Reading of the Word of God
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Whoever lives and believes in me
will never die.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Sirach 51, 12c-20b
When I was still a youth, before I went travelling, in my prayers I asked outright for wisdom.
Outside the sanctuary I would pray for her, and to the last I shall continue to seek her.
From her blossoming to the ripening of her grape my heart has taken its delight in her. My foot has pursued a straight path, I have sought her ever since my youth.
By bowing my ear a little, I have received her, and have found much instruction.
Thanks to her I have advanced; glory be to him who has given me wisdom!
For I was determined to put her into practice, have earnestly pursued the good, and shall not be put to shame.
My soul has fought to possess her, I have been scrupulous in keeping the Law; I have stretched out my hands to heaven and bewailed how little I knew of her;
I have directed my soul towards her, and in purity I have found her; having my heart fixed on her from the outset, I shall never be deserted;
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
If you believe, you will see the glory of God,
thus says the Lord.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
The purpose of life is the pursuit of wisdom. And listening to the Scripture is the practical way to find it. Scripture, read and applied to life, meditated on and lived, is the fountain from which we can draw the water that will gush forth for [or with] eternal life. It is not possible to live without listening to the Word of the Lord. This is the experience of the wise man, who understands the gravity, but also the joys, of his days. In fact, wisdom is not something that we can acquire once and for all, but is the act of following the Lord faithfully. Even the disciples from Emmaus walked aimlessly, far from Jerusalem, until Jesus had helped them understand the meaning of Scripture. We must flee from the temptation of thinking we already know Scripture. Scripture must be welcomed and listened to every day, as if it were spiritual bread for our hearts and lives. True wisdom therefore is to listen to the Word of God every day, beginning with the Gospel. In the conclusion of the book of Sirach, the wise man says, "To him who gives wisdom I will give glory" (v. 22). Praising God is the truest way to give thanks for the gift that we have received. After a life's journey, the wise person contemplates everything that has happened and realizes that the Word has guided him or her from the beginning of the road. This was possible because the wise person "resolved to seek wisdom in prayer" (v. 18). To find wisdom, we must pray. This is the true secret of the person who decides to come out to the periphery of existence. Those who pray for wisdom will be able to undertake a journey that will follow many roads, but which will always have, in the Word, the water of eternal life. Wisdom will accompany them. The Word is "a lamp to [their] feet" (Ps 119:105). ?
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
