EVERYDAY PRAYER

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


Reading of the Word of God

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Whoever lives and believes in me
will never die.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Revelation 8,6-13

The seven angels that had the seven trumpets now made ready to sound them.

The first blew his trumpet and, with that, hail and fire, mixed with blood, were hurled on the earth: a third of the earth was burnt up, and a third of all trees, and every blade of grass was burnt.

The second angel blew his trumpet, and it was as though a great mountain blazing with fire was hurled into the sea: a third of the sea turned into blood,

a third of all the living things in the sea were killed, and a third of all ships were destroyed.

The third angel blew his trumpet, and a huge star fell from the sky, burning like a ball of fire, and it fell on a third of all rivers and on the springs of water;

this was the star called Wormwood, and a third of all water turned to wormwood, so that many people died; the water had become so bitter.

The fourth angel blew his trumpet, and a third of the sun and a third of the moon and a third of the stars were blasted, so that the light went out of a third of them and the day lost a third of its illumination, and likewise the night.

In my vision, I heard an eagle, calling aloud as it flew high overhead, 'Disaster, disaster, disaster, on all the people on earth at the sound of the other three trumpets which the three angels have yet to blow!'

 

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

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

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

After the seven letters and the opening of the seven seals there are now seven trumpets. In biblical language the trumpet is not just a liturgical instrument, but also a symbol that heralds the eruption of God’s justice into human history. As with the first four seals, the first four trumpet blasts are described in four different scenes. The dramatic images, that is, the various disasters that are unleashed on humanity and creation, reveal the severity of God’s judgment. The brutality that men and women commit against one another in every corner of the earth and the violence that continues to reap victims do not find a distant and unmoved God. Every page of Scripture presents the Lord to us as a God who is passionately, and sometimes dramatically, involved in the events of history and the lives of his people. We must diligently weigh and sift through our own actions; our very words are subject to God’s judgment, as Jesus warns in the Gospel. Our thoughtlessness, superficiality, indifference, laziness, and nastiness are woven into a chain with serious consequences. We may not notice the evil caused by our actions. How often this happens! Evil is often banal, in the sense that people do evil things, even terrible things, lightly and thoughtlessly. We do not think of the consequences for others or for ourselves. But the shadows still do not reign over the entire horizon; only a third of the light of day is darkened. There is still time to make those decisions that can change our lives and avert the judgment that hangs over us. The eagle appears and cries out three times, "Woe!" It is the Gospel crying out for us to change our ways and convert our lives to the Lord.

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!