Memorial of Saint Philip Neri (1595), “apostle of Rome.” Read more
Memorial of Saint Philip Neri (1595), “apostle of Rome.”
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
John 16,20-23
'In all truth I tell you, you will be weeping and wailing while the world will rejoice; you will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn to joy. A woman in childbirth suffers, because her time has come; but when she has given birth to the child she forgets the suffering in her joy that a human being has been born into the world. So it is with you: you are sad now, but I shall see you again, and your hearts will be full of joy, and that joy no one shall take from you. When that day comes, you will not ask me any questions. In all truth I tell you, anything you ask from the Father he will grant in my name.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
The Son of Man came to serve,
whoever wants to be great
should become servant of all.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Friendship with the Lord is not an obvious dimension of our life, not only because of the world’s hostility, but also because it requires one’s genuine rebirth, the kind about which Jesus spoke clearly to Nicodemus. Jesus now compares faithor the trustful relationship with himto birth, the fruit of a long and fatiguing pregnancy. Faith does not arise unprompted from simply believing to be inspired and therefore predisposed to believing; nor is faith the spontaneous outcome of a normal condition. In understanding this we realize that we are not born Christians, rather we become Christian with some effort. Just as during pregnancy, the woman intimately participates in the gestation of a new life within her womb, but at the same time the baby’s development is not the fruit of her abilities or talents. In like manner, the Word of God, if accepted into our heart, grows, matures and gives birth to a new life, not because we are particularly worthy, but because the Word of God acts potently in whoever welcomes it and allows it to work, even amid a thousand difficulties. Therefore we need not to surrender to the difficulties that we encounter in welcoming the Word. While at times it is so easy to let the Word remain at a distance, as something we consider already known or useless. Patient work in welcoming the Word will grant us a deeper interiority, that is, a capacity to taste the sweetness of every Word that comes from the Gospel, as well as the bitterness that obliges us to change our thoughts and habits. This is the gift the Gospel talks about. Nobody can deny or take it away from us because it is the fruit born of listening faithfully, something each one of us can experience if we want to.
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
