EVERYDAY PRAYER

Memory of Jesus crucified
Word of god every day

Memory of Jesus crucified

Prayer for the unity of Christians. Particular memory of the ancient Churches of the Orient. (Syrian Orthodox, Coptic, Armenian, Syrian of Malankar) and of the Assyrian Church. Read more

Libretto DEL GIORNO
Memory of Jesus crucified
Friday, January 20

Prayer for the unity of Christians. Particular memory of the ancient Churches of the Orient. (Syrian Orthodox, Coptic, Armenian, Syrian of Malankar) and of the Assyrian Church.


Reading of the Word of God

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

This is the Gospel of the poor,
liberation for the imprisoned,
sight for the blind,
freedom for the oppressed.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Psalm 85, 8.10-14

7 Show us your steadfast love, O Lord,
  and grant us your salvation.

9 Surely his salvation is at hand for those who fear him,
  that his glory may dwell in our land.

10 Steadfast love and faithfulness will meet;
  righteousness and peace will kiss each other.

11 Faithfulness will spring up from the ground,
  and righteousness will look down from the sky.

12 The Lord will give what is good,
  and our land will yield its increase.

13 Righteousness will go before him,
  and will make a path for his steps.

 

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

The Son of Man came to serve,
whoever wants to be great
should become servant of all.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Psalm 85, of which the liturgy has us sing only a few verses, reflects the joy of the people of Israel at the time of their return from the Babylonian exile: “You restored the fortunes of Jacob” (v.2). But we could also apply these words to any situation of return to a new life after calamities like war, violence, and injustice, which unfortunately continue to plague human life. In times of difficulty, the people of Israel fasted, put on sack-cloth, and covered their heads in ashes, confident that the Lord would wipe away their sin: “You forgave the iniquity of your people, you pardoned all their sin” (v. 3). And they gathered together to invoke the Lord: “Restore us again, O God of our salvation” (v. 5). Evil, any type of evil, strikes human life every time we stray from the Lord to follow our selfish instincts and violence. We need to call upon the Lord to come back to reign among us. He is faithful and just: “Show us your steadfast love, O Lord, and grant us your salvation” (v. 8). The psalmist speaks to the Lord and reminds him of everything he has done for Israel. In prayer we can speak to God in many different ways. In truth, we need to remind ourselves of the Lord’s faithfulness and our countless infidelities that have caused the evils we suffer. And yet, with the psalmist, we want to show God the difference between His strong deeds in the past and His silence during the anguish of exile. But believers know that God will not abandon them. It is enough to read Scripture: God has always been good to Israel, even when they wandered far from Him. It is on God’s faithfulness that Israel’s faith rests. The Lord goes as far as to wipe out and even forget his people’s sin: “You forgave the iniquity of your people, you pardoned all their sin.” The believer knows that God, in His faithful love, guides history towards salvation, and he affirms that salvation can only be found in God: “O God of our salvation” (v. 5). Sin is in effect nothing other than the attempt to find salvation apart from God. And only those who “turn to him in their hearts” find peace (v. 9). The believer starts to listen to the Word of the Lord again: “Let me hear what God the Lord will speak,” and understands that “he will speak peace to his people.” Peace represents all the good things we need: life, liberty, justice, and fraternity. This is why the psalmist imagines a new future for the world by personifying the virtues: in the Lord’s time faithfulness and truth will kiss, righteousness and peace will meet. This “time” of fulfilment began with Jesus. The Christian tradition has made this psalm the song of peace.

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!