EVERYDAY PRAYER

Sunday Vigil
Word of god every day

Sunday Vigil

Muslims start the month of Ramadan. Read more

Libretto DEL GIORNO
Sunday Vigil
Saturday, March 1

Muslims start the month of Ramadan.


Reading of the Word of God

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Whoever lives and believes in me
will never die.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Sirach 17,1-15

The Lord fashioned human beings from the earth, to consign them back to it. He gave them so many days and so much time, he gave them authority over everything on earth. He clothed them in strength, like himself, and made them in his own image. He filled all living things with dread of human beings, making them masters over beasts and birds. He made them a tongue, eyes and ears, and gave them a heart to think with. He filled them with knowledge and intelligence, and showed them what was good and what evil. He put his own light in their hearts to show them the magnificence of his works, so that they would praise his holy name as they told of his magnificent works. He set knowledge before them, he endowed them with the law of life. He established an eternal covenant with them, and revealed his judgements to them. Their eyes saw the majesty of his glory, and their ears heard the glory of his voice. He said to them, 'Beware of all wrong-doing'; he gave each a commandment concerning his neighbour. Their ways are always under his eye, they cannot be hidden from his sight.

 

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

If you believe, you will see the glory of God,
thus says the Lord.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

The wisdom books propose multiple times reflections on creation and human beings within the creation. The first chapters of Genesis also develop this theme. At times we live our daily lives without questioning ourselves and passively accepting passively and with fixed habits what surrounds us, as if it were all taken for granted. We only stop and reflect when we are hit directly by sudden events like death, wars or natural disasters. But then everything passes and returns to its daily banality. But the world is a combination of diverse realities in which we are just a small part that does not live separated from the rest rather we are part of creation. The encyclical letter of pope Francis, Laudato si', has helped us thinking of humanity as part of creation. So, Sirach invites us to reflect on the reality of what it means to be women and men, creatures made in the image of God, from whom we take life and strength. We are not the masters of life, even less of death, even if today our presumptuous human sense of omnipotence tries to make us believe this. God has made us part of his own life. The sacred author here numbers the gifts we have received: life, strength, fear of man and God, discerning, language, eyes, ears and heart, science and intelligence. How can we respond to all this abundance? According to Sirach, we should do what the story of the creation has put on the Sabbath, fulfilment of God's work, that is: "They will praise your holy name to tell of the greatness of your works." In praise we recognize the greatness and love of God, while we become aware of our smallness and fragility. This is the awareness with which we should live each day, to be able to receive the life of God and stay in alliance with him.

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!