EVERYDAY PRAYER

Memory of Jesus crucified
Word of god every day
Libretto DEL GIORNO
Memory of Jesus crucified
Friday, December 10


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

Isaiah 48,17-19

Thus says Yahweh, your redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: I am Yahweh your God and teach you for your own good, I lead you in the way you ought to go. If only you had listened to my commandments! Your prosperity would have been like a river and your saving justice like the waves of the sea. Your descendants would have been numbered like the sand, your offspring as many as its grains. Their name would never be cancelled or blotted out from my presence.

 

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

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

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

The prophet reminds the people, who are easily prey to the temptation of distancing themselves from the Lord and seeking other ways, that it is God who guides them on the way of salvation. "I am the Lord your God, who teaches you for your own good, who leads you in the way you should go." Only God is the Lord of our life. Deafness to the Word of God leads to a saddened and unjust life. When we trust only ourselves and our own beliefs, we see the bitter drifts of life. In this biblical passage the Lord himself reminds us that if we had kept his commands "your prosperity would have been like a river, and your success like the waves of the sea." Unfortunately, the first to experience the injustices caused by a selfish mentality are the weakest, the poor, who pay the price for being discarded and abandoned on the margins of life. The prophet asks us to look up from ourselves and become aware of the Lord and of his great love for us. God is close to His people; He accompanies them and asks to be recognized and loved. We need to return to listen to the Word of God and recognize His presence in our days, in the life of our communities, in the events of society, and to let the Lord guide our steps on the way of love and peace. "I am the Lord your God, who teaches you for your own good, who leads you in the way on which you should go" (v. 17). Faithfulness in listening to his Word, which is addressed to us with particular abundance during this Advent season, is a blessing for our lives.

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