EVERYDAY PRAYER

Memory of Jesus crucified
Word of god every day
Libretto DEL GIORNO
Memory of Jesus crucified


Reading of the Word of God

Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory

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

Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory

John 10, 31-42

The Jews fetched stones to stone him,

so Jesus said to them, 'I have shown you many good works from my Father; for which of these are you stoning me?'

The Jews answered him, 'We are stoning you, not for doing a good work, but for blasphemy; though you are only a man, you claim to be God.'

Jesus answered: Is it not written in your Law: I said, you are gods?

So it uses the word 'gods' of those people to whom the word of God was addressed -- and scripture cannot be set aside.

Yet to someone whom the Father has consecrated and sent into the world you say, 'You are blaspheming' because I said, 'I am Son of God.'

If I am not doing my Father's work, there is no need to believe me;

but if I am doing it, then even if you refuse to believe in me, at least believe in the work I do; then you will know for certain that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.

They again wanted to arrest him then, but he eluded their clutches.

He went back again to the far side of the Jordan to the district where John had been baptising at first and he stayed there.

Many people who came to him said, 'John gave no signs, but all he said about this man was true';

and many of them believed in him.

 

Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory

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

Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory

Faced with the explosion of hatred and the attempt to stone him caused by his preaching of the Gospel, Jesus reacts with the calm of one who knows how to do the will of the Father who is in heaven. And he says to those who want to stone him: "I have shown you many good works from the Father. For which of these are you going to stone me?" The "Jews" refute that their harsh reaction is not in response to some mistaken action on the part of Jesus, but to his pretence— which they cannot tolerate—of likening himself to God. The poor and weak, however, who Jesus helped, loved and healed continued to follow and listen to him. They had understood that that love could not but come from God. But the people who look at the Gospel, and the works that come from it, with pride and coldness remain blind. To defend themselves from the love that wants to draw in all those who listen to it, they repeat the most logical objection: "It is impossible for salvation to come from the Gospel, from the weakness of the Church, or from the humble witness of the disciples." That is the meaning of the accusation spoken in the Gospel: "You, though only a human being, are making yourself God." It is true that Jesus is a true human being, but he is also truly God. That is the mystery of Jesus that the Gospel reveals to us and which becomes the very mystery of the Church, work of human beings and of God together. The apostle Paul defines the Church as the body of Christ. Through the Church, its sacraments, and the preaching of the Gospel we can enter into direct contact with God. In this sense we could say that the Church is the work of Christ, or better still, it is his very "body" that continues through time. The Christian community is the sacrament, the sign of Jesus’ presence throughout history. Jesus’ assertion does not appease the Jews. On the contrary, it convinces them to capture him, but Jesus flees from them. The evangelist John wants to underline that it is not the enemies who capture Jesus; rather it is he who gives himself over to them out of love. For now, he draws away and retreats to where John was baptizing. There, many continued to come to listen to him.

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!