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, May 11


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 16,5-11

but now I am going to the one who sent me. Not one of you asks, 'Where are you going?' Yet you are sad at heart because I have told you this. Still, I am telling you the truth: it is for your own good that I am going, because unless I go, the Paraclete will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. And when he comes, he will show the world how wrong it was, about sin, and about who was in the right, and about judgement: about sin: in that they refuse to believe in me; about who was in the right: in that I am going to the Father and you will see me no more; about judgement: in that the prince of this world is already condemned.

 

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

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

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Saint Augustine comments on this part of the speech by making Jesus himself say: "It is good for you that this form of servant should move away from you; it is true, I live among you as the Word made flesh, but I do not want you to continue to remain attached to me in a sensitive way; I do not want you, satisfied with this milk, to wish to remain always children. If I do not take away from you the delicate food with which I have bred you, you will not feel the desire for a more solid food; if with carnal mentality you remain attached to the flesh, you will never be able to receive the Spirit." For Jesus it is time to inaugurate the time of faith. We must not think that our time is poorer than that of the apostles. The Holy Spirit poured into the hearts of the disciples decides the time of the Church. It is the Spirit who sustains the disciples, who consoles them, comforts them, protects them, enlightens them and makes them capable of communicating the Gospel of love to transform the world. The Spirit will help the disciples in the difficult times they face. The Spirit "will prove the world wrong about sin and righteousness and judgement." The evangelist imagines a great assembly where the evil that works in the world to destroy it is revealed and unmasked. It is the task that the disciples must live by letting themselves be guided by the Spirit. There is a need to consume the eyes in scrutinizing the world and history in the light of Scriptures with the help of the Spirit in order to be able to identify the evil that operates in the world, to defeat it and to take the paths of love that save the world. This is the grave and fascinating task that Christians still have today: to be prophets who unmask evil and who first and foremost point the way to good by their example. One of them, Archbishop Oscar Romero, speaks still today. He read the dramatic history of his time in the light of the Word of God. Certainly, it cost him martyrdom, but his testimony is still very precious today. Faced with the accusations made against him, he replied that he did nothing but read history in the light of the Gospel: "The word is like the ray of sun that comes from above and illuminates. What fault does the sun have when its purest light meets puddles, excrement, garbage on this earth? It must illuminate these things, otherwise it would not be sun, it would not be light, it would not highlight the ugly and the horrible that exists on earth."

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!