EVERYDAY PRAYER

Memory of the Mother of the Lord
Word of god every day
Libretto DEL GIORNO
Memory of the Mother of the Lord
Tuesday, June 18


Reading of the Word of God

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

The Spirit of the Lord is upon you.
The child you shall bear will be holy.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Hebrews 10, 32-39

Remember the great challenge of the sufferings that you had to meet after you received the light, in earlier days;

sometimes by being yourselves publicly exposed to humiliations and violence, and sometimes as associates of others who were treated in the same way.

For you not only shared in the sufferings of those who were in prison, but you accepted with joy being stripped of your belongings, knowing that you owned something that was better and lasting.

Do not lose your fearlessness now, then, since the reward is so great.

You will need perseverance if you are to do God's will and gain what he has promised.

Only a little while now, a very little while, for come he certainly will before too long.

My upright person will live through faith but if he draws back, my soul will take no pleasure in him.

We are not the sort of people who draw back, and are lost by it; we are the sort who keep faith until our souls are saved.

 

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Look down, O Lord, on your servants.
Be it unto us according to your word.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

The third part of the Letter begins. The author wishes to exhort Christians to constancy and perseverance in Christian life. It was a particularly difficult moment for the community at that time, pressed by not a few difficulties. Evidently, there was some failure or their witness had slackened, perhaps through a Christianity lived in a more individualistic manner, and, therefore, it grew less meaningful, less prophetic. The author reminds those Christians of the fervour which they had at the time of their conversion, when they faced with courage every sacrifice just to witness to the Gospel: not only did they not pull back in the face of difficulties and dangers, but they faced them together with joy. He recalls when they were “being publicly exposed to abuse and persecution” and were living in profound solidarity among themselves: “you had compassion for those who were in prison, and you cheerfully accepted the plundering of your possessions.” The reason for this courage resided in the conviction of “knowing that you yourselves possessed something better and more lasting.” Unfortunately, the fervour of the beginning – the Book of Revelation would say: the enthusiasm of “first love” (Rev 2:4) – has cooled down and is replaced by an attitude lazy in following the Gospel and by a spirit of resignation in the face of difficulties encountered. It is a failure which also we know well, despite not living in such adverse situations as the Christians of that time. It is not difficult to allow ourselves to be overcome by laziness and by resignation, typical of a culture self-centred and consumerist, which erode from within the prophecy of the Gospel. Christians abandon hoping, and thus working for a new world that is more solidary and less violent. The author exhorts us instead to rediscover the virtue of constancy, that is to persevere in following the Gospel and not to abandon the “parrhesia,” that trust in God which represents the true strength of the believers and that allows them to stand firm even in a world hostile to the Gospel and to its followers.

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