The prayer for Christian unity begins. Particular memory of the Catholic Church. Read more
The prayer for Christian unity begins. Particular memory of the Catholic Church.
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
Hebrews 4,1-5.11
Let us beware, then: since the promise never lapses, none of you must think that he has come too late for the promise of entering his place of rest. We received the gospel exactly as they did; but hearing the message did them no good because they did not share the faith of those who did listen. We, however, who have faith, are entering a place of rest, as in the text: And then in my anger I swore that they would never enter my place of rest. Now God's work was all finished at the beginning of the world; as one text says, referring to the seventh day: And God rested on the seventh day after all the work he had been doing. And, again, the passage above says: They will never reach my place of rest. Let us, then, press forward to enter this place of rest, or some of you might copy this example of refusal to believe and be lost.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
The Son of Man came to serve,
whoever wants to be great
should become servant of all.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
The temptation that Christians face, and about which the author of the Letter issues a warning, is similar to the temptation faced by the Israelites who had reached the border of Canaan, that is, the temptation to "stay behind" and not enter the promised land, the temptation to withdraw from God's love and refuse to be envelop in God's embrace. And yet this is precisely the good news: The Lord came to us to love us. Not does he not take away anything from us but also, he gives us everything. He does "not stay behind" rather he offers his entire life for us. And in the new time begun by Jesus, all of this is even clearer: he came to earth to love us; he not only takes nothing away from us, but gives us everything. Jesus too, we could say, does not "stay behind;" indeed he descended to the point of giving his very life for us. The "rest" proposed to the disciple is this embrace of love, a love to be welcomed and live and a communion in which to dwell. The Church is already living in the day of "rest," the "seventh day," in which God reigns over everyone with love. The author is right to urge believers to strive to enter this rest, "Let us therefore make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one may fall through such disobedience as theirs." In fact, entering this "rest" means taking part in the life of the community. The link between "rest" and "house" recalls the gift each Christian receives by being welcomed in the Christian community where they are loved and watched over. The author weaves his words of praise for the Word of God remind us the foundation on which the house is built. It is a certain foundation that is laid once and for all, but it remains living because it "refunds" the community every day. The Word of God, in fact, nourishes believers with food that is ever new, appropriate for every spiritual age, and sustains them so that they might be able to uproot evil and build good. This is why believers are invited to entrust themselves to it if they want to know the depth of their heart; they also need to listen to it if they want to live peace and salvation for themselves and for the world. In scripture it is God himself who speaks to his people and we are his.
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
