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Memory of the Saints and the Prophets
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Libretto DEL GIORNO
Memory of the Saints and the Prophets
Wednesday, August 12


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

Ezekiel 9,1-7; 10,18-22

Then he shouted loudly for me to hear, 'The scourges of the city are approaching, each carrying his weapon of destruction!' Immediately six men advanced from the upper north gate, each holding a deadly weapon. Among them was a man dressed in linen, with a scribe's ink-horn in his belt. They came in and halted in front of the bronze altar. The glory of the God of Israel rose from above the winged creature where it had been, towards the threshold of the Temple. He called to the man dressed in linen with a scribe's ink-horn in his belt and Yahweh said to him, 'Go all through the city, all through Jerusalem, and mark a cross on the foreheads of all who grieve and lament over all the loathsome practices in it.' I heard him say to the others, 'Follow him through the city and strike. Not one glance of pity; show no mercy; old men, young men, girls, children, women, kill and exterminate them all. But do not touch anyone with a cross on his forehead. Begin at my sanctuary.' So they began with the old men who were in the Temple. He said to them, 'Defile the Temple; fill the courts with corpses; then go out!' They went out and hacked their way through the city. The glory of Yahweh then came out over the Temple threshold and paused over the winged creatures. These raised their wings and rose from the ground as I watched, and the wheels were beside them. They paused at the entrance to the east gate of the Temple of Yahweh, with the glory of the God of Israel over them, above. This was the winged creature I had seen beneath the God of Israel by the River Chebar; I knew that they were winged creatures. Each had four faces and four wings and what seemed to be human hands under their wings. Their faces were like those I had seen by the River Chebar. Each one moved straight forward.

 

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

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

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Today's reading is made up of two passages, taken from chapters nine and ten, containing two of Ezekiel's visions. The first tells of how the Lord sent messengers to punish the sinful city, while preserving a remnant, while the second shows the glory of the Lord coming out of the profaned Temple. The prophet had seen with his own eyes the destruction caused by the Babylonian army in the streets of Jerusalem. Now he is experiencing the suffering of exile along with many other Jews, and, with God's eyes, he sees what is about to happen to the city because of the hardness of heart of the king Zedekiah. The prophet's description is stark and dramatic. He reads it as God's punishment of the people's betrayal of the covenant. Using less stark and perhaps for us more comprehensible language, we could say that it is not God who punishes: the destruction of the city, with the cruelty that accompanies it, is not the work of God. It is the bitter and terrible consequence of human behaviour when people let themselves by guided by the spirit of evil. In his vision, Ezekiel speaks of six men, sent to exterminate the city and eliminate all those who let themselves be seduced by evil. No one was to be spared, except those who longed for peace and justice and had not betrayed the covenant with God. That is why there is a seventh messenger, dressed in linen because of his closeness to God, whose task it is to go before the others and mark those who were to be spared with a "tau" (at that time it was shaped like a cross and was the first letter of the Hebrew word "Torah"). They are a remnant, like the children of Israel saved by the angel of the Lord on the night of the Passover in Egypt (Ex 12:23-29), like the seven thousand who did not kneel down before Baal in the time of Elijah (1 K 19:18) and like the disciples of Isaiah (Is 8:16-17). The Christian spiritual tradition has read this "tau" - written like a cross - as a sign of Jesus, who saves those who let themselves be involved in his love

ISTEN SZAVA MINDEN NAP: A NAPTÁR

March
24
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28
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29
Péntek
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30
Szombat
March
31
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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!

ISTEN SZAVA MINDEN NAP: A NAPTÁR

March
24
Vasárnap
March
25
Hétfő
March
28
Csütörtök
March
29
Péntek
March
30
Szombat
March
31
Vasárnap