EVERYDAY PRAYER

Prayer for peace
Word of god every day

Prayer for peace

The prayer for peace is held in the Basilica of Santa Maria in Trastevere. Read more

Libretto DEL GIORNO
Prayer for peace
Monday, March 20

The prayer for peace is held in the Basilica of Santa Maria in Trastevere.


Reading of the Word of God

Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory

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

Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory

Luke 4,24-30

And he went on, 'In truth I tell you, no prophet is ever accepted in his own country. 'There were many widows in Israel, I can assure you, in Elijah's day, when heaven remained shut for three years and six months and a great famine raged throughout the land, but Elijah was not sent to any one of these: he was sent to a widow at Zarephath, a town in Sidonia. And in the prophet Elisha's time there were many suffering from virulent skin-diseases in Israel, but none of these was cured -- only Naaman the Syrian.' When they heard this everyone in the synagogue was enraged. They sprang to their feet and hustled him out of the town; and they took him up to the brow of the hill their town was built on, intending to throw him off the cliff, but he passed straight through the crowd and walked away.

 

Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory

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

Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory

The Gospel we have heard begins with what Jesus said to his fellow Nazarenes: “No prophet is accepted in the prophet’s home town.” And he says it because he is experiencing it first-hand. Why do they not accept his word in Nazareth? The answer is simple: the hearts of the Nazarenes are full of pride; they are full of themselves. They could not accept the fact that a fellow countryman could speak to their hearts with authority. There was no room for anyone beyond themselves. Only those who are needy and humble are ready to receive Jesus’ word. If we are satisfied with ourselves or our convictions, we neither ask nor listen. We remain where we are, with ourselves. The examples of Elijah who, from among all the widows, went only to the widow of Zarephath, and of Elisha, who healed only Naaman, the Syrian, show how God acts. The Lord sends his prophets to all, but generally only the poor and weak and those who let their hearts be touched hear their words. After Jesus used Scripture to explain how his work came from on high, the Nazarenes rose up and tried to throw him off the cliff. That is what happens each time we close the door of our heart to the words of the Gospel; each time we consider them foreign to us or perhaps too demanding and thus inapplicable. The dramatic scene from Nazareth is repeated each time we throw off the cliff of our pride the invitation to change our hearts and to welcome Jesus as the true friend of our lives, our only Saviour.

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!