Welcome to Week 3 Day 3
As we begin a new week of prayer, it is good to remember to enter into the time of meditative prayer with a spirit of quiet and relaxation. Let the mystery of God be near you, and let yourself be open to God’s gift of the Spirit.
OT Exodus 23:12 The Sabbath
NT Luke 13:10-17 Jesus heals a woman on the Sabbath
Introduction
GUIDE
Presence: Take two deep cleansing breaths, remembering that God is the giver of life. “Here I am God. Thank you for your presence.”
As you read the passage, read Luke 13:10-17, first quietly, then aloud.
How will you pray with this passage? Will you pray, using Lectio Divina, waiting for a word or phrase to be highlighted for you? Or, will you read and enter with all your senses—entering the story?
After reading, and pausing, consider what God wants to tell you today—through the word or phrase—or the experience of entering the story.
Read Luke 13:10-17
On a Sabbath, Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues, and a woman was there who had been crippled by a spirit for eighteen years. She was bent over and could not straighten up at all. When Jesus saw her, he called her forward and said to her, “Woman, you are set free from your infirmity.” Then he put his hands on her, and immediately she straightened up and praised God.
Indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, the synagogue leader said to the people,
“There are six days for work. So come and be healed on those days, not on the Sabbath.”
The Lord answered him, “You hypocrites! Doesn’t each of you on the Sabbath untie your ox or donkey from the stall and lead it out to give it water? Then should not this woman, a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has kept bound for eighteen long years, be set free on the Sabbath day from what bound her?”
When he said this, all his opponents were humiliated, but the people were delighted with all the wonderful things he was doing.
Journal your prayer and experience of this time.