EVERYDAY PRAYER

Memory of Jesus crucified
Word of god every day

Memory of Jesus crucified

Memorial of Saint Joseph the worker and World Labour Day. Read more

Libretto DEL GIORNO
Memory of Jesus crucified
Friday, May 1

Memorial of Saint Joseph the worker and World Labour Day.


Reading of the Word of God

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

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

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

John 14, 1-6

Do not let your hearts be troubled. You trust in God, trust also in me.

In my Father's house there are many places to live in; otherwise I would have told you. I am going now to prepare a place for you,

and after I have gone and prepared you a place, I shall return to take you to myself, so that you may be with me where I am.

You know the way to the place where I am going.

Thomas said, 'Lord, we do not know where you are going, so how can we know the way?'

Jesus said: I am the Way; I am Truth and Life. No one can come to the Father except through me.

 

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

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

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

After giving the apostles the commandment of love, Jesus says he will leave them: “Little children, I am with you only a little longer.” These words are full of deep tenderness. Upon hearing them, the disciples become sad. Besides, how is it possible to resign oneself to losing such an exceptional friend? How is one to accept the loss of such a good and strong teacher? Seeing them become sad, Jesus continues with words of comfort, “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house there are many dwelling-places... And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself.” Jesus is the first who does not want the ties of friendship to be broken, rather he wants them to last into eternity, so much so that he adds, “So that where I am, there you may be also.” He does not abandon them; he wants them to stay with him forever. He goes ahead to prepare for each of us a place in the large house of the Father. With these words, Jesus opens for us a little glimmer onto our future. How many times have we asked ourselves about life after death and about what has happened to our departed friends, those whom we have loved and those for whom we have perhaps worked and suffered! The Gospel does not leave us without an answer to these questions. Rather, almost wanting us to touch consolation with our hands, the Gospel speaks of the beyond as a large and spacious house, inhabited by our friends, those near and far. A sure path leads us to them and to that place: Jesus himself. Our bond with him guarantees that nothing of our lives is lost: not a thought, not a gesture of affection is in vain. Everything instead is gathered and preserved like a precious treasure and illuminated by the proclamation of the victory of life over death, which we received at Easter. Jesus seems convinced that the disciples have understood the truth of what is beyond death, and so goes on to say, “And you know the way to the place where I am going.” In truth, however, it was not so, just as it is not so for us today. On behalf of all of them Thomas asks how to know the way. And Jesus, yet again, expresses himself with clarity: “I am the way, the truth and the life.” To remain united with him is the guarantee of taking the right path to the Father in heaven.

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