The 5th Sunday of Ordinary Time | Sunday 5 February 2023

Today is Sunday the 5th of February, beginning the fifth week of Ordinary time.

One Hope Project sings, ‘My Soul Rests’. As you listen, can you enter into the Lord’s rest today?


Here in this mystery
Here in Your majesty
I find myself
With nothing to offer
Your love surrounds me
You give me yourself
My soul rests, my soul rests
In your embrace
My spirit sings, my spirit sings
All your praise
Here in your presence
The whole host of heaven
Bows down low
There’s no higher honour
No love that’s greater
You make us your own
You’re so close, Jesus, so close to me
Like the breath in my lungs
You’re so close, Jesus, so close to me
Like the breath in my lungs

Today’s reading is from the Prophet Isaiah.


Isaiah 58:7-10

Is it not to share your bread with the hungry,
and bring the homeless poor into your house;
when you see the naked, to cover them,
and not to hide yourself from your own kin?
Then your light shall break forth like the dawn,
and your healing shall spring up quickly;
your vindicator shall go before you,
the glory of the LORD shall be your rearguard.
Then you shall call, and the LORD will answer;
you shall cry for help, and he will say, Here I am.
If you remove the yoke from among you,
the pointing of the finger, the speaking of evil,
if you offer your food to the hungry
and satisfy the needs of the afflicted,
then your light shall rise in the darkness
and your gloom be like the noonday.

Today is Sunday. How could you ‘practise Sabbath’ today? Take a break from a usual way of looking at things, for example?

What leaps out at you in today’s reading?


There’s a sense of action and changing attitudes in the passage…

Are you being nudged into action or into changing an attitude, however small or seemingly insignificant? It might be something obvious. Or there might be something to discern. Either way, you can bring it to God.


As you hear the passage again, consider carefully the promises from God here. They are overwhelming, life-changing. Perhaps you are catching glimpses of them - or are immersed in them - already. You can acknowledge that with God.

As this prayer time draws to a close, I ask to see the Lord in those I meet today, those I read about, hear about. I ask to be open, and to respond, as to Christ Himself.


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.