EVERYDAY PRAYER

Memory of the Mother of the Lord
Word of god every day

Memory of the Mother of the Lord

Memorial of Saint Wenceslaus (+929), venerated as a martyr in Bohemia. Memorial of William Quijano, young Salvadorian man of the Community of Sant'Egidio, killed by the violence of the maras in 2009. Read more

Libretto DEL GIORNO
Memory of the Mother of the Lord
Tuesday, September 28

Memorial of Saint Wenceslaus (+929), venerated as a martyr in Bohemia. Memorial of William Quijano, young Salvadorian man of the Community of Sant'Egidio, killed by the violence of the maras in 2009.


Reading of the Word of God

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

The Spirit of the Lord is upon you.
The child you shall bear will be holy.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Luke 9,51-56

Now it happened that as the time drew near for him to be taken up, he resolutely turned his face towards Jerusalem and sent messengers ahead of him. These set out, and they went into a Samaritan village to make preparations for him, but the people would not receive him because he was making for Jerusalem. Seeing this, the disciples James and John said, 'Lord, do you want us to call down fire from heaven to burn them up?' But he turned and rebuked them, and they went on to another village.

 

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Look down, O Lord, on your servants.
Be it unto us according to your word.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

With this passage, Luke begins Jesus' journey with the disciples toward Jerusalem. Jesus knew that the Gospel-even at the cost of life-should be preached in Jerusalem, in the heart of the people of Israel. The disciples wanted to stop him, but Jesus "with his face set" walked toward the holy city. With the expression "with his face set" the evangelist shows the firm will of the Teacher. Obedience to the Father and the urgency of communicating the Gospel of love have absolute primacy in his life. Therefore, Jesus started toward Jerusalem with decision, that is obeying willingly and in a radical way to the Father's will. The evangelist notes that Jesus sent a few disciples before him to "prepare his entrance." It is a small notation that in fact describes the Church's mission that is preparing the hearts to the direct encounter with Jesus. The first stop was a village in Samaria. As soon as the disciples reached the village in Samaria, they found a distinct rejection by the Samaritans. Probably they wanted to prevent those Galileans to go to Jerusalem passing through Samaria. It was a typically ethnic question marked also by a religious dimension. James and John-annoyed by the harsh attitude of the Samaritans-reacted with similar harshness. Once they returned to Jesus they referred to him their intention to have fire descending from heaven and exterminate them. Jesus respondsed with love to the coldness of those who did not want to welcome him and, as the evangelist Luke notes, reprimanded harshly the violent zeal of the two disciples. Once again, the Gospel vision of life that Jesus proposes to us emerges with clarity: defeating evil through good.

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