EVERYDAY PRAYER

Sunday Vigil
Word of god every day
Libretto DEL GIORNO
Sunday Vigil
Saturday, June 6


Reading of the Word of God

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Whoever lives and believes in me
will never die.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Tobit 12, 1.5-15.20

When the wedding feast was over, Tobit called his son Tobias and said, 'My son, you ought to think about paying the amount due to your fellow traveller; give him more than the figure agreed on.'

So Tobias called his companion and said, 'Take half of what you brought back, in payment for all you have done, and go in peace.'

Then Raphael took them both aside and said, 'Bless God, utter his praise before all the living for the favour he has shown you. Bless and extol his name. Proclaim before all people the deeds of God as they deserve, and never tire of giving him thanks.

It is right to keep the secret of a king, yet right to reveal and publish the works of God as they deserve. Do what is good, and no evil can befall you.

'Prayer with fasting and alms with uprightness are better than riches with iniquity. Better to practise almsgiving than to hoard up gold.

Almsgiving saves from death and purges every kind of sin. Those who give alms have their fill of days;

those who commit sin and do evil bring harm on themselves.

'I am going to tell you the whole truth, hiding nothing from you. I have already told you that it is right to keep the secret of a king, yet right too to reveal in a worthy way the words of God.

So you must know that when you and Sarah were at prayer, it was I who offered your supplications before the glory of the Lord and who read them; so too when you were burying the dead.

When you did not hesitate to get up and leave the table to go and bury a dead man, I was sent to test your faith,

and at the same time God sent me to heal you and your daughter-in-law Sarah.

I am Raphael, one of the seven angels who stand ever ready to enter the presence of the glory of the Lord.'

Now bless the Lord on earth and give thanks to God. I am about to return to him who sent me from above. Write down all that has happened.' And he rose in the air.

 

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

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

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Chapter 12 begins with a remarkable display of honesty and generosity by Tobit and Tobias towards Azariah-Raphael. But then it is Raphael who does the talking. He takes them aside, as if to signify that he wants to go down to the depths of their hearts, and he shows them the beauty and strength of prayer when it is combined with almsgiving and fasting. His words are not simple moral exhortations, but directions for a path that leads to salvation in the here and now. Prayer and the practice of charity are what saved and protected them: “Do good, and evil will not overtake you. Prayer with fasting is good, but better than both is almsgiving with righteousness. A little with righteousness is better than wealth with wrongdoing. It is better to give alms than to lay up gold. For almsgiving saves from death and purges away every sin. Those who give alms will enjoy a full life, but those who commit sin and do wrong are their own worst enemies” (v. 8-10).This teaching still needs to be carefully safeguarded and observed today, seeing that many people have lost all sense of its centrality. We need to pray to the Lord not only for ourselves, but also for everyone: the angel of the Lord will carry our prayer all the way to the altar of heaven. And almsgiving, which reveals the beginning of mercy, will be generously repaid by God: the angels will accompany us on our path, and the joy of the poor will be like a viaticum (Note of the Translator: spiritual support) of grace for us. It is not by chance that Raphael reveals his identity precisely when he is talking about prayer and fasting: “So now, when you and Sarah prayed, it was I who brought and read the record of your prayer before the glory of the Lord, and likewise whenever you buried the dead. And that time when you did not hesitate to get up and leave your dinner to go and bury the dead, I was sent to you to test you. And at the same time God sent me to heal you and Sarah, your daughter-in-law” (v. 12-14).At this point he also reveals his name, Raphael, which means “God heals”; he stands before God’s presence and places our prayers and our little acts of mercy on his altar. Tobit and Tobias fall down on the ground in front of the angel, full of fear. Perhaps we too have to rediscover the proper level of fear and respect for those who accompany us as the angel did with Tobias, keeping ourselves away from the temptation to be our own angels. That is the pride of Lucifer, which brought down the angels who wanted to be their own guides. Those who know how to recognize the angels of God at their side can be certain that their prayers and their acts of love will ascend to heaven, just as Raphael ascended, “‘See, I am ascending to him who sent me.’ … And he ascended.”

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