EVERYDAY PRAYER

Sunday Vigil
Word of god every day
Libretto DEL GIORNO
Sunday Vigil
Saturday, October 15


Reading of the Word of God

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Whoever lives and believes in me
will never die.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Ephesians 1,15-23

That is why I, having once heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus, and your love for all God's holy people, have never failed to thank God for you and to remember you in my prayers. May the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, give you a spirit of wisdom and perception of what is revealed, to bring you to full knowledge of him. May he enlighten the eyes of your mind so that you can see what hope his call holds for you, how rich is the glory of the heritage he offers among his holy people, and how extraordinarily great is the power that he has exercised for us believers; this accords with the strength of his power at work in Christ, the power which he exercised in raising him from the dead and enthroning him at his right hand, in heaven, far above every principality, ruling force, power or sovereignty, or any other name that can be named, not only in this age but also in the age to come. He has put all things under his feet, and made him, as he is above all things, the head of the Church; which is his Body, the fullness of him who is filled, all in all.

 

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

If you believe, you will see the glory of God,
thus says the Lord.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Paul thanks God for the faith of the Ephesians and also for their brotherly love. The community of Ephesus, which was particularly dear to him, is the object of his prayers. He asks for them the gift of the Spirit so that they may be led to a deep understanding of God’s mystery. Only the Spirit in fact guides the hearts of the faithful to intimacy with God. The work of the Spirit consists in ‘‘enlightening the eyes of the heart" that is, in communicating to the believer the wisdom that is not born by natural reason but by obedience to the Word of God. From this relationship with the Holy Scriptures, the Ephesians may understand "what is the hope to which they have been called," i.e. how lofty is the goal of believers. The apostle is aware of the "riches of his glorious inheritance" that has been reserved to us. Unfortunately we sometimes forget it, or rather we do not live it. Paul extends his gaze to the "saints", i.e. the universal Church of Heaven and earth, the angels and the deceased who already share the divine glory, and those to whom we are associated on the way to the goal. We are all clothed with the power of God that was manifested in its fullness in Jesus’ resurrection (v. 20): God made death die and regenerated believers to life. Through the history of Israel, the Lord had prepared the resurrection of Jesus, the eschatological act par excellence. And with the resurrection God has placed him at His right hand where he reigns over the cosmic powers. Our culture does not speak of beings that populate the heavens, which those of antiquity believed in spontaneously. Today there is no shortage of "rule and authority," "power and dominion" that make the lives of many people in our world bitter. To acknowledge the supremacy of Christ means to give back to the world the true face of "creation" destined to be inhabited by all, and to offer to human beings the freedom to love and be loved. At this point the apostle speaks of the Church as "Body of Christ," the universal Church. But if Christ is proclaimed Head of the cosmos and of the Church, only the Church is called his Body. The Church alone has a completely privileged relationship with the Lord; only in her is the sovereignty of the Risen Christ now clear and effective. It is a relationship that the apostle defines with the word "pleroma", or fullness. The Church, even with all the limitations of her members, is rich with the fullness of Christ who dwells in her.

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