EVERYDAY PRAYER

Memory of the Poor
Word of god every day
Libretto DEL GIORNO
Memory of the Poor


Reading of the Word of God

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

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

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

John 6, 22-29

Next day, the crowd that had stayed on the other side saw that only one boat had been there, and that Jesus had not got into the boat with his disciples, but that the disciples had set off by themselves.

Other boats, however, had put in from Tiberias, near the place where the bread had been eaten.

When the people saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they got into those boats and crossed to Capernaum to look for Jesus.

When they found him on the other side, they said to him, 'Rabbi, when did you come here?'

Jesus answered: In all truth I tell you, you are looking for me not because you have seen the signs but because you had all the bread you wanted to eat.

Do not work for food that goes bad, but work for food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of man will give you, for on him the Father, God himself, has set his seal.

Then they said to him, 'What must we do if we are to carry out God's work?'

Jesus gave them this answer, 'This is carrying out God's work: you must believe in the one he has sent.'

 

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

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

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

After the multiplication of the loaves of bread, the crowd, remaining on the other side of the sea and seeing that Jesus and the disciples were no longer there, got into the other boats, which had come from Tiberias, close to the place where they had eaten the miraculously multiplied bread, and came to Capernaum looking for Jesus. They found him "on the other side of the lake." Jesus was not where they had been looking for him. He was not the "king" that they had hoped for so as to satisfy their aspirations, even if they were legitimate and understandable hopes. The prophet Isaiah already recounted the Lord’s words spoken to his people: "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways" (55:8). Seeking the Lord asks that we go beyond ourselves and our habits, even our religious ones. Here, the crowd needed to go beyond, far beyond, all the way "on the other side of the lake," which was much farther beyond what they had thought. They had not fully grasped the profound meaning of the multiplication of the loaves of bread. This lack of understanding is clear to us because when they ask after Jesus, they feel again as though they had been abandoned: "When did you come here?" Jesus responds and unmasks their self-centeredness: "You are looking for me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves." They had not understood the "sign," that is to say, the meaning that that miracle had. Jesus explains it to them in terms of an assertion: "Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you." In other words, go beyond the endless search of satisfying yourselves and go after the food that does not perish. The food that does not perish and that satisfies our hunger because it not only reveals to us life’s meaning, but also gives it to us, is faith in Him. Faith in Jesus, that is our personal investment in following him, is the gift that we receive from on high. Receiving this gift with all our heart is the believer’s "work." No on can delegate this "work" to others. Becoming Jesus’ disciples means letting the Gospel mould our lives, our minds, our hearts, even to the point of making us spiritual men and women. While we listen to the Word of God and commit ourselves to following it, we will see our eyes getting sharper, and Jesus will appear to us as the true bread descended from heaven that nourishes our hearts and sustains our lives.

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