EVERYDAY PRAYER

Memory of the Saints and the Prophets
Word of god every day

Memory of the Saints and the Prophets

Remembrance of Mary, Mother of Jesus, sorrowful at the foot of the cross, and of all those who live the compassion with those who are crucified, alone and condemned. Read more

Libretto DEL GIORNO
Memory of the Saints and the Prophets
Wednesday, September 15

Remembrance of Mary, Mother of Jesus, sorrowful at the foot of the cross, and of all those who live the compassion with those who are crucified, alone and condemned.


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

John 19,25-27

Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary of Magdala. Seeing his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing near her, Jesus said to his mother, 'Woman, this is your son.' Then to the disciple he said, 'This is your mother.' And from that hour the disciple took her into his home.

 

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

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

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Immediately after the feast of the Exaltation of the Cross, the liturgy celebrates the feast of Jesus' Mother Mary of Sorrows. It is a title, Mother of Sorrows, that spread largely in the past centuries and involved deeply piety in Christian people. The Gospel of John, in a few lines, tells the extraordinary mystery of Mary's presence who remains next to her Son at the moment of his death on the cross and just from the cross, she receives from him a new mission. The Passion of Jesus is undoubtedly marked by violence and betrayal, but not only. From the passion and from the cross, a hymn to a new life also springs forth. From the cross, in fact, Jesus does not ask for consolation for himself, as we would have done legitimately for ourselves, nor to be liberated from the torture he was suffering, notwithstanding his dramatic cry about the Father's abandonment. Jesus, nailed on the cross and dying, takes care of that little group that was under his cross, especially his mother and the young disciple who, after fleeing, reached him at the feet of the cross. In the face of the disciple, Jesus sees the face of the disciples, even ours. Through that disciple, Jesus entrusts us all to his mother, Mary, the Church, the community of believers. And, vice versa, he gives Mary, his Mother, to the Church and to each of us. Under the cross a new family is born. We are no longer abandoned to a society that cares little for its children. Jesus asks Mary to be also our Mother. While dying, he entrusts her with a new task, a new mission, that of being mother of all. The ancient Fathers acknowledged that not enough is said of Mary, of this Mother. And it is in a sense very true: Mary is the first of the believers, the first to have a heart like her Son. And the many images of Our Lady of Sorrow that are kept by believers throughout the world show the need that we all have for a mother like Mary. And Jesus granted her to us. Today we gather around her so that she may be close to us as she was to Jesus and protect us.

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