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, July 6


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

Hosea 10,1-3.7-8.12

Israel was a luxuriant vine yielding plenty of fruit. The more his fruit increased, the more altars he built; the richer his land became, the richer he made the sacred pillars. Theirs is a divided heart; now they will have to pay for it. He himself will hack down their altars and wreck their sacred pillars. Then they will say, 'We have no king because we have not feared Yahweh, but what could the king do for us?' Samaria has had her day. Her king is like a straw drifting on the water. The high places of Aven, the sin of Israel, will be destroyed; thorns and thistles will grow over their altars. Then they will say to the mountains, 'Cover us!' and to the hills, 'Fall on us!' Sow saving justice for yourselves, reap a harvest of faithful love; break up your fallow ground: it is time to seek out Yahweh until he comes to rain saving justice down on you.

 

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

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

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Hosea is the first of the prophets of the Old Testament to compare Israel to a vine: "Israel is a luxuriant vine that yields its fruit." With this image, the prophet describes the prosperity of the people of Israel that is cultivated by the Lord as a favourite vine. This is why it is even more bitter to see the contrast between the abundance of vine when it let the Lord care for it (probably the sacred author thinks of the happy years of peace during the kingdom of Jeroboam II) and the ruin in which it fell after giving in to the cult of Baal (Hos 2:1-17). Israel revealed the ambiguity of its heart: they had abandoned God's covenant in order to follow false idols. The prophet says that once Israel has no altars, no idols and no king, they will learn to see how they are in front of god, that is naked and with no help. But it will be late and so they will ask the mountains, "Cover us" and to the hills, "Fall on us." Israel must start sowing again "righteousness" and reap "steadfast love;" this is the way of those who set seeking the Lord and start again listening faithfully to his Word. It is a way that has value also for us today in a world that does not know equity and mercy, in which too many look for only their own safety and satiety giving in to the violence of injustice or indifference. The justice of God goes far beyond mere calculation and the greedy measure of human calculations, it is carried out with goodness and mercy. Each believer is given the task to cultivate the field of life every day and sow it with love and mercy. From this comes the invitation of the prophet to "plough a new filed." The heart - o the individual sand of the community - becomes a field to be ploughed so that the seed planted in it may bear fruit.

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