EVERYDAY PRAYER

Memory of the Poor
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Memory of the Poor

Today the Armenian Church remembers Metz Yeghern, “the “great Evil”. It is the memorial of the massacre suffered during the First World War in which more than one million Armenians were killed. Read more

Libretto DEL GIORNO
Memory of the Poor
Monday, April 24

Today the Armenian Church remembers Metz Yeghern, “the “great Evil”. It is the memorial of the massacre suffered during the First World War in which more than one million Armenians were killed.


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

John 3,1-8

There was one of the Pharisees called Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews, who came to Jesus by night and said, 'Rabbi, we know that you have come from God as a teacher; for no one could perform the signs that you do unless God were with him.' Jesus answered: In all truth I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above. Nicodemus said, 'How can anyone who is already old be born? Is it possible to go back into the womb again and be born?' Jesus replied: In all truth I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born through water and the Spirit; what is born of human nature is human; what is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be surprised when I say: You must be born from above. The wind blows where it pleases; you can hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.

 

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

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

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

During this liturgical season of Easter, the Liturgy opens the third chapter of the Gospel of John for us and presents us with Nicodemus, a leading member of the Sanhedrin and a pious and unprejudiced man. We saw him during the passion honour Jesus with a dignified burial. The evangelist John presents him to us in the context of his first meeting with the young teacher from Nazareth. A remarkable esteem for Jesus had developed in his heart, but he had been afraid of showing it publically. So he chose to encounter him at night. The Gospel passage does not reveal what he wanted to ask him. But he had a great deal of religious respect for the young “teacher who has come from God.” In fact, he is astonished by the works Jesus performs, and he immediately shows it. But Jesus seems to interrupt him, and without waiting for his question, anticipates Nicodemus and tells him that the necessary condition for salvation is to be born “from above.” Perhaps a little irritated, Nicodemus responds, “How can anyone be born after having grown old?” Jesus does not enumerates the actions to perform or list a series of precepts to observe; instead, he insists that what is required is a deep and total transformation of a person’s life. The spiritual wind transforms hearts and makes them new, capable of loving and daring more than they could have imagined before. The prophet Ezekiel writes: “I will give them one heart, and put a new spirit within them; I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, so that they may follow my statutes and keep my ordinances and obey them. Then they shall be my people, and I will be their God” (Ezekiel 11:19-20). That night, the words of the prophet became flesh in this elderly Pharisee and gave him the energy of a new life: he became a disciple of Jesus.

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!