EVERYDAY PRAYER

Memory of the Church
Word of god every day
Libretto DEL GIORNO
Memory of the Church
Thursday, July 28


Reading of the Word of God

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

I am the good shepherd,
my sheep listen to my voice,
and they become
one flock and one fold.
.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Jeremiah 18,1-6

The word that came to Jeremiah from Yahweh as follows, 'Get up and make your way down to the potter's house, and there I shall tell you what I have to say.' So I went down to the potter's house; and there he was, working at the wheel. But the vessel he was making came out wrong, as may happen with clay when a potter is at work. So he began again and shaped it into another vessel, as he thought fit. Then the word of Yahweh came to me as follows, 'House of Israel, can I not do to you what this potter does? Yahweh demands. Yes, like clay in the potter's hand, so you are in mine, House of Israel.

 

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

I give you a new commandment,
that you love one another.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

"Just like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand." These words recall humanity’s creation. The Lord sculpted the first person out of clay and breathed the spirit of life into him. And the person became a living being (Gen 2:7). We must never forget that the eternal condition of every man and every woman is marked by the fact that we were all made from dust. But God does not despise the dust that is humanity; on the contrary, He values it. God is like a potter. He continues to shape each one of us, giving us the spirit of life so that we can grow in his "image." The Lord does not despise our poverty or our fragility. He never stops bending down over us and He continually works on us to make us grow as His children, His witnesses. As Paul says, we are truly "earthen vessels." However, through his Word, the Lord continues put the breath of life into our hearts, the breath of his Holy Spirit. That original breath was not given once and for all: it is given to us by the Lord every day to sustain us on the journey to the fullness of life. Jeremiah reminds us of the great responsibility we have to choose to follow the Lord. Those who follow the way of the Lord and not "the stubbornness" of their heart will find a blessing. How sad it is to continue to follow ourselves and listen to ourselves after all the love and forgiveness we have received from the Lord! And yet it is the greatest love that can be had on earth. As if challenging them to love him, the Lord says to his people: "Ask among the nations: Who has heard the like of this?... But my people have forgotten me… they have stumbled in their ways, in the ancient roads." In life we often go backwards, because if we do not listen we do not stay as we are, we go back, we get worse. That is what happens when we forget what we have received and go back to following our own, personal paths. Then we can understand the prophet’s prayer, which asks for God’s help because of the struggles of his vocation. Let us ask the Lord for strength to continue to communicate the power of his love and forgiveness.

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