EVERYDAY PRAYER

Memory of the Saints and the Prophets
Word of god every day

Memory of the Saints and the Prophets

Memorial of Saint Jerome, doctor of the Church, who died in Bethlehem in 420. He translated the Bible into the Latin language. Prayer that the voice of the Scripture may be heard in every language. Read more

Libretto DEL GIORNO
Memory of the Saints and the Prophets
Wednesday, September 30

Memorial of Saint Jerome, doctor of the Church, who died in Bethlehem in 420. He translated the Bible into the Latin language. Prayer that the voice of the Scripture may be heard in every language.


Reading of the Word of God

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

You are a chosen race,
a royal priesthood, a holy nation,
a people acquired by God
to proclaim his marvellous works.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Nehemiah 2, 1-8

In the month of Nisan, in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes, since I was in charge of the wine, I took the wine and offered it to the king. Now, he had never seen me looking depressed before.

So the king said to me, 'Why are you looking depressed? You are not sick! This must be a sadness of the heart.' Thoroughly alarmed by this,

I said to the king, 'May the king live for ever! How can I not look depressed when the city where the tombs of my ancestors are lies in ruins and its gates have been burnt down?'

The king then said to me, 'What would you like me to do?' Praying to the God of heaven,

I said to the king, 'If the king approves and your servant enjoys your favour, send me to Judah, to the city of the tombs of my ancestors, so that I can rebuild it.'

The king -- with the queen sitting beside him-said, 'How long will your journey take, and when will you come back?' Once I had given him a definite time, the king approved my mission.

I then said to the king, 'If the king approves, may I be given orders for the governors of Transeuphrates to let me pass through on my way to Judah?

Also an order for Asaph, keeper of the king's forest, to supply me with timber for the beams of the gates of the citadel of the Temple, for the city walls and for the house which I am to occupy?' These the king granted me because the kindly hand of my God was over me.

 

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

You will be holy,
because I am holy, thus says the Lord.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Nehemiah is distressed for his people and his city’s condition. The city had no walls and they were in an extremely weak position for an enemy attack. Every city used to have walls. Lacking walls meant a lack of safe cohabitation. In the book of Revelation, following the book of Ezekiel (Ez 48:30-35), the holy city, a new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven, had a wall: "It had a massive, high wall, with twelve gates where twelve angels were stationed and on which names were inscribed, (the names) of the twelve tribes of the Israelites." (Rev 21:12). In the books of the prophets, like Isaiah or Jeremiah, Jerusalem was the symbol of the city where God lived. In Psalm 87 the origin of every person is in Jerusalem, for it is the city of God, the home of most high: "of Zion it must be said: ‘They all were born here. The Most High confirms this’" (Sal 87:5). We understand in a deeper way Nehemiah’s concern for an unsafe city, wounded by destruction and desolation. Yet, his intention is not simple: first, he has to convince the Persian king Artaxerxes that proves easy. The Persian Empire, unlike that of Babylon, is tolerant with conquered nations, and tries to save the unity through allowances that facilitate religious observance. So, Artaxerxes has a good disposition towards Nehemiah’s request, and allows him to go back to Jerusalem to rebuild its walls. The neighbouring peoples, instead, look at Nehemiah as a possible threat to the balance of power established after the end of the Kingdom of Judah and the destruction of Jerusalem. Sanballat was perhaps the governor of Syria; Tobias was an Ammonite, and Ghesem an Arab. This opposition takes place in the first phase of the period after the exile, when the inhabitants of Judea, the remnants from Babylon, try to rebuild their religious and civil life. This chapter shows the troubles of a little people who try to come back to their life and worship, while their faith is unfairly considered a threat and a danger, rather than a richness and a support in the cohabitation.

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