EVERYDAY PRAYER

Prayer for peace
Word of god every day

Prayer for peace

Prayer for the unity of the Churches. Particular memory of the Churches of the Anglican Communion. Read more

Libretto DEL GIORNO
Prayer for peace
Monday, January 21

Prayer for the unity of the Churches. Particular memory of the Churches of the Anglican Communion.


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

Romans 8, 14-17

All who are guided by the Spirit of God are sons of God;

for what you received was not the spirit of slavery to bring you back into fear; you received the Spirit of adoption, enabling us to cry out, 'Abba, Father!'

The Spirit himself joins with our spirit to bear witness that we are children of God.

And if we are children, then we are heirs, heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ, provided that we share his suffering, so as to share his glory.

 

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

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

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

The human condition is often stuck between pride and fear: the desire to affirm ourselves is strong, but equally strong is the fear of not being able to dominate others. The life that comes from this is not beautiful for us or for others. Pride and fear bind people in the chains of loneliness and love for themselves, driving us toward the creation of a society made up of orphans, that is, people abandoned in their loneliness who become violent because every time they turn in on themselves, it is a sign of their fear of others and their need to oppose them in order to defend themselves. The Lord has come to our aid, giving us his Spirit to keep us from falling into fear and making us his children. And the certainty of being children has to be sought after in the heart, which is where the Spirit resides. In fact, none of Jesus’ disciples can say that he or she is an orphan or abandoned. On the contrary, Jesus’ disciples are radically taken out of their loneliness and welcomed into God’s family. In the documents of the Second Vatican Council, we read that the Lord did not want to save people individually, but by making them into a people, or better, a “family,” in which everyone can turn to the Father with the name dearest to children, “dad,” “abba.” The fact that we are children is the root of our salvation and will never be extinguished; rather, it is the wellspring of our joy. Those who refuse this relationship condemn themselves to the slavery of evil. By remaining children we become heirs to the promises of God and of his glory.

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