EVERYDAY PRAYER

Prayer for the sick
Word of god every day

Prayer for the sick

Holy Monday
Anniversary of the death of John Paul II. Memory of the martyrs for the sake of the Gospel.
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Libretto DEL GIORNO
Prayer for the sick
Monday, April 2

Holy Monday
Anniversary of the death of John Paul II. Memory of the martyrs for the sake of the Gospel.


Reading of the Word of God

Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory

This is the Gospel of the poor,
liberation for the imprisoned,
sight for the blind,
freedom for the oppressed.

Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory

John 12, 1-11

Six days before the Passover, Jesus went to Bethany, where Lazarus was, whom he had raised from the dead.

They gave a dinner for him there; Martha waited on them and Lazarus was among those at table.

Mary brought in a pound of very costly ointment, pure nard, and with it anointed the feet of Jesus, wiping them with her hair; the house was filled with the scent of the ointment.

Then Judas Iscariot -- one of his disciples, the man who was to betray him-said,

'Why was this ointment not sold for three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor?'

He said this, not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief; he was in charge of the common fund and used to help himself to the contents.

So Jesus said, 'Leave her alone; let her keep it for the day of my burial.

You have the poor with you always, you will not always have me.'

Meanwhile a large number of Jews heard that he was there and came not only on account of Jesus but also to see Lazarus whom he had raised from the dead.

Then the chief priests decided to kill Lazarus as well,

since it was on his account that many of the Jews were leaving them and believing in Jesus.

 

Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory

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

Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory

With Palm Sunday, we enter Holy Week. The gospel of John opens the narration of Jesus’ passion with the narration of the supper in the house of Martha, Mary and Lazarus in Bethany. It was a family very dear to Jesus. It is a friendship that calls to our mind the friendship John Paul II had with the Community of Sant’Egidio as well with many others. The "cult" of the encounter, like in the spirit that emerges in Jesus’ friendship with this family, is one of the inheritances of John Paul II. In those difficult days, friendship was for Jesus relief and consolation. Passover would be in six days and Jesus was again having dinner with his friends. At one point, during the dinner Mary gets up, gets close to Jesus and kneels at his feet, covers them with ointment, and then dries them with her hair. The house is filled with the smell of the perfume. For Judas, all of this is a useless waste; he says aloud, "Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor?" In reality, the evangelist notes, he was only interested in the money, not the poor. Jesus lets Mary continue her gesture of love: the ointment prefigures the oil that would be spread over his body before his burial. And he adds, "You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me." His "Way of the Cross" would begin just a little later, and it would lead to his death. Mary was the only one who understood that Jesus was to be put to death, and therefore he needed special affection and closeness as every dying person requires. This woman who had let herself be swept away by Jesus’ love teaches us how to stay close to our extraordinary Master during the coming days and how to be near to all the weak and sick. Her gesture is a symbol of the way of salvation: by affectionately accompanying the poor, we live in affectionate company with Jesus. We will always have the poor with us. They could tell us how much they need the ointment of friendship and affection.

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