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, February 19


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

Genesis 6,5-8; 7,1-5.10

Yahweh saw that human wickedness was great on earth and that human hearts contrived nothing but wicked schemes all day long. Yahweh regretted having made human beings on earth and was grieved at heart. And Yahweh said, 'I shall rid the surface of the earth of the human beings whom I created -- human and animal, the creeping things and the birds of heaven -- for I regret having made them.' But Noah won Yahweh's favour. Yahweh said to Noah, 'Go aboard the ark, you and all your household, for you alone of your contemporaries do I see before me as an upright man. Of every clean animal you must take seven pairs, a male and its female; of the unclean animals you must take one pair, a male and its female (and of the birds of heaven, seven pairs, a male and its female), to preserve their species throughout the earth. For in seven days' time I shall make it rain on earth for forty days and forty nights, and I shall wipe every creature I have made off the face of the earth.' Noah did exactly as Yahweh commanded him. Seven days later the waters of the flood appeared on earth.

 

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

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

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Biblical authors are clear on the fact that evil is not a work of God, but of human beings. It is the depth of the human heart, in fact, that is tied up with feelings of hate, revenge and pride. This is evident from the first chapters of Genesis-human history is marked by violence that puts one against the other. Every facet of life is poisoned by the maleficence of people, so much so that God "repented having made man on earth and he was pained in his heart." The same heart of the Creator is broken by the spreading of violence among human beings and peoples. Violence pushes creation itself to regress into primordial chaos. This is what the flood is. It is not a punishment by God, but the consequence of human violence that makes everything return to chaos as was the world at the beginning of creation. It is narration that speaks also to our time. We think especially of the wars and their consequences, of the violence done to creation itself and to human nature and of its consequences; of destruction, of pollution, of the abuse of children and elderly. This page of Scriptures lays out some aspects of the current condition of the world where violence by now seems a norm of life ignoring that violence generates only violence. Believers, as it was for Noah, are called to walk with God and to listen to God to be able to conquer evil and distance themselves from destructive violence. Every disciple, every small Christian community, is called to be like an ark in the storm of the sea of the world, to offer shelter and salvation to all, in particular to the weak and poor, who ask for consolation and peace. It is the job of believers and still more of Christians: to offer shelter from violence, salvation from the chaos of enmity and destruction. The ark constitutes again the unity for which God created man and woman, the unity of humankind of which the Church is sacrament and instrument, like the Second Vatican - trhough28

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