Tuesday 9 February

Today is Tuesday the 9 February, in the 5th week of Ordinary Time.   

One Hope Project sings ‘Abba Father’.  Become aware of your breathing as you begin to pray… aware of the live-giving breath that God has give you.  

Today’s reading is from the Book of Genesis.

Genesis 2:4-9

These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created. In the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens, when no plant of the field was yet in the earth and no herb of the field had yet sprung up—for the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was no one to till the ground; but a stream would rise from the earth, and water the whole face of the ground— then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living being. And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east; and there he put the man whom he had formed. Out of the ground the Lord God made to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food, the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

In the continued act of creation God shapes and moulds a person using dust from the earth. God breathes life and the person becomes a living being. How do you imagine this? What does this new person, this new creation look like?

What particular characteristics does God create in human beings?
Imagine what happens when God first breathes into this person.    

God also plants a garden and makes trees as an essential part of the person’s habitat.  How do you respond to the plants and trees in your environment? What more might you do to develop your relationship with the natural world?  

As you listen again imagine the tree of life, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  What do they look like? How do you know which is which?  

In these final moments imagine the breath of God flowing deeply through your body, filling you with goodness and life. Pray for all those who are struggling to breathe today.

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.