Reflection
Don’t let rules and regulations stop you from doing good, is Jesus’ message in today’s Gospel.
Religion should encourage you to reach out to your neighbour with love and compassion, not give you reasons to avoid doing good.
Does your prayer and religious practice encourage you to reach out to others and live a good Christian life? Prayer and religious practice is not for God’s benefit, it is for yours.
Today’s Prayer
Preparation: Begin by stilling; then dedicating the time of prayer to God and asking God that all you think, feel and imagine are for the glory of God.
Gift: Ask for what you desire. Suggestion: To know Jesus more clearly, love him more dearly, and follow him more nearly.
Setting: A Scripture reading to imagine you are in the scene.
Scripture
Matthew 12:9-14 WEB
Jesus departed from there and went into their synagogue.
And behold, there was a man with a withered hand.
They asked him, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath day?” so that they might accuse him.
He said to them, “What man is there among you who has one sheep,
and if this one falls into a pit on the Sabbath day, won’t he grab on to it and lift it out?
Of how much more value then is a man than a sheep!
Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath day.”
Then he told the man, “Stretch out your hand.”
He stretched it out; and it was restored whole, just like the other.
But the Pharisees went out and conspired against him, how they might destroy him.
Conversation: Talk to Jesus in your own words as a friend
Final Prayer: End with a formal prayer such as the Lord’s Prayer/Our Father.
Today’s Music
Da pacem Domine: sung by Ensemble Organum Marcel Pérès
Lyrics
Da Pacem Domine Da pacem,
Domine, in diebus nostris
Quia non est aliu
Qui pugnet pro nobis
Nisi Tu Deus noster
Fiat pax in virtute tua: et abundantia in turribus tuis
Da pacem, Domine, in diebus nostris
Quia non est alius
Qui pugnet pro nobis
Nisi Tu Deus noster
Propter fratres meos et proximos meos loquebar pacem de te
Da pacem, Domine, in diebus nostris
Quia non est alius
Qui pugnet pro nobis
Nisi Tu Deus noster
Domine, in diebus nostris
Quia non est alius
Qui pugnet pro nobis
Nisi Tu Deus noster
Propter domum Domini Dei nostri quaesivi bona tibi
Da pacem, Domine, in diebus nostris
Quia non est alius
Qui pugnet pro nobis
Nisi Tu Deus noster
Rogate quae ad pacem sunt Jerusalem: et abundantia diligentibus te
Da pacem, Domine, in diebus nostris
Quia non est alius
Qui pugnet pro nobis
Nisi Tu Deus noster
Gloria Patri et Filio et Spiritui Sancto
Sicut erat in principio et nunc et semper, et in saecula saeculorum
Amen