Monday 6 July 2020

Today is Monday the 6 July in the 14th week of Ordinary Time.  

One Hope Project sings, ‘Come Close’. Spend a moment preparing for prayer; preparing for this time with God, becoming aware of your surroundings… knowing that God’s presence sanctifies this place and makes it holy…  

Today’s reading is from the Prophet Hosea.     

Hosea 2:16-18, 21-22

On that day, says the Lord, you will call me, ‘My husband’, and no longer will you call me, ‘My Baal’. For I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth, and they shall be mentioned by name no more. I will make for you a covenant on that day with the wild animals, the birds of the air, and the creeping things of the ground; and I will abolish the bow, the sword, and war from the land; and I will make you lie down in safety.
On that day I will answer, says the Lord,
   I will answer the heavens
   and they shall answer the earth;
and the earth shall answer the grain, the wine, and the oil,
   and they shall answer Jezreel;

Hosea had, under God’s instructions, married someone who turned out to be a prostitute.  What effect do you think this might have had on him?  

What is the difference between calling God “My Baal” and calling God “my husband”? What significance does it hold for you?  

We hear the prophet speaking of God’s “covenant” between Israel and “the wild animals, the birds of the air, and the creeping things of the ground”. What does this stir in you? Does it perhaps speak to our present global situation at all? 

Now listen as the passage is read again, and ask: What do these lines tell us about the relationship between God and God’s beloved people?  

Finally, you might like to gather your reflections and weave them into a prayer to God in language that makes sense to you.

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.