EVERYDAY PRAYER

Feast of Mary, Mother of God
Word of god every day

Feast of Mary, Mother of God

Feast of Mary, Mother of God
Prayer for peace in the world and for the end of every war.
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Libretto DEL GIORNO
Feast of Mary, Mother of God
Friday, January 1

Homily

"The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face to shine upon you, and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace" (Num 6:24-26). We enter the New Year with this ancient blessing certain that the Lord will watch over us, will be close to us and accompany us every day. In the book of the prophet Isaiah (66:2), we read: "This is the one to whom I will look, to the humble and contrite in spirit, who trembles at my word." Yes, at the dawn of this New Year, the gaze of the Lord turns to the humble and the weak, to those who are set to listen to the word of the Gospel and try to put it into practice every day.
Once more the Gospel makes us see with the eyes of the heart of the shepherds in Bethlehem. They are an example for the believer. They were considered so impure and sinful as to be excluded from official religious life; and yet, the gaze of the Lord rested on them: the night was filled with light and their life found a meaning, a direction towards which they could go. The humble shepherds became the "first Christians:" they listened to the words of the angel, left their flocks and went towards the place pointed out to them. Christians are always "going out" towards the Lord and others. The affirmation of Pope Francis, which invites us not to leave in fear of losing the saved ones, but rather to be carried by the desire to save the lost ones, is full of mercy.
Once at the cave – it is their turn to look – the shepherds saw a Child. "When they saw this – we could say when they contemplated him - they made known what had been told them about this child." We could say that the entire life of a Christian is enclosed in this simple scene. Indeed it is at the beginning of the year so that it may shed light on the days to come. The Gospel says that the previous night the angels spoke of the Child to the shepherds but it is not difficult to think that when they reached the cave, Mary continued to speak about her Son. Certainly she introduced him to them. Without her they would hardly have understood the mystery in front of their eyes. Mary knew who her son was, so that with great care, she "treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart."
Todays’ liturgy, with incredible tenderness, invites us to look at Mary, to celebrate and venerate her as the Mother of God. Seven days have passed since Christmas, since our eyes rested on the new-born Child and on all the little and weak of this world. Today the Church feels the need to look at the Mother and celebrate her. Certainly, it is worth underlying the fact that we do not find her alone; she holds Jesus on her lap. As soon as the shepherds arrived in Bethlehem they "found Mary and Joseph, and the child." It is beautiful to imagine Jesus out of the manger and in Mary’s arms. She shows him to the humble shepherds and continues to show him to the humble disciples of every age. Mary holding Jesus on her lap or in her arms, is one of the most familiar and tender images of the mystery of the incarnation. In the tradition of the Eastern Church the relationship between that mother and child is so strong that it is impossible to find an image of Mary without Jesus; she exists for her Son; her task is to generate him and show him to the world. It is the icon of Mary, the Mother of God, but it is also the image of the Church and of every believer: affectionately embracing the Lord and showing him to the world.
Like those shepherds who returned home glorifying and praising God after they left the cave, so we too should enter the new year with the same energy and the same drive keeping Jesus in our arms in order to love and show him to the world. It would truly be a great consolation if someone today could write that he saw us, "glorifying and praising God for all [we] had heard and seen." Unfortunately the people of our cities are amazed by many other things! But perhaps we have to wonder whether there are "shepherds" (and we should not forget that every believer is a "pastor" of other brothers and sisters) who know how to communicate the joy of encountering the Child.
By now it is an established tradition for the Church to gather in prayer on the first day of the year to invoke peace. It is like extending the blessing we heard from the reading in Numbers to the entire world, to the family of peoples: "The Lord lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace." There is need that the Lord broaden his gaze on peoples. Unfortunately in our last time there is a new surge of conflicts and therefore we should intensify our prayer for peace. We know that peace requires a tenacious commitment from people, but peace is mostly a gift from on high - it is a fruit of the Spirit of love that works in the hearts of men and women. At the beginning of this year we gather the hymn of the angels on Christmas night: "On earth peace among those whom [God] favours!" It is our prayer at the dawn of this new year. May the Spirit of the Lord come and transform the hearts of believers so that their hearts may soften and become tender in front of the weakness of the Child. May the Spirit transform the hearts of our cities so that hatred, envy, cursing, the abuse of power, and disinterest may be driven away. May the Spirit change the hearts of nations and peoples at war, so that violent spirits may be disarmed and so that peacemakers may be strengthened. May the Spirit make the hearts of rich peoples compassionate so that they may not be blind in front of the needs of the poor peoples; instead may they compete in generosity. May the Spirit touch the hearts of poor countries and peoples so that they may abandon the paths of violence and undertake the path towards development. May the Spirit transform the heart of every man and woman, so that we may all rediscover the face of the one God, the Father of all.

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