EVERYDAY PRAYER

Memory of Jesus crucified
Word of god every day
Libretto DEL GIORNO
Memory of Jesus crucified
Friday, August 30


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

Jeremiah 23, 17-40

To those who despise me, they keep saying: Yahweh has spoken: you will have peace! and to all who follow their own stubborn inclinations: No disaster will touch you."

But who has been present in Yahweh's council and seen, and heard his word? Who has paid attention to his word and listened to it?

Look, Yahweh's hurricane, his wrath, bursts out, a fearsome hurricane, to burst on the heads of the wicked;

Yahweh's anger will not withdraw until he has performed, has carried out, what he has in mind. In the final days, you will understand this clearly,

'I did not send these prophets, yet they ran! I did not speak to them, yet they prophesied!

Had they been present in my council, they could have proclaimed my words to my people and turned them from their evil way and from the wickedness of their deeds!

'Am I a God when near, Yahweh demands, and not a God when far away?

Can anyone hide somewhere secret without my seeing him? Yahweh demands. Do I not fill heaven and earth? Yahweh demands.

'I have heard what the prophets say who make their lying prophecies in my name. "I have had a dream," they say, "I have had a dream!"

How long are there to be those among the prophets who prophesy lies and are in fact prophets of their own delusions?

They are doing their best, by means of the dreams that they keep telling each other, to make my people forget my name, just as their ancestors forgot my name in favour of Baal.

Let the prophet who has had a dream tell it for a dream! And let him who receives a word from me, deliver my word accurately! 'What have straw and wheat in common? Yahweh demands.

Is my word not like fire, Yahweh demands, is it not like a hammer shattering a rock?

'So, then, I have a quarrel with the prophets, Yahweh declares, that steal my words from one another.

I have a quarrel with the prophets, Yahweh declares, who wag their tongues to utter prophecies.

I have a quarrel with the prophets who make prophecies out of lying dreams, Yahweh declares, who recount them, and lead my people astray by their lies and their bragging. I certainly never sent them or commissioned them, and they serve no good purpose for this people, Yahweh declares.

'And when this people, or a prophet, or a priest, asks you, "What is Yahweh's burden?" you must answer, "You are the burden, and I shall get rid of you, Yahweh declares!"

'As for the prophet, the priest, or anyone else, who says, "Yahweh's burden", I shall punish that man, and his household too.

This is what you must say to one another, among yourselves, "What answer has Yahweh given?" or "What has Yahweh said?"

But stop using the expression "Yahweh's burden", for what each man says will be his own responsibility. And you twist the words of the living God, of Yahweh Sabaoth, our God.

This is the way to speak to a prophet, "What answer has Yahweh given?" or "What has Yahweh said?"

But if you say, "Yahweh's burden", then Yahweh says this, "Since you use the expression 'Yahweh's burden', when I have warned you to stop saying, 'Yahweh's burden',

believe me, I shall pick you up and fling you from my presence, you and the city I gave to you and to your ancestors.

I shall bring down everlasting shame on you, everlasting and unforgettable disgrace." '

 

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

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

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

The Word of God is a fire that burns and destroys in order to build a new heart, a new person. The Lord knows that his Word is effective and it causes change. The Lord does not want people to be destroyed by the terrible weight of their faults and failings, and so end up in the darkness and shadows. The Word burns away the impurities of a heart that has grown accustomed to feeling in control of itself and of its destiny, but at the same time it refreshes and supports us when our strength fails and everything seems to be flattening around us. The Word shakes us out of the torpor of selfishness and resignation; it picks up from the dust those who have fallen and neglected their humanity. The Word drives prophets to communicate dreams and visions inspired by the Lord and it encourages them to work to make them come true. But the Word is also a challenge. The prophet is aware of his own need to listen to what he has to repeat to others and he asks for help so that he can communicate it with courage and clarity. The prophet - and so it is for every believer, every disciple called to communicate the word of the Teacher - is well aware of his weaknesses and knows that they can become an insurmountable obstacle without the One who gives strength. This is why the apostle could say, “Whenever I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Co 12:10). The Word challenges the pride of us all - this is the sin of the false prophets - and becomes a sure guide in humility and patience. We must learn to speak the language of the Word of the Lord, not the language of the false prophets who fill themselves with lies and live according to outward appearances. Their words are meant to replace “the words of the living God,” but they are empty and do not bring life but only death, both spiritual and historical. The prophet who speaks on his or her own account and not for God does not realize that he or she is replacing the love that makes things grow with a sterile attention to his or her own desires. But God remains close to people, both “near by” and “far off.” He fills “heaven and earth.”

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