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Liturgy of the Sunday
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Liturgy of the Sunday

Feast of Christ the King of the Universe
Memorial of the Presentation of the Mother of God at the Temple. This feast, born in Jerusalem and celebrated also in the East, remembers both the ancient temple and how Mary offered her life to the Lord.
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Libretto DEL GIORNO
Liturgy of the Sunday
Sunday, November 21

Feast of Christ the King of the Universe
Memorial of the Presentation of the Mother of God at the Temple. This feast, born in Jerusalem and celebrated also in the East, remembers both the ancient temple and how Mary offered her life to the Lord.


First Reading

Daniel 7,13-14

I was gazing into the visions of the night, when I saw, coming on the clouds of heaven, as it were a son of man. He came to the One most venerable and was led into his presence. On him was conferred rule, honour and kingship, and all peoples, nations and languages became his servants. His rule is an everlasting rule which will never pass away, and his kingship will never come to an end.

Second Reading

Revelation 1,5-8

and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the First-born from the dead, the highest of earthly kings. He loves us and has washed away our sins with his blood, and made us a Kingdom of Priests to serve his God and Father; to him, then, be glory and power for ever and ever. Amen. Look, he is coming on the clouds; everyone will see him, even those who pierced him, and all the races of the earth will mourn over him. Indeed this shall be so. Amen. 'I am the Alpha and the Omega,' says the Lord God, who is, who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.

Reading of the Gospel

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Yesterday I was buried with Christ,
today I rise with you who are risen.
With you I was crucified;
remember me, Lord, in your kingdom.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

John 18,33-37

So Pilate went back into the Praetorium and called Jesus to him and asked him, 'Are you the king of the Jews?' Jesus replied, 'Do you ask this of your own accord, or have others said it to you about me?' Pilate answered, 'Am I a Jew? It is your own people and the chief priests who have handed you over to me: what have you done?' Jesus replied, 'Mine is not a kingdom of this world; if my kingdom were of this world, my men would have fought to prevent my being surrendered to the Jews. As it is, my kingdom does not belong here.' Pilate said, 'So, then you are a king?' Jesus answered, 'It is you who say that I am a king. I was born for this, I came into the world for this, to bear witness to the truth; and all who are on the side of truth listen to my voice.'

 

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Yesterday I was buried with Christ,
today I rise with you who are risen.
With you I was crucified;
remember me, Lord, in your kingdom.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Homily

With the feast of Christ, King of the universe, we end the liturgical year. The Gospel passage we heard presents to us Pilate who turns to Jesus and asks him: "So you are a king?" "You say that I am a king. - Jesus answers and then adds - For this I was born, and for this I came into the world." Jesus' affirmation is at the same time solemn and dramatic. It is this affirmation about his regality that will lead Pilate to consign Jesus to the high priests so that he was crucified. The governor wanted this condemnation to be inscribed on tablet fixed to the cross: "Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews."
Certainly, to human eyes Jesus really appears as a strange king: for throne he has a cross, for crown a crown of thorns, and for court two thieves crucified with him Then there are only a few women with a young man who, grieved, have gathered united under the gallows. And yet, this is the image that has always marked every Christian community. The cross stands out in every church and above all it appears when Christians are persecuted, outraged to the point of being killed. Faced with what appears to be the sovereignty of evil, we are invited to look up to the cross of Jesus and contemplate his royal power.
The Gospel tells us that from that cross the prince of evil is defeated. Jesus from the cross frees men and women from the dominion of sin and death. The Apostle Paul transmitted this conviction to all the Churches, aware of the scandal that it would cause: "But we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling-block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles" (1 Cor 1:23). It is by being crucified that Jesus exercises his royal power. It is by that love which he brings to the point of giving his life for others that evil is defeated. It is from such love that the new kingdom begins, the new world of peace. Several times Jesus repeated it to the disciples during the three years he was with them. And shortly before he died - after he had silently witnessed a quarrel among them over who was first - he gave them this lesson of humility and service: "The kings of the Gentiles lord it over them; and those in authority over them are called benefactors. But not so with you" (Lk 22:25-26). And he showed it first: "The Son of Man - he told them - came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many" (Mt 20:28). On the cross the ransom was fulfilled. From the cross of Jesus a new life immediately began: a thief found salvation by praying to the crucifix beside him, an elderly mother and a young disciple received a new existence from the words of that crucified man, two good but fearful and resigned men, Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, received from that cross the strength to come out into the open and show mercy for that just man who had been unjustly killed. The love that flows from Jesus' Cross urged those disciples to welcome one another and to commit themselves to build a more human, more just world starting from the compassion for that crucified man.
This feast of Christ the King shows us the royal love that transforms the hearts of people and the life of the world. Let us gather around this weak and poor king. It is from him crucified that salvation springs forth for all. And, with the words of Revelation, we say to him: "To you, Lord, who loves us and freed us from our sins by his blood, and made us to be a kingdom, priests serving his God and Father, to you be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen."

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