Reading of the Word of God
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
This is the Gospel of the poor,
liberation for the imprisoned,
sight for the blind,
freedom for the oppressed.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Sirach 17, 24-29
But to those who repent he permits return, and he encourages those who have lost hope.
Return to the Lord and renounce your sins, plead before his face, stop offending him.
Come back to the Most High, turn away from iniquity and hold all that is foul in abhorrence.
Who is going to praise the Most High in Sheol if we do not glorify him while we are alive?
The dead can praise no more than those who do not exist, only those with life and health can praise the Lord.
How great is the mercy of the Lord, his pardon for those who turn to him!
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
The Son of Man came to serve,
whoever wants to be great
should become servant of all.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Questions about humanity: who we are, the nature of our mission on earth, run through all of Scripture. In our world, human beings are understood as autonomous persons, with the capacity to decide and to act, to choose and to plan. And it is true: God created human beings and gave them freedom. But this freedom so often becomes absolute, that is, loosed from all bonds and relations. And each individual tries to impose his or her freedom as something that is limitless and unquestionable. It is founded on itself, so it leads to the affirmation of the self, an ego without limits. It establishes a sort of "ego-latry", an idolatry of the ego, to which everything is sacrificed. But God's dream for each one of us does not pass through the affirmation of our strength, but through the awareness of our weakness and the need for it to become an occasion for strong and beautiful love. Knowing and recognizing our sin does not mean failing as a human, rather it means discovering where we really are and the great possibilities that open up before us. In the book of Sirach, the human being is presented as someone who is ready to accept the offering of mercy and consolation God offers and so to embark on a journey back to Him. Those who walk firmly towards the Lord and with the Lord do not deal with evil and do not indulge iniquity. Choosing the company of God means turning our back on every form of injustice. Those who choose to stand beside God and his Word do not follow evil and do not fall into sin. But those who want to be above everyone else will bitterly recognize in the end that they are only "dust and ashes." The true vocation of humanity is to praise God, who is the Lord of the heavenly hosts as well as the Father who is close to all men and women, his children. Sirach observes, "those who are alive and well sing the Lord’s praises." Praise is an act of thanksgiving, because "great is the mercy of the Lord." This mercy reaches the poor and the humble, and humanity rejoices for such a great gift, which is the wellspring of eternal life. This is not a right but a gift, and it is the full fruit of love. ?
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!
For the sick, in memory of the dead, for peace
