EVERYDAY PRAYER

Holy Wednesday
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Holy Wednesday

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Libretto DEL GIORNO
Holy Wednesday

Hymn

Jesus travelled through cities and villages,
preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom,
bringing healing to the sick,
while the crowds followed him:

Seeing them like a flock of sheep,
abandoned, and without a shepherd,
he said, “The harvest is great,
but the labourers are few.”

Having called to him the Twelve,
he gave them every power
to cast out evil spirits
and heal every kind of sickness.

Their names are Peter and Andrew,
James, John and Philip,
Bartholomew, Thaddeus, Thomas and Matthew,
James, Simon, and Judas who then betrayed him.

Blessed is Peter who recognised him:
it was not flesh or blood
that revealed to him that Jesus
was the true Son of God.

Blessed are Peter, James, and John,
on the mountain, together with the Lord,
when his face was transfigured,
and they heard the voice of the Father.

They had left everything
and followed him everywhere.
They will sit with him at the end,
and will receive eternal life.

The leaders dominate the nations,
but among the disciples let it not be like this;
the one who wishes to be great
should become servant of all.

Blessed is Peter who wept
because he was afraid to confess him.
Sad instead is Judas who through fear
sold him for thirty pieces of silver.

Blessed is Paul who, on the road to Damascus,
encountered the Lord.
He had been tenacious for the tradition,
but then announced him to the world.

Of one heart in prayer, the Apostles
together with the Mother of God,
were filled with the Holy Spirit,
and began to speak to the people.

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!