The prayer for peace is held in the Basilica of Santa Maria in Trastevere. Read more
The prayer for peace is held in the Basilica of Santa Maria in Trastevere.
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
Judges 2,11-19
The Israelites then did what is evil in Yahweh's eyes and served the Baals. They deserted Yahweh, God of their ancestors, who had brought them out of Egypt, and they followed other gods, from those of the surrounding peoples. They bowed down to these; they provoked Yahweh; they deserted Yahweh to serve Baal and Astartes. Then Yahweh's anger grew hot against Israel. He handed them over to pillagers who plundered them; he delivered them to the enemies surrounding them, and they were no longer able to resist their enemies. Whenever they mounted an expedition, Yahweh's hand was there to foil them, as Yahweh had told them and as Yahweh had sworn to them, so that they were in dire distress. Yahweh then appointed them judges, who rescued them from the hands of their plunderers. But even to their judges they refused to listen. They prostituted themselves to other gods and bowed down before these. Very quickly they left the path which their ancestors had trodden in obedience to the orders of Yahweh; they did not follow their example. When Yahweh appointed judges for them, Yahweh was with the judge and rescued them from the hands of their enemies as long as the judge lived, since Yahweh relented at their groans under their persecutors and oppressors. But once the judge was dead, they relapsed into even worse corruption than their ancestors. They followed other gods; they served them and bowed before them and would not give up the practices and stubborn ways of their ancestors at all.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
The Son of Man came to serve,
whoever wants to be great
should become servant of all.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
The book of Judges continues that of Joshua. Along with many parallels it also manifests a marked contrast: the prosperity of the time of Joshua is substituted by moments of misery, tears and guilt caused by the betrayal of Israel with the gods of the Canaanites. This passage offers a synthesis of what happens to the people of Israel in the period of the Judges. The betrayal of the people of Israel finds its answer in the punishment of God who sends a Judge. When idolatry ceases, the people can regain peace and when idolatry returns, then once again violence and death strike the people of Israel. Idolatry always generates death. Only Yahweh is the God of life. Each time, in fact, that men put money, power, the self, success, gain, or ethnicity, nation or any other creature, before God they fall into the spiral of violence that leads to destruction. Violence always brings along death. When people are slave to idols they come to destroy each other. The schematic that appears in the text is not just a literary device, on the contrary, it is the awareness that the temptation of idolatry is always present. Whenever the people, or an individual believer, begins to obey only themselves and their natural instincts, they put their life at the service of the idol of the moment and forget the Lord. And life falls in ruins, as the author of the texts, explains: "They would relapse and behave worse than their ancestors, following other gods, worshipping them and bowing down to them." We all know how easy it is to forget the Lord and what he has done for us. The Lord, who is faithful to his covenant, does not abandon us and sends a "judge", that is, a representative, a father, a pastor, a prophet, a brother to guide us and to show us which are his ways. The judge does not speak for himself or on his own initiative, but in the name of God. And it happens that Israel, hearing the words of the "judge" --that is hearing what the Lord asks and acting in accordance with his word--becomes a strong people, that is able to live peacefully with all other neighbouring peoples. It is no longer afraid of the threat of those who have different faiths because it is well rooted in the faith of the Fathers.
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
