EVERYDAY PRAYER

Memory of the Church
Word of god every day

Memory of the Church

Memory of Oscar Arnulfo Romero, archbishop of San Salvador. He was killed on March 24, 1980 on the altar. Memory of the massacre of the Fosse Ardeatine that took place in Rome in 1944, in which the Nazis killed 335 people. Read more

Libretto DEL GIORNO
Memory of the Church

Psalmody

Psalm 47

Antiphon

O Lord you will be our guide.

The Lord is great and worthy to be praised
in the city of our God.

His holy mountain rises in beauty,
the joy of all the earth.

Mount Zion, true pole of the earth,
the Great King's city!

God, in the midst of its citadels,
has shown himself its stronghold.

For the kings assembled together,
together they advanced.

They say; at once they were astounded;
dismayed, they fled in fear.

A trembling seized them there,
like the pangs of birth,

By the east wind you have destroyed
the ships of Tarshish.

As we have heard, so we have seen
in the city of our God,

in the city of the Lord of hosts
which God upholds for ever.

O God, we ponder your love
within your temple.

Your praise, O God, like your name
reaches the ends of the earth.

With justice your right hand is filled.
Mount Zion rejoices;

the people of Judah rejoice
at the sight of your judgements.

Walk through Zion, walk all round it;
count the number of its towers.

Review all its ramparts,
examine its castles,

that you may tell the next generation
that such is our God,

our God for ever and always.
It is he who leads us.

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