EVERYDAY PRAYER

Liturgy of the Sunday
Word of god every day

Liturgy of the Sunday

Fourth Sunday of Easter
Memory of Saint Mark. He shared the responsibility of preaching the Gospel with Barnabas and Paul and then with Peter. He is the author of the first written Gospel.
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Libretto DEL GIORNO
Liturgy of the Sunday

Homily

An important event happened on that Sabbath Day in the synagogue of Antioch of Pisidia, an ancient city situated in the heart of Asia Minor (present day Turkey); this event, when the Church left Judaism, does not just belong to the beginning of the history of the Christian community. In the synagogue there were high-ranking, pious women and men who were accustomed to meeting together. They were a solid and well-established group, and they believed in the one God, a beautiful and rare thing in a land of pagans and unbelievers. Into this meeting of religious, believing people came Paul and Barnabas, together with "almost the whole city," who were eager to hear the Gospel announced. The author of the Acts of the Apostles writes that "when the Jews saw the crowds" (13:14.43-52) they started contradicting Paul’s words and even blaspheming in a fit of jealousy.
This event has repeated itself through the generations, although in different ways. In fact, the believers who attended the synagogue in Antioch are like the believers of every age and of every generation, who think the words of the Gospel are something they already possess and know. They no longer feel the need to listen, and even when they do listen, they do not listen with their hearts and they certainly are not open to change. When the Word removes them from the wisdom or from their self-absorption, or when the Gospel breaks the boundaries of their group, clan, race, or nation, they react by contradicting it. What happened in Antioch is a warning for every believer, for every ecclesial community, and for the growing individualist mentality that leads us to emphasize what makes us different. When we believe that we already know and posses the Lord, we block his continuous call to convert our hearts and his daily invitation to go beyond our boundaries. In the end, we contradict the Gospel and blaspheme it. A life of following Jesus and his Gospel cannot be reduced to the safety of belonging or the tranquil acquisition of an ancient predilection. Following Jesus takes an effort to listen and a sense of urgency to change one’s heart. In the Gospel, read on this Fourth Sunday of Easter, Jesus says: "My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me" (Jn 10:27). Being faithful to the Lord means listening to his voice and following him every day, wherever he leads us. It is the exact opposite of sitting lazy and proud in the synagogue of Antioch. To all those who listen and to all those who follow (and the only way to follow is to listen while Jesus speaks and walks on the roads of the world), Jesus promises eternal life. None of his sheep will be lost, Jesus says with the assurance of someone who knows that he has a greater power than death. And he adds: "No one will snatch them out of my hand." He is a good shepherd who is strong and jealous of his sheep. The lives of those who listen are in God’s hands, and they are hands that never forget and always know how to sustain.
The book of Revelation (7:9.14-17) places before our eyes the vision of "a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the Lamb, robed in white" (v. 9). It is an image of the end of history, as well as the purpose of history. What the Good Shepherd is leading us towards is that multitude. And it is this vision that believers and people of good will are called to make real today, especially in this historical moment, when we see individuals, nations, and ethnic groups struggle more for their particular rights than for communion. However, this vision of the unity of the human race that often lies hidden is the goal of Jesus’ "historical mission." The Book of Revelation shows the opposite of what happened to the Jews from Antioch of Pisidia; the preaching of the Gospel broke through the narrow boundaries of those people who thought that they were religious and was launched into the vast world of humanity. The Gospel widens the heart of every believer, because it tears him or her free from the bitter root of violent and selfish individualism. In every single member of the "multitude" spoken of in Revelation, including those who are animated by the Spirit of God without knowing it, there is the universal breath that sustains the Good Shepherd’s heart. This Sunday the Church invites us to pray for priests and their pastoral ministry. We all take part in this prayer, knowing that all people, especially priests, have to live with the breath of universal charity that characterizes the Christian Gospel.

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