EVERYDAY PRAYER

Memory of the Mother of the Lord
Word of god every day
Libretto DEL GIORNO
Memory of the Mother of the Lord
Tuesday, August 30


Reading of the Word of God

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

The Spirit of the Lord is upon you.
The child you shall bear will be holy.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

1 Corinthians 2,10b-16

After all, is there anyone who knows the qualities of anyone except his own spirit, within him; and in the same way, nobody knows the qualities of God except the Spirit of God. Now, the Spirit we have received is not the spirit of the world but God's own Spirit, so that we may understand the lavish gifts God has given us. And these are what we speak of, not in the terms learnt from human philosophy, but in terms learnt from the Spirit, fitting spiritual language to spiritual things. The natural person has no room for the gifts of God's Spirit; to him they are folly; he cannot recognise them, because their value can be assessed only in the Spirit. The spiritual person, on the other hand, can assess the value of everything, and that person's value cannot be assessed by anybody else. For: who has ever known the mind of the Lord? Who has ever been his adviser? But we are those who have the mind of Christ.

 

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Look down, O Lord, on your servants.
Be it unto us according to your word.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Having just experienced the "failure" of Athens, Paul presents himself to the Christians of Corinth relying only on the preaching of the crucified Christ, the greatest, most eloquent articulation of the Gospel of love. It is the heart of the Gospel message and of all Christian preaching. The love of God for men and women is fulfilled in the cross. In fact, God sent his own Son to earth so that he would submit himself to death on the cross and so save men and women from evil and death. In the letter to the Romans, Paul wrote that it is almost impossible to find someone to die for a good person, but God sent his son to die for us while we were sinners. Disciples are called to understand this "good news" and communicate it to the world. And it is not with refined arguments that they should proclaim it, but with their own lives, just as Jesus did. The apostle reminds the Corinthians that he did not speak to them with "plausible words of wisdom, but with a demonstration of the Spirit and of power." That is to say, he spoke with effective words and with the testimony of real, concrete actions. It is not a matter of convincing, but of touching hearts and changing lives. It is a matter of becoming "spiritual" people, who let themselves be guided by the Spirit of the Lord. Guided by the Spirit, the disciple becomes spiritual, that is, full of a wisdom that comes not from his or her human traditions and customs, but from the Gospel. In fact, the Spirit reveals to the disciples the mystery that has been hidden for centuries, the mystery that reveals in the face of Christ things which no eye had ever seen and which helps us understand the mystery of love contained in the Holy Scriptures and the life of the Church. Those who let themselves be guided by the Spirit can say with the apostle, "We have the mind of Christ."

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