EVERYDAY PRAYER

Sunday Vigil
Word of god every day
Libretto DEL GIORNO
Sunday Vigil
Saturday, January 16


Reading of the Word of God

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Whoever lives and believes in me
will never die.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Mark 2,13-17

He went out again to the shore of the lake; and all the people came to him, and he taught them. As he was walking along he saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax office, and he said to him, 'Follow me.' And he got up and followed him. When Jesus was at dinner in his house, a number of tax collectors and sinners were also sitting at table with Jesus and his disciples; for there were many of them among his followers. When the scribes of the Pharisee party saw him eating with sinners and tax collectors, they said to his disciples, 'Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?' When Jesus heard this he said to them, 'It is not the healthy who need the doctor, but the sick. I came to call not the upright, but sinners.'

 

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

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

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Day after day, the reading of the Gospel according to Mark unites us to Jesus and to his small community, while he takes his first steps in the preaching of the Gospel. Jesus continued to walk along the shore of the lake of Galilee - "he went out again" writes the evangelist as to call for our attention, because Jesus never goes out in vain - and he encountered Levi, a tax collector, sitting at the tax booth. Publicans, or tax collectors, were distrusted and despised, but Jesus stopped right in front of the sinner. Jesus looked at him and invited him to follow him. Levi left everything behind and began to follow him. Jesus' small community grew in number and Jesus did not worry about the background or condition of those he called to follow him. Indeed, he wants us to understand that to join his community there are no requirements: it does not matter how we are, our story or character. For Levi, who will be known also as Matthew, as for the first four disciples, it was enough to hear one single word: "Follow me." The evangelist tells then of a banquet that Levi organized In honour of Jesus and of the other four disciples to which he also invited his friends, publicans and sinners. The Pharisees accused Jesus publicly for his behaviour that was considered sinful; eating with publicans and sinners meant to contaminate oneself and become unclean. Obviously Jesus knew that he would generate a scandal with his behaviour. But for Jesus sitting at the table with sinners meant showing the newness of the kingdom of God; everyone is admitted to the table of Father starting with sinners. What was sin for the Pharisee, was Gospel for Jesus. In that banquet God's mercy was manifested. Jesus' answered them: "I have come to call not the righteous but sinners."

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