Wednesday 19 February 2025

Today is Wednesday the 19th of February in the 6th week of Ordinary Time.

The community of Taizé sing Da Pacem Cordium: “Give peace to our hearts”. As I listen, I might join in this prayer, asking the Lord for peace in my heart, asking God to help me still myself for a moment, so I can listen to his gentle voice, speaking to my heart.

Today’s reading is from the Book of Genesis.

Genesis 8:6-13, 20-22

At the end of forty days Noah opened the window of the ark that he had made and sent out the raven; and it went to and fro until the waters were dried up from the earth. Then he sent out the dove from him, to see if the waters had subsided from the face of the ground; but the dove found no place to set its foot, and it returned to him to the ark, for the waters were still on the face of the whole earth. So he put out his hand and took it and brought it into the ark with him. He waited another seven days, and again he sent out the dove from the ark; and the dove came back to him in the evening, and there in its beak was a freshly plucked olive leaf; so Noah knew that the waters had subsided from the earth. Then he waited another seven days, and sent out the dove; and it did not return to him any more.

In the six hundred and first year, in the first month, on the first day of the month, the waters were dried up from the earth; and Noah removed the covering of the ark, and looked, and saw that the face of the ground was drying.

Then Noah built an altar to the Lord, and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird, and offered burnt-offerings on the altar. And when the Lord smelt the pleasing odour, the Lord said in his heart, ‘I will never again curse the ground because of humankind, for the inclination of the human heart is evil from youth; nor will I ever again destroy every living creature as I have done.

As long as the earth endures,
seedtime and harvest, cold and heat,
summer and winter, day and night,
shall not cease.’

Noah has been on the ark for forty days. Can you imagine what this might have been like? How might you have been feeling, restless, unsure of what was to come, or perhaps hopeful, and looking towards the future?

Imagine this boat, this ark. What does it look like, how does it smell, what can you hear?

As you hear this reading a second time, stand beside Noah as he waits patiently for the dove to return, and notice how this makes you feel.

Talk to God now, the God who holds you, keeps you, and protects you, and always will.

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.