EVERYDAY PRAYER

Memory of the Poor
Word of god every day
Libretto DEL GIORNO
Memory of the Poor


Reading of the Word of God

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

This is the Gospel of the poor,
liberation for the imprisoned,
sight for the blind,
freedom for the oppressed.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Judith 4,9-15

All the men of Israel cried most fervently to God and humbled themselves before him.

They, their wives, their children, their cattle, all their resident aliens, hired or slave, wrapped sackcloth round their loins.

All the Israelites in Jerusalem, including women and children, lay prostrate in front of the Temple, and with ashes on their heads stretched out their hands before the Lord.

They draped the altar itself in sackcloth and fervently joined together in begging the God of Israel not to let their children be carried off, their wives distributed as booty, the towns of their heritage destroyed, the Temple profaned and desecrated for the heathen to gloat over.

The Lord heard them and looked kindly on their distress. The people fasted for many days throughout Judaea as well as in Jerusalem before the sanctuary of the Lord Almighty.

Joakim the high priest and all who stood before the Lord, the Lord's priests and ministers, wore sackcloth round their loins as they offered the perpetual burnt offering and the votive and voluntary offerings of the people.

With ashes on their turbans they earnestly called on the Lord to look kindly on the House of Israel.

 

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

The Son of Man came to serve,
whoever wants to be great
should become servant of all.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Judah prepares for the battle, but God’s people know well that their true weapon for war is prayer. In the whole book there is not a word about an army of Jews that will face Holofernes’ army. Only after Holofernes is killed, when the entire people goes against the enemy’s army, it is only then that the men come out and take up military action, killing and massacring the enemy. The only weapon for combat is prayer and penance. Judaism, even before Christianity, knows the efficacy of prayer; it is the only action which has power over God’s heart. Besides, Israel’s army was wholly inadequate to fight against Holofernes. But God did not give Judaism, nor does he now give the Church, human means to combat the world’s might; on the contrary, he has given the believers the power of prayer which bends God’s own heart. God did not give Israel power over things or over men, or riches or strength or military alliances. Every other power could compromise the purity of the faith that Israel should place in God, and could perhaps imply complicity with the powers of the world. Israel will overcome when it relies only on God, when it entrusts itself fully to God. Likewise, Jesus fulfils his saving mission, in Gethsemane and then on the cross abandoning himself to the Father’s will and in prayer. He turns to the Father to cling fully to his will and he prays for those who crucify him. The whole of Christian life is union with God and Christ in order to combat evil and bring creation to fulfilment with "the new heavens and the new earth" of which the Book of Revelation speaks. Before the king who wants to defeat Judah, the high priest, the priests, the people of God, all the people of Judah put on sack cloths and raise their hands in supplication to heaven. Even the herds are covered in sackcloth, as in the book of Jonah, where the king of Nineveh orders that even the sheep, the oxen, everyone must fast and put on sackcloth (Jonah 3:7f). In any case, the prayer goes up to God as everyone’s plea, that of the whole community, including women and children. God’s heart yields to this prayer. It is the only condition for overcoming evil. God will work salvation, even through a single woman, as occurs with Judith. Humans await God’s aid, but the enemy’s threat continues and tightens the siege. The people, besieged in the city, are already dying of hunger. But now, when all human hope seems to fail, God intervenes to save. It was not the high priest, not Uzziah, the head of the city, but a poor widow who would strike down Holofernes.

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