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Epiphany of the Lord
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Epiphany of the Lord

Epiphany of the Lord
The Orthodox Churches that follow the Gregorian calendar celebrate the baptism of the Lord in the Jordan River and his manifestation (epiphany) to the world.
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Libretto DEL GIORNO
Epiphany of the Lord

Song of the Shepherds

Shepherds, tell us what you saw:
Announce who is born on the earth!

You did not see, shepherds, a warrior,
You did not see legions of men;
They have chariots and horses,
He who is born today has the Lord.

The woman has given a child to the world,
They have placed him in a manger
In the city of Bethlehem of Judea
There was no place for him.

The child who is born is a sign,
With him a new heaven arises,
With him a new earth emerges,
The time of the Lord has been proclaimed.

Joseph brought him into the land of Egypt,
But from Egypt the son was called
And he went to live in Nazareth,
And he will be called the Nazarene.

The Spirit of the Lord is upon him,
Who sent him for the poor and blind,
For the prisoners and the contrite of heart:
Today the promise is fulfilled.

Shepherds, tell us what you saw:
Announce who is born on the earth!

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!