Reading of the Word of God
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Christ is risen from the dead
and will die no more.
He awaits us in Galilee!
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
2 Timothy 1, 6-18
That is why I am reminding you now to fan into a flame the gift of God that you possess through the laying on of my hands.
God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but the Spirit of power and love and self-control.
So you are never to be ashamed of witnessing to our Lord, or ashamed of me for being his prisoner; but share in my hardships for the sake of the gospel, relying on the power of God
who has saved us and called us to be holy -- not because of anything we ourselves had done but for his own purpose and by his own grace. This grace had already been granted to us, in Christ Jesus, before the beginning of time,
but it has been revealed only by the appearing of our Saviour Christ Jesus. He has abolished death, and he has brought to light immortality and life through the gospel,
in whose service I have been made herald, apostle and teacher.
That is why I am experiencing my present sufferings; but I am not ashamed, because I know in whom I have put my trust, and I have no doubt at all that he is able to safeguard until that Day what I have entrusted to him.
Keep as your pattern the sound teaching you have heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.
With the help of the Holy Spirit who dwells in us, look after that precious thing given in trust.
As you know, Phygelus and Hermogenes and all the others in Asia have deserted me.
I hope the Lord will be kind to all the family of Onesiphorus, because he has often been a comfort to me and has never been ashamed of my chains.
On the contrary, as soon as he reached Rome, he searched hard for me and found me.
May the Lord grant him to find the Lord's mercy on that Day. You know better than anyone else how much he helped me at Ephesus.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Christ is risen from the dead
and will die no more.
He awaits us in Galilee!
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Timothy’s pastoral ministry is not easy, in part because of his youth. But Paul reminds him of the "gift of God" that he was given through the laying on of hands (1 Tim 4:14), and he asks him to rekindle it with prayer, faithfulness, and dedication, so that it might burn ever more brightly and become more and more a wellspring of strength for his ministry. Paul compares the gift Timothy received to a fire, an image he had already used in the First Letter to the Thessalonians, where he compared the Spirit of God and its gifts to a fire (1 Thess 5:19). God, the apostle writes, has freely bestowed the "spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline" on Timothy to make him a wise and strong pastor. Sustained by the strength of the Lord, he will find the courage "not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord," that is, the courage to preach the Gospel of Jesus. And if he will not be ashamed of the Lord, neither will he be ashamed of the apostle, who is now a "prisoner of the Lord" and who made preaching his life’s purpose. This should be true for every disciple, as Jesus himself said, "Everyone therefore who acknowledges me before others, I also will acknowledge before my Father in heaven" (Mt 10:32). But testifying to the Gospel always brings with it suffering. The apostle warns Timothy that he will have to join him in "suffering for the Gospel, relying on the power of God." He knows that his own blood is "already being poured out as a libation, and [that] the time of [his] departure has come" (4:6). Paul demands this same total dedication to the Lord in service of the Gospel from Timothy. With a few short lines, he traces out the work of redemption of which he has been made "a herald and an apostle, a teacher" (1 Tim. 2:7). Prison limits his ability to carry out his task, but it does not undo it, because "the word of God is not chained" (2:9). Paul is in prison like a criminal (2:9), but he is "not ashamed" of his chains; indeed, he bears them with pride. His security and his peace are in God, in whom he has put his trust. This is why he will not be disappointed. Even if he has reached the end of his days and his life could be cut off at any moment, Paul’s hold is certain and firmly convinced that the treasure entrusted to him (1:14, 1 Tim 6:20) is well guarded in the almighty hands of God "until that day," that is, until the end of the present age and the Lord’s return (1:18, 2 Thess 1:10). The Gospel that Timothy heard from Paul should be his "standard of sound teaching." Paul calls Christian preaching "sound teaching" because it is the full expression of spiritual life, immune from every seed of error, and it leads to a whole and sound life. That is how Timothy and every believer can "guard the good treasure," that is, the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
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
