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

Matthew 8, 18-22

When Jesus saw the crowd all about him he gave orders to leave for the other side.

One of the scribes then came up and said to him, 'Master, I will follow you wherever you go.'

Jesus said, 'Foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of man has nowhere to lay his head.'

Another man, one of the disciples, said to him, 'Lord, let me go and bury my father first.'

But Jesus said, 'Follow me, and leave the dead to bury their dead.'

 

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

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

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

We often read in the Gospel that people run to Jesus bringing the poor, the sick, and the possessed so that he will heal them. How many evenings in Capernaum became the dawn of a new life for so many sick people! But Jesus did not stay on one shore; he also wanted to go to the other side of the lake, as if to underline the fact that no one should be left without the Gospel, without a word of salvation. As he is preparing to leave, a scribe approaches him, respectfully addresses him with the title of "teacher," and reveals his readiness to follow him. Perhaps he is thinking that it will be enough to spend some time around him, learn a few things, and so belong to a group, with all the advantages that brings in terms of safety and security. In short, he would not have been alone, and he would belong to a respectable group. Jesus immediately responds that following him means living like him, that is, having neither a house nor a place to rest his head, because all of life should be spent for others. He did not come to earth to seek safety and security for himself or for his little circle. The urgency of communicating the Gospel devours him. The root of the Christian vocation can be found within this missionary horizon. Even when the disciple has a place to live, as is the case for most of us, he or she is still called to develop and cultivate passion and interest for the world and for the needs of the Church spread over all Earth. Jesus’ response to the disciple who asks to go and bury his father before following him is equally radical. It is paradoxical. Jesus is not pitiless or heartless. It is not a question of harsh behaviour; it is a question of the absolute primacy of following the Lord.

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