EVERYDAY PRAYER

Memory of the Poor
Word of god every day
Libretto DEL GIORNO
Memory of the Poor
Monday, November 28


Reading of the Word of God

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

This is the Gospel of the poor,
liberation for the imprisoned,
sight for the blind,
freedom for the oppressed.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Psalm 122, 1-9

1 I was glad when they said to me,
  ‘Let us go to the house of the Lord!’

2 Our feet are standing
  within your gates, O Jerusalem.

3 Jerusalem—built as a city
  that is bound firmly together.

4 To it the tribes go up,
  the tribes of the Lord,
  as was decreed for Israel,
  to give thanks to the name of the Lord.

6 Pray for the peace of Jerusalem:
  ‘May they prosper who love you.

7 Peace be within your walls,
  and security within your towers.’

8 For the sake of my relatives and friends
  I will say, ‘Peace be within you.’

9 For the sake of the house of the Lord our God,
  I will seek your good.

 

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

The Son of Man came to serve,
whoever wants to be great
should become servant of all.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Psalm 122 is a song for the city of Jerusalem: “I was glad when they said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of the LORD!’ Our feet are standing within your gates, o Jerusalem”(v. 1-2). Unlike other psalms, the city of Jerusalem, instead of the temple, is at the centre of focus. Jerusalem is not any city: “To it the tribes go up, the tribes of the LORD. For there the thrones for judgment were set up, the thrones of the house of David” (v. 4-5). For all of the people of Israel, Jerusalem is the object of their profound yearning. It is the city where God dwells, as Ezekiel says when he refers to the temple, the place where one encounters the Lord (Ez 48:35). In the same way, other psalms about Zion (Psalms 46, 48, 756, 84, 87) focus on the city of Jerusalem. It is the house of the Lord, which is the reason why the Lord keeps it strong and fortified. Jerusalem gives safety to those who live within its walls and to those who enter its gates on pilgrimage. All ascend toward it because justice is established there (v. 5). Peace is contained within its very name. Jerusalem, in fact, means city of peace. However, this is not a given. Peace must be asked for, sought after, and invoked. We can ascertain this today in the history of this city. How many wars and conflicts have plagued the history of this city! Today, Jerusalem seems like the symbol of a city unable to attain the stable peace that everyone seems to desire. The city is still the arena of conflict and division, not only between Jews and Palestinians, but also between Christians. Jesus himself cried over Jerusalem, exclaiming, “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often have I desired to gather your children as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!” (Lk 13:34). A lack of understanding of God’s love for this city has persisted throughout its history. We all are responsible for this. We have not insisted enough for peace in this city, we have not taken upon ourselves the value that this city has for all of humanity. As psalm 87 sings, we were all born in this city and it is there that instead of discovering our common origins as brothers and sisters of one God, we find that our discords come to light. Not for ourselves, but for our brothers and sisters, for our friends, we say along with the psalmist, “Peace be within you,” “Let my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth, if I do not remember you, Jerusalem…” Let us pray every day for peace in Jerusalem. Let us also lovingly bear in our hearts the wounds of this city without judging it and keep the hope that God will one day bring the peace that people do not know how to give.

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