EVERYDAY PRAYER

Sunday Vigil
Word of god every day
Libretto DEL GIORNO
Sunday Vigil
Saturday, June 16


Reading of the Word of God

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Whoever lives and believes in me
will never die.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

2 Thessalonians 3, 6-17

In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we urge you, brothers, to keep away from any of the brothers who lives an undisciplined life, not in accordance with the tradition you received from us.

You know how you should take us as your model: we were not undisciplined when we were with you,

nor did we ever accept food from anyone without paying for it; no, we worked with unsparing energy, night and day, so as not to be a burden on any of you.

This was not because we had no right to be, but in order to make ourselves a model for you to imitate.

We urged you when we were with you not to let anyone eat who refused to work.

Now we hear that there are some of you who are living lives without any discipline, doing no work themselves but interfering with other people's.

In the Lord Jesus Christ, we urge and call on people of this kind to go on quietly working and earning the food that they eat.

My brothers, never slacken in doing what is right.

If anyone refuses to obey what I have written in this letter, take note of him and have nothing to do with him, so that he will be ashamed of himself,

though you are not to treat him as an enemy, but to correct him as a brother.

May the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times and in every way. The Lord be with you all.

This greeting is in my own hand-PAUL. It is the mark of genuineness in every letter; this is my own writing.

 

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

If you believe, you will see the glory of God,
thus says the Lord.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Paul intervenes with the Thessalonians so that they avoid those who place in peril the integrity of faith and unity of the community. He feels the grave responsibility to preserve the communion in the Church from the errors of those who, heeding personal opinions, have become servants of the Adversary. These people should be sent away so that they become aware of the evil they are doing and repent. In the specific instance Paul stresses that each Christian should willingly fulfil his own task, and points to the idlers as deviating from the Gospel. He himself, during his sojourn in Thessalonica, was an example: "You remember our labour and toil, brothers and sisters; we worked night and day, so that we might not burden any of you while we proclaimed to you the gospel of God" (1 Thess 2:9). In sum, Paul seems to say, if there is a place where such abuses should be avoided, it is precisely Thessalonica, where he himself had refused to be maintained by the faithful. The apostle meant to emphasize the importance of work, be it as sustenance for the one who undertakes it, or as help for those who are poorer and needy. Paul wanted to be like everybody else - today we would say like a layperson - in order to be thus able to witness to the Gospel more effectively. Preaching to the Thessalonians during his sojourn in that city, he had already had occasion to speak about conduct regarding work, even coining a sort of slogan: "anyone unwilling to work should not eat." It was a drastic measure meant to be instructive. Perhaps those idlers had let themselves be led by attitudes of religious fanaticism which disturbed the life of the community, even seeking to be maintained. The apostle intervenes energetically: he does not want the community to be wounded in its unity. He asks the do-nothings to mend their ways and return to orderly life in the community, and the others to not let themselves grow "weary in doing what is right." The disciple knows that Christian love is free and disinterested. And if anyone does not accept these instructions, the apostle asks that they be admonished. The community is not a family without order. Therefore, intervention may be necessary, not in order to judge and condemn, but to correct and build up. The ones who do not obey are not treated "as enemies" but rather "warned them as believers." The Gospel has abolished the logic of enmity, and inaugurated that of correction. This is the way that God has treated us. The community is in no instance allowed to transgress the limits placed by God’s love.

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