EVERYDAY PRAYER

Memory of Jesus crucified
Word of god every day

Memory of Jesus crucified

In Israel today us the Memorial of the Shoah, in which the massacre of the Jewish people in the Nazi concentration camps during the Second World War is remembered. Read more

Libretto DEL GIORNO
Memory of Jesus crucified
Friday, April 27

In Israel today us the Memorial of the Shoah, in which the massacre of the Jewish people in the Nazi concentration camps during the Second World War is remembered.


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

John 14,1-6

Do not let your hearts be troubled. You trust in God, trust also in me. In my Father's house there are many places to live in; otherwise I would have told you. I am going now to prepare a place for you, and after I have gone and prepared you a place, I shall return to take you to myself, so that you may be with me where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going. Thomas said, 'Lord, we do not know where you are going, so how can we know the way?' Jesus said: I am the Way; I am Truth and Life. No one can come to the Father except through me.

 

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

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

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

After having given the commandment to love to the Apostles, Jesus tells them that he will leave them. And the disciples, upon hearing him speak this way, become sad. Jesus continues to speak to them with comforting words: "Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe* in God, believe also in me. 2In my Father's house, there are many dwelling-places. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am you will be also." Jesus is the first one who does not want the bonds of friendship to break, rather that they last for eternity, so much that he adds: "So that where I am, there you may be also." Jesus does not abandon them, he wants them to be with him forever. He goes ahead to prepare a place for each one of us in the large house of the Father. With these words, Jesus sheds a small glimmer of light on our future. How often do we wonder about the afterlife and ask ourselves what happened to our friends who have already passed on, those whom we loved and perhaps those for whom we toiled and suffered! The Gospel does not leave us without an answer for these questions. Rather, as if wanting us to physically touch consolation with our own hands, the Gospel speaks of heaven as a spacious house inhabited by our friends, both those nearby and far away. Jesus himself is the certain path that leads us to them and to that place. In the bond with him lies the guarantee that nothing of our life will be lost: not one thought, not one affectionate deed is done in vain, but everything is gathered and preserved like a precious treasure illuminated by the light of the announcement of life's victory over death, which we received at Easter. Jesus seems so convinced that the disciples understood the truth about what lies beyond death that he says: "And you know the way to the place where I am going." In truth, that was not the case, just as it is not the case with us today. Thomas, on behalf of all the others, asks what the way was. And Jesus, once again, explains clearly: "I am the way, and the truth, and the life." By remaining united to him we are guaranteed to follow the right path all the way to the Father who is in heaven.

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!