EVERYDAY PRAYER

Liturgy of the Sunday
Word of god every day

Liturgy of the Sunday

Second Sunday of Ordinary Time
Memory of Saint Anthony the Abbot. He followed the Lord into the Egyptian desert and was father of many monks. A day of reflection on the relationship between Judaism and Christianity.
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Libretto DEL GIORNO
Liturgy of the Sunday

Homily

This Sunday’s liturgy continues to develop the mystery of the manifestation of the Lord that we celebrated during the entire time of Christmas until the day of the Epiphany. The ancient liturgy sings: "Today the Church unites with the celestial Bridegroom: her sins are washed away in the Jordan by Jesus; the Magi run to the royal wedding feast bearing gifts; water is turned into wine at Cana and the guests at the banquet are joyful. Alleluia." Actually, we can say that we celebrate the mystery of the epiphany of the Lord every Sunday. He reveals himself to us in the Eucharistic Liturgy; he has the features of the risen one, of one who has overcome evil and death, has transformed solitude into communion, sadness into joy. Every Sunday is Easter, the highest moment of the Epiphany of the Lord. We are drawn out from our houses and from our daily rhythms so as to be admitted before the presence of God, to listen to his Word, to turn our prayers to Him, to taste the sweetness of his banquet table.
What happened in Cana becomes present. Even the temporal notation about the event - at the end of the week - helps us understand the Eucharistic meaning of the miracle of Cana. The evangelist reminds us that during the previous days Jesus had been at the Jordan with John the Baptist, on the fourth day he had called the first disciples, and right on the seventh day he went to Cana to attend the wedding feast for two of his friends. By writing: "On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee" the evangelist connects the end of the week to Easter, the beginning of the new creation. The sign of Cana therefore goes well beyond the memory of the wedding. What happened at Cana unites the repose after creation with the beginning of the new era of the risen Lord. Cana is the festival of change; it is the day of rebirth, of the joy of being with the Lord. Cana is Sunday; it is the day of our celebration, the day in which we are gathered together and, as the prophet Isaiah writes, we become "a crown of beauty in the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand of your God. You shall no more be termed Forsaken, and your land shall no more be termed Desolate; but, you shall be called My Delight Is in Her, and your land Married; for the Lord delights in you" (Isaiah 62:3-4). From this perspective, we should rediscover the grace of Sunday, the day on which the Lord holds us in his hand, like a bridegroom holds the hand of his bride on their wedding day.
This Gospel passage is perhaps among the ones with which we are most familiar. We all remember Jesus’ mother, the only one who is aware that the wine is beginning to run out. She is not concerned about herself or about keeping up her appearance. Her eyes and heart look after all, and she takes the trouble to make sure that everybody is happy and that the celebration is not interrupted. The concern for the young man and woman leads her to turn to her Son so that he may intervene: "They have no wine." Mary felt that the celebration was also hers; she felt that the joy of the two newlyweds was also hers. The deep meaning of Mary’s words is more personal of what we see at a first sight; as a matter of fact she says: "We have no more wine." It is an attitude we should make ours every day in front of the many who are in need of help, mercy, forgiveness, friendship and solidarity. When will all of these people be able to see the miracle of Cana too? When will the Lord perform for them the "sign" that saved the festival that day in Cana? Even today we need "signs" from the Lord, signs that show his strength of change. At Cana, Mary points out the path to the servants: "Do whatever he tells you." This is the simple path of listening to the Gospel that is directed also to us, disciples of the last hour. It is a path that we are all invited to follow. A Christian is the one who obeys the Gospel, like those servants. And the Church, imitating Mary, does not cease to tell us: "Do whatever he tells you." From obeying the Gospel, so begins the signs of the Lord, his miracles performed amidst the people.
Jesus gives the servants a peculiar command: "Fill the jars with water." It is a simple order, so simple that one could be persuaded not to do it; what does water have to do with not having any wine? They do not totally understand the meaning of those words, but they obey. Often we do not completely understand the meaning of the words of the Gospel well, but what counts is obeying the Lord; the Lord is the one performing the miracle. After having filled the six jars, the servants are invited to draw some water from it and bring it to the table; another command that seems even stranger. And yet, once again, they obey. The wedding feast is saved or, rather, it finishes with a success, just as the host of the party himself recognizes: "Everyone serves the good wine first, and then the inferior wine after the guests have become drunk. But you have kept the good wine until now." The evangelist notes that this is how Jesus began his miracles in Cana of Galilee. We have compared our Sundays to the day at Cana and we can compare the six stone jars to the six days of our week. Let us fill them as the servants had done with the Word of the Gospel. Let the Word enlighten our days; they will become sweeter and more beautiful. Cana truly can be the celebration on Sunday that, through the gift of the Gospel, permits us to save the good wine of the Lord for the entire week.

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