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, October 20

Psalmody

Psalm 93 (94)

Antiphon

Rise up, O Lord, and bring justice.

O Lord, avenging God,
avenging God, appear!

Judge of the earth, arise,
give the proud what they deserve!

How long, O Lord, shall the wicked,
how long shall the wicked triumph?

They bluster with arrogant speech;
the evil-doers board to each other.

They crush your people, Lord,
they afflict the ones you have chosen.

They kill the widow and the stranger
and murder the fatherless child.

And they say : 'The Lord does not see;
the God of Jacob pays no heed.'

Mark this, most senseless of people;
fools, when will you understand?

Can he make the ear, not hear?
Can he who formed the eye, not see?

Will he who trains nations, not punish?
Will he who teaches men, not have knowledge?

Happy the man whom you teach, O Lord,
whom you train by means of you law :

to him you give peace in evil days
while the pit is being dug for the wicked.

The Lord will not abandon his people
nor forsake those who are his own :

for judgement shall again be just
and all true hearts shall uphold it.

Who will stand up for me against the wicked?
Who will defend me from those who do evil?

If the Lord were not to hemp me,
I would soon go down into the silence.

When I think : 'I have lost my foothold';
your mercy, Lord, holds me up.

When cares increase in my heart
your consolation calms my soul.

Can judges who do evil be your friends?
They do injustice under cover of law;

they attach the life of the just
and condemn innocent blood.

As for me, the Lord will be a stronghold;
my God will be the rock where I take refuge.

He will repay them for their wickedness,
destroy them for their evil deeds.
The Lord, our God, will destroy them.

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