EVERYDAY PRAYER

Memory of the apostles
Word of god every day

Memory of the apostles

Memorial of the apostle Thomas. He confessed Jesus as his Lord and, according to tradition, witnessed him all the way to India. Read more

Libretto DEL GIORNO
Memory of the apostles
Friday, July 3

Memorial of the apostle Thomas. He confessed Jesus as his Lord and, according to tradition, witnessed him all the way to India.


Reading of the Word of God

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

If we die with him, we shall live with him,
if with him we endure, with him we shall reign.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

John 20, 24-29

Thomas, called the Twin, who was one of the Twelve, was not with them when Jesus came.

So the other disciples said to him, 'We have seen the Lord,' but he answered, 'Unless I can see the holes that the nails made in his hands and can put my finger into the holes they made, and unless I can put my hand into his side, I refuse to believe.'

Eight days later the disciples were in the house again and Thomas was with them. The doors were closed, but Jesus came in and stood among them. 'Peace be with you,' he said.

Then he spoke to Thomas, 'Put your finger here; look, here are my hands. Give me your hand; put it into my side. Do not be unbelieving any more but believe.'

Thomas replied, 'My Lord and my God!'

Jesus said to him: You believe because you can see me. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe.

 

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

If we die with him, we shall live with him,
if with him we endure, with him we shall reign.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Today we celebrate the feast of Saint Thomas, called Didymus. John’s Gospel speaks of him several times in connection with the great mysteries of Jesus’ glorification. Thomas is capable of great bursts of generosity, such as when he urges the other disciples to go with Jesus after the death of Lazarus, even if it should cost them their lives. Tradition has it that Thomas evangelized Persia and the west coast of India, where he died a martyr: the Christians of Malabar consider him the founder of their Church. The Gospel we have heard presents him to us in the days following Easter. On Easter evening, Jesus appears among the disciples gathered in the upper room. But Thomas is absent. He is the only one missing. His heart has also been wounded by everything that has happened, but he stays away from the others. With him are absent all the men and women, including us, who from that day on received the proclamation of the Gospel of the resurrection from the apostles. Thomas does not believe the other disciples when they tell him what happened. It is impossible for Thomas - and not just for him - that life can rise from the places of death; it is inconceivable that a crucified man could come back to life. He is a realist, who, as often happens, ends up becoming cynical, hard, and almost vulgar in his attitude towards Jesus’ hands and sides, which reveal suffering and the cruel impossibility of hope. For a cynical person, hope seems to be an illusion and evil has the last word on life. The next Sunday, Jesus returns and once again gives them the greeting of peace. Hope is insistent and always requires confirmation; indeed we all need it, because evil seems definitive and love seems provisional and insecure. Jesus speaks to Thomas: “Do not doubt but believe,” and urges him to put his finger into the nail-marks and his hand into the wound in his side, because those were the very cause of his unbelief. At this point the disciple falls to his feet and professes his faith, “My Lord and my God.” It is not Thomas who touches Jesus’ wounded body, but rather the words of Jesus that touch Thomas’s heart and move him. In reality, Thomas is present in every disciple: in those who have difficulties and doubts, in those who suffer because they are unable to believe, in those who are in pain because of the impossibility of loving, and in those who struggle to hope. But somehow all of this brings us closer to faith. Jesus continues to come back, Sunday after Sunday, to tell us, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.” His words are enough to make us believe, as long as we let them touch our heart. People of faith are not those who convince themselves, but those who trust and believe possible even what they cannot see.

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