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This plan follows the Sunday liturgy:  reading + psalm + reading + gospel       From  www.simplebible.info            Previous R-R-P 

O Holy Spirit, please guide me as I read these passages for today.                     
May these passages give me hope, strength, wisdom, compassion, courage and peace for my daily life             Chinese text

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R-R-P  Reading - Reflection - Prayer   Jan 11, 2013 
With readers' comments, below                 

Reading:  Job 32-39

Job's three friends had no more to say.
But a young  man named Elihu decided to join the conversation.

He said to Job "How can you claim to be innocent
and yet say that God is persecuting you without cause?"

As Elihu continued his speech, suddenly  the voice of God himself was heard.

God asked Job "Have you ever given orders to the morning for day to begin? 
Have you ever arranged the stars in the sky?

Was it you who gave all the animals their various powers?
Who do you think you are?"

Reflection:
In this reading, and in the reading for tomorrow, God gives Job a speech about the marvels of creation, but God does not answer Job's question about the problem of suffering. As one Bible commentator points out, God's answer came centuries later, in the person of Jesus
...Jesus healing people afflicted with suffering, Jesus regarding fever as something to be rebuked, 
Jesus himself suffering on the Cross and Jesus risen from the dead.  To remember Jesus suffering on the Cross, to look at a Crucifix,  gives peace and strength and hope to people who are suffering. 

Prayer: Dear God, when we are confronted by the mystery of suffering and evil,
please help us draw hope and peace and strength from Jesus on the Cross

 
Reading:  Psalm 102

O Lord, listen to my prayer in my distress.
Do not hide your face from me.

For my days are vanishing like smoke,
my bones burn away like a fire.

I forget to eat my bread.
My skin clings to my bones.

All day long my foes revile me.
Those who hate me use my name as a curse.

But you, O Lord, will endure for ever.
You will arise and have mercy on Sion.

You will hear the groans of the prisoners
and free those condemned to die.

I pray to you: "Do not take me away before my time has come,
you whose days last from age to age.

Reflection: 
This is a special prayer for people experiencing great distress, physical or mental.
Very often all they can do is "hang in there", like Jesus on the Cross.
Like Jesus on the Cross, all they can do is try to think of the day of resurrection following the day of crucifixion

Prayer:  Lord, please help people who are in great distress. Help them "hang in there"

 
Reading:  Revelation 1 

I, John, share your sufferings. I
was on the island of Patmos, imprisoned for having preached about Jesus

One Sunday the Spirit possessed me. I heard a voice shouting
"Write down all you see, and send it to the seven churches of
Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea"

I turned to see who had spoken to me, and I saw the Son of Man,
full of glory. His face was like the sun shining with all its force

He said to me "Do not be afraid. It is I, the First and the Last. I am the Living One"

Jesus, Living One, we praise and adore you, Lord

Reflection: 
To continue the theme of suffering from the first two readings: 
when did St John the Apostle experience his vision of the Living One?
In a place and at a time of ....suffering. 
We shouldn't go looking for suffering, but if times of suffering come,
and if they are united with Jesus on the Cross,
they can become times of grace, for ourselves and others.
Not unlike the suffering of a mother giving birth...."her sorrow turns to joy"

Prayer:  Jesus, Living One, may our times of suffering be times of grace

 
Reading:  John 13-14

At the meal, Peter said to Jesus "I will lay down my life for you". 
Jesus replied "Before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times

To all of you I say, there are many rooms in my Father's house.
I am going now to prepare a place for you

I am the Way, the Truth and the Life.
No one comes to the Father except through me"

Reflection: 
In the midst of his own suffering, about to be murdered the next day,
Jesus offers hope and guidance to his followers.
Sometimes in times of suffering, we are totally occupied with feeling sorry for ourselves.
Can we try to be more like Jesus
....even in times of suffering to focus on others rather than on ourselves? 
In times of suffering, not to withdraw from life and live in a bubble of self-pity, but to care about others and ask "how are things with you?...did you buy that book you intended to get?....how's your daughter going at school? etc ....even as our own hearts are breaking

Prayer: Jesus, you are the Way, the Truth and the Life.
Please help us care about others even when we ourselves are overwhelmed with our own cares

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