EVERYDAY PRAYER

Memory of the Church
Word of god every day

Memory of the Church

Memory of the historic Meeting in Assisi (1986), when John Paul II invited representatives of all Christian confessions and the great world religions to pray for peace. Read more

Libretto DEL GIORNO
Memory of the Church

Psalmody

Psalm 138

Antiphon

Search me, O God, and know my heart.

O Lord, you search me and your know me,
you know my resting and my rising,
you discern my purpose from afar.

You mark when I walk or lie down,
all my ways lie open to you.

Before ever a word is on my tongue
you know it, O Lord, through and through.

Behind and before you besiege me,
your hand ever laid upon me.

Too wonderful for me, this knowledge,
too high, beyond my reach.

O where can I go from your spirit,
or where can I flee from your face?

If I climb the heavens, you are there.
If I life in the grave, you are there.

If I take the wings of the dawn
and dwell at the sea's furthest end,

even there your hand would lead me,
your right hand would hold me fast.

If I say :'Let the darkness hide me
and the light around me be night.'

Even darkness is not dark for you
and the night is as clear as the day.

For it was you who created my being,
knit me together in my mother's womb.

I thank you for the wonder of my being,
for the wonders of all your creation.

Already you knew my soul,
my body held no secret from you

when I was being fashioned in secret
and moulded in the depths of the earth.

Your eyes saw all my actions,
they were all of them written in your book;

every one of my days were decreed
before one of them came into being.

To me, how mysterious your thoughts,
the sum of them not to be numbered!

If I count them, they are more than the sand,
to finish, I must be eternal, like you.

O God, that you would slay the wicked!
Men of blood, keep far away from me!

With deceit they rebel against you
and set your designs at naught.

Do I not hate those who hat you,
abhor those who rise against you?

I hate them with a perfect hat
and they are foes to me.

O search me, god, and know my heart.
O test me and know my thoughts

See that I follow not the wrong path
and lead me in the path of life eternal.

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