EVERYDAY PRAYER

Liturgy of the Sunday
Word of god every day

Liturgy of the Sunday

Fourth Sunday of Ordinary Time
Memory of the death of Gandhi. With him we remember all those who, in the name of non-violence, are peacemakers.
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Libretto DEL GIORNO
Liturgy of the Sunday

Homily

The Gospel of the fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time begins with the great composition of Matthew that spans three entire chapters, from 5 to 7. It is the Sermon of the Mount, the Magna Charta of the disciple. Matthew wants to give this message a special relevance: he has Jesus speaking from a mountain, the place par excellence from where God teaches, as if to suggest a parallel between the old and the new alliances between God and his people. The first alliance was confirmed by the law given to Moses on Mount Sinai; the second receives its seal with this new law proclaimed on the Mount of the Beatitudes. In last week’s Gospel, we saw that the first disciples and crowds gathered around Jesus. They were men and women won over by words that were different from those they normally heard. Indeed, Jesus did not speak in the way all the other teachers of the time did - and there were a few scattered all over: he spoke "with authority," as the Evangelist notes at the end of the Sermon of the Mount. This authority came from the One who came among men to serve and not to be served and who was ready to love the Gospel more than his own life. The people who went to listen to him perceived these things and could see for themselves the truth and concreteness of these words. They were people who were often tired and sick, poor and beggars, sometimes proud and violent and other times desperate.
Jesus has had them in front of his eyes for many days; we can imagine him while he looked upon those men and women who followed him even when it was a sacrifice: he questioned them, he listened to them and learned some of them by name, but most especially, he knows their questions and needs even if he does not know all of their stories. He has compassion for them. Indeed, the reason for this evangelical scene comes from his strong feeling of compassion. Seeing those tired, worn out people, Jesus climbed up the mountain; today too, like every Sunday, the Gospel speaks to us from atop the pulpit. Jesus started speaking of happiness. Who is happy? Who is truly blessed? The prophet from Nazareth wants to put forth his idea of happiness and blessedness. Already in the Psalms the believers of Israel have been instructed on the meaning of being blessed: "Blessed is he who hopes in the Lord, blessed is the man that cares for the weak, blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord." This person can call her/himself happy.
Jesus continues along this line and announces that blessed are the men and women who are poor in spirit (which does not refer to being actually wealthy, but poor spiritually) and then blessed are those who are merciful, afflicted, meek, hungry for justice, pure of heart and persecuted for righteousness’ sake and those who are insulted and persecuted for the sake of Jesus’ name. The disciples had never heard such words. And to us who listen to them today, these words seem far away from us and our world. They seem totally unreal. Yes, we could even say that they are beautiful words, but certainly impossible. Yet, it is not like that for Jesus. He wants for us a happiness that is true, full, and robust and which can resist the ups and downs of mood and which is not subject to the rhythms of fashion or the requirements of consumerism. In truth, what is most dear to us is living a better, more tranquil life—and nothing more. We don’t seek to become truly "blessed." Beatitude has thus become a foreign word that is too much, that is excessive; it is a word so strong and poignant to be too different from our often insignificant satisfactions. The Gospel page of the Beatitudes pulls us away from a dull life towards one that is full and deeply joyful. The Beatitudes are not too high for us, just as they weren’t for the people who first heard them. The Beatitudes truly have a human face: that of Jesus. He embodies the Beatitudes for he is poor, meek and the hungry for justice. He is the passionate and the merciful, the one who is persecuted and put to death. Let us watch and follow him and we will be blessed.

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