EVERYDAY PRAYER

Memory of the Mother of the Lord
Word of god every day
Libretto DEL GIORNO
Memory of the Mother of the Lord
Tuesday, June 9


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

2 Corinthians 1, 18-22

As surely as God is trustworthy, what we say to you is not both Yes and No.

The Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was proclaimed to you by us, that is, by me and by Silvanus and Timothy, was never Yes-and-No; his nature is all Yes.

For in him is found the Yes to all God's promises and therefore it is 'through him' that we answer 'Amen' to give praise to God.

It is God who gives us, with you, a sure place in Christ

and has both anointed us and marked us with his seal, giving us as pledge the Spirit in our hearts.

 

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

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

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

In the community of Corinth there were present preachers who had begun to criticize Paul and to accuse him, bringing into question his sincerity, his apostolicity, and the Gospel preached by him. It happened likewise in Galatia. Paul is constrained to defend himself, even if his defence is primarily of the Gospel preached by him and for which he had also received confirmation from the other apostles gathered together in Jerusalem. With this letter, Paul wants to reaffirm the value of his message, which comes from the grace of God, not from the wisdom or from the strength of the “flesh”. And it is for this that one is able to “boast”. But it is not the pride of vainglory for their own, perhaps presumed, qualities. It is a temptation that we know in many. The pride of which the apostle speaks is that of those who spend their lives proclaiming the Gospel; of one who is able to present to the Lord a community as fruit of their preaching. In this perspective, the apostle, on the other hand, says, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.” It is this pride which impels Paul to confirm his love and his concern for the community. He wanted to visit it soon, but he had been prevented. He had to change his plans. It is therefore not a question of volubility: “As surely as God is faithful, our word to you has not been ‘Yes and No’” (v. 18). His failure to visit, therefore, is no sign of disinterestedness or of fear in front of those who have accused him. And with this letter he wishes to reaffirm the common calling that Christ has made to him and to the community, to which by now he feels united through the same anointing and by the common seal of the Holy Spirit.

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