EVERYDAY PRAYER

Memory of the Saints and the Prophets
Word of god every day
Libretto DEL GIORNO
Memory of the Saints and the Prophets


Reading of the Word of God

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

You are a chosen race,
a royal priesthood, a holy nation,
a people acquired by God
to proclaim his marvellous works.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Matthew 11, 25-27

At that time Jesus exclaimed, 'I bless you, Father, Lord of heaven and of earth, for hiding these things from the learned and the clever and revealing them to little children.

Yes, Father, for that is what it pleased you to do.

Everything has been entrusted to me by my Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father, just as no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.

 

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

You will be holy,
because I am holy, thus says the Lord.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Jesus has just reproached the lack of welcome of the cities of Chorazin and Bethsaida where he had preached the Gospel and performed prodigious acts. His disappointment is evident. He then, perhaps, looks at that little group of disciples who followed and listened to him. He has chosen them, has called them one by one, has taught them, protected them, he knows their limitations. He knows very well that among them there are not many who are powerful and intelligent. Rather, for the most part, they are fishermen or persons of an extraction which is not high. And at this point, from his heart, comes out a prayer of thanksgiving, immediate and strong: "I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants." Jesus blesses and thanks the Father because he has made the Gospel of the Kingdom known to the "little ones," i.e., the disciples, while he has kept it hidden from the learned and the intelligent. The latter are not those who seek the truth, those who with sincerity of heart question and make an effort so that their life is good. On the contrary, they are those who, like the Pharisees and the scribes, no longer seek the truth because they think they already possess it. Rather, they confuse it with their personal certainties, with their pride, with their "ego." This prayer puts us on guard so that we too don’t fall into Pharisaic self-sufficiency. And this happens when we are so puffed up and full of ourselves that we have need of no one, not even God. This feeling of self-sufficiency not only distances us from God, but also easily becomes disdain of others. The disciple, on the other hand, knows that everything comes from God and from Jesus, who has revealed it. These Gospel words free us from fear of limitations, from sin, and open us to receiving God’s love, his forgiveness, his friendship. Faith operates at the level of welcoming the Word of Jesus and trusting abandonment to the Father. In this sense the conclusion of the prayer is evident: "All things have been handed over to me by my Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him" (27). Jesus situates himself as the exegete, i.e., he who explains the Father to the disciples, who reveals the secret of the communion which unites them so deeply. The disciples, precisely as such because they are "bound" to the Son, also enter themselves into communion with the Father. It is the mystery of love, which by way of the encounter with Jesus, involves everyone who entrust themselves to him.

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