EVERYDAY PRAYER

Sunday Vigil
Word of god every day

Sunday Vigil

Memory of the historic Meeting in Assisi (1986), when John Paul II invited representatives of all Christian confessions and the great world religions to pray for peace. Read more

Libretto DEL GIORNO
Sunday Vigil
Saturday, October 27

Memory of the historic Meeting in Assisi (1986), when John Paul II invited representatives of all Christian confessions and the great world religions to pray for peace.


Reading of the Word of God

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Whoever lives and believes in me
will never die.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

2 Chronicles 11, 1-23

When Rehoboam reached Jerusalem, he mustered a hundred and eighty thousand picked warriors of the House of Judah and Benjamin to fight Israel and win back the kingdom for Rehoboam.

But the word of Yahweh came to Shemaiah, man of God,

'Say this to Rehoboam son of Solomon, king of Judah, and to all Israel in Judah and Benjamin,

"Yahweh says this: Do not go and make war on your brothers; let everyone go home, for this is my doing." ' They obeyed Yahweh's command and went back instead of marching against Jeroboam.

Rehoboam, residing in Jerusalem, fortified a number of towns for the defence of Judah.

He built Bethlehem, Etam, Tekoa,

Beth-Zur, Soco, Adullam,

Gath, Mareshah, Ziph,

Adoraim, Lachish, Azekah,

Zorah, Aijalon, Hebron, these being the fortified towns in Judah and Benjamin.

He equipped these fortresses, stationing commanders in them, with supplies of food, oil and wine,

and shields and spears in each of these towns, making them extremely strong and thus retaining control of Judah and Benjamin.

The priests and the Levites from all over Israel left their districts to put themselves at his disposal.

The Levites, indeed, abandoned their pasture lands and their holdings and came to Judah and Jerusalem because Jeroboam and his sons had excluded them from the priesthood of Yahweh.

Jeroboam had appointed his own priests for the high places dedicated to the satyrs and calves which he had made.

And those members of all the tribes of Israel who were determined to seek Yahweh, God of Israel, followed those priests and Levites to Jerusalem to sacrifice to Yahweh, God of their ancestors.

These added strength to the kingdom of Judah and gave their support to Rehoboam son of Solomon for three years. For three years they remained loyal to David and Solomon.

Rehoboam married Mahalath daughter of Jerimoth, son of David, and of Abihail daughter of Eliab son of Jesse,

and she bore him sons: Jeush, Shemariah and Zaham.

After her, he married Maacah daughter of Absalom, who bore him Abijah, Attai, Ziza and Shelomith.

Rehoboam loved Maacah daughter of Absalom, more than all his other wives and concubines. He had in fact a total of eighteen wives and sixty concubines and fathered twenty-eight sons and sixty daughters.

Rehoboam named Abijah son of Maacah as head, hence leader, of his brothers, with a view to making him king,

and acted wisely by distributing his sons throughout the territories of Judah and Benjamin, some in each fortified town, where he provided plenty of food for them and found them wives.

 

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

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

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

The main object of the eleventh chapter is the story of Rehoboam’s action in the southern kingdom. There is no mention of the acclamation of Jeroboam as king of the northern tribes, reported in the first book of the Kings (12:20). After the schism of the North, Rehoboam wants to organize an expedition against Jeroboam and the secessionist tribes. He summons an assembly of seasoned warriors of the loyal tribes, the tribes of David and Benjamin, in Jerusalem. But the Lord stops this plan. The prophet Shemaiah warns Rehoboam, “You shall not go up or fight against your kindred.” That war would have been fratricidal even more than the others. The prophet goes as far as saying that the schism depends on God: “Let everyone return home, for this thing is from me” (v. 4). It was not God who wanted it: the schism is the result of the divine judgment against the behaviour both of Rehoboam and Jeroboam and the northern tribes. They both made choices conforming more to their sentiments and rather than to God’s path. Every time that we consider ourselves more important than the Lord, inevitably the spirit of division weakens what God wants to be united. Nevertheless, the Chronicler, in spite of the division between North and South, still calls the two kingdoms with only one name: Israel. Rehoboam welcomes the prophet’s word and gives up the idea of attacking the northern brothers. His choice secures him God’s blessing. The text aims to explain that as soon as we listen to the word of the Lord, the power of God’s fidelity to the house of David springs up again. While the account of Rehoboam’s reign is full of infidelity in the first book of Kings (14:21-31), here the Chronicler narrates the installation in the wake of Solomon’s reign. Rehoboam doesn’t invade the North; indeed, he fortifies the fifteen cities of Judah, placed in strategic spots of his kingdom. However, the king succeeds in accomplishing a profound consolidation not with abundance of weapons and impregnable fortifications, but as the priests and Levites move from their homes in the North and settle in Jerusalem and Judah. Worship and prayer are the foundation of the unity of Israel, even when there is political division. The priests, appointed by Jeroboam for the high places and satyrs and calves and for goats and calves he had made, understand the gravity of their choice. Hence, they leave the northern region. All the Israelite people, who sincerely sought the Lord, leave after them. They all come to consult and recognize the will of the Lord, God of Israel, who destined them for a mission addressed to all peoples. Unfortunately, the time of obedience, and therefore of blessing for the southern kingdom, lasts only three years. However, this is the first migration of believers from the North to Jerusalem in order to participate to its cult. The large family bestowed on Rehoboam is another token of the goodness of the Lord for his obedience.

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