The prayer for the sick is held in the Basilica of Santa Maria in Trastevere.
Today the Byzantine Church venerates Saint Sabbas (532), “the Archimandrite of all the hermits of Palestine.”
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The prayer for the sick is held in the Basilica of Santa Maria in Trastevere.
Today the Byzantine Church venerates Saint Sabbas (532), “the Archimandrite of all the hermits of Palestine.”
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
Psalm 85, 9-14
8 Let me hear what God the Lord will speak,
for he will speak peace to his people,
to his faithful, to those who turn to him in their hearts.
9 Surely his salvation is at hand for those who fear him,
that his glory may dwell in our land.
10 Steadfast love and faithfulness will meet;
righteousness and peace will kiss each other.
11 Faithfulness will spring up from the ground,
and righteousness will look down from the sky.
12 The Lord will give what is good,
and our land will yield its increase.
13 Righteousness will go before him,
and will make a path for his steps.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
The Son of Man came to serve,
whoever wants to be great
should become servant of all.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Psalm 85 sings the joy of the people of Israel at the time of return from the Babylonian exile. The people understood that their disobedience to the Lord was the reason they were held by the Babylonians. And in the middle of the exile they invoked the Lord so that he might save them from their slavery: “Restore us again, O God of our salvation, and put away your indignation towards us” (v. 4). The people know that God does not abandon them: God has always been good to Israel, even when they wandered far from Him. Their faith is in the Lord and not in themselves. God is faithful forever. He goes as far as to wipe out his people’s sin and the psalmist remembers it: “You forgave the iniquity of your people, you pardoned all their sin” (v. 2). While the people are gathered in the assembly, the psalmist raises a voice that, on behalf of everyone, exclaims: “Let me hear what God the Lord will speak, for he will speak peace to his people” (v. 8). It is the preaching voice that reminds the entire assembly that the Lord “speaks peace.” We all need to gather together to listen to the Lord who guides our steps on the way of peace. We know that in the language of the Bible the expression peace contains the sum of the goodness that we need, that is life, freedom, justice, brotherhood. This is why the psalmist reminds the assembly that the Lord’s salvation “is close to those who fear him”, to whoever follows his word with an open heart. And as if to show the historic efficacy of the Lord’s closeness to his people, the psalmist imagines a new future of the world and he personifies virtues: in the new temple, established by the Lord love and truth will meet, justice and peace will kiss. The psalmist does not describe an abstract and far away world. Rather he describes the intervention through the change of hearts and therefore in the transformation of the face of history which has a new path, not the path marked by lies and hate, by injustice and conflict, but the path of love and truth, of justice and peace. This new time, the time of the fulfilment of love and peace, has started with Jesus, the prince of peace who loved men and women to the point of giving his own life for their salvation. This is why Christian tradition calls this the psalm of messianic peace. And believers are reminded to follow the Lord: “Righteousness will go before him, and will make a path for his steps.” (v. 13)
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
