EVERYDAY PRAYER

Prayer of Easter
Word of god every day

Prayer of Easter

Today the Armenian Church remembers the Metz Yeghérn (the Great Evil). It is the remembrance of the massacre during the First World War in which more than one million Armenians were killed. Read more

Libretto DEL GIORNO
Prayer of Easter
Wednesday, April 24

Today the Armenian Church remembers the Metz Yeghérn (the Great Evil). It is the remembrance of the massacre during the First World War in which more than one million Armenians were killed.


Reading of the Word of God

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Christ is risen from the dead
and will die no more.
He awaits us in Galilee!

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Acts 3,1-10

Once, when Peter and John were going up to the Temple for the prayers at the ninth hour, it happened that there was a man being carried along. He was a cripple from birth; and they used to put him down every day near the Temple entrance called the Beautiful Gate so that he could beg from the people going in. When this man saw Peter and John on their way into the Temple he begged from them. Peter, and John too, looked straight at him and said, 'Look at us.' He turned to them expectantly, hoping to get something from them, but Peter said, 'I have neither silver nor gold, but I will give you what I have: in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, walk!' Then he took him by the right hand and helped him to stand up. Instantly his feet and ankles became firm, he jumped up, stood, and began to walk, and he went with them into the Temple, walking and jumping and praising God. Everyone could see him walking and praising God, and they recognised him as the man who used to sit begging at the Beautiful Gate of the Temple. They were all astonished and perplexed at what had happened to him.

 

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Christ is risen from the dead
and will die no more.
He awaits us in Galilee!

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

This episode describes the first steps the Christian community after the Resurrection. Perhaps the apostles remembered Jesus' first teachings, as reported by Luke: "Then Jesus called the twelve together and gave them power and authority over all demons and to cure diseases, and he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal. He said to them, 'Take nothing for your journey, no staff, nor bag, nor bread, nor money-not even an extra tunic" (Lk 9:1-3). Further ahead he said that Jesus sent them two by two. In their first going out, Peter and John seem to put Jesus' indications into practice literally. They go out in two and have nothing, no staff and no money. Their love and their common passion for the Gospel are their only strength. This is how it should be with every Christian community. Peter and John are the first to move, and we must continue to follow in their footsteps always. They arrive at the "Beautiful Gate" of the temple and see a man lame from birth. He is forty years old and has spent the greater part of those years there, stretching out his hands and begging. He stayed outside the temple. He was prevented from entering it, not only because he physically could not walk, but also because of his sickness. There was a sad proverb at that time which said: "The blind and the lame shall not enter." Unfortunately, even today, many poor people (and whole countries) are forcibly kept at the doors of the rich. The crippled man probably expected nothing more than a little charity from the two disciples. He stretched out his hand as he did with everyone and as beggars still do. Peter looked intently at him and "with John said, 'Look at us.'" The miracle starts from looking, looking with compassion and mercy. They did not pass by, like many. They stopped and established a direct relation. Pope Francis exhorts: "When you give alms touch their hands with your hand." This man received much more than alms. Healing started from the gaze. And Peter added, "In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, stand up and walk!" gave his right hand and raised the lame man. We all need to follow the Gospel with the eyes and hands of Peter and John. The first friends, the first companions of this journey are the poor, the weak, and the sick. Our eyes and hands are indissolubly linked with their eyes and hands.

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