EVERYDAY PRAYER

Liturgy of the Sunday
Word of god every day

Liturgy of the Sunday

Second Sunday of Advent
Memory of Saint Ambrose († 397), bishop of Milan. Pastor of his people, he remained strong in the face of the emperor's arrogance.
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Libretto DEL GIORNO
Liturgy of the Sunday
Sunday, December 7

Homily

“The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” Thus begins the Gospel of Mark, which will accompany us throughout this liturgical year. The evangelist did not intend to write a great story concluded in itself; rather he wrote a “Gospel,” that is crucial news for all. The text opens with these words: “The beginning of the good news.” It is a “beginning” not relegated to the past, a quasi-prisoner of those days; rather, the “good news” of Jesus Christ is a “beginning” that remains vital, a living stone that edifies the life of those who listen to it. This is why we do not listen to the Gospel once and only once, precisely because it is the foundation of the life of every Christian community, of every disciple. We all need to listen to it and listen to it again. No one of any age or generation can do without it. While we listen to it, the Gospel saves our lives and the lives of those to whom we communicate it. The Gospel needs to continue to resound throughout the world. It is true that our society is rich in words, but often they are empty and not always edifying. Frequently, noise and confusion both exterior and interior, stun also us. We know little about how to talk to each other, and rarely do we exchange sincere words. But amidst the confusion of talking, the Gospel begins to speak and save.
The text that we are listening to today immediately draws us into a climate where people are longing for a future; in fact, the Gospel even asks us to prepare a future. The Gospel announces that “someone” is about to come among us and bring salvation. There is no longer time to distract ourselves or to listen to other voices. The risk of losing this propitious occasion is great. If the liturgy last Sunday asked us to be vigilant, today it exhorts to us to welcome the one who is about to come. One could say that the beginning of this Gospel plays itself the role of the Baptist. The Gospel makes a path for the Lord; it is the voice that cries to each one us to prepare a way for the Lord who is returning. The Lord, returning to his city, is the good news of this Gospel reading.
Already with the reading from Isaiah, the liturgy makes us feel that this time is coming closer: “Comfort, O comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that she has served her term, that her penalty is paid.” The people of Israel are able to leave the land of Babylon, where they were enslaved, and head toward Zion. They will follow a long path through the desert, a path that is straight and flat, which will pass over steppes, valleys and mountains and lead the people up to Jerusalem. And the Lord, like the pastor of whom the prophet speaks, will be before his people, guiding them along this path. We could say that when we open up the Gospel, it is as if this path were opening up before us. And to follow this path means to read the Gospel, meditate upon it and put it into practice. “The way of the Lord” has come to us and salvation has descended into our life.
This conviction is John the Baptist's strength. He is dressed as a poor person, wearing a coarse garment made of camel hair, not the soft clothes and luxurious garb of the people in Jerusalem. His austere sobriety, so far removed from our habits and ways, underscores that he truly lives from the Lord and his kingdom. John the Baptist is eager for God's future to come quickly, and he cries it out (“Cry out!” the Lord had said to the prophet Isaiah). He does not resign himself to a world devoid of hope. He, too, anxiously waits, just as Peter will say later, for “new heavens and a new earth, where righteousness is at home.” He does not remain silent, but protests, dresses as a strange character and, above all else, speaks, even cries out. His words cut to the heart. Just as every homily ought to do, John speaks to the heart of the people. He does not want to shock the ears, nor does he run after vain interpretations, nor propose his own ideas and truths. Obeying the Spirit of the Lord, he wants his word to fill the emptiness of hearts, level the mountains that separate us from each other, tear down the walls that divide us, rip up the bitter roots that poison our relationships and straighten the paths distorted by hatred, gossip, envy, indifference, pride and bad faith.
This austere preacher, who forgets himself so that through his words the Lord alone may speak, truly strikes the heart of whoever listens to him. Mark notes this: “And people from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him” to be baptized, each confessing his or her sins. We, too, ought to listen to the voice of this preacher so that our hearts may be touched. During the Holy Liturgy of Sunday, our very own churches, whether small or large, become the place where we can gather around the Baptist and his preaching. When the Holy Scriptures are opened and the Word of God is announced and preached, at that very moment, the way of the Lord opens up before us. Blessed are we if we know how to welcome it and follow along because certainly it will lead us to the Lord who is coming.

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