EVERYDAY PRAYER

Memory of the Mother of the Lord
Word of god every day

Memory of the Mother of the Lord

Memorial of Saint Clare of Assisi (1193-1253), disciple of Saint Francis on the way of poverty and evangelic simplicity. Read more

Libretto DEL GIORNO
Memory of the Mother of the Lord
Tuesday, August 11

Memorial of Saint Clare of Assisi (1193-1253), disciple of Saint Francis on the way of poverty and evangelic simplicity.


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

Deuteronomy 31, 1-8

Moses went and spoke to all Israel as follows,

'Today, I am one hundred and twenty years old, and can no longer act as leader. Yahweh has told me, "You shall not cross this Jordan."

Yahweh your God himself will lead you across, he himself will destroy and dispossess these nations confronting you; Joshua too will lead you across, as Yahweh has said.

Yahweh will treat them as he has treated Sihon and Og the Amorite kings and their country -- he destroyed them.

Yahweh will put them at your mercy, and you will deal with them exactly as prescribed by the commandments which I have laid down for you.

Be strong, stand firm, have no fear, do not be afraid of them, for Yahweh your God is going with you; he will not fail you or desert you.'

Moses then summoned Joshua and, in the presence of all Israel, said to him, 'Be strong, stand firm; you will be the one to go with this people into the country which Yahweh has sworn to their ancestors that he would give them; you are to be the one who puts them into possession of it.

Yahweh himself will lead you; he will be with you; he will not fail you or desert you. Have no fear, do not be alarmed.'

 

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

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

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Moses truly is the man of God. Everything he did was always in obedience to God, who guided him to free his people from the Egyptian slavery. Those who listen to God also love his people, because binding one’s life to the Lord means loving and defending his people, whom he has chosen and put into our hands in many ways. For the sake of the promised land, Moses faced the harshness of the desert, the fear of the Egyptian army, his people’s disbelief, their choice to make their own idols, the bitterness of longing for home. He kept leading his people because he listened to God and he first obeyed his law. He came close to the promised land, but never entered it. The Lord had said so. Moses did not despair, he demanded nothing for himself, he did not claim some role or right. He did not own the land for which he endured the whole path. As in the blessing that Jesus reveals to us so we can learn to be people of faith: blessed are those who have not seen and yet they have believed. The believer has got everything! Moses always believed in the Lord’s promise. He did not need to own it. He knew that everything is a gift from God and his love will guide the people. People often mistake gift for possession, they tie what they are called for to their own person, they get carried away by self-absorption and end up binding everything to themselves. Moses asks his people to believe in God, so they can face new challenges. When does the path end? As a matter of fact we all stand and stare from afar and we rely on God who “goes with you; he will not fail you or forsake you.” Joshua led the people because the Lord went before him. Moses’ strong serenity, his freedom from possession, which affects so deeply disciples’ and men’s choices, make him a true believer.

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