Psalmody
Psalm 58
Antiphon
O God, You are my strength.
Rescue me, God, from my foes;
protect me from those who attack me.
O rescue me from those who do evil
and save me from blood-thirsty men.
See, they lie in wait for my life;
powerful men band together against me.
For no offence, no sin of mine, Lord,
for no guilt of mine they rush to take their stand.
Awake, come to my aid and see!
Lord of hosts, you are Israel's God.
Rouse yourself and punish the nations;
show no mercy to evil traitors.
Each evening they come back like dogs.
They howl and roam about the city,
they prowl in search of food,
they snarl till they have their fill.
See how they gabble open-mouthed;
their lips are filled with insults.
'For who', they say, 'will hear us?'
But you, Lord, will laugh them to scorn.
You make light of all the nations.
O my strength, it is you to whom I turn,
for you, O God, are my stronghold,
the God who show me love.
O God, come to my aid
and let me look in triumph on my foes.
God, kill them lest my people be seduced;
rout them by your power, lay them low.
It is you, O Lord, who are our shield.
For the sins of their mouths and their lips,
for the curses and lies that they speak
let them be caught in their pride.
Destroy them, Lord in your anger.
Destroy them til they are no more.
Let men know that God is the ruler
over Jacob and the ends of the earth.
Each evening they come back like dogs.
They howl and roam about the city,
they prowl in search of food,
they snarl till they have their fill.
As for me, I will sing of your strength
and each morning acclaim your love
for you have been my stronghold,
a refuge in the day of distress.
O my strength, it is you to whom I turn,
for you, O God, are my stronghold,
the God who shows me love.
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!
For the sick, in memory of the dead, for peace
