EVERYDAY PRAYER

Memory of the Church
Word of god every day
Libretto DEL GIORNO
Memory of the Church
Thursday, January 12


Reading of the Word of God

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

I am the good shepherd,
my sheep listen to my voice,
and they become
one flock and one fold.
.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Proverbs 2, 1-22

My child, if you take my words to heart, if you set store by my commandments,

tuning your ear to wisdom, tuning your heart to understanding,

yes, if your plea is for clear perception, if you cry out for understanding,

if you look for it as though for silver, search for it as though for buried treasure,

then you will understand what the fear of Yahweh is, and discover the knowledge of God.

For Yahweh himself is giver of wisdom, from his mouth issue knowledge and understanding.

He reserves his advice for the honest, a shield to those whose ways are sound;

he stands guard over the paths of equity, he keeps watch over the way of those faithful to him.

Then you will understand uprightness, equity and fair dealing, the paths that lead to happiness.

When wisdom comes into your heart and knowledge fills your soul with delight,

then prudence will be there to watch over you, and understanding will be your guardian

to keep you from the way that is evil, from those whose speech is deceitful,

from those who leave the paths of honesty to walk the roads of darkness:

those who find their joy in doing wrong, and their delight in deceitfulness,

whose tracks are twisted, and the paths that they tread crooked.

To keep you, too, from the woman who belongs to another, from the stranger, with her wheedling words;

she has left the partner of her younger days, she has forgotten the covenant of her God;

her house is tilting towards Death, down to the Shades go her paths.

Of those who go to her not one returns, they never regain the paths of life.

Thus you will tread the way of good people, persisting in the paths of the upright.

For the land will be for the honest to live in, the innocent will have it for their home;

while the wicked will be cut off from the land, and the faithless rooted out of it.

 

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

I give you a new commandment,
that you love one another.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

How can we welcome God’s word? First of all, we need to return to being like children, as the Book of Proverbs continually invites us to do. We are children, and so we always need to listen. If we don’t listen then we get lost in ourselves. The beginning of the second chapter lays out a route to follow, that leads to listening better and that involves the entire person. We must listen with our ears, the primary place of listening; we must listen with our heart, which is the seat of our feelings and thoughts; and we must also use our voice, which expresses what is in our heart. Listening is the fruit of our efforts to search; it is not spontaneous, instinctive, and natural. Instinctively, we all listen to ourselves. Listening to God takes effort, work and ardent searching. Often we get sad when we consider the effort required for prayer and meditation on the word of God. And yet we spend so much energy on ourselves, pursuing our own self-realization and well-being. If material life includes tireless work, then the spiritual life includes it all the more. To stress how much we need to work and put ardent effort into this search, the text reads, "If you seek it like silver, and search for it as for hidden treasures-then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God. ... Then you will understand righteousness and justice and equity, every good path; for wisdom will come into your heart, and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul." We need to seek wisdom as earnestly as we seek money and dig as if we were digging for buried treasure. Remember the parable in the Gospel about the kingdom of God, which Jesus compares to a pearl and a treasure buried in the field (Mt 13:44-45). The merchant does not hesitate to sell everything he owns just to possess that pearl and treasure. Whoever tries to take on this responsibility will bear enormous fruits. The word of God, from which wisdom comes, teaches us to reflect and to be prudent, and this will save us from evil ways. In a world in which we are trained to be in a hurry, it gets harder and harder to stop, to reflect and not to allow ourselves to be dominated by the impulse to have everything at once, incapable of waiting, of being patient, as if the difficulties and problems of life had become unbearable. Seeking God is also patience, reflection, meditation, and waiting. Not everything comes from us. The believer knows how to wait and keep watch in prayer, so that God may indicate the path to follow and so that we may learn the wisdom that helps us to discern and make wise choices, the ones that lead us to what is good.

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