EVERYDAY PRAYER

Memory of the Saints and the Prophets
Word of god every day
Libretto DEL GIORNO
Memory of the Saints and the Prophets


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

John 6, 35-40

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.

But, as I have told you, you can see me and still you do not believe.

Everyone whom the Father gives me will come to me; I will certainly not reject anyone who comes to me,

because I have come from heaven, not to do my own will, but to do the will of him who sent me.

Now the will of him who sent me is that I should lose nothing of all that he has given to me, but that I should raise it up on the last day.

It is my Father's will that whoever sees the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and that I should raise that person up on the last day.

 

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

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

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Today’s Gospel resumes with the last sentence from the Gospel passage to which we listened yesterday and which recalls the words from the Old Testament that speak of the messianic feast prepared by the Lord for his people. The Lord’s promise was finally fulfilled. Jesus, however, also responded to the hunger for salvation hidden in the hearts of people: hunger for meaning, hunger for a life that does not end with death but rather leads to complete happiness. Jesus was the heaven-sent answer that everyone could accept. However the Gospel notes with bitterness that many, although having seen the signs he performed, did not open their hearts to accept his word. And yet, "he drove no one away." Even a little bit was enough for a miracle to happen, just as had happened with only five barley loaves. And whoever drew close was received: it was enough to knock, however feebly, to receive an answer. "Anyone who comes to me I will never drive away," he continues to say. Had he not already said to the crowd that was following him: "Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens and I will give you rest"? Besides, he had come down from heaven for this very reason: to do the will of the Father who had sent him so that he should not lose anything of all that had been entrusted to him. He had to gather up everyone. Thus elsewhere he says: "I am the good shepherd." He came to gather up the lost sheep and lead them to the Kingdom. Saving everyone, not losing one, is the continual labour of the Lord, who does not hesitate to run risks and traverse perilous terrains to save that one lost sheep. This was Jesus’ constant worry. And it remains to be his concern through the Church: to save all people. This missionary eagerness ought to be made much more manifest in our days and engage all disciples. Unfortunately, we are often turned in on ourselves so that we do not understand this passion that is the very heart of Jesus’ mission. Each one of us ought to allow our self to get caught up in this evangelic passion. Jesus also reminds us today that God’s will—that will that too many times we look for in the wrong way—is this: "All who see the Son and believe in him may have eternal life; and I will raise them up on the last day." This promise comes true in us while we spend our life, not for ourselves but for others, precisely as Jesus had done.

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