EVERYDAY PRAYER

Memory of the Poor
Word of god every day

Memory of the Poor

Memorial of Saint Maximilian Kobe, a priest martyr for love, who accepted death in the concentration camp of Auschwitz to save the life of another man in 1941. Read more

Libretto DEL GIORNO
Memory of the Poor
Monday, August 14

Memorial of Saint Maximilian Kobe, a priest martyr for love, who accepted death in the concentration camp of Auschwitz to save the life of another man in 1941.


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

Acts 2,37-48

Hearing this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, 'What are we to do, brothers?' 'You must repent,' Peter answered, 'and every one of you must be baptised in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise that was made is for you and your children, and for all those who are far away, for all those whom the Lord our God is calling to himself.' He spoke to them for a long time using many other arguments, and he urged them, 'Save yourselves from this perverse generation.' They accepted what he said and were baptised. That very day about three thousand were added to their number. These remained faithful to the teaching of the apostles, to the brotherhood, to the breaking of bread and to the prayers. And everyone was filled with awe; the apostles worked many signs and miracles. And all who shared the faith owned everything in common; they sold their goods and possessions and distributed the proceeds among themselves according to what each one needed. Each day, with one heart, they regularly went to the Temple but met in their houses for the breaking of bread; they shared their food gladly and generously; they praised God and were looked up to by everyone. Day by day the Lord added to their community those destined to be saved.

 

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

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

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

The words of the apostle Peter, as penetrating as the tongues of fire that had descended on his head, struck the hearts of those who were listening to him. We read in Acts that “they were cut to the heart.” This should be the goal of every sermon: to reach the hearts of those who listen and cut them, that is, question them, move them, correct them, upset them, and change them. Later, the apostle Paul will say that the Word of God is like double-edged sword that reaches the bottom of the heart. Cut to the heart, those who were listening asked Peter a simple but fundamental question “what should we do?” It is the question that every sermon should inspire. The Gospel should not just amaze – it is not a question of psychology – but it should inspire a historic question in the heart, that is, a question about real change. It should inspire people to ask, “What should we do?” The apostle’s answer was equally clear: “believe in the Gospel and save yourselves from this corrupt generation.” The apostle is not making the usual, tired condemnation of the contemporary world, perhaps tinged with nostalgia for the good old days. Peter instead is proposing the Gospel as the leavening of a new society, as energy that inspires people to think about and live human relationships in a new way. In fact, the Gospel does not claim to be able to outline a perfect social program or construct a predefined Christian society. The Gospel claims to do something on the one hand much simpler, and, on the other, much more profound: the Gospel asks people to change their hearts. Changing the world starts with changing hearts. It starts with men and women whose hearts are no longer stone, no longer trapped in their own selfishness, but full of love. Love, which inspires them to give their lives for others. Those who welcome the Gospel are no longer slaves of loneliness and selfishness, but participants in the victory of love over hatred, of life over death. Luke notes that “those who welcomed [Peter’s] message were baptized, and that day about three thousand persons were added” (v. 41). The Gospel was generating the community. And the features of this new community are clear: listening to the teaching of the apostles, fellowship, the breaking of the bread, prayer, and the sharing of possessions. It is a brief description that should be the model for every Christian community, past and present. Every Christian generation, including our own, is called to compare itself to the model presented in this passage of Acts. And when we speak of re-forming the Church, we mean returning to the “form” of the first Church. This is the prophecy that Acts continues to propose to us, so that we might make it real.

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