EVERYDAY PRAYER

Memory of the Mother of the Lord
Word of god every day
Libretto DEL GIORNO
Memory of the Mother of the Lord
Tuesday, June 12


Reading of the Word of God

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

The Spirit of the Lord is upon you.
The child you shall bear will be holy.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

2 Thessalonians 1, 1-12

Paul, Silvanus and Timothy, to the Church in Thessalonica which is in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ

Grace to you and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

We must always thank God for you, brothers; quite rightly, because your faith is growing so wonderfully and the mutual love that each one of you has for all never stops increasing.

Among the churches of God we take special pride in you for your perseverance and faith under all the persecutions and hardships you have to bear.

It all shows that God's judgement is just, so that you may be found worthy of the kingdom of God; it is for the sake of this that you are suffering now.

For God's justice will surely mean hardship being inflicted on those who are now inflicting hardship on you,

and for you who are now suffering hardship, relief with us, when the Lord Jesus appears from heaven with the angels of his power.

He will come amid flaming fire; he will impose a penalty on those who do not acknowledge God and refuse to accept the gospel of our Lord Jesus.

Their punishment is to be lost eternally, excluded from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his strength

on that day when he comes to be glorified among his holy ones and marvelled at by all who believe in him; and you are among those who believed our witness.

In view of this we also pray continually that our God will make you worthy of his call, and by his power fulfil all your desires for goodness, and complete all that you have been doing through faith;

so that the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you and you in him, by the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.

 

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Look down, O Lord, on your servants.
Be it unto us according to your word.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Also, in this second letter to the Thessalonians, Paul, Silvanus and Timothy write together. Paul and Silvanus were imprisoned after having suffered cruel beatings because of their preaching. In prison, around midnight, they prayed and sang together hymns of praise to God, and the Lord had miraculously freed them (Acts 16:19-30). Timothy, on the other hand, is often praised by Paul and pointed to as an example to the believer. In any case, both Silvanus and Timothy also preached in Macedonia by the apostle’s commissioning (Acts 18:5). It is a beginning that shows the fellowship among all three disciples in the common task of the Gospel. Together they address the small Thessalonian community, which has now grown in faith and love so much that they have become an example to the other communities. One community’s life in the gospel influences the others’; this is fruit of the "communion of saints." The apostle is rightly beaming, also because the small community of Thessalonica was being tried by several adversaries. The Jews of the city considered it a dangerous competitor and incited the people against them. The apostle reminds those Christians that they are not sheltered from persecution, "but the one who endures to the end will be saved" (Mt 24:13). Even now, in the purifying fire of suffering, the judgment which will take place at the end of history is being fulfilled: when those who have persevered in faith and love will be separated from those who have distanced themselves. Only the one who has persevered in faith will have citizenship in the kingdom of God, as the apostle Peter reminds us, "Yet if any of you suffers as a Christian, do not consider it a disgrace, but glorify God because you bear this name. For the time has come for judgment to begin with the household of God; if it begins with us, what will be the end for those who do not obey the gospel of God?" (1 Pet 4:16ff). Suffering is a necessary burden for Jesus’ disciples, and they should not let themselves be deceived because the wicked are spared. The psalmist already noted, "For I was envious of the arrogant; I saw the prosperity of the wicked. For they have no pain; their bodies are sound and sleek" (Ps 73:3). Paul replies: "Do not be deceived; God is not mocked, for you reap whatever you sow" (Gal 6:7). Everything will be clear at the end of time. Paul, with typical apocalyptic language, describes God’s inexorable judgment: the one who rebels against the Gospel will plummet into an everlasting loneliness "far from the face of the Lord," while the one who has persevered in hearing the Word of God and in the service to the poor will see the Lord "face to face" (1 Cor 13:12). Paul prays that everyone may attain to the "perfect fulfilment" when the elect will be beside the throne of the Lamb and shall sing a new song to the Lord, as is written in the book of Revelation: "And from the throne came a voice saying, "Praise our God, all you his servants, and all who fear him, small and great. ... Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come" (Rev 19:5.7).

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