it on the rivers.
Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord?
And who shall stand in God’s holy place?
Those who have clean hands and pure hearts,
who do not lift up their souls to what is false,
and do not swear deceitfully.
Psalm 24:1-4
Short reading
Sing praises to the Lord with the lyre,
with the lyre and the sound of melody.
With trumpets and the sound of the horn
make a joyful noise before the King, the Lord.Psallite Domino in cithara;
in cithara et voce psalmi;
in tubis ductilibus, et voce tubae corneae.
Jubilate in conspectu regis Domini.Chantez en l’honneur de l’Eternel avec la harpe,
avec la harpe, au son de tous les instruments!
Au son des trompettes et du cor,
poussez des cris de joie en présence du roi, de l’Eternel!
Psalm 97(98):5-6
The Liturgy of the Word
Here is today’s Bible reading.
Short reflection
During these four weeks of the Season of Creation, I’m reading Pope Francis’s encyclical letter Laudato si’, mi’ Signore – Praise to you, my Lord (LS) – and I hope to share with you a few nuggets from the Church’s social teaching on Creation and our stewardship of this planet we call our home.
In this third week, he explores the human roots of the ecological crisis (LS101).
Thinking about the human condition:
The need to protect employment
As technology makes gains in our lives, the risk is that it takes over from human work.
Francis reminds us that work is a sharing in God’s act of creation. According to the Biblical account of creation (cf. Genesis 2:15), God placed man and woman in the garden God had created not only to preserve it (“keep”) but also to make it fruitful (“till”).
Labourers and craft workers thus maintain “the fabric of the world” (Sirach 38:34). Developing the created world in a prudent way is the best way of caring for it: we become the instruments of God’s creative work (LS124).
So a correct understanding of work is essential as the purpose of human activity, not only manual labour but any kind of work involving a modification of existing reality. This extended scope is very broad, ranging from producing social reports to designing technological development, from designing a house to composing a musical work.
Underlying every form of work is a concept of the relationship which we can and must have with what is other than ourselves (LS125).
Monasticism, originally an escape from the world into the desert, developed under Benedict into a communal combination of work, prayer and spiritual reading (ora et labora). Manual labour is thus seen as spiritual meaningful (LS126).
It is essential that we do not forget that human beings “are the source, the focus and the aim of all economic and social life (Vatican II: Gaudium et spes, 63). At our peril, we forget the human capacity for contemplation and reverence, as this then makes it easy for the meaning of work to be misunderstood (LS127).
Part of being human is to work (to gain anything useful, we have to work at it, diligently). It is a path to growth and part of the meaning of life on this earth. If we allow machines to take over, the danger then is that all forms of small-scale work can be destroyed, irreparably (LS129).
What can we do?
We need to ensure that small producers are encouraged and diversified means of production maintained.
We can support local workers, buy fairly traded clothes and foods, always aware of the pittance that workers in poor countries would otherwise receive.
We can support businesses that genuinely produce wealth and improve our world, fruitfully being a source of prosperity and creative employment for the areas in which they operate.
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Responsory
The earth dries up and withers, the world languishes and withers;
the heavens languish together with the earth.
The earth lies polluted
under its inhabitants;
For they have transgressed laws, violated the statutes,
broken the everlasting covenant.
Therefore a curse devours the earth,
and its inhabitants suffer for their guilt.
Therefore the inhabitants of the earth dwindled, and few people are left.
The wine dries up, the vine languishes,
all the merry-hearted sigh.
Isaiah 24:4-7
Music for reflection
000
Prayer Suggestions
Creation waits in hope for God’s children to be revealed.
Creation waits in hope for God’s children to be revealed.
That Creation may be set free from its bondage to decay.
For God’s children to be revealed.
Glory to God, Source of all Being, Eternal Word and Holy Spirit.
Creation waits in hope for God’s children to be revealed.
Romans 8:19-21
As the Church celebrates Adamnan of Iona (704),
we continue our journey in faith today:
- for all preparing for the COP26 Climate Conference
- for the small steps we take to combat climate change
- for all who inspire us.
(In Holy Trinity, Stirling, we invite you to pray today
for Altar Servers, Brian, Mike & Suzanne
and for Sandy and David.)
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
God Most High,
maker of heaven and earth,
you created humankind in your own image
and entrusted the whole world to human care:
give us grace to serve you faithfully,
that we might be trustworthy stewards of your creation,
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Collect for the Season of Creation
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
- Worship resources from Holy Trinity Church, Stirling, Scotland
- Music for reflection
- RSCM: Hymn for the Day and Sunday Self-Service
- Liturgy resources from New Zealand – Aotearoa
- Prayer live from Taizé
- CCC – Christ, Covid, Community (Facebook Group)
- Live-streamed liturgy from Pluscarden Abbey, Scotland
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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