EVERYDAY PRAYER

Memory of the Church
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Memory of the Church

Memory of the prophet Isaiah Read more

Libretto DEL GIORNO
Memory of the Church
Thursday, May 9

Memory of the prophet Isaiah


Reading of the Word of God

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

I am the good shepherd,
my sheep listen to my voice,
and they become
one flock and one fold.
.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Colossians 1, 3-8

We give thanks for you to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, continually in our prayers,

ever since we heard about your faith in Christ Jesus and the love that you show towards all God's holy people

because of the hope which is stored up for you in heaven. News of this hope reached you not long ago through the word of truth, the gospel

that came to you in the same way as it is bearing fruit and growing throughout the world. It has had the same effect among you, ever since you heard about the grace of God and recognised it for what it truly is.

This you learnt from Epaphras, our very dear fellow-worker and a trustworthy deputy for us as Christ's servant,

and it was he who also told us all about your love in the Spirit.

 

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

I give you a new commandment,
that you love one another.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Paul adds Timothy’s name to his greeting and thanks God “always” for the faith of the Christians of Colossae. He has heard of the community’s vitality, and he summarizes its life in terms of the three pillars that uphold it: faith, love, and hope. The first is “faith in Christ Jesus”, that is, the welcoming of Jesus as the true Good and the one Lord and Saviour. The second is love, the love that the disciple receives from Christ and that drives him or her to consider others as brothers and sisters, members of God’s one family, thus removing every barrier to Gospel love, so that it might become a leavening of unity for the entire world. For the apostle, hope is this final and complete unity. This final goal, which is already present in the Risen One, is what sustains their faith and drives them to keep their fraternal love alive. Through baptism, believers are immersed in the mystery of Christ, dead and risen, and already live “with Christ” (3:3). Believers are already where Christ is, even if they still have to wait for his full manifestation. But just as a seed already contains its entire future and is waiting for its complete fulfilment, so it is for a Christian who receives baptism. By citing the three pillars that uphold Christian life in his initial thanksgiving, Paul reveals his concern for a community that risks being contaminated by a false sense of security. He calls them back to the essential: their personal relationship with Christ and their fraternal communion. The apostle reiterates that this Gospel does not deceive but is trustworthy. And it is already bearing fruit. The apostle is not just thinking about the Colossians but also the communities that are being born in other regions of the Roman empire. Before his eyes, and so also before his joys and concerns, he sees the one Gospel taking flesh in many local communities and giving life to the one Church. Certainly, the spread of Christianity was still limited in the apostle’s time, but its universal dimension could already be seen clearly. Indeed, Jesus had compared the Kingdom of heaven to a grain of mustard, the smallest of seeds, which would become as big as a tree. But the community’s growth is only possible if it remains linked to the sap of the seed or the strength of the leavening. Paul and Timothy had heard from Epaphras, the founder of community of Colossae, that the work of the Holy Spirit (this is the only time it is mentioned in the Letter) is alive in the hearts of all. It is truly a community in good health, that is, a Church that continues to listen to the Gospel and put it into practice. In this sense, the connection they have to Epaphras also unites them with Paul and Timothy, creating the ecclesial fraternity that has the strength to change the world.

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