EVERYDAY PRAYER

Memory of the Saints and the Prophets
Word of god every day
Libretto DEL GIORNO
Memory of the Saints and the Prophets
Wednesday, July 9


Reading of the Word of God

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

You are a chosen race,
a royal priesthood, a holy nation,
a people acquired by God
to proclaim his marvellous works.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Matthew 10, 1-7

He summoned his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits with power to drive them out and to cure all kinds of disease and all kinds of illness.

These are the names of the twelve apostles: first, Simon who is known as Peter, and his brother Andrew; James the son of Zebedee, and his brother John;

Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas, and Matthew the tax collector; James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus;

Simon the Zealot and Judas Iscariot, who was also his betrayer.

These twelve Jesus sent out, instructing them as follows: 'Do not make your way to gentile territory, and do not enter any Samaritan town;

go instead to the lost sheep of the House of Israel.

And as you go, proclaim that the kingdom of Heaven is close at hand.

 

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

You will be holy,
because I am holy, thus says the Lord.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

From compassion for the crowds, harassed and helpless, is born the call of disciples instructed about the Gospel mission. Without this link, we could misunderstand the meaning of our call and easily reduce it to a role and a sacrifice. Jesus chooses twelve men, as many as the tribes of Israel, as though to say that no one has to be deprived of the proclamation of the Gospel. The evangelist mentions the name of the twelve apostles. There are Greeks and Jews; men from the North and others from the South; simple fishermen as well as members of the Zealots’ revolutionary party (Simon the Cananean), followers of the Baptist (James and John) and tax collectors (Matthew). They form a heterogeneous group regardless of territorial origin or military ideology. What is important is following Jesus and obeying his Word; these two dimensions form their new identity. They are not known nor designated as the tax-collector, the zealot, the fisherman, but as those who are with the Nazarene. As Simon, they all receive a new name, that is a new mission and a new power. They are no longer as they were before they met Jesus, when they were identified by their job. Since then, they have become witnesses of the Gospel, of a universal dream which is not theirs but God’s, and they received power to change hearts, to overcome evil, to gather the weak, to love the desperate, to hasten the Kingdom of God. This is true power, true strength to change, derived not from money, purses, tunics or things from the earth. This is the power of the limitless love from on high, first witnessed to by Jesus. This first Gospel mission is emblematic for every Christian generation: there is no other way for the disciples of Jesus. Our generation too, in the new millennium, is called to live this Gospel page literally. In the Gospel of Matthew, the mandate refers only to “the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” Historically, the mission of Jesus and of the Apostles began in Israel. This limit, attributed to a Jewish-Christian tradition in practice at the beginning of the Church, has been happily overcome. Today, the mission of the Church is global and borderless, and responds exactly to the message of universal salvation willed by the life of Christ and of the first Christian communities.

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