EVERYDAY PRAYER

Memory of the Church
Word of god every day
Libretto DEL GIORNO
Memory of the Church
Thursday, July 24


Reading of the Word of God

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

I am the good shepherd,
my sheep listen to my voice,
and they become
one flock and one fold.
.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Matthew 13, 10-17

Then the disciples went up to him and asked, 'Why do you talk to them in parables?'

In answer, he said, 'Because to you is granted to understand the mysteries of the kingdom of Heaven, but to them it is not granted.

Anyone who has will be given more and will have more than enough; but anyone who has not will be deprived even of what he has.

The reason I talk to them in parables is that they look without seeing and listen without hearing or understanding.

So in their case what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah is being fulfilled: Listen and listen, but never understand! Look and look, but never perceive!

This people's heart has grown coarse, their ears dulled, they have shut their eyes tight to avoid using their eyes to see, their ears to hear, their heart to understand, changing their ways and being healed by me.

'But blessed are your eyes because they see, your ears because they hear!

In truth I tell you, many prophets and upright people longed to see what you see, and never saw it; to hear what you hear, and never heard it.

 

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

I give you a new commandment,
that you love one another.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Jesus spoke in parables not to hide the mystery, but to engage the heart and the intellect of the listeners. To anyone who has, more will be given. However, from anyone who has not, even what he has will be taken away. It is like for the sign of Jonah: if I am able to recognize it, it is the only sign which will clarify everything; otherwise I will not have any further sign. This is the problem of eyes that do not see and ears that do not listen. We have everything, we believe we understand everything, sometimes we even think we are smart and avoid deceit. But we are not able to see the presence of God in our life. Our heart has become insensitive. How did that happen? If we do not take care of our heart, focusing exclusively on ourselves, searching only our face, then our heart becomes insensitive. In the end we are not aware of the gifts we have received. Jesus can’t bend to a self-centred way of thinking. The mysteries of the kingdom are revealed to the little ones. The wise and the learned cannot understand them. They need to become like infants. We need to choose the way of humility, accepting ourselves as weak, as we really are. When we acknowledge our reality we will be bale to hear words in a close and personal way. The first parable, that of the sower, which is included in the other two synoptic Gospels as well, is iconic of the relationship between our heart and the Word of God. The sower sows widely, he is not concerned about selecting special the ground. Only those seeds which fall on rich soil produce fruit with abundance, maybe counterbalancing the previous loss. Jesus compares himself to the sower, even if he does not say so. Unlike us, he is generous in sowing. The sower is not a cold and careful calculator; we might say that he wastes the seeds. Moreover, he also trusts those soils that look more like a path or rocky ground than a rich and ploughed ground. However, the sower sows even there. He has hope that the seed will produce fruit even in a crevice, before the evil one comes and steals it. The whole ground, indeed, is important to the sower. The ground is as important as the seed. The ground is people’s hearts; the seed is the Word of God. The seed comes from above, it does not grow from the soil spontaneously, it is not the natural and spontaneous result of a sort of religious feeling. The Word comes from outside. However, it penetrates the ground so deeply that it blends in it. It is not a foreign body. If this word is received, it will bear incredible fruit.

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