EVERYDAY PRAYER

Memory of the Mother of the Lord
Word of god every day
Libretto DEL GIORNO
Memory of the Mother of the Lord
Tuesday, April 20


Reading of the Word of God

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

The Spirit of the Lord is upon you.
The child you shall bear will be holy.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

John 6,30-35

So they said, 'What sign will you yourself do, the sight of which will make us believe in you? What work will you do? Our fathers ate manna in the desert; as scripture says: He gave them bread from heaven to eat.' Jesus answered them: In all truth I tell you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, it is my Father who gives you the bread from heaven, the true bread; for the bread of God is the bread which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. 'Sir,' they said, 'give us that bread always.' Jesus answered them: I am the bread of life. No one who comes to me will ever hunger; no one who believes in me will ever thirst.

 

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Look down, O Lord, on your servants.
Be it unto us according to your word.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

"What must we do to perform the works of God?" Jesus reproached the crowds for seeking only their own satisfaction. Jesus responds to their request and pointed to one needed thing only: to believe in the one sent by God. But the crowd insists; perhaps they wanted Jesus to solve the problem of food not just for the five thousand who had just benefited from the miracle, but for the entire people of Israel as it happened at the time of the manna. Jesus responds to their insistence and says that it was not Moses who gave them the bread from heaven, but "it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world." However the hard hearts and minds of Jesus' listeners did not allow then to deeply understand Jesus' words. The starting point of their understanding is themselves, their needs and instincts. They do not understand what Jesus truly wants to say. This happens to us when we do not enter deeply into the words of the Gospel because we listen to them from our viewpoint rather than from what they really want to tell us. A "spiritual" reading of the Bible is needed, a reading done within a prayerful state and openness of heart. Sacred Scripture must be listened to with a heart open to being touched by the Lord. Without prayer we risk having only our egos in front of us and not the Lord speaking to us. Without the community of brothers and sisters, our "I" precludes us the wide dialogue for which the Bible was written. Jesus does not withdraw from their request and says even more clearly: "I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty." It is a solemn and typical affirmation of the Gospel of John: it shows Jesus' divine origin. Browsing the pages of the fourth Gospel we see that Jesus employs many concrete images to make us understand the greatness of his love for us. He is the true bread, the true life, the truth, the light, the gate, the good shepherd, the vine, the living water...he is the resurrection.

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