EVERYDAY PRAYER

All Saints Day
Word of god every day

All Saints Day

Memorial of all the saints whose names are written in heaven. In communion with them, we turn to the Lord, recognizing ourselves as his children Read more

Libretto DEL GIORNO
All Saints Day
Saturday, November 1

Homily

The Church, truly mother and teacher, works in every way to lead her children onto holiness. She presents us today with crowds of common saints. They are the multitude of those who, like the tax-collector, have admitted their sin, renounced making excuses and claiming privileges, and have entrusted themselves to the mercy of God (see Lk 18:10-14). They are not heroes, quasi-supermen of the spiritual life, admirable but impossible to imitate. They are common men and women, a multitude of disciples of all periods who have tried to hear the Gospel. They are also unbelievers, persons of goodwill who have made a commitment to live not just for themselves.
In the Book of Revelation, heard in the first reading, John reveals an incredible scene, “There was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, robed in white, with palm branches in their hands” (7:9). No one, no matter of what race or culture is excluded from participating in the life of the saints, provided he or she is willing. That multitude, made up of all the “children of God,” is the family of the saints. They are not “important” and brave persons, but rather those called by God to be part of his people. “You were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God” (l Cor 6:11). They are made up of the weak, the ill, the needy. They who are before God not standing up, but on their knees; not with head held high, but bowed down; not with a demanding attitude, but with hands outstretched, begging for help.
One is a saint, then, not after one’s death, but from the time one becomes part of the familia Dei and is “separated” (this is the meaning of “holy”) from the sad destiny of this world. John, in his first letter, says clearly, “See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are… Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed” (1 Jn 3:1.2). The life of every believer should be committed to holiness, a horizon in which thoughts, actions, choices, projects, personal or collective are inscribed. Holiness is not a wholly-internal reality distanced from the concreteness of human vicissitude; being a child of God and belonging to God’s family is not parenthetical to one’s own life.
Rather, holiness is a dimension which revolutionizes each person’s life. In Gospel terms, holiness is described in the Beatitudes (Mt 5:1-12); someone acutely defined them as the “constitution” of the person of the second Millennium. The Beatitudes can help human beings to leave behind the sad condition in which they find themselves. The Gospel understanding of happiness is a precious guide, just the opposite of that of the dominant culture. It is true that we can ask ourselves: How can one be happy when one is poor, afflicted, meek, merciful? And yet, when we look more closely at the causes of bitterness in life, we perceive them to lie in insatiableness, in arrogance, in prevarication, in peoples’ indifference. The way of holiness is not, then, an extraordinary one; it is rather the daily way of men and women who seek to live in the light of the Gospel.

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