EVERYDAY PRAYER

Memory of the Poor
Word of god every day
Libretto DEL GIORNO
Memory of the Poor


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

Acts 1,1-8

In my earlier work, Theophilus, I dealt with everything Jesus had done and taught from the beginning

until the day he gave his instructions to the apostles he had chosen through the Holy Spirit, and was taken up to heaven.

He had shown himself alive to them after his Passion by many demonstrations: for forty days he had continued to appear to them and tell them about the kingdom of God.

While at table with them, he had told them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait there for what the Father had promised. 'It is', he had said, 'what you have heard me speak about:

John baptised with water but, not many days from now, you are going to be baptised with the Holy Spirit.'

Now having met together, they asked him, 'Lord, has the time come for you to restore the kingdom to Israel?'

He replied, 'It is not for you to know times or dates that the Father has decided by his own authority,

but you will receive the power of the Holy Spirit which will come on you, and then you will be my witnesses not only in Jerusalem but throughout Judaea and Samaria, and indeed to earth's remotest end.'

 

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

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

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Listening to the first four chapters of the Acts of the Apostles helps us understand the path that each Christian generation should take to follow the guidance of the Holy Spirit. We are encouraged to read about the beginning of the first Christian community after the Gospel of Luke, who is author of both. The evangelist speaks to Theophilus and tells him that after writing his "first logos" (that is the Gospel) he is about to tell the story of the life of the Christian community in a second book. Indeed, the Acts of the Apostles starts right where the Gospel ends, or, better, after Jesus’ ascension to heaven, when the ‘Logo’ walks along the streets of men and women through the community of disciples. Jesus’ Gospel is at the foundation of the Acts of the Apostles as well as of each Christian community in the centuries to follow. The Gospel is a ‘living’ foundation from which the energy and strength that makes the community of disciples steadfast continues to spring. The life for the first community and for each disciple springs from the Gospel, that is from "all that Jesus did and taught." Luke underlines the encounters of the disciples with Jesus before and after his death. The direct experience with Jesus, before and after the Resurrection, was for the disciples a founding and unforgettable experience. In the forty days following his death, Jesus "presented himself alive to them by many convincing proofs ... and speaking about the kingdom of God" (1:3). He "opened their minds to understand the scriptures" (Lk 24:45). The disciples understood more deeply than they had in the three previous years who this extraordinary Teacher was. Jesus urged them not to stay inside. The very day of Easter he found them while they were in the upper room "with the doors closed." Now, while he is about to go up to heaven, he asked them to be his witnesses "in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth" (v. 8). Good will is not enough to fulfil this commandment; they need the help of the Holy Spirit: they will wait for the Spirit in Jerusalem being together in prayer and fraternal life. Since the very beginning of the life of the Christian community, there is no room for self-centred efforts, as generous as they can be. Everything starts from the communion given to us by the Holy Spirit in which they will be baptized "not many days from now." The testimony of the Gospel of love can come only from communion. The disciples asked for an explanation about the time when the kingdom of love will be fulfilled. Jesus replies that none can know fully the mystery of the kingdom, and yet all the disciples are called to witness everywhere the love that Jesus lived first. With Pentecost, a new spiritual energy will guide and sustain the disciples in their path along the streets of the world. This is how the Logos "grows" and "spreads" to the ends of the earth.

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