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, December 11


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

Matthew 11, 28-30

'Come to me, all you who labour and are overburdened, and I will give you rest.

Shoulder my yoke and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

Yes, my yoke is easy and my burden light.'

 

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

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

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Before his eyes, Jesus sees a large crowd of poor and weak people; it was a crowd of “the little ones.” They are tired and helpless people, like sheep without a shepherd. Many times, the Gospels highlight Jesus’ compassion for them and note that often it is Jesus himself who goes towards them, who intermixes with them, and who “wastes time” with them. Yet, in this particularly solemn moment, he calls them to himself: “Come to me.” He sees them not only suffer under the difficulty and heaviness of their living conditions, but also from the weight of the ritual forms prescribed and imposed on them from the Pharisees, who know neither mercy nor love. These prescriptions weighed heavily on the shoulders of these “little ones,” as if it was the heavy and knotty yoke farmers impose on draft animals. The Law had been given for salvation and for life (Ez 20:13), but it was transformed into an insupportable burden of innumerable minute prescriptions that no one, not even the doctors of the law, lived. Moved by these large crowds, Jesus now calls them to him and promises comforting: “Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.” It is the rest and a comfort of one who came to serve, to help, to love, and to save - not to look out for his own gain. In contrast to the “burden” of the Pharisees, Jesus proposes his own type of burden, which is “easy and light.” It is easy to carry, not because it is not demanding; on the contrary, Jesus proposes a high ideal and preaches a Gospel that asks for a radical way of making choices and of total dedication of life. However, this “yoke” is light because it is truly close to men and women; as Jesus himself is close to people, to the little ones, and to the weak. He uses himself as a model and says, “Learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart.” Jesus’ yoke is none other than himself and his Gospel. Therefore, it is not an external weight to be laid on our shoulders, as if we were draft animals. The yoke is Jesus who comes close to us, walks with us and supports us in every moment of our lives; it is the Gospel of love that Jesus puts into our very hearts. John, the disciple of love, in his first letter wrote, “And his commandments are not burdensome” (5:3). Indeed, the love of Jesus is what saves and sustains us.

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