EVERYDAY PRAYER

Memory of the Poor
Word of god every day
Libretto DEL GIORNO
Memory of the Poor
Monday, June 18

Psalmody

Psalm 78

Antiphon

Help us O Lord, you are our salvation.

O God, the nations have invaded your land,
they have profaned your holy temple.

They have made Jerusalem a heap of ruins.
They have handed over the bodies of your servants

as food to feed the birds of heaven
and the flesh of your faithful to the beasts of the earth.

They have poured out blood like water in Jerusalem,
no one is left to bury the dead.

We have become the taunt of our neighbours,
the mocker and scorn of those who surround us.

How long O Lord? Will you be angry for ever,
how long will your anger burn like fire?

Pour out your rage on the nations,
the nations that do not know you.

Pour out your rage on the kingdoms
that do not call on your name;

for they have devoured Jacob
and laid waste the land where he dwells.

Do not hold the guilt of our fathers against us.
Let your compassion hasten to meet us
we are left in the depths of distress.

O God our saviour, come to our help,
come for the sake of the glory o your name.

O Lord our God, forgive us our sins;
rescue us for the sake of your name.

Why should the nations say :’Where is their God’?
Let us see the nations around us repaid
with vengeance for the blood for your servants that was shed!

Let the groans of the prisoners come before you;
let your strong arm reprieve those condemned to die.

Pay back to our neighbours seven times over
the taunts with which they taunted you, O Lord.

But we, your people, the flock of your pasture,
will give you thanks for ever and ever.
We will tell your praise from age to age.

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