EVERYDAY PRAYER

Memory of the Mother of the Lord
Word of god every day

Memory of the Mother of the Lord

Memorial of Mary Magdalene. She announced to the disciples that the Lord was risen Read more

Libretto DEL GIORNO
Memory of the Mother of the Lord
Tuesday, July 22

Memorial of Mary Magdalene. She announced to the disciples that the Lord was risen


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

John 20, 1.11-18

It was very early on the first day of the week and still dark, when Mary of Magdala came to the tomb. She saw that the stone had been moved away from the tomb

But Mary was standing outside near the tomb, weeping. Then, as she wept, she stooped to look inside,

and saw two angels in white sitting where the body of Jesus had been, one at the head, the other at the feet.

They said, 'Woman, why are you weeping?' 'They have taken my Lord away,' she replied, 'and I don't know where they have put him.'

As she said this she turned round and saw Jesus standing there, though she did not realise that it was Jesus.

Jesus said to her, 'Woman, why are you weeping? Who are you looking for?' Supposing him to be the gardener, she said, 'Sir, if you have taken him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will go and remove him.'

Jesus said, 'Mary!' She turned round then and said to him in Hebrew, 'Rabbuni!' -- which means Master.

Jesus said to her, 'Do not cling to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to the brothers, and tell them: I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.'

So Mary of Magdala told the disciples, 'I have seen the Lord,' and that he had said these things to her.

 

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

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

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Today the liturgy commemorates Mary Magdalene. She, a woman from Magdala, met Jesus, who freed her from “seven demons.” From that moment she began to follow him and never abandoned him, not when he was alive and not when he was dead. The Gospel shows her while she cries beside the empty tomb. They had taken her Lord away. The loss of the only one who had understood her in the past few years made her run and induced her to seek him, even though he was dead. How little we cry over the loss of the Lord! Mary, instead, is dejected. She asks everyone, the two angels and the “gardener”, where Jesus is. She is completely set on finding him. Nothing else interests her. She is truly an example of the true believer who seeks the Lord. She even asks the “gardener.” She sees Jesus with her eyes, but she does not recognize him until he calls her by name. The same happens with us with the Gospel. It is not our eyes who allow us to recognize Jesus, but his voice. That timbre, that tone, that name tenderly pronounced that had touched her heart so many times, make the barrier fall away, and Mary recognizes her Teacher. To listen to him even just once, means not to abandon him any longer. We cannot forget the voice of Christ (the Gospel). Even if we hear it for just a moment, we will no longer renounce it. Familiarity with the words of the Gospel, indeed, is familiarity with the Lord: it constitutes the way along which we will see and meet him. Mary throws herself at Jesus’ feet and embraces him with the longing affection of who one who has found again the decisive man of her life. But Jesus tells her, “Do not hold on me… But go to my brothers.” Gospel love is an energy that pushes us to go beyond. Her running toward the disciples was not granted. Jesus entrusts the first news of the Resurrection to a weak woman with a difficult story. She could be afraid of not being believed, of being insulted; we too sometimes think that believing to love stronger than death, to tears that can be dried, to life that overcomes death are just chatters. Mary listened again to the voice of her Teacher and she was even happier while she was running toward the disciples to announce to all: “I have seen the Lord!” The meeting with Lord changes all our life. What is given to us is not only for us, but for many. Believers cannot hold happiness for themselves, they go toward all. Fast! She, the sinner, had become the first to announce the Gospel. She is not afraid for she is strong of the Word of Jesus. For this reason, the Byzantine tradition calls her “the apostle of the apostles.”

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