EVERYDAY PRAYER

Memory of the Mother of the Lord
Word of god every day

Memory of the Mother of the Lord

Memory of Yaguine and Fodé, two young men 15 and 14 years old from Guinea Conakry, who died in 1999 because of cold while they were flying hidden in the undercarriage of a plane trying to reach Europe in order to study. Read more

Libretto DEL GIORNO
Memory of the Mother of the Lord

Memory of Yaguine and Fodé, two young men 15 and 14 years old from Guinea Conakry, who died in 1999 because of cold while they were flying hidden in the undercarriage of a plane trying to reach Europe in order to study.


Reading of the Word of God

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

The Spirit of the Lord is upon you.
The child you shall bear will be holy.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Matthew 15, 1-2.10-14

Then Pharisees and scribes from Jerusalem came to Jesus and said,

'Why do your disciples break away from the tradition of the elders? They eat without washing their hands.'

He called the people to him and said, 'Listen, and understand.

What goes into the mouth does not make anyone unclean; it is what comes out of the mouth that makes someone unclean.'

Then the disciples came to him and said, 'Do you know that the Pharisees were shocked when they heard what you said?'

He replied, 'Any plant my heavenly Father has not planted will be pulled up by the roots.

Leave them alone. They are blind leaders of the blind; and if one blind person leads another, both will fall into a pit.'

 

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Look down, O Lord, on your servants.
Be it unto us according to your word.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

After the two serene preceding chapters, in the fifteenth chapter the Evangelist Matthew openly attacks the scribes and Pharisees. Probably at the behest of the zealous Pharisees of Galilee, the Pharisees and scribes depart from Jerusalem and go toward this young teacher. They intend on putting Jesus on guard for the behaviour he incites in his followers. Immediately they ask him why he is breaking from the "tradition of the elders." Jesus has just begun to preach publicly. His words amaze the poor and scandalize the right-minded people, those more attached to rules than to love and mercy. Many were scandalized because the disciples did not wash their hands before eating as the traditional norms dictated. Certainly the crowds—fed by the bread that Jesus had multiplied specifically for them —had not washed their hands, and yet God’s mercy manifested itself abundantly in their lives. The "tradition" and the "rites" have their weight and Jesus knows it well. He responds, therefore, to the Pharisees and turns then directly to the crowds. He invites everyone to reflect attentively on what purity does and does not really mean. He says: "It is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but it is what comes out of the mouth that defiles" (v. 10). Probably this sentence synthesizes Jesus’ sermon to the crowd in order to help them understand that morality resides not in things, but in the human heart. And later on (vv. 18-19) he will explain this more clearly. The disciples seem troubled and they approach Jesus to tell him that what he said scandalized the Pharisees. In truth, the Pharisees had interpreted Jesus’ words in a distorted and malicious way, ascribing them to the entire Law of Moses and not to some of their recently introduced interpretations. They were the ones giving more importance to these new rules than to the very heart of the Mosaic Law, which is faithfulness to God and to love. Their pettiness made them defendors of exterior rules instead of the covenant between the Lord and his people. At this point Jesus invites the disciples not to worry too much about them, because their thoughts are not of God. The motif of this invitation is harsh: they are like the blind leading the blind. What does it mean? Their eyes remain closed, closed to love. Hence they do not know how to welcome those in need and even less help those who need a light, even just a small one, for one’s life. It is an invitation for each one of us to receive the true light, the Gospel of love.

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