EVERYDAY PRAYER

Memory of the apostles
Word of god every day

Memory of the apostles

Memory of the apostle Thomas. He confessed Jesus as his Lord and, according to tradition, witnessed him all the way to India.
Read more

Libretto DEL GIORNO
Memory of the apostles

Memory of the apostle Thomas. He confessed Jesus as his Lord and, according to tradition, witnessed him all the way to India.


Reading of the Word of God

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

If we die with him, we shall live with him,
if with him we endure, with him we shall reign.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

John 20,24-29

Thomas, called the Twin, who was one of the Twelve, was not with them when Jesus came.

So the other disciples said to him, 'We have seen the Lord,' but he answered, 'Unless I can see the holes that the nails made in his hands and can put my finger into the holes they made, and unless I can put my hand into his side, I refuse to believe.'

Eight days later the disciples were in the house again and Thomas was with them. The doors were closed, but Jesus came in and stood among them. 'Peace be with you,' he said.

Then he spoke to Thomas, 'Put your finger here; look, here are my hands. Give me your hand; put it into my side. Do not be unbelieving any more but believe.'

Thomas replied, 'My Lord and my God!'

Jesus said to him: You believe because you can see me. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe.

 

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

If we die with him, we shall live with him,
if with him we endure, with him we shall reign.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Thomas is presented to us in the Gospels as a courageous and impulsive man. He is the one who convinces the other disciples to go to Judea to follow the Teacher on his visit to his sick friend Lazarus. Nonetheless, Thomas is the last apostle to believe in Jesus’ resurrection. The evangelist John tells us that Thomas is not with the Apostles in the upper room on Easter day, and he professes all of his incredulity when they say they have seen the risen Lord. A week later, Jesus returns and this time finds Thomas there. Jesus calls him by name, and invites him to put his hands in the wounds left by the spear and the nails. At the sound of the Teacher’s voice, Thomas’ heart is touched and his resistance dissolves. He no longer needs to touch the still-wounded but risen body with his hand. It is enough to hear him call him by name. The same thing happened to Mary on Easter morning when she recognized Jesus because he had called her by name. Like Mary, Thomas is won over by Jesus’ love, and both will become passionate and tenacious witnesses of the good news. Tradition says that Thomas went all the way to India to preach the Gospel, truly to the ends of the earth.

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