EVERYDAY PRAYER

Memory of Jesus crucified
Word of god every day

Memory of Jesus crucified

Remembrance of Gigi, a child from Naples who died violently in 1983. With him we remember all the children who suffer and who die because of human violence. Prayer for children. Read more

Libretto DEL GIORNO
Memory of Jesus crucified
Friday, December 15

Remembrance of Gigi, a child from Naples who died violently in 1983. With him we remember all the children who suffer and who die because of human violence. Prayer for children.


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

Matthew 11,16-19

'What comparison can I find for this generation? It is like children shouting to each other as they sit in the market place: We played the pipes for you, and you wouldn't dance; we sang dirges, and you wouldn't be mourners. 'For John came, neither eating nor drinking, and they say, "He is possessed." The Son of man came, eating and drinking, and they say, "Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners." Yet wisdom is justified by her deeds.'

 

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

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

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

The Word of God continues to take us by the hand to help us prepare our hearts to welcome the Lord Jesus, who is about to be born. It is a time for our generation to let its heart be touched by the preaching of the Gospel. It is easy to give in to the temptation to make all kinds of excuses to avoid accepting the Gospel's invitation to return to the Lord with all of our hearts. How often, instead, can it be said of us: "We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we wailed, and you did not mourn." Each one of us - and it is made easier by moments of difficulty - is instinctively inclined to think only of ourselves and only to stop and consider things that impact or involve us. That is the only melody we know by heart, and which we follow. We put aside everything that might disturb our tranquillity. In effect, we only trust ourselves, not anyone else. But faith, which certainly needs reason, nonetheless passes through the heart, that is, through trusting God and welcoming the Gospel as a living world that illuminates and warms. But the time to choose comes for us, just as it did for John the Baptist and the people of his time, the time to choose whether to follow Jesus or continue to run after ourselves. And it is a choice that we cannot put off, and the imminence of Christmas helps us make it. The true "wisdom" that we must have in this season is to grasp the great mystery of Christmas: a God that loves us so much he became a child in order to be near us. Christmas is God's extraordinary "work" of love. This is why it is beautiful to wait for the child who is about to be born. We should welcome him into our hearts, so he may make them tender.

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