EVERYDAY PRAYER

Memory of the Saints and the Prophets
Word of god every day

Memory of the Saints and the Prophets

Memory of the historic Meeting in Assisi (1986), when John Paul II invited representatives of all Christian confessions and the great world religions to pray for peace.
Read more

Libretto DEL GIORNO
Memory of the Saints and the Prophets

Memory of the historic Meeting in Assisi (1986), when John Paul II invited representatives of all Christian confessions and the great world religions to pray for peace.


Reading of the Word of God

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

You are a chosen race,
a royal priesthood, a holy nation,
a people acquired by God
to proclaim his marvellous works.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Revelation 10,1-7

Then I saw another powerful angel coming down from heaven, wrapped in cloud, with a rainbow over his head; his face was like the sun, and his legs were pillars of fire.

In his hand he had a small scroll, unrolled; he put his right foot in the sea and his left foot on the land

and he shouted so loud, it was like a lion roaring. At this, the seven claps of thunder made themselves heard

and when the seven thunderclaps had sounded, I was preparing to write, when I heard a voice from heaven say to me, 'Keep the words of the seven thunderclaps secret and do not write them down.'

Then the angel that I had seen, standing on the sea and the land, raised his right hand to heaven,

and swore by him who lives for ever and ever, and made heaven and all that it contains, and earth and all it contains, and the sea and all it contains, 'The time of waiting is over;

at the time when the seventh angel is heard sounding his trumpet, the mystery of God will be fulfilled, just as he announced in the gospel to his servants the prophets.'

 

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

You will be holy,
because I am holy, thus says the Lord.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

The seventh trumpet is about to be blown, after the first six had unleashed evil and the ruin and catastrophe that result from their blasts. But the seventh trumpet still cannot be heard. John interrupts the scene and narrates the vision of another angel who descends from heaven. It is an angel different from the others; it fact, he appears to be marked by exceptional dignity. He bears over his head a rainbow, the sign of God’s covenant with the peoples of the earth, established with Noah after the flood. His face shines like the sun. His legs are as strong as pillars of fire, and one rests on the sea and the other on the earth: he rules over all of creation. He is the Messiah, and he appears as the Lord of history. In his hands he holds a "little scroll," the Gospel. With his Son, God has intervened in human history - which has been devastated by the Prince of Evil - and brought salvation and peace. The "little book" is not closed and inaccessible; it is "open," and everyone can access it. It is a little scroll (the Greek uses the diminutive of the diminutive: "little ‘scroll-et’"); it might seem weak, but it is strong with the very power of the Messiah. His words are like a peal of thunder that shakes the earth. In front of the tragedy of history, in front of the crises that torment the world at the beginning of this new millennium, the apostle shows us the vision of the angel who comes down from heaven presenting this "little scroll." The Gospel truly is the strength of its believers; it is the definitive Word of God. The angel then warns: "There will be no more delay!" Yes, we can no longer delay our choices, we can no longer put off to tomorrow our decision for the Lord, nor should we wait for anyone else. We have to listen to the Lord’s voice and welcome it in our heart today. This is the mission of Christians. And it has to be enacted in every generation, including our own. It is the same mission that was given to John on Patmos: to welcome the "little scroll," the definitive Word of God, to write it with his life, and to communicate it to the women and men of his time.

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