EVERYDAY PRAYER

Memory of the apostles
Word of god every day

Memory of the apostles

Memory of the apostle Andrew
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Libretto DEL GIORNO
Memory of the apostles

Memory of the apostle Andrew


Reading of the Word of God

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

If we die with him, we shall live with him,
if with him we endure, with him we shall reign.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Ezra 1,1-11

In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia -- to fulfil the word of Yahweh spoken through Jeremiah -Yahweh roused the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia to issue a proclamation and to have it publicly displayed throughout his kingdom:

'Cyrus king of Persia says this, "Yahweh, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and has appointed me to build him a Temple in Jerusalem, in Judah.

Whoever among you belongs to the full tally of his people, may his God be with him! Let him go up to Jerusalem, in Judah, and build the Temple of Yahweh, God of Israel, who is the God in Jerusalem.

And let each survivor, wherever he lives, be helped by the people of his locality with silver, gold, equipment and riding beasts, as well as voluntary offerings for the Temple of God which is in Jerusalem." '

Then the heads of families of Judah and of Benjamin, the priests and the Levites, in fact all whose spirit had been roused by God, prepared to go and rebuild the Temple of Yahweh in Jerusalem;

and all their neighbours gave them every kind of help: silver, gold, equipment, riding beasts and valuable presents, in addition to their voluntary offerings.

Furthermore, King Cyrus handed over the articles belonging to the Temple of Yahweh which Nebuchadnezzar had carried away from Jerusalem and put in the temple of his god.

Cyrus king of Persia handed them over to Mithredath the treasurer who checked them out to Sheshbazzar the prince of Judah.

The inventory was as follows: thirty gold dishes; one thousand silver dishes, twenty-nine repaired;

thirty gold bowls; a thousand silver bowls, four hundred and ten damaged; one thousand other articles.

In all, five thousand four hundred articles of gold and silver. Sheshbazzar took all these with him when he led the exiles back from Babylon to Jerusalem.

 

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

If we die with him, we shall live with him,
if with him we endure, with him we shall reign.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

The word of the Lord is never pronounced in vain. This is what the beginning of the book of Ezra affirms. Even through the work of the foreign king Cyrus the prophetic word can find fulfilment, as he becomes the instrument in God’s hands to free the people of Israel from exile so that they may return to Jerusalem and rebuild the temple. This king of the Persians had conquered and subdued Babylonia, the ancient empire responsible for the destruction of Jerusalem, the temple and the deportation of the Israelites. Isaiah had already glimpsed in him God’s envoy: "Thus says the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have grasped to subdue nations before him..." (Is 45:1). Hence, he is presented as the chosen one, as God’s messiah. God does not act exclusively for Israel, but extends himself to all peoples. God’s word performs miracles in whomever he desires. To see in a foreign king the God of Israel’s envoy must have been surprising not only to the prophet’s contemporaries, but also to the readers of the book of Ezra. The main task to which he is called to undertake concerns the reconstruction of the temple in Jerusalem. The temple and the Torah—the divine teaching—are the heart of post-exilic Israel. Indeed it was in the temple that one could encounter the Lord, turn to him in prayer and offer sacrifices. Israel needed a physical space to encounter God just as we, too, need a place for such an encounter. In the Lord’s house each person can turn to the Lord personally and communally with sisters and brothers, invoking God’s mercy and receiving forgiveness. The exiled community shares a common concern for the temple. Everyone offers valuable objects because God’s presence is the most precious thing that anyone could possibly have. For this reason the whole beginning of the book will be dedicated to the work of the temple’s reconstruction.

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