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 22


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

Acts 25,13-27

Some days later King Agrippa and Bernice arrived in Caesarea and paid their respects to Festus. Their visit lasted several days, and Festus put Paul's case before the king, saying, 'There is a man here whom Felix left behind in custody, and while I was in Jerusalem the chief priests and elders of the Jews laid information against him, demanding his condemnation. But I told them that Romans are not in the habit of surrendering any man, until the accused confronts his accusers and is given an opportunity to defend himself against the charge. So they came here with me, and I wasted no time but took my seat on the tribunal the very next day and had the man brought in. When confronted with him, his accusers did not charge him with any of the crimes I had expected; but they had some argument or other with him about their own religion and about a dead man called Jesus whom Paul alleged to be alive. Not feeling qualified to deal with questions of this sort, I asked him if he would be willing to go to Jerusalem to be tried there on this issue. But Paul put in an appeal for his case to be reserved for the judgement of the emperor, so I ordered him to be remanded until I could send him to Caesar.' Agrippa said to Festus, 'I should like to hear the man myself.' He answered, 'Tomorrow you shall hear him.' So the next day Agrippa and Bernice arrived in great state and entered the audience chamber attended by the tribunes and the city notables; and Festus ordered Paul to be brought in. Then Festus said, 'King Agrippa, and all here present with us, you see before you the man about whom the whole Jewish community has petitioned me, both in Jerusalem and here, loudly protesting that he ought not to be allowed to remain alive. For my own part I am satisfied that he has committed no capital crime, but when he himself appealed to the emperor I decided to send him. But I have nothing definite that I can write to his Imperial Majesty about him; that is why I have produced him before you all, and before you in particular, King Agrippa, so that after the examination I may have something to write. It seems to me pointless to send a prisoner without indicating the charges against him.'

 

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

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

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Luke writes here, as a sort of intermission, to recount Paul’s encounter with King Agrippa II and his sister Bernice who came to Caesarea to visit Festus, the procurator of Rome. Festus gives a summary to the king of the trial and wisely goes to the root of the problem; Paul affirms that a certain Jesus, whom the Jews believe to be dead, is alive. In truth, this is the crux of the apostle’s preaching as it emerges from his letters; the death and resurrection of Jesus are the pillars of Paul’s Gospel teaching. To believe that Jesus is risen means that he has conquered evil, and its first fruit, that is, death. This is why Jesus is called “Christ,” God’s envoy, and also “Lord.” When we say “our Lord Jesus Christ” we are saying that God sent Jesus of Nazareth, that he made Jesus Lord, that is, the conqueror of death and evil. Such a message is unprecedented; with Jesus’ resurrection, the lives of women and men are no longer closed in by an earthly horizon, but they open up to a new, unthought-of and perhaps unthinkable horizon. His resurrection is the greatest gift that God could have given to humanity. God’s gift is considered so great that on the night of Holy Saturday the Church sings of Adam’s “happy fault” that initially permitted the coming of the Saviour. Paul has faced many difficulties and dangers and has even suffered through a long trial in order to communicate this hope. He is among the first disciples who gave their lives to witness to the Lord’s resurrection. Throughout the centuries many others have followed this very same path. In the last century, in the gulags and in the concentration camps, millions of Christians paid the price of life for the very same faith. Perhaps for the sake of their blood, today we can look to our future with greater hope, because a love so great that it willingly gives up its life for us is indeed a sacred energy that continues to sustain us.

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!