EVERYDAY PRAYER

Memory of the Mother of the Lord
Word of god every day
Libretto DEL GIORNO
Memory of the Mother of the Lord
Tuesday, January 14


Reading of the Word of God

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

The Spirit of the Lord is upon you.
The child you shall bear will be holy.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Mark 1, 21-28

They went as far as Capernaum, and at once on the Sabbath he went into the synagogue and began to teach.

And his teaching made a deep impression on them because, unlike the scribes, he taught them with authority.

And at once in their synagogue there was a man with an unclean spirit, and he shouted,

'What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are: the Holy One of God.'

But Jesus rebuked it saying, 'Be quiet! Come out of him!'

And the unclean spirit threw the man into convulsions and with a loud cry went out of him.

The people were so astonished that they started asking one another what it all meant, saying, 'Here is a teaching that is new, and with authority behind it: he gives orders even to unclean spirits and they obey him.'

And his reputation at once spread everywhere, through all the surrounding Galilean countryside.

 

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Look down, O Lord, on your servants.
Be it unto us according to your word.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

With his small community of disciples, Jesus enters Capernaum, the largest Galilean city of the time. He chooses to make his home there with his little group of disciples He does not withdraw, far from the ordinary life of men and women. He did not come to save himself or to achieve personal perfection for himself or a small group of chosen ones. Instead he wanted to save all men and women from loneliness and death. This is why he settles in the most important city in the north of the country. That small group of people did not remain closed in on itself, content solely with their group inner life. Their gaze, starting from the Teacher’s, took in the entire city, indeed the entire region. Indeed, it is the Christian community’s nature not to be turned inwards on itself, but rather to look at the entire city as a “community” of men and women that the Gospel needs to ferment with love. It is not that the Christian community has a project of its own to impose on others. On the contrary, it is good to respect the diversity and plurality of people’s experiences and responsibilities. But the Church does have a mission to weave the strength of the Gospel - the strength of love, justice, and peace - into the fabric of the city. The evangelist notes that Jesus “immediately” goes to synagogue and begins to teach. The first “service” that the Church provides in the city is to communicate the Gospel. Jesus does not delay its proclamation. He does not put off his mission in order to think about how to get the small community settled, though a necessary job. He does not get lost in organization. His first concern is to communicate the Gospel. And he does so with authority, the evangelist notes. The Gospel is a demanding word, one that requires a change of the heart and deeply transforms those who listen to it. This is why all those who heard him were amazed. Jesus was different from the teachers of this time: he did not merely pronounce words; he wanted to change the lives of those who listened to him. He immediately revealed what kind of authority he had when he freed a man from an unclean spirit. The Gospel is an authoritative word because it does not oppress people; on the contrary, it delivers men and women from the numerous wicked spirits that make life sad and bitter even today.

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