EVERYDAY PRAYER

Prayer of the Apostles
Word of god every day

Prayer of the Apostles

Memory of Saint John, apostle and evangelist, "the disciple whom Jesus loved" who under the cross took Mary as his mother. Read more

Libretto DEL GIORNO
Prayer of the Apostles
Tuesday, December 27

Memory of Saint John, apostle and evangelist, "the disciple whom Jesus loved" who under the cross took Mary as his mother.


Reading of the Word of God

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Glory to God in the highest
and peace on earth to the people he loves.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

John 20, 2-8

and came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved. 'They have taken the Lord out of the tomb,' she said, 'and we don't know where they have put him.'

So Peter set out with the other disciple to go to the tomb.

They ran together, but the other disciple, running faster than Peter, reached the tomb first;

he bent down and saw the linen cloths lying on the ground, but did not go in.

Simon Peter, following him, also came up, went into the tomb, saw the linen cloths lying on the ground

and also the cloth that had been over his head; this was not with the linen cloths but rolled up in a place by itself.

Then the other disciple who had reached the tomb first also went in; he saw and he believed.

 

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!
Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!
Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

John is one of the first four disciples called by Jesus. The evangelist remembers the exact hour the encounter occurred on the lake of Tiberias: it was four in the afternoon. John was with Andrew, Peter’s brother, on the banks of the Jordan River listening to John the Baptist. When pointing to Jesus, the Baptist said, "Here is the Lamb of God..." Andrew followed Jesus and stayed with him the entire afternoon. From that time on, John became a disciple. According to the Gospel tradition, he is the disciple "whom Jesus loved." It was John who laid his head upon Jesus’ breast during the Last Supper and who, along with Peter and James, stayed by his side during the night of his agony in the Garden of Olives. And even though John ultimately returned to the cross where he accepted Jesus’ invitation to receive Mary as his mother, he first fled and abandoned Jesus just like all the other disciples. In today’s Gospel we see John running with Peter toward Jesus’ tomb early on Easter morning. Younger than Peter, John arrived at the tomb first and saw the shrouds on the ground, but did not enter. He waited for Peter. The Church Fathers comment that love runs faster and arrives first. John, however, knows how to wait for his brother so that they may enter together. As soon as he entered, he "saw and believed," as the evangelist notes. He understood that Jesus’ body had not been stolen (because of the presence of the bandages) and believed. His testimony, recorded in the fourth Gospel and in the Letters, is entirely centred upon the proclamation of love for God and for one another, which was understood as the heart of his Teacher’s message. Tradition says that John, when in old age, was carried on a chair in the assembly of the Christians and that he would always repeat the commandment of love. When he was asked why he continued to repeat it, he would say, "Because it is the Lord’s commandment! If we put it into practice, it is enough!"

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