Mane Nobiscum Domine — prayer of the disciples of Emmaus
The episode of the Disciples of Emmaus (Luke 24:13-35) is one of the most beautiful pages of the Gospel. On the very afternoon of the Resurrection, two disciples leave Jerusalem disillusioned, returning to their village. On the way, a third approaches: the Risen One, whom they do not recognise. He walks with them, explains the Scriptures to them («beginning at Moses and all the prophets», Lk 24:27), makes their hearts burn. On arriving at the village, he pretends to go further, and they detain him with the supplication: «Mane nobiscum, Domine, quoniam advesperascit, et inclinata est iam dies» — «Stay with us, Lord, because it is towards evening, and the day is now far spent» (Lk 24:29). Christ enters. At table, he breaks the bread; in that exact Eucharistic gesture, their eyes open and they recognise him — and he vanishes from their sight. St John Paul II dedicated to this pericope the Apostolic Letter Mane Nobiscum Domine (7 October 2004), which opened the Year of the Eucharist. This prayer accompanies the meditation of the episode, and may be made at evening — before dinner, at the end of work, on lighting the lights of the house — as a daily request that Christ enter our house.
(At evening, or before the Gospel opened at Lk 24:)
Lord Jesus Christ, risen on that afternoon of Easter, who walked with the two disciples of Emmaus without them recognising you at first: walk with us also today, at the end of this day, even when our faith is weak like theirs and discouragement makes us turn back from the path of Calvary.
Repeat in us your lesson of that afternoon: «beginning at Moses and all the prophets», open to us the meaning of the Scriptures, make our hearts burn while you speak to us along the way.
And at the hour when we enter our house, at the evening of this day, deign to enter with us; for, without you, the meal is sad, the night is empty, the sleep is anxious. With you, everything is illumined.
Stay with us, Lord, in breaking the bread of our table — simple bread of daily work — and open our eyes to recognise you where you chose to stay: in the Eucharist, sacrament which reproduces forever the gesture of Emmaus; in the Scriptures, heard and meditated at home; in the poor and the sick, in whom you let yourself be encountered; in the brothers gathered in your Name, two or three of them, with you in the midst.
When we finally depart from this life — our last Emmaus — we hope that you, who on that afternoon pretended to go further, pretend to go further also with us only to provoke us to supplication: «Mane nobiscum, Domine». And enter forever into the house of the Father, taking us with you.
«Mane nobiscum, Domine, quoniam advesperascit.»
Stay with us, Lord, because it is towards evening.
Amen.