EVERYDAY PRAYER

Memory of Jesus crucified
Word of god every day
Libretto DEL GIORNO
Memory of Jesus crucified
Friday, July 6


Reading of the Word of God

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

This is the Gospel of the poor,
liberation for the imprisoned,
sight for the blind,
freedom for the oppressed.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

James 5, 12-20

Above all, my brothers, do not swear by heaven or by the earth or use any oaths at all. If you mean 'yes', you must say 'yes'; if you mean 'no', say 'no'. Otherwise you make yourselves liable to judgement.

Any one of you who is in trouble should pray; anyone in good spirits should sing a psalm.

Any one of you who is ill should send for the elders of the church, and they must anoint the sick person with oil in the name of the Lord and pray over him.

The prayer of faith will save the sick person and the Lord will raise him up again; and if he has committed any sins, he will be forgiven.

So confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another to be cured; the heartfelt prayer of someone upright works very powerfully.

Elijah was a human being as frail as ourselves -- he prayed earnestly for it not to rain, and no rain fell for three and a half years;

then he prayed again and the sky gave rain and the earth gave crops.

My brothers, if one of you strays away from the truth, and another brings him back to it,

he may be sure that anyone who can bring back a sinner from his erring ways will be saving his soul from death and covering over many a sin.

 

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

The Son of Man came to serve,
whoever wants to be great
should become servant of all.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

In this final part of his letter, James exhorts Christians not to use empathic or high-sounding religious words, (this is what he means by taking oaths), but instead to faithfully put into practice the words of the Gospel. The Christian is a disciple of a Teacher who, as Paul writes to Timothy, "in his testimony before Pontius Pilate made the good confession" (1 Tim. 6:13). Cyril of Alexandria comments on this passage with these words, "May the testimony of our life be stronger than an oath." In order to be accepted, we are invited to speak truthfully without any need of oaths. With everyone, but especially with the brothers and sisters of the community, sincerity is the expression of the love that James already talked about as related to our speaking. James then reminds his readers not to lose heart in times of sickness, when we can touch our weakness with our hands. Sickness should not be a reason for despair, but an invitation to personal and common prayer that the Lord may comfort us with his support, and in his mercy even give us healing. If illness divides and removes us physically from brothers and sisters, prayer unites us and grants us the gift to feel fully the presence of Jesus, the good doctor who wants to heal and save people. From its beginning, the Church inspired by this reality and instituted the sacrament of the anointing of the sick. James’ exhortation is especially appropriate in our time. It awakens in us and in the Christian community the urgent need to pray for healing, which is often forgotten in our distracted and unbelieving society. Of course the prayer needs to be made with faith, with a contrite heart ("confess your sins..."), and with insistence, like Elijah’s prayer, which was answered by the Lord. James reminds the disciples of the strength of prayer, because he knows that nothing is impossible for God. Soloviev wrote a meaningful commentary that recalls the letter of James: "Faith without works is dead, and prayer is the first work of faith." As though James wants to refer back to the beginning of this letter, he ends by reminding us of the importance of leading those who are lost back to the Lord. Fraternal love makes the disciples responsible for one another. It is on this path that the disciples will find their salvation.

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!