EVERYDAY PRAYER

Sunday Vigil
Word of god every day

Sunday Vigil

Memorial of Saints Cyrillus and Methodius, fathers of the Slavic Church and patrons of Europe. Read more

Libretto DEL GIORNO
Sunday Vigil
Saturday, February 14

Memorial of Saints Cyrillus and Methodius, fathers of the Slavic Church and patrons of Europe.


Reading of the Word of God

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Whoever lives and believes in me
will never die.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Genesis 3, 9-24

But Yahweh God called to the man. 'Where are you?' he asked.

'I heard the sound of you in the garden,' he replied. 'I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid.'

'Who told you that you were naked?' he asked. 'Have you been eating from the tree I forbade you to eat?'

The man replied, 'It was the woman you put with me; she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.'

Then Yahweh God said to the woman, 'Why did you do that?' The woman replied, 'The snake tempted me and I ate.'

Then Yahweh God said to the snake, 'Because you have done this, Accursed be you of all animals wild and tame! On your belly you will go and on dust you will feed as long as you live.

I shall put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; it will bruise your head and you will strike its heel.'

To the woman he said: I shall give you intense pain in childbearing, you will give birth to your children in pain. Your yearning will be for your husband, and he will dominate you.

To the man he said, 'Because you listened to the voice of your wife and ate from the tree of which I had forbidden you to eat, Accursed be the soil because of you! Painfully will you get your food from it as long as you live.

It will yield you brambles and thistles, as you eat the produce of the land.

By the sweat of your face will you earn your food, until you return to the ground, as you were taken from it. For dust you are and to dust you shall return.'

The man named his wife 'Eve' because she was the mother of all those who live.

Yahweh God made tunics of skins for the man and his wife and clothed them.

Then Yahweh God said, 'Now that the man has become like one of us in knowing good from evil, he must not be allowed to reach out his hand and pick from the tree of life too, and eat and live for ever!'

So Yahweh God expelled him from the garden of Eden, to till the soil from which he had been taken.

He banished the man, and in front of the garden of Eden he posted the great winged creatures and the fiery flashing sword, to guard the way to the tree of life.

 

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

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

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

God never abandons humankind, not even when it sins or distances itself from him. He looked for Adam and Eve in the garden and called out affectionately, “Adam, where are you?” Indeed at times we hide ourselves from God and his gaze and close in on ourselves. This happens every time we live as though God wasn’t present and wasn’t our friend. Yet the Lord continues to call out to us just as he called out to Adam: “Where are you?” He asks us this question every day and asks not to hide from his love. Adam was probably aware of the sin he committed, was afraid and felt ashamed. Thus a conversation began between the man, the woman and God. As it often happens also to each of us, no one likes recognizing his or her own sins. We are always ready to exonerate ourselves while blaming others for our actions and for all evil. But God knows what happened, as His words to the snake, the woman and the man indicate. Sin, the refusal to listen to God, brings about dramatic consequences that mark human history and the history of the world: enmity, pain, the strain of life and even death. Without God, we die and we become enemies as it will be the case between Cain and Abel. But God does not intend to punish Adam and Eve; he does not intend to punish the sinner. He continues to take care of the man and the woman and makes something to cover their nakedness. He gives them the cloth of his love to cover them when they leave the Garden of life with God. Those who try to make a god of themselves and others lose friendship and life with God. The expulsion from the Garden is none other than the consequence of the choice to live for oneself and no longer in obedience to God. How many times we exclude ourselves from God’s friendship and life with him in order to follow ourselves, to listen to the world’s idols, illusions and false prophets! God had to send his Son Jesus into the world in order to bring humanity back to life and covenant with Him. This is why according to Paul, Jesus is the new Adam: “Therefore just as one man’s trespass led to condemnation for all, so one man’s act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all. For just as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous” ( Rom 5:18-19).

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