EVERYDAY PRAYER

Sunday Vigil
Word of god every day
Libretto DEL GIORNO
Sunday Vigil
Saturday, March 1


Reading of the Word of God

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Whoever lives and believes in me
will never die.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Mark 10, 13-16

People were bringing little children to him, for him to touch them. The disciples scolded them,

but when Jesus saw this he was indignant and said to them, 'Let the little children come to me; do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs.

In truth I tell you, anyone who does not welcome the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.'

Then he embraced them, laid his hands on them and gave them his blessing.

 

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

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

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Probably this episode should be placed at some place of rest along Jesus’ way to Jerusalem. It was customary to present children to the rabbis to be blessed by placing hands on them. But the disciples saw these crowds of children, who flocked around Jesus, and thought they disturbed him. Jesus took the opportunity to amaze the disciples once again and to teach them how to behave. First he rebuked them for they prevented children to come close to him. Jesus wanted them to be next to him and as soon as they arrived he “caressed them” and blessed them. The scene is unusual and certainly shows Jesus’ care and tenderness for the little ones. In this Gospel scene we recognize the millions of children in our contemporary world who do not know who to go to and remain crushed victims in loneliness and marginalization. No one embraces them, no one caresses them. On the contrary, they are often approached to be exploited in most cruel and indifferent ways. Therefore whoever gets close to them to help them, to rear them, to defend them, will certainly receive a great reward. We should not fear tenderness. And when Jesus says: “Whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will not enter it,” he proposes a paramount teaching to disciples’ lives. More than once in the Gospels this concept is repeated. We should just reflect on what Jesus said to Nicodemus: “No one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above” (see Jn 3:3). Proposing the attitude of the child as the model of discipleship, Jesus wishes to emphasize the total dependence of the disciple of God as a child who depends on parents for everything. First the disciple is a child who receives everything from the Father and depends on Him for everything. It is the topic of the first beatitude of the Sermon of the Mount: “Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.” The poor in spirit are the humble, those who become children before God. They depend on Him and always consider themselves beloved children of the Father, for they have “received a spirit of adoption, through which we cry, ‘Abba, Father!’” (Rm 8:15). This is why Jesus says, “To such as these the kingdom of God belongs.”

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