EVERYDAY PRAYER

Memory of the Poor
Word of god every day
Libretto DEL GIORNO
Memory of the Poor

Psalmody

Psalm 17

Antiphon

I thank you Lord for you have freed me from evil.

I love you, Lord, my strength,
my rock, my fortress, my saviour.

My God is the rock where I take refuge;
My shield, my mighty help, my stronghold.

The Lord is worthy of all praise :
when I call I am saved from my foes.

The waves of death rose about me;
the torrents of destruction assailed me;

The snares of the grave entangled me;
the traps of death confronted me.

In my anguish I called to the Lord;
I cried to my God for help.

From his temple he heard my voice;
my cry came to his ears.

Then the earth reeled and rocked;
the mountains were shaken to their base
they reeled at his terrible anger.

Smoke came forth from his nostrils
and scorching fire from his mouth :
coals were set ablaze by its heat.

He lowered the heavens and came down,
a black cloud under his feet.

He came enthrone on a cherubim,
he flew on the wings of the wind.

He made the darkness his covering,
the dark waters of the clouds, his tent.

A brightness shone out before him
with hailstones and flashes of fire.

The Lord thundered in the heavens;
the Most High
let his voice be heard.

He shot his arrows, scattered the foe,
flashed his lightnings, and put them to flight.

The bed of the ocean was revealed;
the foundations of the world were laid bare

At the thunder of your threat, O Lord,
at the blast of the breath of your anger.

From on high he reached down and seized me;
he drew me forth from the mighty waters.

He snatched me from my powerful foe,
from my enemies whose strength
I could not match.

They assailed me in the day of my misfortune,
but the Lord was my support.

He brought me forth into freedom,
he saved me because he loved me.

He rewarded me because I was just,
repaid me, for my hands were clean,

for I have kept the way of the Lord
and have not fallen away from my God.

For his judgements are all before me :
I have never neglected his commands.

I have always been upright before him;
I have kept myself from guilt.

He repaid me because I was just
and my hands were clean in his eyes.

You are loving with those who love you :
you show yourself perfect with the perfect.

With the sincere you show yourself sincere,
but the cunning you outdo in cunning.

For you save a humble people
but humble the eyes that are proud.

You, O Lord, are my lamp,
my God who lightens my darkness.

With you I can break through any barrier,
with my God I can scale any wall.

As for God, his ways are prefect;
the word of the Lord, purest gold.
He indeed is the shield of all who make him their refuge.

For who is God but the Lord?
Who is a rock but our God?

The God who girds me with strength
and makes the path safe before me.

My feet you made swift as the deer's;
you have made me stand firm on the heights.

You have trained my hands for battle
and my arms to bend the heavy bow.

You gave me your saving shield;
you upheld me,
trained me with care.

You gave me freedom for my steps;
my feet have never slipped.

I pursued and overtook my foes,
never turning back till they were slain.

I smote them so they could not rise;
they fell beneath my feet.

You girded me with strength for battle
you made my enemies fall beneath me,

You made my foes take flight;
those who hated me I destroyed.

They cried, but there was no one to save them;
they cried to the Lord, but in vain.

I crushed them fine as dust before the wind;
trod them down like dirt in the streets.

You saved me from the feuds of the people
and put me at the head of the nations.

People unknown to me served me :
when they heard of me they obeyed me.

Foreign nations came to me cringing:
foreign nations faded away.
They came trembling out of their strongholds.

Long life to the Lord, my rock!
Praised be the God who saves me,

The God who gives me redress
and subdues people under me.
You saved me from my furious foes.

You set me above my assailants.
You saved me from violent men,

So I will praise you, Lord among the nations :
I will sing a Psalm to your name.

He has given great victories to his king
and shown his love for his anointed,
for David and his sons for ever.

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