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, June 27


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

Psalm 15, 2-5

2 Those who walk blamelessly, and do what is right,
  and speak the truth from their heart;

3 who do not slander with their tongue,
  and do no evil to their friends,
  nor take up a reproach against their neighbours;

4 in whose eyes the wicked are despised,
  but who honour those who fear the Lord;
  who stand by their oath even to their hurt;

5 who do not lend money at interest,
  and do not take a bribe against the innocent.
  Those who do these things shall never be moved.

 

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

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

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Psalm 15 is a prayer connected to the pilgrimage that every Jew would make to Jerusalem, “the city set on a holy hill.” Upon arriving in the holy city, the pilgrim would go immediately to the Temple, the “tent” of the Lord, the place where the encounter with God took place. At the threshold, a priest would stop the pilgrim and question him using the words of this psalm: who can enter the house of God? And the psalm is the answer. The psalmist presents ten virtues which make of the man and woman a believer. The ones who can enter the house of God are those who behave honestly and act righteously; who are sincere and discrete in speech; who do no wrong against their brothers and sisters and do not offend their neighbours; who do not join in the company of the wicked, but respect the honest; who keep their word, even when it is not in their interest; who lend money without interest and who do not accept bribes to favour someone unjustly. “Those who do these things,” the psalm concludes, “shall never be moved.” With these words, the psalmist traces the profile of those who seek the Lord, and it becomes immediately apparent that the search for God passes through a correct relationship with people. There is nothing particularly out of the ordinary or specifically “religious” (prayers, penance, or sacrifices) in the psalmist’s words. The quest for God occurs in the ordinariness of human history, by loving our brothers and sisters with a sincere, generous heart, beginning with those who are the poorest. This message will be taken up in the New Testament and brought to its full realization in love: giving one’s life for one’s friends, as Jesus had said many times and shown through his own life.

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!