EVERYDAY PRAYER

Memory of the Saints and the Prophets
Word of god every day
Libretto DEL GIORNO
Memory of the Saints and the Prophets
Wednesday, December 21


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

Psalm 33, 2-3.11-12.20-21

2 Praise the Lord with the lyre;
  make melody to him with the harp of ten strings.

3 Sing to him a new song;
  play skilfully on the strings, with loud shouts.

11 The counsel of the Lord stands for ever,
  the thoughts of his heart to all generations.

12 Happy is the nation whose God is the Lord,
  the people whom he has chosen as his heritage.

20 Our soul waits for the Lord;
  he is our help and shield.

21 Our heart is glad in him,
  because we trust in his holy name.

 

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

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

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

This psalm, defined as a “song of praise and thanksgiving,” is composed of twenty-two verses, the same number of letters in the Hebrew alphabet, as if to say that we need to praise the Lord always, from the beginning to the end, from A to Z. The liturgy has us read several of these verses. From the very beginning, the psalmist invites us to sing a new song to the Lord: “Make melody to the Lord with the harp of ten strings. Sing to him a new song” (v. 2-3). Why this “new” song? Because “the Lord looks down from heaven; he sees all humankind. From where he sits enthroned, he watches all the inhabitants of the earth” (v. 13-14). It is as if the psalmist wants to proclaim: God sees all the inhabitants of the earth, looking down upon them, but not as an implacable judge ready to pass sentence and condemn. No, the Lord of heaven and earth is like a Father who looks at his children and protects them, in order to save them from evil and oppression. This is the mystery of Christmas that we are preparing to celebrate. And we can feel the profound nature of the words of John’s Gospel: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son” (John 3:16). This news is Gospel: it brings joy to the heart and makes us sing a “new song.” Yes, the believer can sing because the Word of the Lord is upright and faithful, and it never abandons us. The Word of the Lord is effective because it creates as it is spoken, and it is strong because it makes the earth stand firm: “He gathered the waters of the sea as in a bottle; he put the deeps in storehouses” (v. 7). The Word of the Lord is powerful, and it frustrates the plans of the arrogant people of the nations. Upon this Word is founded the faith of the believers of yesterday and today. This faith fills believers with hope, giving them the strength to oppose evil and the ability to transform the world on the path of justice and love.

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