EVERYDAY PRAYER

Sunday Vigil
Word of god every day

Sunday Vigil

Memory of Zacchaeus who climbed a tree to see the Lord and received as a gift the conversion of his heart. Read more

Libretto DEL GIORNO
Sunday Vigil

Hymn

Wanting to see the tomb of Lazarus, O Lord,
you who prepared yourself for the grave,
you asked, "Where have you placed him?"
And you learnt what you already knew.
You cried out to the one you loved,
"Lazarus, come out!"

He who had died obeyed you, O Lord,
you who give life to all humanity.
It was the fourth day since he died, O Lord,
yet you came to his sealed tomb,
and shed your tears for Lazarus,
because your friend had died.

Blessed are you, O Lord,
friend of the people,
have mercy on us (2 times)

Through your voice, death was bound up,
Lazarus was freed from the bonds of death.
At this sight, your disciples rejoiced
and their mouths filled with a festal song:
Blessed are you, O Lord, friend of the people,
have mercy on us.

Your voice, O Lord,
has destroyed death.
Your power heals those who are sick,
your Word raises up the dead,
and Lazarus is the foretaste
of our salvation.

Blessed are you, O Lord,
friend of the people,
have mercy on us (2 times)

All things are possible to you, O Lord,
our good friend.
Pardon the sin of your servants,
spread your mercy over us,
heal, with your love,
all peoples so wounded.

Taking the disciples with you, O Lord,
and drawing close to the tomb of Lazarus,
you called him by name, to life anew;
you awakened him from his deep slumber;
he came out from the tomb at your word,
clothed in the fourth-day shroud of death, and cried out.

Blessed are you, O Lord,
friend of the people,
have mercy on us (2 times)

Rejoice! Town of Bethany,
homeland of Lazarus.
Rejoice! Martha and Mary, his sisters,
tomorrow, the Christ will come to give us life.
He will unbind every person from their bondage
to death and to sin.

Blessed are you, O Lord,
friend of the people,
have mercy on us (2 times)

Blessed are you, O Lord,
friend of the people,
have mercy on us (2 times)PIPPO

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!