EVERYDAY PRAYER

Memory of the Mother of the Lord
Word of god every day

Memory of the Mother of the Lord

Remembrance of Saint Irenaeus, bishop of Lyon and martyr (130-202); he went to France from Anatolia to preach the Gospel. Read more

Libretto DEL GIORNO
Memory of the Mother of the Lord
Tuesday, June 28

Remembrance of Saint Irenaeus, bishop of Lyon and martyr (130-202); he went to France from Anatolia to preach the Gospel.


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

Amos 3,1-8; 4,11-12

Listen, Israelites, to this prophecy which Yahweh pronounces against you, against the whole family which I brought up from Egypt: You alone have I intimately known of all the families of earth, that is why I shall punish you for all your wrong-doings. Do two people travel together unless they have agreed to do so? Does the lion roar in the forest if it has no prey? Does the young lion growl in his lair if it has caught nothing? Does a bird fall on the ground in a net unless a trap has been set for it? Will the net spring up from the ground without catching something? Does the trumpet sound in the city without the people being alarmed? Does misfortune come to a city if Yahweh has not caused it? No indeed, Lord Yahweh does nothing without revealing his secret to his servants the prophets. The lion roars: who is not afraid? Lord Yahweh has spoken: who will not prophesy? I overturned you as God overturned Sodom and Gomorrah; you were like a brand snatched from the blaze and still you would not come back to me -declares Yahweh. So this, Israel, is what I plan to do to you. Because I am going to do this to you, Israel, prepare to meet your God!

 

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

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

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

The recurring problem in the relationship between God and his people is the latter's continuous betrayal of the established covenant. Each time it lives in abundance, Israel forgets the Lord, turns to other gods and lets itself be overwhelmed by corruption. The Lord, who is always more generous than righteous, sends prophets each time so that Israel may repent and return to the covenant. Amos, through seven examples, tries to help to read in depth the history that the people lived and the signs that were shown to them. The Word of God, compared to the roar of the lion, is a spiritual force that comes out with unstoppable impetus, invariably causing the effect for which it is sent. God has chosen the people of Israel for a mission, that of communicating God's love to the ends of the earth: he wants all peoples to be saved. Therefore, it is not a covenant closed within a single people, that of Israel. It is for all peoples, as the prophets will often say. This dream of God about the world is taken up by the Church, called today to build a universal brotherhood. We believers in Jesus do not live for ourselves, but precisely to communicate the gospel of love to all peoples. This is the meaning of the Word that God also entrusts into our hands. When the Word of God is addressed to us, if we really listen to it, we cannot help but communicate it in our turn. We are all called to be prophets. This is the meaning of the final call of Amos: "For this I must make of you: prepare to meet your God!" As we are to become prophets of God's kingdom, let us prepare ourselves to listen to his Word with faith.

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