EVERYDAY PRAYER

Liturgy of the Sunday
Word of god every day

Liturgy of the Sunday

First Sunday of Advent Read more

Libretto DEL GIORNO
Liturgy of the Sunday

Homily

Today the liturgical year begins. It is not a repetition of an already known story. We are so ignorant of life and of God. All of us! Every year is different. We too are not the same. Staying with the Lord is not always the same repetition: it becomes so when we keep our life at a distance from God or we are superficial. The Sundays help us to understand the mystery of God’s presence among us in our present time, just as every love story has various moments, and all of them are important. We will try to live them together, in order not to become old, but to rediscover, to understand like children. His love gives meaning and future to our days. The first thing that is asked of us, of all of us, is to wait for him. Jesus himself exhorts, "Therefore, keep awake-for you do not know when the master of the house will come." Our entire life is a waiting. When we no longer wait for anyone and when the future seems to fade away, that is the moment when we begin to die a little bit. When we leave someone alone we assist in that person’s dying. Sometimes we think that others are not waiting for anything, that they do not need anything or that they are just fine as they are. But it is not true. Who helps people to hope? Who tries to understand and respond to the waiting of the person, or of entire peoples afflicted by war and violence? Who encourages and responds to the waiting of youth? For these reasons, too, we must be "vigilant." The time of God marks liturgical time, or better, God’s time erupts into our time. And the very mystery of Jesus measures out this time: beginning with his birth, to his preaching in Galilee and Judea until his death, resurrection and ascension into heaven. Every Sunday, from this first Sunday of Advent until the Feast of Christ the King, the Word of God takes us by the hand. In a certain sense, it draws us away from the slavery of our daily rhythms, and leads us into the mystery of Christ in order to render us participants in his life. With the liturgical time, we receive the wonderful gift of becoming Jesus’ contemporaries. This is the "force" of each Sunday that led the early Christians to say, "It is impossible for us to live without Sunday."
"Advent," as we well know, means "coming," that is, Jesus’ birth among us. And since ancient times, the Church has felt the need to prepare its heart and the heart of its faithful to welcome the Lord. For about a thousand years, the Christian communities both of the East and West lived out the forty days before Christmas by fasting and praying in anticipation of Jesus’ birth, because they felt that it was of the utmost importance. And they knew well how little it took for daily concerns to distract them from that "coming". Today, although this season has been shortened (only four weeks of preparation) and the requirement of fasting has been annulled, the anticipation of this coming, which we have been remembering for the past two thousand years, remains no less urgent.
The supplication of the prophet Isaiah, which we heard in the first reading, rises again from our lips today, "Why, O Lord, do you make us stray from your ways and harden our heart, so that we do not fear you? Turn back for the sake of your servants, ... O that you would tear open the heavens and come down" (Is 63:17; 64:1). Yes, "Turn back, Lord for the sake of your servants!" We need you. The very earth that seems restless in her search for peace needs you. The Middle East that is living days of spring but also of sorrow needs you. Africa, bathed in the blood of thousands of refugees, abandoned to themselves, needs you. So many countries where millions upon millions of poor die of hunger everyday need you. The great cities of the West that marginalize countless legions of the weak, the elderly and the sick need you. The hearts of many men and women need you so that their harshness may melt away, that they may be moved with compassion for the poor and weak, and that they may work for a better future. "Oh, that you would tear open the heavens and come down!"
This cry is the prayer of Advent and it remains the universal prayer of our time. The time of Advent erupts into our days precisely to call us back to the prophet’s invitation and to the cry of the many who wait for someone to save them. These cries, often far from our ears, are in reality our true conscience. They help us to comprehend the concrete meaning of Advent and shake us awake from the peaceful slumber of our wealth and our tranquil avarice. As worldly as we are, perhaps we have forgotten what it means to wait. We are certain that no one will come to save us. So much so that we give our children the message that they have to take care of themselves, that they must not expect anything from anybody. How sad is a society without Advent, without a bit of restlessness!
God does not leave us to "fade like a leaf." He does not want us to wander like one without direction. He does not leave the clay without shape, the clay of our life. He tears open the heavens and he becomes the way to heaven. He makes us discover the desire for heaven and for hope that exists in each of us and in every person. When we wait for someone we are happy. God is not ashamed of our weakness and does not scorn us if we are small. He brings love, not things like one who does not how to give his heart. Advent’s request is that we make the Lord grow in our heart, that we make hope grow in the world!
We must stand at the door of our heart and remain vigilant. Just like when we are waiting for someone who is due to return home and we are awake, listening for the sound of his footsteps, so that we can open the door immediately for him. "Listen! - says the Lord in the book of Revelation - I am standing at the door, knocking; if you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to you and eat with you, and you with me." Advent invites us to not fall asleep. Let us awake from the sweet slumber of believing ourselves to be complacent, because I have already done a lot; from the sad slumber of pessimism, because I no longer think anything is worth doing; from the restless, unsatisfying sleep of busyness and self-affirmation. Let us awake from the distracted slumber of the one who no longer listens, from the slumber of the impatient one, who wants it all, now, who does not know how to wait, who is deluded and falls back asleep. Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly and bring consolation and peace. Tear open the heavens and open up a future for those crushed by evil. Free us from selfish love that puts our heart to sleep. Teach us to stay attentive so that we may recognize you and open the door of our heart to you, sweet guest, friend forever and our hope.

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