EVERYDAY PRAYER

Liturgy of the Sunday
Word of god every day

Liturgy of the Sunday

Thirty-first Sunday of Ordinary Time
Memorial of Zechariah and of Elizabeth, who in her old age conceived John the Baptist.
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Libretto DEL GIORNO
Liturgy of the Sunday
Sunday, November 5

Homily

The Gospel we have heard reports part of the last public speech of Jesus before his passion. It is a harsh of the official representatives of Judaism, "scribes and Pharisees", held responsible by Jesus of corrupting the people and removing them from the right path. They were the false shepherds denounced by the prophets. Malachi, turning to the religious leaders of his time, said: "But you have turned aside from the way; you have caused many to stumble by your instruction" (2:8). Jesus wanted to expose them in their claim to be "shepherds"; to the contrary, they were deceiving the people. This is why they ought to be removed. In accusing the Pharisees of being false shepherds, Jesus showed himself as the true shepherd. The clash was inevitable, and the passage of today's Gospel records its climactic moment. Clearly, with this kind of talk Jesus was asking for death.
"And you gave this speech right in the holy city on Holy Wednesday: no, it was inevitable that you would be killed! Will it always be so difficult to proclaim the Gospel, Lord? Lord, help the prophets." So Father Turoldo commented on the Gospel passage that we have heard. Jesus was in the temple, where four synagogues were established to listen to the law; experts read the texts and then explained them. In the synagogue there was a special seat for those who explained Scriptures that was called " the chair of Moses", to suggest that Moses was present in the one who explained the law. Jesus' first statement focuses precisely on this chair, occupied by the experts of the pharisaic tradition. When they explain the Scriptures, Jesus teaches, their doctrine is correct and should be accepted, but their behaviour is other thing. This should not be followed. Jesus condemns the distance between the principles they claim and the life they lead, and begins by criticizing their broadening of the "phylacteries" (small leather cube-shaped cases containing rolls of parchment with passages from the Bible, and which were bound to the left arm and on the forehead). Their origin is striking: the Word of God must be remembered (the one placed on the forehead) and put into practice (the one on the arm). But everything about this had become purely external.
Jesus then refers to the act of "making their fringes long": fringes are woven braids with a drawstring placed at the four corners of the outer garment. "When you see it, you will remember all the commandments of the Lord and do them, and not follow the lust of your own heart and your own eyes," is written in the book of Numbers (15:39). Jesus also brought them; and perhaps he was on his way to synagogue when the haemorrhaging woman set out to "touch his garments" (Mk 5:27-28). It is not enough "making the fringes long" if you do not put the commandments into practice. Finally Jesus criticizes the "titles" that the scribes and priests demanded to be called by the people. Among them he emphasizes the most known: "Rabbi," that is "my teacher." Jesus does not reject the mission of teaching, on the contrary, he requires it, but it must convey the Word of God and one's words. All believers are subjected to the Gospel: only this is the Word that always and everywhere we must proclaim and live. It is our only wealth. As we have only one Word, so we have one Father, who is in heaven. And only to Him do we owe obedience. The temptation to have many words, and the temptation to submit to many lords, are strong in the life of each of us. The Gospel reminds us that only one is the "teacher" and one is the "Father." To him we owe our life and salvation.

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