EVERYDAY PRAYER

Memory of the Mother of the Lord
Word of god every day

Memory of the Mother of the Lord

Prayer for the unity of Christians. Particular memory of the Christian communities in Europe and in the Americas. Read more

Libretto DEL GIORNO
Memory of the Mother of the Lord
Tuesday, January 24

Prayer for the unity of Christians. Particular memory of the Christian communities in Europe and in the Americas.


Reading of the Word of God

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

The Spirit of the Lord is upon you.
The child you shall bear will be holy.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Psalm 40, 2-3.7-8.10-11

1 I waited patiently for the Lord;
  he inclined to me and heard my cry.

2 He drew me up from the desolate pit,
  out of the miry bog,
  and set my feet upon a rock,
  making my steps secure.

6 Sacrifice and offering you do not desire,
  but you have given me an open ear.
  Burnt-offering and sin-offering
  you have not required.

7 Then I said, ‘Here I am;
  in the scroll of the book it is written of me.

9 I have told the glad news of deliverance
  in the great congregation;
  see, I have not restrained my lips,
  as you know, O Lord.

10 I have not hidden your saving help within my heart,
  I have spoken of your faithfulness and your salvation;
  I have not concealed your steadfast love and your faithfulness
  from the great congregation.

 

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Look down, O Lord, on your servants.
Be it unto us according to your word.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

The liturgy, which a few days ago had us pray with the last words of psalm 40, today puts the first lines of the psalm on our lips. The believer thanks the Lord because he came to help him while he was in mortal danger. He prayed to the Lord insistently, and he came to save him. When the psalmist repeats, “I waited patiently for the Lord,” he wants to underline the fact that his hope in the Lord was well placed. The Lord never disappoints those who hope in him. In fact, the psalmist continues, “ He inclined to me and heard my cry” (v. 2). The Lord is a good father who is attentive to the cries of his children, listens to them, and immediately inclines to rescue them. God’s quick mercy gives rise to a “new song” in the believer’s heart. As if to underline the primacy of God’s mercy, the psalmist gives the initiative to God: “He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God” (v. 3). The believer has placed his trust in God alone, like those who “who do not turn to the proud…those who go astray after false gods” (v. 5). All idolatry is banned. God alone is the Lord of his life. This is the faith of the biblical believer: it is not a question of rites or rules, but of heart, trust, and faith in God. This is why the psalmist can say, “Sacrifice and offering you do not desire…Burnt-offering and sin-offering you have not required” (v. 7). The believer understands that faith does not come from sacrificial rites, but from listening to God. That is why the psalmist sings, “You have given me an open ear”: he listened to the Word of the Lord and then quickly answered: “Then I said, ‘Here I am’” (v. 7). In these short sentences we can see the interior dimension of biblical faith, an interior but not private faith that shapes the heart and illuminates attitudes. The believer feels the need to testify in the assembly to the love he has received from the Lord: “I have told the glad news of deliverance in the great congregation; see, I have not restrained my lips, as you know, O Lord” (v. 10). Yes, the public testimony of the Lord’s love is an essential part of biblical faith. In fact, the Lord does not save people individually, one from another. The Lord saves by gathering everyone together as a people, freeing us from the chains of loneliness and death. The people saved by God – we can unite Israel and the Church – is called to testify to the world, each in its own way, that love transforms hearts and gathers the scattered. That is why the believer sings, “I have not hidden your saving help within my heart” (v. 11). Part of faith is being visible witnesses of God’s love for all people, with no exceptions: “I have not concealed your steadfast love and your faithfulness from the great congregation” (v. 11). The Lord entrusts to the entire assembly the mission of showing the world the transforming power of his 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