EVERYDAY PRAYER

Memory of the Saints and the Prophets
Word of god every day
Libretto DEL GIORNO
Memory of the Saints and the Prophets
Wednesday, February 27


Reading of the Word of God

Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory

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

Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory

1 Corinthians 6, 12-20

'For me everything is permissible'; maybe, but not everything does good. True, for me everything is permissible, but I am determined not to be dominated by anything.

Foods are for the stomach, and the stomach is for foods; and God will destroy them both. But the body is not for sexual immorality;

it is for the Lord, and the Lord is for the body. God raised up the Lord and he will raise us up too by his power.

Do you not realise that your bodies are members of Christ's body; do you think one can take parts of Christ's body and join them to the body of a prostitute? Out of the question!

Or do you not realise that anyone who attaches himself to a prostitute is one body with her, since the two, as it is said, become one flesh.

But anyone who attaches himself to the Lord is one spirit with him.

Keep away from sexual immorality. All other sins that people may commit are done outside the body; but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body.

Do you not realise that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you and whom you received from God?

You are not your own property, then; you have been bought at a price. So use your body for the glory of God.

 

Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory

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

Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory

“‘All things are lawful for me’, but not all things are beneficial,” Paul says. Christians are freed from the slavery of sin and from the domination of their instincts and passions. Our bodies, redeemed at a dear price by Jesus (the text says, “for you were bought with a price”), have become temples of the Holy Spirit, that is, parts of the very body of Christ. Consequently, we cannot make them tools of evil. If we do so by treating our bodies immoderately, we involve Jesus himself. Paul makes a powerful example out of the concept of union with a “prostitute.” Paul is not being puritanical; in truth, he shows what high regard he has for our body. Not only does he not despise it, as was common in some Greek philosophies, but he makes it a part of the very mystery of Jesus: “your bodies are members of Christ,” and consequently, they participate in Jesus’ paschal victory. Just as he saved His Son from death, the Father will save us, with our bodies. If we distance our body from this bond with Jesus, we profane it and betray its very nature. This is the deep reason for Paul’s aversion to all forms of “fornication.” He writes to the Corinthians, “Shun fornication!” Impurity is not just a “bodily” question, but it also touches the heart, that is, the entire person. This is why the apostle urges his readers, “Glorify God in your body!”

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