EVERYDAY PRAYER

Memory of the Poor
Word of god every day

Memory of the Poor

Prayer for the unity of Christians. Particular memory of the Christian communities in Europe and in the Americas. Read more

Libretto DEL GIORNO
Memory of the Poor
Monday, January 23

Song of Intercession

O God, come to our assistance.

O Lord, make haste to help us.

Lord, you heard the lament
of your people in Egypt.

Receive the lament
of the oppressed and exiled people.

Make haste to help them
and they will be saved.

Lord, you healed the lepers
who presented themselves before you.

Heal the sick,
be near to those in need.

Make haste to help them
and they will be saved.

You delivered the possessed,
free those who are not masters of themselves.

Make haste to help them
and they will be saved.

You gave sight to the blind
and strength to the paralyzed.

Make everyone able
to see and communicate.

Make haste to help them
and they will be saved.

You called the dead back to life.
You restored them to the light.
Do not allow death to reign,
give back life to your servants.

Make haste to help them
and they will be saved.

You ate with the sinner
and forgave every sin.

Look at our misery and sorrow.
Forgive all our sins.

Come quickly to our help
and we will be saved.

For you are a good God
and a friend of the people.

For you are a God who is good,
the friend of humanity.

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