Memorial of the first martyrs of the Roman Church during persecution of Nero. Read more
Memorial of the first martyrs of the Roman Church during persecution of Nero.
Reading of the Word of God
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
The Spirit of the Lord is upon you.
The child you shall bear will be holy.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Genesis 19, 15-29
When dawn broke the angels urged Lot on, 'To your feet! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or you will be swept away in the punishment of the city.'
And as he hesitated, the men seized his hand and the hands of his wife and his two daughters -- Yahweh being merciful to him -- and led him out and left him outside the city.
When they had brought him outside, he was told, 'Flee for your life. Do not look behind you or stop anywhere on the plain. Flee to the hills or you will be swept away.'
'Oh no, my lord!' Lot said to them,
'You have already been very good to your servant and shown me even greater love by saving my life, but I cannot flee to the hills, or disaster will overtake me and I shall die.
That town over there is near enough to flee to, and is small. Let me flee there-after all it is only a small place -- and so survive.'
He replied, 'I grant you this favour too, and will not overthrow the town you speak of.
Hurry, flee to that one, for I cannot do anything until you reach it.' That is why the town is named Zoar.
The sun rose over the horizon just as Lot was entering Zoar.
Then Yahweh rained down on Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire of his own sending.
He overthrew those cities and the whole plain, with all the people living in the cities and everything that grew there.
But Lot's wife looked back, and was turned into a pillar of salt.
Next morning, Abraham hurried to the place where he had stood before Yahweh,
and looking towards Sodom and Gomorrah and the whole area of the plain, he saw the smoke rising from the ground like smoke from a furnace.
Thus it was that, when God destroyed the cities of the plain, he did not forget Abraham and he rescued Lot from the midst of the overthrow, when he overthrew the cities where Lot was living.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Look down, O Lord, on your servants.
Be it unto us according to your word.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
This passage from the Bible suggests that when human cities refuse to welcome foreigners, they are doomed to destruction. Indeed, the inhabitants of Sodom, who, in their feelings, had closed themselves off from the world, assail Abraham’s brother, Lot, because he had dared to welcome a few foreigners. The root of this attitude lies in a narrow heart that is unable to recognize foreigners as brothers and sisters. ?This is why the citizens of that city assail Lot too and refuse to have him in their midst. That city had built walls and established boundaries in order to not welcome those who came from the outside. But if a city, a society, or a nation chooses to live with its doors closed, it is working towards its own impoverishment. Closing a city, like closing a heart, leads to a sad life, that sooner or later leads to dissolution. But the logic of closing off others is such a strongly-rooted conviction that even Lot eventually lets himself be drawn in. He cannot manage to break away from the city. ?The Lord comes to his aid with a “great kindness” and leads him to safety. ?God comes towards our weakness, and, in his mercy, frees us from evil, teaching us to live with a broad heart.
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
