EVERYDAY PRAYER

Sunday Vigil
Word of god every day
Libretto DEL GIORNO
Sunday Vigil


Reading of the Word of God

Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory

Whoever lives and believes in me
will never die.

Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory

Ecclesiastes 8,10-17

And again, I have observed the wicked carried to their graves, and people leaving the holy place and, once out in the city, forgetting how the wicked used to behave; how futile this is too!

Because the sentence on the evil-doer is not carried out on the instant, people's hearts are full of desire to do wrong.

The sinner who does wrong a hundred times lives on. But this too I know, that there is good in store for people who fear God, because they fear him,

but there is no good in store for the wicked because he does not fear God, and so, like a shadow, he will not prolong his days.

Another futile thing that happens on earth: upright people being treated as though they were wicked and wicked people being treated as though they were upright. To me this is one more example of futility.

And therefore I praise joy, since human happiness lies only in eating and drinking and in taking pleasure; this comes from what someone achieves during the days of life that God gives under the sun.

Having applied myself to acquiring wisdom and to observing the activity taking place in the world -- for day and night our eyes enjoy no rest-

I have scrutinised God's whole creation: you cannot get to the bottom of everything taking place under the sun; you may wear yourself out in the search, but you will never find it. Not even a sage can get to the bottom of it, even if he says that he has done so.

 

Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory

If you believe, you will see the glory of God,
thus says the Lord.

Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory

Generally it is thought that good people, those who respect God, have a happy life, while the wicked have an unhappy life. In reality, says Qohelet, experience shows the contrary: we see wicked persons receiving honours and recognition. He writes: "Then I saw the wicked buried; they used to go in and out of the holy place, and were praised in the city where they had done such things" (v. 10). Honest people, on the contrary, are forgotten. The doctrine affirms that fear of God guarantees success and a long life. But experience seems to not establish any "law": it could be that there are righteous who are unfortunate and wicked who are happy (v. 14). In truth, no one can say he deserves what he has. Righteousness and wickedness cannot be measured from the conditions of life led by human beings. It is to say that happiness too is independent of the results obtained in life. The good is done for itself and not because it provides a benefit. It can even happen that in doing good pain and suffering also arrive. What to do? The best life to lead -Qohelet once again reminds us- is to enjoy what the present moment offers, that is "to eat, and drink, and enjoy themselves" (v. 15). Therefore, knowing how to seize every joy as a gift of God is an exercise of faith that frees from the despairing obsession of having to "build" happiness. How many more joys will we not discover if we do not let ourselves be grasped by the concern to "build them" with our hands and "conquer them." Certainly toil and suffering will not be lacking. But it is no certain recipe for being happy. One needs to be attentive in order to grasp that portion of joy that God allows no one to lack. Qohelet compares human bustling about upon the earth (v. 16) and everything that is done under the sun (v. 17) to God’s own work (v. 17). It is to say that human activity is never separated from God’s work: there is a presence of God in human life. But one struggles to understand it. Human wisdom stops in front of God’s beyond. Humans cannot understand "all the work of God." At most, they can grasp only a shred of it. The wise are not those who understand everything, but those who have decided to cast themselves into the "mystery" of God, of which they grasp a glimpse in human vicissitude.

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