EVERYDAY PRAYER

Memory of the Saints and the Prophets
Word of god every day
Libretto DEL GIORNO
Memory of the Saints and the Prophets
Wednesday, February 19


Reading of the Word of God

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

You are a chosen race,
a royal priesthood, a holy nation,
a people acquired by God
to proclaim his marvellous works.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

James 1,19-27

Remember this, my dear brothers: everyone should be quick to listen but slow to speak and slow to human anger; God's saving justice is never served by human anger; so do away with all impurities and remnants of evil. Humbly welcome the Word which has been planted in you and can save your souls. But you must do what the Word tells you and not just listen to it and deceive yourselves. Anyone who listens to the Word and takes no action is like someone who looks at his own features in a mirror and, once he has seen what he looks like, goes off and immediately forgets it. But anyone who looks steadily at the perfect law of freedom and keeps to it -- not listening and forgetting, but putting it into practice -- will be blessed in every undertaking. Nobody who fails to keep a tight rein on the tongue can claim to be religious; this is mere self-deception; that person's religion is worthless. Pure, unspoilt religion, in the eyes of God our Father, is this: coming to the help of orphans and widows in their hardships, and keeping oneself uncontaminated by the world.

 

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

You will be holy,
because I am holy, thus says the Lord.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

"Be doers of the word." With this statement the Apostle picks up the thought of the previous passage. It highlights that those who listen reflect when they speak, (this is what "slow to speak" means), and thus dominate the instinct that easily leads to anger. Indeed, how often is wrath the direct consequence of the inability to listen and speak only after reflecting. There is a direct relationship between the readiness to listen to the Gospel and responsibility in speaking with others: those who understand the power of the word are undoubtedly more attentive to the words they speak. The word that does not arise from a heart not forged by the Gospel easily harms those who listen. For this reason, even those who think themselves pious are urged to rein in their tongues. Jesus too warned the disciples that God would take into account every useless word they uttered (cfr. Mt 12:36). James then urges us to "welcome with meekness the implanted word." Believers must accept the Word of God by letting it work in the heart without hindering it with pride, distractions, and coldness. James clarifies what the "docile" acceptance of the Gospel means: to be practitioners of the Word and not simply listeners. The Word of God is the mirror of our life. It is not enough to look at a moment and immediately forget. We must seek our truest and most human image by always measuring ourselves against the Word of God. True faith, authentic religiosity, in fact, lie not in the abstraction of speeches but in the concreteness of love that begins with the helping of orphans and widows, keeping ourselves "immaculate", that is, not polluted by pride and love for ourselves. Orphans and widows were numerous in the society of the time and were considered among the poorest, as the books of the First Testament attest. They are the image of the poor. James stresses, however, that there is a link between keeping language in check and concern for the poor. Listening to the Word and compassion for the poor characterize our faith. The "pure religion", the one that connects human beings with God, is realized in a love that does not remain abstract, but becomes attentiveness to the Gospel and concrete commitment with those who most need love, the poor.

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