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, June 23


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

Genesis 13, 2.5-18

Abram was very rich in livestock, silver and gold.

Lot, who was travelling with Abram, had flocks and cattle of his own, and tents too.

The land was not sufficient to accommodate them both at once, for they had too many possessions to be able to live together.

Dispute broke out between the herdsmen of Abram's livestock and those of Lot. (The Canaanites and Perizzites were living in the country at the time.)

Accordingly Abram said to Lot, 'We do not want discord between us or between my herdsmen and yours, for we are kinsmen.

Is not the whole land open before you? Go in the opposite direction to me: if you take the left, I shall go right; if you take the right, I shall go left.'

Looking round, Lot saw all the Jordan plain, irrigated everywhere -- this was before Yahweh destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah-like the garden of Yahweh or the land of Egypt, as far as Zoar.

So Lot chose all the Jordan plain for himself and moved off eastwards. Thus they parted company:

Abram settled in the land of Canaan; Lot settled among the cities of the plain, pitching his tents on the outskirts of Sodom.

Now the people of Sodom were vicious and great sinners against Yahweh.

Yahweh said to Abram after Lot had parted company from him, 'Look all round from where you are, to north and south, to east and west,

for all the land within sight I shall give to you and your descendants for ever.

I shall make your descendants like the dust on the ground; when people succeed in counting the specks of dust on the ground, then they will be able to count your descendants too!

On your feet! Travel the length and breadth of the country, for I mean to give it to you.'

So Abram moved his tent and went to settle at the Oak of Mamre, at Hebron, and there he built an altar to Yahweh.

 

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

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

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Abraham lived in a world of conflicts, quarrels, and wars. ?But he continues to affirm the vocation that God has entrusted to humanity: to be brothers and sisters to one another. The discord and strife that arose between “the herders of Abram’s livestock and the herders of Lot’s livestock” endangered their fraternity. This had already happened to Cain, who did not accept the diversity and weakness of Abel and killed him. ? Abraham is a man of peace and fraternity because he follows and listens to the Word of God. He said to Lot, “Let there be no strife between you and me...for we are kindred.”?In order to defend the important value of fraternity and to live in harmony, Abraham even refuses what appears to be the most beautiful part of the land God has promised. ?The Father of believers puts fraternity above all other interests. We could say that he already lived in the charity whose praises will be sung by the apostle Paul in the Letter to the Corinthians. Abraham knows that discord is always a harbinger of violence and conflict. ?Faith leads Abraham to be the guardian of fraternity. ?

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