Memory of St. Benedict (+547), father of western monks and their guide through the rule that carries his name. Read more
Memory of St. Benedict (+547), father of western monks and their guide through the rule that carries his name.
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
Matthew 19, 27-29
Then Peter answered and said, 'Look, we have left everything and followed you. What are we to have, then?'
Jesus said to them, 'In truth I tell you, when everything is made new again and the Son of man is seated on his throne of glory, you yourselves will sit on twelve thrones to judge the twelve tribes of Israel.
And everyone who has left houses, brothers, sisters, father, mother, children or land for the sake of my name will receive a hundred times as much, and also inherit eternal life.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
The Son of Man came to serve,
whoever wants to be great
should become servant of all.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
The Church today remembers Saint Benedict of Nursia, the father of Western monasticism. As a youth he left his home turf, where he probably had known eastern monks who were in that region in significant numbers, and established himself in Rome to finish his studies. Tradition puts his house in Trastevere, where there is a church in his memory. But very quickly Benedict left even Rome in order to withdraw to more remote places near Subiaco: he wanted to devote his entire life to God. Surrounded by several disciples, he decided to go to Montecassino, where he founded a new monastery and wrote the famous Rule in which he demonstrates his extraordinary human and Christian wisdom. The Rule, in effect, becomes an essential reference point for all western monasticism. He writes in the prologue: "We must constitute a school of divine service ... As one makes progress in the life of conversion and faith, one runs in the way of the commandments with a heart widened with the inexpressible sweetness of love." What Benedict established is not only valid for those who follow the monastic life, but also for those who live daily life in the world. We all have need of a discipline, therefore of a rule which prevents us from being submerged only in daily life or to be at the mercy of our natural traditions, of our selfishness, forgetting the Lord, the hearing of his Word, prayer and the commitment to change the world. Through the practice of this "rule of life," founded on hearing the Lord, the spiritual man or woman grows within us. The basis of everything is the decision to follow Jesus before anything else, even before ourselves and our own life. Without a doubt, it is a renunciation, but the reward is beyond all measure. This is Jesus’ reply to Peter, who, on behalf of the other apostles, asked Jesus: "Look, we have left everything and followed you. What then will we have?" Jesus promises that they will receive one hundred times what they have left and will receive it in this life. In the future, they will have eternal life. That "one hundred times as much" is the community of brothers and sisters gathered in his name: it is a family big and beautiful; it is the rich and fertile land where the Lord makes his disciples dwell. It is the gift of the Church, this great family which is present in every corner of the earth, which keeps us from evil and prepares us for eternal life.
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
