EVERYDAY PRAYER

Memory of the Saints and the Prophets
Word of god every day
Libretto DEL GIORNO
Memory of the Saints and the Prophets
Wednesday, November 25


Reading of the Word of God

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

You are a chosen race,
a royal priesthood, a holy nation,
a people acquired by God
to proclaim his marvellous works.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Daniel 5, 1-6.13-17.23-28

King Belshazzar gave a great banquet for his noblemen, a thousand of them, and, in the presence of this thousand, he drank his wine.

Having tasted the wine, Belshazzar gave orders for the gold and silver vessels to be brought which his father Nebuchadnezzar had taken from the sanctuary in Jerusalem, so that the king, his noblemen, his wives and the women who sang for him could drink out of them.

The gold and silver vessels taken from the sanctuary of the Temple of God in Jerusalem were brought in, and the king, his noblemen, his wives and the women who sang for him drank out of them.

They drank their wine and praised their idols of gold and silver, of bronze and iron, of wood and stone.

Suddenly, the fingers of a human hand appeared and began to write on the plaster of the palace wall, directly behind the lamp-stand; and the king could see the hand as it wrote.

The king turned pale with alarm: his hip-joints went slack and his knees began to knock.

Daniel was brought into the king's presence; the king said to Daniel, 'Are you the Daniel who was one of the Judaean exiles brought by my father the king from Judah?

I am told that the spirit of the gods lives in you, and that you are known for your perception, intelligence and marvellous wisdom.

The sages and soothsayers have already been brought to me to read this writing and tell me what it means, but they have been unable to reveal its meaning.

I am told that you are able to give interpretations and to unravel difficult problems, so if you can read the writing and tell me what it means, you shall be dressed in purple, and have a chain of gold put round your neck, and be one of the three men who govern the kingdom.'

Then Daniel spoke up in the presence of the king. 'Keep your gifts for yourself,' he said, 'and give your rewards to others! I can certainly read the writing to the king and tell him what it means.

You have defied the Lord of heaven, you have had the vessels from his Temple brought to you, and you, your noblemen, your wives and the women singing for you have drunk your wine out of them. You have praised gods of gold and silver, of bronze and iron, of wood and stone, which can neither see, hear nor understand; but you have given no glory to the God in whose hands are your breath itself and all your fortunes.

That is why he has sent the hand which has written these words.

The writing reads: mene, mene, teqel and parsin.

The meaning of the words is this: mene: God has measured your sovereignty and put an end to it;

teqel: you have been weighed in the balance and found wanting;

parsin: your kingdom has been divided and given to the Medes and the Persians.'

 

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

You will be holy,
because I am holy, thus says the Lord.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

History is full of mystery. The book of Daniel describes these mysteries as visions and dreams. Symbols, words, and numbers are interpreted to understand their hidden meanings. But these are not esoteric ideas or, worse still, superstitious ones, as we easily encounter in our own times. The language of the book of Daniel, like that of any apocalyptic genre, is expressed through symbols and numbers to help us go beyond what we normally see in a superficial way. The Word of God helps us to take mystery in, to not stop at the surface of things and of history. There is meaning in the movement of events; there are reasons that guide the steps of humankind and the events of history. Why do kingdoms and empires end, even the most powerful ones The book of Daniel rereads history and explains why in this short text: "But when his heart was lifted up and his spirit was hardened so that he acted proudly, he was deposed from his kingly throne, and his glory was stripped from him." Pride is described as the cause of the ruin for the empires that have dominated history. The prophet Ezekiel had already identified pride as the original sin of the people and hence, the reason for their ending, for their lowering unto death (chapters 27 through 31). Daniel, the wise one of God, goes beyond the ephemeral glory of riches and power, which seem to have risen above the people for an indefinite amount of time. As in Ezekiel, power is connected to idolatry and pride. According to the wisdom of the Bible, idols are nothing more than an expression of dominion and of a faith that does not go beyond the self. A man of God is needed, a man whose faith comes from God is needed, to understand the mystery of history and not to be prisoners of the logic of power, which suppresses others and does not set them free.

WORD OF GOD EVERY DAY: THE CALENDAR

Prayer is the heart of the life of the Community of Sant'Egidio and is its absolute priority. At the end of the day, every the Community of Sant'Egidio, large or small, gathers around the Lord to listen to his Word. The Word of God and the prayer are, in fact, the very basis of the whole life of the Community. The disciples cannot do other than remain at the feet of Jesus, as did Mary of Bethany, to receive his love and learn his ways (Phil. 2:5).
So every evening, when the Community returns to the feet of the Lord, it repeats the words of the anonymous disciple: " Lord, teach us how to pray". Jesus, Master of prayer, continues to answer: "When you pray, say: Abba, Father". It is not a simple exhortation, it is much more. With these words Jesus lets the disciples participate in his own relationship with the Father. Therefore in prayer, the fact of being children of the Father who is in heaven, comes before the words we may say. So praying is above all a way of being! That is to say we are children who turn with faith to the Father, certain that they will be heard.
Jesus teaches us to call God "Our Father". And not simply "Father" or "My Father". Disciples, even when they pray on their own, are never isolated nor they are orphans; they are always members of the Lord's family.
In praying together, beside the mystery of being children of God, there is also the mystery of brotherhood, as the Father of the Church said: "You cannot have God as father without having the church as mother". When praying together, the Holy Spirit assembles the disciples in the upper room together with Mary, the Lord's mother, so that they may direct their gaze towards the Lord's face and learn from Him the secret of his Heart.
 The Communities of Sant'Egidio all over the world gather in the various places of prayer and lay before the Lord the hopes and the sufferings of the tired, exhausted crowds of which the Gospel speaks ( Mat. 9: 3-7 ), In these ancient crowds we can see the huge masses of the modern cities, the millions of refugees who continue to flee their countries, the poor, relegated to the very fringe of life and all those who are waiting for someone to take care of them. Praying together includes the cry, the invocation, the aspiration, the desire for peace, the healing and salvation of the men and women of this world. Prayer is never in vain; it rises ceaselessly to the Lord so that anguish is turned into hope, tears into joy, despair into happiness, and solitude into communion. May the Kingdom of God come soon among people!

WORD OF GOD EVERY DAY: THE CALENDAR