EVERYDAY PRAYER

Memory of the Saints and the Prophets
Word of god every day

Memory of the Saints and the Prophets

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 Saints and the Prophets
Wednesday, 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

You are a chosen race,
a royal priesthood, a holy nation,
a people acquired by God
to proclaim his marvellous works.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Mark 4,1-20

Again he began to teach them by the lakeside, but such a huge crowd gathered round him that he got into a boat on the water and sat there. The whole crowd were at the lakeside on land. He taught them many things in parables, and in the course of his teaching he said to them, 'Listen! Imagine a sower going out to sow. Now it happened that, as he sowed, some of the seed fell on the edge of the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Some seed fell on rocky ground where it found little soil and at once sprang up, because there was no depth of earth; and when the sun came up it was scorched and, not having any roots, it withered away. Some seed fell into thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it produced no crop. And some seeds fell into rich soil, grew tall and strong, and produced a good crop; the yield was thirty, sixty, even a hundredfold.' And he said, 'Anyone who has ears for listening should listen!' When he was alone, the Twelve, together with the others who formed his company, asked what the parables meant. He told them, 'To you is granted the secret of the kingdom of God, but to those who are outside everything comes in parables, so that they may look and look, but never perceive; listen and listen, but never understand; to avoid changing their ways and being healed.' He said to them, 'Do you not understand this parable? Then how will you understand any of the parables? What the sower is sowing is the word. Those on the edge of the path where the word is sown are people who have no sooner heard it than Satan at once comes and carries away the word that was sown in them. Similarly, those who are sown on patches of rock are people who, when first they hear the word, welcome it at once with joy. But they have no root deep down and do not last; should some trial come, or some persecution on account of the word, at once they fall away. Then there are others who are sown in thorns. These have heard the word, but the worries of the world, the lure of riches and all the other passions come in to choke the word, and so it produces nothing. And there are those who have been sown in rich soil; they hear the word and accept it and yield a harvest, thirty and sixty and a hundredfold.'

 

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

You will be holy,
because I am holy, thus says the Lord.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Jesus left Capernaum and is on the shores of the lake where there is more space to welcome those who come to listen to him. There was a crowd gathered around him and Jesus "again began to teach." The evangelist recounts various parables in this chapter. Jesus' typical way of speaking to the crowd was through parables. His language was not abstract, but very real, related to daily life. Everyone could understand it, but it demanded watchful attention, i.e., an interest of the heart, in order to understand in depth the simplicity of the images. The first parable Jesus says is one of the most famous and important of the Gospel. And Jesus makes this clear from the very first word he utters, "Listen!" Yes, listening is crucial when you are in front of Jesus. The whole parable that Jesus tells is all aimed at showing the decisiveness of listening to the Gospel. It is the well-known parable of the sower. Jesus considers it so important to say to his disciples that if they do not understand it, they cannot even understand the others. In fact, unlike other times, he explains it directly. Jesus speaks of sowing the Word of God in the hearts of men and women. What is striking, first of all, in this narrative is the generosity of the sower who sows the seed everywhere and in large quantities, although he has hard soils and not very welcoming soils in front of him. There is a clear contrast between the generosity of the sower and the non-reception of the earth. The different fields do not represent different categories of people, but each of us at different times and in the different ways in which we listen to the Gospel. Sometimes our heart is like the road, really hard and impenetrable. The Word of God is preached relentlessly, but we do not let it scratch our hearts. And everything goes on as usual for us. At other times, our heart is dominated by concerns for ourselves and, even when we listen to the Gospel, the mass of concerns that we have floods it like the thorns that choke the ground. Other times we are more careful, ready to welcome the Word of God. In this way, come the fruits of love, goodness, mercy, and solidarity. The Gospel should be listened to with an open heart, available, and with care. In this way, it is similar to a ploughed ground ready to welcome the seed. And the seed is always a small thing, just as the Gospel, and it needs available and ready soil. Jesus continues to sow it today with generosity. Happy are we if we welcome it and make it grow. The fruits are valuable for us and for the world.

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